As former India captain Sourav Ganguly turns 49, it is worth revisiting his love story and how he met Dona Roy in secret to finally convincing their parents and how they remain tightly knit after all these years.
Both of them knew each other since their childhood. Sourav used to spot her several times when he went for football practice as she lived near his place. He confessed this in a talk show conducted by Anurag Basu. “While playing football, while going somewhere- I could see her, maybe way too much,” said Sourav to Anurag Basu.
When the couple went for the first date at a Chinese restaurant, in Kolkata, Dona was surprised by the quantity of food that Sourav ordered in nervousness. She was in for a surprise when the former India captain ended up eating everything.
Along with his dream debut at Lord’s back in 1996, Ganguly became the toast of the entire nation when the side returned to India. By the time he returned to India, he had made up his mind and the plan was already in place.
As Ganguly later told Basu in the aforementioned interview, “I did not elope with Dona. We returned home. We just kept the wedding a secret.”
However, this plan failed and they ended up exchanging vows at the cricketer’s friend’s place. They were forced to keep their marriage a secret and Dona’s parents were livid when they came to know about it but later accepted them.
After a lot of hiccups, their formal wedding ceremony took place on 1st February 1997 in the presence of their family where several cricketers were invited and today, they have a daughter Sana Ganguly.
And as they write in romantic novels with plenty of twists and turns, they lived happily ever after.
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