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Cabby Cabby Mere Dil Mein (tale from Padosan)

by Bhaskar Khaund

When I asked the Pakistani taxi driver to switch on his radio for the Eng-NZ commentary this evening , he asked me where I was from ( ám often mistaken for a Philipino ). When I said India , he laughed softly. It was the sort of soft laugh that comes from trying to supress a really booming loud laugh. him. "Ärre tumaera team to nikel geya..."he said in that inimitable Pathan style and accent.
I laughed along : "Ärre , tum logo ne hamey nikaal diya aur ab tumhe hasi aa rahi hain. Kuch to rehem karo , yaar". He laughed nervously but loud now "Arre nehi nehi bhai , ek hi baar to aesa huea hein...warna nahi to India to bahut zyaadae jeeta haein na bhai "he tried. Then he went on for about five minutes about how winning -losing is part of the game. "Kabhei India jeetae , kabhei Paaki-staan jeetae..."
I remembered those tales from Indian old timers here in the UAE about how they couldn't get into cabs (which are mostly driven by Pathan Pakistanis) for days on end after Ind-Pak games during those Sharjah days of yore. This was clearly that - and not quite that ,at the same time. This guy was much too polite and was evidently embarassed at his own outburst. And besides , i guess a 25-km customer for a taxi guy in the Dubai of 2009 - a couple of weeks after the launch of the Metro at that-can be a more valuable thing than a cricket victory !
But it was apparent how unstoppable and spontaneous was the urge in him to laugh .
Which is fantastic !
Considering he seemed surpised there was a game on today (Eng-NZ) , it's quite possible he didn't even know that there's a multi-nation tournament being played out. All he knew , and obviously cared a lot about , was that there was an Ind-Pak game a couple of days ago.
Yet another small,daily-life instance when the magnitude of the Ind-Pak rivalry made itself very clearly felt . It really is one of the great team-sports rivalries of all time ,isn't it. Yeah, sure, big time cliche - but one of those cliches that kinda reminds one why a cliche is also called a truism ! :-). Anyway , i gave him a decent tip at the end- with , ahem , the unsaid wish that his team mauls Australia tommorow ! :-)
Which brings me to my last point : what if Pakistan mauls Australia tommorow - and we don't beat WI ? ! The Ind-WI angle seems all but forgotten in all this conjecture about the Pak-Aus result. One of the great forgotten angles - if not of all time at least of the last 24 hours , eh ? :-)
Signing off with the hope-against-hope that everything falls in place like a dream and we go through.
And if we do , the CT is ours.

3 comments:

straight point said...

hahaha cunningly hilarious tale bhaskar if you know what i mean... ;-)

yes for many CT started and ended with india-pak match... tho it was nice to see the bite back in old rivalry... but even honest pak fan will acknowldege that its was the match that india lost rather than pak winning it...

but as they say a win is a win...

Gaurav Sethi said...

Hilarious BK. Some ride that, one of you could end up as a serial killing taxi driver.

25 km, how many times up and down Dubai is that?

Bhaskar Khaund said...

:-0 guys
NC : one office-to-home ride unfortunately :-)