By Our Staff Reporter
Almora, 18 Nov: Former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s recent visit to his ancestral village in Almora after a gap of two decades evoked keen interest in Uttarakhand. It may be recalled that Dhoni had also been appointed Uttarakhand‘s Brand Ambassador by the Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ Government in 2010 but his visits to his native state of Uttarakhand have not been very frequent. He lives in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state since his childhood. His most discussed visit to Uttarakhand was in Dehradun when he got married to Doon girl Sakshi at Vishranti Resort (now name changed to Mike’s Forest Club) in Dehradun in 2010.
It is after a long time that Dhoni’s visit to Uttarakhand has evoked so much interest among the state residents and in the local media. His latest visit to his native village Lwali in district Almora has come after a long gap of 20 years.
On his arrival in his village Lwali, he was welcomed warmly by resident on Wednesday. He had reached Lwali in district Almora along with his wife Sakshi from Nainital. In his village, he performed a special puja to the local deity and his Ista Devta. In Uttarakhand, there are a large number of people living outside the state who occasionally come to their native village mainly to worship their Kul Deity and the village deity. It was a rare sight for the local villagers to meet and mingle with Dhoni, who is not generally known to easily mingle with the people. He spent some hours in the village and after performing the worship to his Kul Deity, left for Naintal again. During his stay, he freely interacted with the local people and even permitted them to take selfies with him.
He had been staying in Nainital since Wednesday and today while returning, he was stuck in a long traffic jam in Nainital. Traffic jams are quite common in Nainital and Mussoorie on weekends.
