
Sachin Tendulkar’s father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a poet, a researcher, literary critic and a gentle soul. He came up the hard way , walking to school for some 8 km and the same distance back home in Alibag taluka in Raigad district bordering Mumbai.
He also had a good sense of humour. He wrote about the first poetry recital by Vinda Karandikar, Jnanpith award winner, way back in 1950. Karandikar was unknown then and when people saw a hefty primitive type of man taking long steps upto the stage there was laughter. That is because of his name gives the impression the person is a girl. The real name Govinda but he used Vinda, which sounds like a girl’s name.
Vinda instantly won the hearts with his first satirical poem, in it the poet tells us to develop a mind, hard like a stone as no sensitive man can bear the injustices of the world. His poem is widely quoted and is more relevant today.
Ramesh Tendulkar’s memory was fondly recalled on his 25th death anniversary on May 25 evening at a function by Sachin, his poet brother Nitin, Mr Sharad Pawar, former chief minister, at the Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya.
Ramesh was a major functionary of the Sangrahalaya’s Marathi sanshodhan mandal, research organisation, for decades. The Sangrahalaya library is more than a century old and is centrally located in large premises in Dadar east. Mr Pawar heads the organsiation.
Sachin talked fondly of his father who gave him so much love, encouragement to his budding cricket talent and of the open house he threw in Sahitya Sahawas, a writers’ housing society in Bandra east.
Father would always make the postman, a watchman or a worker sit on the sofa, talked with them softly.
In his early days father lived in a two room house in Indravadan society chawl in Dadar, supporting a large joint family, working for the CID and going to college, he would quietly study at home facing the wall.
Later, when he shifted to Bandra east, Sachin stayed in his uncle’s house in Dadar because that was most convenient with his cricket coaching class. The father and mother would come unfailing every evening by bus, train , sometimes Sachin would have fallen asleep, tired after cricket, Ramesh would stroke his head gently.
Later, when Sachin began making money and bought a car, he would drop his father to Kirti college in Prabhadevi, before going for his net practice in Shivaji Park. Often, the music in the car would be loud but father would not complain, he would always keep reading quietly.
Personally, I knew Ramesh Tendulkar for several years and he always had a pleasant smile. As Sachin himself said at the programme, his father prized human values, money was never his prime consideration . Sachin was in conversation with Prasanna Sant, cricket commentator and son of former cricket journalist Chandrashekhar Sant of Maharashtra Times..
Sachin recalled that just as his father replaced Surendra Gavsakar in the research institution, Sachin replaced Sunil Gavaskar as a batsman .
Raja Dixit, head of the Vishwakosh Mandal, the government’s encyclopaedia project, said though Tendulkar initially worked in the CID he was of an entirely different type of a man, always open hearted, tender. Tendulkar also treated lyricists with respect, not treating them as inferior to poets.
Dixit’s father M.S. Dixit wrote a book on the historical transition of Pune city. He would have been saddened by the recent changes, signified most notably by a brash, minor liquor addict, son of a big builder driving a costly Porsche car in a drunken state earlier this week and killing a young woman and a man . He was treated with kid gloves initially by the cops and the juvenile court.
Pradeep Karnik, a former director of the research institute, thanked Sharad Pawar for the grant of Rs 50 lakh he had given the Mandal way back in 2016 without any fuss, on behalf of Vidya Pratishthan.
Sachin looked pleasant and relaxed at the function. But his home is so forbidding, totally inaccessible to any one , unlike his father’s. One can understand the high security he needs. But his building is built like a high walled prison, completely faceless in Bandra west. At least this he or his advisers could have easily avoided. I see it frequently during my walks and it is so off-putting.
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist, culture critic and author of a book on public transport