Sachin Tendulkar’s much-awaited autobiography, Playing It My Way, was launched in the presence of some of his former teammates, celebrities and family members at an engrossing function on Wednesday.Best part of the launch of Sachin Tendulkar’s book ‘Playing in my way’ was the sight of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman sitting on same stage and the banter that ensued.

The book, the first copy of which he presented to his mother, Rajni, earlier in the day, was unveiled by Tendulkar himself amid thunderous applause from the gathering.

What actually happened at Book launch :

The ceremony began at  6 Pm and goes as follows ;

 6:02 pm The stage is all set and the distinguished guests have taken their seats.

6:05 pm Sachin Tendulkar’s wife Anjali Tendulkar and daughter Sara are interacting with the guests.

6:08 pm In his book, Tendulkar has taken a stand on the ball tampering issue where he has clearly said that he was merely cleaning the ball and after the controversy, he took the permission of the umpire before doing so.

6:15 pm The batting genius has a special chapter in his book – Anjali – where he says that it was difficult for him to write about their relationship as nobody knows about it

6:17 pm Renowned sports journalist, Boria Majumder, who has also written the book, takes the stage.

6:18 pm “It has taken three years, 5000 plus pages”, he says.

6:19 pm “There are two fundamental challenges when you work on this book. His life is a public book. So what can we say what we don’t know. Two, to actually get his voice. In the manner he wants,” he adds.

6:20 pm Majumder thanks the publishers and last but not the least, thanks Tendulkar’s wife Anjali – who made sure the emotions were absolutely at the right place.

6:25 pm Harsha Bhogle thanks Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri. He also thanks Vasu Paranspe.

6:29 pm Another legend Gavaskar recalls the first incident where he went on to watch Tendulkar play at the Wankhede Stadium. Gavaskar had heard a lot about Tendulkar. “I was standing there and watching him play. He was batting against Raju Kulkarni. Raju was slippery and in the nets we all know bowlers don’t think about the no ball. The manner in which he was punching it off the backfoot…was quite astonishing,” he says.

6:32 pm “I had to tell Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma to bowl at him (Tendulkar),” recalls Vengsarkar. Vengsarkar wanted the selectors to select Sachin for the team which they rejected as he was just 15 then. But Tendulkar was included to play in the Under-15. Vengsarkar says Sachin didn’t come for the first three days for practice and fourth day he came and said he had a exam at school. He scored a century against Gujarat in the first match.

6:34 pm When asked whether he was the one who sent Tendulkar to the MRF academy, he says, “Yes I did. But to bat. But we went and started bowling!”

6:36 pm Ravi Shastri too hails the little master and says they all knew he was the next big thing post his tour against Pakistan, a tour where he ripped apart the best of the bowling attack.

6:39 pm Gavaskar recalls another incident where Tendulkar equalled his record of 34 Test centuries, immediately after which he stood up to applaud his feat! An Australian cricketer was in tears after looking at Gavaskar’s reaction.

6: 45 pm Shastri recalls another incident where Tendulkar was batting against Australia as an 18-year-old where “The SCG saw strokeplay of the highest order from the teenager and he was in the history books!”

6: 46 pm The moment we have been waiting for – Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and last but not the least, SACHIN TENDULKAR HAVE TAKEN THE STAGE!

6:46 pm Ganguly saw Tendulkar for the first time in the nets at Indore where he recalls how Tendulkar had to be removed from the nets as there were other players waiting for their chance! Ganguly was surprised to see Tendulkar batting with “one of the heaviest cricket bats” early in his days.

6:48 pm “He was my partner at the MRF academy, says Ganguly to which Sachin replies “I was your partner because you didn’t want to sleep alone.”

6:50 pm “I heard a lot about him and Ravi Shastri by Amol,” recalls Laxman. He would always be the first one to come and talk to a youngster,” says Laxman who remembers his early days into the Indian team.

6:55 pm Dravid says when he and Tendulkar were in the middle, they spoke to each other in Marathi. Dravid mentions about the days when he was a youngster in the team and Sachin would walk at the crease and ask him, “What’s happening?”

6:58 pm Tendulkar hails Laxman’s incredible batting style against Australian spin legend Shane Warne.

7:00 pm Harsha puts Dravid in a tricky situation and recalls the famous Multan Test where Dravid declared the innings while Tendulkar was batting on 194. Both the players say there have been disagreement in their 16-year-tenure but that was a part of the game. Dravid remembers how he gave Tendulkar the ball to bowl the last over of the day and he bowled Moin Khan off the last ball of the innings.

