Sachin's Gone!

So Sachin Tendulkar is gone!

It is not an era gone in India, it is the One Big Super Hero that India is now without.

Cricket in India will now be a fight between who is better among the eleven member team. The entire country will get divided over its cricket until another One Man Army arrives.

Is that an obsession with patriarchy?: Team success, social victory, national pride must be predominately dominant by the prowess of an individual. And without the one uniquely superstar hero everything in India cracks into pieces.

Every society or country wants its identification with an individual. Very natural and human. That is why we have a President or a Prime Minister. India, however, distinguishes itself by dwarfing out the existence of a system, an assembly of equally capable people led by an individual.

Sachin Tendulkar's tenure as a cricketer uniquely coincided by a range of other superstars - talents that India had not seen ever in abundance through its cricketing history. The reason why India could win far more international games and stay at the top for an extraordinarily long period of time.

Sehwag, Kumble, Dravid, Laxman, Saurav are all exceptional talents who could walk into any world team. But they were overshadowed by one man.

I wonder often if India celebrates euphoria or genuine success! As you look back, India should be celebrating Saurav and Dhoni far more as it is their world class leadership that displayed the excellence of India's cricketmanship. And, is not the Indian victory louder than the genius of a man?

That also leads me to think that individual sport should naturally be a winnable aspiration for the Indian youth. Isn't it a very natural expectation? Who would not be motivated to be a Tendulkar?

Surprisingly it is not. Perhaps it is about who is a better Tendulkar. In that contest the focus shifts from what you have to what you have that the other has not. From there on the merit begins to diminish.

It is not just in cricket, it is a unique Indian phenomena in every other sphere. The corporate world, the politics, the societies, communities and further at its extremest micro level - the family.

You don't just succeed. You ought to succeed against the success of another.

I call that insular contest. There is such a contest at the neighborhood level that the skills do not dare the corridors beyond.

Have you not heard people say? Oh how talented and skilled Indians are, top class, ingenious - and then the big question why would such varied talent not change the very ordinary ecosystem.

There is no reason or rationale that stretches a talent towards its maximum success.

The genius is there but the society is also an ingenius dampener. In any other world team, with a much less cry for heroism, Sachin's records would have read a different saga. More majestic and grandeur than how he ended his career.

I have seen closer, several outstanding organizations swoop to very ordinary existence because its captains could not knit well the array of leadership under them. An exceptionally common trend of rising of a team to outstanding levels. However, just when the same team could have done the most extraordinary, a range of new teams broke out under its own various leaders; and very soon every such team turned just as ordinary as another.

An insulated benchmark.

That trend is so reflected in India's history: If Bose could dominate Gandhi, India would have been another nation. If Patel was not dumped by Nehru, India would have been a nation of great pride. A strong party with deeper network across the country with several skilled leaders can come together, not one among one of their own. The leader must appear uniquely distinguishable, even if that is the rosy cheeked face that captured no more than the imagination of the people! Did Gandhi know that well to select Nehru, and, not another common Indian leader?

Everything is so much within an eloquent family that surrounds itself by its own corridors.

I fail to crack the reason why success in India lies in the successor, and does not go further to celebrate the spirit of success!