Beyond The Boundaries
My friend Katyal says that he had flown from the US to Jaipur just to see a cricket match between India and Pakistan. He checked into a five star hotel in Jaipur, refreshed himself and took the lift to the bar. He was both shocked and amazed to see that the bar was full of Pakistani cricketers, many of them with the finest whisky in one hand and to use his words,”a gora babe in another.”
Later that day when Imzamam-ul-Huq was interviewed by television journalists he prefaced every statement with references to Allah! Katyal’s information is that the Pakistani cricketers spent more time in prayers than in planning the moves to be done on field.
He met one cricketer in person who told him in confidence that he envied Indians,”You guys can walk down a street in Mumbai with a beer bottle in one hand and a girl friend in the other. If I try his is my country I will probably escape if a maulvi sees me doing this, but the girl will be flogged. You Indians are a lucky people.”
Readers may recall that one Pakistani cricketer who was a key player with ambitions to become captain of his team. He was told that “a team that prays together plays together.” If he ever wanted to be made captain he would have to embrace Islam. Sure enough some weeks later this man, Yusuf, sported a long beard , embraced Islam and was made captain.
None less than Imran Khan, considered more modern than many other players, used to exhort his players to treat every match with India as a jehad ! There is a story, considered by many to be true, that when Imran met his then girlfriend Jemima’s father and asked for her hand, the flabbergasted father asked Imran if he wanted her hand because she had shoplifted ! He was thinking about the kind of punishment conservative Islamic countries reserve for even minor offences. Contrary to his liberal image, Imran recently supported the Taliban.
The Taliban launched three suicide attacks in 24 hours inside Pakistan. The US told Pakistan that serious steps would have to be launched to stem that country’s slide to anarchy. Tragically Pakistani spokesmen tell us that the people of that country consider India to be their biggest enemy followed by the US.
The Taliban does not figure in their list.
Contrast this with what cricket means to Indians. Sociologist Ashish Nandy says that there are only 3 sectors in India where meritocracy prevails: Bollywood, the underworld and cricket.
I sent a questionnaire to 75 youngsters in India to find out what cricket meant to them. According to these respondents, the great game stands for: merit, talent, small guys can make it big, religion and caste do not play a significant role, fun and music, celebrations, mela and world class India.
Not one talked of religion.
I once visited my nephew in a Mumbai college hostel. I expected to see in his room what could be found in any teenager’s pad namely dirty laundry, posters of girls, film stars, models and cricketers. What I actually saw amused me. There was a Ganesha photo and beside it was – hold your breath – a poster of Irfan Pathan. Looking at my quizzical face, he smiled and said, “Ganesha is my religous God and Irfan is my secular god.”
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Well I am not here to reply point by point but would comment on the first paragraph:
so your friend saw that pakistani cricketers were in bar and sitting with gora babe… did he take some pictures? there must be several people in the bar… then did someone else took the pictures? if yes, these should have been printed in the media… sir, do u know that if PCB finds someone indulged in such activitites then they will fire the cricketer straight away…
I know that the possibility of drinking can not be ruled out completely because there may be a chance that some cricketer drinks in his room… but i am totally unable to accept this fact that they were drinking in public and even with a gori !
Sir, please do share if you have any proof , for my satisfaction else I request not to write any article for which you have only heard from someone and u are not sure about it… if you do not keep respect for someone, Lord will not give you respect… thats the universal rule I beleive.
and u have commented on the beard of yousaf… so do u think that inzamam selects the captian of the team? no my friend its the chariman and other executives who select the captain … and u must be knowing that almost all of the top notchies of the PCB do not have beard ! huh!
my only request is to write positive emails to the commmunity…
i appologize if i hurted u but i wanted to comment on your post.
This is a very interesting specimen of Indian hatred for Pakistan. While the author waxes eloquent about Indian tolerance for all castes and religions and bemoans the lack of the same across the border,it is interesting how Mr. Ravi has painstakingly isolated images of a Pakistan that feed into the typical two-dimensional and shallow image of a culturally rich, diverse and dynamic people. I would invite Mr. Ravi to approach the topic of Pakistan with the positive approach that is the trademark of the ticklers website.
I am still trying to understand how this article was an appropriate addition to a website that talks about positivism, openness, growth and relationships.