Sylvia's Journal

I watched an Indian Shahrukh Khan movie that M bought for me because it was about never giving up, leadership, inspiration and change – themes that are rather relevant these days.

The story is about an Indian (field) hockey coach who got into trouble, as the captain of the Indian team because he lost a penalty shot that gave Pakistan the victory. His people spit him out. Redemption came many years of obscurity later when he molded a group of willful girls from all over India with fierce state loyalties into a high performing team.

It is a story about human frailties and redemption, rivalry, and more. I didn’t get the subtleties of the struggles towards redemption because there were no subtitles. If I understood things correctly the team finally came together when a bunch of annoying teenage boys harassed two of the girls in a McDonalds and thrashed both the boys and the place. The girls bonded even more when they were challenged by the Indian men’s team that first made fun of them until they realized the girls were for real which earned them both an applause and respect. In the end they became world champions, prying the victory loose from the 6 time Australian champions with a penalty shot – exactly the one that the coach missed all these years before. Circle closed.

The team theme resonated with me. It made me think about trying to be part of a team made up of people with such very different backgrounds and values. The shared values we claim represent only the outer layer. There are so many layers underneath that I can’t seem, or even if I see them, will never understand, no matter how much I try to immerse myself in this culture by learning some of its languages. Unlike the girls hockey team we don’t have the advantage of scoring goals together as a way of bonding, or, for that matter, beating up harassing boys.

I watched the menacing demonstrations in Takhar Province on the evening news. They are especially unsettling because when I came here the north was still considered safe for us foreigners but that has changed in the last 20 or so months. Anti American sentiment is strong. I read about international forces storming a clinic in one of the eastern provinces where Taliban, tribal feuds and IMF actions meld together to create one large explosive mixture.

Sometimes I do believe that the international forces have quotas to fill of bad guys to take out and they storm clinics and bedrooms alike. The US embassy promptly put out a bulletin for us Americans/foreigners to be on the alert because of all sorts of vague threats. We are exhorted to not to discuss our plans with strangers. As if we would.