It was sometime in 2009. We were criss-crossing around a vast Lahore metropolis visiting PTI camps put up to begin the party membership drive. Khan wanted to personally meet the party workers and offers words of encouragement. Several hours later, only half the camp visits were done and another half still left to go. It was nearing midnight. Right after our lone vehicle crossed the Allama Iqbal bridge and entered Chah Miran, the traffic came to a complete halt and remained jam packed and unmoved for over an hour. Somehow the conversation turned to upcoming political rallies. Khan chided one of the provincial leaders in the car for not making a greater effort to ensure media coverage of a successful rally recently held.
Than on a lighter note, Khan began to recount how just a few weeks earlier, a provincial general secretary (GS) of PTI had insisted Khan take part in a rally the GS wanted to showcase. The GS picked Khan from the airport and all along talked about the event he had organized and how Khan would be impressed with the turn out. It was a long drive but Khan said he kept patient thinking it must be a massive crowd and the long drive would be worth it.
"When we got to the venue, there were only three kids waving PTI flags," said Khan shaking his head with a faint smile of disbelief.
Every time I see a PTI rally today, bursting with crowds that dwarf large open venues, I always remember this story Imran Khan told us.
For one thing, I do not know of any person anywhere who has nothing more to gain from life but works like he has nothing to lose.
As a consequence, the guy's wife left him, taking away his kids. I wondered then, if (at that time) after 14 years of grueling political struggle, of losing his family, with 180 million people mocking him, of all analysts declaring him a failure over and over again, I wondered if, when after all Khan saw at the promised mass rally were those three kids, he questioned his resolve to continue? Or when he was stuck in traffic that refused to move, did he wonder about the value of his efforts?
Today when the nation has been infected by Imran Khan's quest to bring change and has captured the nation's imagination singing the mantra of a new country, it is very easy to see it as a validation of all his efforts. Soon it may even become inconvenient to mention the years of seemingly hopeless struggles.
But I hope when in the future when his feats are re-told, it will focus not on all the challenges he overcame, but on the battering he took while attempting to win.
Conventional wisdom may break down the resolve to continue pursuing a struggle after 14 years. To call it a day. But I know that when Imran Khan saw those three kids at that rally, the only thought in his mind was:
"This country is ripe for change!"
Belief in ones self is the most valuable lesson Khan can give to Pakistanis. Aside from an electoral victory of course!
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