TCS - a firm that defines services industry in India

TCS

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES a.k.a. TCS – another brand TATA has established over a period of time is one of the 1^st movers in the IT industry – to be more specific, services industry.

We saw many good things happened over a period of time, lot of employability, including an IPO, share split, bonuses etc. which provided opportunity for many people to mint money. Some even constructed houses with the profits earned on TCS shares. Needless to mention the improvement in standard of living out of those 3 lakh employees.

To confess at the beginning of the write-up, I am neither a TCS employee nor an IT industry expert. But what I can do is read the numbers and think on a qualitative approach to improve the numbers. My credentials stand way back identified Satyam fiasco a year before it actually happened.

Now, what is the daunting situation for TCS is dwindling numbers. Much of TCS’s revenue is earned from the U.S. which is gradually making a shift in selecting a service provider. The industry which asks TCS to provide services is a product based platform. So, the products like, banking solutions, mobile solutions – (TMT, manufacturing) formed a major part of TCS’s revenue.

When there was a huge discussion around the U.S. visa policy, no jobs off shore kind of mantra with which Obama made a point in his election campaign which he succeeded so far, all projects are gradually moved to the US based software service providers like Accenture and CTS or captive setups. They are hiring big time.

What hit, as an Indian company, TCS take is, we don’t get projects but what we can do is, join Accenture / CTS / captive units who are, currently doing well. Third party service providers like – Indian IT companies, KPOs who have higher exposure to the US market are worse hit or will be worse hit soon.

Coming back to the management side of it, there is a concept called “deadwood”. Technically, deadwood is having some really good experienced people who can neither be promoted nor thrown out ( pink slips ) as they are good at what they do (Can’t be more diplomatic). Usually, globally renowned employers have rotation policy in place which constantly channelizes their employees to explore new avenues and interests to keep the balance between learning curve as well as innovation.

Contrary, I met a lot of people who are really good at what they do and wanted to be associated technically so forgoing promotions just to fulfil their desire towards technical side.

In every organization, there are designated managers and people who take the role of a manager. It is inclusive that in a service industry, going up the ladder means narrowing technical skillset and increasing people management – billing. What do these so called managers miss while going up the ladder is growing. They, at a point of time, have either completely forgotten technical skills or outdated w.r.t. the technological advancement. They are in a comfort zone. This will put them on a back seat while mingling with team in technical discussions. End result is, belittled by subordinates. It is like, “I became Indian cricket captain and so, I won’t bat or bowl or field …. just captain the team”. This enforces idiotic managers to use their authority and trouble the sub-ordinates and pressurise to leave the company or surrender to whatever they say, while good leaders will get back to basics and improve on technical aspects and decision making with the experience they gained.

Insecurity is for those who fear due to some incapability. It can be technical. If my job demands me to be good at coding, I have to be good at coding. Period. If top management’s job demands right person to be hired and retained, they should do it.

Where do TCS stand? I heard TCS is firing middle level management. So, who are they? Are they deadwood? Are they the so called managers? Or leaders? Did TCS achieved the current situation from the date it got listed without this middle management? Average working years with TCS per employee is high. I heard many people who are in the middle management started their career in TCS.

On what basis they are eliminating the group of 25,000 employees? Is it on their qualification or performance or both? My point is, if he / she is a certified hacker, will he be given priority or the one who spent 9 years in the Company, handling multiple projects and gained expertise is. Remember – Satyam fiasco is done by a Chartered Accountant.

Why did TCS, a company which is called as a proxy of government job in India, firing people? Is it because of industry pressure? Is it too big to fail? If in that case, why did management take such wrong measures of hiring people? Why didn’t they concentrate on developing technical capabilities within the employees? Is it management’s wrong decision to allow creating that deadwood? This is harsh. Management’s concentration on growing top line and bottom line (for naïve finance guys, it is revenue and profit) and missing on operational front is their mistake. Look at other best performing companies. They take necessary balancing measures.

We all understand, as business analysts, that bad apple would eat away profitability of good apples. So, it is a common practice to shut down bad apples phase wise. In an organization which has got 3,00,000 employees, 25,000 at middle management is like 8.33% ? Which almost translates to 250cr INR a month considering 1, 00,000 per month as salary.

