On the eve of his 45th birthday, Sachin Tendulkar was the chief guest at a book release function of Eleven Gods and A Billion Indians, authored by Boria Majumdar.
The master batsman recalled several tales from his playing days, mesmerising the select audience at a five-star hotel.
READ: Desert Storm: Tendulkar's recollections
Excerpts
Tell us the story of the damaged car after the 2011 World Cup win.
After we won the World Cup, Anjali, being superstitious, didn’t want to be on the ground. I called her and said, 'What are you doing at home? You got to be here in the dressing room, we are all celebrating'.
Somehow she makes it to the stadium but while she was getting there, just outside the ground, people were dancing, celebrating and jumping on top of cars.
So they spotted Anjali and said 'We can’t touch this car, we can’t do anything on this car'. She gets inside the stadium and then we were all celebrating. When it was time to go back to the hotel, I looked at the car and noticed dents on the roof.
The driver said, 'After I dropped madam (Anjali), everyone started jumping and dancing on the top of the car. I said that’s not a bad idea, these dents will always remind (us) of those wonderful moments from the World Cup, so I call them 'Happy Dents'.
Can you recall the England game from the 2011 World Cup?
The England match in Bengaluru was a special game for us. We scored, I think, 338, and then it was a tie. So the message started circulating that whenever (M.S.) Dhoni, as captain, had been involved in a tied game, he has gone on to win the title.
If you notice, the first IPL, the first ICC Champions Trophy, the first World T20 in South Africa - these are the tournaments (which India won) where there had been a tie - and this was also a tie, so we thought we would win the World Cup too. And that’s how it all started.
After the final, we went back to the hotel and God knows how many bottles of champagne were opened that night. On the floor, nobody was allowed to shut their door and virtually in each and every room, they had their own music going on.
And in our room - for a change - I had a flower stuck here and then we were dancing and singing and all that, which I have never done before in my life.
I don’t do it every weekend but that was a special moment for us, something that I cannot imagine. After winning the World Cup, you feel 'Okay how are we going to celebrate' and it just happened on its own momentum, its own rhythm.
Then we went to the top floor where all the friends and players got together and we went on till 5:30 or 6 in the morning.
Will you send Virat Kohli 50 bottles of champagne when he gets to his 50th ODI century?
100 per cent. I will personally go there and share it with him.
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