In Pakistan: Winding Up the Wandering Trail

Wanderlust is wonderful, it truly is. But when does the physical exhaustion of the human body overtake everything? And primarily replace any joy, satisfaction or enthusiasm of doing a good day's work or a great trip around a place? I'd like to think I still have wanderlust in me... that it still thrives and continues to rouse my spirit everytime I think of the next trip ahead of me... but the honest truth is that I'd rather be on a plane back to Delhi...
Yet, in reflection, I've had a great time on this trip... the places I've been, the people I've met... I'll surely chronicle the whole experience sometime soon when I sit back, take stock and over a couple of drinks, narrate a story or two that really typifies what Pakistan has come to mean to me... and come to think of it, I already know the basic sense of how that account is going to turn out... the answer is 'Multani Mitti'...
Pakistan is like the famed dust of Multan... it's everywhere and on everything, as much as India lives in every brick of every corner across my land... Pakistan isn't a place, it's a culture (mind you not too different from ours) and it's a people, still unsure of their identity that has thrived so many years based on a indoctrinated hatred of their neighbours... The dust in Multan blows through everything all the time, making it impossible to go anywhere or anyplace without being covered in its deposits, and it grows on you, the more time you spend with the people, with the land... And I can't honestly say I've fallen in love with the place, (certainly WON'T say that about Faisalabad and Multan) but there's a certain attachment I guess you develop after spending a rather concentrated 40-odd days in one country. And it's been an intense experience because most of the things I've encountered have been forced down my throat, not just the food, but even the way the police reacts to situations (won't be complaining of Indian police brutality for a while) and the often overbearing hospitality of the people...
It's a good thing that the cricket has improved in the one-day series, and just as well, since there literally wasn't much to write home about in the test series... but eventually, with India on the verge of a series victory in the land of dust, atleast it's given a reason for most of us journalists to smile... and there's still the chance, that I might just have a tour to remember...

In Pakistan: A national song of unity

There's a pop anthem that's been playing across the stadiums celebrating Pakistan... and it's followed us pretty much everywhere we've been. The chorus goes 'Pakistan... Pakistan'. Obviously, there's no doubt what the singers intend to do. Charge the sentimental and patriotic feeling of stadia and mass gatherings. But today in Lahore, it was the cause of completely different sort of emotion.
There's about a thousand Indian fans here to watch these games... and I believe they stampeded at the Wagah border to be able to come here and pack themselves into a stadium with 30,000 odd other people... but that's what cricket does to you I guess. Anyway, while this anthem was blasting on the PA system, a large group of some Indian fans holding the tricolour decided to get up and started dancing to the tune. In a short while, there was another group that came and joined them. This one was a mix of Indian and Pakistanis. Applause then started to come from another part of the stadium and it was another group of Pakistanis appreciating the effort. It was a really surreal moment, as I watched this from besides the press box. It was a strong emotion of how much this mean to the people to be here, and actually experience the fact that even in a country where we Indians are made to believe is a culture that mistrusts and dislikes us, things are just the same. It seemed like a homecoming of sorts, simply because surely it was for a lot of these people.
But then, of course, the game started and the chants of 'Jeetega Bhai Jeetega, Pakistan/ India Jeetega', and I realised we might be the same and one in many respects. But when it comes to cricket on the field, it's still war... Well, all I say, is that as long as there's nothing nuclear about it.

In Pakistan: Reflections off the field

I'm in Peshawar for the start of the one-day matches and I'm really starting to question the intelligence of what I'm doing. I'm not sure if people feel this way on long tours of duty, but it's a feeling that's creeped in innocuously over the past few days, and then just hit me smack in the face. I'm in a foreign country, in a land of hustle and bustle, of political and ideological lines so sharp you have to take sides just to survive, and where each language is so rich in itself, it could exist independently of Pakistan. And yet, I'm here covering cricket. It's the gentleman's game, of course but it's also like covering a football in the middle of Somalia... ok, that's a stretched out comparison, but what I'm saying is that it's a little wierd that I'm reporting on something that's an obsession with some many millions of people, while what they need to be made aware of will never see the light of the day, at least for the time being. But I guess, it's my duty to report on the cricket and that is what I shall do. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the sport, I love it as a matter of fact, but just having to work on it when you there's stories out there that have the potential to affect people and inform people far better is something that I cannot ignore. I guess, it's not my job to worry about what goes on outside the cricketing arena as much as one can't worry about how much water gets below the surface and to the roots of a oak tree...
I guess we each have our purposes... mine so far has been to cover the cricket as long as the Indian cricket team is present in Pakistan. So, from Peshawar, traversing across the country, through Islamabad, then Lahore, then Multan, and then Karachi makes for interesting thought. The real challenge here is how to use cricket and use that as a medium to get the viewers in India and pretty much anyone who watches my channel, to appreciate the beauty, the spirit, the madness, the defiance, the religiousness of this land.
Cricket is a sport that's played with a mixture of patience, physicality and skill unlike most sports... No other sport can be so physical and last over so many hours, and sometimes days. I guess most people ignore the fact that playing test cricket needs you to be involved with the game all the time, mentally, physically and if you ask the Indian coach, philosophically through all the five days and then there's always prep time and cooling off time... so, it's a full time job really. It's glamourous but it's demanding as hell. Sort of like what we do, except more high profile. It's the involvement that's the ambassador, the passion, the eagerness to perform. People see it and realise both sides want it just as bad, but the spirit never wavers. And I guess, that way in a sense, Indo-Pak cricket has done a lot of work for the development of relations. Not at any governmental level but by getting people to realise that it's all the same. This land or that... I don't think there's one journalist on this tour who believes, we're a divided nation, that we're not a people meant to be undivided. It's inevitable that on the cricket field, when you take one look and think, what could a combined team of these twenty two might have achieved that Australia hasn't today or the Windies did in the 60's. It's a wishful thinking that I know political and economic reality will never let come to pass, but still, I can dream now, can't I.