Note

The Title of this blog and the relevant URL have been changed on 31st July, 2016 from " 21 Outstanding Qualities of Sachin Tendulkar " to " How to Succeed like Sachin Tendulkar ".

How to Succeed like Sachin Tendulkar

Every human being born on this planet possesses distinct characteristics. These characteristics can either be good or bad. The good ones help him to achieve the desired goals of his life and we generally call them " qualities ". The bad ones pull him backwards and away from what he wants to achieve and generally they are termed as "weaknesses".To what extent will an individual be able to achieve his targets, how fast will he do that and for how long will he continue attaining success in his chosen field -- all these are determined by two things (1) those inborn qualities that he possesses right from the day he is born and (2) those qualities that he carefully,consciously and with a persevering attitude,develops within himself,during the course of his life. It is the "manner" in which he can blend and utilize these qualities, that determines as to what extent will he be successful in his chosen field and for how long will he continue to achieve success in that field. 

I have been studying and examining very closely the reasons as to why amongst two individuals who are mentally,physically and financially almost at par, the achievement of success differs so much.One of them fails totally and the other one succeeds immensely !! Apart from they being at par on different factors sited above and even they being similar in terms of their efforts that they put in, there is this vast difference in end results. Why does this happen ? My analysis has led me to certain conclusions :-- 
(1) Those qualities that an individual develops over a course of time with proper care and deliberate attention prove to be more effective and even have a bigger longivity,compared to those inborn qualities that a human being inherits from his parents and brings alongwith himself when he is born. The reason is obvious. A thing for which you have fought so very hard to develop and create,is much closer to your heart compared to a thing which you got relatively in a much easier manner. And hence naturally, you will always see to it,that it doesnot fail to impress. You will also see to it that it lasts for a time,which is as long as possible. 
(2) The development of good qualities is always accompanied not only with a rise in moral standards but also a definite shift in paradigm from having less faith in God to total faith in Him !! I have never seen a human who starts exceling and succeeding in his life by cultivating good habits and fostering genuinely strong qualities within himself, but still remains an atheist. No doubt,he will start firmly believing in God. The obvious question that arises here -- " Is there a connection between the gradual development of good qualities within an individual and the rise in his belief in God ?" Well,the answer to that is yes.That means,the more the development of good qualities, the greater the chances of success and higher the possibility of your moral standards getting raised automatically.    

What this book does is to focus on such qualities, which help to build up a smooth road leading to success. Now there can be various ways of highlighting such qualities, like simply start enlisting and explaining them,one by one. But I thought to make this much more interesting,by pulling in an iconic sports legend,who,after almost three years of his retirement still appeals immensely to every indian,whether young or old,whether male or female and undoubtedly will keep appealing for a very long period of time,perhaps for decades and centuries to come. Even if the records which he has established during the time of his presence in the game, start tumbling, he will remain unforgettable. This iconic legend,is our beloved genius,one of the best batsmen the game of cricket has ever produced, the one and only, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. 

As said above, Sachin Tendulkar still remains very much close to our hearts even though some time has passed after his retirement. His popularity and his charishma still remain the same,throughout the world. Why? The answer is simple. This is because of the great qualities that he showed, not only on the cricket field, but even outside it. He continues to show such admirable qualities even today after his retirement,when he attends public functions and ceremonies.There can be more than 50 such qualities, if one starts counting, considering every detail about him. My mission is not just to let the reader know about these great qualities of Sachin Tendulkar, but also to go very deep into these qualities and to examine every possible aspect about each of them at length. This analysis (1)covers the benefits of possessing a particular quality, (2)explains the gradual process as to "how to develop that particular quality", if incase one finds its total absence within himself and (3)covers various such similar aspects which the reader will find absolutely helpful in leading himself towards his goal in life. The 21 Qualities which I have described below are like 21 stairs of a long staircase, which leads one to the final destination called "Success". Ofcourse, the presence of Sachin is there, in the depiction of each quality, but as stated above, my prime objective is focused more on covering the different aspects of a given quality rather than anything else. Hence, the content of this entire book should make one feel interested, as it appeals to all those, who are in pursuit of resounding success. Let us start with Sachin's last day on the cricket field. 

Each and every spectator in the Wankhede stadium was wishing some luck, not for the Indian team but for the opposition, that is the West Indies team on November 16, 2013. An Indian cricket fan, known for his huge support to the Indian Cricket team, would never do so otherwise.But this time there were some reasons behind it. If the West Indies, who were batting in their second innings would surpass the lead mounted on them by India, then India would have to bat again and if they were lucky enough, those cheering spectators might again see their beloved "master blaster" Sachin Tendulkar, batting for one more time, before he finally hanged his shoes.But this didnot happen. West Indies were bowled out for a very low score in their second knock too and this meant that India had won the match. More significantly,it also meant that Sachin Tendulkar, the indian batting icon,had finally reached the end of his illustrious career as an international cricketer,after 24 long years. 

Sachin waving the Indian tricolor proudly
 after his final test match at the Wankhede stadium

Delivering an emotional farewell speech, 
which marked the end of an illustrious long career

In his farewell speech given after the match, he said – “ I will never forget my 24 years spent between these 22 yards.” Surely,he won’t and he will never like to forget them.He showed such a grounded attitude, even after touching such heights in his career, that before leaving the ground, he went to the middle for one last time, touched the ground near the pitch,worshipped it in gesture and came back.I have never seen any cricketer before this, whether a legend or ordinary, giving such a respect to the cricket ground, a place where they perform with all their skills.Not only this type of utter modesty, but Sachin has also shown many other qualities of the highest order, during his tenure as an Indian cricketer. Let us examine all those qualities which made him so successful in detail. We shall analyse them and conclude what the younger generation in particular and people from all walks of life in general,should absorb from it. 

As such after his retirement, some books have been written on him so far and many will be written in future. As I have already mentioned above,in order to make this book an interesting piece of literature and different from other books on Sachin, I have focused primarily on the "qualities" which he has got with him,either innate or those which he gradually developed within himself,in his blossoming as a world class batsman. 

( 1 ) Modesty of character :-

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As another Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar pointed out after the match was over on that day, "a lot of cricketers across the globe, tend to develop an "attitude",as soon as they attain some sort of stardom or fame. However, the case of Sachin is very different." Even after scoring more than 34,000 runs and 100 hundreds on the international arena, he remains the same 
down-to-earth,humble human being,as he was on his debut,on 15^th November,1989 !! Absolutely no change,whatsoever ! I was lucky enough to watch his very first innings on television,when he made his debut in that Karachi test match against Pakistan. He was a very polite,calm and collected,young man then. But how many of us,would have ever thought during those days that he would remain the same kind of modest person,with no unnecessary fuss about himself, even after having a grand,spectacular career ? 

The main cause of decline after an initial blast of success is the wrong attitude ( in other words "ego") that creeps in,within the talented player's mind.This can be either regarding his hidden potential,which everyone would be talking at that time, applauding him for what lyes within him or it can be regarding his courage and the skills which he would be already showing on the ground at that time. Due to the constant applause that he receives from all quarters of the circle, he gets "intoxicated" with success and starts taking it for granted !! Success never comes easy, but this young talented sportsman, begins to think that huge amount of success is already in his "grip" and no power under the sun can now prevent him from grabbing it. Yes this type of confidence is good but the excess of it turns out to be really bad. And mostly what happens is that which shouldnot happen. The youngster starts oozing with such unnecessary over-confidence and forgets his basics. He forgets all those fundamental things that had aided him to reach the top.He becomes very arrogant. Then he tries to create those impossible "shortcuts to success". As Sachin said in his farewell speech, “There are no shortcuts to success”, an advice given to him by his late father which he followed, each and every word of it, till he retired.

Now, our star cricketer in the discussion above, keeps on searching for such shortcuts, which actually never exist. During these weird attempts to find shortcuts, he starts believing that he is very smart because he is trying to tread on a path which no one has ever treaded before,in order to achieve success. Instead of working very hard and applying himself to his task in a dedicated manner, he begins to work less hard physically, everytime giving such excuses to his own self, that whatever he has done is enough for the day, which actually "is not". Like that he doesnot know that he is cheating on himself.Although his mentor/ trainer may be shouting on him to work more, to make a much bigger and better effort everyday than what he has been doing in the last few weeks, he wouldn’t just listen to him.He loves to believe that his confidence-level is so high,that he can easily overcome any obstacle, any hurdle, which would come in his way, during the time of his performance on the real stage. And then arrives the real stage, the real place to show your mettle.Suddenly he has to face the music. It can be in the form of a delivery which takes an awkward bounce, a very difficult inswinging yorker,a deadly offcutter, a doosra, a googlie, a sharp Shane-Warne-brand leg break, it can be anything. All of sudden, this champion just doesn’t know what to do !! All his over-confidence disappears in thin air. He gets bowled out. He is outrightly defeated.Yet he doesn’t still give heed to what his trainer is telling him. He gives himself another false excuse like "it was an awkward bounce which was unplayable for anybody". He still believes that nothing is wrong with his current "form", although experts of the game have already started questioning it.

“Next time I am going to do it very correctly and I know that.” – he tries to console himself. But,again he either misses his vital practice sessions completely or practises casually and insufficiently. Even during his practice sessions, where he is supposed to concentrate fully,with total commitment, he keeps on moving his eyes here and there, wishing for some quick fun, either looking for some female around or if no such person is there, then looking for any type of gimmick which can provide fun, to keep himself momentarily joyful.He is not at all sincere towards his training. After a few days again he is tested in a crucial match and again he fails. Now he knows that there is something wrong with his technique and if he doesn’t act immediately then he would be thrown out soon, as there is no dearth of talent around.But he doesn’t know what wrong he is doing. He even starts working hard, following the schedules correctly and sincerely. Again he tastes some success . But again that arrogance creeps in. Its like inevitably clubbed with his success. Again he flops.A chain of such flip-flops of success and failures and he is out of the team, once and for all,on the grounds of inconsistency. The team management and the selectors are now sure that he is not reliable.He cannot perform when needed.

This youngster, who is immensely talented, thinks, "I have been working so hard, giving so much time on the nets. Everything is going as per schedule. Yet,I keep on failing frequently. Why cannot I perform like Sachin or Rahul Dravid ? Afterall, they are also humans and so am I. The answer is “Grounded attitude”-- a firmly grounded attitude. I am very sure, that Sachin would have told himself, after every hundred which he made on the ground would be something similar to this – “ Look, this was just another good knock but I have miles to go and nothing is so big about me so far that I become complacent or lazy.I havenot created any miracle and under no circumstances do I need to change.I am no great.” Such a self-talk for about a minute or two and he would have become the same normal person once again,just like any other layman around, instead of constantly feeling that " air of arrogance",about himself being somebody great.

Even though being rated at par with Sachin, 
Kambli couldnot achieve long-lasting success
 in his career,
 because of his wrong attitude and lack of "humility"

Its easy to talk about how much this sort of “Grounded attitude” can immensely help in achieving repeated success to a person, but – but its very difficult to put it into real practice, initially. However, if you develop a habit of having this Grounded attitude, then it becomes easy later on. Success or failure DONOT affect you after that and you come into a state of “ Balance” as what is written in the Bhagwat Geeta as “ Sthir manodasha”. The world doesn’t affect you anymore, however huge in quantity they may be around you or whatever they may tell you. You know it pretty well, what to do next and what NOT TO DO next. You are neither dragged down to the levels of laziness or complacency, by their flattery, nor uplifted to becoming unnecessarily dreamy about your next achievements, when the media starts shouting that he is just 10 runs short of a new landmark etc etc.

Sachin possesses this kind of tremendous “ balanced and grounded attitude” towards life, which matches only to a holy saint. Ordinary humans donot have it. There is a well-known proverb, " Never feel proud about your achievements if you yourself want to surpass them." Sachin never felt proud about what he had already achieved and hence he kept on surpassing his own previous records on a regular basis ! 

You praise a person around you and within five minutes he starts flying in his own imaginary skies of unnecessary pride.I donot remember, Sachin getting flattered by any amount of laurels of praise, showered upon him,either in India or anywhere else. The younger generation would do itself a lot of good, if it would try and develop within themselves, this "extremely valuable" virtue of the great man.

This leads us to the key question - How to create and then develop this extremely priceless virtue ? Well,here is how.In Bhagawat Geeta,Lord Krishna tells in a couple of verses about " karma "( deeds ) and its fruits ( apart from that famous shloka about not caring for the fruits and just focusing on what one needs to do at a particular moment, there is one more shloka which gives a very important message of detachment ). 

In the 47th verse of the second chapter of Bhagwat Geeta, Krishna says " कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ " 

The meaning of this verse is " You have the right to work only but never to its fruits.Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction. " If one tries to follow the message given in the above verse, in letter and spirit, then he can gradually, over a period of time,develop such a mindset, which can prove to be a fertile ground for creating dreams which can lead towards so many successful events in one's life. Apart from the above verse,Lord Krishna says in yet another verse ( herein referred to as verse2 )whose meaning is -- " Consider every good work done by you, as done by the God and not by your physical self ( body )." Now this one is a very very powerful verse,which starts making the doer ( the one who has achieved something ) feel very light and easy, even after his big achievement, instead of the usual heaviness which automatically creeps in after success, because of that feeling of having achieved something big. 

The effect of making a constant and conscious effort of "following" the above two verses in real life, is miraculous. The verse " karmani ev adhikaraste .... " will make the follower, aware of the fact that whilst doing something, he doesnot have to focus on the fruit but just on how to accomplish that job in the best possible manner, he can. His duty is just that. By following this verse, that person will not think about what will come after he has achieved the said goal. He will be able to focus his mental and physical energies entirely on the present, on the deed ( karma ), which he is doing "rightnow". Obviously, success will follow. 

However, verse2, is a very powerful one,which if followed honestly, leads towards repeated events of success, in one's life. After accomplishing a deed which is considered as a successful act, immediately one should tell himself, that whatever he achieved was done by the Almighty. The thought process should be -- "He ( God ) was instumental behind what happened and not myself. I was just there. Without His divine grace, this wouldnot have been possible. I thank Him so much." Such a thought process,would immediately subtract that person out from that successful event that just occured.This would make him feel very light and easy, on the spot !! And he would be ready for further such similar deeds ( acts ),which may lead to further success. Slowly he will develop a glorious habit of achieving success and digesting it too. This is how he can become a prodigy, a legend, in his field of choice. 

Let us consider how this works. Take for example,Virat Kohli  He hit 4 centuries in 4 test matches versus Australia in 2015,when Team India toured Australia. I donot know if he reads and follows the Bhagwat Geeta.But surely his mindset was such,as if he was reading it regularly. He could produce such similar and valuable innings,one after the other.Why? Clearly,he never considered anything having been done by Virat.He just knew that is job is to bat,in such a manner everytime he came to the crease,as which could be called " excellent " or " classic ". There was no second thought in his mind like what would happen if he was able to play in a very good manner, etcetra etcetra. And there was this "selflessness" too, which gave out the message from his body language,that he doesn't consider himself as someone "legendary" who just achieved such big milestones.The result is in the history books of cricket. He achieved what nobody before him was able to before him,while playing for Team India - 4 tons in 4 test matches against the number one test playing side of the world,Australia !! Everyone was mesmerized by his miraculous batting display. 

Let us also see what happens in the absence of "grounded attitude". Take for example a student, studying in class 10th. In his first terminal exam, lets assume he achieved say 85% marks.He is very happy.And he exaggerates his celebration - throws a party to his mates and keeps enjoying his success for a month!! Suddenly he starts thinking that success is very easy for him ( what one calls "बाएं हाथका खेल", in hindi) and he can achieve success now forever and with ease, because he has proved now that he is very intelligent and clever.Then after sometime, he starts believing that even if he doesnot read and work hard,"that much" as what he did before his first terminal,he will score heavily, because he has proved that he is clever !! So he spends most of time now,gossiping with his friends and sending messages on facebook and whatsapp. Time flies and all of a sudden his second terminal exam arrives.Now the pressure begins to mount on him,that of repeating the same level of success, which he was able to achieve in the first terminal.But the guy has changed in the last few months. Not by his looks but by his mindset. Virtues like hardwork,patience and sincerity have given way to negative qualities like indulgence,laziness,arrogance and remaining in a world of make-believe.The guy gives his second terminal exams and his performance shows a heavy decline. One may contribute his failure this time to the fact that he wasnot able to carry out the basics.Yes,ofcourse. That was one of the factors. But the fundamental and very strong reason was that he lost that "grounded attitude",that modesty,in his thoughts. He couldnot digest the success he got in his first terminal. Had he done that,he wouldnot have lost his qualities like hardwork and sincerity.Such disasters occur very frequently with almost all of us. And we keep on groping around for the right reason, which led to our debacle. However,if he dig deep in what we were doing over the past few months,it is not difficult to find out the main reason and then to rectify whatever is needed. 

Amitabh Bachchan,Novak Djokovich,Roger Federer,Steve Waugh,Jacques Kallis,Akshay Kumar - the list is quite big if one wants to find out those people,who have been able to achieve repeated success in their respective fields. One thing is common amongst all of the above great people - Modesty in thought and action. Success comes and goes in their lives but they are not at all affected by it. I have noticed one thing about the legendary actor,superstar Amitabh Bachchan, on so many occassions. When someone flatters him with comments like " Bachchan saab, I have seen so many of your superhit movies. You are a great hero, a great man,Sir ! ", he would immediately and courteously reply with a smiling face -- " No,no.... I am nothing... it is all,due to the grace of the Almighty and the blessings of the elders." What a reply and what a mindset !! Unbelievable !! He just manages to digest any amount of success within seconds ! This tact, this art has become as natural to the megastar, as breathing. No wonders,why he gave so many superhit movies in the past and still at this age of 74,keeps on giving such huge hits !!! 

(2) Highest level of Discipline :- 

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Just like humility/modesty of character shown by him,Sachin has always had this utter sense of discipline about his game and himself. Now what does Discipline mean? A sense of responsibility of action and words,adherence to time schedules and sincerity towards work.

A leader leads by example. So has Sachin done. In those 24 years of his career, there has never been a single instance where he might have spoken something harsh about anyone, even for his sharpest rivals. He has kept that highest level of decency in public life. Even on the cricket ground no one has ever seen him sledging someone.

I remember during a match against Pakistan in the late nineties, Shoaib Akhtar targeted him not only with his nasty bouncers but also with his sledging.He would come very close to Sachin after each and every delivery he bowled and uttered some words to him, which when viewed from the TV screen looked to be very harsh ... can be typical ugly abuses or even some racial slur as well. Yet, Sachin never retorted back with words. He would just stride a few yards towards the short-leg region and then come back,being ready to face the next delivery. Often he would reply with a boundary on the very next ball, but would never utter a harsh,derogatory or vulgar word of the same low category.

I also remember the incidence when Shoaib ran him out in an ODI at one of the venues in India,by colliding with him, virtually trying to stop him from coming to the non-striking end,not by the former's speed of gathering and throwing the ball but by the unjustified act of collision with Sachin,blocking his way and thus stopping him wrongly. It seemed almost like a deliberate illegal misdeed from Shoaib bringing him success, when Sachin was declared run out at that time.I am calling it an "illegal misdeed" because a bowler is never supposed to force the batsman to stop before gaining the non-striker end by blocking his way, which Shoaib did.

The crowd knew this and it erupted, booing away Shoaib Akhtar.Yet Sachin was as calm as ever.Everyone thought for a while that Sachin would take advantage of this situation,which was favoring him as the entire crowd was with him and force the umpire to change the decision by declaring him "notout".Instead, he came out to appeal to the crowd that the decision of his being run out was "already taken" and nothing can be changed now as the umpire has the final authority on the game, and they should also obey the decision so that the game moves on from there.Had there been some other batsman over there in Sachin’s place, he would have, not only argued and resisted against umpire’s false decision but also initiated legal action against Shoaib Akhtar, who had pushed him by one hand so that he doesnot gain enough ground to reach the opposite non-striking end.

Shoaib Akhtar trying to disturb the concentration
 of the little master during one of his test innings

The same level of discipline and mental calmness was shown by him on so many occassions. After he had failed 4 times consecutively during the home series against England on his home ground Wankhede, he was booed by his own crown in 2006, when he was out for a cheap score. I remember that the booing was so huge, that it could have disturbed anybody. Yet, there was not a single sign of disturbance on the face of Sachin. He knew that the failure phase he was going through was temporary and success would soon return in his life. 

Whether it be the bouncy pitches of Perth (Australia ) and Durban ( South Africa ) or the pitches where it would swing a lot like Manchester in England, he never lost his calmness of mind. Over the years,I have seen so many fast bowlers , like McGrath,Gillespie,McDermott,Merv Hughes, Alan Donald,Waqar Younus, Shoaib Akhtar coming very close to him after bowling a delivery in which he would have been beaten,murmering some ugly words,quite close enough to his ears.Yet Sachin was always unperturbed and unmoved like a mountain standing amidst heavy breeze,totally unaffected by the velocity of the breeze. 

His strict adherence to "time schedules" has also been a part of his daily life.He has never been late to any of the game venues, whether it be an important game like a Test Match or a comparatively less important game like a local Ranji Trophy match, he has always abided by time.

His sincerity towards the game can be known from the fact that before every match, he would practice for hours, more so when it was an important game, even when he had reached the twilight of his career after 2011.Some juniors might tell him that "he is considered as the Master Blaster and is the highest run-aggregator of all times already" and asked him "why he is practising so hard still". He would just ignore such questions with a smile and keep practising.One cannot find parallels to Sachin and Dravid when it comes to their "sincerity" towards cricket.

A disciplined life ascertains health, wealth and happiness.There should be discipline in all our activities, that we do throughout the day,as far as possible, like timings of eating food,sleeping,waking up,working etc and the extent to which we engage in these daily chores. Creating and maintaining a very high level of discipline,in one's professional and personal life is difficult but not impossible. Through constant practice,one can lead an ideal "disciplined" life. Practising Yoga and Pranayam ( the act of inhaling and exhaling ) on a regular basis,helps a lot in relaxing the mind,activating the body and in the process achieving reasonably sound levels of discipline.

Discipline helps us to exercise control on the activities that we do,during the time we are in a conscious state ( i.e. not sleeping ).But then the question arises -- how to achieve that control on almost all the activities that we do, especially when two activities are exactly opposite to each other and we are being asked to do them,one after the other ? For example, suppose a Maths teacher is being asked to manage a large group of students during a Physical training class,under the event of that PT teacher being absent on that particular day, immediately after he has finished teaching Maths to class 12 students and he seems to be mentally drained off. Obviously it is going to be very difficult for him unless he has developed very good self-discipline. 

The answer is simple. Discipline and control can be created by relaxing the mind. A confused and chaotic mind cannot control anything.Whereas a cool, relaxed mind can not only control things around itself but also spreads positivity around that person. And positivity is contagious. Others also start being relaxed mentally and hence disciplined,if one person can relax his mind !! But,in this fast modern world,how to relax the mind quickly? You may try this -- Whenever you want to relax,seperate yourself from the crowd for about 3 minutes.Place one of your hands on a wall, and then close your eyes and place your head on that hand, which will act like a pillow now.Start breathing deep and slow. Thoughts will keep flowing in your mind but donot pay attention to them. Just focus on deep breathing. Once you feel that you are doing this for 3 minutes, open your eyes, rub your face with your two palms,put both your hands ( 4 fingers and 1 thumb per hand ) into your hair and just swirl them twice. You will feel quite mentally relaxed now. If you are in public and donot have any wall around you can do the process without keeping your head on your one hand.For this do the entire process of breathing deep for 3 minutes or so,just by closing your eyes and standing still or sitting down on a chair or even on the ground. The technique involved here is to cut yourself off from the rest of the world, for a few minutes. This not only soothens down the brain cells but also gives them "new energy" vital for proper functioning later on.    

The second step of creating a disciplined mindset, capable of controlling the surroundings, is " make everything simple ".I mean, make all your activities simple. Donot complicate matters by creating " lists " in your minds of what you need to do after a certain thing has been done.More often that not,it has been seen that more you create such lists,the more are the chances of yourself getting into a dishevelled state of affairs. Discipline and control disappear, the very moment confusion is born in our mind, as during that moment of confusion, the brain doesnot know what to do next and hence loses control fast. Long lists create confusion rather than helping an individual. The world is full of uncertainties. We never know what is going to happen next second. Lists are mostly based on "assumptions". "Assuming that a certain thing is done,I shall go ahead to do this after that activity is finished." What a stupid way of thinking is that !! What if that activity which we assume would be completed within a pre-decided period of time, didnot get completed within that timeframe? Now,the guy will hesitate to perform the next activity ( activity2 ), even if its very simple,only because deep in his mind, he had "assumed" that he will forge ahead to do activity2 "only after" he has finished the first activity.But now since the first activity remained unfinished,he is in a state of confusion, whether to perform activity2 or not, even if it is ridiculously simple !! Thus "lists" are the mother of confusions and avoid them. 

Donot exaggerate or overdo things. Suppose you like walking once a week, then walk but within your physical limits. Donot keep walking till you get completely drained off to the extent that you arenot able to perform daily chore activities on the next day. 

Donot think more than necessary about doing anything. Some people tend to think too much even before doing simple tasks like watering the plants or mowing their lawns !! A friend of mine, who had a big garden in his farm-house surprised everyone,when one day,after his dad asked him to water the plants and mow the garden, came out from his room after 40 minutes and said, " all this while, I was thinking, which plants should I water first and from which end of the lawn should I start mowing !!!" When another friend of mine,asked him "What difference does it make, if you start mowing from either side of the lawn or start watering any xyz plant first ? His answer was - " Well, it does make a difference,because, the lawn is inclined from south to north and hence it would be easier from me, if I started mowing with the downward slope.Same way some plants donot need much water,so I had to think which ones need water first and which ones needed more of it !!" Yes, agreed, but does it take 40 minutes for one, to figure out both these things ? No. By thinking more and thus taking more time on it,he lost control over what he is going to do next,by losing the natural flow of things to be done. There is a certain limit to think about what to do next and how much to do it. If you cross that limit, you may be doing that thing, but you lose that natural control over it. And yes, you also lose the charm, the fun of doing it. So,never over-think. 

