There was a tremendous amount of security in my last days in Lahore. I’m medicated enough to know that it wasn’t because the city was collectively devastated at my departure (#mutual) but probably because there was an upcoming cricket match. Good, I thought, as I maneuvered the fifth closed-off street on my way to the pharmacy (see? Medicated), I’m glad they’ve beefed up security.
A few days before that Lahore went through an awful morning where there was an explosion in Defence’s upscale Y block shopping area. Nothing makes the news like an explosion adjacent to Gloria Jeans Coffee, begging several questions. First - and I have wondered this since I saw the franchise - does anyone know Gloria and why oh why her jeans make coffee? It makes no sense. Second, was it a genuine terrorist attack? Perpetrated by whom? And if not, what really happened? I was at the gym when I heard about the explosion, and everyone stopped mid-exercise to stare at the levitating TV screens like in a disaster-movie-global-montage. It was legitimately scary and one of the main reasons it was so terrifying was because no one had any information, only theories. Someone said it was a bomb, someone else said it was a suicide bomber. A third voice shouted out that there was another explosion in Gulberg but this time outside an upscale restaurant. Soon the panic in the people around me was palpable, and from what I could tell the same was happening around the city. Why? Because no one had any real info.
I have written here repeatedly about the need for Pakistan to have a press spokesman that can be relied on to provide an official story on national TV to events like these. It’s not rocket science, which, one is tempted to point out, we are good at given our nuclear weapons. Even a small “Don’t Panic” press release would do wonders, and probably keep away the multitude of “OMG WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE” messages I get on my Whatsapp.
Eventually it transpired that several gas cannisters had gone off by mistake. I am not sure whether that is meant to be a relief. Still, Lahore Eat was postponed and LLF became a truncated one-day fly-by. All of this is to say that when the recent PSL final happened in Lahore (full disclosure: I am not entirely sure what PSL is but I’m totally on board for collective euphoria), I was holding my breath and praying that nothing goes wrong (or up in flames). And thank heavens it didn’t. #resilient.
I was also holding my breath because I was on a 14-hour flight to New York and sitting next to someone who had ordered cauliflower in their meal, which we can all agree should be a banned substance on an international flight, like dynamite. Speaking of banned, I was also fairly nervous the entire way about how I would be affected by Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0. This time it’s been crafted so as to avoid any obvious language that announces its racism, and carefully worded so that it may survive a battle in court. (You clever Orange you.) Sadly, it probably will. They have removed the bit that favoured Christians from Muslim countries, removed Iraq from the list of the banned countries, and made it explicit that the ban doesn’t affect people with valid visas, green cards or dual citizenship. And although the general spirit of the executive order remains one of division, racism, fear and contempt, it is also apparently legal.
Although it doesn’t apply to Pakistanis (taking bets on how long that will last), I was apprehensive about coming back this time. Since the election and the storm that has been ravaging peace and tolerance, I have felt that America is no longer a particularly welcoming place. Indeed, I have been told this repeatedly by the TV media, friends and family.
So as I approached the kiosk with the white woman who was going to check my passport etc,. I was pretty terrified. Happily, however, Elsa the Customs Lady was quite chatty. She was from Eastern Europe, liked Nigella Lawson’s book on summer pasta recipes and thought I had a nice smile. Perhaps this is a fluke. Maybe I had a nice border agent and that was simply the luck of my draw. I thought about this the entire drive back to my apartment, the blessed anticlimax of that immigration session.
That’s when I saw stories and posts about the PSL final in Lahore. It immediately lit a little light in my darkened soul to see Lahore in the news for good things. As Pakistanis, we are constantly having to convince people that despite the threat of terrorism, separatists, military interventions, assassination, load shedding, spies, wars and elitist restaurants that serve kale, Pakistan is a beautiful friendly country as well. That’s when I realised that though the U.S, and indeed the world, is in danger from far-right nationalistic jingoism, it’s in our best interest not to always buy the worst-possible image of certain countries. We above all others should know that though an image may be true, it is rarely the whole truth.
