His green and yellow auto was covered with photos of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. Three big cut-outs of Sachin and a happy birthday message, fitted with LED lights, on the roof immediately make the auto the centre of attention. This is only for April 24, the birthday – Sachin Tendulkar's – that Velu, a Bengaluru auto driver looks forward to the most.

For this 40-year-old auto-man, Sachin is the be all and end all of life, and celebrates Sachin’s birthday as the most important day of the year.

“It is necessary to celebrate it like any other important festival. People raise eyebrows and often ask what I get in return but I don’t care,” he said with a huge smile on his face.

Sachin’s retirement came as a big blow to Velu as his father passed away on the same day he announced his retirement. “To me, Sachin is my father. He is my God and everything else. It was the saddest day of my life, but I had to decorate my auto in memory of Sachin’s unparalleled journey,” he said, requesting us to not question him further about Sachin’s retirement as he would not be able to control the tears that follow.

He confessed that he no longer watched cricket or television for that matter and would rather believe that Sachin has gone on a foreign tour and would return to play again for India. And that, he revealed, would make him the happiest!

He goes on to narrate how he met Sachin for the first time in 2004 and experienced a “shock-wave.” Ask him what Sachin told him, he said, “How can you expect God to talk back to you? Meeting him was enough.