When a nation wept
There were tears everywhere as Tendulkar bid his final goodbye

Paying respects to the pitch, one final time • BCCI
Always he was a man of runs, rarely of words, a private man locked in this most public of professions. He let others do the talking about him, but this day, for almost 24 minutes, he yanked down his well-constructed veil and spoke. In time, people will return to YouTube not just for his innings but for this speech. Tendulkar has rarely been so personal.
Over the years, Indians had laughed with Tendulkar when he whooped in childlike joy after picking up a wicket, had cursed fate when he was laid low by injury, celebrated when he raised his bat in glory and sighed in exasperation when he was dismissed. On Saturday, a nation wept with him as he bid farewell to the game he loved more than life itself.
In his NBA Hall of Fame speech in 2009, Michael Jordan called basketball his "refuge". He said it was "where I have gone when I needed to find comfort and peace."
The end of the era came at 11.46am on Saturday. There was a pause, as tens of thousands in the stadium and hundreds of millions around the nation realised that the moment they had long known was coming had finally arrived. Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Master, perhaps the world's most adored sporting hero, had retired. Then came the cheers: "Sachin, Sachin".
To limit Tendulkar's wonderment to just his mindboggling longevity would be criminal. For he is no ordinary sportsperson, he is a novel phenomenon, an apostle of impossible achievements and a saint of gentle aggrandisement.
Talking about the time he lent Sachin his bat, Gurav says: "I was his captain at Sassanian (the cricket club). He wanted to use my bat but was too shy to ask me directly. The request came through Ramesh Parab (now the international scorer at Wankhede), and I told Sachin he could use it provided he made a big score. He said, 'I will sir', and went on to score a century with my SG bat," he says.