She was on the championships circuit for 10 months of the year, one has to be if one wants to continue playing,” remarked an insider. “He was busy with his matches, so Sania and Sohaib would meet only once every few months in Dubai. Such long-distance relationships are difficult to sustain.”

Long distance and infidelity are only two of the many reasons. But, after the official end of the Sania Mirza-Shoaib Malik marriage, the focus is on the unique challenges of Indo-Pak relationships. His father’s nationality haunts author Aatish Taseer even though he grew up in this country with his Indian mother. On the other hand, a few who gave up their Indian passports and settled down across the border have stayed in stable marriages. Calcutta, Agra and Gurugram were some of the places Pak cricketer Hasan Ali and Haryana- born aeronautical engineer Samyah Arzoo visited during the 2023 World Cup in India. They have been happily married for over three years. The tension, if any, has been only over Samyah’s understandable visa restrictions when she wants to visit her family in Haryana.

There was a happy ending for Delhi- based interior designer Rita Luthra too. In the 80s, it was believed her husband smelt a rat when Pak captain and county cricket player Zaheer Abbas was in town. His suspicions were confirmed when he got the cricketer’s whereabouts from sources in the Delhi Police; it is mandatory for the local police to keep tabs on visitors from Pakistan. But Rita’s relationship with Zaheer was no fleeting moment of passion even though he had a wife and three daughters back home. Rita changed her religion, became Samina and has been living happily in Pakistan since the 80s.

Few know that world champ Jahangir Khan, who hails from Pakistan’s most distinguished squash dynasty, was once poised to marry Soni, Fardeen Khan’s half-sister, mother Sundari’s daughter. Life had dealt rough cards to Soni, who’d earlier been in a relationship with Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt’s son, which hadn’t ended at the altar. Soni was ecstatic about her imminent nikah with Jahangir and, in the company of Amjad Khan’s wife, she would be teased that soon she’ll also be Mrs Khan. But Jahangir backed out and it devastated Soni. She stayed put in India and years later, died tragically young in a car crash in Delhi.

Sania Mirza, as is well known, broke her engagement with childhood friend Sohrab Mirza to marry Shoaib. Respecting her desire to keep her divorce as private as possible, close friends like Farah Khan and singer-actor Talat Aziz have avoided commenting on it.

But here’s what 80s actress Reena Roy, once married to Pak cricketer Mohsin Khan, said with standard feistiness. “When marriages between Bandra and Bandra are failing, borders and nationalities have nothing to do with it,” Reena remarked. “I was never stressed over Mohsin’s nationality. He was an international cricketer and I never gave up my nationality. I spent most of my married life with him in London. I’d visit Pakistan on a tourist visa when I’d go to meet his parents or for some other reason. I have to say, it never felt any different from India. The Pakistanis always welcomed me with warmth, there’d be so many invitations to lunches and dinners. They look up to Indians and they’re very similar to us.” Her tough moment was when she had to get custody of her daughter Jannat and bring her to Mumbai; Jannat has since been renamed Sanam. Otherwise, Reena doesn’t see an Indo-Pak marriage as any different from other relationships.

“Every second day, you hear of a Pakistani woman with four children landing in India to marry an Indian or an Indian going over to marry a Pakistani. Opposites attract,” she added cheekily.

But there’s no escaping it. Union or split, Indo-Pak alliances inherently have the potential to make headlines.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author