Photo source: Instagram
[the_ad_placement id=”adsense-in-feed”]
By Suvam Pal*
The would haves of every aspiring cricketer from a small-town/non-metro/hinterland for generations were accomplished by MS Dhoni and the role model from Ranchi transformed those would haves into real possibilities.
During our childhood days in West Bengal, Ranchi was synonymous with a central government establishment on its outskirts, Kanke. Yes, the Central Institute of Psychiatry, or the insensitively-used words of the mental asylum, became a dubious symbol of Ranchi and was predominantly a point of reference during our causal communications and sarcastic comments those days. The mining hub in the undivided state of Bihar, now in Jharkhand, was the most sought-after place to dispatch a crazy soul or a recalcitrant kid as part of people’s verbal volleys before the arrival of the erstwhile wunderkind wicket-keeper.
[the_ad_placement id=”content-placement-after-3rd-paragraph”]
However, it was eventually a cricketer from Ranchi, who not only shattered many mental barriers but also immensely occupied the mind space of cricket fans in India and all over the world. The most famous man from the city, surrounded by a slew of waterfalls, helped the Indian cricket witness many watershed moments.
Dhoni’s cricketing prowess literally made us gone crazy while his incredible leadership often compelled his rival teams to suffer from mental disintegration and lose the mind games. With his unorthodox all-round skills and out-of-the-box captaincy manoeuvres, Dhoni changed the mindset of the Indian cricket team. Indian cricket fans mostly remained high on MSD and his superman-esque skills and exploits.
The full-blooded shots by a free-hitting Dhoni were visually as spellbinding as the full-flowing Hundru, Dassam, Jonha & Hirni falls near Ranchi. He was genuinely a mad-hitter, not the Mad Hatter, in the wonderland of world cricket.
To cut a long story short, Ranchi boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni redefined madness for all of us. No wonder, the Indian cricket fans of the Dhoni-era went mad about Dhoni than getting mad over Kanke. After all, he has transformed the place with a mental asylum into the abode of the man who set many memorable milestones and scripted many magnificent moments in the history of the gentleman’s game.
Thanks to Dhoni, Ranchi does exist today in both our mind as well as the heart. That’s the way, Mahi way!
*Suvam Pal is a Beijing-based media professional and author
[the_ad_placement id=”sidebar-feed”]