07:03 pm Ganguly recalls an incident where he asked Sachin to take the strike as he was short of runs. Tendulkar refused to do so, post which Ganguly went and took the guard at the non-striker’s end. Guess what, with no options left, Tendulkar had to play the first delivery!

07:06 pm Tendulkar too recalls an incident where he was hit ball a Shoaib Akhtar delivery, which hit him in the rib cage and Ganguly went up to him and said, “Oh you are a champion. You must bat!”

07: 10 pm Speaking about Greg Chappell, Tendulkar says the atmosphere could have been better in the dressing room in 2006, with the Australian. “The enviroment was very negative,” recalls Tendulkar. Tendulkar also says that the team could have done without Chappell in the 2007 World Cup.

07: 13 pm Sourav, Laxman and Dravid leave the stage after a group photograph with Sachin.

7:16 pm Anjali recalls how when she saw Sachin at the age of 17 and she didn’t even know about his whereabouts. It was only after her friend told her about Tendulkar’s heroics, that she ‘ran’ after Tendulkar, whom she found to be ‘cute’

7:18 pm “I called Sachin and he never used to pick up the phone. But that was the d:ay when he picked the phone,” says Anjali.

7 19 pm Ajit Tendulkar says he used to watch Tendulkar bat from the balcony as he didn’t want to pressurise him with his presence.

7:25 pm Tendulkar tells about another incident where he ended up going to the same restaurant three times in a row, just to ensure that the batting momentum didn’t break.

7:30 pm Anjali recalls another incident, where she visited Tendulkar’s house for the first time, as a journalist, because Tendulkar wanted her to. The family members were staring at her throughout her stay, where Tendulkar cut a chocolate into pieces and gave her.

7:33 pm Another interesting anecdote: When Anjali and Sachin decided to get engaged, Tendulkar asked Anjali to go and speak to his parents.

7:35 pm On Father’s death: Anjali recalls how while during the World Cup, she went all the way to inform Tendulkar about the news. She says it was one of the toughest things she has ever had to do.

7: 39 pm Sachin on brother: “I knew whenever I went in to bat, he was always there with me,” says Tendulkar. Tendulkar also says that after his retirement, Ajit gave him his first bat and the first helmet he had used in the Pakistan series, which he had kept hidden

7:40 pm The moment has arrived, Tendulkar unveils the book!

7:41 pm Tendulkar invites daughter Sara on stage, who gifts the book which has been unveiled to his childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar

7:42 pm Sachin and Sara seek blessings from the veteran coach post which all of them leave the stage.

7:45 pm Harsha reads a para from the autobiography where West Indies legend Vivian Richards backed Sachin after he was struggling with form post the 2007 World Cup and was contemplating retirement. It was Vivian’s words which motivated Sachin, who went on to break plenty of more records.

7:48 pm Even though Vivian isn’t present at the function, he sent a video message which was played before everybody.

7:55 pm First person who reprimanded Sachin: Tendulkar mentions another incident where in order to get his name published in the newspaper, he got six runs added to his individual score of 24 while playing for a school cricket match. It was something which was suggested to him by the person who was handling the scoresheet. The next morning, he was reprimanded by his coach Achrekar who told him that in order to see his name published in the newspaper, he must play some good innings.

07:58 pm Sachin on the headline ‘Endulkar’: Tendulkar says he was quite upset after reading the header as he believed he had nothing left to prove after having played international cricket for 17 years!

08:00 pm On Arjun being the ball boy in his last Test match: Tendulkar says Arjun was supposed to play a cricket match that day which got cancelled as a result of which he turned up. The previous night, there was a discussion at Tendulkar’s home whether Arjun should watch his father play the last match of his 24-year-old career or play his own match. Sachin being Sachin, said that Arjun should choose for the latter.

8:04pm On missing the final moments of ICC World Cup 2011: Sachin said he along with Virender Sehwag were praying in the dressing room as MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh guided India to their second World Cup victory.

Tendulkar was also questioned about the perception that he rarely took a stand on major issues in cricket. “If you see in my book, issues on which people believed I should have taken a stand, the only things which I was 100% sure of I stood for that in my book,” he said. “If you have read some of the articles I have expressed myself whole-heartedly but on things which were not first-hand information, it is unwise to do that, it is a loose statement and I didn’t want to fire loose statements.”