da pinnacle： Sidharth Monga measures the streets of Kanpur void of all the excitement an India-Pakistan clash should bring
Sidharth Monga10-Nov-2007
The scoreboard may have the names but India’s players didn’t show up for practice at Kanpur’s Green Park © AFP
The Kanpur ODI, coming two days after Diwali, and featuringIndia and Pakistan, should have the status of the Boxing Day matchesplayed in the southern hemisphere. However, the scenes in Kanpur aday before the match suggested little of that. The deserted town boreno signs that a crucial ODI was less than a day away; only feverishlast-minute activity at the stadium gave the game away.After one has signed an undertaking absolving the hotel of anyresponsibility for any loss of property from their room comes the really good news: there is no room service – and indeed no food -because the workers had gone for their Diwali holiday for a week.One must simply grin and bear it as that is the case in almost all thehotels.People from this part of Uttar Pradesh have a reputation of beingstreetsmart, a quality long and often romanticised in Bollywood andbooks. As one steps out in search of food, such things becomeconspicuous. There are at least four outlets on one road sellingvarious versions of a popular clothing brand. One of them has Saif AliKhan and Preity Zinta endorsing it, another has Uday Chopra andTanisha doing the honours. For the uninitiated, they are allBollywood stars, but they are not earning anything for their serviceshere. Those are cutouts from movie stills that have been superimposedon standard advertisement.As one approaches the stadium, one can see Mahendra Singh Dhoni “canvassing”for a candidate in a local election in much the same fashion, and moresuch. It would have been fun talking to the great brains behind allthis, but the stores are all closed. It would have been much more funto get some lunch, but the restaurants are all closed.It’s all down to the north Indian custom of going to friends’ housesto wish them the day after Diwali. It’s called different things indifferent areas – here it is . For this one day,everything is shut in Kanpur. Quite a hellish morning after.Then a flash of inspiration: the team hotel will surely have arestaurant, albeit obscenely priced. The self-congratulation dissolvesrapidly when the police refuse to play ball, barring all entry intothe hotel.”What if I need to rent a room?””You need a pass issued by the police.”That is the time when one forgives the Indian Railways for all thedelayed trains, the dirty toilets and rude booking clerks. Whennothing works, the railway station does. That the Kanpur Centralrailway station is located in a neighbourhood calledFaithfulganj can’t just be a quirky coincidence.