Location Scouting: Sports Complex

This is supposedly the representation of sports in this country. You'll find a huuuge running track, gymnasiums and stadiums for football, tennis, cricket, table tennis, swimming, and lastly, Boxing. It's a good place for sports...for the most part.

Unfortunately it's not very well maintained. There's straight up cracks and ditches in the roads, the whole place feels like a ghost town, and executive offices feel like run down abandonment homes.

But I digress. There's a ginormous complex called the Liaquat stadium, which is where the boxing things occur. After classes ended I got the chance to visit the place. Since it was my first time there I had to ask around for where the boxing ring and stadium was, but the people there gave me strange looks, then one of the managers of the Running Track filled me in on the news.

Due to some complications, the Boxing facilities aren't running anymore. They've been locked up because the one person who owned them has left, for reasons they didn't want to tell me. Maybe a dispute over something but, it certainly wasn't a retirement thing because for a year and a half the boxing facilities have gone unused, and there's no main person available to replace the person who left. I'd also guess that even if there was, there's some kind of complicated paperwork involved too. But I was ready to deal with that.

Upon hearing my reasoning for requiring the gym, which was just one day of filming for a school project, I was given the advice to visit the office of the Director General of the entire place. I thanked the person I was talking to and made my way over there. The place seemed completely deserted, it could really use some renovations or just some form of design rework. It felt more like a prison. I found the office of the DG, they were busy with some paperwork. Another younger man, who I'd assume to be the assistant, approached me to ask about my situation. I elaborated that I wanted to use the boxing ring for filming purposes and that I would only require it for one day. He said that the facility was locked up and in this case I'd be required to write an application and submit it to the office. I noted their contact information, thanked them, and left.

All of this was done on a Thursday so, since I had recently shifted homes, I now lived quite far and due to rising petroleum costs I couldn't exactly afford to make another trip. There's also the fact that my Media Teacher, Sir Nadeem, didn't have any classes on Friday. I informed him of my trip and that an application was required, so on Monday I typed one up in front of him, got it printed, signed, then immediately went back to the DG's office after school ended.

The application had been submitted, they said they'll have a look at it and get back to me. The contact info on the paper itself was that of my teacher, his email and phone number both provided. However for three days there would be no reply. Sir Nadeem suggested that it might be better to just visit there directly to figure out their decision, and so I did today, the 10th of February.

Upon hearing that I didn't receive any calls or messages, the assistant laughed, saying that these kinds of things require me to personally come, as they can't really spare the time. He told me to look around the office, and never in my life did I actually notice the sheer amount of paperwork present there.

The assistant forwarded me to the Director of Facilities, whose office I expected to be a bigger one but, it was an unlabeled door in the middle of a long dark corridor only illuminated by the sunlight at the end. Upon entering, I was met with a kind, somewhat aged man. I took a seat and had the whole discussion with him with my requirements and what I wanted to do. He was quite a fan of it, and it was visible how much it hurt him to give me the bad news that this kind of thing wasn't possible.

As of writing this I don't quite remember the details but, the person running the whole boxing program there had left, and there was no replacement. For this reason the boxing facilities were put on hiatus until a replacement could come. But that wasn't the main issue. The main issue was that, technically the resources within said facilities belonged to his name, and without the approval from the man who left, I was just not allowed to use any of the resources there. That made no sense to me, so I tried to debate that this was only for one day and that nothing other than one Ring was required. He elaborated further, and again I didn't really understand it, but I pretended to. The one thing I did understand was that, it was not within their power to provide me the ring, otherwise, they would have done so. I thanked them for their time and left, disappointed. Before leaving the room I asked whether he knew of any other boxing gyms that have a Ring in them. He didn't know but he did say that there are a lot more gyms in Rawalpindi, and I should try my chances there.

I went home, disappointed. Rawalpindi's going to be quite the distance, and with petrol, funds, and time, all on a shortage, I was desperate.