Life’s “good” but “hectic” for Sourav Ganguly. “I need two good days of sleep,” he tells t2 when we meet the birthday boy at his Behala residence on Monday evening.

Constant travelling has kept him busy. “I have been on the plane too much!” he says. Is he planning to cut down on work? “Yeah, I will actually. It takes too much time away from home,” he smiles.

Isn’t he going to get busier from August with Sourav the quizmaster making a comeback on the popular Dadagiri? “The problem is when I finish Dadagiri and sit with other work. I have to decide what I want to do for the next two years. Otherwise, it’ll be tough,” says the man who would rather be called Sourav than Dada or Maharaj.

Known for his easy wit and spontaneity, Sourav says he does prepare a little before an episode goes on the floors, like going over the rules and catchlines. “I have my way of doing it,” he says.

Though he is “scared” of not doing anything, he does feel that he’s working much more these days than when he was playing. “Those days, I was only playing. My (off-season) day started at 7 in the morning and finished at noon. For the rest of the day I was free. My mind was working, but I wasn’t actively working. Now, it is much more hectic. Live television is tiring. I am enjoying it but I have to find time to rest,” he says.

Anything to do with cricket is still priority number one though. And, he is really looking forward to see work start at the Sourav Ganguly International School in Rajarhat, a dream project for years for which he has been hard at work.

“I want to do it. All my life I have been in a profession in which I have had to deliver, achieve something. Sometimes, a lot of things I do now, the sense of achievement, that high is not there… that Test match 100, to win a game in the last over… nothing gives you more of a high than that. The school will give me that.”

The wait has not been easy on this new pitch.

“It’s been a stop-start thing. When things are not in your hands, it just stops your progress. You really have to find ways to shut it off, but I have been so attached to it. The biggest difficulty that I find… you know, life, for me, was that day. Test match, that day. Get a 100, that day. Results, by evening. When you see somebody doing… ‘aaj noy kal, kal noy porshu’... ‘I am on a holiday’ or ‘I did not go to work today’... that’s actually tiring.... There is no problem now.... The Bengal government has been very kind.”

A silver lining during the struggle has been his interaction with Ratan Tata, among others who have helped him. “He is a fantastic person. I am just in awe of him. I am in awe of his simplicity. Such a great man,” he says.

Sourav likes to keep things simple. “The biggest thing in life is time management and I am good with that. I don’t party or go out in the evenings. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. It is a pretty simple life. I just need to switch off sometimes.”

He might not be putting on his training shoes to go running at the crack of dawn, but Sourav’s day still begins at 6.40am. Reason? Sana wakes up at that time to go to school. “I feel very embarrassed to lie down when she is up and getting ready! She packs her own bag. I put biscuits in her tiffin-box,” says the doting dad.

Fitness is still a major part of his schedule. He trains thrice a week including running sessions for 45 minutes to an hour. Yes, IPL 7 is very much on his mind.

On Monday, his birthday gifts included a card and a BlackBerry Q10 from Sana and flowers from Dona. Sana got herself a return gift: a Samsung handset. He didn’t want to cut a cake because of his dad Chandi Ganguly who passed away earlier this year. “My mom (Nirupa) misses him a lot. I remember him every day, but more so on special occasions because we used to cut the cake. Last birthday also we did. I have the photo on my iPad. Such is life...”