How Sachin courted Anjali in the pre-smartphone age

Tendulkar recalls his "panic" when only a landline could connect him to Anjali - but with no guarantee she'd be waiting for him, at the end of a long drive
Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar is not easily stumped. But speaking of a time before the dawn of the digital era at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, Tendulkar recalled how in the absence of a smartphone, he would drive for almost two-and-a-half hours to just make a phone call from a landline and fix a meeting with his then-girlfriend and now wife, Anjali.Marvelling at the technological leaps since then at the launch of Singapore headquartered DBS' digibank app (a mobile only banking service that will allow it to tap into the retail customers in India), Tendulkar recounted how he arranged his rendezvous with Anjali.
"No one knew about our relationship, except our families. To meet her, I would go to JJ Hospital, where she studied and lived. I would call from Bandra and tell her that I will meet her in the next 40-45 minutes. It was different in those days because there was no Sealink (to Worli, Mumbai) then," he said. However, on many occasions, when he reached the hospital, she would be attending to a patient or tackling some emergency case. "I would panic in the car. Knowing that she was not there, I would return to Bandra and make another phone call, find her, and finally, tell her that I am coming back again in 40 minutes. In today's world, we will never do that. We have access to smartphones and gadgets where we can make phone calls, send SMSes or somehow get in touch, not drive for almost two hours extra just to make a phone call to say that I am coming back to meet you again," he said.
To drive home his point, he recalled another anecdote from his first match trip to Pune. As part of Mumbai's Under 15 team, he carried some money but was not thrifty with it. "I was 12 years old. When we reached Pune for the three-day match, it was raining. When my turn came, I got out after four runs. I was disappointed and cried, but because it had rained, we had nothing else to do the remainder of the days. So, we went out, watched a movie and ate. Soon it was all over," he said. By the time he reached Mumbai, he was already broke. "I was carrying two big bags - a kit bag and a suitcase. We got off at Dadar station and I had to walk all the way back to Shivaji Park because I had no money. If I had a phone in my hand, one SMS and my parents would have transferred money on to my phone, and I would have been able to take home a cab," he said.