The Hindu Business Line : Bowled over by hearts

PERVEZ'S message for the inauguration ceremony of `Pakistan Customs Computerised System of poverty, unemployment and inflation' is top on `News & Events' posted on http://presidentofpakistan.gov.pk. He writes that the people, in the larger national interest, "should learn to appreciate that to clear the mess of more than five decades takes time." In retrospect, it seems what we needed here was only 22 yards of space to run up and down, plus the best of seats to sit and watch, as happened in Kotla, to clear at least in part a half century mess. Wonder if anybody really cared that our team lost the game because there were the larger diplomatic gains to more than offset.

A story of April 19 on www.boston.com is belatedly surprised that `India, Pakistan Cricket Diplomacy No Game It's Real.' Call it cricket, or chemistry, or simply compulsion, the two Ms, Musharraf and Manmohan, are making a great match, though in opposite camps.

None is privy to what the two talked, sitting side by side watching the match in Delhi for more than an hour, though photo captions and news reports, as this one www.dailytimes.com.pk stated, "President Musharraf explained cricketing shots and terms to Prime Minister Singh and his wife."

One may, however, hazard some guesses about the interlude. Thus, when Pervez exclaimed, "That was a chinaman!" referring to a left-hander's googly, Manmohan is said to have replied, "No, Pervez, Wen Jiabao left last week!"

Or, the other one about Pervez turning to ask what the `economy rate' was, in answer to which Manmohan hurriedly called Montek on the cell and asked what the latest score was of the GDP growth rate.

It seems Pervez laughed, "Sardar, don't tell me you believe those numbers! Divide the number of runs given away by overs bowled, you get the authentic measure of economy rate."

But when Pervez discussed his favourite K topic, for that's what he was eyeing as the stumps at the other end, even as our man batted in trust, and said at last, "Well, Sardar, that's my point," Manmohan laughed, "Well, that I know. Point is a fielding position, near the batsman. As it always happens in the Lok Sabha!"

On the difference between umpire and vampire too there was some discussion, it is rumoured.

To sort things out, we don't need a third umpire, said the mood of the two heads. It's between us, and not US! To add to the heady occasion, they were talking matters of the heart. So unlike what Troilus said, "Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart."

After all, Pervez, was not "one whose hard heart is button'd up with steel," as the Bard would say in The Comedy of Errors.

More touching than the giving of the birth certificate was the gift of the `haveli' painting.

For, Manmohan knew Pervez remembered "a place out of reach, shapes he has loved in a life before this, the print of them still there in him waiting," as Kalidasa wrote in Waking.

As always, historians will have trouble chronicling what happened.

A line that may help them is from The Mind of Absolute Trust by Seng-Ts'an, a sixth century Chinese poet. "Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear... Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions." And that, our opinion-writers may find hard to stomach.

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in

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