Tendulkar releases cancer-survivor southpaw’s book ‘The Test of My life’
Khawab sa lagta hai ab toh (it’s like a dream now), that’s how Yuvraj Singh’s mother Shabnam Singh described the traumatic period when her son was battling with cancer. It was the period when her hopes of seeing her son back to normal was swinging like a pendulum between the ever so powerful dreadedness and wavering optimism.
It’s been one year since the bald Yuvraj returned home from Indiana Polis, US, and Shabnam is happy to see her son’s progress. And so do others, including Yuvraj’s inspiration Sachin Tendulkar, who was present among the guests during the launch of Yuvraj’s book The Test of My life here on Tuesday evening.
It was an evening dedicated to the people who stood by his side during the biggest ‘Test’ of his life. For those who inspired him, motivated him and suffered with him. And, it was spent rather nicely with Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh and others recollecting the past stories and the emotional experience during Yuvraj’s fight with the deadly disease.
In one of the conversations, Tendulkar remembered how he fought his emotions when he met Yuvraj in london after his treatment. “When I went to meet him in london, I was telling my wife (Anjali) that I didn’t want to break down when I see him,” Tendulkar said.
“When I saw my wife discussing medical terms with Yuvraj, I realised what he has been going through. He is like my younger brother. I have always been fond of him ever since we met. I would ask God why it (the illness) had to happen to Yuvraj.
“I met him and gave him a tight hug. We enjoyed a meal and from the way he (Yuvraj) ate, I was convinced that he is back on track,” he added.
Yuvraj said, “I was looking rubbish when I went to meet him. I didn’t want him to feel that there was something wrong with me. I just behaved like I was ok. I was really happy to meet him.”
Yuvraj met Tendulkar for the very first time when he was a ball boy at PCA Stadium in Mohali and the first interaction was “biscuit pass karna (pass on the biscuits, Sachin had asked him)”. Though Tendulkar didn’t remember the incident but he jokingly said “I haven’t got those biscuits as of yet.”
In those tough times, Harbhajan Singh’s role was to bring smile on his childhood friend’s face. “I was in Bangalore when results came. I felt like how it could happen to him. We all eat healthy food,” Harbhajan said. “I knew about the enormity of the illness. So I made sure that whenever we talk, we don’t talk about disease. I used to talk about childhood memories to divert his attention.
“I used to talk about girls. Who is he talking to these days, who is he going to talk after getting fit (laughs),” he added.
Indian skipper MS Dhoni came to know about Yuvraj’s illness even before the left-hander revealed it to others. “I came to know about it through a guy before Yuvi told others. It was a shock for me. I asked him again, ‘are you sureIJ’,” Dhoni recalled.
“There are fights which we need to take head on. Yuvi’s battle wasn’t like a T20. It was more like a Test match — a prolonged fight. Sometimes over a period of time you tend lose your will to fight. But I am happy that he didn’t give up,” he added.