And so, despite the fact that I don’t know what PSL is, I want to say Welcome back Cricket. We missed you.
A few days before that Lahore went through an awful morning where there was an explosion in Defence’s upscale Y block shopping area. Nothing makes the news like an explosion adjacent to Gloria Jeans Coffee, begging several questions. First - and I have wondered this since I saw the franchise - does anyone know Gloria and why oh why her jeans make coffee? It makes no sense. Second, was it a genuine terrorist attack? Perpetrated by whom? And if not, what really happened? I was at the gym when I heard about the explosion, and everyone stopped mid-exercise to stare at the levitating TV screens like in a disaster-movie-global-montage. It was legitimately scary and one of the main reasons it was so terrifying was because no one had any information, only theories. Someone said it was a bomb, someone else said it was a suicide bomber. A third voice shouted out that there was another explosion in Gulberg but this time outside an upscale restaurant. Soon the panic in the people around me was palpable, and from what I could tell the same was happening around the city. Why? Because no one had any real info.
I am not entirely sure what PSL is but I'm totally on board for collective euphoria
I have written here repeatedly about the need for Pakistan to have a press spokesman that can be relied on to provide an official story on national TV to events like these. It’s not rocket science, which, one is tempted to point out, we are good at given our nuclear weapons. Even a small “Don’t Panic” press release would do wonders, and probably keep away the multitude of “OMG WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE” messages I get on my Whatsapp.
Eventually it transpired that several gas cannisters had gone off by mistake. I am not sure whether that is meant to be a relief. Still, Lahore Eat was postponed and LLF became a truncated one-day fly-by. All of this is to say that when the recent PSL final happened in Lahore (full disclosure: I am not entirely sure what PSL is but I’m totally on board for collective euphoria), I was holding my breath and praying that nothing goes wrong (or up in flames). And thank heavens it didn’t. #resilient.
I was also holding my breath because I was on a 14-hour flight to New York and sitting next to someone who had ordered cauliflower in their meal, which we can all agree should be a banned substance on an international flight, like dynamite. Speaking of banned, I was also fairly nervous the entire way about how I would be affected by Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0. This time it’s been crafted so as to avoid any obvious language that announces its racism, and carefully worded so that it may survive a battle in court. (You clever Orange you.) Sadly, it probably will. They have removed the bit that favoured Christians from Muslim countries, removed Iraq from the list of the banned countries, and made it explicit that the ban doesn’t affect people with valid visas, green cards or dual citizenship. And although the general spirit of the executive order remains one of division, racism, fear and contempt, it is also apparently legal.
Although it doesn’t apply to Pakistanis (taking bets on how long that will last), I was apprehensive about coming back this time. Since the election and the storm that has been ravaging peace and tolerance, I have felt that America is no longer a particularly welcoming place. Indeed, I have been told this repeatedly by the TV media, friends and family.
So as I approached the kiosk with the white woman who was going to check my passport etc,. I was pretty terrified. Happily, however, Elsa the Customs Lady was quite chatty. She was from Eastern Europe, liked Nigella Lawson’s book on summer pasta recipes and thought I had a nice smile. Perhaps this is a fluke. Maybe I had a nice border agent and that was simply the luck of my draw. I thought about this the entire drive back to my apartment, the blessed anticlimax of that immigration session.
That’s when I saw stories and posts about the PSL final in Lahore. It immediately lit a little light in my darkened soul to see Lahore in the news for good things. As Pakistanis, we are constantly having to convince people that despite the threat of terrorism, separatists, military interventions, assassination, load shedding, spies, wars and elitist restaurants that serve kale, Pakistan is a beautiful friendly country as well. That’s when I realised that though the U.S, and indeed the world, is in danger from far-right nationalistic jingoism, it’s in our best interest not to always buy the worst-possible image of certain countries. We above all others should know that though an image may be true, it is rarely the whole truth.
And so, despite the fact that I don’t know what PSL is, I want to say Welcome back Cricket. We missed you.