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Mera Bharat Ratna

Never before in history has the burden of one billion people rested on the shoulders of a 26 year old, as it does today. Even the legendary Krishna, at the peak of his glory, would have elated a fraction of the number with the magic stick in his hand as does Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Commitment, every Indian knew, was not lacking in the boy-man, but its extent was left unfathomed till last week. In circumstances that would have taxed any other mortal, Sachin has silenced the Doubting Thomases, the carpers and the cribbers, with a display of willow virtuosity.

Still, is that all there is to this phenomenon that promises to enthrall not just Indians for years to come? If it was only about extending one's suzerainty over 22 yards of ground, and the diameter around it, there have been better batsmen than he. After all, Sachin does lack the stolidity of the original Little Master, a quality necessary to prevail in the longer version of the game, or the prolificity of the Don himself, and despite this he commands a public adulation that outstrips the combined mass hysteria generated by both maestros.

If it was about being a complete cricketer, and not just an outstanding batsman or bowler, again there is no dearth of others who better fit the bill.

Despite that, it is as if humanity as a whole, or at least a significant part of it, has decided that Sachin, and none other, is the Chosen One. It is not just his non-playing countrymen who feel the magic when he is around; his team, at least a few of who must envy Tendulkar such acclaim, as a whole is energised by his mere presence, and elevate their game a few notches without consciously trying to do so.

The Sachin Phenomenon can glibly be explained as part of the down-in-the-mouth Indians' need for a hero, which has got multiplied by the explosion in information parameters. But again, that is not all there is to him. Sachin, today, has outstripped the popularity quotient ever enjoyed by any Bollywood star, and has taken over the space hither-to reserved for political leaders. Not surprisingly, the last politician to enjoy such a pan-Indian appeal was Rajiv Gandhi, while still in honeymoon mode with the electorate, which was at least 12 years ago. After him, no one, not Amitabh Bachchan or the Khan mystique, has come close to such adulation, till the Bombay sensation 15 years down the line.

Even now, he lacks the oomph that draws the women, where Shahrukh Khan scores over him. Of course, women/girls find Tendulkar adorable, cute, but nothing beyond that. As a communicator, too, Tendulkar is nowhere in the league of, say, an Ajay Jadeja who with his flair and style comes across better. But what he lacks in the machismo department, he more than makes up in the sincerity sweepstakes, And, as any Ph D in behavioural sciences is apt to point out, it is the single quality that everyone -- from crooks to the cognoscenti -- lays great store by.

Sachin, thus, is the answer to the cry of a nation in distress, of a people in search of a deliverer.

His rise has also coincided with the general decline in the political standards, exemplified by the fact that since 1989, no one person or party has been able to win a majority on his or its own. For a nation sick and tired of the shenanigans of rootless, faceless icons in the traditional sphere and casting about for straws to cling to, the sight of the willow-wielding wunderkind putting to the sword all and sundry was the ultimate in deliverance.

What counted for here, in the process of Sachin's deification, was the enormous visibility enjoyed by the cricketers, not just in terms of televised coverage, but also through the slew of product endorsements that ensured instant recall regardless of whether the Eleven were on-field or off it.

It could so easily have been different, the mass hysteria could so simply have gone to the stars of the silver screen who also fulfill all the criteria for attaining demi-god status: success, popularity, charisma... But where Sachin scores over, say, Shahrukh Khan as the Indian Idol is that his hunt for glory is being conducted donning the India colours, amid international competition. Khan's, or any other actor's quest, is individualistic, unless and until he is in the running for stardom's Holy Grail, the Oscars when his pursuit takes on tricolour hues.

Right now, as he battles for the country's honour even as he bears the cross of a personal tragedy, standing tall amid the ruins that is the Indian Eleven, there cannot be one Indian alive, here and abroad, whose heart does not go out to him in his hour of grief tinged with glory. Personal bereavement is something all of us understand, and have at some time or the other felt its numbing effect, the resultant total paralysis of the mind and the senses, and thus marvel at the equanimity of one so young who is able to put tragedy aside and keep the nation's flag flying.

As of this day, for ordinary Indians, there cannot have been a greater spectacle of nationalism.

The connoisseur may not rate the 140 runs Sachin scored against a rag-tag bowling attack as the best in his repertoire. But for the ordinary cricket fan, the man on the street, who understands sorrow from upclose, Sachin's overdrive on Sunday was matchless, an innings constructed masterfully while the mind was still comatose.

The ancient sage-poet from Tamil Nadu, Thiruvalluvar, had it right: the duty of a son to his father is to make the world marvel at what good deeds the father had performed to have begot such an offspring. From the heights he has been elevated to, it will be a tragedy if he contents himself with a mere cricketing role and post-retirement sees him wield a boom mike on the field. His nation looks up to him for deliverance, from ignominy, from second-rung status, from misery, not just in the cricket arena. There's a higher calling for supermen like him, even if he is a mere boy today.

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Saisuresh Sivaswamy