The Master Blaster - Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar's Biography

           

                    Sachin Tendulkar is a former Indian cricketer considered to the greatest cricketer of all time. This biography of Sachin Tendulkar provides detailed information about his childhood,life, achievements, works & timeline.

Quick Facts

Nick Name              Little Master, Master Blaster

Also Known As       Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Famous as               Cricketer

Nationality              Indian

Born on                   24 April 1973 AD

Zodiac Sign            Taurus

Born in                    Mumbai, India

Father                      Ramesh Tendulkar

Mother                    Rajni Tendulkar

Spouse:                   Anjali

Children                 Sara and Arjun

Net worth               $160 million

Awards

1. Arjuna Award (1994)
2. Wisden Cricketer of the Year (1997) Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (1998) Padma Shri (1999)
3. Padma Vibhushan (2008)
4. Bharat Ratna (2014)  

                          When Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar made his test debut against Pakistan as a 16 year old, little did the world know that the curly-haired teenager would one day become one of the greatest legends of the game. In his homeland, India, Sachin is more than just a popular sportsperson; he is an institution in himself. He is not just loved and respected, but revered. Called the “God of Cricket” by his fans, Sachin has ruled the game for well over two decades—a very rare feat for a sportsperson.
Widely considered to be the greatest cricketer ever, he is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries. Born into a middle class home in Bombay, he started playing cricket while still a little boy and made his international test debut at the tender age of 16! And thus began the journey of a cricketer who would smash several long standing records and create unbelievable new ones. Keeping in view his awesome performance, he was made the captain of the Indian team. Captaincy however did not suit him and he resigned. In spite of his iconic status, Sachin is known to be a simple and principled man which further adds to his popularity.

Childhood & Early Life

• He was born as the youngest of four siblings to Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist and Rajni, who worked in the insurance industry. He was named after his father ’s favorite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. 
• As a young boy he was a bully. His older brother encouraged him to play cricket in order to divert his attention from fights and got him enrolled at the academy of the coach, Ramakant Achrekar. 
• He went to Sharadashram Vidyamandir High School at the advice of Achrekar as the school had a rich cricketing tradition. He shone as a star cricketer playing for his school and soon people were predicting that he would one day become a famous player.
• Along with his friend Vinod Kambli, he was involved in a record 664-run partnership in an inter school match against St. Xavier ’s High School in 1988.

Career

• He embarked on his domestic first-class career in 1988 playing for Mumbai and scored a century on his very first match. He ended the season as the highest run scorer.
• His performance in the first-class matches had been so mind blowing that he got selected into the national team after just one season. He made his international test debut against Pakistan in November 1989 aged just 16.
• Even though he could not score many runs in the series, he got noticed both for his batting techniques and his dedication to the sport. He also made his debut in One Day International (ODI) in 1989.
• During the 1991-92 tour of Australia, he made 148 runs in one of the matches and 114 in another, batting against the great bowlers of that time like Merv Hughes, Craig Mcdermott and Bruce Reid.
• Asked to open the batting against Zealand in an ODI 1994, he set the stadium on fire blasting 82 runs off just 49 balls. The very same year he made his first ODI century against Australia.
• In 1998 Australia was on a tour of India and the series was hyped as Sachin versus Warne contest. Sachin blasted Warne in the series and made two centuries in the three test series. Sachin played a vital role in India’s win in the series.
• Sachin had two brief stints as captain of Indian cricket team and both of them were not very successful. He took over as captain in 1996 but the team performed poorly and he gave up the captaincy in 1997. He was again made the captain in 1999 but again he was not very successful and gave up the captaincy in 1999.
• India was one of the favorites in the Cricket World Cup 2003 where he performed superbly, making 673 runs in 11 matches to help India reach the finals. The team however lost the finals to Australia though Sachin was given Man of the Tournament Award.
• After going through a difficult phase he regained his form in 2007, completing 11,000 test runs to become the leading run scorer from India. In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2007–08, he scored 493 runs in four tests, demonstrating his unbelievable batting skills. Sachin was again at his best in the 2011 World Cup during which he made 482 runs including two centuries.
• India faced Sri Lanka in the finals and won the match—it was the first World Cup victory for him.
• His form faltered after the World Cup and he went through a lean phase. He retired from all forms of cricket in November 2013 and was given a very emotional farewell by his fans.

