Was Ganguly a Don Quixote?

I recently read a book on Don Quixote as a part of a course on leadership in which I am currently enrolled in. Given the character that Don Quixote was on the surface, its difficult to imagine how he can be used in a positive sense to teach Leadership. For people who haven't read this book, following is the story in short.
Don Quixote, from his childhood days was interested in stories about knighthood. He is now a 50 year old man and one fine day he decides to become a knight! He persuades another villager Sancho Panza to be his squire and both of them go out to perform adventures. Don Quixote fails miserably in all his "adventures". He is physically hurt and ridiculed. He fights windmills assuming they are enchanted enemies. In the end he loses a fight and comes back home as a lost warrior. All throughout the story Don Quixote appears to be a loser, an eccentric and a person who can't think straight. Question is what can someone learn from him.

During my research on the character and the book, I came across a song which I mentioned in another blog. The song made me think and I started looking for practical examples of 'Don Quixote' in our lives and I found Don in Sourav Ganguly. Yes, according to me Ganguly was a Don Quixote!


One pertinent thing which comes out of Don Quixote is that he is a dreamer. The song to which I referred to above shows that he knew that he is following a dream which he can probably never attain. But he wants to try out. My favourite lines from the song:

...This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far....

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause...


He wants to enjoy the journey. He knows he would fail in the end but he wants to fight it out for he wont be at peace without it. Just because the chances to succeed are almost Nil, he is not going to take a step back. Reminds me of Sourav in his hey days as the captain. Reminds me of the 2001 India Australia series. How many people actually felt before the series that it would probably be the turnaround series for India? The captain and the team knew they would need all the luck they had in their lives. Motivating a team under such circumstances is probably the greatest thing one can ever do. Ganguly did that. He swore on his own players, he irritated the opposition captain, sledged against the opposition and in spite of garnering bad publicity didn't stop. Any sane person would have known that if they had lost the series he would have been ridiculed and criticized for bringing disrepute to the team. Even Ganguly would have known but that didn't deter him from pursuing his goals. Doesn't that remind any one of Don Quixote?

To me he is one of the Don Quixotes which we come across in our lives. Teaches me one thing to stop worrying about the consequences, which is a great thing to learn and practice in one's life.

Ad we once made

Some thing from an another Blog that I occasionally write. This was an ad that we designed for Nestle Munch and won the first prize :)

The Impossible Dream

A nice song that I recently came across. Known as the "Impossible Dream"



To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star