It really is a no-brainer. MS Dhoni lives in Ranchi... ever since I read that he was making a house with a pool in it, I went all the way (okay I confess, it was a work trip) and hired a taxi to take me all around his colony to take a glimpse at this house.
The taxi driver kept insisting that the house was not only under construction, but also under wraps - that hardly deterred me, much to his irritation. Who was I, this out-of-towner, treating the local God’s privacy with such disdain?
To me, it was holy ground. The sepulchre of the cricket lover... the bouncing wall for those who favour the turn of the Indian spin and yes, there are millions of cricket loving Indian women, just like me.
I caught sight of the man himself often at airports... he would pull his cap down and walk quickly. I clapped and shouted and whistled, which earned me a wink from Muralitharan, a cocky wave from Irfan Pathan and a wry Aussie smile from Gilchrist... but nothing from the man who mattered most!
It made me a more committed fan of 50! Look at him, so confident, so uncaring about public adulation... on the pitch, those who are blind in our love for him can virtually see the switches going off - click, click, click... like a grandmaster planning each and every move, his two eyes, ceaselessly scouring the field in a complete 360 degree scan.
Nothing misses his keen eye and is processed instantly by his even more alert mind. He wants his fielders in exactly the position he specified. And how many times has he been proved right, huh? A foot-and-a-half to the side and the fielder’s fingers miss the ball in a textbook catch gone wrong.
![]() |
Nothing misses his keen eye and is processed instantly by his even more alert mind. (Photo: India Today) |
When we all collectively turn to look at Dhoni, his eyes give nothing away except the tightness of his jaw and his gloved hands banging together. He is not pleased and because he does not show it, the impact is that of a howitzer. His teammates don’t make the same mistake twice.
So let’s get back to Ranchi, shall we? I was there just a few months ago. It is a charming little town. The roadside golgappas are spicy enough to demand a second helping. There are two temples, both atop hills.
One has a motorable road but the other has a tight climb across a 100 stairs. It will knock the breath out of you and make your head swim if you, like me, have always watched cricket from the comfort of the couch. But both are worth a visit, even if you are not the devout kind.
There are a couple of other hidden delights. If you are returning from another failed sighting in Harmu Colony and you tell your driver to just drive, maybe past the cantonment with its verdant beauty... you will chance upon the local haat where the locals come for their pounded masalas, three veg and a cotton saree.
The find is usually what we in big cities call "organic" vegetables. The red and purplish baby potatoes are to die for. I have carried five kilos of them in a baggage-only flight. Small potatoes, perhaps, but enough to put life back in commercially grown "gobhi" or "baingan" or just mashed in their own skin after a good boil, a dash of mustard oil, chopped coriander, ginger, green chillies, salt and a pinch of black pepper. My own version of "chokha". I even bought a wooden doll, all painted in the brightest of colours.
I was planning to take one more turn of Harmu Colony. Dhoni was in town and is known to head out on the highway on his motorcycle and he just might catch my wave or my eye. The taxi driver points out to a dusty patch and says that’s the place Dhoni used to practice his cricket.
As I watch it pass by, I wonder how much his dad yelled at him for playing all day... he was baby Dhoni then, not the successful cricketer he is today. Parents may now let their children hit a ball all day in the hope that the kid would turn out like Dhoni but I am sure the man himself was given a bollocking for wasting his time... Remember this was before we saw his biographical movie.
I am despondent but there is only one flight to Delhi in the evening and I have to be back at work the next day. I will watch him again in the matches coming up in the season and I will plan a trip to Ranchi again. You never know when one can get lucky, eh?