25/04/2014
The story behind Sachin Tendulkar's shadow
Among the flurry of people at Bandra station is an equally inconspicuous gentleman looking around trying to hail a rickshaw. He's dressed in a Team India Practice jersey, carrying a bag which is likely a hand-me-down from the official merchandise of the Indian Cricket team, matching blue shoes and a cap, letting out unkempt scraggly strands of hair.
Sudhir Kumar Gautam, the gentleman usually seen layered in saffron, white and green paint from head to waist, waving the flag with pride and blowing his conch in support of Sachin Tendulkar in every match, is en route the legendary cricketer's Bandra bungalow before he hops on the evening train to Kochi to resume his career as the unofficial mascot for the Indian cricket team.
Gautam, who grew up in the Damodar village in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, lived a regular life. He studied in the local school, lived with his mother, father and three siblings and eventually graduated, to be admitted into a college where he studied History Honours. He too, was a promising cricketer, training to be a teacher and a strong hope for financial support from his poverty stricken family. All this changed, when he cycled to Mumbai to meet the man he says is the Ram to his Hanuman.
"I've left three jobs," he says. "I could've been a teacher in Bihar Shikshamitra, but my training was in February 2006 and in January I cycled to Pakistan to watch Sachin play in the 5 ODI series." Prior to this, he worked at a Dairy, a job he had to quit in order to gain access
to his Provident Fund to incur the costs involved in getting a passport for his aforementioned jaunt. "I also had an interview to become a TC(ticket collector) in 2005, but there was a match to watch: the 6th one day between India and Pakistan. So I skipped the interview to cycle to
Delhi," he said as he donned a test match jersey to pose for a few pictures on the steps of the Mount Saint Mary Church, a little distance away from Tendulkar's home.
Sudhir Gautam
Sudhir Gautam. Photo By - Mandar Deodhar
His passion and dedication towards the Indian cricket team is an admirable feat, and a rare spectacle in the world today. It takes courage and resilience to chase a passing revelry with so much fervour and see it through to a point where you're the talk of the entire nation. And let's face it, he makes for great television.
His family, however, presently lives in resentment and dire conditions. "My brother is married with three kinds and he is a teacher, but he makes around Rs. 7,000-8,000 a month and can't support my parents," he said. His old father, who had once dreamed that Gautam, his middle child would take care of him financially, is having to work as a shopkeeper despite his age. "Whenever I visit them I eat a meal with them and leave, they abuse me and get angry, but I just listen and get on my way again," he says.
Gautam who in spite of an education most people in rural India crave and are denied, is now taking up odd jobs handing out cold drinks or ice cream at events to gather up enough money to afford a general train ticket to watch his next match. The debate of whether passion trumps responsibility here is tricky, whether this is a man we as a nation should glorify wholeheartedly is questionable, especially when juxtaposed with the fact of his idol, Tendulkar, being the bastion of humility, achievement and the ability to remarkably, yet sensibly realise his dream.
However, Gautam lives on as a vagabond undeterred by what goes on back home. He continues to hand pick a thousand litchees each year to deliver in crates to both Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar, and more recently MS Dhoni and bangles for "Anjali Madam". He still trades in his education and ambitions to be the super fan of Indian cricket, which is rather an expensive affair as he says.
Aside from travel expenditure, Gautam also sees it necessary to pay the painters who spend anywhere between four and six hours to paint his body. "They do it for free, but I feel like I should pay them a little so they don't refuse me the next time I go to them," he said.
This leads him to arrive at match venues a day prior to scheduled matches. "This way I can hide my conch and the staff of my flag in the stadium so I can use it the following day."
As people near the church hand over their phone cameras for a picture with him, tossing aside their prayer candles and explaining to their children who he is, Gautam remembers how the crowds at a stadiums often bother him and lead the security process to go haywire. "In Vadodara, outside the boundary line there is a Neem Tree," he recalls.
"When the spectators bother me I climb that tree and it's a different feeling. No one disturbs me, I wave the flag and blow the conch in peace."
While Gautam begins to pack his things and get ready to hopefully stop at a barber shop before proceeding to meet the master blaster, he confirms that he will never get married because he has submitted to his current way of living, in which there is no room for a relationship. "Jab tak suraj chaand rahega, Sahin ji ka naam rahega," he says as he slings his backpack over one shoulder.
"Till I have the privilege of being on this earth, I will support Sachin sir and now that he has retired I will write the words 'Miss U' in the empty space above my chest where I write his name." He smiles and calls out to a rickshaw which rattles along to take him to Tendulkar's home, leaving those with their newly clicked photos with him, looking on with envy, but also an unassuming sense of admiration.