Some people may argue, that by thinking more, he comes closer to perfection, since once he has thought it out fully,in advance,he needs to think less during its actual execution. That person is wrong in his argument. Why? Well,ok that since he has thought it out fully in advance, he needs to think less during execution. But what if things change? What if,that step1, which he thought would be there, was not there at all and he is asked to start from step2 or even step3 ? This will create chaos in his mind and thus he will lose control over things. The entire discipline of his work system will be destroyed. Instead, it is advisable and much less riskier to think little and start working, take things as they come, rather than think too much in advance and assume them of they being done in a particular manner, before they are done in that manner.

To summarize, if you want to create discipline in your professional and personal life, 1) keep your mind relaxed and peaceful 2) simplify your tasks.  

( 3 )  Patience :-
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When he was sixteen and showing tremendous form on the domestic circuits, the Indian team was scheduled to tour the West Indies in 1989.At the last moment his name was not included in the list of probables. He was very dejected but kept his patience till he was finally selected in November 1989 for the tour of Pakistan. This was just the beginning of a series of incidences,when the batting prodigy gave a proof of possessing this very important virtue, a great quality called "patience",,which later in his career,he exhibited on several occassions and events.

Sachin plays a square drive
 during his immensely patient innings
 of 241 notout at Sydney vs Australia

During his great knock of 241 notout at Sydney against Australia in 2003-04 series, he played very slow in the beginning. Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Nathan Bracken were steaming through at that time.Especially Lee was looking very dangerous.Although when he came in to bat, India were in a relatively comfortable position at 128 for two,( when Akash Chopra was dismissed ).India did not wish to lose yet another test match after losing 2 out of the first 3 test matches. For that to happen, the batsmen needed to score big centuries, which both the openers Sehwag and Chopra didn’t. Prior to this innings, he had failed in all the three test matches of that tour. Critics were calling for his retirement from the game now.

In came Sachin to bat. He was welcomed to the crease by an array of short pitch deliveries passing from very near to his nose and eyes ( described vividly as “Chin Music” by many ex- cricketers !! ) bowled by Gillespie and Lee.He remained unruffled. At the other end was Rahul Dravid, who was looking as solid as ever. Sachin started scoring at a very slow rate.It looked as if he was the Shadow of the original Sachin we all knew over the years.Unfortunately India lost Dravid when he was on 38 and the score on 194 for 3.In came Laxman, who was in the form of his life. Sachin and Laxman started building a partnership. At 250 for 3, it looked as if they were hungry for huge amount of runs still. In the absence of Shane Warne, Australia’s master spinner, their attack looked meek, for the very first time in the series.Stuart McGill however was trying all his tricks.He bowled his usual spin, googlies and the flippers – but to no avail.Sachin and Laxman amassed a partnership of 353 runs and when Laxman became out in the bowling of Gillespie, the scorecard read 547 for 4.Laxman had scored a brilliant 178. After loosing Ganguly cheaply, Tendulkar and Parthiv patel now cut loose. All Indian fans were delighted to see the same Sachin which they had seen during his prime time.If the bowl pitched short he would either pull it over midwicket or if it was near the off stump,he would play his classic square cut over thirdman. If it was full-pitched then he would swiftly move his feet and play a glorious cover drive on his front foot or if it was on leg and middle then an on-drive through mid-on or long-on. Fast bowlers and spinners alike didn’t have any answer for the master blaster now.It was as if he had got an open ground and there was no rivalry left.India declared the innings finally at 705 for 7, with Sachin remaining notout on 241 ! He had remained on the crease for 613 minutes and faced 383 balls.He had struck 33 boundaries in this classic innings, which he played. Such was his patience during the entire knock that although he was beaten several times in the beginning by Lee, Gillespie and McGill, he didn’t bother about it. He kept on playing and playing.The runs started coming later on and eventually he heralded his return to prime form once again. Apart from some innings of Rahul Dravid and Sunny Gavaskar, I have never seen such an innings of thorough "patience" in my life.

The meaning of the word "patience" originally seems to have come from the word "patient". Just like what any patient has to "wait" for a given period of time, for his wounds to heal or for his disease to get cured,in the same manner the individual who bears "patience" has to play a quite waiting game.

So then how to develop this great virtue ? Well for this the one who wants to do that,primarily needs to control all his emotions, good and bad, and just wait for the right time to arrive, when he can deliver the goods. For this a cool, subdued mind is very very necessary. Such a state of mind helps the individual to feel relaxed and to tranquilize any excitement whatsoever, so that he can face the current difficult situation appropriately, hoping for the things to smoothen up as soon as possible. This waiting game may last quite long, even longer than what he would have expected. He might feel perplexed and bewildered if it continues longer, but then everytime when he feels so, he has to do the self-talk and keep telling himself, " Don't worry, Donot panic.Keep your cool.Forget about what is happening around you. Just keep working, keep functioning in the best possible manner." For saying so to himself he needs to be utterly dogged, totally determined. But once he keeps saying so and doing the right things, the situation definitely ease up and become favourable to him !! Then he can change his gear of functioning and let the steam out, the one which he had cautiously gathered within himself, so that it can rush out and explode when "his time" arrives. Personally, I simply love this virtue. It is the one, which holds unbelievably large potential within its womb. Oh yes, "womb", the word which suddenly came to my mind rightnow and I wrote it down. 

A mother knows that it is going to be tougher and tougher for her,as the baby breathing inside her womb,grows bigger and bigger. And when it is about to come out,the labour pain experience by each and every mom is excruciating. Yet,she knows that inspite of all this pain,the result is going to be very beautiful, in the form of her lovely new-born baby. So she bears all the pain calmly. Patience is the virtue, which is directly connected with a mother. Not just one mother, but all the mothers in this world. And I bow down and salute both of them -- the mother and this miraculous great word called "patience". 

Here I am inclined to remember one inning of Steve Waugh, the former Australian skipper and undoubted legend. It was the crucial decider, in the 1999 World cup in England. After losing against Pakistan and NewZealand, it was sure that if Aussies lost any more match, they would be out of the worldcup. The game was against tough opponents South Africa. Although they earned an unwanted label of "chokers" later on,owing to their constant failures in important matches, at that time they were considered as "rising stars" on the horizon of this game. Batting first they put a decent-looking score of 271, in their alloted quota of 50 overs. However, when the aussies came to bat,they lost openers Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh cheaply. Later,Damien Martyn also got out trying to loft one over mid-on with a low score.When Steve Waugh walked in the score was 48 for 3 and the target of 272 looked like a huge mountain to climb. South African skipper Hansie Cronje gave the ball to Alan Donald, who tried to trouble Waugh with his variety of deliveries, like a short-pitch delivery passing close the nose of Waugh, a yorker, etc. Waugh just focussed on saving his wicket, even if it meant that the asking rate would climb up. After facing the severe pace attack of Donald and medium pacer, Lance Klusener things started cooling down. But this was not before he had a "very severely testing and relentless" period of about twentyfive minutes,after he arrived at the crease. Had it been any other cricketer from any other team, he would have either got out or found it very difficult to face this sudden burst of fast bowling by Donald and highly accurate bowling from rest of the Proteas. But Waugh showed no signs of panic at all. He played as if he had put a piece of ice above his head, I mean, with that calmness and tranquility of mind. He didnot bother at all about the South African fielders and bowlers shouting appeals after almost every ball that he was facing. He didnot worry about the booing of the english crowds,who wished that the Kangaroos should lose the game,as they usually do for their traditional rivals. He just focused on the incoming delivery and then the next one. His job, he knew, was to play each and every delivery in such a manner, that he doesnot get "out". The manner in which he negotiated through those 25 odd minutes, showed his mental fortitude and the real strong Steve Waugh, which breathed inside his body. And when the things eased up, he took full advantage of it and also asked his batting partner the great Ricky Ponting to follow suit.Both started hammering the ball on both sides of the pitch and suddenly the tide turned in Australia's favour. When the Aussies reached 150 he was just on 56. But then he started blasting each and every bowler and scored a valiant hundred, remaining notout on 120, enabling Australia to win the game !! It was an incredible knock, by all parameters. Especially, it was an ideal display of the quality in discussion " patience ". This innings of 120 notout from Steve Waugh, showed to the world, that through "patience" anybody can achieve "anything". 

Rahul Dravid has shown this virtue so many times, in his Test career. I still remember that during his so many innings, he "saved" the Indian team from trouble, by playing a long, watchful and patient innings. Bowlers would try and try to take Dravid's wicket and would fail. Finally they would decide to give up and focus on making the other batsmen out. This is when Dravid would attack their bowling and score maximum runs. What a strategy !! And it always paid well !!! 

Those remarkably "patient" cricketers of the yester years include Dravid,Gavaskar,V.V.S Laxman,Geoffrey Boycott,Anil Kumble,Mohindar Amarnath,Shane Warne,Shaun Pollock,Murlidharan, Sangakkara, Jayawardena, Jacques Kallis and Alan Border. Bowlers like Anil Kumble, Shaun Pollock, Shane Warne and Murlidharan also are included because they bowled with the same precise line and length for long spells without getting bored or impatient. Modern day cricketers, who have shown this virtue include Virat Kohli, Steve Smith,Ken Williamson, Joe Root, Harbhajan Singh, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. 

Let me again reiterate one thing here. "Patience" is the one of the most desirable ingredients, in the recipe of " huge success ". 

     
( 4 ) Perseverance ( Hardwork ) :-

======================== 

The level of perseverance, which Sachin had put in his game and also in his personal life during his playing years,was unprecedented. He was introduced to Ramakant Achrekar, his coach in 1984, when he was just 11. Ramakant was a club level player and played very good at that time,even while coaching young boys of the age of under-14.Once he spotted the talent which Sachin had, he asked him to come to practice sessions during mornings and evenings for 1 and half hour both times. Instead, after some time, Tendulkar was seen practising at the nets for more than 6 hours a day right from that early age.

The period between 1995 to 1999 is considered to be the peak of his career, when he amassed huge amount of runs in India and!abroad, in both formats – test matches and ODIs.Its believed Tendulkar would reach the ground earliest on many occassions even before the rest of his team had arrived and start practising, without losing any time, asking local boys to bowl at him in the nets. Even after he had broken all the world records of highest number of centuries and runs, he remained restless when it came to hardwork.He kept on practising newer strokes alongwith his usual lofted shots over midwicket, cover boundary and glance over third-man boundary with all his dedication and hardwork till the day he retired. “ Perseverance always pays huge dividends” and in case of Tendulkar too, it did pay. 

Sachin working hard at the nets, 
even after he had broken so many "batting records"...!!

( above and below )

There is a well-known proverb in gujarati language -- "The one who bathes in his own perspiration, marries success / achievement." This proverb says a lot about the undeniable significance of perseverance, i.e. hardwork in our lives. Wherever there is hardwork, there is success. Luck also plays a part but even the unlucky become lucky and successful, with the help of constant and consistent hardwork.

Thomas Alva Edison conducted roughly about 10,000 experiments to produce an electrical bulb. Such was his devotion and hardwork that during the entire process of making the bulb, several hundred people told him to quit his effort. Some even criticized him and defamed him publicly as "insane". Did he not have nightmares of total failures after so much of work? Yes, he did. But he ruthlessly surged ahead in his work, day and night,for years together.He didnot bother about who was saying what. He didnot care even if someone mentioned him as an eccentric or as an insane freak. He just had one thing in his mind -- how can I bring the same light which illuminated the skies after the phenomenon of lightning, into my drawing room? He followed this goal in a single-minded,incessant manner and ultimately he succeeded.There cannot be any better example of hardwork other than this one.

So how does a common man acquire this quality? Advanced research have shown that while some are "born" hardworkers, some have to struggle hard to become a hardworker !! Even if a person is born as some lazy guy, it isnot impossible for him to become a severe hardworker with the passage of time. How ? The answer is simple. He just needs to continue working hard daily. In the process he might be facing severe attacks of laziness or reluctance but he has to overcome them regularly. But then how does he create this habit of working hard regularly ? Well, that is an uphill task in the beginning. He has to train his brain initially on a regular basis. Especially when it tires after some work and then asks for a long break or takes out an excuse of " not doing any further work". At that time he just needs to "order" the brain that "there will be a break but a short one" and secondly any lame excuses like "I shall finish the rest of my work tomorrow" or " Let me first watch the football match on TV then I shall work " etc. willnot be entertained. When he starts commanding the brain with such strict orders, he will face a situation in which he will be working more in terms of quantity and even working harder but mentally his brain will keep on asking for rest and taking out newer,funny but worthless excuses of not working. He just needs to ignore them all. This, he can do with his strong "will-power", which can ascertain not only discipline but also the longer durations of hardwork. After initial hiccups, the situation becomes easier gradually. The guy gets habituated of working hard. This he has to keep continuing, for atleast 3 weeks. It has been proven scientifically that any job or act,which is done continuously for 21 days develops into a habit. After these 21 days,a lazy guy would find himself converted into "a hardworking" individual. There maybe exceptions that the above model of developing a habit of working hard, doesnot work with some individuals. But,I would advise anyone to follow it,as it works, more often than not. For those, who donot develop the habit of working hard,inspite of repeating the above process for 21 days,they may extend it to 28 or 35 or 42 days as per the circumstances. One thing is sure -- if you repeat the above process, it is bound to give results,sooner or later. Is there any other way to develop the habit of working hard,apart from the one suggested above? I don't think there is one.  

Among the retired international cricketers, whom I consider as "a hardworker" include  Brian Lara,Steve Waugh,Sunil Gavaskar, Kapildev,Sir Richard Headley, Rahul Dravid, Imran Khan,Anil Kumble and Mohinder Amarnath. Among the recent ones, I consider Steve Smith,Virat Kohli,Joe Root,Ken Wiilliamson, Stuart Broad, Harbhajan Singh,Ashish Nehra and Mohammad Amir as real hardworkers. You must have noticed that the lists above are surprisingly similar to the ones that I gave for those senior and modern-day cricketers, who have demonstrated a huge amount of "patience" on cricket fields !! Can you guess why? Well, here is why. Hardwork and Patience are two qualities inter-connected to each other. Wherever you find one,you will find the other too. They are like two fast friends in their adolescent age. Or like Carbon Dioxide and Water, in the preparation of food by plant leaves. Without the presence of any one of them, the leaf cannot prepare food, even if there is sufficient sunlight. Similarly, patience and hardwork complement each other. If we go into the psche aspect, we can understand it more clearly. 

Suppose there is a student, who is patient enough to "wait" for his success.So what will he do? He will work, and yes he will work hard to assure that he gets good marks. Thus anybody who is ready to wait for his success ( and thus be patient ) is always ready to work really hard ! Very rarely will one find cases when this doesnot happen. Similarly, viceversa for hardwork too. A student working very hard, is always ready to wait for the results or even for the arrival of exams, when he can show his talent, his true mettle. Because if he is ready to work hard but not ready to wait,then he knows that he willnot succeed. This is how patience and hardwork are so closely interwoven with each other. 

" Hardwork and Patience can guarantee success like no other quality can." - goes another proverb. Well, this also is an absolutely undeniable truth. There are no shortcuts to succeed in life,whatever the field you choose and for that you "have to" play the waiting game ( and thus show patience ) !! Those who possess both these qualities must consider themselves as "gifted" by the Almighty because, although they are not rare, they arenot found everywhere ! 

An ordinary person born without the above qualities will die " a great legend " if, during the course of his life, he makes a conscious effort to acquire and develop both of them. It is without the slightest piece of doubt, that these two qualities convert a rough unattractive stone ( an under-achiever ) into a shining diamond ( a hugely successful human ). 

( 5 ) "Street- smart" attitude ( Smartness ) :--

================================  
As discussed above, three qualities viz. Modesty of character, Perseverance( Hardwork ) and Patience are extremely necessary for achieving long-lasting success. Without these three, success can be achieved but it will not last for long. 

However, there is one quality, which almost contradicts the very first quality which I have described above i.e. Modesty of character. This quality brings with itself glamour and charm. This quality is "smartness". There are some individuals on this planet,who tend to rely too much on it. They do get some success for a short span. But then this quality doesnot have the potential or the internal strength to bring  "long-lasting success" entirely on its own. I mean, if an individual relies too much on it,then he willnot be able to continue with the successful phase, which he maybe enjoying for sometime. Yet,it is provides flambuoyance and flair to one's personality. And as we all know, this world judges a person, more by his external looks and traits rather than his internal strength and hidden potential. So,although it is comparatively a much weaker quality compared to modesty,perseverance and patience it cannot be ignored in this fast-paced modern world. 

Some individuals love "short-cuts". Right from student age till they grow up and even until they become old,they keep on searching for short-cuts everywhere. Yes, they are definitely possessing this quality "smartness". Their modus operandi is simple --find a short-cut to finish your job. Donot complicate things at all. Good to have such a mindset to a certain extent. But the problem arises, when they over-simplify things, when they just cancel out the significance of hardwork,modesty and patience. Such people do get small or even huge success but as said before it doesnot last long. They become clueless when their short-term success slips away from their hands,even if they desperately donot let that to happen. 

What I mean to say here is this -- Ofcourse, be smart in your work. Be flambuoyant and do make some pomp and show too,wherever you feel necessary. But never forget those top three qualities. If you are able to mix up smartness with modesty,patience and hardwork you are a long-term winner, like what Indian tennis legend Leander Paes has become. The more you are able to mix up smartness with these top 3 qualities, the better are the chances for you to enjoy success over a long period of time. Suppose, you are able to develop within yourself smartness alongwith modesty,but hardwork and patience are less developed, you will be a smart guy, who can be good and down-to-earth whenever needed, but you will be groping for repeated success. Same goes for any other mixtures of smartness with only one of the top three. They cannot result in repeated phases of success until smartness is blended with the presence of all top three. 

In the cricket world, a recent example of success generated out of smartness alone ( not backed up by modesty and hardwork ) is that of Ajanta Mendis, the leg-break bowler from SriLanka. When the legendary leggie Murlidharan retired from international cricket, after reaching a record number of 800 scalps ( wickets ) in test cricket,everyone thought that Mendis was another Murli in-the-making. For sometime,he mesmerized the spectators and confused the batsmen facing him with his subtle variations which mainly included his "carrom-ball"delivery. He threw this delivery with just one finger on the ball and the thumb. It was a difficult delivery to play for the batsmen, as it came straight onto the legs with a fast pace and surprised him. Initially, with the help of this delivery and some other deliveries like the slower one, the doosra, the faster one etc. he was able to fool the batsmen with his smart bowling. But then he started relying more and more on his carrom ball and the batsmen all over the world have access to technological advancements like watching the slow-motion videos, immediately after getting out. Once they had studied this carrom call, they invented the exact way to play it and even hit it. Slowly, this important weapon of Mendis got neutralized and he started becoming less and less effective because he was relying too much on the carrom ball. Consequently, he disappeared from international cricket altogether. The career of a bright young leg-break bowler suddenly crash-landed immediately after a wonderful take-off. The reason was simple -- he relied too much on smart-work. Had he mixed patience and hardwork too ( which would have been visible if he had kept on bowling the variety of balls which he did earlier in his career but stopped bowling later on )alongwith his smart carrom-ball deliveries, he would have continued to reap the rewards, in terms of repeated phases of success. 

People like Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Anil Kumble are real great examples of an ideal combination of "smartness" blended with modesty,hardwork and patience. Anil Kumble,who holds the record of highest number of wickets by an Indian bowler at 619,became so successful because of his smart variation amongst the six deliveries of his every over. He rattled the batsmen by continuous mind-boggling variations delivery after delivery. No two consecutive deliveries of Kumble used to be same. Either he varied the length or its line and then bowled it either as a googlie or a flipper or a yorker or the one that turned heavily or the one that turned less but bounced a lot. He would often surprise the batsmen with the one that bounced a lot but turned less after bowling the one that turned a lot. Or he would first ball a leg-break delivery that turned and then follow it up with a flipper, that came straight with a rapid pace.In either ways,he successfully fooled the batsmen with his inborne smartness and got him out. Another legend Shane Warne,almost did the same things as Kumble did,but with a better accuracy. No wonders, why both of them are considered "legends of the game" now.

Ricky Ponting,who amassed 13,378 runs in Test cricket was another "smartie". Experts opine that Ricky was able to read the mind of the bowler,even before he bowled a new delivery.As the bowler went up to his bowling run-up,Ricky would cleverly try and anticipate what the next delivery would be. This was evident from his pre-conceived movement inside the popping crease,when the delivery actually came up. For example, a bowler started his new over with a yorker. Once he dug it out successfully,it was amazing to see how well-prepared and well-positioned he was to play the next delivery,which could either be a short-in-length delivery on and around the off-stump or any other type of delivery.Being so well-positioned, he would then easily send it outside the boundary ropes. 

Let me try to define "smartness" here, as I feel it would be quite interesting for the readers. The quality which brings flambuoyance and external flair to one's personality and exhibits one's bright and swift intellectual capacities as well as innovative tendencies, is termed as "smartness".Or in other words, the quality, which makes a person more dependant on a modus operandi,which involves more and more short-cuts and less involvement of systematic hardwork and patience is called as "smartness". I have deliberately defined them in two different ways here, first in a positive and the second one in a negative manner.I had to engage more "smartness" in one of them compared to the other.I leave it upto you to decide,which one is that !! 

As seen above,"smartness" is an excellent quality,having a lot of intrinsic value too. But,I have often found so many people misinterpreting the meaning of smartness. An overdose of smartness ( or over-smartness,if you would prefer to call it that way ),unknowingly leads one to the darkness of an evil called "cheating". "There is a very thin line which demarcates smartness and cheating "-- goes some well-known proverb.Often people cross this thin line and start methods which fall into the category of "cheating",assuming that it is an extended form of their smartness.

All holy scriptures like the Bhagwat Geeta, the Bible, the Quran have identified "cheating" as a sin. I consider it a sin no lesser than a case of hitting somebody heavily without an adequate reason or an extreme case of lying. However, the funny part is that although most of the people know within themselves (in their sub-conscious minds) while cheating somebody,that what they are doing at that moment isnot morally correct,yet that scintillating feeling and the amusement caused due to the very thought that "they are acting super-smart rightnow,conquering the moment" is so intense for them that it makes them go ahead and finish the act !! And if nobody is there to advice or guide them on what they just did,it develops into a gruesome ugly habit. Later on,this may lead them to a vicious cycle of cheating and wrongly benefitting,again cheating and then wrongly benefitting again.This vicious cycle is very dangerous for anybody. 

The reasons why even those people with very good moral family backgrounds commit this crime of cheating or deceiving are many. But the main reason is this component of excitement and amusement. There is a game called "Dhaap" ( Double-cross ) in the set of 52 playing cards. Mostly adolescents play it and sometimes even adults also do. The rules of the game are very simple. The one who can fool others to the maximum possible extent and concentrate a lot,wins.When I was around 17,I enjoyed a lot playing this fabulous game. I was almost invincible unless somebody smarter than me arrived. I still remember that thrill,that fun, that scintillation, this particular game gave me.I felt "on top of the world" when I was playing it ! Similarly,the act of cheating gives that tinkling feeling of sensational excitement and amusement when you successfully cheat somebody. And it makes you feel "right on top of this whole world" ! Hence,so many succumb to it. Secondly, it satisfies one's ego and rebuilds the depleting self-confidence. In today's modern world, it becomes difficult to carry a confident posture or a robust body language everywhere you go, because of the cut-throat competition in each and every field. Under such pressure-cooker situations, one's self-confidence gets bruised constantly and frequently. An act of cheating like discussed above,can boost up that diminishing self-confidence. 

Last but not the least is the element of glamour involved in the act of cheating or double-crossing. Not only it gives fun but it attracts the opposite sex too !! You must have watched movie character James Bond,wooing a totally strange female quite successfully,with his out-of-the-box tactics of fooling even a confident-looking guy,at the gambling table.The strange female just cannot with-hold herself from that charm and glamour caused by the deception methods of Mr.Bond and falls for him. The sense of attraction is so subtle and intense that she doesnot care then, about the huge age difference between herself and Bond. 

Cheating at gaming tables is ok,as it is just a game.But by no means this act should become a part of one's life. And if it does,then initially it gives a lot of pleasure, momentary delight as one sees so many getting outsmartened by himself. But after sometime,everyone around him quickly realize what he has been doing,how he has been cruelly manipulating things for his own petty gains and in the process causing heavy losses to others.After that starts his total downfall. He has to bear a huge punishment, his career and personal life gets destroyed. And above all,his reputation, the costliest thing amongst all, gets tarnished. The end results of cheating are really very bad.   

Now we come to the million dollar question -- How to stop oneself from the act of cheating ? Well, the answer to this is not so simple nor are those steps,which one has to take to put an end to this ugly habit. Firstly,this "cheat" should be sent ( or if luckily he is out of jail then he should go himself ) to a rehabilitation centre,where he can learn the basic ethics of life,which includes abstaining from cheating.He should learn how immoral and wrong it is,to deceive somebody and in an unrighteous manner get possession of such things that donot belong to you. Such a process of learning about these morals should continue for atleast a month on a regular basis,so that these righteous ideas,which are new to him, get ingrained within him. Secondly, he should learn how to control himself from falling into that pot-hole of "getting some momentary fun and excitement", that is created whilst cheating somebody. He should always remember the huge punishment one gets,if he fails to withold himself and also about a greater loss to personal reputation, that follows. Thirdly, even if it creates a lot of glamour around him, he should never succumb to it. He must remember that the pleasure he may get from such an environment of glamour around him would be temporary while the losses mentioned above would be permanent.   

