New Delhi: Some love stories are right out of the fairytale. The love story of Sachin and Anjali Tendulkar also falls in this category. Who would have thought that a chance encounter at the Mumbai Airport would turn into a lifelong bond. Anjali and Sachin, who took wedding vows on May 24, 1995, will celebrate their 30th anniversary next year.
Everyone knows about their close bond and understanding which has resulted in a stable marriage and two children – a son named Arjun Tendulkar and a daughter named Sara Tendulkar.
But did you know the story behind the love story and how Anjali and Sachin fell in love?
The story behind the love story
As soon as Anjali set his sight on a a curly-haired, chubby boy coming out of the airport, she was lovestruck. She immediately asked her friend about the boy, who was none other than Sachin Tendulkar, 17 at that time, and returning days after scoring his first Test hundred on the 1990 tour of England. Blinded by Sachin’s innocent face, Anjali almost forgot she had come to pick up her mother Annabel Mehta, the now mother-in-law of Sachin.
Annabel reveals more about the incident that sparked the love between Anjali and Sachin in her book My Passage to India published by Westland Books.
Annabel says that she was surprised to find her daughter, 21, a medical student, in a picture in the next day’s newspaper which captured scores of girls surrounding Sachin and even climbing on the car bonnet to get his glimpse.
Never in her wildest imaginations, Annabel had thought of her daughter being so obsessed with a cricketer. Being a medical student, Anjali, in all likelihood, was expected to wed a doctor or an Oxford graduate. Anjali had no interest in cricket, let alone a cricketer. But everything changed in a matter of minutes.
Desperate to know more about Sachin, Anjali called one of her cricket-fanatic friends and asked him to find out his number. Anjali’s friend must have pulled a lot of strings to get hold of Sachin’s number. Anjali dialled the number, and call it a hand of fate, it was Sachin at the other end.
Anjali tried to remind Sachin about their brief meeting at the airport and to her surprise he remembered. Anjali was left in disbelief. To corroborate the answer, she asked if Sachin remembered the colour of the T-shirt she wore that day.
Sachin replied immediately: ‘Orange’.
Rest, as they say, is history.
Did you know the story behind the love story of Anjali and Sachin Tendulkar and how they fell for each other at first sight? Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
