Mahendra Singh DhoniThe boy from RanchiJharkhand has very few celebrities. Now. Or ever.It is not surprising then that the day Mahendra Singh Dhoni returns to Ranchi, Jharkhand’s capital, it goes dizzy with excitement.The moment his plane lands he is chased from the airport by an army of television cameras and ardent fans. Everyone, old friends and new admirers, want to meet him. He is made the chief guest at any important function happening and often there will be requests from the chief minister to attend a certain event.If he goes for a haircut chaos reigns. He once attempted a cut at one of the city’s fashionable barber shops, Kaya and the crowds that gathered, especially from the Women’s College opposite, imprisoned him in the shop for three hours. Finally the police resorted to a lathi charge to give him an exit route.Dhon nuratrim i is still very much Ranchi-based.A total Ranchi boy.The only place he calls home is a little cottage, fronted by gorgeous and lovingly-attended dahlias, zinnias and roses, where his parents — Pan and Devki Singh live in a colony in the town’s Doranda suburb.Dhoni was born here and this was where he was schooled and where he rose to fame playing fabulous strokes at the colony’s stadium.The cricketer pops home once in two months and if he is lucky he spends a day with his parents, his sister Jayanti Gupta, who is an English teacher and lives down the road and his favourite dogs, a Labrador named Zarah and an Alsation Sam.Dhoni’s parents are a modest, simple couple. Pan Singh still roams the colony on a bicycle and Dhoni’s fame has changed their lifestyle very little. It just meant getting used to the voracious, insatiable media.