Often people think that the following acts are the acts of smartness,which they are not :-- 
(1) Shouting or screaming with undue confidence:-- 
I have seen even some elderly people screaming at the top of their voices at each other with smiles on their faces, trying to exhibit how confident they are. Well, this is not smartness at all. This is foolishness. For calling somebody nearby,you neednot shout or scream. Causing such noise pollution for others, is not a crime so far but surely it is somewhere near committing a crime in the public place. So please donot shout in a public place to show that you are very smart.

(2) Wearing intense perfumes and new clothes almost daily:-- 
Donot wear intense perfumes on yourself to create an air of smartness around you. Remember that 95% of people donot like those wearing intense perfumes around themselves.Secondly,you never know the choice of others. Suppose you are wearing a certain perfume with the smell of "Jasmine" but the place where you have visited, over there, nobody likes Jasmine. Instead some of them like lavender, some rose,etc.Now imagine,what kind of a havoc you would create when you enter the room wearing an intense Jasmine brand.Firstly they donot like Jasmine and secondly you have worn it intense,i.e. in quite a good amount. People will start running away from you, Mr.Smart !! 
Secondly,unless you are a millionaire or a billionaire,donot wear new clothes daily to create an impression that you are very smart. Even a child can understand the fact that it goes out of your expense budget and you cannot afford buying so many clothes. Instead,keep wearing clothes till they really start looking old and out of fashion. After wearing when they look dirty,wash them carefully,iron them and wear them again. In the craze of looking smart,donot start spending lavishly like a spendthrift.Remember that even sober looks are smart looks and smartness is a quality with as much an intrinsic value as with an extrinsic value.

(3) By trying to degrade or demean somebody:--
Some people think that if you want to stand out in a crowd, start pulling the legs of someone weaker than you. Like that you become the cynosure, the centre of attraction and thus obviously you will create a smart impression. Totally wrong. Degrading or debasing somebody publicly,in an attempt to attract everybody else's attention,will never create the right kind of impression that you actually need. And the one that is not right, is not smart. In that process of demeaning that guy,you not only frustrate and humiliate him without any reason,but create an air of negativity around that place. Remember that you cannot attain respect without giving respect. If you are trying to pull the legs of somebody,some people may think in your direction and start laughing at the person who is being ridiculed at. But so many of them would think - " What kind of a person he is ? He is harrassing the poor guy by constantly pulling his legs, without any fault of his.And does he think that he is very smart, by doing so? No, he is not smart, he is cruel and very foolish." Did you see? Your attempt of unnecessarily oversmartening an innocent guy,just backfired. In an attempt of creating an impression of smartness about yourself,you led those people to strongly believe that you are a big fool !! So many amongst the youth, waste their precious time,trying to degrade somebody,instead of utilizing it in other useful avenues of development and creativity. They donot realize about this "very bad habit" of theirs until the time they grow old and weak and when they themselves become the target of the same kind of humiliations which they inflicted upon others by demeaning them. And when they do realize that,it is very late. 

(4) By unnecessarily criticizing the innocent :--
Some indulge into this activity,which is also called "bad-mouthing".It is similar to no.3 above apart from the fact that this is done behind one's back. Such people feel that by criticizing and thus degrading other innocent people ( like their neighbors ) they gain the attention of those around themselves as "smart people". Very wrong. You donot lower their reputation and raise yours by indulging in such activities.But,as explained above,you are definitely damaging your own reputation.      

(5) Stop being a bully:-- 
Those who are really "smart" they never tend to dominate others unnecessarily by bullying them or by any other means. They believe in equality,friendship and brotherhood. If you try to squeeze out respect from someone by creating a sense of fear about yourself in his mind,then you might be successful in doing so for a short period of time. But that respect is not the real one - the one that comes out straight from the heart. It is an artificial one,caused by the scary feeling that you implanted about yourself in his mind. Slowly as that fear decreases,the artificial respect given to you will also melt down. And that will get converted into open demonstrations of hatred right infront of you. Hence,stop being a bully. Stop dominating unnecessarily upon anybody. That way you will never be considered smart.

As explained above, "smartness" in itself is a beautiful quality,which provides a lot of self-confidence to the individual. It is just not the quality of an extrovert, but it has an intrinsic value also. As defined above,a smartness means a capacity to do things in an intelligent manner, with speed and precision, taking the right decisions at the right time. A smart person,knows his own limits and the constraints of time very well. Employing his high intellect,he employs speed and accuracy and with some innovation, tries to bring out a finished product, which is wonderful and different from others. That element of creativity and novelty is also included, when we go deep into the meaning of smartness. It is the weaker side of human nature,that gives birth to its ugly cousin called cheating.One should make deliberate,continuous and conscious efforts on a regular basis to check whether unknowingly or knowingly he hasnot cheated somebody who is innocent. And if he has,he should rectify that action immediately.   

Tendulkar exhibited his outright smartness on and off the field on a number of occassions.Some bowlers love to look into the eyes of the batsman once he successfully beats him.Some also murmer very harsh words after eye-contact.It is a fast bowler’s way to let loose his frustration of not being able to take the wicket of the batsman ! There are some batsmen in the world, who do fall prey to this pressure tactics and mind-games played by the bowler. After getting beaten and stared in an ugly manner by the bowler, if the batsman looses his temperament and goes for a rash shot, then the chances of him getting out to an ordinary delivery too, are quite high. I remember S.Sreesanth, getting out like that so many times, after losing his cool. Tendulkar however never succumbed to any such pressure tactics or mind-games employed by a fast bowler, to get his wicket.If the bowler would come too close for an eye-contact and some sledging, he would immediately look elsewhere.More often than not, he would choose to walk towards square-leg for a few yards immediately after getting beaten, instead of staying where he was or looking at the bowler, who is hungry to make an eye-contact with him. The next delivery, he would play with thorough calmness of mind, as if nothing at all happened in the previous delivery ! If it was a loose delivery from the bowler it might go to the boundary as well !! It would look as if Sachin was never beaten at all by the bowler and the latter’s frustration kept on mounting now.The bowler would feel quite low now as he is neither able to take Sachin’s wicket nor able to frustrate or even confuse him ! I have seen Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younus getting totally frustrated in the same manner in that Worldcup match ofIndia V Pakistan during the 2003 World-cup in South Africa. 

Shoaib totally outsmartened :
  he comes rushing in, as if he had claimed
 Sachin's wicket.

The latter ignores him completely, 
and strikes a boundary on the very next delivery !

The worst victim of Tendulkar’s “ who cares” attitude was Shoaib Akhtar. He would come steaming in, running 20 yards right from the boundary line to bowl to Sachin. If he was able to beat Sachin in that delivery he would go very close to him to make an eye-contact with him.Sensing the situation, Tendulkar would immediately start strawling towards leg-side or sometimes towards Point region, taking special care that he “did not” look at all towards Shoaib. Out of frustration, Shoaib would bowl the next delivery short-in-length, thinking to intimidate Sachin.However Sachin would play the best shot of the innings by cutting him over thirdman boundary for a huge Six ! After that he would smile towards Shoaib ! I bet this would have been like Hell for the Pakistan paceman.” How can this little man forget all what happened in the previous delivery and strike me for a six in the very next one ? Oh my God, what kind of a mindset he has !?!  Is he really a human-being only or some kind of a super-natural ?!!”- Shoaib would keep thinking like that during the rest of the match. No wonder many Indian fans believe that Tendulkar’s masterly knock of 98 in that worldcup match against Pakistan in 2003, made the two great “W”s of Pakistan – Wasim and Waqar so disheartened about their ownselves, that they both announced their retirement from the game !!

Another example of how Tendulkar outsmarted those who didn’t like him too much, is his manner of neglecting anything which created an unnecessary hurdle to him. I remember a match in Pakistan at Multan, when the crowd started shouting “Sachin Murdabad !” ( Failure to Sachin OR We hate Sachin ) constantly when he was fielding near the long-leg boundary. When the ball came to him and he fielded well and threw nicely to the wicket-keeper with his strong arm, then also the crowd booed him. Obviously they were trying to lower his spirit and harrass him mentally ( with evident reasons as it was a match between two perennial rivals and Sachin was loved by all Indians ). The crowd wanted that Sachin be frustrated and ask for an intervention either by the Captain or by the match officials. Sachin, however would do none of them. He just neglected the crowd for half an hour,even when the opposition against him was going stronger by every passing minute. Finally when the Pakistani innings had come to an end, he turned towards the same hostile crowd and passed on a flying kiss to them !!

Now, who on earth, will answer like that ? But Sachin managed to do it. Now the same crowd turned friendly for him and when he came down to bat, they were cheering for him – “ Sachiiiiin , Sachin !!” 

After 2006, whenever he got injured, he smartly kept away from the game.During his Tennis-elbow injury and his back-pains, he chose not to play against comparatively smaller rivals like Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. During such phases of rest, he once again gathered back all his energies and came back to the cricketing field, fresh and anew !! This happened several times between 2006 and 2013. And yes, whenever he came back, he made sure that he arrived with a “Bangggg !” He virtually destroyed the opposition, mostly in the very first knock of his re-arrival to the batting crease. His superb knock of 155 against South Africa is an example of what he could do to any opposition in the world, on his day. He tore apart the World-class pace attack of Shaun Pollock,Hayward,Makhaya Ntini and Jacques Kallis with total dominance during the first test match of India’s tour of South Africa on 3^rd November,2001.

At Bloemfontein ( South Africa ) in 2001, 

he destroyed the aggressive pace attack 
of Pollock & Ntini and scored a masterly 155

He had returned to the game after a period of 8 months due to an injury problem.When he arrived, India were struggling at 43 for 2, with the then openers Dravid and Shivsundar Das out cheaply.None of the South African bowlers would have imagined a nightmare to follow as Sachin came in. Pollock and Ntini were bowling a very tight off-stump line and a perfect length to him Earlier, Pollock had dismissed Dravid with a beauty, which had pitched on and around the off-stump about which the latter had little idea( normally I have not seen Dravid so clueless, which he was in that innings ).He edged it and it went straight to Kallis at second slip, who didn’t make any mistake. Pollock bowled the same ball to Sachin- a perfect outswinger, pitching on the off-stump and moving out quickly.Sachin watched it till the last moment and let it go to the wicket-keeper Boucher. Pollock was then astonished when the little master blasted two boundaries in his second over.

The attack did not stop.After Ganguly and Laxman were dismissed for cheap andIndia were at 68 for 4 now, in came Virendra Sehwag at no.6 ! ( Ganguly deserves full credit for backing the likes Sehwag and Zaheerkhan, who wouldn’t have been in the side, if not for his support.) Sachin and Sehwag, made a mince-meat out of the South-african attack by putting on a partnership of 220 runs for the fifth wicket in just 47.3 overs !! ( quite fast by Test match standards ) When Sachin’ wicket fell at 288, India were in a sound position now at 288 for 5. In his blistering knock of 155 in just 184 deliveries with a strike rate of 84, he had hit 23 boundaries and a towering sixer. On a seemingly less bouncy pitch at the Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein, he virtually destroyed the four-pronged pace attack of the South African bowlers, letting them know that he had arrived back on the scene. The manner in which he cut and pulled the deliveries of Ntini was extremely delightful to watch. His boundaries off Pollock’s second over through the cover boundary and his flicks of the wrist to Nicky Boje’s legside deliveries as also his leg-glance to him, showed the real class of which this man is made up of. South African bowlers are considered to be the smartest of all the teams, since their re-introduction to the game in 1992, but Sachin out-smartened them on their own turf.

Having attained so much glory in his career, he was the cynosure of all the public including some very beautiful women too ! Especially during his younger days, I remember so many of young girls exclaiming – “ Oh Sachin is so white and cute !!” However, Sachin was already having an affair with his wife-to-be Anjali Mehta, in those days and he was smart enough, not to choose having any more affair with any female, rightly giving all his focus and attention to his blooming career as a batsman. So many talented cricketers have slipped into this slippery world of glamour and female-beauty and wasted their careers, which looked promising at one time.

Sandip Patil, donning a leather studded skirt,
arm bands and wrist bands, 

during the launch of his sole film, " Kabhi Ajnabi the "

Sandip Patil, for example was at the peak of his career, when he chose to act in a hindi film as a hero. It is being said that that hindi film flopped and his form in cricket also declined gradually until he had to retire from the game. Vinod Kambli’s batting average was much higher than of Sachin in their early days. Especially after Kambli struck two successive double hundreds in 1993, he was being rumoured as the next Don Bradman. However, today very little people know about Kambli.This is because he too went in the same direction as Sandip Patil did. He acted in films, chose to move with quite a few women and eventually wasted his enormous talent. Had he fostered his talent with the same smartness as what Sachin did and resisted being attracted by the beautiful females moving around, today he would have been an iconic figure atleast in the category of Dilip Vengsarkar or Virender Sehwag.

(6) Dedication, Commitment towards the game and a Sense of Responsibility :--

==================================================   

Right from the beginning of his illustrious career as a batsman, Sachin fully dedicated himself, towards his love, Cricket. It was as if he was obsessed by the game all the time. Not only did he practice in the nets for 5 to 6 hours a day,he kept on discussing his weaknesses in the game with his coach, his brother Ajit Tendulkar and his supporting staff, whenever he felt necessary. This he continued until the day he retired. It was as if his entire identity as a human being had got submerged in his game.

 
He was always eager to learn newer things on the ground, especially while batting. Hence he would ask Harbhajan to frequent bowl his Doosra to him. He would ask Anil Kumble to bowl, overs with variation in each and every delivery to him, during the nets. The reason, why he smashed Warne all over the park in those famous Sharjah matches when he scored two consecutive ODI hundreds against the mighty Australians, was that he had studied very carefully the bowling action and the strengths and weaknesses of the great Shane Warne.

   Shane Warne congratulating the master blaster
 after the latter had slammed 143 runs at Sharjah
 and literally stunned the legendary spinner with his fluent stroke-play 

Whenever Warne threw a bowl on an around the leg stump to him, he would either stand only on his right foot and pull him over square leg boundary or flick him very deftly through the fine-leg boundary for four runs. If Shane bowled a full legnth delivery he would immediately come to the front foot and heave him over the long-on fence for a six. If he bowled a huge legspin, pitching on his leg stump and coming out of the off stump, he would just cut him down to thirdman fence for another four runs. For an ardent batting lover, those two centuries at Sharjah were indeed a great pleasure to watch. Warne himself confessed later on in a lighter note that he was having “nightmares” about Sachin, after those matches. Imagine a world-class spinner being reduced to this level.It was through  the sheer class and constant innovative techniques of Sachin, which he all got through huge hours of working with total dedication and commitment towards his “only motive” of life – “ Batting”. It was as if he was “breathing cricket” all the time. He was so deep into it, that it had spread not only in his brain, but also into his blood, each and every cell of his body.

Whenever he scored huge hundreds and double hundreds, he played for the team.IfIndia was in trouble and losing wickets, he showed immense sense of responsibility, by holding on to one end not allowing further wickets to fall from that end. Innumerable number of times, he has anchored the Indian innings and taken it out from deep trouble like what Dravid has done for India. Among all Indian batting legends, I have seen only Rahul Dravid showing more responsibility in his approach towards batting than Sachin also. Even Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Vengsarkar, Mohindar Amarnath did not have that much of a sense of responsibility as what Sachin showed while batting in a Test Match innings. ( While I write this my heart is filled with some kind of heaviness as I have to rate someone even higher than my all-time favourite Sunil Gavaskar, whom I have been watching batting like a God since my school days ! ) Talking of how much of a sense of responsibility Indian cricketers have or had, I rate these three highest – Dravid, Sachin and Laxman ( in the order of the names written ). They have been thorough team-men and always thought of their team first, rather than their personal milestones. In my eyes, Sachin is higher than even Gavaskar as a batsman, because among all the matches in which he scored centuries in the Test matches and the ODIs, India have won on more number of occassions when he managed to score them,as compared to Sunny Gavaskar, whose majority of centuries in Test matches came when the game was heading towards a tame draw.

Dedication is a divine quality,which only few have inborne.It is the most admired quality,around the world. When one dedicates himself to a cause,he simply forgets about himself and commits all his actions and deeds, for the upliftment of that cause,in a complete thorough manner. All his energies are diverted towards that particular cause. No wonder, success would follow. Hardwork done with total dedication and commitment always pays. Sometimes the fruits of this hardwork are seen coming late, but they do arrive. The best example of dedication seen is amongst "Indian women". After getting married they dedicate their entire life for all those in her family like her husband,son,daughter,mother-in-law,father-in-law,etc. He tries her very best to see to it that she is able to fulfil her duties as a wife,mother, daughter-in-law,grandmother etc.thoroughly and with nothing lacking. She gets up early in the morning,cleans the home,cooks food,serves old parents of her husband,sends her children to school and yet she manages to stay happy after such a hardwork,throughout the day !! Never can one find a single discrepancy in her attitude for the family or even a single shortcoming in her dedication and commitment !! Never !! Rightnow,when I am talking about such a high quality of commitment,all indian mothers come to my mind,which includes my mother Leelavati too.

Ever since my birth,she has given me the love and affection of both,a mother and a father. My father died,when was of a tender age of 10.But, she has never allowed, the lack of his presence being felt upon,by me. Just like what all mothers do,she has provided me with all what I wanted and what was essential for me. And she has given me "Sanskara" ( the great values imbibed inside the Indian culture ). I consider that to be her the biggest gift to me. I am proud of my mother and bow down to her with complete awe and reverence. Not just my mother,I bow down to all the "indian mothers" for being embodiments of dedication and commitment themselves and thus setting an ideal example for their children to follow suit. 

And why just Indian mothers, why not indian wives and indian daughters too ? I salute all of them,because the younger women of India also donot lack the above qualities. In some cases, young women may be undergoing mental or physical harrassment by their husbands inside her home.She may be facing "domestic violence" caused by her husband. Yet her devotion for her home and all its family members never recedes. What a sense of commitment towards the family !! In general, I salute the " indian woman" for her sense of dedication and responsibility.  

Some people are born "dedicated". Right from their childhood to youth to old days, they do all their duties whole-heartedly,with utter commitment. But some are born as irresponsible humans too !! Their daily routines,their work,their schedules all things are unorganised and mostly in shambles. When reprimanded about such irresponsibility, they try to organise themselves, do so for some days but again get unorganised !! I mean, they just "do not care " !! Neither about their parents or brothers and sisters but even about themselves !! And let me make it clear -- it is not that they donot want to get organised and dedicate themselves towards their work. They wish to do that. But they can't. They are either too lazy or not determined enough to fine-tune their lives. Such people are mostly and heavily reliant on either one of their parents or a sibling, since early childhood. That has caused this type of carelessness. And then they grow up and attain the age of puberty. Yet they donot improve upon such a behaviour. 

Life is a tough game and it asks tough questions to everybody. The one who understands those tough questions and modify themselves, win the battle of life. But those who understand those questions but still remain reluctant to modify themselves, life starts taking its heavy toll. Those tough questions become tougher and tougher. And the time given for improvization keeps on decreasing first gradually and slowly and then with an astronomically fast speed. I have seen such a similar thing happening with one of my students   " Hardik ".He is a fat boy, weighing more than 100 kilos and with a height of 6'2". When he first came to my coaching institute in 2009,he was in standard 10th. By his heart, he is a very good boy, but he is too lazy.I tried my best to teach him lessons of dedication and hardwork. He would nod his head in positive and promise me to work hard. But he would always come out with very little work done. The result was obvious, he failed in class 10th, not once but thrice. And then his daddy became very furious on him in 2012. He gave him the ultimatum to either change his lazy habits or quit his parental home. It was after this final warning that he changed. He started being more and more committed towards his work and also his words. The result was that he passed out from his class 10 exams at the fourth attempt and then he cleared his class 12th in 2015,in the very first attempt ! As on today, Hardik is a committed lad of age 22,in the second year of his college,doing a Bachelor in Computer Application course.He also helps his father in their family business of jewellery items. What I mean to signify here is the importance of commitment and dedication in our life. Unless we donot dedicate ourselves to our goals, we cannot achieve those highest results,which we covet for. 

As said above, life is a tough game and the questions that it asks, start becoming tougher and tougher for those who arenot able to modify their lazy behaviours inside a given time-frame. In the above example,my ex-student Hardik was lucky enough to modify himself when the need arose. But what about those,who feel direction-less,even after some ultimatum issued to them? What about those who want to change, get organised and be devoted to their work but they simply can't. Here are some suggestions:-- 

(1) Quit your reliance on anybody immediately:--
----------------------------------------------------------- 
This may prove very hard to you in the beginning, especially looking at the fact that you have been very heavily relying on all or either of them, from the day you came into this world. They have been nurturing you,fostering you like a little baby ever since. But now you are no more a little baby. You cannot continue like this anymore. So just stop asking for any kind of help from them. Be self-sufficient. Heat up your water yourself for bathing. Iron your clothes yourself. Polish your shoes. Clean your entire room yourself.Nothing should look untidy or dirty anywhere in your room. Put all the things that were so far lying here and there in a haphazard manner,at exactly their pre-decided fixed place. Follow strict timetables. Work along with time. Donot interrupt routines by visiting places of fun like malls and cinemas very frequently. Yes,you can go there but once a while, say once in fifteen days. There too donot forget about time deadlines. 

Sleep early, if possible before 11 pm. Rise from the bed before the sunrise. Do some exercises and Yogasanas in the morning. Go to your school/ college regularly. Donot keep bunking lectures, even if you feel that the faculty is the biggest boring person, you have ever seen so far. Remember that your father has paid fees for studying at that institute and not for you to create new excuses and keep bunking important lectures. Even if you passed the 12th class and are studying in a college,donot take it very lightly. College days are not just fun days. Unless you study there carefully and work hard, you start getting ATKTs ( Allowed To Keep Terms ) in various subjects and if you donot clear them within a given time-period,the number of years you would be studying in the college to finish a degree course,will start increasing. This way you would be wasting important years of your life.Donot let this happen and study properly in college too. 

Remember that dedication comes only after you have the will to do every and any work allotted to you. Even if it is some kind of a manual labour work, like fetching buckets full of water from the ground floor to the third floor,which involves physical hardwork,do it. At that time,donot think -- " Look at me. My friends are driving modern cars and here I am, fetching buckets full of water,like some labourer " or even this -- "I have decided to study further and get a good white-collared job for myself. How on earth is this work of fetching water-filled buckets from ground floor to the tiird floor, will ever help me,in reaching that goal? What a fool I am !!" Remember that no work is small or mean. A human becomes big or great only by doing small pieces of jobs properly. You cannot climb a mountain by jumping. You need to walk, even through tough terrains. Gandhiji and the recent Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi are saying the same thing -- " Give importance to small tasks as much as you give to larger and more intelligent tasks, because it is through accomplishing these smaller tasks that you can successfully achieve bigger tasks." So donot differentiate work as " I can do this" and " I donot want to do this." Do all the work,which comes your way. Yes,if you feel shortage of time, then you may prioritize and delete some manual labour tasks. But "only if" you feel that shortage of time, like the period before the exams. Otherwise, donot behave like some great intellectual,even if you really possess the potential to be one or the world has already announced that you are one. Inshort, do all of your work by yourself. Stop reliance on anybody. 

(2) Get rid of that care-free attitude :--
------------------------------------------------- 
I know you will find this one to be tough too. But you have to do it. Quit that carefree attitude, else one day this world will quit and throw you out. Start caring about everything necessary -- starting from your physical and mental state, your work, your room, your working place,your parents and siblings.Be particular in time and location. Save money and donot spend on unnecessary things. If you have any addictions like smoking cigarettes, drinking, flirting with different people of opposite sex, then slowly but surely gain control over them and stop them completely over a given period of time. I know it is difficult but you have to do it. There is no choice left. Take life much more seriously than what you used to do before. And then reap the rewards of this change, when life starts taking you seriously and endows its benefits and rewards upon you. 
(3) Keep thinking about the tasks ahead:-- 
--------------------------------------------------- 
Yes, keep thinking about the tasks that lay ahead of you. Ofcourse,find some free time to relax and have fun. But just "some" free time and not a lot of it. Once you start doing Yoga, you will be able to focus over future tasks much better. So do that. Keep yourself focused on what you have to do next. Donot allow your attention to get bifurcated. Even if you feel that you have almost done 80% of the assigned task,donot relax until you finish the entire job. Unless some kind of an emergency crops up, donot leave the work that you were focusing upon and doing,unfinished. Finish it. And then quickly, after some relaxation, take up another task and then another one. Donot rest until all your tasks are over with enough satisfaction to yourself about their quality and quantity both. 
(4) Avoid "continuous" long periods of work:--
-----------------------------------------------------  
Divide your work into various time-groups. For example, you need to do say 8 hours of study work today.Then donot study for 8 hours at a stretch. Divide those hours into 3+3+2 or 3+2+3 or whatever combination you are comfortable with. But as said above, avoid continuous long stretches of work.Studies have shown that a human brain gets tired after say 2 to 3 hours and needs a temporary phase of relaxation of about 5 to 10 minutes. So take that break. Stretch your body on your chair to the full. Move your neck anticlockwise or clockwise.Move your hands anticlockwise from the place where your wrists lie. Look outside the window at a far distant place, steadily. While doing this breathe deep.Continue this for about 7 to 10 minutes. This will recharge you physically mentally. Now you are ready to work again. So donot elongate the break now. Move forward in your work by starting the next session. Remember that breaks help to revitalize your body in terms of strength to carry on further tasks and the ability to focus.So get this natural doze of revitalization, gifted by Almighty himself !! Donot tell yourself _" Oh, I have the capacity to complete this task without taking any break at one stretch." or " I will take a break but after sometime.First let me finish this much work." Look,you might think that you are some kind of a super-human but you are not. Science says, that a tired body needs rest at regular intervals. So give respect to what Science has to say. Rest, get rejuvenated and then again start working aggressively. Repeat this cycle over and over again until all your work is finished. 
The reason why I have suggested you to divide your work into time-groups is because I want to prevent you getting bored by your work. A bored mind can never commit itself to its task fully,even if it very much desires to do so. Dedication cannot be achieved with a mind, depleted of mental strength as it has been working for quite sometime. So give space to that mind. Relax it. Get its vital energies be automatically and naturally renewed. And then enjoy the power of a fresh,re-energized mind, as you confidently and dynamically finish off all your remaining tasks. 