TCS can make good profits out of it. But the reputation damage? No one can value it.

There are multiple scenarios – when Microsoft acquired Nokia, they lay off employees on either sides. It is a part of operational efficiency. What is it that situation which made TCS lay off 8.5% employees? In a services industry, this is the worse. It is like breaking 8.5% of house as it is occupying too much space for lawn.

What surprised me is the unity of all TCS employees joining hands to support each other. When Satyam fiasco happened, the same people didn’t leave the organization. They stayed back to support the firm to come back to its normal course. They even took nominal hike of 5% average. Yet, they are those who made the difference. Companies should realise the fact that the people are most important.

Narayana Murthy made a difference to Infosys when it is at stagnant situation; he shuffled, restructured but didn’t fire people. He knows the importance.

It is important to take corrective measures at some point or the other to fulfil dreams. It is the time for TCS. They want to revive their business strategy. Management sitting on top is the safest as they have the power to throw it in others court. From definitions of TCS – Tea Coffee Snacks or Tamil / Telugu Consultancy Services or any other sought, bring it back to where it all started, with you, the people. Make a difference in taking this an opportunity to improve on areas you need to, rather than just sitting on a call with onsite manager or looking into billing.

In our industry, it is said that “if one cannot be replaced, he cannot be promoted”. One should learn from top and train below guys to be promoted and promote. That’s a win - win situation. Talk to yourself. It’s time.

HUMANITY - "Smallest coffins are the heaviest"

HUMANITY

India - Pakistan…. We are not talking about Kargil war or way back separation of countries. I am talking about sporting event which happened on Saturday i.e., 13th Dec 2014.when India lost against Pakistan ( I even hate saying Pakistan won as it shows they dominate so I would rather prefer to say we lost )my blood boiled. It almost vapored when the players took their shirts off and shown middle finger to the Indian crowd.

A couple of days later, I am really feeling bad for the same Pakistan. It’s because of kids, Kids who can never have their childhood. Helpless parents, with no one to shower their love upon, share their happiness, joy or anyone whom they can rely on. Each day, the parents deposit some memories in their kids. Is it really what a Taliban wanted? Or a group of people wanted? Or for that matter, does he want his kids to be massacred like what he did to those innocent kids? It’s purely inhumane to kill kids.

They are weak. They can’t even retaliate. Why don’t the Taliban choose to fight with an army?? They will be wiped off in a few minutes. So, is it really "to be a man" to kill innocent, weak kids? I can’t say more but whatever we do, can we bring life back to those kids? We are talking about future of a nation which was killed. We are talking about something which cannot say, mom, I am there for you to take care the way you took care of me since I was in your womb. Students like Osama, a kid (not Bin laden) who spoke to his mom over the phone with bullet in his chest, said that he is fine. These bastards killed hundreds of such kids, the future.

For anyone to be a hero there should be a Villain. Stronger the villain, better a hero will evolve. It is like - No one talk about India beating Kenya in Chennai cricket ground. People talk about India beating Australia in Melbourne. And I want to see complete globe to fight against such activities/ Villains to prove the heroics - called “humanity”. Please leave aside trade relations, border and politics for humanity.  And in the 1st place, I don’t even want any Villain if he is that bad.

What is the purpose of killing kids in a school? What did he or the organization which did this achieved? If the same happens to their kids, will they go to bed as any other day?

Talk to a parent whose kid got hurt while playing. The solitary tear does not roll down the cheek to show strength so that the kid grows morally strong. When foeticide is illegal, when murder is a crime, what is this termed as? Smallest coffins are the heaviest. Even if we hang the culprit on an international news channel telecasting live will not bring the kids back.

Look at me. I hate Pakistan for their wrong doings whether it is at LoC or chopping off military personnel who were caught or cease fire or at Siachen. But when I heard this news of kids, a humanity came upon which made me feel really bad for those kids. When a person like me, who, if at all given an opportunity in a war against Pakistan, would have no second thought to kill or die at the border, moved by the incident, why can’t all other peace loving countries take a step towards humanity?

