ABSTRACT
Let me introduce you, sheepishly, to Ahmer Khokhar, a foxy terrier who has overcome innumerable obstacles to find a kennel he can call home.
We met a decade ago in the Lord’s press box. I had overheard a young Asian man sitting quietly at the back being harangued by an experienced journalist who had objected to his presence as a ‘non-journalist’. The reporter in question, while a good friend, should, I felt, have known better than to trample on a young man’s dream, and I duly apprised him of this. First, though, I went over to introduce myself and tell the young man not to take the blindest notice. Thanks in the main to a new-fangled piece of technology known as email, we struck up a mentor-pupil relationship; a recent university graduate, he pestered me incessantly: definitely a journalist in the making. He introduced me to his father, and kept me abreast of his myriad troubles: horrifying and alienating his parents both with his choice of would-be career and conversion to Christianity; fleeing England to escape an arranged marriage; striving to overcome a speech impediment. Early-morning phonecalls from various temporary homes in Australia were not infrequent. I have never met anyone more determined.
