How do we calibrate the significance of this tour? Off the field, in the stands, on the sidelines, the words historic and diplomacy are employed with extreme care. There is a sense that we are being engulfed by something perhaps colossal, maybe evanescent. But from within, it is difficult to recede adequately to view the entire panorama.A cricket stadium is an enclosed space, opinion within tends to self-referential. So, instead, everyone is content with catching single wisps of difference. They can be braided later. Rahul Dravid said the other day that for him this is just ‘‘another cricket series’’. Coach John Wright would perhaps disagree, yet the difference for him is detected in cricketing terms: ‘‘There’s a little more edge to this series. Every country has its natural rival.’’And it is in that rivalry that Dravid too finds change, not out in the park but just beyond. He compares the World Cup game between India and Pakistan to the one-day final in Lahore last week. ‘‘They were two very different things’’, he says. ‘‘The atmosphere at Lahore was fantastic. You feel very happy about it.’’Part of the transformation is explained by the edgy nationalism of expats, part perhaps by the goodwill anthem the leaderships of the two countries have adopted. But Dravid is right: clues lie in the stands.THE MATCH MATTERSIn the Waqar Younis enclosure three Multan teenagers sit a couple of seats away from a family of three. Zara, Sara and Zara say they don’t normally venture to this out-of-town stadium when cricket comes to town, but this is different, this is India-Pakistan. In this first introduction to Indian visitors, has their attitudes to India changed?Sara, lively and witty, refuses to collate the two things. Look, I’m here for the cricket, she says. Whether India wins or Pakistan does is irrelevant to me. The fact that they are playing is important.But let’s leave talk of war and peace aside. A few chairs away sits young Vandana, a visitor from Dubai. It’s been a zigzag route to Multan. They flew to Delhi, got on the bus to Lahore, and then caught the coach to Multan, once home to her grandparents.THE THAW & FALLOUTOm Prakash and Sushila say an earlier request for a Pakistan visa was rejected, and they leapt at the cricket visa on offer to make the journey. They are jabbering away in Seraiki here, and tomorrow will take them to their family neighbourhood. All three recite their gratitude to this thaw that’s brought them here.The teenaged trio, however, is less concerned with the lure of history, they wonder about the contradictions of the present. India comes to them from Bollywood films, and they demand to know why so many anti-Pakistan films are released. Over packets of potato chips, a heated discussion on the dynamics of the Hindi film industry and the similarities of our home remedies ensues.Cricket has always provided a talking point for strangers. In Pakistani stadia this month new conversations have begun. Let’s keep listening.
