When Sachin R. tendulkar was asked about his feelings after completing his 100th century, the God of the cricket gave a really thought provoking reply.
He said that since it was taking a long time to complete his 100th 100 after his last (99th) hundrerd, so during this time he has seen so much hussle for his next century thanks to the media hype. He said that he had seen the concern for his next century in the eyes of everyone including all the house keeping people of the restaurants where he visited. He said that "No one was talking about the 99 hundreds I had scored, everyone just spoke about the 100th hundred".
This is really thought provoking. World salutes those who excel or those who finishes a great feat. No one remembers for long "nearly complete" tasks. No one worships a rising moon (except on Karwa Chauth). Making 99 centuries in itself is a record. But just the addition of one to this number would make something extra ordinary. Ofcourse it created a mental pressure on Sachin and thats the reason it took him so long to complete this task. But his astonishment around this topic is quite debatable and it again shows the humbleness of this great personality.
This incident reminds me of my all time favorite film "Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander", in which the father of the main protagonist says that no matter how well you perform till the end, what matters is that whether you actually did it or not, whether you won or not ?
For a batsman who has been playing so well for so long, another hundred should not be a big thing, but since this one hundred would make the count to "100", it created so much mental pressure on him. As per Sachin's thoughts, its not that important and the true patriot said that "It doesnt matter how many hundreds you score, you still have to put your head down and do your job for your team." Number system is after all created by human beings. Surprisingly, no one would take a 101st century as a big deal, though 101 is one more than 100.....
Strange thing, right ?
