10,000 wanted to be Tendulkar's PA, some for free!

We lived under Ushakaal (the building in which Sachin Tendulkar lived) in a hut. Ramesh (author Siddharth's brother) was born there. It was on the fourth floor of Ushakaal that Sachin - the renowned Sachin Tendulkar lived. As children, Ramesh was in the circle of friends that Sachin had. He was special to Sachin's family as he was his friend.

When he went to Achrekar Sir to play cricket, Ramesh often picked up his bag and accompanied him. Ramesh has seen many of his matches when he was in school. From childhood, he kept note of little aspects of Sachin. All the children from the colony teased Ramesh, calling him Sachin's PA. Coincidentally, today Ramesh truly is Sachin Tendulkar's PA!

Sachin Tendulkar with Siddharth Pardhe (right) and Ramesh Pardhe (centre), his Personal Assistant. Pic/Deepak Salvi

As Sachin grew in stature, his finances grew. He needed a personal assistant. Sachin has fans all over the world. People were ready to work for him for free. Every day scores of them wrote to him, expressing the desire to be his PA. Ramesh graduated and began to look for a job. Sachin's father, Bhau got to know this.

He asked me to meet him. He said to me, "Our Sachin needs a PA and we want someone from our family to be the PA. So give us your Ramesh as Sachin's PA." Not just Sachin's immediate family, but even his relatives had chosen Ramesh.

I thought, Ramesh was looking for a job and there was no government employment available. Who would give him a better job? There was a pile of letters from people who wanted to be Sachin's PA. Bhau showed me a pile of almost 10,000 letters. Some of the writers wanted to work for free. But Bhau wanted an extremely sincere, honest and hard working man. All the qualities are found in everyone in my family.

Bhau saw no other alternative but Ramesh to take care of the work for the well-to-do Tendulkars. Perhaps Ramesh becoming Sachin's PA was destiny. We had come to the Colony after breaking stones on roads. A famous cricketer was born in our Colony and the Colony watchman's son, Ramesh, became Sachin's PA. This is not a coincidence. This is God's doing.

About the book
It's a story of how a watchman's son trod the long and arduous path to success and of Sahitya Sahawas colony (where Sachin Tendulkar lived) which encouraged him to become an author.u00a0Published by Ameya Prakashan, the book's proceeds go to the Laxman Bhagaji Pardhe Charitable Trust. Price: Rs 225.u00a0

Excerpted from Colony by Siddharth Pardhe, translated by Ashlesha Athavale.