Tendulkar and us

Writing about Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Test in Fountain Ink, Srinath Perur examines the "insane swirl" that surrounded him for one last time.

Almost everyone who's managed to get in has clambered over others in ways implicit or explicit: by offering more money to someone, tearing out tickets from booklets promised to others. And if we've come here to watch Tendulkar at such expense and effort, we are entitled to ask batsmen to get out to pave the way, or abuse a captain who refuses to toss him the ball. We've beaten others who wanted to be here and the same aggression is easy to see in all that surrounds the match. A strange combo of genuine emotion and crafty self-interest pervades the affair from top to bottom.