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 SACHIN
TENDULKAR
Even while standing head-to-head with a giant like Don Bradman,
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has not lost the adulation of a cricket-crazy
nation. The multi-million dollar endorsements apart, his boy-man
appeal and scholarly approach to the game ensure that people want
to hug him each time he goes out to bat carrying the inadequacies
of a less-than-perfect team upon his shoulders |
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 APJ
ABDUL KALAM
APJ Abdul Kalam's entry to the Rashtrapati Bhavan reaffirms faith
in a democracy where a son-of-the-soil can still make it to the
highest office in the land. Seeing him at play with children it
is almost possible to believe in the return of political innocence
despite decades of accumulated cynicism |
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 LATA
MANGESHKAR
Despite the 398 languages of its people, if India has a common tongue
it is undoubtedly that of Lata Mangeshkar's. In her seductively
beguiling voice the hopes and aspirations, fears and passions, pain
and joy of teeming millions have found expression for the last fifty-seven
years. And even when we have nothing else left to share, there will
always be Lata's soulful rendition of Ae mere watan ke logon
to move us to tears |
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 SUNIL
GAVASKAR
If Tendulkar can beat the stuffings out of a cricket ball, Sunil
Manohar Gavaskar, Indian cricket's first real world-beater, could
run an entire bowling attack to the ground with the sheer perfection
of his batsmanship. As India still gropes in the dark at the top
of its batting order, India's eternally optimistic cricket fans
keep hoping that Sunny would, with one miraculous stroke, resurrect
his career and dispel the gloom |
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 AMITABH
BACHCHAN
If cinema in India is religion, then Amitabh Bachchan is surely
God. And Indians have shown a penchant for reinventing the phenomenon
over and over again - from silver screen to the boob tube and back.
Like sparkling wine that gets better with age, the Millinnium's
Superstar looks well set to intoxicate audiences in the years to
come. And you sure can lock that one down |
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 BISMILLAH
KHAN
Undoubtedly the finest product from the melting pot of India's cultural
cauldron, Ustad Bismillah Khan has unified his music and his religion
into a divine harmony. Each Independence Day since 1947 the mellifluous
notes of Khan Sahib's shehnai have encouraged Indians to celebrate
this very oneness of the human spirit |
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 VISHWANATHAN
ANAND
Vishwanathan Anand is a new-age hero in every sense of the world.
By writing himself into the record books as the 15th Chess Champion
of the world, the 'Lightning Kid' from Chennai did much more than
restore lost pride to India's sports fans. Self-effacing almost
to a fault, Vishy has proved that nice guys need not always finish
last |
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 NARAYANA
MURTHY
If it could happen to Murthy it could happen to me - one could almost
be excused for believing that about a person who lives in the same
'two-bedroom, sparsely furnished house' he did before becoming a
millionaire many times over. It is this touching humanism that makes
Infosys Chairman NR Narayana Murthy's rags to riches story so palpably
real for most Indians |
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 MAHASWETA
DEVI
Her writings in the last forty years have seen Jnanpith and Magsaysay
Award winner Mahasweta Devi forge an almost umbilical alliance with
the Indian masses. Her novels have no heroes or villains but only
victims - 'tribals, non-tribals and people in distress' - whose
cause she has relentlessly championed |
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