Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) to Sri.Ramesh Tendulkar & Smt. Rajni Tendulkar. His dad Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist, named him after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Tendulkar's elder brother Ajit is the mentor & early inspiration for Tendulkar to play cricket. Tendulkar has two other siblings: a brother Nitin, and sister Savitai.
Sachin's potential to spot the ball, time it & his perfect shots as a kid was noticed by his brother Ajit in Ruia College was being coached by Ramakant Achrekar.

(Ramakanth Achrekar (The Guru of Sachin)
Achrekar, who was rather popular in the streets of mumbai as a coach than a player. Ramakant achrekar ran few cricket clubs such as Sassanian Cricket Club and Kamat Memorial CC & was played cricket even at his 40's to manage his activities. He was also playing for SBI along with ajith wadekar (Former Indian Captain). Wadekar remembers Ramakanth as Bradman of Tennis ball cricket! which was not just a comment, but was a real summary of Ramakanth's Techniques.)

Ajith Tendulkar really thought that his brother should be under the mentorship of Mr.Ramakanth Achrekar & when Ajith brought up to this request Ramakanth who was coaching to professionals was as more than interested to coach a kid of 11 years who hadn't been expreienced with a Hard Cricket Ball.

First day of the training sachin was asked to watch to learn how the BIG BOYS play. while returning home sachin expressed his true thoughts to his brother that he could play better than any of 'em. The next few days achrekar guided junior tendulkar in the practice sessions.Playing with a rubber ball meant Sachin resorted to cross-bat shots to cope with the exaggerated bounce & as a result leg side play was more interesting to sachin in the initial nets.

Ajith went to meet Mr.achrekar for the feedback about the kid tendulkar. Being asked about sachin, achrekar's eyes lit up "Everything was just right. He was a natural cricketer". Achrekar also said "His father was always behind him and his brother Ajit would accompany him to the nets. This was essential for the youngster". Tendulkar's Family being middle class had hopes on the little one's dreams. In a generation where the academics being given such importance Tendulkar's Dad & bro supported sachin.
Like all good coaches, Achrekar was loath to change the natural style of the youngster. He did, however, have a problem with Sachin's batting grip, something he had acquired as a five-year-old when he would play around with Ajit's bat. In order to grip a bat that was obviously too big for him, Sachin clutched it at the bottom of the handle and the habit stuck. The bottom-handed grip enabled him to hit strokes with great power. But Achrekar felt it was all wrong as it affected his stance and would cause problems as he grew taller. He tried to persuade Sachin to use the orthodox grip, holding the bat in the middle of the handle with both hands together. But Sachin felt uncomfortable with this new grip and wanted to go back to the original. Achrekar relented and it has stayed with Sachin all these years. Later, Achrekar selected sachin for a 50 over game for his students. Sachin's contribution in the first two games were DUCK! & so do his first ODI's!!. Batting at #4, Sachin had confidence to bounce back & scored 51, 38 and 45 & a batsman had to be retired after scoring 50(per achrekar's game rules to encourage all players.)

Sachin was first studying in Indian Education Society's New English School, close to his home in Bandra. Achrekar suggested & convinced sachin's father to change his school to sharadashram which had a reputed school team & a decent cricket ground. However this decission was left to Sachin himself. Sachin though he had to leave his school friends chose cricket first! & decided to shift to sharadashram for his fulltime multi tasking role managing his cricket & studies.
Buying sachin a cricket kit was the next task where ajith remembers sachin choosing the heavy bat. Despite the duo Ajit & Achrekar tries to convince sachin, he stuck to his own decission & the Master still plays with a heavy Bat!. Cricket being priority studies started taking back seat.

In the mumbai monsoon the only league cricket being played was Kanga League. Achrekar didn't wan't to risk the kid with the uneven pitches & the hard bal. But however Sachin played in the league & he also discovered a new friend Vinod Kambli. In the quaters Umpire Gondhalekar predicted sachin's gonna be playing for india in the future but achrekar felt sachin's too young & nd's more experience.

Sachin's dream of entering too Bombay Cricket assosiation under 19 was a shocker to dandekar who coached under 19 seeing the 12 yr old kid.  Sachin started to stay with his uncle to avoid the long journey for achrekar's net sessions, & cricket was taken more seriously.

At the next summer holidays Sachin's schedule began everyday at 7:30AM with batting session followed by tips, Bowling was also important too! & so did the fielding. Sachin bowled a decent medium pace & also leg spin. & the session was till 10. & again the evening session would be from 3-7.Achrekar would take him across town on his scooter to the Azad Maidan where his Sassanian Cricket Club was playing and Sachin would get the chance to bat twice during the day.

Sachin also played for Achrekar's clubs : Hind Sevak CC in the Gordhandas Shield where the team won with Sachin scoring 30 in his first game and 43 in the semifinals, against experienced bowlers with 'A' division experience. Special batting price was presented to Sachin. His maiden century was in the Harris shield tournament against Don Bosco.

