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Vaibhav Purandare grew up playing cricket at Shivaji Park, Mumbai, at the same time as the school-going Sachin Tendulkar was amassing loads of runs on the field. He watched helplessly as Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli walked away with a world-record partnership against his school. Purandare was taught in college by Tendulkar's father, Professor Ramesh Tendulkar, and was coached as a right-hand batsman and off-spin bowler by Tendulkar's coach, Ramakant Acharekar. He began his journalistic career in 1993 with the political newsmagazine Blitz and has since worked with India's leading newspapers like The Indian Express, The Asian Age, Mid Day, Mumbai Mirror and DNA, apart from writing for a host of other publications. His first book, The Sena Story, a history of the Hindu militant political party Shiv Sena, was published in 1999, when he was only twenty-three. He is currently Senior Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times, Mumbai.