I MADE TEA, HAD A LOVELY BREAKFAST WITH MY WIFE: SACHIN TENDULKAR ON DAY 1 OF RETIREMENT

When he was a budding cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar’s family had moved him to his aunt’s place near Shivaji Park to cut down on the travelling time and focus more on playing cricket at Ramakant Achrekar’s clinic. For those four years, Sachin’s mother, Rajni, who was employed with LIC, would brave the cumbersome Mumbai traffic every day to travel from her workplace at Santacruz to Shivaji Park to meet Sachin before heading back to their Bandra dwelling.   It is for this reason that Tendulkar never leaves an opportunity to talk about the kind of sacrifices his family made for him to grow into the world’s best batsman. The legend went a step further on Sunday by dedicating the Bharat Ratna award which was conferred on him by the government on Saturday to not just his mother, but to all the mothers in the country.   “Yesterday I said this award is for my mother, because of all the sacrifices she made for me. As a child, you don’t understand life… when you grow up, you realise all these things,” he said.   “It is not just for my mother. There are millions and millions of mothers in India who sacrifice many things for their children. I would like to share my award with them,” said the 40-year-old.   “I’m humbled and honoured to be given the Bharat Ratna. The award belongs to the entire nation.”   Ahead of his final Test, Tendulkar had personally inspected the arrangements for his wheelchair-bound mother to watch the Test.   “My mother has never seen me play a single ball. So when I decided to retire, I had requested BCCI to let the match happen in Mumbai. I was also not sure that whether she would be able to come. I had requested MCA to keep a room in the Garware guest house next door, but my mother preferred staying in the box and watched every ball. When I went up to her, I could see her speak more with her eyes,” Tendulkar said.   About the future, the 40-year-old said he would want to be associated with cricket in some way or the other.   “Cricket has been my life, it is oxygen to me. Of the 40 years, at least 30 years have been spent playing cricket. So, there will be some association with the game, maybe not in the immediate future. It’s only 24 hours since I’ve retired after playing for 24 years. I need a break for at least 24 days,” he said.   Speaking on a host of issues, he said the number of runs he scored never mattered to his parents. “The beauty about my family was they never lost balance. They encouraged me a lot. Like any other normal family, whenever I did well, all they did was offer a packet of sweets to thank the Almighty.”   “The process continues till date. After I finished the match, my mother told me she has offered sweets to God. Their reaction was never related to my performances. It was a relationship between a parent and child,” Tendulkar said. Tendulkar, however, did not mince words while asking the media to stay off son Arjun’s back. “I would say, leave him (Arjun) alone. Please don’t expect him to perform just because his father has performed. If that would have been the case, I should have had a pen in my hand as my father was a professor. I will let the Almighty decide his script,” Tendulkar said.   Tendulkar also congratulated eminent scientist Prof CNR Rao who was also conferred with the Bharat Ratna on Saturday. “It is an honour to get the award with him. His contribution to the field of science is immense. Cricket is played in front of thousands of people. Scientists like him worked quietly.”