Awards & Achievements

• Sachin is one of the most prolific cricketers ever—the first person to score a double century in ODIs, the only player to score a 100 centuries, and the only one to have amassed over 30, 000 runs in all forms of international cricket. It is no surprise that he occupies a legendary status in cricket-crazy India.
• Sachin Tendulkar holds the world record for scoring highest number of runs and centuries in both the Test Cricket and the One Day Internationals. He has scored 15921 runs and 51 centuries in Test Cricket. While in ODIs, he has scored 18,426 runs and 49 centuries.
• He was the first person to score a double century in ODIs.
• He is the only cricketer so far to have played in 200 Test matches.
• In addition to the numerous cricketing awards he has won, Sachin is also the proud recipient of several awards from the Government of India. He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting award, in 1997-98 for his achievements in cricket.
• He was honored with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award in 2014 in recognition of his spectacular contributions to cricket. He became the first sportsperson as well as the youngest ever individual to receive the award. 

Personal Life & Legacy

• He met Anjali, a doctor, in 1990 and dated her for five years before tying the knot in 1995. T he couple has two children. His son Arjun is also a budding cricketer.
• He is actively involved with Apnalaya, an NGO, and sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year. He has also used his popularity to help many other charities raise large amounts of funds for several noble causes including cancer research and education.

Trivia

At 40 years of age this famous sportsperson became the youngest ever to receive the Bharat Ratna.

The Missile Man - Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam

                     A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is an Indian scientist and politician who served his country as president from 2002 to 2007.
                      Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, popularly known as “Missile Man” born in a middle class family, seen and faced problems and hardships of middle class, never daunted and depressed of failures, rose to the height of first citizen of India, the president of India, a visionary, a pragmatist, a poet, a good human being, a complete man. 
                      He is the architect of India’s integrated missile development program, recipient of Bharat Ratna award, a rare example in today’s world where most of the people are engulfed by mediocrity, hypocrisy, corruption, the likes Dr. Kalam want to conserve”. Born on 15th October 1931 At Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, specialized in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology. Dr. Kalam made significant contribution as Project Director to Develop India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully injected the Rohini Satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India an exclusive member of Space Club.
                        Earnestly proud of his heritage, Dr. Kalam asks the people of India, to discover the untapped strength. Let the Indians now totally delink from the legacy of the past, hear this inspiring revelation: India made the world’s first rocket, says Dr. Kalam in annotation to one of this poems. These rockets are laced in the British War Museum. Small tube with gun powder, tiny nozzle and warhead (a carved sword) which were used in defeating the British army at the battle of Srirangapatnam, by Tipu Sultan.
             He always exhorted the people, 
“We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like a nation of a million people”.

Rise to the Presidency 

                      His hopes of becoming a fighter pilot was dashed when he narrowly missed out on a spot with the Indian Air Force. Kalam instead joined the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a senior scientific assistant in 1958. After moving to the newly formed Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1969, he was named project director of the SLV-III, the first satellite launch vehicle designed and produced on Indian soil.                       

                       Returning to the DRDO as director in 1982, Kalam implemented the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. He then became the senior scientific adviser to India's defense minister in 1992, a position he used to campaign for the development of nuclear tests. 

                       Kalam was a key figure in the May 1998 Pokhran-II tests, in which five nuclear devices were detonated in the Rajasthan Desert. Although the tests resulted in condemnation and economic sanctions from other world powers, Kalam was hailed as a national hero for his stanch defense of the country’s security. 

                        In 2002, India's ruling National Democratic Alliance helped Kalam win an election against Lakshmi Sahgal and become India's 11th president, a largely ceremonial post. Known as the People's President, Kalam set a goal of conducting 500,000 one-on-one meetings with young people over the course of his five-year term. His immense popularity led to him being nominated by MTV for a Youth Icon of the Year award in 2003 and 2006. 

                         After leaving office in 2007, Kalam became a visiting professor at several universities. He formed the "What Can I Give Movement" in 2011 with the goal of creating a compassionate society, and in 2012, his efforts to improve healthcare led to the release of a tablet for medical personnel to use in remote areas. 

Death and Legacy 

                        On July 27, 2015, Kalam suffered a massive heart attack while lecturing at the Indian Institute of Management and subsequently died at the age of 83. 

                         Kalam was laid to rest on July 30 with full state honors in his native Tamil Nadu. In honor of the scientist and former president, the southeast Indian state government of Tamil Nadu created a "Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award," which recognizes exceptional individuals who promote the sciences, students and humanities. The government has also established Kalam's birthday (October 15) as "Youth Renaissance Day." Discussion about building a large-scale memorial at his burial site is underway. 

                         Among his many accolades, including honorary doctorates from 40 universities, he was granted the Padma Bhushan (1981), the Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the Bharat Ratna (1997) — India's highest civilian awards — for his contributions in modernizing government defense technology.

He also wrote several books, including the autobiography Wings of Fire in 1999.

Father Of Nation - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, Gujrat, India.

On 15 August 1947, he and his followers forced the British to leave India. Rightfully, he is called the father of the nation.

His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He is known as Mahatma, meaning 'great soul', because of his work on non-violence, satyagrah and selfless service to his people.

