HELP ME SACHIN!

COURTESY MID-DAY PUBLICATIONS

Duplicate, who earned Rs 30,000 a month, is jobless after India’s World Cup horror.

On March 23, Balvir Chand (37) earned Rs 5,000 just sitting at a pub, watching TV and cheering Team India play Sri Lanka.

After all, it wasn’t often that customers could watch two Sachins at one go — the real one on TV, the look-alike a few tables away.

The next day, the world as he knew it, crashed around him — India had been booted out of the World Cup. The impact was devastating. Chand’s demand for appearances at events, road shows, inaugurations ended.

The man who earned between Rs 30,000 and Rs 2 lakh a month, thanks to his resemblance with Tendulkar has been not earned a single paisa since then.

“I had signed up for a 20-day event across India for the World Cup, which would have earned me Rs 3 lakh. But Team India’s elimination from the Cup and Tendulkar’s performance shattered my dreams.”

He added, “Sachin allowed me to lead a respectable life, but today I am jobless and homeless. I was planning to buy a small apartment in Mira Road for Rs 5.5 lakh, but I can’t afford it any more.”

He had applied for a housing loan, but after the contract got cancelled he withdrew the application. He also has no money to pay the rent for his flat at Mira Road.

But Chand bears Tendulkar no grudges. “Sachin is a kindhearted man and if he knows that his lookalike is in distress, he will surely help me.” In fact, he says, Tendulkar has given him the courage to pick himself up despite the odds.

“I was thinking of packing my bags and going back to Punjab, but after I read a piece from Sachin’s interview where he says he will never give up, that he will work hard to come back in form, I decided to stay on in Mumbai,” he said, adding that his prayers were with Tendulkar, that he would once again play well so that he could ride on his success.

On the occasion of Tendulkar’s birthday 34th birthday on April 24, Chand has penned a poem. It goes: ‘Tujhko jo bhi mila hai muqaddar se mila hai… mujhko toh muqaddar bhi tere chehere se mila hai’.

Balvir came into the limelight in 1999 after he was called to England for the World Cup and was made to share the seat at the commentary box with the Sunil Gavaskar.

Chand has three children and worked as a ward boy in Ludhiana and apart from his family has to burden the responsibility of his mentally ill elder brother, who has four children.

Tendulkar is familiar with Chand, but it has been over a year since they met.