Dream of a lanky football player: a tale of a journey through a bumpy road.

Part 1

writer, right, and his maternal cousin, left. The picture was made before liver surgery of the writer 

It’s zealous for Pakistani students to answer the question what their aim in life is. Predictable are the answers for the teacher though. On a high pitch, students, with a passion instilled in them, reply they would be doctors, engineers, businesswomen or men, bankers and soldiers. To one’s astonishment, underweight and lanky students often opt for the answer to become soldiers in future! Teacher, in return, showers blessings upon students with a winsome smile thinking that the students have chosen the right path.  But why did my answer to the same question throw me at loggerheads with my mathematics teacher when I was in grade 7? My answer was at odds with my health conditions too, perhaps! Startled upon my answer, first unfamiliar with the word ‘Chelsea FC’ and then guessing the answer was something about soccer (football), teacher castigated me for being reckless and playing with my future while opting football as my career. Murmuring of the teacher was followed by a crackling laughter by the class leaving me mocked and discouraged.

Sir Rehmatullah, my mathematics teacher whom I frequently had a quarrel with for being a ‘football student’ rather than a student he wished me to be, was a candid-heart person so much so that he often considered himself a ‘rich’ person despite having been disbursed a salary of 20 thousand rupees. To even beat the rich people of the city and prove that he was not poor, he named his ‘yellow cab’, a yellow-coloured taxi one could buy on easy installments as it was a scheme for unemployed initiated by government of Nawaz Sharif at the time, 2.0 D, at least desirably a comparable wish! Naming the yellow cab as 2.O D was the outcome of the challenge he had made in front of his students that he was capable of buying that, for he believed that luxurious life was not only meant for elite or rich! Although he often resorted to get loan from people and friends to fulfill his desires, yet his resolve was not less than that of a soldier fighting against Nazi Germans while having only a gun without bullets however determined to defeat the enemy!   

In 1997, for many, it was legitimately a wasteful desire and daydreaming to be a soccer player of even national repute. We lived in a least developed and less urbanized city Khuzdar situated at as far as a distance of 280 km from the capital city, Quetta, of Balochistan. Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan geographically. My father used to run a stationary shop. Grown up as middle-pass paper hawker, my father was a skilled football player. In his forties, I could not be of his match in a marathon! On educational terms, unlike fathers who were ruthless regarding education of children, my father could only know that his son was a good football player. He never bothered to ask about my educational progress. My father’s indifference towards my studies gave me cover to move peacefully towards my aim—to become a football player of an international repute.

The desire of being a football player of a high repute and my health conditions didn't suite each other. How could a thief desire for landing on moon? However, it might be possible, if the thief could hijack a space shuttle! In contrast, I could not even steal someone’s muscular and physically fit body in exchange of my lanky legs to boost the shoot power. I often closed my eyes before a strike at goal from a distance as close as 12 yards, but the ball could hardly reach the goal keeper, who, after catching the ball, often mocked me and said, 'a good shoot to make me practice more.'.

The days and years passed by, yet my thrust for football kept simmering inside the ball-liked spirit of my passion! Surprising and dreadful at the same time was the year 2007. The year 2007 was a double-edged sword. The first edge, like a hot knife through a butter, tore my dreams apart and the other edge hit my city so hard that it could not restore its glory till date.

To be continued