Gandhi spent 20 years in South Africa working to fight discrimination. It was there that he created his concept of satyagraha, a non-violent way of protesting against injustices. While in India, Gandhi's obvious virtue, simplistic lifestyle, and minimal dress endeared him to the people. He spent his remaining years working diligently to both remove British rule from India as well as to better the lives of India's poorest classes. Many civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., used Gandhi's concept of non-violent protest as a model for their own struggles. 

Gandhiji influenced both nationalist and internationalist movements and brought the cause of India's independence from British colonial rule to world attention. Gandhiji's principle of satyagraha (from Sanskrit satya: truth, and graha: grasp/hold), has also inspired other democratic activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon and the 14th Dalai Lama.

In September 1888, at age 18, Gandhi left India, without his wife and newborn son, in order to study to become a barrister (lawyer) in London. Attempting to fit into English society, Gandhi spent his first three months in London attempting to make himself into an English gentleman by buying new suits, fine-tuning his English accent, learning French, and taking violin and dance lessons. After three months of these expensive endeavors, Gandhi decided they were a waste of time and money. He then cancelled all of these classes and spent the remainder of his three-year stay in London being a serious student and living a very simple lifestyle.

In addition to learning to live a very simple and frugal lifestyle, Gandhi discovered his life-long passion for vegetarianism while in England. Although most of the other Indian students ate meat while they were in England, Gandhi was determined not to do so, in part because he had vowed to his mother that he would stay a vegetarian. In his search for vegetarian restaurants, Gandhi found and joined the London Vegetarian Society. The Society consisted of an intellectual crowd who introduced Gandhi to different authors, such as Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy. It was also through members of the Society that Gandhi began to really read the Bhagavad Gita, an epic poem which is considered a sacred text to Hindus. The new ideas and concepts that he learned from these books set the foundation for his later beliefs.

Gandhi successfully passed the bar on June 10, 1891 and sailed back to India two days later. For the next two years, Gandhi attempted to practice law in India. Unfortunately, Gandhi found that he lacked both knowledge of Indian law and self-confidence at trial. When he was offered a year-long position to take a case in South Africa, he was thankful for the opportunity. 

Gandhi in South Africa
At age 23, Gandhi once again left his family behind and set off for South Africa, arriving in British-governed Natal in May 1893. Although Gandhi was hoping to earn a little bit of money and to learn more about law, it was in South Africa that Gandhi transformed from a very quiet and shy man to a resilient and potent leader against discrimination. The beginning of this transformation occurred during a business trip taken shortly after his arrival in South Africa.

Gandhi had only been in South Africa for about a week when he was asked to take the long trip from Natal to the capital of the Dutch-governed Transvaal province of South Africa for his case. It was to be a several day trip, including transportation by train and by stagecoach. When Gandhi boarded the first train of his journey at the Pietermartizburg station, railroad officials told Gandhi that he needed to transfer to the third-class passenger car. When Gandhi, who was holding first-class passenger tickets, refused to move, a policeman came and threw him off the train.

That was not the last of the injustices Gandhi suffered on this trip. As Gandhi talked to other Indians in South Africa (derogatorily called "coolies"), he found that his experiences were most definitely not isolated incidents but rather, these types of situations were common. During that first night of his trip, sitting in the cold of the railroad station after being thrown off the train, Gandhi contemplated whether he should go back home to India or to fight the discrimination. After much thought, Gandhi decided that he could not let these injustices continue and that he was going to fight to change these discriminatory practices.

He spent his remaining years working diligently to both remove British rule from India as well as to better the lives of India's poorest classes. Many civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., used Gandhi's concept of non-violent protest as a model for their own struggles.

The title of ‘Mahatma’ (Sanskrit term of reverence ‘mahatman’ meaning ‘one of great soul’) was accorded on Gandhiji in 1915 by his admirer Rabindranath Tagore (the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature). It was given in response to Gandhiji conferring the title of "Gurudev" (great teacher) upon Tagore. 

Assassination

Unfortunately, not everyone was happy with this peace plan. There were a few radical Hindu groups who believed that India should never have been partitioned. In part, they blamed Gandhi for the separation.

On January 30, 1948, the 78-year-old Gandhi spent his last day as he had many others. The majority of the day was spent discussing issues with various groups and individuals. At a few minutes past 5 p.m., when it was time for the prayer meeting, Gandhi began the walk to Birla House. A crowd had surrounded him as he walked, being supported by two of his grandnieces. In front of him, a young Hindu named Nathuram Godse stopped before him and bowed. Gandhi bowed back. Then Godse rushed forward and shot Gandhi three times with a black, semi-automatic pistol. Although Gandhi had survived five other assassination attempts, this time, Gandhi fell to the ground, dead.