HT Brunch Cover Story: Make love simple again

Pre-Valentine’s Day Banter: In their first fashion shoot together for a magazine cover, cricketer Ajinkya Rahane and wife Radhika show us a simpler form of love

For the longest time, Ajinkya Rahane was just another cricketer to his now-wife, Radhika Rahane. Their dates were few and far between, limited to the nondescript cafés of the Mulund suburb in Mumbai.

Radhika says that Ajinkya and her are in the middle of an argument, he simply keeps quiet. And that makes her even more upset, because she tells him that if he’s angry, he should say something; Styling by Avneet Chadha; Make-up and Hair: Rashmi Shastri; On Ajinkya: Shirt by Kunal Rawal;Pants by Line Out Line;Shoes by Woods; On Radhika: Outfit by Aarti Vijay Gupta;Shoes by Zara (Prabhat Shetty)

“The first time we went on a proper date was the year 2007,” says Radhika. Ajinkya remembers the date—the 29th—but not the month. “I had no interest in cricket; he was just a friend in the society we lived in,” says Radhika.

The 33-year-old batsman cannot recall the moment that he realised he was in love with her—if there even was such a moment. “More than anything, it was her sheer simplicity that I gravitated towards,” Ajinkya says. “The way she understood my family and my dreams. That was all that I needed.”

But for Radhika, the road to truly embracing Ajinkya’s world would be a long, often arduous one. “He’d maintained this from the beginning—cricket comes first,” she says. “And I respected him for it. For me, my family and my mental and physical health take priority.”

The two of them had known each other since 2002 by virtue of living in the same building in Mulund. What they did on that first date in 2007 was clearly not memorable, because neither of them can dredge up a memory of it. But both recall returning home from it with an unbridled sense of ease with each other.

Ajinkya says he had always maintained that the game and country come first. But, spending the seven months during the pandemic with Aarya [the couple’s two-year-old daughter] made him a happier, more confident person; On Ajinkya: Bandhgala, trousers & pocket square—all by Raghvendra Rathore;Shoes by Woods;Watch by Rolex (Ajinkya’s own); On Radhika: Jacket & pants by Aarti Vijay Gupta; Top and shoes by Zara

“I was the happiest that day,” says Ajinkya. “We seemed to understand each other so well. That was comforting.”

The year 2007 was not just when they went on their first date. It was also the year Ajinkya made his first-class debut in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy season for Mumbai. He scored a century in his debut match, an impressive knock of 143.

From Radhika’s vantage point, the geography of their love unfolded in other, more complex ways. While Ajinkya had to be away for weeks on end, literally hitting the ball out of the park, Radhika was in college, surrounded by young couples romancing each other, holding hands and going on long drives.

“I was certainly not prepared for it and of course there would be days when I’d just want him next to me,” she says. “But I told myself that this relationship was my choice. No one had forced me into this. This was my life and I was only too glad to be in this relationship.”

On 26 September 2014, the couple tied the knot in a traditional Maharashtrian wedding. Even though invitations had been sent to only 700 people, nearly 1,500 people showed up—perhaps a testament to how much everyone rooted for them then and still do.

For Radhika, however, the wedding also meant tolerating Ajinkya’s laid-backness.

“He was wearing just a yellow T-shirt and jeans—at his own wedding,” she laughs. “I was so annoyed, but kept it together. The first rituals were him wearing just that!”

Ajinkya Rahane on the cover of HT Brunch in July 2016 when he was named vice captain of the national cricket team in Tests

Uniting force

When they enter Prabhat Shetty’s photography studio in Andheri on a balmy afternoon, it is apparent what Ajinkya and Radhika mean to each other. There is an ease in the way they navigate spaces, despite this being their first joint shoot. And there are no needlessly romantic grandstanding gestures that some celebrities might indulge in to prove a point.

