I am originally from Ranchi which is now the capital of the Indian State of Jharkhand. Jharkhand state was formed in the year 2000. Till then Ranchi was part of Bihar.
I did my high school from DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir school, Shyamali, Ranchi.
Till the year 2005, work had taken me to Hyderabad, and then to UK and USA.Everywhere I went I had a hard time explaining to people where I am from as Ranchi is a small town. People generally knew about the metro cities and even the 2nd Tier cities like Pune, Nagpur, Bhopal, Indore etc and the historical places like Agra, Varanasi, Ajmer, Madurai......but Ranchi? Where is it, they will ask.
All this changed in 2005, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni burst into the Indian Cricket scene with a bang. The man with the long hair, who electrified everyone with his big hitting and his helicopter shots.
To my absolute delight he not only belonged to my native place Ranchi but was also from my school.
He became the first person from Ranchi and also Jharkhand to play international cricket.
Now I was proudly telling all and sundry 'I am from Ranchi, where Dhoni is from'. I would get a knowing smile. As people know about cricket in England, they would get this immediately. I would even add - 'He is also my school'. To this many people would ask 'Was he your class mate?'......I would try to brush aside this query with some vague reply not wanting to disclose that he was many many years junior to me and we never met in school.
Dhoni has single-handedly put Ranchi on the world map. Now there is a superb cricket stadium in Ranchi and many ODI's and IPL matches have already taken place there.
I owe this to Dhoni, introducing myself to strangers across the world has become much easier and also fun.
I did my high school from DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir school, Shyamali, Ranchi.
Till the year 2005, work had taken me to Hyderabad, and then to UK and USA.Everywhere I went I had a hard time explaining to people where I am from as Ranchi is a small town. People generally knew about the metro cities and even the 2nd Tier cities like Pune, Nagpur, Bhopal, Indore etc and the historical places like Agra, Varanasi, Ajmer, Madurai......but Ranchi? Where is it, they will ask.
All this changed in 2005, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni burst into the Indian Cricket scene with a bang. The man with the long hair, who electrified everyone with his big hitting and his helicopter shots.
To my absolute delight he not only belonged to my native place Ranchi but was also from my school.
He became the first person from Ranchi and also Jharkhand to play international cricket.
Now I was proudly telling all and sundry 'I am from Ranchi, where Dhoni is from'. I would get a knowing smile. As people know about cricket in England, they would get this immediately. I would even add - 'He is also my school'. To this many people would ask 'Was he your class mate?'......I would try to brush aside this query with some vague reply not wanting to disclose that he was many many years junior to me and we never met in school.
Dhoni has single-handedly put Ranchi on the world map. Now there is a superb cricket stadium in Ranchi and many ODI's and IPL matches have already taken place there.
I owe this to Dhoni, introducing myself to strangers across the world has become much easier and also fun.
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