It’s shaken up the literatti and most certainly the twitteratti — for iconic cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s limited edition book (reportedly 10 of which are already pre-sold) of his autobiography — with his own blood mixed into the paper pulp — got people into a vociferous mood yesterday.
Proceeds from the same will be going towards the sportsman’s charity to build a school. However, society still had plenty of opinions.
Publisher and writer Shobhaa De tweeted, "Sachin’s blood and saliva in an 852 pages book costing $75,000, weighing 37kg? Aaaargh! This blood edition OPUS sounds bloody awful, almost sick."
When asked if she felt this amounted to going to bizarre lengths to publish a book, she said, “In today’s highly competitive times — anything goes! It’s a publishing gimmick and a very unique one at that!! As a publisher myself, I may find it in bad taste, but since the whole thing is charity-driven — what a bloody coup!”
Ex-cricketer Kapil Dev said if the story of blood being in it were true, it was still for a cause. “I’d want to read what he has written. Sachin is a fantastic player and we must feel proud that he’s giving back to charity,” he said.
Adman Prahlad Kakkar, who resides in Sachin’s building, feels any objection toward the subject is just grist to the mill on “India’s favourite son”. “Look, tomorrow I can write a book on ‘My Neighbour Sachin Tendulkar’ so there are books and then there are books to end all books.
Sachin’s sanction of this autobiography shows he wants it to be different from all books. I think it requires a lot of effort and care to want your autobiography to be designed differently.
Plus, Sachin is not going to take that money from the sale of the same and put it in his bank, it’s for charity. A player like him comes once in 100 years, he’s the favourite son of the nation, so when he does something like this, there’s a certain romance to it. Sachin’s put his signature to it,” he contends.