Surprisingly, look at the two Nobel Prize winners. One is a kid who was shot in head for going to school – Malala and the other is a kids caring person from India - Kailash. What is the point if world recognizes people and allows some organizations or people to hit exactly at that note?? School going Kids!!!!

I can’t stop thinking but what I plead the world is to come together and avoid such incidents in future and pray for those kids to rest in peace. Parents, live till you die.

Family

Family

How on earth did I miss such a wonderful thing on earth?

I never knew what I lost and missed in recent past 8 years unless my grandfather breathe his last in my father’s arms. From that moment, things changed a lot. A lot that I couldn’t live far from my parents. Every day I wake up and think of only one thing. How can I make it possible and work out to stay together.

There were a lot of things which happened during my stay in my home town during my grandfather’s funeral. I got to know the real side of people around me, whom I considered as a family and friends. The best of all those real side is me myself.

Only then I realized how much I loved my grandfather. I used to go to play with father at this age of mine. My father and I are more of friends than father and son. We spoke all things under sun starting from sports, games, funny side and also discussed about women.

It is observed that how we are nurtured during childhood and adolescence will stay for a life time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t with my father to learn to be a good man during my adolescence. But who taught me the most important things in my life is my grandfather. I was brought up by him for 5 years starting 18.

Only through him I learnt responsibility towards family and friends. He was an exemplary to what I am today. He and I shared a lot of common things. We too spoke to each other a lot, varying from Julius Caesar by Shakespeare to our neighbour with whom we settled score on property issue.

He scolded, loved, cared and did everything he could do to make my life better. No compromise in it.

He taught me how to be strong in difficult times and not to cry. But when such Guru is no more, I couldn’t stop crying. I, even today, after 3 months of his demise, wanted to cry out loud. But I cannot get him back. Every weekend, I wanted to share my success stories with him. It is because he feels so proud of me that I couldn’t explain. My every success story he enjoyed as if it is his and trust me guys, it’s truly his.

I dream him every night, wake up with the reality. Tough reality to digest. I wanted to be strong but I am unable to be. I need help I guess. And that help is my family – father and mother.

This is scary. How is my father living with this reality? It was just a few years I lived with my grandfather and I couldn’t come out of this. My father lived with him for almost 50 years!!!

I think my father needs me.

When I was nurtured to be strong, so is my father by my grandfather. My father is trying to be strong not to discuss his pain but I can sense. I can understand. And we both need each other.

 My grandfather is a man of honour. He lived for his reputation than finances. It was equally difficult for me to keep up his reputation in my home town. My grandfather pampered me more than anyone. I think almost as my mother. He loved me. When I was cleaning his desk, I found my photo in his diary. I found my success stories which were published in newspapers on his desk. I wanted to cry out but I am strong.

On the other side, I still wonder how siblings vary in their character. One lived to be a special son while the other is after his earnings. Doctor in the hospital declared my grandfather dead and my father is crying out his heart while some wants death certificate to claim my grandfather’s bank deposits. Shit!! I wanted to kick them out, once again. My father loved the family and hence they are there. That’s how my father was brought up.

All my family friends gathered in no time. They are concerned. They extended their helping hand. Some took days off and some stretched their limits to assist me. My only aim then is to make everything on myself. I wanted to express my love by making his funeral the best traditional way and remembered even after he is gone. Nothing else mattered me much. Friends like JP, Karuna, subhash, Satish, samba, swamy and all were around me breaking their boundaries of tradition and culture to help me.

I am more than grateful to them for a life time. My cousin came before lunch, had and left. This is something I don’t want to discuss but yea, got to know the real side.

My father fell sick, and I took him to a hospital the next day while the other person who shared same blood approached municipal office for death certificate and applied in the bank for his deposits. My father recovered from the temperature but what to do to help him mentally?

All these mixed – good and bad can only be taught by the family. Some dare to accept they too have similar family while some deny. If the denial is true, nothing like that on earth but after all, that’s the family. 

