It wasn’t exactly business as usual on Tuesday as Sachin Tendulkar, with wife Anjali and kids Sara and Arjun in tow left the Indian team hotel to take his family for an outing in the city. Far from the madding crowd and far away from most prying eyes, Tendulkar spent a good part of the afternoon, a day before the second ODI between India and Pakistan, trying to be the caring husband and a loving father. Wearing the Blue T-shirt of Team India, Tendulkar took his family to the Lake Club here, followed by a visit to the world-famous Rock Gardens. For almost a couple of hours, visitors to the Sukhna Lake and Rock Gardens watched in amazement the Tendulkars going for a boat ride, playing tennis-ball cricket as father Sachin threw down balls at son Arjun, now a promising left-handed batsman. “I want to be an all-rounder,” a shy Arjun said, adding, “I love playing cricket.” The mother-daughter duo of Anjali and Sara seemed captivated by the environs of the lake, clicking away pictures of each other. So much so, Sara climbed up a tree even as her mother kept clicking her pictures on her digital camera. This could have been any family intent on enjoying their visit to Chandigarh, but that it happened to be Sachin’s was a major surprise for all. It is no secret that the family struggles for privacy in India due to the 24-hour attention on them, but the fact that Sachin was out there within 24 hours of news leaking out of his having refused the Indian Test captaincy caught everybody unawares. Reet Mohinder Singh, the general manager of the Club said: “We were honoured by Sachin and his family’s visit today. I am sure they would have carried good impressions of the place and would want to come back.” Having spent an hour at the Lake, the family moved onto the Rock Gardens where they checked out Nek Chand’s creations.