“Our daughter, Aarya, is at home,” Ajinkya tells me. “She naps for two hours in the afternoon from 2 pm and that’s when things calm down a little for us.”

The mention of Aarya lights both of them up. The two-year-old is clearly the glowing nucleus of their lives.

“She will get excited and happy about the smallest of things,” says Radhika. “You could give her a small piece of candy and her day is made. She gets just as excited seeing her grandparents.”

Ajinkya believes that this sense of joyfulness has always been part of children’s personalities, across generations. He had been that way too, he says. “And then life happens and you tend to forget how to locate happiness in the most humble places,” he shrugs.

His own childhood, he says, was challenging. “We lived in a small house in Dombivali and my parents went out of their way just so that I could afford a cricket kit,” he recounts.

Travelling from the suburb of Dombivali for nearly two hours every day to train for hours on end at the legendary Azad Maidan, Ajinkya’s life was a series of crests and troughs. On days when he felt he was slacking, he’d be suffused with guilt. “I’d think that since my parents were sacrificing so much for me, that there was no room for complacency,” he says.

While his days were filled with cricket sessions, evenings were reserved for karate classes. “My father wanted me to go out because somehow I always preferred being indoors and was even stubborn about it,” he shakes his head.

It is precisely this grit and strength of character that Radhika has always loved and respected in Ajinkya. “Even to this day, I can see that he works hard on himself, both on the ground and off it,” she says.

His hard work showed. Ajinkya had bagged the captaincy of Mumbai in the 2018-19 Vijay Hazare Trophy and led the Indian team to victory at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in less than three years. In 2020, he was the inaugural winner of the Mullagh Medal awarded by Cricket Australia to the player of the match, on the Boxing Day Test match held annually at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The two of them had known each other since 2002 by virtue of living in the same building in Mulund, and went on their first date in 2007

Opening up

More than anything, Radhika wishes her husband would celebrate his wins more often than he does. Even after he scored his first century at Basin Reserve, Wellington, against New Zealand, Ajinkya hardly celebrated. Later, he was widely attributed to being instrumental in India’s first win at Lords after 28 years, with an impressive 103 runs in the first innings.

“When he scores a century, going by his expressions, it’s as if nothing happened,” laughs Radhika. “I want him to go all out with his celebrations because nothing makes me happier than him scoring a ton.”

Ajinkya’s rather introverted demeanour persists even when they are in the middle of an argument. He simply keeps quiet.

“And that makes me even more upset because I tell him that if he’s angry, he should say something!” says Radhika.

But their fights last for barely a day. “The good old rule of not going to bed with an unresolved fight,” says Ajinkya.

A lot changed for the two of them as parents when Ajinkya got to spend seven months at a stretch with his daughter, thanks to the suspension of cricket matches when the pandemic first struck.

“I’ll always be grateful for those seven months,” he says. “I’d always maintained that the game and country come first. Not once have I skipped even a practice session for my family. But spending time with Aarya simply made me a happier, more confident person.”

Before Aarya was born, whenever Ajinkya was home, the couple watched movies together and drove down to Marine Drive at midnight. Now, their relationship has reached a stage where there are no crushing expectations from each other.

A timeline of Ajinkya and Radhika’s love life

For Radhika, memories of watching couples hanging out together back in her college days while he was off playing cricket have evolved into refined iterations.

“At the start, I’d get upset if he didn’t call me,” says Radhika. “But now I understand that even though he might not be busy practising, he might just need his own space.”

For Radhika, the holder of a master’s degree in communication who once worked with a bank for a few years, the source of her happiness is in her family. Her days with Aarya are punctuated by retro Bollywood hits and the solace that comes from celluloid.

As we wind down the interview, I hope Ajinkya Rahane will celebrate his next century with the enthusiasm it deserves, while Radhika cheers him on. Perhaps it will even end up being a metaphor of sorts for the bond they share—uninhibited, easy; all smiles and hearts.

From HT Brunch, February 13, 2022

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