Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
As Sachin Tendulkar scored his 41st hundred at Chepauk, Chennai and India scored a spectacular win against England in the first Test, I am sure all Mumbaikars felt an enormous sense of pride, joy and thrill rolled in a triple-decker Chowpatty sandwich. The local boy, from a city torn and ravaged just a few weeks ago, led India to an outstanding win chasing a mammoth score. Above all, it was an incredible team effort all over again.
Virendra Sehwag, doubtlessly, is THE MOST dangerous devilish diabolical player in modern cricketing history. And the fact that he does so with such an intrepid chutzpah makes him, in my opinion, a unique character. Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, almost everyone chipped in, leaving the unfortunate Rahul Dravid a lone solitary figure amidst chaotic celebrations. But I guess more on that later. Continue reading below
For Sachin, I guess this century's off-field significance will sink in later tonight as people remind him of its uncanny timeliness. For all of us who live in Mumbai, watching the city recover from the gruesome stranglehold of 60 hours of brutal captivity has become an excruciating nightmare. The anguish lingers. Fear still haunts the mind. And the usual buzz is still to attain its original crescendo. Last week, as I returned from a late-night movie, the drive down Marine Drive was unusually uncluttered of vehicular madness, and mindless honking. But I am glad I was back in the multiplex. Thanks to Shah Rukh Khan.
Shah Rukh Khan is another Mumbaikar now, even if intrinsically a Delhiite. Against all odds, without virtually any film-specific promotional razzmatazz, he released his much-awaited film, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, this week. Coming within two weeks of the terror attack, that was a huge marketing risk. In a deadly cutthroat world of six-abs versus eight-abs entertainment industry, and every idiotic buffoon claiming to be King, I am sure SRK must have been aware of the likely consequences of a potential failure. But as I left the theatre last Friday, the crowds in that late-night show stood transfixed till the very last slide of a photo-album narration even as the credits rolled. There was no fear, no hurry to go home, no need to rush for the exits. Everyone was hanging around, smiling, cheering and looking happy. It was a sign of the good old times.
I think we all saw a steely determination in the eyes of Tendulkar in the latest advertisement that he has done for a foreign bank. It says it all, including the words he chooses. Today, he made that powerful commercial into a hard reality. In that sense, this hundred assumes a different dimension. Perhaps the ultimate tribute of India's greatest Test batsman ever to those who died in Mumbai during that dastardly intransigence and those who valiantly fought to save them. And those who survived and have now a second chance. There were heroes then, there are heroes now. And it is in these little innocuous moments of much lesser significance, a cricket victory and a feel-good Bollywood entertainer perhaps that a hurting country finds its resonance, rediscovers the energy to get back, and get going. It's faith. It's confidence. It's hope. Nothing is impossible for India. Nothing is impossible for Indians.
So let us say three cheers to two wonderful people who we see practically somewhere or the other every day, who have made this week special. Sachin and SRK. They live in Bandra. In Mumbai. In India.
