Ranjit Singh, Indian traffic police, who is also known as Jonty Rhodes of Indore’s junior cricket circuit, has a huge following on social media.
Ranjit is the famous dancing cop across the world with 100,000 followers on Facebook, his YouTube videos have had 20,000,000 views, and he has 24,000 Instagram followers which made him a “ world-famous” dancing cop. On Monday, he was tasked at the Holkar stadium in Indore to ensure that buses that are carrying Bangladesh and India’s teams smoothly sail through the city.
On Thursday, ahead of the Test, players are training on the field. Dancing cop Ranjit Singh was on the turf close to the dressing room as he recollected his cricketing days. He said, “I was an under-19 cricketer for Madhya Pradesh. I used to field in the covers and there wasn’t a ball that could pass me.”
No sooner, the 41-year-old traffic cop started making robotic moves seamlessly. He is passionate about dance and cricket but his family’s financial problems forced him to give up on both. “Growing up, I loved dancing and cricket but my family’s poor financial condition forced me to give up both. Once I joined the police force, I got busy with my job and I never thought about any of those things,” he said.
It all started in the tragic morning which changed Ranjit’s life. He lost his best friend in a road accident, and he got posted at the city bus square. He was unable to overcome the loss of his departed friend. To overcome anxiousness while directing the vehicles, he started pacing the road which led to him becoming an internet sensation.
“While walking forward and backward and moving hands asking people to stop and move, almost sub-consciously, the dancer deep inside me kicked in. Before I knew, I was moon-walking, making that Jackson moves,” he says. These actions made his seniors encourage him to do to continue with it.
Ranjit said, “They started calling me Singham sir and the square where I was posted was known as Singham square.”
When one of the reporters asked him did you ever felt embarrassed or did you ever have a change of heart? “Once I was dropping my little girl to school and everyone on the road would shout at me ‘Singham sir, Singham sir’. She was just six then. She didn’t say a word all along the way but once I dropped her at the school gate, she stood awhile looking at me. After that, she looked me in the eye and saluted me. Why would I ever change after that?” he said while relating that incident.
He also said Indian cricketers have also recognized him “ Ajinkya Rahane always asks me to accompany him to the Ganesh temple here.”
“I have learned one important lesson. Life gives you a stage to realize your dream when you least expect. You need to grasp that moment. I did.” the world-famous dancer said.