Finally let me tell that the best example of dedication and commitment on a cricket field, given by any player, over those years that I have watched cricket or read about it, has been of Rahul Dravid. Neither Sachin,nor Gavaskar,nor Ricky Ponting,nor Brian Lara nor Jacques Kallis can come closer to the amount of dedication and commitment that Dravid showed on the cricket field until the last day he played cricket. He was like a devotee ( Bhakta ) praying to his God ( the game of cricket),all the time. His devotion,his passion towards the game remained unmatchingly great. He possessed the internal strength to remain totally unmoved like the stable flame of a lamp,even when the entire team used to get dismantled and horrified while facing fierce pacemen like Glenn McGrath, Alan Donald,Shaun Pollock,Wasim Akram,Waqar Younus,James Anderson,Broad and Brett Lee. So, where did he get this immense amount of mental power,courage and conviction to remain cool and calm, when a whirlwind was blowing in the form of accurate fast deliveries on pacer-friendly pitches like Perth,Durban and Headingly ? The answer lyes in a single word " Dedication". Yes,my friend, Dedication works wonders. It not only stabilizes everything, but also helps the individual to become mentally very tough,totally focused, courageous to face anything "come what may" and keeps him remained strongly "believing" in his abilities to work wonders !! What a great, great quality "DEDICATION" is !! Salute, Salute !!!  


( 7 ) Flexibility and Innovation  :--

=======================

There is a well-known proverb - " When a hurricane blows,those trees which can bend, donot fall down whilst those who donot bend at all,collapse." Flexibility is necessary not only in a game but in all phases of life too. One should know when to be flexible,where to be flexible and how much to be flexible. Sometimes, the key to success lyes in the pockets of this quality "flexibility".

Modern day cricketers play on a variety of surfaces these days. It may be a fast bouncy pitch like the one that is at WACA ground,Perth,Australia or it maybe a turning track the one of Firozshah Kotla, at New Delhi,India. The batsman has to be smart enough to correctly come to the conclusion about the nature of the pitch after facing a few deliveries and then adjust his game immediately according to that. Generally, a pitch on which the ball comes onto the bat nicely ( without any resistance offered by the pitch ) is considered to be a batsman-friendly pitch. While the pitch on which the ball doesnot come so well onto the bat, due to the resistance offered by the pitch surface,is the one on which the batsman has to work hard to stay on it and carve out a long innings. Such pitches are recognised as "bowler-friendly" pitches. A clever bowler can, however, be very effective even on batsman-friendly pitches and viceversa a smart batsman can be successful and effective on those bowler-friendly pitches ! As said above, the key lyes in "having flexibility". 

Similar to above, is another factor called "climate conditions". Sub-continental batsmen ( batsmen from India,Pakistan,SriLanka,Bangladesh) while playing in England,often fail to perform because they cannot adjust to very different climate of England. It rains almost daily there and the moisture content in the air is generally high. These ideal conditions for a red cricket ball to swing and seam. Now,batsmen from the sub-continent are generally weak facing a delivery that pitches on their off-stump but then swings sharply towards the slips. Secondly, the climatic conditions very much support such a type of bowling as said above. The result is obvious. They fail badly. Except a few noted batsmen like Dravid, almost all indian batsmen have a poor record over there. 

The third factor which needs to be discussed is " direction of breeze ". If a fast bowler is bowling in the direction of the wind,clearly his speed will increase and that will create some more trouble for any batsman. Sometimes, the breeze blows in a direction slightly diagonal to the pitch. It can help a lot for a ball to swing,in a manner ideal for the pace bowler. All the above three are the illustrations given in favour of my point about flexibility. 

Apart from a cricket field,flexibility has applications in real life conditions too. A marriage life is a very good example. In a married life, both the partners come from different economical and social backgrounds when the marriage has just begun. Their habits and lifestyles maybe very different. The wife,who was a girl before marriage,may have come from a rich affluent background,who maynot be having a habit of regularly getting up early in the morning,making breakfast for everyone and even cooking food for all. At her daddy's place (  "मायका " in Hindi ),she maybe living like a princess,but after marriage,at her husband's place,she has to change completely,if she wants that nobody complains about her.Similarly, her husband,who was a boy before marriage,may have some macho habits like unnecessarily bullying on weaker guys etc. and some careless habits like smoking,drinking etc.which ultimately prove to be self-destructive. If he wants to have a successful and healthy married life, full of peace and prosperity,then he needs to be flexible and change this irresponsible lifestyle.   

Let me make one thing clear here. Being flexible doesnot mean "making compromises on one's ideals/principles". Never. Suppose a person says to his personal friend in a private corner - " I took a bribe in my job today, as I needed money urgently. I became flexible for some additional income" then he isnot being flexible here. Instead, he is committing a sin. An immoral act committed under the pretext of "flexibility" amounts to not only fooling the Almighty,but also fooling one's own self,because in the longer run, it will definitely harm the individual severely. If the person in discussion thinks " what if I took bribe just once.Now I willnot take it second time", then time will prove him wrong,as when the occassion will arise, he will again indulge in taking a bigger bribe and then again. This way he will develop a habit of taking bribes and for sometime this will sound very good to him. But after sometime, he is very likely to get caught. All his career and his job will be gone. And above all,his reputation will get crashed. He may move into a zone of "depression and mental instability" as what happens generally in many such cases. So what did he gain by deliberately misinterpreting the word " flexibility"? Nothing. And what did he lose? A lot. Inshort,never ever try and misinterprete any word to achieve petty selfish gains. 

"Innovation" is a charming,creative quality. I should say it is the word of the 21st century. So,what is innovation? " A new process or method of doing a certain thing or act,whose prime motive is to save time,money and energy and bring out a novel better product, is called "innovation"." This is my definition,however other definitions,given by other intellectuals,may vary slightly or completely from the above. 

In today's world, innovation has become of paramount value. Especially in the field of manufacturing. Multinational companies in the fields of software, automotives,telecommunications,pharmaceuticals,oil exploration and heavy engineering are employing "research personnel" in their effort to innovate. And yes,they are becoming successful in that. More and more customer-friendly products,which save the useful time and money of people are there today in local markets worldwide. A mobile phone has now so many applications. When people of India started using the mobile phone about 15 years back, there was only a single use viz.calling other people located at some distance from you and talking to them. Then the sms (short messaging service) got initiated. As on today,one can take photos,play games,surf the internet,make live video calls ( even to places outside one's country ),chat,maintain useful office records,record and play music on his Android/ iPhone device. This list of what one can do on his mobile device,is still growing. This is the result of continuous innovation. A mobile phone is a great example of innovation and its successful application. Can you spot out any other mechanical/ electronic/ electrical device which has successfully changed the lives of so many humans, by making them more comfortable ? Well,I cannot and hence I am strongly of the opinion that a mobile phone represents the vast potential of "innovative ability" of a human being. It has become a miraculous device. Normally,miraculous things are out of reach of ordinary human beings but look at this one -- all have it !! And this fact is a miracle in itself !!! This shows very clearly, the possibilities that lay ahead and the immense potential that this word "innovation" carries with itself. 

A minute observation leads me to believe that "being innovative" or "being creative" can be a wonderful gift of God to some. But for those who donot have it, can they develop and nurture this quality of immense potential ? Or will they just have to keep relying on those gifted few,year after year,for their entire lives ? Well, the answer is positive. Even those who are not innovative by their births can gradually develop and foster this quality,which is like a precious jewel amongst other stones. So we come to that vital question again. How to develop innovativeness or an innovative approach ? How to be creative enough so that some novel innovative concept suddenly comes up in our mind ? 

Here is the answer. The first step here again leads us to two basic qualities discussed quite at length so far, viz " hardwork" and "patience". First step is "keep working hard" in your area of work. But at the same time,when you are working hard, donot close that creative window of your mind.Keep it wide open. Think of newer ways in which you can do that work, such alternatives, which are feasible.If you donot find such alternatives, then now think "out-of-the-box". Go for such alternative methods,which arenot conventional or customary. Some of them may sound crazy in the beginning, but let that point not discourage you. Go ahead with that "crazy" method. Some guys will laugh at you,while you are experimenting with that new crazy method. Let them ridicule you. Just neglect the world and focus on what you want to achieve. After sometime,you will realize that you have achieved something which is quite unique,quite different from others. Maybe that was your final goal and you did it. If so, you have won and your detractors have lost. Maybe what you achieved or just found out,that product or that process wasnot exactly what you wanted to find out. It was slightly or entirely different. But it was something new ! Yes,you found out something new, a new process or a new product !! And that deserves a huge appreciation !! Your criticizers/ detractors will still argue," He wanted to find "this" but he found "that". That is not innovation." No, he is wrong. That also is innovation. You could find something, which helps the future generation, to save time or money or energy and by definition, it is an innovation. Repeat the process above. And you can become more and more innovative. It is an endless process. This quality has perennial potential.  

We just saw above,how an ordinary person too can develop and nurture "innovative ability" within himself, gradually. Some may still argue that inspite of following the abovesaid process, he isnot able to become innovative. Well, for them the short reply is " keep trying". You never know when this lamp of brightness will suddenly have a spark and start glowing. I personally feel that each and every human on this planet, possesses this quality, right from his birth. All he needs to do, is to find out this diamond and exacavate it from the darkness of ignorance,present in the form of disbelief that he cannot be innovative.

What are the advantages of being innovative ? Well,there are so many of them. But the main advantage is that you get an immediate privileged position as compared to your rival. In today's world,this edge over the professional enemy is very very important. It leaves your rival bewildered and confused, as you are no more using his age-old methods. But more importantly, it recreates a very fine and enduring image about your brand name and yourself in the market. People start looking at your product and your company with a renewed respect. Once they see that you are in the business of delivering very "high quality" product with constant innovation, they will also buy another products of your company,even if you donot claim to have done any big research while developing that old product. Thus your customer will now become a " frequent customer ". Once you build-up a chain of such frequent customers, your company is assured of very lucrative profits for decades to follow. Thus innovation provides you with both -- fame and money.These are the advantages of innovation in the field of manufacturing and design. However, innovation at a personal level also ushers in wonderful results. Let us look at some of them.  

Innovation at a personal level, is the fresh change that a human being can bring about not only in his methods of working but also in the manner in which he speaks, stands, sits and everything that he does at a personal level, while in public. This is a gradual process of "refining" or " re-tuning" one's own self, which can be done by anybody, who has the desire to change. Such an innovation is also called " Personality Development". It converts an ignorant-looking, eccentric,savage and uncultured animal into a sophisticated, knowledgesome,wise-looking cultured human being. All what is required for this,is a conscious and deliberate effort, with a burning desire to change one's own self.  

Those people who have achieved huge and consistent success in their chosen fields are not necessarily more skillful or intelligent than others. What separates them is their burning desire to excel,their hunger to know more and more about various skills/techniques relevant to that particular field and their natural ability to innovate.  

When Sachin started his career, his stance in the crease was a bit tilted.It faced towards the off side more.But I have seen that within a couple of years, his stance was perfect. I don’t know but some senior cricketer might have advised him. Maybe this was also the reason why his average was very ordinary in Tests and ODIs as well till the beginning of 1992 – he average around 37 in Tests and almost around 35 in ODIs till the end of 1991.I remember I had a discussion with my friends, about why should Sachin be considered to be a “Future Great” cricketer or with very high potentials at all, when after two years of his debut, his average was pretty ordinary ! At that time the batting average of Azharuddin was around 47, Kambli around 53, Siddhu was around 43.How can you put Sachin whose average was below 40 in the same list as above – that is what I and so many other ardent cricket fans thought. In those days, we would wonder how soon would Kambli and Azharuddin break all records. Instead, Kambli went into wilderness and Azhar fell due to the ill-famous “match-fixing!scandal”.

Vinod Kambli ( 1993 ) 

Sachin ( 1992 )

Mohammad Azharuddin ( 1990 ) 

On the other hand, from 1992 onwards and especially from 1996 to 1999, Sachin’s averages showed a "meteoric" rise, from the level of 37 to the levels of 51 and above ! I contribute this mainly due to his desire to keep learning new things – his innovative approach towards the game, which infact keeps evolving every single day. He changed his batting stance, started using heavier bats, also started ducking those short-pitch deliveries which he found uncomfortable to face on bouncy pitches. He also learnt the art of completely ignoring the bowlers when they tried to intimidate him in any way, either through a compulsive “stare” into the eyes, or through any kind of sledging, a verbal exchange, which the Aussies were so much fond of. Its being told  that Gavaskar taught him how to duck ( both being of the same height !! ) and also how to ignore the intimidatory attempts of the bowlers, trying to dominate him. Whosoever taught him, he learnt it perfectly, how to handle the odds.

Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary batsman, 
giving useful tips to Sachin, 
during his early days as an Indian cricketer 

Wearing an Orange cap for " the most number of runs
 during a single season of IPL",
 a fact which reflects his success in the shortest format too

(8) Power of Concentration :--

===================== 

Before the arrival of Novak Djokovich, Roger Federer, who has won 16 Grand Slam Titles so far,seldom lost when the match entered its 5th set. Sometimes it used to be the case that Roger used to lose the first two sets and when the odds were against him and he was up against a mammoth task, he used to show his real class, the real substance of which he is made up of. Under such immense pressure of recovering from two sets to love down, his ultimate powers of concentration came to the fore. Not only he used to make it two sets all, but then go on and win the final set too ! I cannot provide a better example of immense amount of concentration at display, other than that of Federer. It was as if he was " lost" in his game. He used to forget everything when he played like that viz. when was the last time he ate a bite from his bag, when did he last change his t-shirt or racquet,etc. All these things and this entire world,didnot seem to bother him at all. All what he wanted at that time was "victory",nothing else and nothing less. No wonder he would emerge a winner then. 

The power of concentration or in another words, the power of "focusing"is an absolutely amazing power. It has this great humungous potential to change the entire scenario, in a short span. Do you remember those five hour long grandslam tennis matches between Federer and Nadal ? They were a "treat" to watch. Both players would throw everything that they had got in their game onto the opponent. Long rallies,short service games, serve-and-volley games,Tie breakers coming frequently at the end of each set almost -- it had all the spices, all ingredients of being called a thriller. But above all, it was an ideal example of what "concentration" really means. Focus,focus and focus; forget the world until you achieve your goal -- that is Concentration. 

After dedication, this quality is another "Godly"gift. Not everybody can concentrate hard. Some cannot concentrate at all, while some can concentrate for a small period of time only. It is only those "gifted few" that can concentrate for longer periods of time and produce the desired results. Why is it like that, then that only those gifted few have the ability to concentrate longer ? Is this ability innate too ? Yes,ofcourse it is innate but that doesnot mean that it cannot be cultivated. Constant practice of trying to concentrate more and more, for longer and longer periods of time can increase the power of concentration, for anybody. The need here is to remain focused and forget what is going around you for as long as possible. This is the only way, concentration powers can be enhanced. 

But what if an individual cannot concentrate at all ? What should he do ? Well, again the answer lyes with tuning of the mind. The human mind, as we all know by now, has got huge capacities. Especially, the sub-conscious mind is a source unimaginable power. In order to concentrate, one has to give that command to his sub-conscious mind. But what exactly is a sub-conscious mind ? Looking at the fact that it is so important for developing any new quality or virtue let me try and explain what exactly a sub-conscious mind is. When a person is relaxing but not entirely asleep, he is neither in a state of consciousness nor in a state of unconsciousness. He is somewhere in-between. During this state,if is able to talk to himself about what next things he should do next and how exactly he can do what he wants to do,then during the actual state of consciousness,while doing that task it becomes a lot easier for him to perform in precisely the same manner, in which he had thought about while he was in a sub-conscious state of mind and he will start performing accordingly !! Look at the magic involved here. A task previously conceived to be impossible for a certain gentleman,becomes easy for him,within a matter of few hours or maximum few days !! He maynot be knowing how to do it at all previously but after quietly examining how to do it through his sub-conscious mind, he is able to really do it ! All the intricacies get solved automatically !! 

For example, suppose a boy is weak in his studies and he cannot just concentrate. He wants to do that but unfortunately, he cannot. Now when he goes into that state of relaxation, that sub-conscious frame of mind, he will ask himself, why am I not able to focus when other boys around me can do it so well ? Afterall, what are things which I am lacking or not doing corrrectly ? As soon as he asks this question his own mind will start giving him the right answers. It will tell him the reasons why he is not able to focus,what type of clutter he should try and eliminate from his mind and even how to do that. It will tell him how the powers of concentration increase when the mind is peaceful and healthy. The result will be that he will first start focusing on making his mind peaceful. He will mark those unnecessary things that he has been doing all this time, that contribute towards pulling away his peace of mind like playing mischief by teasing other classmates all the time and thus creating unnecessary tension even for his own self, when those boys would revert back the mischief and tease him back. Then he can make his mind healthy by trying not to remember things which are of no use in his studies like addresses of so many females in his class or scores of cricket matches being played worldwide. Once he has done that he will experience that now his mind has grown healthy and is much less cluttered and more peaceful than before. After that when he will ask him sub-conscious mind what next has to be done, it will get the reply that now slowly start remembering your necessary details like small answers,"fill in the blanks" type questions etc. Once he does that he can then focus on remembering medium-sized answers of 4 to 5 lines. After that he can finally shift to remembering ( mugging ) big answers of 10 to 15 lines of questions of the type " answer in detail ". Thus, with the power of his sub-conscious mind, he can gradually achieve more and more concentration, and come out with flying colors,which would indeed surprise everybody.  

Such amazing is the power of a human sub-conscious mind. That brief period of relaxation, not only tranquilizes and rejuvenates our mind,but also provides it with those vital ideas and solutions that lead him towards his desired goal. As such he doesnot need any "guru" or teacher to teach him how to do so. It can be done by self-introspection. Suppose one wants to feel what a sub-conscious state of mind would look like, for the first time,here is what he should do. "Close your eyes and slowly lean down on a sofa or a bed. You may either be in a completely flat posture as what one is while sleeping or you may just be half sitting and half sleeping with your head leaning on the back side of the sofa. Start breathing deep. Inhale deep then exhale deep. Focus on that breathing only. For sometime, a few randomn thoughts will start emerging in your mind. Donot focus on those thoughts,whether good or bad. You may start having very bad thoughts if you are in a depressive mood. Donot get disheartened by that. You may have very inspiring thoughts all of a sudden. Donot get too encouraged by them. Inshort,positive and negative thoughts will keep on coming. Donot get distracted by either of them. Just remember that your goal rightnow is to keep breathing deeply and keep focusing on this wonderful process of breathing. While breathing deeply,you may start this process by first taking three or four very deep breaths inside. After that you can have equal lengths of inhalation and exhalation times. Now continue this process for about 10 minutes. After 10 to 15 minutes your mind will become devoid of any thought. Let me point out here clearly that this too requires some practice and your mind maynot become devoid of any thoughts on the very first day. If so,continue practising as said above. After a few days,you will reach a stage when your mind will start responding very well. It will become devoid of any thought after 10 minutes of inhalation-exhalation process. This "thoughtless" state of mind, is an ideal stage that you have now achieved. Donot stop the process yet. Continue. Within the next 2 to 4 minutes, you will start feeling a "state of bliss". Your mind will be completely fresh now, like a fully charged up battery. Your eyes are still closed. Now initiate thought process. Inject those thoughts, those problems that you are facing and not able to find solutions for them. Meanwhile you may change your postures slowly for maintaining physical comfort. Start thinking about likely solutions, what you should do and not do. Examine every angle possible. Analyse the consequences of future courses of actions. I am sure you will find a lot of solutions. Be clear while thinking. Command yourself what exactly you will do next time a certain perplexed situation arises. There should be no ambiguity about it. Or if you are wanting to implant a certain quality like say "concentration", then think about the steps to be taken in an orderly manner, first to instal this quality within yourself and then to develop it gradually. 

This is how the sub-conscious mind works. It can instal new qualities within an individual. It can find ways and means to achieve a certain goal, previously felt as "impossible" or "very difficult" while the person was thinking with his conscious mind. It is like a power-house. It provides with adequate revitalizing energy and all the right solutions,if explored properly. Amongst,all the great scientific inventions, scientists have used this supreme power in abundance. 

I personally feel that reaching of the subconscious state of mind, is not just a gift of God, but in an advanced stage, it helps to establish a divine link with Almighty Himself. This being out-of-context here, let us go back to the main point of our discussion. The sub-conscious state of mind can also be reached, by sitting in a yogic posture called the "Padmasana". In this posture, the person sits down on a clean levelled flat surface.He brings his right foot above his left thigh and then his left foot above his right thigh. The spinal chord should remain erect and straight. The head should remain straight and not inclined towards one side. It should not even remain in a raised or lowered position. Once sitting in this posture,close your eyes slowly. Take first 3 to 4 breaths very deep with inhalation times larger than the exhalation time. After that both inhalation and exhalation time periods should be of equal lengths. Focus on your breathing only. The remaining process is similar to the one explained above for attaining sub-conscious state of mind. By the way,this is also, the process of " Meditation ".  

We have seen above, the absolute powers of our sub-conscious mind and also realized that any new quality or virtue can be installed in and then developed inside the dumbest of the dumb too. Some may argue here -- does it mean that a student,very poor in studies can also create, nurture and then develop qualities like concentration, dedication, hardwork and patience within himself and consequently transform himself into a brilliant student ? The answer is yes.However,let me clarify here that the chances of an extremely poor student getting converted into a brilliant student are less. But it is not entirely impossible to happen. It all depends on the extent as to which that student can instal the abovesaid qualities within himself and then develop and utilize them. In this,he may face two constraints :-- 1) his own limited endeavour and 2) his natural tendencies. If the extent of his endeavour to instal and develop the above qualities isnot sufficient,he maynot get the desired results. He may transform into "an average student" from an extremely poor student,instead of his predecided goal of becoming a "brilliant" student. Yet, this effort isnot in any vain either. Secondly,if his natural tendencies or in other words, natural potential lyes in some field other than education, then obviously he willnot succeed that much in his studies. In that case, he needs to carefully find out,from within himself as to where does his natural hidden potential lye.     

I believe that God has created all of us with some definite natural potential, immensely applicable in a "certain" definite sphere of activity. This sphere can be of any type viz. of that of education,sports,entertainment,politics,etc. It is upto our own "self", to determine,in which of the abovesaid spheres, that natural inborne potential, that natural talent, is lying in our case. Once we come to know about this potential that is lying with us, we shouldnot waste any time in making a systematic, clever use of it. Our sub-conscious mind not only helps us identify it but also helps us in making use of it.   

A human sub-conscious mind is the maternity ward, where new qualities are born and can be permanently installed into the character of a person.I guess we have discussed comprehensively about the miraculous potentials of this sub-conscious state of mind. This entire discussion was necessary, because all new qualities are created in this state.One of them is "concentration". This quality is helpful in bringing about success in any field, not just education and sports. The more you concentrate, the closer you are to success.        

With the advent of the T-20 format from 2007 onwards, he perfectly moulded his game to suit the faster version. Some would have thought that the aging Master Blaster wouldn’t be interested in playing in this format, which suited more to the players in the age group of 18 to 30. Yet due to his flexibility and constant innovativeness, he managed to not only play in the IPL, but also score huge amount of runs for his local team “Mumbai Indians”. This also made him to have the dream of scoring the first double hundred in the ODIs, which he successfully fulfilled against South Africa when he scored that famous 200* in Gwalior. His ability to change his game according to the format, weather conditions and the venues of the game with different kinds of pitches, has contributed immensely towards his huge success in all the three formats.

Rahul Dravid, "the Wall" of indian batting lineup, 
plays a forward defensive stroke at Perth. 
His near-perfect defense was a fun to watch for the spectators, 
as he virtually demoralized the opposition bowlers with it.

“ The biggest of all problems can be solved by "concentrating"... ” goes one well-known proverb. Even in real life, when one feels stressed due to some event or incidence, which did not happen to go as what it was planned to be, it really helps if you concentrate hard, on what you are doing rightnow, rather than worrying about whys and why-nots. I have seen many a batsman return to form, when they start concentrating and are ready to spend a lot of time on the pitch. Although I would consider Rahul Dravid a role-model for those young and budding batsmen on how to concentrate hard, Sachin was no less than him.

The Master blaster has not just blasted on the cricket field all the time but has played many a long and patient marathon innings during his test career, which showed his amazing powers to concentrate very hard. One particular innings which I remember, was during the 2003-2004 series against Australia, when India were the visitors. During the first 6 innings of three test matches played, he was in poor form and critics had started murmering around,as usual. Either he would nick one outside the offstump in the slips, or would be leg-before for a very cheap score. But then came the Sydney Test. It was premeditated. When he came to the crease he was severely tested by the rising deliveries of Brett Lee,Jason Gillespie and Nathan Bracken.Especially Lee was looking dangerous.But Sachin,went on and on. During his marathon innings of 613 minutes,he faced 436 balls and scored a whopping 241 notout with 33 fours. After this he regained his batting form and all the confidence, which he needed to score humungous runs once again.

During this long innings, his dedication, application and devotion were outstanding. He was ready to do “ all what it takes” to score a big hundred. Although he was very desperate, he seldom allowed it to surface during his innings. With maturity, class and world-class concentration, he managed to negotiate all the aussie bowlers and notched out a double hundred for himself. 

( 9 ) Competitive spirit / Fighting spirit and very Good Temperament :--

================================================    

Although his physical appearance and voice maynot be very impressive to some, he has proved over the years, that within that five and half foot stature of his,lyes a highly competitive "Man", who will take on any opposition in the world, when he feels "challenged" by the latter.

