Fwd: Fw: The Legend's Fan!!! <Must Read>
goutham prakash
From: goutham prakash <goutham...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Subject: Fw: The Legend's Fan!!! <Must Read>
To: goutham...@gmail.com
From: "Mummidi, Goutham" <Goutham...@Honeywell.com>
To: goutham...@yahoo.com
Sent: Mon, April 11, 2011 4:38:24 PM
Subject: FW: The Legend's Fan!!! <Must Read>
From: Hari, Pragada
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 4:33 PM
To: Mummidi, Goutham; Thota, Siva Prasad
Subject: FW: The Legend's Fan!!! <Must Read>
Hi,
Thanks & Regards,
Hari Shankar
Honeywell
HTS AERO - CBM
Hyderabad, India
(c) +919030689305 extn: 64022
From: Okhde, Shashank (CBM COE)
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 4:28 PM
To: Maheshwaran, U Bala (CBM COE); Mailapilli, Ravi (CBM COE); Hari, Pragada
Subject: FW: The Legend's Fan!!! <Must Read>
I’ve met this guy in Bangalore stadium J
Enjoy
Shashank
“Sachin Tendulkar” walked out of the changing room and gestured to Sudhir Gautam to come up. Gautam is the thin man with the shaven head - for the past few weeks adorned with a replica of the World Cup - and body covered in the Indian tri-colour. For at least half a decade now, Gautam has been Tendulkar's biggest fan, waving the Indian flag and blowing his conch shell at every venue Tendulkar plays. Today, Tendulkar decided to repay Gautam for his devotion.
No sooner had he realised that Tendulkar was calling, Gautam jumped the electronic advertising hoarding and skipped up the 30-odd stairs on to the corridor of the Indian changing room. All through his short journey he screamed in delight. Tendulkar shook hands with him, then
embraced him and finally asked one of his team-mates to get the World Cup trophy. Zaheer Khan brought the cup outside with utmost care and held it tight. Gautam almost snatched it out of his hands but Zaheer held on. Eventually Zaheer let go and Gautam lifted the Cup with both hands, screaming "India". Tendulkar could not help but smile; he started clapping and was joined by a few of his team-mates. The sweat on Tendulkar's face glistened under the floodlights, enhancing his joy of winning the World Cup .
It was a day when the common man felt he was part of something special, when the gap between fan and superstar was bridged, with Gautam becoming the envy of fellow fans as he freely slipped in and out of the most sought after place in India, the team's dressing room.
The guy once travelled all the way from Muzaffarpur to Dhaka in Bangladesh on his bicycle as you can see in the adjacent picture to cheer for India in that test match. Sadly, once at Green park in Kanpur, he was beaten up by a security policeman as he tried to get close to Sachin Tendulkar and shake his hand. Sachin got to know about the incidence and made Kanpur police man applogies to his dear fan. Even IG came out with a statement that concerned officer didn't know whether Sudhir was known to Tendulkar and he had tendered an apology in this regard!
While
watching live cricket that's being played in India, we can always spot Sudhir Kumar Gautam waving Indian flag with his body painted in tri color. I think I read somewhere he has some skin problem as well but can't confirm it.
One might wonder how does he gets tickets to all those matches? well, each cricketer who plays the international match gets 10 passes for free and can invite anyone they wish. Sachin Tendulkar makes a point to give Sudhir a free entry whenever he's playing in india.. not when abroad as Sudhir can't afford to travel outside India.
Not bad Sudhir, you're living your dream!