Hometown – Heaven

In the recent past, I have noticed while talking to people their place preference to live and settle down. Of all people I spoke to about this, wontedly or unwantedly, one thing is common. Independent of whether the person is from Kashmir or deep down in Kerala, people working in New Zealand but born in Europe, from one corner of the world to the other, they all, including me, would love to get back to our respective home town.

As an independent thinker, I would not like to live in Kashmir or Chennai. For me, both are the same. Kashmir because of militants’ problem and Chennai because of Tamilians. Non-hyderabadis might be thinking about Hyderabad the same as I am thinking about Kashmir or Chennai.

But when I interacted with Kashmiris, they want to get back to Kashmir and so is the case with Tamilians. Why?? !!!!

Then, I started trying to identify and analyse the reasons why people want to go back to / stay in their home towns. It is pretty simple. The way I looked at it, there are two important aspects.

1.       Leisure

2.       Certainty

The above two should answer why we prefer home towns.

The current generation is so busy that they don’t know what leisure is. They are caught up between excessive works which gives a little time to rest. How can we expect leisure to those people?

Nikhil Dasari, a dear friend, once explained me what leisure is. I have enormous respect to this guy since I met him, almost a decade and half ago, for his broadness in thinking and letting things go and wait for them to return so as to know what is genuine and what not. I went to meet him in his township.

I fell in love with his township which he hates the most. The simple reason, unlike me, he is not there for a holiday. What made me fall in love with his township is simple. The schedule we had in township is almost similar to the lifestyle I used to have in my hometown.

I woke up to see sun rise, had a cup of tea, played badminton until we got tired, had breakfast, swimmed for a while, took bath, had lunch, nap, played in the evening, snacks, long walk on lawns, dinner followed by a movie, and late night talks.

We played for fun, we had tasty cooked food at home, slept and we had all time on earth to do whatever we wanted to. So, we started enjoying anything and everything we did. For example, our long walk, late night talks, movie etc.

All this is possible because of leisure time we had. We were never under time pressure, never under someone’s obligation, never under short of resources, traffic and no competition.

Pity those who carry blackberry and laptops during their holiday.

Try to correlate with the people who leave their hometown. They all leave their place for a reason. That is enough to spoil the enjoyment.

I left my home town because of education, which followed by a job. Some left their hometowns for job purpose and a few because of family after marriage. Everything boils down to leaving hometown for a purpose.

How can one enjoy a holiday if he goes on a purpose?

Kashmir is considered to be the most beautiful place in India. Ask a military officer who goes on a 2 year transfer to Kashmir whether he would like to settle down in Kashmir. His answer would be a big NO. The reason is, all the time the military officer stays in Kashmir, his purpose is defined and his commitment towards his purpose needs to be 100% where the margin of error is bare minimal.

So his tenure might give him a chance to see things but cannot enjoy them.

Coming back to our hometown and childhood friends, we roamed on streets, bicycling just for fun during leisure time; most memorable incidents in our life were those rides. Ask someone to bicycle now. They start planning from joining a cycling group on weekends to what dress and bicycle they have to own. Most of the group has a purpose - to burn calories, someone want to gain stamina etc. All this is a purpose defined. This is absolutely not leisure, not for fun. Reason is the only reason why we cannot enjoy cycling or playing during weekends as much as we did during childhood.

We have so many stories to cherish at our hometown just because we spent our leisure time effectively with the people we love. It’s not the longer duration one spends, but the leisure time. It’s not the quantity of people but the family and friends. Finally, it’s not the town which makes the difference but the Hometown does.

You must be wondering why the second point certainty is a parameter of loving hometown.

Certainty plays a crucial role in one’s life. Mathematically, if the result is known, then it is called certainty. As long as the result is unknown, it is a gamble.

Why there is a high certainty in our hometown???!!!

We, unknowingly, are very certain about the events that could occur in our hometowns. It might be, starting from the milk vendor coming at 6 AM to night watchman’s last whistle at 11 pm. We all know that he would sleep after 11pm. J

I used to go with my father to the market to purchase monthly groceries. That’s the same grocery shop where my father’s father also bought. Grocery shop guy promises to drop the items as it happens every time. They don’t mention a time or the guy who is going to drop them at our home but we all know who is going to come at what time. Though my mother is not at grocery shop, even she knows by what time the guy would drop the groceries at home.  This is certainty. I am talking about the generation when landline phone calls were new.

