Days with Musharraf

The customary red carpet was rolled out for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf but if we were still in the pre-turf wicket days, Ferozshah ...

The customary red carpet was rolled out for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf but if we were still in the pre-turf wicket days, Ferozshah Kotla would have greeted him with a carpet in his national colours. Once upon a time, green coir matting was the norm on cricket pitches. The General8217;s visit and the raising of his right hand resembling a naval-style salute, took me back to 2003 when we were to host our own Musharraf 8212; Musharraf Hussain Khan or 8216;MHK8217; 8212; a former chief of the Bangladesh navy.

We were marking the golden jubilee 8220;reunion8221; of those who had been cadets at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in the 8217;50s, and had invited our erstwhile colleagues from the Commonwealth to join us in Delhi at the Naval mess, Varuna. Visas were easily procured for MHK, because he was Bangladeshi. That he could not eventually make it is another story. But we couldn8217;t get the MEA to provide a visa for the Pakistani invitees, among whom was Pakistan8217;s former naval chief, Tariq Kamal Khan. With the change of Indo-Pak atmospherics, Tariq Kamal Khan finally made it to Delhi for the final ODI and was delighted to visit old friends and his old school on Barakhamba Road.

There were three cadets from the Royal Pakistan Navy with us at Dartmouth: Pervez M. Saeed of Punjab, Iftiquar Ahmad of NWFP and MHK of East Pakistan. There were eight of us from the Indian Navy. Unlike the 11 Indians in blue pun intended at Kotla, at Dartmouth we made a happy team 8216;Eleven8217;, ready to take on the Brits whenever required.

Musharraf, particularly, became a buddy. In Greenwich, a little later, the three of us Indian sub-lieutenants even shared an old car with him 8212; an Austin 14 which came for 125 pounds. After flogging it during our eight months at the Royal Naval College, it was sold for its scrap value of 15 pounds! The Royal Pakistan Navy were entitled to an additional overseas allowance. Besides, Pakistan had a favourable rate of exchange against the sterling. Musharraf could thus go in for a swanky, new, green Austin 7, which cost him 440 pounds. He promptly undertook a tour of Scandinavia on it with two Bongs, Dileep Ghosh and Ranjit 8216;Chow8217; Choudhary, as companions.

When we finished our training, we boarded the Anchor Line ship, 8216;Cilecia8217;, at Liverpool and sailed for home together. Karachi was our second port of call and we were given a right royal welcome at the Clifton Road residence of the Khans. I was to meet Musharraf only once thereafter, when he came to Delhi in 1977 as a minister in the Zia-ul-Rahman cabinet. 8216;Chow8217; was then the deputy chief of protocol at the MEA and he received the Bangladesh delegation 8212; headed by his old road companion, Musharraf.

A lot of water has flown down the rivers of the region since then. But, somewhere, the ties that bind us in this divided subcontinent have remained.