Dr P S M Chandran
Melbourne 25 March 1992, Cricket World Cup finals. The last England Batman Richard Illingworth is caught by Rameez Raja off the bowling of Imran Khan. Pakistan wins the World Cup. Abey, my 6 yr old son sitting on my lap and watching the telecast jumps out and shouts, “Papa, we have won”. I was stunned. ‘Hi Abey, India is not playing, it is Pakistan who has won’, I corrected him. Prompt came his response, “Yes Papa, but they are our neighbours’. I kept looking at him, he went on clapping. That was a slap from a 6 years old to his seniors, the 60 yrs old diplomats, politicians and Indo-Pak experts on both the sides of the LOC.
Recently I was in Dacca attending the South Asian Games there. Five of us, one each from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives were invited by the Organizing Committee of the Games to be in their medical committee. We had great fun. My next room neighbour was Dr Pervaiz Rezvey from Pakistan, a close friend of many years. Every morning I prepared bed tea, knocked his door and served him. Before retiring to bed every night we sat together and enjoyed another round of tea watching Amitabh Bachan and Shah Rukh Khan Movies and also listened to the old melodies of Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi. We shared the same car and went out together to watch Hockey, Kabaddi, Wrestling and Boxing, where Indians and Pakistanis were pitted against each other. We sat together and clapped when goals were scored and punches given by either team. I also met other good old friends across the border, Dr Abbas, Dr Waquar, and Dr Riaz who came there with Pakistan teams. We shared meals and discussed the sports anarchy in both countries and about the chaotic traffic jams of Dacca city. We enquired about our families and friends, went out shopping for gifts and also purchased pirated DVDs of Bollywood movies Paa, 3 Idiots and My Name is Khan. We did not infiltrate into Kashmir, Mumbai and the Line of Control.
Looking back beyond decades, I remembered the best days of my life as a young Major in the Indian Army. That was in the Prisoners of War camps in Bareilly during 1972-74 following the 1971 Indo Pak war. I was the Regimental Medical Officer of ten thousand Pakistani POWs. My medical team at the camp was all Pakistanis including the nursing assistants whom I had to trust with medications. Every day I visited the camp, addressed the prisoners’ medical problems, dressed their wounds and enquired about their families back home. They in turn prepared masala tea, lassi, Karachi halwas and jilebis for their doctor sahib out of their own rations. When I used to come back from leave they enquired about my parents, brothers and sisters. Being a bachelor that time they teased me about my prospective brides. One of the senior officers at the camp was Brig Atif, who was the Captain of the Pakistan hockey team at the Tokyo Olympics. When he came to know that I too play hockey, we developed a special bondage between us. He confided on me that Pakistan used to wait anxiously to the announcement of the Indian hockey team for tournaments and they dreaded the inclusion of one player in the team, Balbir Singh of Railways. Balbir is the one who scored the winning goal for India against Pakistan in the 1966 Asian Games hockey finals. Pakistan used to feel relieved when they found Balbir being dropped from the team often on grounds of indiscipline. Brig Atif said that a good coach should be ready to make compromises at times to accommodate even indisciplined players in the team, if they could be match winners, for the sake of the country. According to him, if discipline is the key word to success, it is better to select only army men into the teams, who will play as a well disciplined team but come back empty handed from tournaments. He also gave examples where Pakistan team selectors have compromised on discipline when they had to bow down to the demands of certain players only because they wanted to beat India. I met Brig Atif later in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where he was the manager of the Pakistan hockey team. Pakistan won the hockey gold there and when I went to congratulate him, I reminded him of my association with him in Bareilly. He shook my hands and hugged me . Brig Atif passed away two years back.
Indo Pak human relations stretch beyond boundaries. During my visits to Lahore and Islamabad in connection with sporting assignments I have felt that in plenty. When the common man of both countries meets each other the feeling is spontaneous and uncorrupted. Their problems and sorrows are same. But the wise men across the Line of Control sitting around the table in air conditioned halls indulging in high level talks have a different agenda. Bombs may continue to blast in Peshawar or in Pune and their sound will echo all over the subcontinent. But who will hear the cries of those simple human beings on both sides of the LOC wanting to reach out to each other across the border. Sports persons are blessed to get a feel of such hands. Let them continue to enjoy it.
Abey, my son now 24 years old, suppresses his emotions when Pakistan wins. He has been mercilessly indoctrinated into a new mind set, thanks to the media and to the political system.