At the age of 5, mistook a right turn and ended up in a place where I knew nothing. Within 10 minutes, I am back in my home.

Without alarms, waking up at 5:30 was normal. This blog gives me an opportunity to express the world how my paternal grandmother used to see things.

When asked what could be the time now, she used to look at sun’s position and tell the exact time.

When screamed about the snake which just crossed my sister’s legs, she said about the huge snake which lays eggs during a period, and those baby snakes are not poisonous. She knows and she just knows everything.

 June 6^th, every summer, is the 1^st day of monsoon and she used to be ready on a day prior by washing all clothes, insisted us to reach home early completing our farm work as it would drizzle on 6^th June evening. That’s certainty she developed over her life.

When she warned us about the drizzle that evening, she should have had enough thought about the snake also. That’s the certainty about the danger and protection we had.

 No one warned about cyclone or monsoon then. And now, even after so much technological advancement, we fail to see certain things. Thanks to global warming.

My mother used to start preparing evening snack for my father exactly at 4:00pm because my father reaches home by 4:15pm. I never understood how accurately the timing worked. We both used to go to ground at 4:30pm, play till it is sunset, return home, take bath and ready for power cut. We were well aware of. At night 7:30pm, a tractor used to go by, so we kids are not allowed to go on the street. Again, that’s certainty and protection. It happened for 14 years, every day, and every year.

Now days, we are not sure whether we return home once we go out. Keep aside whether we return home, we are not sure whether we reach the place where we intend to go.

So, the certainty which is missing reduces the credibility of existence or liking towards living at a place.  That is the magic of our home town. And so, it is heaven for all.

So as us, I wish our next generations develops love, certainty –care and protection, in their family, hometown and motherland.

Ethics and habits

My father always insisted on “if you don’t want your son to do certain things, it should start from you”

It took a while to understand that statement which was repetitively told to me by my father and grandfather.

My father used to tell me the short story about a small village with around 1000 people. They lived happily as a family with no bars of caste creed or race. They all share a similar culture too. They celebrated festivals together, shared joy and supported each other during troubled times.

Suddenly, on a fine morning, they identified two people acting weird. Those two people started behaving different. They acted as if they are bulls, bullying others with their head. They got into fight with all others. This made the village big heads to sit for a discussion and take a decision which for safety of the village.

So, all other 998 people of the village tied the two to a tree (Choupal) beat them with stones to death.

The other 998 thought that the things settled now and led a peaceful life for the next 6 months.

After which, on another morning, surprisingly, 995 people started feeling the symptoms similar to the people who were killed 6 months ago, like bullying, getting into fights kind of.

They all got together and found the rest 3 normal people different, tied them to the tree, bet them with stones to death.

These two concepts of ‘doing certain things’ and ‘village’ are mutually exclusive but people who know the art of living can only join threads to both.

 To make this piece of writing a little more interesting, let me take you through one of my family members.

There is this beautiful energetic lady who comes from an affluent family. She is a post graduate from the US, worked in Mumbai with one of the globally renowned firms for 4 years. She now, got married and settled in Hyderabad, place where I live.

With all the credentials of affluence, post-graduation, Mumbai and corporate world, it is needless to mention her habits to booze, late night parties etc.

On the other hand, she is soft spoken, yet very clear about her thought process. She gives a good thought before speaking, sticks on her word once spoken. With her global exposure, knowledge and different cultures which she has seen over her life, she can understand others moves faster and appropriate.

What make a person to arrive at initial impression on others are their habits. After some time, it is the thought process which binds us together or not.

It’s too difficult to remain unbiased in our judgement once the initial impression is created based on habits. Per se, if one is a drunkard and other have a negative impression about drunkards, it will be difficult to establish a good long term relation unless we talk and find other common things between us.

