Virat’s mum misses his chubby cheeks
Team India captain Virat Kholi’s super fit, lean body hasn’t impressed his mom. She feels her son isn’t eating properly and maybe be unwell!
In a recent BCCI video, Team India Captain Virat Kohli can be seen admitting how it was difficult for him to convince his mother Saroj Kohli that following his fitness regime has not made him weak.
“My mom would keep telling me that I am becoming weak, and every day I had to convince her that I am not sick and that I was on a fitness regime because I want to play,” he said on the show. “It was difficult to convince her, but I think it is a very regular thing with many mothers. It was even funny at times and just as annoying too, when, for instance, I was waking up only to hear from her that I look ‘sick’.”
The mock anger towards his mum aside, however, Kohli agreed with many of his fans that it was every mother’s love towards her children.
Speaking to us exclusively over the telephone from Delhi, Sadhna Sohal, Kohli’s teacher from the Vishal Bharti Public School at Paschim Vihar, Delhi, shared with us how Virat had always been a boy with round, chubby cheeks. “He was taken care of by all the women in his family — including his mother, sister, sister-in-law — who would all vie to pamper him, making for him his favourite dishes,” she says. “Now that he is following a fitness routine for cricket, he has lost his chubby cheeks, and his mother has become worried, wondering if his food habits have affected his health.”
My mom would keep telling me that I am becoming weak, and every day I had to convince her that I am not sick and that I was on a fitness regime. It was difficult to convince her, but I think it is a very regular thing with many mothers. It was funny at times and just as annoying too, when, for instance, I was waking up only to hear from her that I look ‘sick’!”
— Virat Kholi said in an interview
Kohli’s teacher, who claims to have remained in touch with the Kohli family over the years, also understands how difficult it would be for a grown man, let alone Kohli, to convince his mother that he is an adult who can take care of himself. “An old Hindi saying goes, ‘Ek maa hi hai jo poochti hai… ‘kuch khaaya?”’ (‘It’s only a mum who enquires with her kids if they have eaten something.’) That saying carries a deep meaning because I believe it is only a mum who understands her kids’ needs even before they can speak. ”
Of course, his mum’s concerns aside, Virat’s routine has indeed changed over the years. Instead of his mum cooking him his favourite dishes, Virat and his actress wife Anushka now have a male cook preparing them their daily dishes in Mumbai where they live. Also, the oncechubby-cheeked Virat is now vegan.
Sadhna Sohal, Kohli’s teacher from the Vishal Bharti Public School at Paschim Vihar, Delhi, said Virat had round, chubby cheeks. “He was taken care of by all the women in his family — including his mother, sister, sister-in-law — who would all pamper him, making his favourite dishes. Now that he is following a fitness routine for cricket, he has lost his chubby cheeks,” she said.