ALL THINGS PAKISTAN » Sports

Afridi ke Nakhray: Let Afridi be Afridi

Adil Najam — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:45:19 +0000

Shahid Afridi is being Shahid Afridi again.

And I say he has every right to be Shahid Afridi. A star this big deserves a few tantrums. And his performance to glory ratio is still a great average. Nor is the "other side" in this case – the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) – a great horde of angels. So, I say, Let Shahid Afridi be Shahid Afridi. Let the man have his tantrum!

As far as I am concerned, he has won the right to have a few nakhras – winning the T20 Championship and giving us a decent World Cup was itself enough to win him that right. The PCB, on the other hand, has no sympathy from me – nothing good has come from them in the longest of times. So, know exactly which side I am on. Let Shahid Afridi be Shahid Afridi. Let the man have his tantrum!

The love-hate relationship this country, and cricket, has with Shahid Afridi is well chronicled in the archives of this very blog. There is a library of ATP posts on Shahid Afridi, and the sentiments range from Owais Mighal singing his praise in "Afridi ke chakkay" to Adil Najam giving him a shouting in "Shame Shame Afridi: Ball-Biting Ain’t Cricket." The fact is that both posts are correct. Both Shahid Afridis are real. And it is the combination of the two faces of Shahid Afridi that makes up the Shahid Afridi we love – or love to hate!

THIS LIFE.(Features)

Daily Mail (London) January 23, 2010 Byline: MARISA MACKLE W hen I was very young I met a man who was quite old. I was holidaying alone at a hotel abroad and so was he. There were just a few people staying in the hotel. Being sociable, I used to arrange for all the guests to meet in the bar after dinner every evening.

The night before I came home I took everyone’s details and promised to write. The old man and I also swapped contact details. ‘Will you write?’ I asked. website christmas card sayings

‘Probably not,’ he said. ‘I find that people whom you meet on holidays rarely keep in touch.’ At least he was honest.

Oddly enough, I did hear from him about a year later. He sent a Christmas card but the other hotel guests who had sworn they would keep in touch forever, never did.

Now that I’m older I understand why people don’t keep in touch. It’s not that they don’t mean to but life has a habit of getting in the way, they go about their own business, meet other people and then they forget all about you.

The other day I found an old address book. I thought I had better copy down a few contact details from it before throwing it out. But as I flicked through it, I realised sadly that I don’t keep in touch with ninety per cent of those contacts. Even worse, I genuinely couldn’t remember who half the folk attached to these telephone numbers were.

Since that holiday, back when I was seventeen years old and trying to act like some kind of Pollyanna by encouraging all these random hotel guests to unwittingly become lifelong pen pals, I have realised that some friendships aren’t meant to last forever.

At least break-ups at the end of love affairs are more clean cut. With boyfriends you have ‘the talk’ which is never very pleasant, but at least you get closure. You get your hair cut, lose weight, move on, and then try and meet somebody else. With friendships, however, you rarely get closure. You don’t turn around to a pal and say, ‘Look, it’s not you, it’s me.’ It’s more gradual, more drawn out.

There’s no big fight or drama. You just stop phoning one another quite so often. The texts become less frequent and eventually dwindle away to nothing. Nights out together become a thing of the past. Then she sends you a Christmas card saying you should meet up. And you send one back in agreement. But nothing is subsequently arranged. She might add you as a Facebook friend, but then you realise she has a thousand other online friends and so it doesn’t really count. It turns out that you have both moved on. in our site christmas card sayings

Some people seem to have a knack of going through life picking people up and dropping them depending on the season, or what job they’re in, who they’re married to, or what area they live in.

I’m not one of those people. Maybe it’s because my star sign is Cancer and as any follower of astrology knows, Cancer’s symbol is the crab. Crabs love to cling to the past. They find it near impossible to let go.

If I had my way, I would keep in touch with every person I have ever met in my life and found that I liked. I feel very awkward sitting on a plane and chatting to a stranger for five hours all about my life and then standing up at the end of it, shaking their hand and wishing them luck. To me, it’s a surreal experience.