For me, being a first generation post grad who hails from a small village, this girl is like a character, a piece. I had a very very bad impression on her. She drinks alcohol, she smokes and what not. I would have never met her again if I didn’t think about the village story.

Village story always says, it is their culture.

I then, gave myself some time to talk to her. In our discussion, identified her intentions to pass down cultural values to their next generation. She is keen in learning culture from her parents, in-laws, friends and neighbours, which she missed due to education in foreign land, including work.

I conveyed the message my father passed on to me, “If you want your kid not to do certain things, start from yourself”

So, she gradually started cooking, celebrating festivals the way they meant to be (not by just boozing around)

I liked her progress towards ethics and culture. See, it is difficult to arrive at this point where the bad impression tended towards liking the progress.

With this impression back on my mind, I walked into her home on a weekend. The place where I come from, I find welcome doormat at the entrance. To my surprise, found a carton of empty beer bottles, 100 pipers, royal stag bottles at the entrance. They are positioned right adjacent to her entrance door, the place where my parents wouldn’t even allow me to leave my footwear.

I found we are at ground zero.

Now I understood why habits play so important role on human mind to judge or arrive at an impression.

I tried by all my means to explain that “the things they are doing are not right” but I was seen as an incapable guy. I know that I am normal but am seen abnormal same as in the case of 995 guys who killed 3 normal people in the village.

It is evident to one and all that with the generation, people gradually moving up the ladder and increasing their standard of living. In this process, what everyone is missing is the culture we come from. Quoting her as the best example, she moved up the ladder with respect to her parents’ living standard, either due to her education or capability to earn but what she missed is to carry the culture. Once she realized that, she started missing it for which she repented at a point of time.

This generation or the future generations, they are exponentially increasing their knowledge base but what they are missing is the wisdom.

She is wanting her parents to transfer culture on to her next generation but what she missed is that her kids would look up to her as she looked up to her parents.

In all likelihood, no parent would ever let their kids drink, smoke, lie, cheat or as simple as to skip a meal because you want to diet and look sexier.

Same will be applied to her as well. It all boils down to what one should follow with this increasingly fast generation and gap respectively.

It is upto her whether to remain in this current generation and be an exemplary to her next generation similar to the 995 people in the village.

The other option she have is, to use her knowledge base and develop a thought process, which is, “in this situation, what would my mother / father do” and take a decision to inspire next gen. This, to some extent, helps us transfer our parents’ ethics to the next generation as well.

Let us start all this from our habits.

India Pak ODI 30th Dec 2012@ Chennai

Post match analysis:

Reasons why we lost the match today:

We weren’t lucky to win the toss. If won, we also would have chosen to bowl first, for obvious reasons like rain for the last 2 days, dew and grass on the pitch and slow outfield.

We know that losing toss is something out of our hands, what best should we do to take the challenges thrown by some beauty left arm Pakistani bowlers?

We should play sensible innings and young folks should be guided properly by seniors. 

The India Pak series started with a campaign saying it’s the war between Indian batting and Pakistani bowlers. Whoever proves the mettle would survive the series. Now, on such a favorable bowling conditions, what our batsman should do?

1st 4-5 overs, leave the balls swinging/doing much in the air and pitch, picking up singles and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking. 

Next, 6-10 overs, punish the odd balls, play the good ones and let the ball worn out. 

11-15, once the eye is set and ball becomes a bit old, start hitting as long as the power play lasts. 

When there is bowling change, and field spread, just rotate the strike, steal singles, convert them into twos etc. in this process, we end up losing 1-2 wickets. Nothing to worry.

We were taught this while playing a 40 over match leagues during our school days and I think, that’s what all cricket playing batsman’s basics should be.

What happened to the current generation players and the style of playing, they are more habituated to T20 format and all they wanted to do is hit out or get out. 

That is what I noticed in all outs today. 

We lost two quick wickets (Sehwag and Gambhir) an when both the seniors are out, there is no one to guide Kohli and Yuvi how to build the innings? 

