Saurav Ganguly: War of the Prince for the Princess of Kolkata

BY Shashi Agarwal

On the occasion of the marriage anniversary of Sourav and Dona, here is a look at the marital life of the tiger.

The Childhood Period

As much as his cricketing career has been a ‘tale to tell’, his personal life is also no less than a movie script.It was a typical Bollywood script with him being the hero and the seniors of the family as villains. He took the famous Christian adage,’Love Thy Neighbour’ a bit too seriously and fell in love with his neighbour Dona Roy. Their family shared a common boundary wall and their family were close to each other.Sourav used to drive past Dona’s school , just to get a glimpse of her .The problem was that Dona was non-Brahmin and the families were against Inter-Caste marriage, thus any hopes of marriage shattered into pieces.

Senior Secondary Phase

Both the families were business partners at that time and loss in the business created a rift among the families.It was definetely going to affect their relationship.But the important thing was that were managing to hide their meetings from the family and continued their romance.Ganguly used to watch her dance performances and Dona used to watch his cricket matches.Dona was a profilic Odissi dancer and they both decided to first establish themselves in their field and then plan their future.

Sourav’s test debut and role of Moloy Banerjee

With Dona establishing herself in the dance field and Sourav returning after a eye catching series against England,they both decided to tie the knots against the wish of their parents.The famous Ranji cricketer,Moloy Banerjee was contacted by Sourav and was told abut their plans.He agreed to their plans  and later all 3 went to registrar’s office. To everyone’s surprise, media was already present there and they realised that the news has leaked.So they bribed the registrar and asked him to take the necessary documents to other place, where media was not there. The idea was that the news should not come out until Sourav goes to SriLanka for the series, which was just 2 days later.The marriage took place in the living room of Moloy Banerjee’s home, on August 12, 1996.When they both got married,Sourav was 23 and Dona, just 20 years of age.

Post Marriage

When the family came to know about this, they did not accept this and Sourav and Dona were not allowed to live in their house. They lived in a apartment nearby their house.But soon the family agreed and a royal wedding ceremony was conducted  on 21st February, 1997. This is the day they celebrate as their wedding anniversary . On 3rd November,2001  their daughter Sana was born.Still Dona and Sourav live in a joint family comprising of more than 50 members.

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