As he turned 60, parents recalled sunny's childhood

MUMBAI: Sunil Gavaskar's parentsManohar and Meenal refuse to take much credit for the greatness of their son,who celebrated his Diamond Jubilee birthday on Friday.Paens havebeen written about Gavaskar's greatness on and off the field, the many hats hehas worn. All that Papa Gavaskar says is,"It's just the divine gift he has ofsifting the weed from the chaff. Looking at the kind of stuff he has beenexposed to, the varied people he has met, Sunil had every chance of beinginfluenced in some way or another. The great thing is that he has taken theright path and this would not have happened without divine help," said thefather.Asked whose qualities the son imbibed most, 'papa' said inall modesty,"What qualities do I have, it's mostly from the mother!" Mom Meenalsaid,"He is very 'guni' (talented). He has taken my face features." She added,"Isn't it as the saying goes,'Matrumukhi sada sukhi' (If you have a face likeyour mother's, you will be forever happy)." That is the genesis of the legend'ssunny disposition which got him the title of 'Sunny' from his first skipper VasuParanjpe. The mother added,"As a mom I did what every mother does... bring himup with the right sanskar (values). But the credit goes to himalone."Manohar said the genesis of Sunil's cricketing prowess lay inthe family which was full of cricketers."His grandparents from mother's andfather's side were school chums and played together in the early part of thelast century in Shirode near Goa. My elder brother Baban was a left-arm spinnerin the class of Bapu Nadkarni and I played club cricket. Sunil's uncle MadhavMantri played for India. What more do you need." The dad said Sunil never madeany demands on them because of his powers of observation. "He saw what austerelife we had to live once our breadearner, my uncle, passed away prematurely.That meant me surrendering Rs 95 of the Rs 100 salary to my aunt, the balance Rs5 to my wife for her personal expenses."The only tough demand Sunilmade was when he wanted to watch, as a 16-year-old, the opening day of a MumbaiTest match right from the outset, including how the teams trained and how theycame to the field. Recalls Manohar, "I colluded with him, gave him a leave notesaying he had a headache. The next day the principal asked him,'How was thematch?'. I was summoned by the principal who said, 'Today you have encouraged alie, tomorrow he may lie to you.'. Shame-faced I told principal Kamath Nunes Iwas wrong and the mistake would never be repeated. That was a lesson in honestythat Sunil learnt for life.""The schoolteachers at St Xavier's HighSchool were of a kind and they shaped Sunil's character in a major way," hesaid.The genesis of Gavaskar's decisive self is mirrored in anotheranecdote. This writer and he both applied for MBA at Bajaj Institute ofManagement. Gavaskar got a call. The father takes up the story, "I used someinfluence from some agents of the Bajaj Group to push Sunil's claims. At theviva voce, one Col. Bose told him that with the amount of cricket he playedwould mean him missing the lectures and projects which are never repeated. So heasked him whether he was more keen on MBA or cricket. Sunil promptlysaid,'Cricket,' and that was that. I admired him forthat."Gavaskar's lesson in democracy was honed by the nightly familymeetings. Manohar recalls, "The children would open up before us and we wouldguide them. Once Sunil asked me which subject to pick, French or Sanskrit. Itold him I had little time to teach Sanksrit, which I knew. Mother, who hadtime, could cope with French and French it was for Sunil and he took thedecision."Likewise, Sunil accepted dad's advice not to take up a joband continue playing collegiate and university cricket. "University cricket wasplayed countrywide and was competitive and got good press coverage. Officecricket was restricted to Mumbai. Sunil agreed, made tons of runs for BombayUniversity. Luckily the Vizzy trophy, a zonal tournament, was created just thenand the cream of the varsity talent was on view. Sunil scored heavily in thefirst edition, went to Sri Lanka, scored there as well and never looked back. Iremember chairman of the selection committee, Vijay Merchant, saying in one ofhis radio shows that after skipper Ajit Wadekar, Sunil's was the secondcertainty for India selection."Manohar related a tale whichindicated Sunil's feelings. "A singing beggar would come to our colony. Lest hissinging be interrupted by having to collect the coins thrown at him, Sunil wouldgo down, collect the coins on his behalf and hand them over to the beggar. Whowould have thought in these terms?"There's another tale about his'Matrubhakti' (devotion to mother). "His mother was in a VIP enclosure atBangalore and Sunil came all the way from the commentary box to touch her feet.An Englishman was amazed to see a legend do this in full public view and askedthe significance of it. He was told it was how Indians respected theirelders."The bottomline for Sunil, says the dad, is that he has metso many people, has had invitation from the power brokers in politics but hassteered clear of power blocks.Sunil doesn't have any dreamsunfulfilled but the father hopes that the academy for which the government gavehim a plot comes up. Also that a Gavaskar stadium in his home district ofVengurla also gets completed. "It was begun over a decade ago."