During his early days,when India toured Pakistan in 1989,I remember Imran Khan once telling his bowlers to clean up the young lad ( make him out clean bowled ) as early as possible.He maynot have built up huge scores in his very first series as a Test batsman, but it wasnot possible to make him out as quickly as what the great Khan would have dreamt about. Wasim Akram, another Pakistani great,welcomed Sachin with an array of short in length deliveries during the second test match of that tour. Sachin kept on ducking those deliveries which threatened to chase him all the way,during the process of ducking. However, he waited for a loose delivery and as soon as he got one, he took full advantage of it and dispatched it to the fence. Again he would have to duck yet another bouncer either from Wasim or Imran, and again he would come out fighting the very next delivery, if it was loose and score a boundary. After the match was over,even Imran had to convince in the post-match presentation, that the young boy had guts and a fighting spirit, “above par”.

Great Pakistani legend Imran Khan, 
talking to Sachin, during a conversation, in a hotel

When India went to Australia in 1999, Shane Warne was an established spinner and everyone talked a lot about the huge amount of turn which he was able to give to the cricket ball. The manner in which he had dismissed prominent English batsmen like Mike Gatting ( to whom he had bowled the so-called “Ball of the century”, which pitched outside the legstump and spun so much as to hit his off stump ! ) had created a sense of dilemma amongst many a batsmen round the globe. The test inMelbourne was talked to be the one in which Sachin would face a lot of trouble in the form of Warne’s sharp spinning deliveries. However, he not only negotiated excellently by defending in a copy-book style against them, but on a slight loose delivery blasted Warne off with absolutely no mercy whatsoever, whenever he bowled any loose ones to him. On 28^th December,1999, when he scored his 22^ndTest Century at Melbourne cricket ground, and won the Man of the Match award for his 116 runs in the first innings.Even Warne was convinced that he had some really difficult times bowling to the Master Blaster, as the latter was totally relentless in his approach when he got an opportunity. Not only Warne, he would do this to a large number of bowlers at the peak of their own careers – Murlidharan, Vaas,Gough,Cork,Gillespie,Walsh, Waqar,Pollock,Vettori – the list goes on and on. No bowler could remain complacent about Sachin's recent great form, when he was bowling to the legend. A single bad over and Sachin would spoil his bowling stats.

Among the cricketers who shared their experiences on the day of his retirement,there was one called Alan Sippy,his ex-colleague in the Mumbai Eleven between 1984 to 1991. He recalled an incident, on a lighter note, that once he challenged Sachin (who had already scored a century in a local game and was obviously tired) after the match, to play and win against him in Badminton. Alan would have thought that Sachin was tired and he would win easily by 3-0 in a game of best of three.But after losing the first game, Sachin fought back so hard in the second and third game, that Alan was amazed by his competitive spirit ! Finally Sachin won the games 2-1 and made Alan realize that the former shouldnot be challenged even if he was tired and weary !

The best example of his “never-say-i-lost” spirit is that he got injured innumerable number of times in his long career. First he had the back-ache problem, then his tennis elbow injury ( in which the doctors asked him to stop using heavier bats from then onwards ), then again his revived back-ache problems after he had crossed age 35.Whenever he would not be playing matches due to injury problems, a large number of critics would start shouting, that it was all over for the legend and he would never be the same as before. However, he proved time and again, that he was a “Fighter” by birth and always came out of injury problems, with “ flying colors “ which amazed not only his fans but also all of his critics.In the last years of his career, greats like Ian Chapell, Imran Khan and even KapilDev, started talking that he should retire now, as he is proving to be a burden on the team. ( Ian Chapell, the former aussie captain, has been talking about Sachin’s retirement since 2007, after which Sachin silenced him by his enormous comeback to form, in which he went from his 41^st test century to his 51^st in almost very short time of 3 years ! ) He replied all of them with his tremendous scores with the bat, owing to his eternal competitive spirit.

Former South African captain Shaun Pollock 
and the master blaster on the field. 
Pollock's reaction was really amusing 
after being struck for 2  consecutive boundaries !!

His great temperament on the field has been revealed on a number of occassions.During a tour to South Africa, I remember, he was beaten very severely twice by Shaun Pollock, outside the off stump. Pollock had delivered two outswinging deliveries and Sachin couldnot connect to it. Normally with such a pressure mounting, any ordinary batsman, would be bogged down and would try and play the rest of the over defensively.But instead, Sachin drove Pollock’s next two deliveries for two consecutive boundaries, making the same bowler now look very ordinary, who was looking ominous a couple of deliveries earlier !!

I have never seen such a temperament in any other batsman of his caliber, except Rahul Dravid, whose temperament may even surpass that of Sachin, according to me. 

( 10 ) Right sense of Judgement - Ability to know the opposition correctly and never to under-estimate them  :--================================================= 
When a batsman is in prime form, he often tends to under-estimate the skills of the opposition, especially when he is riding a wave of high confidence.Due to this, he may suddenly find himself in deep trouble, as a single defect in his technique, can be easily spotted out by the sharp-minded bowlers of the opposition team.This may lead to a gradual decline in his form and consequently his career may come to an abrupt end. 

Wasim Akram spotted the weaknesses of Indian opener Kris Shrikkanth
 and virtually brought an end to his career by making him out in the same fashion, 
again and again during India's tour of Pakistan in 1989 

                                

On the other hand, Shrikant failed to spot out the weaknesses 

        of pakistani bowlers, leading to his sudden downfall

For example, Krishnamachary Srikanth, the Indian opener,who blossomed in the 1985 Benson-Hedges World cricket tournament in Australia,after a few good years, found himself in very ugly trouble, when he went to Pakistan in November 1989. Wasim Akram and ImranKhan spotted his inherent weakness of committing himself very early on the front foot even on short pitch deliveries or mindlessly tending to hook the short-in-length delivery everytime the bowler pitched it short.Imrankhan, the captain, kept a man waiting at the deep square-leg boundary and Srikant got out in the same fashion, either leg-before-wicket,being clean bowled or hooking a delivery from Imran or Akram every time in the series, for very few runs on the board against his name ! The same tactic of hooking short pitch deliveries, which had fetched him a lot of runs on Australian and Indian pitches, failed miserably on Pakistani pitches. Eventually this led to "curtains" for Srikant, who might have played many more tests, if he had not committed this mistake of over-estimating his own capacity as a compulsive hooker or under-estimating the bowling abilities of Akram.

Tendulkar almost never failed in his judgements on the cricket field. Whether it be evaluating the capacity of the opposition, deciding on how to bat on a particular pitch, or whether to bat first or last in a game, which had overcast conditions right from the beginning. 

Sachin cleverly ducking a bouncer from Glenn McGrath 

                              

Glenn McGrath, the legend, was near-perfect in his line and length bowling 

While facing McGrath, he knew always, that he would get such deliveries from the lanky fast bowler, which would be probing his off-stump, just like what a clever detective probes into each and every minute details of a case,given to him. So he would never underestimate the legendary paceman and give him complete respect, although that meant that the game would become boring for sometime as the flow of runs would dry out. However as soon as McGrath’s spell came to an end, he would then charge upon other bowler with a lesser degree of precision than the former, and compensate for the slow rate of scoring while McGrath was bowling. His ability to change gears, in a moment’s notice, was remarkable. As soon as an opportunity arrived, he would pounce upon it like a tiger pouncing on a weak prey.

On pitches in the sub-continent ( India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka ), which are generally slow and turning, not helping the seamers too much, he would give more respect to the spinners and target the medium pacers for scoring runs.

Fast and bouncy pitch at the WACA,Perth 

where fast bowlers usually dominate the proceedings

While on fast and bouncy pitches in Australia and South Africa ( like those at Perthand Durban ), he would be very careful playing against seamers and blast away the spinners. Even on a slow turf, if the conditions were overcast ( cloudy ), he would tend to play watchfully against the fast bowlers, as the ball tends to swing a lot under cloudy conditions. However, if the conditions werenot cloudy, but the pitch had cracked on the fifth day of the match, it meant that the spinners would be at an advantage, and hence he would play them very carefully. One can say that he almost never faltered in his “Judgement” about the “present” conditions of the game. 

( 11 )  Common-sense approach:--

========================

Common sense --  a  "funny"  predicament !!

The 'un'common-ness of 'Common sense' !



Sometimes, while facing complications and difficulties in real life its smarter to be simpler. Some problems are man-made and as soon as we get simpler than before, we find that the problem either never existed or if it did, then the solution was very easy and simple. In our confusion we were over-estimating things and hence the problems cropped up unnecessarily. This particular approach to problems in any sphere of life is called “ the common-sense approach”. However an amazing revelation that has occurred to me of late is that, “Common-sense”  is however not at all “common”. I mean, how many of us don’t create a rather usual fuss about certain things athough we know from within that it was totally unnecessary to do so ? How many of us are “not” drawn by what the “crowd” thinks is right,instead of applying our own grey-matter ( brain ) to get the right perspective ? Especially during the times of tension and stress, many of us tend to lose the capacity to use our common sense, which is always there, if we just calm down a bit ! As soon as we start thinking with this common sense, the entire things look different and the problems which were looking monstrous at one time, now start looking very simple and solvable.

The importance of using "Common Sense" !

Courage to continue "always" counts .... 
during critical moments Sachin smartly used his common sense
 and had the courage to continue against all odds.
 Obviously, victory was his... 

Sachin showed his great “Common-sense” approach, so many times during his presence on the cricket field. I remember the incidence, when India lost to South Africa in the home series of 1999 by 0-2.Sachin was the captain of the team, then. Inspite of two series losses,the Indian cricket Board, BCCI, did not ask Sachin to resign from his captaincy as they had faith in him. No one had applied any pressure on him to resign. But his common sense must have told him that apart from the failures as a captain, he was slowly losing on the thing he loved the most – scoring tons of runs. He must have noticed that he was not doing well as a batsman, while being the captain of the side, as what he did when he was not a captain, particularly in the last series against the South Africans. The burden of captaincy wasnot allowing him to play freely as a batsman and was slowly creeping into his mind.He immediately resigned from the post, once the series was over, taking everyone by a huge surprise. However, when he returned to his original form later on, all the fans of his realized that his decision was the right one.

What really matters is  -  what "Counts" !

During his long innings while scoring a ton in a test match, he never argued with the bowler, even if the latter was sledging him heavily and very badly. Other short-tempered cricketers contemporary to him, would have easily been tempted to do so. But Tendulkar, using his common sense, must have thought about the significance of concentrating on his batting, while on the pitch, and replying the words of the bowler by his action ( he used to strike boundaries to those sledgers in the same over in which he was sledged and that was his “action”, his reply to the opposition bowler ), rather than having a verbal feud with the bowler and in the process losing his concentration and focus on the game, which the bowler actually would have intended to do. Losing the focus would have meant victory for his enemy, even if he did not get out to him but his runrate got slowed down. He was not ready to give even this much advantage to the bowler and hence he kept on focusing on his game. Consequently the bowler would tire out, more mentally than physically because of the total “neglect” he was getting from the batsman, and that was victory for Sachin.
I have heard that while he was not playing a Test match or an ODI game and was moving with his family, he used to be crowded by lots of fans, everywhere he went. However, without getting unduly pampered or flattered by them, he would very smartly slip away from there after giving about five to ten minutes for signing autographs. I have seen some celebrities getting so much flattered by the presence of a huge crowd that they tend to forget their schedules and instead of spending a little time with the fans, they start partying with them ! Every party has a reason, however such sudden parties don’t have one. While partying it feels good but when they realize that they missed their vital schedule ( which can be a very serious practice session for a sportsman before an important match ). This same event of missing a vital practice session before an important game, can then lead to their becoming unsuccessful in that particular match, and the gradual decline in form after that. This chain of events is sometimes unstoppable, if the sportsman celebrity doesn’t have the sense of discipline, discussed earlier. All these can be prevented by asking one’s own self- what is more important to me rightnow, attending a sudden party or to go for a practice session to regain my form – which is a common-sense question. I guess,Sachin would have asked a lot of such questions to himself.

( 12 ) Balanced state of mind - स्थितप्रग्यता  ( Sthit-Pragyata ):--

=========================================== 

Importance of "a balanced state of mind"

In Hindu mythology there is a word called “Stith-Pragyata”. Stith means Stable and Pragya means mind ( buddhi ). This particular adjective hence means “Stable-mindedness” or "the property of possessing a stable intellect". It essentially applies to a behavioural pattern, in which the person doesn’t cross any limits, by either his words or actions,in the presence of excess of anything,either more sorrow or more pleasure.This behavioural pattern or state of mind is either by birth or it can be developed by a constant and conscious effort. It seems Sachin has this immense virtue with him inborne, right from his birth. 

स्थित प्रग्यता ( Sthit pragyata )  -- The blissful state of
 " balance" of mind, body and spirit 

Many people tend to forget that after every night there is a day and after every day there is a night. I have seen a lot of guys enjoying so much during Diwali that they forget that after Diwali everyone has to live a normal,non-festive life, till the next Diwali comes back,a year later. They eat so many sweets,buy too many new clothes and enjoy as if there is no tomorrow.They spend lavishly and some even go into a debt for that.But then the scenario changes after Diwali is gone. Due to heavy and unnecessary intake of sweets and spicy food,they fall sick. The excessive intake of sweets lead them towards indigestion and constipation,causing stomach problems. Even if they donot fall sick, they donot enjoy anything anymore. The reason is that their mind is still in that Diwali mode and hence it still wants fun all the time.But this is not possible now as the festival has already gone. So it becomes irritable and restless. This may lead to frequent bouts of fights and squabbles with a lot of people. Those who have taken debts to spend lavishly during Diwali, may even find themselves running for a safer place to hide from their creditors.Inshort, excess of happiness is often seen to be bitterly followed by excess of sadness !! However, if a person remains “ balanced “ during his time of happiness, controls himself and doesn’t allow himself the liberty to cross any limit then he is always ready for the next phase, which at the worst,might be a bit low-profile, instead of turning out to be a complete disaster for him. This is what is described as being “Stith-Pragya” in the Hindu scriptures of “The Bhagwat Geeta “by Lord Krishna. (Not only that, this state of mind provides enough self-control and relief, to prevent oneself from taking any wrong actions, when things continuously go wrong for sometime.)  

So what are the advantages of attaining a stable mind ? Well, it gives a clear perception of what one is doing and what he needs to do ahead. It cleans away the fog present in our mind, in the form of confusion. As the mind and body are in harmony their frequencies match. This helps the mind to tell the body, exactly what it has to do and what it doesnot have to do as well as what limits it doesnot have to cross. It also guides one straight towards the desired goal and makes him focused. Apart from that it forms a strong foundation for a skycrapper in the form of "sub-conscious power". 

As the mind is very clear as to what needs to be done and how, it can give very strong commands to one's sub-conscious being. When such a person who has attained stable-mindedness, goes into a sub-conscious frame of mind,his mind becomes a powerhouse. As I have already discusses previously, the sub-conscious state of a human-being in itself is a huge source of power.In that, if a person who has attained "Sthit-pragyata" goes into sub-conscious state, it will be of maximum benefit for him. That person will start getting very enriched,well-directed and powerful commands from his subconscious mind, which will be very useful to him when he comes into a conscious state of mind. He will feel very confident,calm and at the same time very clear about the next steps he needs to take to reach his goal. 

We have seen that the blissful state attained by getting a balance between the mind,body and spirit is known as " Stable-mindedness ". As explained above it offers a distinct advantage to the one who has achieved it in the form of clarity. There is no further ambiguity, no confusion left. But amidst all this daily chaos how to attain that stable-mindedness ? I have already explained before in this particular point itself, as to what needs to be done. A constant and conscious effort to balance the mind,body and spirit will make one attain it. And this can be facilitated by meditation. The procedure is similar to the one explained earlier, while discussing the point " how to go into a sub-conscious state of mind and obtain sub-conscious power ". Hence, I am not repeating it here.   

Apart from helping to achieve success, this state of mind ushers in "real happiness" in the life of an individual. Let us see how. I have used the words "frequencies of the mind and the body" somewhere above. Many of us live their lives, without having it. Their mind is telling something else to do and their body is doing something entirely different ( i.e they are doing something entirely different ). Here I am not talking about personal choices and social compulsions. I am not talking about the circumstances in which a person has to do a certain job or carry out a specific task despite him being unwilling to do so. What I am telling here is that lack of rhythm between his mind and body. His mind may be going very fast and dreaming about completing so many tasks within a certain timeframe. But his body ( himself ) maynot be able to do it due to any reason. Under such a situation, his mind will start feeling frustrated, as the body is unable to achieve the pre-decided goals. If this situation continues and the mind keeps on working faster than the body, it will lead to further growth of negative feelings like dis-satisfation. This is where we find the natural frequencies of mind and body going out of synch. Under such a situation, if that individual starts practising meditation regularly, then he can ask his mind to slow down and be patient. He can further order it to dream about only those things which are achievable in the nearby future and not create long and rather impossible targets. The mind starts following these sub-conscious orders and ultimately comes into synch with the body. The result is the feeling of "peace" experienced by that person, as he has achieved that internal harmony within himself. And peace in itself, is a state of bliss and happiness. 

We have seen above as to "How to achieve harmony between mind and body". If one achieves harmony between mind,body and spirit, i.e. all the three vital components of one's self, then the amount of happiness he can get, is very huge. Some readers may find it difficult to know about the spirit or the soul. Let me explain it in brief. 

Lot of people feel very obsessed about their physical selves. They love their own face and entire body. If, by accident, they get hurt and lose some part of the body,say a finger, they feel very very sad. The holy scriptures say that this body which we carry with ourselves isnot ours. It is not the real "me". This is because, after we finish our life-span it is going to get destroyed. It will either get buried or be burnt. Thus is it is not perennial or everlasting. So,what is everlasting ? Our spirit. A person's body gets destroyed after his death, but not his Spirit. It stays and gets a new birth. The Bhagwat Geeta says preaches that if an individual stops considering his body as being his forever, and instead starts focusing on how to elevate his soul to a higher level, by good deeds, he will slowly but surely go into a state of " Perennial Bliss ". This is the state of a steady flow of happiness from within one's self,after the knowledge that all the worldly pleasures arenot his, even his body isnot his own and hence if anything goes wrong with either of them, he should not repent about it, because it was meant to go wrong and it went. This is where an absolute harmony between mind, body and the Spirit takes place and this brings a human into a marvellous state of permanent internal happiness,described as " Sthit-pragyata " or " Stable-mindedness ". Let me clarify that it is not necessary to bring a harmony amongst all the three components viz mind,body and soul to bring happiness. Even if the mind and body are at synch, one will feel happy. However, for a constant flow of peace and happiness, all three should be in harmony. Such a harmony is difficult to achieve and found mostly amongst saints and priests. If one wants to achieve success in his life, a harmony between his mind and body is enough to settle down his agitated feelings and bring him happiness, peace and success. 

Sachin has shown a lot of such stable-mindedness during his career. Whenever he was totally out of form and severely criticized by a lot of media, for getting out for less number of runs, he never took it seriously so as to go for a hasty retirement decision. Instead he would opt to take a temporary break from the game and then comeback afresh with renewed spirits and the enthusiasm of a young man. Similarly, whenever he was at the peak of his form and people from all walks of life started calling him “ the God of cricket ”, he never got flattered either, by these exaggereted adjectives showered upon him.He knew that he was not any God and these same people were the ones who were asking him to retire from the game,not long ago !! There was a chance that he may again start committing mistakes,lose form again and the same guys will suddenly ask their God to go away !! Hence, he kept a very watchful eye on not committing mistakes while batting, even during the times when he was succeeding in making a lot of runs. 

He always "kept his feet grounded", so that he remained aware and vigilant of the competition,he was going to face in the form of confident aggressive bowlers in the near future, without being complacent. For this,he practised a lot,keeping in mind the special trademark-type,wicket-taking deliveries, he was likely to face in the next series from a particular bowler. He knew that all he was supposed to do,was to bat properly and score runs, without being affected by any criticism or praise.

Height of devotion and balance of mind --

 Sachin didnot forget to worship his God, 
the cricket pitch ( at Wankhede Stadium here ) 
on the day when he retired from international cricket


Even after scoring 100 tons in international cricket, he was so much down-to-earth in his approach, that on the last day of his retirement he didnot forget "to worship" the pitch of Wankhede stadium ! Any other sportsman, in the mood of sorrow of getting retired,would have forgotten to do that, but Sachin didnot. This reflects the fact that during those heavy moments of saying goodbye too, he was calm and composed within. According to me,apart from Rahul Dravid and Sunny Gavaskar, it is only Sachin, who has shown such a “Stable-mindedness” in his approach, amongst all the top-order batsmen that India has produced,so far. 



( 13 ) Awareness about "exact" Priorities :--====================================

We all know the value of specializing in something. All celebrities enjoy a much better life financially and socially compared to a common man. They can afford to buy luxurious homes, very costly cars and so many such things which exhibit their lavish lifestyles. A common man cannot. Whenever such a social is out in public people make him feel that he has managed to achieve something substantial in his life. They ask for his autographs and invite him to their marriage functions. Giant corporates queue for signing them up for endorsing their brands. While no one takes notice of a common man. Even if he does something very good or achieves something it gets forgotten shortly. Not just celebrities take any successful person. Take a doctor for example. A Specialist can easily charge much more fees compared to a General Practisioner. An artist or a creator charges much more for his work of art or creation, after one of his works become a hit. How could that celebrity or that famous artist achieve such a status ? The reason is he was able to decide exactly what his priorities were (and secondly ofcourse he had luck on his side.) 

Over the course of my career as a teacher, I have noticed that students often get diverted in the middle of something important on to a subject which is comparatively much less important for them. Take the example of my student Rushiraj. He used to come to me for personal tuitions when he was in class 10th. He was a bright student. It was almost certain that he would be able to score more than 80 percent in the state Board exams for class 10th. But then something very unusual happened to him. Just when the exams were hardly 2 months away, he discovered that he is a fine batsman and can play cricket very well. Students start giving more and more time to activities like reading and writing when their board exams are near. But in Rushi's case, reverse happened. He started giving less and less time towards his studies and more towards playing cricket. When I came to know about this I reminded him that although he thought that by then he knew everything, his exams werenot over and he shouldnot be over-confident. Yet he refused to obey me and continued practising on his batting skills.The result was that he scored 52% in his final board exams. A boy who thought that he would easily get more than 80%, failed to get even a first class. Why? Because he had actually failed to determine his exact priority. The need of the hour for him at that particular time was to study and work hard on his subjects. But he changed his priority to something much less important. Let me tell you that after that he realized his mistake and then passed the higher secondary board exams with a glittering result of 89%. 

It is in the adolescent age that students and young people often fail to determine their priorities. They feel that they can do everything successfully within a given time-frame,which obviously they cannot. It is actually their lack of experience that leads them to believe in such things and makes them over-confident. It is after tasting failure that their realize that priorities are very necessary to be set. The most important work should be done the first and the least important should be left to be done at the last so that even if it isnot done at all there is no remorse for that. 

So the question arises how to decide, what is the most important job to do rightnow ? Well, it is not difficult. The rule is "make it simple" Think simply and as straight as possible. Donot complicate matters. Ask yourself -- " Which is the work which can harm me the most if it remains incomplete ?" You will get the answer yourself. After that finish that work first. Then ask the same question again. Whatever work comes to your mind as your second answer, finish that one now. Likewise,proceed. Donot think too much before starting a work that " first I will finish this one, second this one, third... ...   ....   ...     ... and then tenth this one." If you plan so much in advance,there is a possibility that you may start feeling depressed if your targets are under-achieved. Plan only that much, which is needed. Donot go for "mega-planning". 

Secondly, donot compare with others. Some people fix their priorities by comparing with their friends or even following them blindly. Suppose your final exams are arriving soon and your friend is good in Mathematics and you arenot, you must finish your Maths course first even if your friend is finishing his Social studies course first.What if he is considered very clever and gets a first rank in your class. Donot act stupid by following others. You must know what you need the most and not be blind about them. 

One great example of a multi-talented person, able to invest all his energies into a single priority is A.B.deVilliers, the batting prodigy from South Africa. This man is a complete athlete. He can run very fast, has played soccer at national level in his country and can perform a variety of sporting activities like playing tennis,swimming,etc. Yet,he knew that he can achieve results that reflect his real potential as a sportsman, only in the field of cricket. Hence, he has focused entirely on his batting skills and given utmost priority to sharpening them more and more.Today he is famous as a "360 degree player", because of his ability to hit a cricket ball anywhere in the field, even if it pitches anywhere infront of him !! Talented and upcoming indian batsman Virat Kohli says," I have never seen a player, so prolific, versatile and with so much talent as AB." The reverse sweep shot that goes for a sixer, that he plays has amazed even the likes of Sunny Gavaskar and Sir Vivian Richards. 

Which are the factors which inhibit our ability to decide a particular priority ? The first amongst them is over-confidence. People with unnecessary amount of confidence, often change their priorities when it matters the most. They think that they are very confident and hence they would be able to achieve the target within a stipulated time-frame. So they start giving more significance to those jobs which are comparatively much less important, than to those which are more important. It is when they fail, that they realize their mistake. 

The second obstacle is that natural inability to understand priorities.Some people are born like that.They donot know what to do at what time. Even they can improvize. I have already made it clear as to how they can do that in an earlier paragraph above. Yet let me summarize in a couple of sentences, as to what such individuals should do. (1) Make it simple. (2) Donot make big plans and start executing accordingly. 

One important factor which is directly related to deciding one's priority is "Time". " Time respects those, who respect it "-- goes one proverb. So be very conscious about time. Once you determine a certain priority, then finish that work within a certain timeframe. Donot delay or donot start late. If you finish a job within that pre-decided timeframe,your mind gets positive inputs which result into positive vibrations. This builds up the momentum to finish the next job also within a fixed timeframe. Do that too. Go on and on in this manner and you will notice, how your consecutive jobs were done more easily compared to the earlier jobs within pre-decided timeframe automatically !! This is the ripple effect that obedience to stipulated timeframe creates ! Take full advantage of this natural phenomena and build up more and more on your confidence and your sense of self-assertion. Time, thus is a tremendous morale-booster, if you obey its commands.

