Football

Our school van driver (it was a private business) was a busy person, he had taken responsibility of more people than he could manage in one go, hence he used to make two or three rounds when picking up and dropping children, and as his confidents we were the last to be picked up and last to be dropped, it was a friendship agreement, our parents never got to know that. Well, so we had to wait for more than half an hour daily after school, and our favourite pass time was play as usually it should be, and one of the games we played was football, at least that is what we called it. Ground was a “chabootra” (closely like a footpath, but it is built by the house owner as it suits one, and not mandatory) around 12 feet long and six or seven feet wide, goal posts were marked by stones and remarkably the ‘ball’ usually has to be a stone as well as we never felt it necessary to have a ball, nevertheless the balls we tried were the ping pong ball, tennis ball and those small bouncy rubber balls which are mostly lost quickly. Most of time it was a stone as continuous availability of a ball was not possible, and we never felt it was necessary. But now, as I imagine myself playing with a stone along with a bunch of boys on a foot path, it feels crazy, but that is the beauty of that game as I discovered it later (anyone anyway, all you need is something which can be hit and move afterwards). That was my introduction to football, and of course we never cared about rules, it was only when I started to play with my classmates in a proper football field, I came to know about rules. And this is another great quality of the game; for sure you do not need to worry about ’offside’ very much and who hits his comrades by will? It was only accidental if somebody was hurt. So we were all set to enjoy and play, and that is what we did.

It was not only footpath; I have played football in the garage, in courtyard, on the road, in the garden, in the playground (not a football ground) and in proper football field as well. I should mention that I never was a good player, but who cares and no one cared, it was for fun we played, so as people do. And in a community where hatred and division was on rise (race, ethnicity, religion, you name it and we had it, yes those were the days when Afghan war was in full swing, Zia was in his prime, MQM was becoming powerful in Urban Sindh and we had started to witness the rise of trends now we debate daily ) it was a blessing for me, as I find something in common with Sindhis, and Punjabis, and Pathans, and Hindus and Christians, something where no one cared about being a Shia or a Sunni (not only football, but cricket and hockey as well which I enjoyed playing with my mates across all communities and classes). I am saying it was a blessing as I learned very early that end of the day we are humans despite all our differences (something which many grownups fail to realize till their end) and despite differences we can always find something common, I also learned that we all feel and react same way, or joys and sorrows, our physical and mental limitations, how we get motivated, how we get hurt, how we get injured, how we go into conflicts, why we need mediation, another person to provide us with the justice. Yes to the core of it, we are all one and same. I am thankful to football, it thought me a very important lesson in my life.

And that is what thousands of others across the globe do, they play and enjoy with whatever means they can have, this is a game for everyone, this is a game for anywhere. And that is the beauty of this game, the reason why it is so much popular across the globe, this game provides opportunities to everyone.

(I am reding on the history of the game, how it developed and became popular, social and other factor behind the game, it is interesting)