At Pak dinner, Musharraf plays down match win

The General arrived two hours late for the dinner — he was held up at discussions with the Hurriyat at Pakistan House. Guests who attended the dinner said the Pakistani President was genial and had said, ‘‘I am very satisfied with the discussions we have had here. I feel positive about what we have achieved here in the last three days.’’

Musharraf will receive a sapling as a gift from PM Manmohan Singh’s ancestral house with a verse attached to one of its leaves, which in Urdu reads: ‘‘We must grow this tree together and live in its shade.’’

While Pakistan’s cricket captain Inzamam ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi, who attended the dinner party, were mobbed after emerging from the banquet hall by hotel guests, an official who toured with the team told The Indian Express, ‘‘Of course it is a happy occasion. The boys have performed very well. But this series is proof that relations must continue well. Cricket and competition is healthy. Trade and economics is healthy. Talking to each other is healthy.’’ This could not, however, console a distraught Harbhajan Singh who was seen sullenly walking through the hotel’s lobby.

Apart from Yousuf Youhana’s mild irritation at a group of teenagers who wanted his signature, the others Pakistani players waited for the hotel lobby to clear so they could celebrate before leaving for Islamabad tomorrow.

The cricket metaphor could not be ignored. Emerging from the banquet hall, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said, ‘‘This is going to be a long series. Peace is not easy to come by, there are lots of questions, but talks are moving forward. As I said, this is going to be a long series.’’

The large number of guests from the Indian business community — including the chairmen or CEOs of Hero Honda, the Intercontinental group, Jubilant and Escorts — was also a sign. A Pakistani business delegate said, ‘‘There is so much business to be done with each other.”