If it is important to you, you "WILL"  find a way,

When you have a large number of things to do, its how you schedule your priorities, how much importance you give to those things which you need to do first, that will determine how much success you will get and how early you will get it.Determining the priority of each and every thing and then doing it accordingly, plays a huge role. However, if one loses his focus and changes his priority now and then, his chances of failure will increase instead. 

God has gifted all of us with so many natural traits, but who will be most successful ? The one who can determine correctly as to which trait present within him,is the most powerful enough to lead him towards the highest possible success in his chosen field, only that person will ultimately become the most successful. A multi-talented person is never seen achieving a huge amount of success in a single field, because he fails to focus all his attention on a single trait. A “jack” of all trades can never become a “master” of one particular trade. It is a difficult to sacrifice one’s interests in other fields, in order to achieve total perfection in a single field of activity, but the one who can do this, is guaranteed of total success in the field which he chose. 

In the initial phase of his career, when Sachin started taking wickets also as a part-time spinner successfully,with his mixture of legbreak and offbreaks, some of his team-mates asked him to bowl frequently at the nets and then in the official matches also. However,he continued to practise on his batting only and kept his ability as a spinner recessive, deliberately. He knew within himself that if he diverged from his main talent as a batsman, he might end up being an ordinary batsman and a very ordinary bowler. Ending up as a very ordinary bowler would be okay with him but ending up as an ordinary batsman would have been totally intolerable to him, as he was aware of his enormous potential of being able to score huge amount of runs consistently. As a result of his constant focus and endeavour, he was able to invent some new strokes in his armour of strokeplay. The "flick" which he played to leg-spinners down the leg-side,when the ball pitched even slightly outside the leg-stump and “sweep” which he played so successfully against the likes of Warne, Murlidharan, etc. was not present when he first came in test cricket. Such innovations were possible only because he never lost focus from his batting. He kept on adapting himself to the new range of shots displayed by newer generations of the game, like the “scoop” played so well by Tilakratne Dilshan, the famous square-cut over thirdman which would directly go for a six, ( which he played to the total bewilderment of Shoaib Akhtar, during the India Vs Pakistan match of the 2003 WorldCup in South Africa ) and many more such strokes. Its being said that his focus on the game was so keen, that as a part of his duty to perform certain inevitable tasks daily, he would not only watch his own video of the entire innings, but also watch other matches going round the world with a lot of attention, to find out what should be done, when a particular type of ball is bowled to him. He was of the opinion that a good batsman should be able to play an attacking shot on even the most difficult type of delivery bowled to him. That is the reason, why he once said he loves to watch Dhoni bat, since the latter plays that “Helicopter shot” so well,to an otherwise unplayable yorker-length delivery, yielding him six runs, which any other batsman would have been forced to play in a defensive manner.In order that he stay focused throughout his career, he never stopped practising for large periods of time,in the net.

In his farewell speech he was quoted saying that he and his brother Ajit, on the previous night,were discussing on the manner of his dismissal, after he got dismissed for 74 runs in his final test innings, at Wankhede stadium, with the hope that if he got a chance to bat in the second innings he wouldnot commit the same mistake again. Just imagine the level of commitment of this man, who would not allow mistakes to creep into his game, even in his last test match. His former team-mates like Ganguly have often being quoted saying that Sachin would watch the video-clip of himself getting out in a certain fashion in a particular innings several times, until he was fully convinced that he would be able to rectify the mistake which he had done in that innings like where his feet should have been while playing that stroke,how he should have moved his hands and in what direction to play that stroke etc. He would never feel tired of watching the same clip of his dismissal again and again until he found out the perfect solution on playing that wicket-taking delivery. 

Eklavya is considered to be a great example
 of "Focus and determination" 
in the ancient hindu epic, the Mahabharata


According to the legend of Mahabharata, there lived in a forest, the son of a common man,called Eklavya. He wanted to learn archery from Guru Dronacharya, the then famous teacher of the craft of archery. Since Dronacharya used to teach only " the children of royal families", he denied.However, instead of getting disheartened ( like most others would be under such circumstances ) he learnt archery by his own, by keeping the idol of Guru Drona, right in front of him and practising the skill regularly. Over a period of time, he becase an expert in archery !! This is the result of total focus and strong determination to deliver results.

“Focus like Eklavya if you want to master the art.” – once Guru Dronacharya
told his most beloved disciple Arjuna. Sachin did exactly that.  

(14) Faith :- 

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" When the night is the darkest, have faith that the sunrise is going to happen soon." -- goes one well-known proverb. Sometimes,inspite of our best efforts,we face failure. We know that we have worked hard and done whatever we could do. But yet we don't achieve success. Under such circumstances,majority of us tend to get dejected and upset. We cannot just figure out what is going wrong and how to mend things. The dark cloud of this type of failure is so horrible that many go into depression,while some quit totally. And this world always worships the rising sun. It is very cruel, very bad for those who fail. People start behaving with you as if you are no longer needed anywhere on this planet, as if you are some kind of a burden everywhere. They criticize you severely and mock at you ruthlessly. Even those who have nothing to do with your area of work, jump into this band-wagon. So many of them start enjoying the fact that you are getting more and more nervous with each passing day. Some start calling you names like "loser" or even " insane ". Such a situation makes you feel very very ugly. You grope around for a solution but just cannot figure it out. Your entire future starts appearing very gloomy infront of your eyes. Under such a dire situation, only one word can save you -- " Faith ". 

This word " Faith " has enormous amount of hidden power. Normally, this quality is seen in a dormant or passive state until a really contingent situation arises. At that time, it gets activated. No sooner a person resorts to Faith, he first becomes quite for sometime and then all of a sudden he gets immense amount of mental and physical strength from within himself. He rises like a phoenix bird,which rose from the ashes and starts solving all his problems one by one. This transition from a weak,directionless loser to a strong,focused super-human is simply miraculous and amazing. People start wondering as to what happened suddenly and from where did he get this huge amount of superman-like power. This is what Faith can do to all humans. It has the potential to provide us with that requisite energy,that mental and physical strength to overcome any hardship and win over all kinds of difficult situations.  

So then what is "Faith". I would define it as -- " That invisible power, which provides us with comfort and requisite mental and physical strength during challanging circumstances." It is a last minute resort, just prior to a completely desperate situation. And it always works. Faith never fails. 

I would classify faith into two types :-- (1) Faith in God and (2) Faith in one's own abilities. Let us examine both types carefully,keeping our main topic of success in mind.  

(1) Faith in God:-- In the year 1984,legendary indian actor Amitabh Bachchan met with an accident when the lower part of his stomach collided with the sharp corner of a table,while he was shooting for his forthcoming film       "Coolie". He became unconscious and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors reported to the media that his condition was "serious" and nothing could be said for the next 72 hours. If internal bleeding starts in his intestinal region, he may die. At that time, he was a superstar. The indian masses prefered to stand in long queues to buy the ticket of a new Amitabh-starrer film. 85% to 90% of his films became either Superhit or atleast a Hit. He was a darling of the public. People loved and admired him all across India. And suddenly they saw that their beloved star was facing a very dangerous situation. Expert doctors seemed helpless to this unexpected difficulty. At that time, his fans and all those who loved him resorted to Faith. Hindus went to Temples, muslims to Mosques,shikhs to Gurudwaras and Christians to Churches. They prayed wholeheartedly to their Gods. And the impossible became possible. He recovered in a short time. His doctors themselves told to newsmen -- " This is nothing less than a miracle !!" People were happy now that their favorite superstar had survived. The storm was over and gone. 

Some analysts analysed the whole chain of events right from the declaration of the doctors that his condition was very serious to his recovery. They came to the conclusion that when medical science didnot help, the faith of the people of India helped a lot. They also said that Amitabh's health which was gradually deteriorating suddenly started recovering from the time when reports started pouring that flocks of people had begun visiting famous shrines like the SiddhiVinayaka Temple and Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai !! When medical science was losing the battle, Faith helped to win it. Such is the power of faith in the Almighty. It can convert the totally impossible looking things into totally possible ones.  

Had it not for this kind of miracles happening allover the world, selfish humans would have long forgotten about visiting religious places. Such magical events remind all of us that there exists an extremely powerful source of energy,bliss,happiness and peace somewhere in the universe, which gives us full and unconditional support as and when we remember Him. He doesnot discriminate between us. Whether we are young or old, rich or poor, male or female,whatever we are, if we remember Him and ask for His help,He will help. I bow my head with complete sense of surrender, to this Supreme being.   

The second category of Faith is the one which drives this world forward --  "Faith in one's own abilities". It is like the engine of any vehicle, which provides the necessary horsepower,as and when needed. If the horsepower is more, the vehicle will run faster. Similarly, if the faith in one's own abilities is stronger, the acievements will be greater. Just like faith on the Almighty can work wonders, in a human's life, same way faith on his/her own personal capacities can. 

" If you believe in yourself, donot bother about what the world has to say." and " If you think you can do it, then you can do it. " The above two proverbs say a lot in a single line. When Tiger Pataudi, the ex-captain of indian national cricket team during the sixties, lost his right eye during a car accident, indian team selectors got worried that now a budding cricket would never be able to make his test debut.Cricket is a game of precision of judgement, where a batsman has to face fast swinging cricket balls of weight roughly between 156 to 163 grams. Some bowlers ball very fast at speeds in excess of 145 kmph ( kilometres per hour ). At this speed,even a slight misjudgement error on the part of the batsman can prove to be very dangerous and even sometimes fatal for him. Inspite of the presence of protection equipments like the helmet,the pads, the gloves, etc. the ball can hit you on sensitive parts like the head, the inner portion of the chest ( on the left side of the person where the heart is located ) or on the reproductive organs. If it does, the person will get injured badly or even die as in the case of Phil Hughes, the budding aussie who died after the ball hit the rear part of his head, during a local match at Sydney in November 2014. Inshort, if a cricketer isnot fully fit, he is advised "not to play" until he fully recovers. And here was Tiger Pataudi, left handicapped permanently with one eye, after his car mishap. Everybody now firmly believed that his illustrious career had come to an unfortunate and abrubt end even before it had begun. But he was a " Tiger " not just by his pet-name,which was given by the fans who loved and admired him so much. He had the heart of a real tiger. While many were guessing about him announcing his premature exit, he had other ideas. He fought back. Spending hours and hours in the practising sessions, he realized that if he could judge the ball well even with one eye in the nets, there was no reason as to why he should not be able to judge it while playing in a Test match. He had not even made his test debut and there was absolutely no reason to quit. He remained focused and forgot all about what the world was concluding about him.After spending 6 months on heavy practice, he declared that he will continue playing the beautiful game. Everybody was surprised as to how this one-eyed gentleman would face the fast bowlers. He replied all his critics with a marvellous century at Madras ( now Chennai ) against England. He made 103, and was never seen afraid of any paceman. He would play shots like a pull shot and a hook shot as fearlessly as what a batsman with both eyes intact,would play. He also didnot hesitate to make use of his feet and step out of his crease to play valiant drives against spinners. All these showed that he had completely overlooked the fact that he had only one eye. It was his immense amount of self-belief, that faith in his natural ability to play stylish and courageous shots, that made him recover fully in terms of his playing skills and regain his career back. After his accident in July 1961,it took him less than 6 months to re-establish himself as a bright,young prospect,just like what he was reckoned when he had both eyes intact. He then went on to represent for India, successfully for 46 test matches. During those tests he scored 6 test hundreds, all with a single eye !! Spectators around the world were amazed by the level of self-belief and determination showed by this legend of the game. He also went on to become the youngest captain of a cricket team, when he led India for the first time, during the West Indies tour of 1962, at a boyish age of 21 years and 77 days. This was a world record in itself, until 2004. As on today,in 2016,this remains a record as far as the indian cricket team is concerned. 

Another example of self-belief is Rajnikanth, the superstar of Tamil Cinema. Before making his debut in tamil films he was a bus-conductor !! He was black and not very handsome by looks. When he tried his hand at acting, many directors refused. Yet he kept on trying and got a break. After that he gave a chain of superhit tamil films. As of today, he is considered an icon of indian cinema. All these miracles could happen in his life because Rajnikanth knew about his hidden potential. He firmly believed in his acting abilities and his capacity to mesmerize the public. And the rest is history. 

Looking at the above examples it is obvious to observe that Faith or self-believe is a huge source of power that originates from within. It is so strong that it can guide a person through any kind of difficulty, any crisis or even any danger. There are so many examples of badly wounded soldiers returning back from battle-fields "alive" and victorous, of women coming from very backward backgrounds and making a name for themselves in some good field of work, of very common man becoming a prime-minister or president of a country etc. One and only one word comes to my mind when I listen to such inspiring stories -- "faith". 

Some people have this God-gifted quality from their birth. Some donot have it at all. They feel bewildered and confused more often than not. When they see others surging ahead confidently and hugely in their careers, they feel dejected and depressed upon these facts -- why they are not able to believe in their own abilities, why they always feel that something is always "lacking" in themselves, why they cannot achieve success even a single time when others around them are enjoying it frequently. Here is the solution. Ask yourself when you are sitting alone in a quiet corner -- How can I build that " belief " in myself ? How can I just focus on my own abilities rather than scattering away my concentration now and then, by thinking of what others are doing ? Slowly you will find a way. This all goes back to my earlier topic of " the power of the sub-conscious mind ". So I desire not to repeat the entire topic again here as it may sound monotonous. But to summarize it in brief, this is what I can say :-- Go back to your sub-conscious state. Ask yourself those vital questions, when you come into that divine state of "thoughtlessness", ( which comes after about 15 minutes of practised meditation ). The solutions to all your questions will start flowing naturally from yourself. Suddenly you will find life much easier. Once you get the answers that you needed, donot delay your implementation, because it is quite possible that you might start forgetting those solutions within a day or two. So start implementing them as early as possible. You will notice a gradual rise in your self-belief. Continue this process of going to the sub-conscious mind and then implementing its solutions daily and regularly. In a matter of a few months, you will observe an increase in your performance levels in terms of accuracy and efficiency. This is how you can "generate" faith within yourself and then develop it further. 

Sachin Tendulkar used to visit the SiddhiVinayak Temple located at Prabhadevi,Mumbai before any important cricket event like a forthcoming Worldcup to get the blessings of Lord Ganesha. And to everyone's surprise he used to score a heap of runs in that big event even when he was considered "out of form" before it ! The faith on the Divine, always got him inspired,to achieve more.  

His ability to sustain and continue his career for 24 long years, shows his immense faith in his own abilities. So many times, retired cricketers commented after his consecutive 4 to 5 failures to score runs, that now Sachin needs to retire at the earliest. I very well, remember his collapse of form before he scored his 36th Test hundred against Bangladesh. Once he had scored his 33rd hundred ( 194 notout against Pakistan at Multan ) it took him 3 years and two months to score his next three tons. This statistics is quite shocking,if we look at the high standards,which he had set for himself. He scored his 34th century against Bangladesh after nine months of his 33rd ton. At that time he had equalled the world record of the highest number of centuries held for a long time by another batting prodigy Sunny Gavaskar. All his fans were eagerly waiting for him to break Sunny's record and score the 35th hundred as soon as possible. But his lacklustre form didnot permit him to do that. He managed it only after 1 year, when he scored a patient 109 against Sri Lanka at FerozShah Kotla ground,New Delhi. Still his ugly form continued and then he made everybody to wait for another 17 months before he scored his 36th hundred in the form of 101 against Bangladesh at Chittagong. A player who used to score 3 to 4 hundreds on an average during a single calendar year, had by now scored only 3 hundreds in thrice the number of days. His sceptics and critics got activated. Even his fans started thinking negatively about the prospects of his further carrying on. Ian Chapell, who is an excellent commentator and an wonderful cricketer of the seventies, very sharply commented then -- " Sachin has crossed not only his prime but also the twilight of his career. He needs to hang up his shoes now." But then Sachin scored another ton (122 notout),his 37th one, against Bangladesh just within a week !!  After that century he went on to score 14 more test hundreds in the next 4 years !!! That was enough to silent any critic. This was the level of self-belief, that the master blaster had, about his batting abilities. When it came to challanging Sachin about him being able to do a certain batting feat or not, it seemed as if the whole world was on one side and Sachin was on the other. He never cared of what others said about him, when the question came to a desperate situation like proving his abilities as a cricketer. He would prove it anyhow. 

Many people asked him this question so many times after 2010 -- " Sachin, you have been playing cricket now for more than two decades. Yet we notice no decrease in your fighting spirit, your zeal and your vigour. You still play like a young cricketer. We are all puzzled that how do you still manage to do all these ?" Sachin used to give a different reply, which surely satisfied that interviewer, but the real answer is this one -- Even after crossing 37 years of age, he kept on playing like a 20 year old, with the same freshness and the same enthusiasm for the next game. The source of this amazing hidden power, was his self-belief. He knew that he had that ability of continuing to play till whatever age his body and mind allows and this knowledge, this faith, was enough to rejuvenate him before an entire new series. Thus he kept going on and on for those 24 years and that too successfully.  

(15 ) Mental Fortitude :--

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Some cricketers like Marcus Trescothick (2006-07 Ashes series ) and Jonathan Trott ( 2013-14 Ashes series ), became victims of enormous “stress-related" illnesses, due to lack of mental fortitude.   

Marcus Trescothick quit the 2006-07 Ashes 
"in-between" as he thought he was "depressed"
and unable to cope with "stress" !!

Jonathan Trott surprised everybody when he returned to England

 after the first Test in the 2013-14 Ashes, on the grounds that 

he was under "severe depression" !! Here he is seen trudging off 

the Gabba Cricket ground in a very nervous manner, 

after falling prey to Mitchell Johnson

Although this depression didnot arise from their personal lives, it can surely be considered that it arose due to their inherent weaknesses towards facing stressful situations in real life. Trescothik got so much intimidated by the fast,swinging and bouncy deliveries of Brett Lee,McGrath and other aussie bowlers that he left the all important Ashes series and flew back home, like a loser. Same happened recently to Jonathan Trott, otherwise an excellent, solid-looking, one-down batsman fromEngland. Just in one test match, he was extremely puzzled by the chin music he faced, especially from Mitchell Johnson. He got so very rattled by the rising,fast deliveries of Johnson and also from the flak,he received from the nearby fielder David Warner,in the first test match at Brisbane, that he complained of “Stress-related” syndromes to his medical attendant. Much to the amusement of the Australians, he decided to leave the tour "in-between" and go back to England. These are the two examples of “ Falling from the crest”, which happens mainly because of being excessively emotional towards your job.

I have never seen a cricketer 
as mentally strong
 and as patient as Rahul Dravid

The best way to do it is by trying to remain calm, even during the toughest of situations and having faith in your abilities all the time, as what Sachin and

also Rahul Dravid did.

Didn’t Sachin face any chin-music, when he went so many times to the fast bouncy pitches of Australia and South Africa ? Yes,he too did. I must say he did face it much more than any Trescothick or Trott might have done, since he was considered to be “one of the greatest players of all time” right from late nineties.That means he faced such tough circumstances for around 20 years. Captains would ask their frontline bowlers to “target” Sachin on almost all the grounds in the world.Although his shorter height helped him a lot while facing the pacemen ( since he can easily duck when it was even a slight bouncer, due to his 5’5” height ),still he had to face many a bowlers who would definitely target his body,while bowling,especially his face,chest and stomach. Any such bodyline bowling can cause immense problems for any batsman. However, the mental fortitude of Sachin was so strong, that he never got worried by it. Yes, he was also hit quite a few times, while facing fast bowlers. I remember an incidence in his very first series in Pakistan, where his nose started bleeding while being hit by a pacy delivery. Yet he continued batting in that innings and made an useful fifty.

Instead of getting bogged down by such threatening deliveries, he kept on playing them or ducking them, saying to himself that it was a part and parcel of the game. He knew that any bowler cannot bowl more than two bouncers to him in a single over. And in a spell in a test match, a fast bowler usually gets tired after bowling 5 to 7 overs.So the amount of such fast rising deliveries would be not so big. He knew that if he passed this acid test, then the rest of the bowlers were not so hard to face, and the game was within his grab. So he always negotiated this “acid-test” as calmly as possible and once it was over, he would change to his faster gear and take out all his frustration by counter-attacking.

While facing spinners too, even if you are considered very clever against them, you cannot remain complacent. Take for example, Anil Kumble. He would bowl all his six deliveries of his over, with different lengths and different pace. ( Variation was the big strength of this Indian legend, Kumble. ) So many batsman got so confused that they threw away their wickets to him and in the process, when they got no solution to him, would feel uncomfortable, when they come down to face him once again in the second innings. Same was the case of Murlidharan,Warne, Saqlain Mushtaq. However, when Sachin faced them,he was never complacent and had the mental fortitude to resist them, even if they kept on varying their length and line for all six deliveries.

( 16 ) No personal enmity with anyone in the world ( being "अजातशत्रु " i.e. the one with no enemy anywhere):--

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“ When you rise in fame, the number of your enemies also can rise.” – goes a popular proverb. It all depends on how well you can handle the situation.

The most recent example is that of Virat Kohli. When India toured Australia in 2012 and lost 0-4 to them, everyone including the Aussies knew about the talent of this boy, Virat. He was a game-changer by his potential. So some sections of the aussie crowd targeted him, while he was fielding on the fence by booing at him. Now instead of remaining neutral towards them and keeping his focus on the game, Virat chose to revert back. He showed them his middle finger !! The pranky crowd needed this only. They further booed him and the matter went worse. Before it could go to the worst, Mahendrasinh Dhoni, the Indian captain decided to change his field position from there. 

Virat Kohli showing "middle finger" to the Aussie crowds

By showing his middle finger to the booing crowd, Virat chose to give rise to controversy and unnecessary hatred, during a Test match played in Australia at Sydney Cricket ground ( 2011-12 series). He could have remained silent and paid no attention at all to that crowd.Slowly it would have calmed down and nothing would have happened later.But due to the "middle-finger" reaction of Virat, he invited trouble for himself.He has quite a large number of haters in Australia even today,despite all his achievements with the bat. 

When asked about this episode by sports journalists, he defended his action with these words - " I know its not wise for a player to retaliate to the crowd but what do you do when you hear so many racial abuses, especially on your mother or sister ?" I agree, Mr.Virat that its really a tough time out there on Australian grounds, if you are from the visitor's camp. The Aussie players and their spectators just donot spare you. They sledge you, use harsh provocative words against you very loudly,while you are fielding on the fence and do lots of such unwanted things. But is that new? No. It has been going on since so many years now. Before you, others too have faced it. But they didnot lose their temper and make retaliatory gestures publicly. You should understand that your work out there is just to play the game with the best of your ability and not to worry about whats going on around you. If you remove your focus from the game, it is you, who is at loss in the process, if by chance you misfield or drop a catch, as your attention got diverted. Remaining calm and composed, when facing a difficult opposition is an art, that everyone of us should learn. 

Compare Virat with Sachin. As on today, Sachin is loved in Australia as if he is an Australian legend and not an indian !! And that after he scored his most test runs ( more than 2500 ) and most test hundreds against them ! Virat needs to learn from Sachin that just accomplishments arenot enough, you need to show a moderate,tolerant and gentle side of your personality to your haters & opponents and doing that is very difficult.This is how you become famous everywhere. 

Ask the Pakistani fans – "do you love Sachin or hate him?" The answer would be almost unanimous - “ We all love Sachin.” Why? Even he faced brutal deliveries from the pace battery of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younus, Imran Khan and later on Shoaib Akhtar, right over there in Pakistan. While he was playing on Pakistani soil, he too was booed, coaxed and ridiculed by some players and lots of spectators there. Yet, since he never paid any attention to negativity and kept his mind completely focused on positive things happening around, he managed to create friends amongst foes, amongst those who have been considered to be the bittermost haters of India and indians,for decades now.

Shoaib Akhtar deliberately standing in the way of Sachin,
trying to obstruct him, in an effort to stop him from taking a single

On the field too, if one watches the videos of the past games, one can vividly spot out Shoaib Akhtar making many bodily gestures, oozing with venom and hostility,on even Indian soil. That infamous incident in which Akhtar stood right in the middle between the space on which Sachin was running to reach the other side of the batting end to complete his single,in order to make him run out, proves the same. At that time,the umpire had declared Sachin as “run out” however the crowds got angry because of the fact that Akhtar had obstructed him by standing in the middle on his way, while completing a run. The crowd wanted that Sachin be declared "not out" and be recalled to bat again. However, Sachin came out of the dressing room,asked the crowd to become silent and approved the umpire’s decision of declaring him “Out”. After the match everyone was astonished when on being asked whether he carried any grudges for Akhtar for latter’s lack of sportsmanship on the field, Sachin replied that he did not ! "Competition is a part and parcel of this game and Shoaib did everything he could,to make me out. He still remains a good friend to me !” - said the master blaster. As on today, Akhtar believes Sachin to be his good friend, although this wouldnot have been like that, had Sachin chose to antagonize him on that spot. The great man chose to create space in Akhtar’s heart inspite of the bitter onfield rivalry and that fragrant space for Sachin remains in his heart even today ! This is how one converts foes into friends and spreads the message of “love” instead of “hatred” in this world, where rivalry can crop up anytime,anywhere. We all need to learn a lot from this particular incidence. 

Sreesanth dancing on the ground, 
moving his bat heavily as if to provoke Andre Nel, 
after the bowler sledged him badly 
as he was beaten by his earlier bouncer

A very ugly verbal exchange between Gambhir and Afridi, 
during an ODI at Kanpur in 2007 --
both these players are ill-famous 
for their short tempers and volatile nature

Look at Gambhir and Kamran Akmal arguing heavily with each other -- both involved in a shameless unsporty spat in this gentleman's game.
The match was held in 2010.

