How Sachin Destroyed My Life by Vikram Sathaye (Book Review- 4*/5)!!!

      Frankly speaking, I didn't know even the name of Vikram Sathaye before reading this book. I do not know if I have been so clueless, lost, ignorant, naive or dumb but I seriously didn't know about his stand-up acts, commentary and comic timing before experiencing this awesome journey of 208 pages. "How Sachin Destroyed My Life" is the book I am talking about. It entered the Bestseller list at No. 7 in its first week of release itself. That's how interesting the title, introduction and face value of this book is! You know it's not just another book written on Sachin as it has foreword written by the Master Blaster himself. And the back cover-page has comments by Rahul Dravid and Harsha Bhogle. That's enough to pick this book up. 

     

         Starting with the review, I must say I totally agree with what Rahul Dravid has said for it. The book is funny and entertaining but it's also insightful and enlightening. I liked the starting of the book when in an autobiographical manner, Vikram starts telling about his early life and how his parents started giving examples of Sachin Tendulkar to show how irresponsible he behaves at the age of 16. Later on, even when he scores good runs, it gets compared with what Sachin scored on the same day. Somehow he understands that Cricket is not his cup of tea and goes on graduating and doing MBA like several kids do. He gets his first job and he happily announces his package at home. It again gets compared with the million dollar deal that Sachin agreed upon with a brand. The initial chapters makes you chuckle, giggle, smile and laugh out loud. The one-liners are amazing and every expression depicted and comparison made are excellent. Some of this even continues throughout the book at regular intervals. 

   

        I liked how the book is not only about its title but more about the facts related to Cricket and players that we do not know about. These are the things that are not even discussed in interviews or media reports. There are many unsaid stars behind making these players the legend in their own way. Vikram talks about people like Ramesh Mane who is popularly known as Mane kaka. He serves players with massage, acupuncture and various other activities that helps in helping their body recover from injuries and aches. Vikram also talks about what goes behind IPL and how junior cricketers can easily get influenced by money and sexy actresses around them. That segment surprised me a lot as I never expected this might be a reason behind indulging in match-fixings. 

           There are several chapters dedicated to the cricketers such as Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid and Yuvraj Singh. Sathaye also explores the life of commentators, ex-cricketers, fans, statisticians like Mohandas Menon etc. In all, I would say this is a very good attempt and I doubt if any Cricket fan will dislike it. Recently, I read a book by Shamya Dasgupta that helped me get little more closer to what happens in Cricket that I could have ever known and after reading this book, I have equally liked Vikram Sathaye's attempt. The power and USP of this book is its potential in making you laugh and still informing you with substances that you will never hear from any Cricket Legend or IPL's new rising star. If you are a Cricket fan, this definitely deserves to be in your hand and if you are not, do read this as it might make you start following Cricket. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!