Tendulkar pays tribute to his three 'gurus'

Sitting on top of a mountain of runs and a heap of records,Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday paid rich tribute to his three "gurus" without whom, he said, he would have remained just like another youngster.

Tendulkar said his father Ramesh Tendulkar, elder brother Ajit and boyhood coach Ramakant Achrekar were the guiding lights of his life who made a lasting impression on him.

"My father was my first Guru and he gave direction to my life," Tendulkar said here on Tuesday.

"In his most important advice to me, he told me everything in life is temporary. The only lasting thing is the impression you leave on people's mind. He said 'people should remember you as a good human being even after you are through with cricket'.

"He said 'you are successful only when people around you love you and like to be with you'. I think that was his most important advice for me," said Tendulkar, who remained a humble man despite his staggering success.

In the middle of the 1999 World Cup, Tendulkar lost his father but returned after performing the final rituals to hit a century, which he dedicated to him.

In his father's absence, Tendulkar said elder brother Ajit remains his guide and philosopher he can fall back on any time.

"Bhai is my second guru and whatever success I got in cricket is due to him. It's just because of him that I started playing cricket. I was like any other fun-loving, school-going boy and it's him who made me play the game," Tendulkar said.

And he didn't forget his first coach either. "Achrekar Sir was unforgiving. I would always hope about skipping practice but he would inevitably turn up with his bike, taking me to the practice. I could never skip those practice sessions. But even today I realise those sessions did wonders for me," he recalled after being named the Brand Ambassador for Jaypee Cements.

Tendulkar was handed the key of a penthouse at Jaypee Greens. Jaypee founder chairman Jayprakash Gaur also gifted a golden bat to Tendulkar reading 'M-100'. Gaur said the words stood for 'Mission 100', urging Tendulkar to score 100 international centuries before he quits the game.