And worst of them all -- Look at Miandad raising his bat as if he was about to hit the bowler Lillee. Also look at Lillee, gesturing like a boxer, who is ready to punch his opposite number !!

Short-tempered cricketers like S.Srisanth, Andre Nel, Shahid Afridi, Gautam Gambhir,Kamran Akmal,Javed Miandad, Dennis Lillee  etc. donot have any place in “the book of fame ”,( in terms of sportsmanship shown on the field ),of this great “gentleman’s game”, only because of their short-temper and hot nature, which led them to conduct a behaviour with no sportsmanship shown towards the opposition team members.

( 17 ) Non-controversial personality :--

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So many cricketers have been into some or the other controversy on or off the field. Ricky Ponting, was reprimanded so many times, in his earlier days as an Australian test player, for example. The reason was, he used to come back to the hotel very late after going to some local pub, even on a day prior to an important test match and even during those days when a test match is going on ! I remember once he was also reprimanded by the “Australian Cricket Board” ( now Cricket Australia ) for getting into a spat with some guys at a pub in Melbourne city, which eventually led to blows and open street-fight ! When the Australians went to England to play for the Ashes in 2013, David Warner got into a feud with Joe Root in a local pub and is believed to have punched Root on the nose. For this he was fined and couldnot play in the first two test-matches of an all important Ashes series !

Such instances of controversies are not new at all. Ian Botham Vs Ian Chapell at a Melbourne pub, Javed Miandad running down in a rather threatening manner,as if he was going to hit his bat on to Dennis Lillee, Shahid Afridi and Gautam Gambhir getting into a very hot spat, wicketkeeper Akmal getting into a very hot discussion with Gambhir, S.srisanth making very wild gestures to Andre Nel after hitting him for a sixer in response to Nel’s provocation onto him, Sunny Gavaskar asking Chetan Chauhan to come with him to leave the field in response to a wrong decision by the umpire to declare him out in the Melbourne test of 1980-81 series … the list goes on and on. But to everyone’s surprise one cannot spot out even a single incidence in which the Master Blaster was involved in any such feud, which could have tarnished his reputation as a “Gentleman” !! Just imagine… 24 years of illustrious career, 200 test matches, 463 One Day games and yet.... yet not even a single incidence of having any serious dispute with any player nor creating any unnecessary trouble for anyone !! Amazing, isn’t it ??

Umpire Steve Bucknor gave Sachin out LBW to Jason Gillespie
in the first Test match of the 2003-04 Border Gavaskar trophy test series
 between Australia and India. This was one of the three horrendous decisions
 that Bucknor gave against Sachin, during those times. Yet Sachin
 neither showed any protest nor created any controversy. 

Umpire Steve Bucknor, who umpired in 128 test matches, gave a horrible decision in the 2003 Gabba Test match of Australia versus India. Jason Gillespie bowled a delivery which clearly pitched outside off-stump,came in and struck on the knee of Sachin, who was about 1 foot outside his batting crease. Gillespie appealed and to everyone's surprise, Bucknor gave him out !!! In the action replay it was clearly seen that the ball pitched outside the offstump by about 9 inches and then it was clearly seen missing the off-stump, passing by about 8 to 9 inches from above it. Sachin had not even opened his account when this happened. He was surprised for a moment but then without any objection, he left the field, considering umpire's decision as " final " ( even if it was wrong as in this case ). He never argued a single word, nor made any unnecessary fuss about it. The indian camp was aghast at such a horrendous decision given by Bucknor. In that series, this umpire went on to give two more wrong decisions on Sachin, declaring him "out", when he was notout. Yet,even then Sachin neither objected to anything nor passed any comment about Bucknor's low grade umpiring later,infront of the media. This example is enough to prove that the man never believed in giving rise to any controversy with anybody whosoever.  

( 18 ) Passion :--

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We live in a world full of comfort with amenities like refridgerator,TV,air-conditioner,etc. at our service 24x7. But have your ever thought about the life of men who lived in and before the 19th century? Surely it was not as comfortable as ours. This led to the invention of all these electronic gadgets. But before that came the invention of electricity. It was Thomas Alva Edison, who invented electricity,when he was able to lit the first electric lamp ever. It is believed that he failed for nearly 10,000 times in his attempts. The people around him started calling him insane and completely "out of his mind". People began to make fun of him frequently. They called his idea of lighting the room by an electric lamp as unrealistic and unachievable. His friends advised him so many times to quit his experiments as more and more public started mocking at him. Yet he kept on trying and trying. Finally he succeeded. He did bring "artificial light" inside human abodes. So what was the element that kept him moving forward ? What was his "driving force" ? The answer is simple. It was his " Passion " to bring artificial light into human dwellings. That passion didnot let him go loose when people around him were mocking at him, seeing that he was failing continuously. That passion provided him with all necessary mental and physical energy and stamina, when things werenot working according to his desire. 

Not only Thomas Alva Edison, take any inventor -- Alexander Graham Bell who invented telephone, George Stevenson ( steam engine ), Wright brothers ( Aeroplane ),Galileo Galili ( laws of pendulum and telescope ) ... the list is very long. All these had immense passion to invent something which they had " already thought of " in their minds. They pursued their goal,whole-heartedly and incessantly, until they finally achieved it. 

Passion is such an invincible force that has the capacity to overcome any hurdle, any obstacle that comes in the way. " Where there is a will, there is a way." -- says the famous proverb. This will itself is what we call passion. It is one of those qualities that steers and directs an individual very confidently towards his target. When he is advancing towards his target, he looks completely fearless and assured. His body language becomes superb. Those of his opponents with a weak heart become nervous by just seeing him !! Not only he does he look,so much pumped up from outside, but he is actually going very strong from inside too. His adrenaline is flowing with full force. It seems that his entire identity is busy in achieving his target. 

Such a condition described above, is seen mostly in case of athletes and sportsman. However, some passionate people are silent achievers too. Take for example a famous painter like Leonardo Da Vinci. He never made any big noise about his new projects. He worked silently but passionately. The result was great masterpieces like Mona Lisa ( 1504 ), The Last Supper ( 1498 ),Vitruvian Man, the Baptism of Christ ( 1475 ) etc. 

"MonaLisa", the world famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci (above) 
and "The Last Supper" also by Leonardo Da Vinci ( below )

                 

"Vitruvian man" by Leonardo Da Vinci ( above ) and 
"The Baptism of Christ" ( below ) also by him.

                                                     

Two of the best examples of individuals having immense passion for their work are Sir Isaac Newton and Rabindranath Tagore. After the apple fell on his head, Newton didnot lose any time in discovering the Rules of Gravity. He surged behind his work so passionately that he used to forget his lunch and dinner times for days together !! His assistant had to continuously remind him about these times. Yet it was never sure that the scientist would take food for sure. If he thought that he was very near to coming some important logical or mathematical conclusion on that day, he would just skip his lunch and keep working until he had finally arrived at that conclusion !!! Similarly, the great indian poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore used to lock himself up inside closed doors, for day together, when he was working on something very important to him !!! Sometimes, he would come out of his room after 3 days !! It all depended on the amount of work and the quality of work he was doing, during that time. Unless and until he was entirely happy with what he had written, he would not just come out !!!! I salute to the passion of these two gentlemen, which lifted them from the category of ordinary to "extra-ordinary". 

Sir Isaac Newton (above)

Rabindranath Tagore (above)

After this discussion let me try and define "passion" -- " It is such a quality that has the potential to transform an ordinary and often-failing common man into an extra-ordinary and successful individual." The gist of this topic is that passion is such a huge force that gives a lot of mental and physical strength to a person and it just keeps on pushing him towards his goal till the time he ultimately achieves it. As defined above, it is a quality of "transformation". From the moment passion is born inside a human being, to the moment when he achieves his target, one can notice several big changes in that person, characterwise and even socially. He becomes a more assured and target-conscious,focused human from being a rather directionless wanderer before. And from the fresh new wave of confidence that has traveled into his life, rises a feeling of gratitude and satisfaction. That further enhances his natural confidence level. He becomes more respectful, receptive and co-operative towards others. In other words, he becomes a better human being socially too.    

In cricket, the like the passion of Pakistani teams. Take from any era,viz the eighties, the nineties or the post 2000 era. Every pakistani team has shown passion during their period of play. The Rothmans cup won by Pakistan at Sharjah in 1986, was a great example of their passion towards the game. At one stage Pakistan required 85 runs in 60 deliveries which meant that the asking rate was 8.5 runs per over. Now,during those days,such an asking rate was considered almost unachievable. But their main batsman Javed Miandad was in prime form. India wanted to bowl Pakistan out and win it outright. But Miandad had other ideas. He was brimming with confidence. Gradually he brought Pakistan very close to victory. A situation arose when they required 4 runs of the last ball of the match ! It was a very tight situation as they just had one wicket left. If a single batsman now got out, India would win. And if they could score 4 runs or more of that last ball, Pakistan would register a thrilling victory. It was a "do or die" situation on both sides. Indian medium-pacer Chetan Sharma had already bowled 5 balls of his over and was supposed to ball that all-important final ball. He came running in and bowled to Miandad. It was a full-toss on the leg-stump. Miandad lunged onto it and lifted it over the mid-wicket fence for a sixer !!!! Pakistan won the match !! What an amazing victory that was !! At one stage they looked in no position to win it and then they managed to score at an unbelievable rate of 8.5 runs per over. What was the reason behind Miandad's success then ? It was his immense passion. Yes. He had this huge unsurmountable desire to defeat India anyhow. He knew that it was possible though India were World-cup Champions at that time, having won the Prudential World cup in England in 1983. He had full faith in his personal abilities and in the potential which that Pakistani team carried with itself. This passion and the determination to do it "anyhow" made them victorious. Although, I am an indian and Pakistan is our biggest rival in cricket,I really enjoyed that match,that day. Not just that match,but many more matches can be cited as examples of Pakistan's passion of playing cricket. It is this passion only,that elevated them to the level of becoming World Champions in 1992, when the World cup was played in Australia. 

Some people donot possess this quality at all. They feel lifeless all the time and keep wondering as to "what on earth" is driving all these other people towards their goals. Afterall, why are they not feeling passionate about anything ? What is lacking in them ? They keep on asking such questions to their friends and relatives, but mostly fail to get correct answers. The reason why they fail to do so is that the answers donot lye with their friends and relatives. They lye within themselves. They need to introspect. Once they do so, they realize their inner strength. As discussed before, all solutions lye within an individual himself. Through proper sub-conscious efforts,they can raise the level of their passion towards a particular target or object or anything which they desire in life, from almost zero to a very high level. All these points related to the power of sub-conscious state of mind, have been thoroughly discussed earlier at a very good length in this book. Hence no further detail is needed.  

Saurav Ganguly, Sachin’s opening partner in the One-day format, once said that Sachin had this habit of being obsessed with what he was going to do on the next day on the field, when his batting would come. Even in the hotel rooms,which sometimes both of them shared,while on a tour abroad, Ganguly would have sleepless nights because of Tendulkar ! The latter would keep talking on and on about what his plans were for the next day. He would act like a child, gesturing with his hands as if he held the bat in it and move back and forth on the floor of the hotel room, as if he was actually facing a real Shane Warne or Glenn McGrath ! “Sometimes it made me wonder, if this is the same guy who all of us think as a great legend, because he behaved like a young teenage batting enthusiast, always wanting to bat,bat and bat, round the clock !” – Ganguly once had exclaimed openly.

Till April 2011,even after playing cricket for 22 years and playing five WorldCups, Sachin hadnot yet realized his dream of lifting the “Worldcup of cricket”. When the cup came to India, ( it was scheduled to be played in India ),the indian cricketers were hot favorites to win it. And when under the very capable leadership of Mahendrasinh Dhoni, India did win it, Sachin was so jubilant,so much "over the moon",that everyone was taken by surprise. He started jumping and cheering loudly as if he was a school boy !!! After kissing the cup, he went along with all other indian players,some of them lifted him on their shoulders,and then all of them ran proudly around the whole circular ground. The manner in which Sachin celebrated the occassion,would never make anyone feel that he was 38 years of age at that time. Atlast his long drawn patience had brought the most coveted result and the "Cup" for which he had aspired the most,all his life,was won by India.

The "little master" was lifted on their shoulders by Kohli and Yusuf Pathan,
after winning the 2011 WorldCup held in India,
as a sign of great respect for his services
 towards the game and his "passion" for it

When India won the worldcup for the first time in 1983, Sachin was a school boy of age 10.At that time, he wouldn’t have even dreamt that he would be holding the coveted trophy in his own lucky hands after 28 years. However his passion for the game was unprecedented. His patience and passion finally paid off. India became only the third country to win two or more WorldCups,in the history of the game,after Australia and West Indies had done it earlier. All of his team-mates gave Sachin the credit for being the highest "motivating factor" to win the cup, and deservedly so. Had it not been for Sachin, that “intense” desire to win it, would have been missing among other team members, as all of them were ofcourse wishing to win the world cup but didnot have as much "intense passion", as what Sachin had carried alongwith himself,for 22 long years.

Many of those with whom,he has played in his long career of 24 years, don’t fail to say that he has never been late at any of the practice sessions. So many times he has cancelled his personal family schedules,just to play a less significant match like a Ranji trophy regional qualifier. Even if it were a small domestic game or a game against a minnow like Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, Sachin has never taken it with lesser importance, as he always knew that such small games would help him bring back a lost "form" and also sharpen his batting skills further and enhance his physical abilities once again. In his own words, the cricket pitch has been his place of “Worship”. One cannot find a better example of devotion,commitment and passion among sportsmen,in any kind of sport, anywhere in the world and in any era, than that of Sachin’s.

( 19 ) Maturity :--

============ 

This particular trait in an individual gives him calmness of mind and strength to his entire personality. Generally maturity comes after mid-thirties when its being said that biologically the body and the mind get tuned up in such a manner, that the person starts behaving maturedly. 

This is a rather quiet sort of trait,which is found not so frequently, during modern times. It gives to a person, the natural capacity to gauge risks and advantages of a particular situation. The aim here,is to minimize the risks. It doesnot matter too much, whether or not, the advantages are maximized or not.  

Everyone of us commit mistakes. Some keep on repeating the same mistake again and again. Whereas some wise people make sure that they have learnt from a mistake and decide firmly not to commit it again. They remain very focused and conscious about not committing that same mistake, when similar type of circumstances arise, which led them to a mistake previously. They also try their best to minimize risks. One can say that such a type of individual is a "matured" person. 

From the discussion in above paragraph, let me define "maturity" -- " The quality that teaches a person not to commit the same mistake again and again, keeping him focused and conscious about it,is termed as maturity. " It is a much stronger and deeper quality compared to smartness. It reminds a person not to take any hasty decision, especially on vital occassions. It makes him take a breathe and decide about what to speak and how to act in a particular situation. It gives him a lot of courage too, as he knows from his previous experience, that althought the situation was complicated, there was nothing to fear about then and hence even now he should take further action calmly and without any fear whatsoever. 

When he recollects that he went into trouble because of taking too many risks on the last occassion, he decides not to take so many of them this time. Even if the returns are less, by taking lesser risks he decides to go for that. He is not as interested in maximizing the returns as he is in minimizing the risks. He is playing safe. Some may call this as a rather pessimistic approach. But that isnot true always,in this case. He is calm,determined and calculative. He knows when he can again start taking more risks. But at this particular moment he doesnot want more risk, even if it means highly attractive returns to him. You may start thinking that I am talking about the investments options like the stock markets,the derivates, the bullion market etc. Yes, I am. But I am also talking about real life rightnow. In real life too we find risks and returns all the time. Don't we ? And there too the laws of invesment apply very cohesively, especially the fundamental law -- " The more the risks taken, the higher the returns." 

Let me tell you a story to make it more clear. Once upon a time, there lived a king in ancient India. He was a mighty person but at the same time, he was kind too. His masses loved him. When the king grew old, he became worried about his beloved daughter. The princess was very charming and attractive. The king was worried as to what would happen to her, if she didnot get the right kind of husband. So he arranged for a "Swayamvara" for her. ( In ancient India, kings used to arrange a Swayamvara for their daughters when they wanted to find a suitable son-in-law. The word literally means finding a husband by herself.) So he asked so many kings of different states to send their sons, if they wanted her daughter as a daughter-in-law. Many princes arrived. Everyone of them got fascinated by the beauty of the princess and started dreaming about marrying her. But that was easier dreamt than done. The king had put forth a tricky condition. He declared that only that prince who will defeat two soldiers, travelling simultaneously towards him with huge daggers in their hands, will be able to win her hand. He also said " The two opponents should fall down from their horses and not just get wounded. Adequate protective equipments to safeguard the body will be provided. " Inspite of the fact that enough safety equipments were being provided, some feable-hearted men, just didnot participate. They feared about getting killed during the process. Eight of them did participate but were not brave and skillful enough to defeat both the opponents simultaneously. They could bring down one guy but by then the other would bring him down. Suddenly the king realized that nobody was left to take up the challange. He got very tensed. " Is there no brave men left in our country ? Will my daughter remain unmarried for the rest of her life ?" -- such thoughts started teasing him. So decided to relax the condition that now only one opponent with two daggers should be defeated. He asked his daughter if she agreed with it or not. The princess didnot agree. She said that she would rather remain an unmarried virgin, than marry an unskilled coward. The things got very difficult for the king now. Out of anger and grief, he shouted, " Is there no brave young man left in this country anymore ?" The princes sitting in a line over there, put their heads down in shame. Suddenly a man came from the crowds. He said he was a potter but if allowed he can defeat both the opponents simultaneously. The king had no other option. He agreed. 

As per rules,the young potter wore all the essential protective equipments.He then rode on his horse,took the two daggers one in each hand and swiftly marched towards the two opponents. They were also surging ahead speedily towards him. The princess's heart started pumping fast. Within a flash, the potter brought down both his opponents. Everybody in the crowd, started clapping and cheering loudly. The king also got delighted now that he had finally got the "right man" for his daughter. He married her to the potter. After a few years, that potter, became the new king and ruled over the region peacefully for a long time. 

The motto of this story is to show the necessity to take risks if you want to achieve something bigger. Had the potter got afraid of the fact that no prince was able to defeat two opponents at the same time, he wouldnot have risen to take up the challange. He saw that nobody was able to do it and some of them also got badly wounded in the process, yet he decided to go for it. The risk involved was high but then the returns too were equally high. Not only he won the hand of the beautiful princess but also got the whole kingdom from the king. His courageous nature paid him rich dividends.

We discussed above about the importance of taking risks in life. It pays very rich dividends. But before that we saw that one of the characteristics of a "matured" person, is that he tries to minimize risks. Does this mean that once after attaining maturity, a person cannot get big rewards, (as we saw earlier that rewards and risks are directly proportional to each other) ?? Well, the answer is "No". He can still get big rewards, if he takes "calculated" risks.And that is precisely what a matured guy does. He is careful but at the same time not "totally defensive". He is waiting for an opportunity to attack, to take risks. He is waiting for that exact "time", when he can be very sure that even if he takes risks, he is most likely to benefit from that and get rewarded rather than losing out and get humiliated. He is equally courageous as any other courageous person, but the vital difference here is that he is capable to put his courage into function at the right time, exactly when it is needed. Inshort, one should never think that after attaining maturity a person will become less brave. Courage is an inborne quality and it remains with an individual till his last breath, irrespective of the fact that he becomes matured or not. 

Here so far, we have been discussing about the quality " maturity ", keeping the perspective of "attainment of success" in mind, which undoubtedly is the chief topic of this book. But this word has other meanings too. They are more related to the social behaviour of a person. For example, during the meeting of retired elderly men and women,when somebody says that a certain person has become more matured now, he means that now he acts more responsibly. He doesnot indulge in any unnecessary quarrels or fights with anyone or he is aware of his growing age now and knows that it would look indecent to do so. It also has a philosophical context that now he knows very well that the main aim of a human being is not to run blindly behind money,power and fame but to keep doing good things to others throughout his life and by now, he is familiar with the truth that a human's life on this planet is just a temporary one. There are some other meanings too but since I donot want to sideline from our main topic about "how to attain success",I am not going into further detail in that direction.  

Now we come to the key question -- " If maturity is an important quality, what is its contribution in providing success to an individual ?" Here is the answer. Maturity isnot important a quality to bring success to anyone as what Hardwork,Patience,Dedication and Discipline are. One can become successful even if he isnot mature enough. But that would be for a short period, just like in the case of Vinod Kambli (as discussed earlier).But,if he wants to retain that level of success for a long time, as what people like Sachin and ChanderPaul have done, then he needs to be matured and this quality becomes a "must". If he has it within himself already, he needs to develop it more. If, unfortunately, he doesnot have it at all, he needs to first generate it and then develop it within himself. In any case, for enjoying repeated success for a long long time, maturity is an indispensable quality. It provides a cushion against negative feelings like laziness or complacency and keeps reminding the individual of " the do's and dont's "so as to keep him well-focused all the time.  

We find that some of us are very matured, even at a relatively young age. Whilst some grow up physically but fail to get matured. So what should they do to acquire maturity ? Well, a deep sub-conscious state of introspection can surely help to find an answer. Just immerse yourself into this beautiful state of mind and demand the answers as to why you are not as matured as what you should be and what needs to be done to acquire this quality. You will get an automatic response from within yourself after a few days of introspection. ( Some may get it earlier also.) From the response which you get, decide the further course of action. Inshort, this entire process will be similar to the one discussed earlier in this book. Hence, no further repeatation is essential. 

But there is one more way to develop this quality within yourself. Follow one cardinal rule -- " Learn from your mistakes and act accordingly." Whatever experiences you have had in your life so far, learn from them. Especially donot forget what you had learnt from your failures,when they had occured. Donot tell yourself that it was just one failure and it isnot going to happen anytime now in my life. Life is unpredictable. No one knows what is going to happen next. So don't be over-confident and keep learning from every mistake that you have ever done. Secondly, decide firmly that when that type of situation arises now in the future,which led me to commit that particular mistake, I willnot repeat the same mistake again,no matter what. Stand firm on your decision. When a similar situation does arise, donot repeat the same mistake once again. This way you will gradually see that you are getting matured and even your confidence level is rising. Thirdly, start minimizing the risks. Now that you have decided to be mature, follow one of its prime rules. Take a calculated risk, that too only when needed. Keep following these three rules regularly. In a short time, you will notice that you are now " maturing ". (Some of the readers may think here that I repeated the same thing as what was being described earlier in this topic. But, my argument here is that it was necessary, as I needed to throw enough light on the second way of developing this quality.) 

In this age of 4G and 5G internet speeds, some people have started thinking that maturity is a thing which speedens up the aging process. " If you want to look young and remain like that, then avoid being mature." -- that is the new mantra. I totally disagree with it. By no means does this quality start making you look older. You can be as much young at heart and by your looks as before and yet develop this quality. This is how you can do it. First of all,know the correct meaning of maturity. It is concerned with learning from previous mistakes and minimizing the immediate risks. It has nothing to do with taking extra burden on yourself. Being mature does mean being responsible but it doesnot mean that you submerge yourself into them to such an extent that this beautiful journey of life starts looking very boring and cumbersome to you. You need to know about the thin line which demarcates two seperate situations viz. (1) getting buried by the burden of responsibility under the premises that you have become matured and (2) being matured enough to know exactly when to let go that unnecessary and imaginary burden of responsibility off your shoulders. You must be able to strike a balance so that you always remain in situation no. 2 above and never cross that thin line and drift away into situation no.1. How to strike that balance? How to get rid off that imaginary burden of responsibility ? This can be done by constant practice. The secret is that even while you are doing highly responsible work, donot think too much about it. Donot let pressure surround you or affect you. Try and remain relaxed and cool always, even while performing complex tasks. This is how you can get rid off that imaginary burden of responsibility, which comes in the disguise of getting matured. 

Often people think that getting matured means living a life full of boredom. That belief is also wrong. I have seen so many matured men and women,who, inspite of living a life of responsibility, do enjoy themselves just like what everyone else does. 

Some hasty decisions and unscrupulous immature behaviour done during the early twenties by a lot of individuals are then melancholously lamented by themselves during their later life. When a sportsman behaves in an immature manner on the field, he is ridiculed by everyone. Take for example, Shahid Afridi who declared his retirement from cricket, after the 2011 Worldcup. He was feeling sidelined by Pakistan Cricket Board and in a "rush of blood" he declared that he would never play the game again. But then within a few days he declared to withdraw his retirement and said that he is ready to play if the PCB selected him back into the side !! He became the centre of mockery around the world, especially in the media, for quite some time.“Retirement” is not an issue to play around with. Matured people retire only once -- after adequate thought and knowing that once they utter this R word in public, they are gone forever and there is no chance of coming back. It doesn't mean temporary withdrawal of yourself so that whenever you feel like, you can choose to come back. However,if you declare your retirement and then you decide to come back, you are very likely to be seen as someone with little maturity and lesser stability of mind. Over and above that you become the centre of “ridicule”,when you come back on to the field to play the game, after retiring.

We have already seen that “maturity” is a state of mind, which one achieves after some “experience”. That was not the case with Sachin,however. I remember when he went on to make his maiden century versus England at Old Trafford, Manchester in 1990,one English newspaper “The Guardian” commented on his knock of 119 notout – “ an amazing innings by the young indian,showing maturity and class, in which he displayed a repertoire of strokeplay and his potential as a batsman.” He got such laurels at the age of 18, of showing maturity while playing, and that too from a daily,which originates from the very birthplace of the game !