The most crucial session in Indian partnership between Raina and Dhoni. These two are playing together since a very long time, they play IPL together too. But what they both lacked is rotating strike. I really got pissed off when the scoreboard said Dhoni 30(72 balls). It was a left and right combination, field spread, spinner bowling to an Indian and we, so called Indian batsman on Indian pitch, are unable to pick singles by rolling wrist or pushing with bottom hand into the gaps??

Everyone must be praising Dhoni for his massacre during the last 10 overs. Hell with it. He got two lives, one in the form of a catch at mid wicket and a mixup with Raina.

The above points are where Pakistanis did absolutely right. They saw Kumar’s swing and spell. They took their time to settle down, lost two wickets and immediately, realized and concentrated on building innings than just a T20 style playing. Never let the runrate fall down 4 after spinners came in. 

The other important thing is: india is still struggling with 5th bowler. 

Yuvi dropped a cant be simpler catch at point? Dropping is contagious. Keeper catch of a no ball by Ashwin, unlucky, my 1st line of the writeup.

If cricket is a corporate body and I am one of the key members, would have fired Sehwag this evening. His attitude in the field is the worst among all Indians. He neither practices, nor fields. Bloody, waste of a resource. 

Whatever, the weather conditions and systematic/unsystematic risks involved in the match are not properly mitigated. There is no point if our batsman score 350 runs on a flat pitch the next ODI. What actually matters is, in difficult situations like this, how much responsibility are you showing.

Someone rightly said, “Strength of the chain lies in its weakest junction”, our strength of batting lies in its toughest conditions which we failed drastically today.

SACHIN - the brand

SACHIN: the brand ambassador of cricket.

When I heard about his retirement from ODIs, I was enjoying a holiday in Pondicherry. It was no more a holiday. When I checked on facebook, its already flooded by status messages, blackberry messenger status updates and so on… the news is everywhere.

Some said, the era of God has come to an end, afterall he is a human being. Some said about their memories at hero cup, sharjah, world cup, matches against Pakistan, his 200* and many more.

But my thinking about Sachin is different. It is inevitable to hear this news one day and that day was yesterday. I should have realized that this day would come when he moved out from T20s and guys, remember, the day is not too far from retiring from tests as well (I controlled myself from shedding tears at this line).

This is not about how he played, how he entertained and how he delivered when it’s most needed. It’s about how he became a member in our family.

I roamed many cities across the country in the recent past 16 years, playing, reading, studying, working and learning. I met relatives, made friends, have a good and caring family. If I have to boil it down to the maximum time is spent, apart from my father mother and sister, it’s about Sachin.

He played 463 ODIs, 194 tests and 77 T20 so far. Which is like 1500 days (approx.) and it transforms to 4 years. I never stopped by just watching him play. I watched highlights, read news papers(sports is the only page I read), before a series started, after it ended, where he went wrong, what made him beyond human, Harsha’s commentary and interview about Sachin and all…. It should come to atleast 7 years.

I bet, I never spent 7 years thinking, reading, admiring and imitating someone in my life apart from my family and so he is a part of my family.

I am emotionally attached to this brand Sachin. I feel proud to wear Sachin Tendulkar’s branded Adidas t-shirt. His respect to the country and his family inspires me. I think that’s what eldest brothers in any family do to their next generations. And that’s how he made me.  

People talk about his runs, his form and his centuries. I talk about his responsibility. How he avoided giving strike to Kohli when Sachin realized Kohli is unable to face the situation and took almost 12 overs strike, how he advised Sehwag, how he helped Harbhajan, Zaheer, A.T.Rayudu, how he suggested BCCI to captain Dhoni, to make a contribution to the team and be a part of winning side. This cannot be quantified. I can list myriad situations.  Am not going to talk about his social service, patriotism, love towards family and enormous stubbornness to achieve what he wanted to.  

With his heart sinking, he won India against Kenya and move to next level in a WC, forgoing 200+cr deal for a promise given to his father….what is he?  That’s what I miss from him now on.

You all feel that he retired and you won’t be entertained but my story is different. I miss someone in my family and am afraid that I can’t see him more from now on. I can write a book on him but somewhere I have to sign off… and would cherish memories he gave in the recent past 23 years.

MISS YOU SACHIN L L