A pick-up game in Kashmir

The culture-bridging gifts of play are everywhere apparent (except perhaps in certain government offices). Here's a story of one such experience, found in an article called "Kashmir: The Soccer War - Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News":

"...They ask me if I know how to play soccer. I tell them I know a little and we begin to kick around the ball, keeping it airborne between us using our feet, knees and heads.

"Without even realizing the transition, I'm actually not working anymore. I'm playing. I have not played on the road, I think, since a brief game of three on three basketball in Iran.

"I become aware, not acutely, just casually, that I'm actually having fun on a sunny afternoon in Kashmir — even though I'm thousands of miles away from where I would normally be having fun on another sunny afternoon, running or biking near my home in the U.S.

"These high school boys don't want to talk about my work, they just want to know a little bit about how I live, what's different about Kashmir from America.

"After a while we don't have to talk at all. We just kick the ball back and forth.

"These boys, because of their curiosity, caught the gringo, got him to engage, and for that, they earned the attention and respect of others who come to join us. Some of those who gather around are other kids, but also a handful of adults still in possession of some tricky footwork they had when they were younger.

"We are, despite the language and cultural difference, joined in this play. For a moment, I begin to feel something. It's not dramatic, not a revelation, maybe just a connection. And for me, at this moment, that's enough."

Thanks to Funscout Katherine Morales