Retired hurt

Sachin Tendulkar has finally retired. “Finally”, because, Ravi Shastri, at the presentation ceremony, post the “Sachin farewell test” Saturday 16 November 2013, said that Sachin has “one final time” retired from the game! Has he done that before this also? Or did he really think about it in the past? May be, that statement of Shaz was the general, yet concealed, sentiment of India in general, and, specifically, past pros.

He had come well prepared, as he does before a major event, for the talk, and how emotional was that may be understood by Harsha Bhogle’s tear-drenched report (@bhogleharsha – “oh dear, i am feeling this emotion..... what a man!”)! As ordinary souls, the heart went out for that “tricolour” man – who paints his body with the three colours and hold the tricolor and a conch, where Sachin Tendulkar, i. e., India, played – whose presence and effort all these years was not acknowledged by the great man.

With all the “administrators” of the “game” like N Srinivasan, Pawar, et al, present on the occasion, none had the gumption to even mention – forget felicitating – Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, whose it was the 150^th appearance, certainly not a small occasion. And, the West Indies team arrived here just for the “farewell” series, didn’t it? Congratulating Chanders would have been a small gesture the MCA, and BCCI, showed amidst all the hoopla surrounding the series.

No doubt, Sachin is great. Rahul, Aamir, John Ab, Hritik amidst the spectators substantiated the occasion and the one it belonged to. But Bharat Ratna? Weighing along with CNR? A debate – http://pavanje.blogspot.in/2012/04/is-sachin-bharats-ratna.html – is of no avail if it is not logically concluded. There should be more readers of a small write of Subhash Chandra N S in (Deccan Herald, Bangalore, Sunday 17 November 2013 (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/369396/scientific-community-gives-cnr-thumbs.html). One should also read “http://www.indianexpress.com/news/moments-after-retirement-sachin-tendulkar-gets-bharat-ratna/1195711/”.

It’s a sorry state of affairs – CNR is only the second from the science discipline, after C V Raman, to be accorded the distinction. The rest? MGR. Rajiv Gandhi. In the company of C Rajagopalachari. Radhakrishnan. MV. Shastri. The Frontier Gandhi. APJAK. Bismillah Khan. Ravi Shankar. Elite legion. India’s highest honour is hit for a six.

There was an ad from Baidyanath Chyavanaprash today – “sugar-free”. Wonder if the Rishi Chyavana ever imagined there would be an era when his own concoction prasha would be so in-delectable for the sweet-scared! More wonder – why, in the first place, did anyone become sweet scared having savoured Chyavanaprash!