I never had a make-over: Sachin

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Put him up on a pedestal or pull him down in public, you will not rouse cricketer <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Sachin Tendulkar</span>. No he isn''t indifferent... he listens to all, but responds to none. Silence is his strongest weapon and maybe, his worst enemy. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Nupur Mahajan</span> delves into the mind of the reticent sports hero.<br /><br />A heavily pregnant woman is just leaving the Tendulkars restaurant in Mumbai with her husband.Suddenly, she swerves around, walks up to a couple and, pointing to her protruding tummy, she pleads to the man, "Please bless my child..." <br /><br />He might shrug off the bhagwan status that his teammates bestow on him, but how does Sachin Tendulkar dismiss this? "I''ve never looked at it that way. Life for me has been a series of stages, where I''ve set standards and then tried to achieve them. Being selected, performing, making a permanent place in the team and today, just keeping up with myself. <br /><br />All the adulation and admiration is because of cricket and that has been the sole focus of my life. I am just Sachin... Sachin who belongs on the cricket field," he says. <br /><br />A tryst that began as a child playing with the watchman''s son, sheer talent that was spotted by Ramakant Achrekar at Mumbai''s Shivaji Park and a dream that was realised at the mere age of 16. The country got a teenage superman, but Sachin was robbed of his teens. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">"Maybe I missed out on the regular teenage stuff, but I don''t brood over it. Till I started playing for India, the only other thing I had done was going for a movie! Life was mostly about playing, getting exhausted and sleeping early for practice at sunrise. And I loved it," he says. <br /><br />And that''s the status quo even today. Only the other day, Anjali told her husband amusedly, "The season''s not yet begun, but you''re already there..." It''s familiar terrain and she knows her husband is subconsciously gearing up. <br /><br />Explains the master blaster: "This is going to be a tough season – we are playing the world champs." So is tough, tough enough for Sachin? "Cricket is not an individual sport – only 20 per cent of matches are won by individual brilliance. We have worked hard as a team and have great talent. We are headed in the right direction," he stresses.<br /><br />He has said before that his forté is the game, and his bat the do all. To play the game at its best, he needs a 100 per cent concentration on his cricket, and can we grudge him that? No, but is there some mantra to Sachinhood? He answers: "Positive thoughts make the body supple and you move better. <br /><br />Technique cannot go wrong overnight, but if concentration wavers, the brain does not pass signals at the pace that the ball comes and everything changes. The other thing needed is instinct, which comes with planning. On the field, finally it''s all about spontaneity, but it never hurts to plan."<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal">However, in spite of the planning, he is much-speculated-upon. People worship the man, but want to pick holes in his shadow too. "I can''t play the pleasing game nor can I react to all statements. Yes, there are eyes trained on me and hopes pinned on me, but I focus solely on bettering my game and set my own targets," he avers. <br /><br />Silent Sachin – a man of few words and few people. He might break bread at Mango Tree in London, sport a Rolex, own a restaurant and drive a Ferrari, but joi de vivre is a private moment with his children or an evening with friends. <br /><br />"With success there is natural progression and I, being a keen observer, have picked up things that were not ingrained in me. But that doesn''t change the man I am," he explains matter-of-factly. He''s moved to A-list, but he knows where he belongs. <br /><br />His watchman''s son-turned-childhood-friend is by his side – under his care and his roof even today. For his Shivaji Park buddies, he''s still the same Tendlya and if he entertains you at home, he just might cook for you. <br /><br />"Nothing''s changed really. I still cook whenever I get the time. Baingan bharta, prawn curry, fish fry..." he rattles off Sachin specials. "I''ve been cooking all my life. It is so relaxing, it unwinds me," he claims. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal">At Tendulkars, Tendulkar is the toughest customer! "I may not know every condiment, but I know my food and the flavour I want. It started when I would come back from the field ravenous, stand next to my mother while she cooked, and then ate searing hot food!" Nothing''s changed. Only the address where he cooks and maybe his now dapper looks. <br /><br />"I never had a make-over," he protests. "During the South African tour, we were playing in Delhi and my hair was unmanageable. I pulled it straight off my forehead and went snip! And the French beard... I keep it or shave it off as and when I want. There''s no custom-made look," he insists. <br /><br />But how would we know, he never speaks out, for or against. "How many people do I catch hold off and explain to, and how much do I react to? Early in life, I realised that what finally counts is my own opinion of me," he says. <br /><br />So does he want his son Arjun to take to the willow at some point?"Arjun is too young to start training for cricket, but even later he''ll do what he wants. Cricket is not a legacy that I have to pass on," he believes.<br /><br />Related Stories<br /><a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=237652">''The Sachin I meet in the lift''</a><br /><a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=192914">Tendulkar, that''s my boy: Lara</a></div> </div>