Tendulkar happiest Indian in the world: Survey

Mumbai: India’s batting great Sachin Tendulkar was voted as India’s role model of health and happiness in a countrywide survey initiated by a magazine earlier this month.

The survey was conducted before the little master became the highest Test run-scorer during the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was carried out by global research firm Synovate for Complete Wellbeing, where people from across the 8 metropolitan cities of India were asked to name their role models in fields of entertainment, sports, politics and business.

And to everybody’s surprise Tendulkar topped the list amongst the whopping 320 names that came up as role models in the survey. Tendulkar was preferred ahead of icons like APJ Abdul Kalam and Amitabh Bachchan who emerged in the top three bracket.

When informed about the award, Sachin Tendulkar was elated. In his interview, published in the December 2008 issue of Complete Wellbeing, Tendulkar said, “Is it true? My countrymen think I am the healthiest and happiest person in the country? What a compliment! I am truly overwhelmed. I will cherish this compliment forever.”

Salman Khan, Sharukh Khan, Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Anil Ambani emerged as the top celebrities who inspire health and happiness in their respective domains.

One heartening finding that has emerged out of the survey is that India seems to strongly associate health with happiness, the two most valuable gifts of life. Most of the top five role models across all categories are the same in health as in happiness.