Sachin showed a lot of "maturity" when Dravid declared the indian innings
 at a stage when Sachin was 194 notout, just 6 runs away from his double ton,
 in the 1st Test at Multan versus Pakistan (2004). The picture shows Virender Sehwag (left) and Sachin (right ) after the duo had slammed 309 and 194* respectively against the arch-rivals of India 

During his entire career one can spot out so many instances when he has shown immense amount of maturity of character. Avoiding the negative tactics of any bowler trying to intimidate him by coming too close to him after every single delivery and uttering derogatory words, never showing any sign of lack of respect for Rahul Dravid, the then skipper,when the latter declared the Indian innings at Multan in Pakistan in 2004 with himself stranded on 194 notout, (hardly 6 runs away from his double ton),coming out of total lack of form so many times in his career to score centuries once again, deciding not to focus on bowling although he could have taken far more number of wickets as a bowler and just focusing on his batting skills, deciding not to play the T20 version of the game so that he can focus all his energies on the Test match and ODI versions, tending to keep away from captaincy although the Indian cricket board ( BCCI ) asked him to do so quite often -- all these are several instances when he has shown a lot of maturity.

( 20 ) Providing encouragement (to younger players in the team) :--

=============================================== 

“Enjoy your game, fulfil your dreams and always look to achieve "goals".Donot forget that you are fortunate enough to get the Indian cap,to play for India and to represent India infront of the world.So play for the team first, then for yourself ” – these were his words when he bid his last farewell to the game and his team-mates on the 16^th of November,2013. He himself became a living legend, a “role-model” for many of the players he was playing with, like Virat Kohli,Rohit Sharma,Shikhar Dhawan,Yuvraj Singh,Cheteshwar Pujara, Virendra Sehvag etc. Some of the players' names taken above, were hardly born when Sachin entered the game - like Virat Kohli and Pujara. Indian Test team captain Virat Kohli has been quoted saying that he finds himself very lucky,sitting very close to Sachin in the dressing room and then practising with him in the nets."He has been the "key inspiring factor" of my life.”- Kohli adds. 

Virat Kohli enjoying some lighter moments with the legend 
during a practice session. Kohli has repeatedly said that he got 
some very useful batting tips from Sachin.

Virendra Sehwag, who has scored more than 8000 test runs with two triple centuries in test cricket, has said more than once that it was due to Sachin Tendulkar that he got so inspired to play his natural aggressive shots and that "the little master" has been his role-model,over the years.So many of India’s budding cricketers have been greatly and spontaneously inspired to play the game due to Sachin.

Inside the dressing room, whenever he found any of his colleagues mentally down or depressed, he would immediately comfort him and prepare him for the game ahead. Dravid has said quite a few times that although Sachin was not a captain on several occassions,he had always been a part of the think-tank which took vital decisions,on and off the field,during any test match or ODI, and give his prudent opinion to the then captain, like Ganguly or himself or Kumble or Dhoni. 

It was Sachin who first suggested Dhoni's name
 as the next Indian Captain for the ODIs 
after Rahul Dravid resigned from captaincy in 2007 

After Dravid’s decision to resign from captaincy, Sachin could have easily asked for himself to be nominated as skipper of the side in 2007, he being the most senior player in the team at that time and undoubtedly nobody could have denied him that post.Yet he knew from his previous experience as a captain,that "luck" was not in his favour when it came to captaincy and hence when Mr.Sharad Pawar, the then BCCI chief, invited him to be the captain once again, he politely refused the offer and put forward the name of Mahendrasinh Dhoni as the next captain. The rest is history as we all know how hugely successful has Dhoni been,as a captain of the indian team.Sachin could spot out such genuine leadership qualities within Dhoni,before anybody else could !!

Not only encouragement, but he provided practical coaching to the younger players in the side at practice sessions,during the twilight days of his career.So many players have said after making a ton ( century ) that it was Sachin’s tip/advice either about changing the "stance" within the batting crease or any relevant batting technique which Sachin taught him,that had worked "wonders" for him to his surprise and he went on to make a big hundred. 

( 21 ) Adaptability:--
============== 

Charles Darwin in his famous book "The Theory of Evolution" has stated the law of survival of the fittest. To put it in simple terms, it means that only those species can survive on this planet,who are fit enough to survive amongst ever-changing and unpredictable circumstances. That is to say, if you can change / adapt to a changing environment, then you can survive else not. Nature is as much cruel towards unfit and inflexible people, as much it is kind towards those who are fit and able to change. It rewards handsomely those who have the willingness and ability to adapt according to a changed situation, with a prolonged life full of prosperity and happiness. This same principle of being flexible towards change i.e showing the quality of adaptation is a really valuable quality, one can possess. Success marries the one who can change quickly and precisely as what is demanded by the changed scenario. Let me make one thing clear here, however. If a person changes for achieving success in a changed environment,meanwhile sacrificing his core values and ideals, then that change may bring him some success, but in the long run, it will ruin his career and himself. So one has to take care,about this term " adapt ". Adapting in a situation at the cost of ethical values,is never advisable. One must learn to change, while keeping the ethical values intact. And if he manages to do that,success is his. 

Adaptation is seen widely in the animal kingdom and amongst humans too. It has been proven scientifically,that apes,of whom we all are descendants of, had longer hands than their legs used to be.The size of their skull,which occupied the brain, was smaller than that of ours. And ofcourse they had a lot of hair all-over their body, just like what monkeys have, which gave them this ugly look. With the passage of time,adaptations occured which made their hands shorter than their legs, the size of their brains expanded and the quantity of hair found all-over the body reduced considerably, which made them look much more decent than before. The enhanced size of their legs meant that they became taller and hence now were able to easily have an access for the fruits hanging on the trees at a reasonable height. Apart from that, it also helped them to scare away smaller wild animals like hyenas,jackals,etc.,just by their mere presence, a task which was eariler considered a challange to them,when their height was short. Smaller hands also meant that now they looked prettier than before. Expanded skull size helped to occupy a bigger brain inside it,which naturally possessed a better and a faster ability to think,scrutinize and analyse. Also the disappearance of hump,( an protrusion over the back of the neck region), made them look much more handsome. 

In the animal kingdom, the best example of adaptation is found amongst amphibians, e.g.crocodiles,frogs,turtles etc. This species has been living on this planet for more than 25 million years now, much more than what we humans have been inhabiting it.The chief reason for their successful stay here and not getting destroyed or disappeared is their ability to adapt. Amphibians live on both -- on land and on water. Take for example a crocodile. Whenever it feels hungry, it will move inside the waters of a lake or a river. It will catch some animal like a wilder-beast ( just like those found in the Serengeti region of the african plains ), a deer or even a wild-pig, trying to cross the river-bed from one end to the other.After it has caught and eaten it, it will come to the land surface for the sake of drying out. It has sex with its partner inside as well as outside water too, but the female croc always lays her eggs on a boggy land surface and never inside water. Once the eggs are laid,she nurtures them during their earlier stages of life like hatching and the first days on earth. She also takes adequate care to save the baby crocs from predators like foxes,vultures,falcons,hyenas,etc. who are never too far and always searching for a suitable snack anytime.Yet some are eaten away by these predators. Those who remain alive,then, follow their mom and start learning to swim in the muddy pool of lake water. Within a few months they grow quite bigger in size, compared to what they were, during the time of their births.By then they are quite strong physically too and donot need the help of their mom anymore, either for food or for security reasons. They are on their own then. Thus, a continuous process of adaptation takes place, which helps them to evolve from a small unsecured baby croc to a fully grown adult croc,who is completely capable to survive on its own. Frogs, turtles, sea-cats too show a similar kind of adaptability, by which they can eat,reproduce and thus survive on this planet. 

A chamaleon, is a particularly interesting example of adaptability.Or let me put it this way, it is an example of "immediate adaptability" !! And this is why. It can change color, according to its environment ! Suppose, at a particular moment, it is on a brownish piece of land. Its original color is greyish.It sees a big bug at some close distance. Immediately, it will change its color from grey to brownish thus seemingly getting vanished for its prey. The bug will think for some time that there is no immediate threat to itself, and suppose it is walking towards the chamaleon, it will continue to do so. The chamaleon will remain there, as it is, unmoved and completely watchful. As soon as the bug will draw close enough, to a distance from where it can protrude its long tongue outside, it will do so and within a fraction of a moment,swallow it.That's it. It just enjoyed a tasty snack !! How ? By taking the help of adaptation. It can also protect itself from those who are capable to attack and eat it,by changing its color into pinkish,reddish brown,whitish grey etc. For this species, adaptability is a boon.        

On the cricket field, two names immediately come to my mind,when I think of adaptation, viz. Steve Smith and Ravi Shastri. Steve Smith, when he first played his test match, was a leg-spinner, who could bat a bit. As a rookie, it was expected of him to take wickets rather than score hundreds or double hundreds. But then,to the pleasant surprise of himself and the Aussie selectors, he found batting, much easier and enjoyable !! He started amassing more and more runs, as his test and ODI careers progressed ! After he scored his maiden test century against England in the Ashes, he just has never looked back. As of today, he is considered to be one of the four most promising batsmen of the next decade to follow. The other three in this illuminuous league are Virat Kohli,Kane Williamson and Joe Root. Just imagine, dear friend,a leg-spinner bowler, with an uncertain future looming over his head, gradually ( and not suddenly ) becoming a batting icon of the recent times. Isn't that awesome? 

Another bright example of "adaptation" on the cricket field was Ravishankar Shastri. When he first rose to the scenes, he too was a leg-break bowler, infact, a slow, left-arm leg-spinner. Some even ridiculed his lazy slow action. After starting as a bowler, who came to bat at no.9 in test matches, suddenly he found that he could bat very nicely. So he started giving more and more attention to this batting and was promoted up the order, just like Steve Smith above ( who went up the order from no.9 to no.3 in test matches). Shastri slowly started to come at no.6, during the West Indies tour of India in 1984.And then looking at his ability to pace his innings,by first starting slow and then playing fluent shots at the end,he was asked to open the innings alongwith Krishnamachari Shrikanth,in the Benson and Hedges World series cricket, in 1985. He excelled in that by making a huge number of runs. Benson and Hedges world series cricket involved all the test playing nations and it was like a mini-worldcup.India played very well in all the league matches and was facing Pakistan, its arch-rivals, in the finals at Melbourne. It defeated Pakistan there and won the cup. Ravi Shastri,who made 60 odd runs in the finals, was adjudged the Man of the Series with highest amount of runs made by him, amongst all players. He won an Audi car as a reward for his batting brilliance. A player who had entered international cricket as a spinner,became the best amongst all batsmen,surpassing the then ODI batting stars like David Boon,Geoff Marsh,Dean Jones,Sir Viv Richards,David Gower,Martin Crowe,Javed Miandad etc !! Adaptability keeps on amazing everyone,isn't it? 

The question arising now in a rather subtle manner is - how to generate and cultivate this quality? The answer matches those which we had discussed earlier, while trying to find how different qualities like patience,hardwork etc are generated and later on developed. Just use your sub-conscious mind. 

It is being proved, on a scientific basis, during a recent research, that the sub-conscious human mind is approximately 30,000 times effective than the conscious mind !! Any genuine effort to feed a strict set of information about "do this and donot do this" will result in their successful execution, as desired, and whenever desired. So for those,who find themselves, unable to adapt according to a new challanging situation, don't worry friends ! First of all, tell your subconscious mind to accept a new situation, remain calm and then ask it to start finding solutions to overcome it, without getting confused or cluttered. There is always a way out and your mind will find it. And as soon as it finds it, start adapting accordingly. While adapting, donot think of what will happen next. Once the thought process is over,donot start thinking again, while you are acting on the orders given by the sub-conscious mind. Execute those orders, honestly and to the best of your ability. Change as per the changed situation, not just once but everytime, whenever the need arises. And you will come to know that you are the "final winner" when the results are out !! Adaptability is such a divine gift of God Almighty, for those, who can put it into practice.

 
Sachin Tendulkar also showed this virtue. Everybody knew about the offensive nature of his batting. His batting style was like Sir Vivian Richards, wanting to attack more rather than defend. So from the beginning he was considered to be suitable to play both the versions of the game, viz. Test matches ( where the pace of the game is much slower than ODIs) and the One day Internationals ( ODIs). He kept on piling runs in both the formats of the game from 1989 to 2007,meanwhile establishing many records, one after the other.But then, in 2007,even a faster version of cricket emerged, the T20 version. The ODI version lasted for about 8 hours of a day, during which a total of 100 overs can be bowled, 50 from each side. But, in T20 version, only 20 overs were to be bowled by each side and the game would end just within 40 overs !! Although the time period of the game decreased, what increased heavily was the effort put in by all players. Instead of the usual run-rate per over of 5 to 6.5,now that went up to 7 to 10 !! That means a team batting quite well and aggressively would notch up 200 runs within its 20 overs and ask its opponents to score at a rather hectic pace of 10 runs per over. That meant that all 22 players from both the teams had to put in their maximum physical and mental effort to have a chance of winning the game. So it was being thought initially that T20 cricket would be the game of young cricketers only, whose age is below 30, who are youthful,agile and able to take on the strenous work on the field for 40 overs, like running at a faster pace to field the ball, making more efforts to hit boundaries and sixers within the limited span of 20 allotted overs etc. 

At that time, Sachin was 34 year old. Some guys started thinking that Sachin wouldnot be fit enough to play for this version of the game, since now he had crossed 30. And if he played it, it would have an adverse effect on his ability to make runs at the Test and ODI level after he has played a T20 game, as that would amount to stretching himself much more physically than what he did during playing Tests and ODIs. But Sachin proved all his critics wrong. At that age too, he played the T20 version and he did it quite successfully. He participated in the T20 international games and then in the Indian Premier League ( IPL ) on behalf of "Mumbai Indians", a team owned by Mr.Mukesh Ambani, the owner of Reliance Industries Ltd. In the IPL, he amassed huge amount of runs for the period 2008 to 2012. He won the Orange cap twice, the one given to the player scoring highest amount of runs during the tournament. He showed his capacity to adapt and thus be able to run,bat and bowl in a game, which compelled everybody to be faster and more accurate, in a shorter span. He never looked above 30, when he played his T20 games. Infact, he looked like a teenager, then. Such was his stamina, his effort and his agility, that even youngsters back then like Virat Kohli and Ravinder Jadeja, got amazed. Later, he took the correct decision to retire from T20 and ODI cricket in 2012 and just focus all his attention on Test matches, which also wasnot a wrong decision at all. 

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With this I have discussed all the 21 outstanding qualities which Sachin showed on the cricket field and even outside it,wherever necessary. There are some other qualities too, which he showed, during those years viz. innovative approach and ability to think way ahead of his times.But these two he didnot show so much, as what he did with the 21 qualities,described above.Hence, I am not going into deeper analysis of these two qualities,rightnow. I would like to discuss them at good length, somewhere sometime, maybe in some other book,which I would write. However, that doesnot mean that this list remains incomplete with the absence of above two qualities. It is complete. Infact, whole-heartedly, I endorse the fact that if anybody really tries hard to develop even 5 to 6 of the above qualities of Sachin, with total sincerity and honesty, he/ she will be successful, in whatever field of work he/she is. Not even 5 to 6, if he just develops only 2 of the above qualities, (again) with utter sincerity and honesty,success will come kissing his feat. And if he wants a grand,huge success then just try and develop all of the above. It may seem to be a daunting task in the beginning but with consistent and persistent efforts over a given period of time, ( say 12 to 18 months ), he can develop all 21 of them. For this he has to be thoroughly committed on what he is doing, on a day to day basis. Nothing can stop that individual of attaining a "mega" level of success, after that. I ascertain that. 

Some of my students ask me after reading the above, " Tell us the minimum number of qualities alongwith their names,required by various people, who are into different professions or different walks of life. Here is an effort. A student should try and develop minimum two qualities viz Patience and Hardwork and if he adds a third quality,i.e. " Modesty of character", it would be marvellous. A struggling actor, should develop "street smart attitude" and "hardwork". Here too, "Modesty of character" would be an excellent rider/addition. A professional working inside a bank or a private company, struggling to find space and recognition in his firm, should try and develop, "Patience", "Common sense approach" and " Hardwork". Ofcourse here too, for assuring a long term success, he will need "Modesty of character". Thus, it can be easily seen from the above examples, that although for various fields of work, other "most essential" qualities vary, one quality remains the same all the time,if the candidate not just wants to be successful once, but attain success again and again -- and that quality is as you all know by now,"Modesty of character", the very first quality which I enlisted while writing this book. A grounded, modest character, brings down all the useless ego and provides a renewed strength to make a fresh attempt to achieve another level of success, after having achieved the first one. I salute to this great,great quality once again.  

Some people take these words "Qualities", "Patience", "Hardwork", "Modesty" very lightly. Some may even ridicule my idea of writing a book,featuring and emphasizing these qualities and how Sachin showed them on the cricket field. My modest suggestion to them is -- " Please try not to follow any of the above qualities and achieve success." If you can do that, I mean, if you can achieve success without following any of the above qualities,I assure you I shall stop writing on " Qualities " and the effect it has on the careers of human beings.

By now, those of you who are prudent enough, would have known how very important the above qualities are,in laying the foundation of success.Then by amplifying them exponentially ( if required ) to whatever level,one can adjust with and which is safe and good enough for him, he can achieve that category of success, of which he is the rightful and a deserving candidate. The only pre-condition is to keep the few vital instructions given in this book, very close to his heart and inside his brain,all the time, especially, when he feels a state of vaccum about his career or his future. By reading this book twice, the reader, will be certain of one thing -- how to react when faced with a particular difficult situation. And at that time, those qualities necessary to react in a befitting manner, will automatically come to the fore, without he wanting to recall them. Just mug up,what I have said above, in a summarized manner and then your recipe of success is ready, dear friend !! You DONOT need anything else after reading this book. Just put those qualities into action, in an organized manner. And you are the "Ultimate" winner. Just like what Sachin has been in cricket.  

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact, that I have deliberately omitted "Luck" from this book. This is why I have done that. No doubt, "Luck" plays a very important in life, but it is not a quality, firstly. You cannot develop it either by introspection or by any other known method, like what you can develop the above listed qualities. Secondly, if one remains attached to the above qualities,say just 5 to 6 of them, throughout his life,then a person, who has been unlucky till now, will start becoming and feeling "lucky" all of a sudden. This is because "lady luck" favors the brave, in this case, the brave one being the one who is following those qualities. So,instead of chasing "luck", chase these qualities and then watch "luck" chasing you !!  

I personally believe that " luck is necessary but it isnot the only necessary thing" and as said above " luck follows those, who follow their disciplined routines regularly." I am a witness to the sudden and severe downfall of people, who were considered very lucky in the earlier stages of their lives ( in their early twenties ) but relied just on this 4 letter word and nothing else. Yes, I am talking of speculators in the stock markets and real estate markets. By a sudden unexpected piece of favorable luck, they may gather some good amount of money,just by a few stock market transactions,but that will not last long. Even if they are very lucky, this unusual lifestyle will not last long. Soon they will realize the fragile nature of "relying absolutely on luck" and start finding other avenues of earning money, and that will involve atleast two or more of the above qualities. And if they don't start finding newer avenues, well, they are doomed. They have no future at all. Failure awaits to welcome them,in a big manner.  

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Two points need to be discussed before I come to my "Final Note":-- 
  

(a) Sachin never allowed his personal life to affect his game  ================================================

( I am not classifying this as a "quality", although it can be.)

So many professional sportsmen around the globe,either knowingly or unknowingly allow their personal life to mingle with their sports-life. Vinod Kambli is believed to have lost his form suddenly,while on the peak of his career, owing to his relationships outside the cricket ground. There would be trouble at his home and then he would take out all that frustration, by remaining hot-headed throughout the day on the field. In that process, he would neither take good catches nor score those big runs in the manner that he was earlier famous for,in the beginning of his career. Although physically he might be present on the field, mentally he used to remain engrossed in the same perplexity and confusion that had surrounded his personal life,off the field,during those days. It was as if he was lost into some other world, even when he was playing a test match. He might be trying to concentrate on his job, which was to bat and score runs, but at the back of his mind, there was this burden of domestic problems that always seemed to accompany him. This happens more with sentimental guys, who just cannot or maybe donot want to leave sentiments behind. Being sentimental or emotional is good but even the slightest excess of it can cause severe damage to your personal ambitions of succeeding in your chosen field. Clearly Kambli fell prey to this situation. Inspite of having enormous talent, he is not considered a successful cricketer, only because he failed to separate the two – personal life and professional life.

The highly talented Kambli lost all his form,
 after he acted in hindi movies (like "Anarth" above)
subsequently failing in both - Cricket and films

He also acted in a few hindi films in small unimportant roles, which I think, never fitted his role as a talented batsman in real life and also damaged his form, by disintegrating his focus on the game.  

Sandip Patil, who is rightnow the Chief Selector of the Indian cricket team, had lots talent in him, when he made his debut in the Indian test side. I remember that when I was a student during the early eighties, he was talked of being “the next big thing in Indian cricket” after the legendary Little Master Sunny Gavaskar. He had a variety of strokes in his aggressive style of playing. 

Sandeep Patil played an entertaining knock of 174
 in the Adelaide Test during the 1980-81 Test series

When he scored 174 notout against Australia, in that Adelaide test match, he received widespread applause for his strokeful knock. Apart from that he scored quite a few good amount of runs in tests and ODIs. However later he himself dug the grave of his own career. He signed as a main role ( hero ) in a Hindi movie called “Kabhi Ajnabi the”. The movie came and went unnoticed. During the shoot of the movie and after that he lost attention from the game and the result was that he became an “Ajnabi” ( stranger ) to cricket lovers after 1985. If he had concentrated only on cricket and not allowed his personal life to mingle with his professional one, those years after 1985 would have been his “peak years” when he could have risen amongst the ranks and made his mark in life. Its believed that he had an affair with some heroine and that led to his downfall.

In today’s world,where competition is so fierce, you just cannot chose to “try” something else, when you are already good in your own field of preference. No one today remembers Patil as a remarkable cricketer, because he had too many priorities and failed to keep his main profession as his main priority. One cannot ride two horses at a time. Patil and Kambli tried that, and failed in both.

However, Sachin has never mingled the two,viz. personal life and professional life in his long career.

Sachin's beautiful wife Anjali, 
who has played a pivotal role 
in keeping apart Sachin's professional and private life

His wife Anjali, who happens to be a Paeditrician, is believed to be instrumental in helping Sachin keep his personal and professional life apart. Even after big parties, he was always seen early on the cricket ground, whenever it was essential to do so. Like some others, he would never ever have those “Hangovers” which one gets after late-night parties. He has some very-close friends too. But he has always kept a distance with them, when it came to his performance on the cricket field. Decently he would say good-bye to them,when a certain get-together function was over (instead of prolonging it,like many other celebrities tend to do) and then quietly he would go back for a resting period, so that he can attend his practice sessions afresh and with renewed vigor on the next day.

(b) He took cricket to another level  :-- 
===========================   
Sachin changed the whole complexion of the game in the period after 1989. He took the game to an entirely different level. Before his entry, India mostly played for a "Draw result" ( when no team is considered to have won ) in a test-match,especially against the then powerful teams like Australia,West Indies,Pakistan etc.Indians never dreamt of winning a test match abroad as they were less optimistic about their winning capabilities. Especially on foreign soil, their performance became lacklustre, they became hopelessly defensive while playing and their approach lacked the necessary aggression to win. However, after Sachin stayed in the game for sometime,the indian team started playing "to win" matches against any kind of opposition, and even on foreign soil. Apart from Sachin,Saurav Ganguly should be given a lot of credit for generating that high level of confidence and self-belief amongst indian players about their ability to win matches at places even outside India like Australia,Pakistan etc. 

India has seen a lot of legendary players after 1989 ( when Sachin played his first test match ) like Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, V.V.S.Laxman, Anil Kumble,Virendra Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh in a short span of just 15 years. However,before Sachin started playing,i.e. in a comparatively longer span of 57 years between 1932 ( when India played its first ever official test match versus England ) and 1989, there were only a few players,which can be termed as legendary – like Sunil Gavaskar,Kapildev,Gundappa Vishwanath,Bishansingh Bedi,Vinu Mankad and Dilip Vengsarkar.This shows as to what extent his team-mates got inspired "to bring out the very best" from within themselves, when Sachin was around. 

Even before Sachin entered the cricket field, yes there were commercial endorsements ( advertisements on TV ) taken up by star-cricketers of those days namely Kapildev, Gavaskar, Srikanth, Vengsarkar etc.But they got small cheques. After Sachin came in and became a “phenomenon”,the corporate world in India, didn’t hesitate to make agreements amounting to crores of rupees with him for endorsing their products over the years. In the later years of his career and after the steep rise of Mahendrasinh Dhoni at the international level, it has become much easier for any "rising-star" cricketer to earn in crores of rupees ( for the information of those living outside India, one crore equals ten millions ),because the overall face-value of the game has been lifted tremendously during the last two and half decades of Sachin’s presence. Virat Kohli, for example, who just got into the game before about 7 years,as of now, has struck agreements with many big commercial brands which amount to tens of crores of rupees.

Thousands of young boys practise very hard on local grounds in almost all the cities,towns and even villages of India nowadays, with the sole desire to get an entry into a higher level on the domestic circuit first and then onto the international level, trying to make a career as bright as that of Tendulkar.  

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Final Note :--
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What a moment ! In one of the greatest moments of cricketing history, 
Sir Don Bradman met Sachin Tendulkar ( at Adelaide in 1998 ) !! 

One can say that the history of World cricket,hypothetically, should be divided into two eras – One would be the Pre-Sachin era - 1877 to 1989 - ( in 1877 the first Test Match ever was played between Australia and England and in 1989, as mentioned previously,Sachin played his first test match ) and another would be the Post-Sachin era - 1989 onwards - ( Sachin played cricket between 1989 & 2013 ) ! This would be in recognition of the huge contribution he has made to the cricketing world and to salute his efforts to constantly elevate the quality of his personal game and also that of his team-mates. Such has been the clout, the dominance of his amazing personality over the game, that even "the greatest of the greats" Sir Don Bradman made a remark in 1999 - “ I find “glimpses of my own batting style”, when I see Sachin bat ! ” 
After this world-famous quote from "the greatest cricketer of all times", young boys from all corners of India started flocking into cricket camps, in cities and towns, with the desire to become the next Sachin Tendulkar of India.

*** Thank You Sachin ***
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