SACHIN

SACH!!! IN LONDON

“Dude, please hurry up. I don’t want to cancel the Buckingham palace plan all over again”

I was banging Hari’s door, shouting the above words. We already had postponed the plan two weekends in a row and I didn’t want this to be the third one.

“Ok” Hari said, while we were sitting and having our breakfast,delivering his prophecy.

“We are going to be late today. No point us going now. So let’s plan something else”

“Third week in a row” I said, glaring at him. “Ok, I don’t want to spoil my mood in the morning”. We then discussed and decided to pay Madame Tussaud’s a visit.

We reached the place easily and did wait in the queue inspite of having priority tickets. We finally got in. Took pictures with almost all of the statues of the people we knew and some we didn’t :P

“Hey buddy”, Hari said “Look here, finally our idol Sachin”.

“Yeah, but it looks so artificial man, compared to other statues” I said, clicking away the pictures.

We finished the tour. It was quite exhilarating and exhausting. We were basically famished. This brought out the daemon inside Hari and he said “I want Chicken and only in an Indian restaurant.”

“Dude, we are in the middle of central London, with so many restaurants around. It will take us ages to locate an Indian restaurant. Let’s eat anything which even remotely looks n smells like good food”. I said, pleading with him.

“No. I want an Indian restaurant only. As you said, there are so many restaurants. We will find one for sure” said Hari, starting to march off towards Baker Street. “Oh Boy, fine” I said, giving in, yet again. It’s really difficult to convince this guy in certain situations and him being hungry ranks right up there in the list.

We searched for half an with no luck and finally located a “Food hall”.

“There must be something Indian in this hall, let’s go check it out” I said and we headed inside. We finally did locate an Indian stall inside and he ordered chicken biryani (finally!!) and I ordered the vegan version of it.

I said “Now, we need to find out a place to sit. Let’s go down there n take a look”. We started to head towards the other end of the floor. There was an escalator going down to another glitzy mall. There Hari spotted someone who remotely looked like a person we had recently seen a wax statue of in Madame Tussaud’s.

“Dude, that guy looks like Sachin” he said, pointing out a person who was similar to Sachin and a female was beside him.

“What will Sachin be doing here man? Come, let’s first find a place to sit” I said, trying to drag him away. “No da, let’s go check” he said, now dragging me with him.

We finally came beside the couple who were towards the right hand side of us and it was indeed Mr. and Mrs. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. We both were too stunned to say anything and we finally got down the escalator without even uttering a word to him.

He gave us a friendly smile and then we both in unison said “Hi Sachin”.

“Hi” pat came the reply. We were thrilled. Were we actually talking to the God of Indian cricket? “How are you? How is your injury now, Sachin?” I asked

“Its getting better now, thanks” he said and there followed an awkward silence of about 5 seconds.

“Ok, wish you guys all the best” he said shaking hands with us and now taking another escalator upstairs with his wife.

We just watched him leave and we both stared at each other, just like in movies. “What do we do now?” Hari asked, looking like a small kid about to be given his favorite chocolate. “I don’t know. Its not like I bump into Sachin everyday” I said in an excited voice. “What are the chances of us meeting him again? Come on, let’s follow him” I said and we followed him upstairs.

We stood at the entry point of the escalator, trying to look like serious shoppers of Armani shirts n suites.

“Ok” I said “this is the only exit point for this floor. So when Sachin comes here, you can ask for the photograph”.

There, we saw Anjali holding shirts against Sachin’s chest and checking if it looks good (typical Indian wife style) and choosing among a dozen.

We were surprised by the lack of security around. Also, as there were little or no Asians around, nobody mobbed them and everyone let them be. Finally, Sachin came towards us, checking things out one after the other. Hari made the move.

“Sorry to invade your privacy Sachin, but can we please have one photo with you?” he asked. “hmm, sure, give me some time. I will finish my shopping and come” he said and moved on.

We were thrilled. Hari started tucking in his shirt and I didn’t bother about my looks. Then, after a couple of minutes Sachin turned towards us and showed 2 with his fingers, indicating 2 more minutes. “Wow, what a guy” I said. Such humility.

He came towards us even earlier than 2 minutes and gave the permission to take the pic. I went in first and said “Sorry for disturbing you Sachin”. “No Problem” said the little master.

Just when Hari was about to click, Anjali called out Sachin and he slightly looked aside.

This is how it came out and I realized it after getting out and seeing the photo.

Next, Hari went in and his photo came about just fine.

After taking the photo, I asked “So what brings you here Sachin?”

“I came here on a holiday with family. This is the last time they get a long holiday before school starts for a year” he said.

“oh.. okay” Hari Said. Then Sachin continued “plus, came here to watch the Wimbledon.”

“Yeah, we know you support Federer” I said and Sachin gave his million dollar smile.

“Ok guys, all the best” he said, shook our hands yet again and he left. We ran outside, literally, like there is no tomorrow. That was the most exciting day of our lives and we were on cloud Ten-dulkar J