Dhoni's birthday today! People are celebrating in their own ways, sharing pics, tribute pieces, videos. He's a star across India, we see how he is loved in metro cities but you need to spend some time in a tier-2,3 city to understand how strong the love for him can get.

The love for MSD is already immense but that relationship wades into realm of being sacred in those cities, so to say. I am speaking from my experience in cities and towns of UP and Jharkhand.

Having lived in Jamshedpur for a while, a neighbouring city to Dhoni's hometown Ranchi, I have had the opportunity to see the love people have for him in those cities.

His on-field success and conduct gave people from small cities a different level of confidence, much like how Indian team under him believed they could win any match. He gave them confidence, belief and endless joy.

Obviously Dhoni is more relatable to these guys due to him also belonging to a small city. The secrecy around his decision making, personal life also adds to that aura.

But as Harsha Bhogle said, Dhoni consistently wrote his own scripts and that made him stand out from other stars who came out from small cities.

The impact of that could also be seen in the relationship MSD has with his fans. Where he always made people believe everything is possible, that he could do anything.

I always feel the most apt way to describe the relationship is to use the example of the movie Munna Bhai MBBS. Just like people felt Munna could do everything, even treat cancer, fans feel Dhoni could do everything. Nothing is impossible.

Guess it's also the same for people from Chennai.