Saurav and Donna happy at last (original) (raw)

a childhood love affair. a runaway marriage. and enough grist to run a gossip mill. in a rare interview, dona and saurav ganguly, the couple in the eye of the storm, take a trip down memory lane with jhimli mukherjee pandey who discovers that. what does a wife do when the entire world calls her husband a philanderer? dance away her frustration and ignore the world.

that is dona ganguly (roy) for you, an acclaimed odissi dancer in her own right and the first lady of indian cricket, who is in no mood to vacate her throne. a wife is far more important in a mans life than any other woman, she says with conviction. for dona, sourav is still the next-door neighbour (in the real sense because only a boundary wall separates the two houses in behala, kolkata), her best friend with whom she fell in love later. i fell in love with the man, not the cricketer, she clarifies. however, ask her who proposed to whom and when, and she immediately replies that its too private a matter to be disclosed. i can just tell you that i was in class xii when things became serious between us. but the couple had to do everything to keep it a secret not only because their parents were conservative, but because their fathers, who were best of friends at one time, had suddenly become sworn enemies. we would snatch a tete-a-tete on a neighbours verandah, dona laughs. saurav too joins in. we would wait throughout the week for this one evening when dona was allowed to go para (neighbourhood) hopping. the rest of the week, she used to watch me play cricket or football with my friends on the street in front of our homes, he reminisces. incidentally, it was football that sourav enjoyed playing, and not cricket. nothing is more fun than chasing a football with friends across a muddy field, the indian skipper says. his parents however, wanted him to stay away from both, football and cricket, and focus on his studies. at this stage, elder brother snehashish was already pursuing cricket (a college and university level player, hes now a state-level cricketer). when schoolboy sourav pleaded with his father to admit him in a cricket coaching camp, it was snehashish who supported him. when sourav started practising with his equipment, he made a major compromise in life i too trained myself to become a left-handed batsman like my brother. and today, this decision has made him one of the finest left-handed batsmen in the world someone who is compared to david gower the poet with the bat. souravs first match in 1990 was against an under-15 orissa team in kolkata where he hit his first century. in the next match for the duleep trophy, he scored 121 and was soon selected for a series of one-day internationals against australia in 1991. however, india fared badly in that series, and sourav was called a green horn and dropped from the team. he was shattered. it was too much of a blow for him. but then, hes a strong man. he bravely fought those four years against all criticism. at that time, we would talk for hours a catharsis to his pain, dona recalls. saurav and dona seem to miss those days when they would sneak out of their behala lanes and then roam around holding hands, go for movies or just have puchka (panipuri). but life is different today. sourav remarks regretfully, i am paying the price of being a celebrity. the fear of being recognised and hounded by fans keeps us away from the simple pleasures of life... this young couple, however tries to visit those same places even today, but its just not the same thing. now we go in a car with tinted glasses. after reaching this particular puchka vendors shop, we lower the glass a bit and shout out the order. then we drive around and come back after half-an-hour when the stuff is ready to be brought back home, sourav says. they also miss their frequent visits to the theatre. in 1996, sourav made a historic comeback to indian cricket by scoring two centuries in two consecutive test matches, thereby creating a record. immediately after returning from england, dona and sourav eloped and got married. i realised that i couldnt stay away from her any more and i didnt care what the elders felt, sourav says. later, of course, their families patched up their differences and organised a lavish wedding reception for them. also, in three-and-a-half years time, sourav became the captain of the indian cricket team. life progressed smoothly and sourav and dona seemed to be the happiest couple in the world when rumours of his alleged affair with filmstar nagma shocked everybody. how did dona react when she first heard about it? i didnt believe it. marriage in india is still considered to be sacred. i have been taught to have faith in it. and how did sourav react? this question has been asked too many times. please dont repeat it. i have made my stand very clear already. no one is more dear to me than my wife. sure, people had heard that while on tours alone, he would place photographs of goddess kali and his wife on his bedside table in the hotel room. the couple even fast together on tuesdays. the country was moved when, in 1999, after winning a fiat sienna as man of the series in the pepsi cup, sourav declared that the car was for his wife. she had been wanting her own car for sometime, and doesnt like my opel astra much. hope she likes this one, he had said. but, after all this, too many unsavoury questions came up, questions which still havent been answered did he stay with nagma in london during the 1999 world cup? silence. did he drive down 40 kilometres from chennai to the srikalahasti temple with her after dona had left for kolkata? silence. did they perform the sarpadosha puja which is generally performed by couples? no reply. what about the photographs that were shot of the two in the temple? souravs father chandi ganguly says, they were superimposed. in todays world, anything is possible. but is it true that dona was planning to file for divorce? things have been blown out of proportion. in every celebritys life, a time comes when he or she is purposely maligned. the media takes advantage of such situations. it is such negative publicity that has upset me more than anything else. in every marriage there are rifts, fights and misunderstandings. no marriage is perfect because none of us are perfect. in every marriage the compromise factor comes in, dona says. she has also come up with a way of calming her nerves when shes upset about something she simply dances for hours. this is the only thing that can give me absolute peace, she remarks. a student of guru kelucharan mohapatra, dona has won accolades for her odissi performances, both in india and abroad. winner of the bharat nirman award, she was honoured by the mayor of san francisco, when he named june 9, 1995 as dona roy day, after her electrifying performance there. coming back to the present, sourav will soon be leaving with the indian team for zimbabwe. is dona planning to accompany him? no. right now, im nursing my injured foot. moreover, i will also be busy with my dancing school. there have also been media reports of the stork visiting the ganguly household soon. but dona and sourav choose not to confirm the news. just wait and watch, they remarked for a new sunrise on the horizon?