He was chosen for Mumbai under 15 team along with his school mate Vinod Kambli.He was run out for one in a tournament marred by rain and did not make it to the West Zone under-15 team.The 1985-86 season had turned out to be a notable one for Sachin. A maiden century and a recommendation from one of Mumbai cricket's old guards!

Sachin played a full season of Kanga League cricket in 1986-87 for the 'F' division team of John Bright CC. He scored 121 runs for an average of nearly 20 when teams were struggling to reach 100 on the treacherous pitches. Scores of 36 and 83 for the Shivaji Park Gymkhana team against PJ Hindu Gymkhana and Dadar Union CC in the GR Vishwanath Trophy for under-15 boys saw him secure a berth in the Mumbai under-15 team for the Vijay Merchant Trophy.

It has happened countless times since in newspapers and magazines around the world. But the very first time Sachin's photograph appeared in the papers was when he scored 123 against Maharashtra in just 140 minutes in the opening game at Baroda. That got him into the West Zone under-15 team as he continued to scale the ladder of success at bewildering speed. West Zone lost to holders South Zone with Sachin's 74 run out the highest score.

Back to sharadashram scoring 665 runs with three centuries in the Giles Shield. For the first time, Sharadashram English achieved the Harris/Giles double, largely due to Sachin's huge scores. Sachin's name started appearing in the local mumbai newspapers.
First journalist to interview sachin was Sunil Warrier of Mid-Day. Warrier, now with The Times of India, sent me a copy of that first interview (published in December 1986). He has vivid memories of the meeting, claiming with a laugh: 'I made Sachin famous and then he made me famous.' 

'Sachin was making runs by the tons. I went to Shivaji Park in Dadar and met him just around lunch. I told him that since he was fielding I would come later in the evening to chat with him,' Warrier told me. 'I was quite surprised to see his brother too with him in the evening. I was wondering how he had found the time to call his brother to the ground. I suggested we go to a restaurant and have a cup of tea. They agreed and we walked a short distance from the ground to a small Irani restaurant. It is one of the oldest in that area. As we started chatting I realized that Sachin was keeping mum and Ajit was doing all the talking. Every time I asked a question, Sachin would prompt his brother in Marathi, 'Tu sang na' (You tell him). So I told him, since you go to an English medium school you should speak to me in English and not in Marathi. He politely smiled. We had tea and bun maska and the session must have lasted about 25 minutes or so. I did meet Sachin subsequently when he scored debut hundreds in the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy, for chats. But I was weaned away from cricket to hockey and football and I have never met Sachin again.'
Warrier's interview mentioned that Sunil Gavaskar and Vivian Richards were Sachin's favourite batsmen, something he maintains to this day. 'The square-cut and the off-drive are his favourite strokes. He loves to play one-day cricket more than a four-day match. His natural instincts are to attack from the word go.' The interview reveals that 'he thrives on Michael Jackson songs' and concludes with 'Sachin is also a good singer.'

Sachin continued his cricket with the other tournies following & he scored almost double than the second highest scorer & showed some good bowling skills too but still he was denied with the Best Junior Cricketer of the Year award. But he was astonished to see letter from Sunil Gavaskar dated 3 August 1987 which contained encouraging words and a postscript: 'Don't be disappointed at not getting the Best Junior Cricketer award from BCA. If you look at the best award winners you will find one name missing and that person has not done badly in Test cricket!! (& that batsman who had the name missing was one of the Best Opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar himself!)'. This was inspirational to sachin.

Even when sachin was scoring tons of runs he did pick up some wickets as a medium pacer, he was part of the selection trials at the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai. Australian Pacer Dennis Liillie was rather impressed by his batting than his bowling & asked sachin to concentrate more on his batting. Sachin was not selected for the Pace Academy.

1987-88 season Kanga League he was selected for the Sportstar Trophy for boys under17. His scores of 158, 97 and 75 also won him the Man of the Series award and took his team (Dattu Phadkar XI) to victory & he was announced in the 36 probables of Mumbai Ranaji Team.The name of Sunil Gavaskar also figured in the list. But Gavaskar had announced his retirement during the MCC Bicentenary match at Lord's in August and thus the two just missed playing in the same team.Runs continued to flow in junior tournaments. But he failed to gain selection to the Indian team for the under-19 World Cup in Australia. In the Giles and Harris shield he had a fantastic run: 21 not out, 125, 207 not out, 326 not out, 172 not out, 346 not out, 0 and 14. The 'failures' of 172 not out, 0 and 14 were scored in the Giles Shield. His Harris Shield total of 1, 025 runs came to the staggering average of 1, 025!
The two triple centuries had come in the Harris Shield, in the semifinals against St. Xavier's, Fort (326 not out) and in the final against Anjuman-E-Islam (346 not out). It was in the course of the former (February 23-25 1988) that he was involved in the world record partnership of 664 (unbroken) for the third wicket with Kambli.

(inspired by Hindustan times article by Gulu Ezekiel)