DADA'S PASSION FOR FOOTBALL :
Cricket has been in the blood of the Gangulys. Chandi Ganguly, father of Saurav was a 1st class cricketer himself. Later on, he became a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) official, along with managing the family business. Chandi Ganguly always dreamt that his two sons, Snehasis and Saurav will play for India, like Surinder and Mahinder Amarnath. Although Snehasis was dedicatedly playing cricket for school and club team, to fullfill his father’s dream, young Saurav, was living in the world of Football.
During this time his uncle got him a pair of Reebok shoes from Singapur. This was the most precious possession that little Saurav had and would spent hours donning them before the mirror, and gloat in glory.
Saurav loved to play football more than anything else. He was a regular player in St.Xavier’s School football team. An amusing incident happened. Saurav’s parents decided to have a Bengali tutor for him. His tutor would come in the evening, for the classes soon after Saurav returned from school. Young Saurav was very upset at this. Evening was the time for him to kick the football with his para (neighbourhood) friends, and no way was he going to study Bengali sacrificing football. But he was too scared to revolt, before his parents as well. After some hard thinking he came up with a strategy.
He went up to his tutor, and told:
“Sir, can I ask you something?”
“Yes, go on.”
“You seem too tired after your day’s work. Even I come exhausted from school. Why don’t both of us take some rest, before we commence with our studies,” Saurav suggested.
“Hmm, that’s not a bad idea. Its true we both get very tired, after day’s work”, his teacher observed thoughtfully.
“That’s great Sir. You rest at my room, while i shall go upstairs and take a nap. Then we can start afresh”
Gangulys were a joint family with a palace like mansion. So it was not possible for the family members to take much notice if someone quietly sneaks out of the house. Thus every evening Saurav would hit the football ground, while his parents thought that he was studying in his room.
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