I often feel like saying to them, ‘Is that it? I’ve told you all about myself and now you’re going to go off and pick up your luggage, walk out of the airport and never give me a second thought again? Why don’t we organise to fly the same flight home so we can talk some more?’ I know I need to stop obsessing over other people’s apparently inexplicable ability to move on. I recently received a text from an ex-boyfriend out of the blue. He ended the text communique with the words ‘Take care’. I analysed the message to death. Take care? Was that another way of saying ‘Good luck’? Did this mean that he had taken the time to get in touch only to tell me to go away and have a nice life? And why did it matter so much anyway? I sometimes think the French and Germans say it better when they say ‘Au Revoir’ and ‘Auf Wiedersehen’. It’s more optimistic than our curt ‘Goodbye’.

These days, I often find myself thinking about that old man from my holiday all those years ago. I still have his Christmas card because I can never throw anything away (well, perhaps the odd obsolete address book…). I wonder if he’s still alive. I would love to tell him he was right about people not keeping in touch. Maybe he’s on Facebook… Marisa Mackle’s latest book is Living Next Door to Alice (published by Little Black Dress).

The Official Rules of langRi paala

Owais Mughal — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:14:44 +0000

Owais Mughal

There are several indigenous sports in Pakistan (and India) which many of us have played in our past lives but they don’t get much coverage in written media. e.g. gilli danda, kanchay, lattu bazi, patang bazi, gali cricket, kabaddi etc. One such very popular game is called langRi paala.

Today I have taken a trip down the memory lane and tried to recall my golden days of being a langRi paala champion in school. I then tried to google the rules of langRi paala and not surprisingly nothing came up. This lit a bulb in me and this article is an attempt to produce a first-of-its-kind document to list official rules and regulations for the great game of langri paala.

Before we go any further here is a sketch of a langRi paala match. Since there is absolute dearth of printed and photo material on this sport, hence this hand drawn sketch by me. Therefore paas karo warna bardaasht karo.

The Nomenclature:

The name of the game is langRi paala.

The word langRi means a disabled leg. Note again that it means only one disabled leg.

The word paala means the playing arena or playing court.

While the word langRi sounds like a word straight out of Ferozsons’ Feroz-ul-lughaat Urdu jadeed, I am not sure about the origins of paala. I went to a majority Gujrati speaking school where all kind of paala games were played e.g. seeRhi paala (played on stadium seats and stadium aisles), langRi paala, stage paala etc so I am just making a guess that it could be a Gujrati word. I’ll take our readers comments for citation here and make corrections, as necessary.

The Spirit of the Game:

There are two teams in a game.

Playing area is confined by an agreed upon rectangular area called paala.

A toss of a coin decides which team will ‘bat’ first and which team will ‘field’ first.

The terms ‘batting’ and ‘fielding’ are borrowed from the universal game of cricket which is understood even by non living things in South Asia, hence its effect on langRi paala terminologies should be understandable.

The fielding team sends in a player hopping on one leg.

The hopper guy’s job is to either tag the players of batting team or push them out of the paala (playing area) which renders them Out. Once all the ‘batting’ players have been declared Out the ‘fielding’ team comes in to bat and the process repeats.

The job of the ‘batting’ team is to dodge the hopper guy until he puts his second leg down on the ground (or both legs go in the air – which also happens sometimes.) When this happens the hopper guy is declared ‘Over and Out’ and the fielding team sends in a new hopper.

If the fielding team runs out of all hoppers then it is called a ‘Follow On’ (another term borrowed from cricket.) In such case all the batting players that were already ‘Out’ become alive again and batting team gets another ‘innings’ of dodging the hoppers. The fielding team which is pretty tired by now is a picture of Agha’s sher:

nasheeli nigaheN, qadam luRkhaRaaye
woh aaye woh aaye woh aaye woh aaye

Some Universal Rules:

*) There is no limit to the number of players in a team. It can be a one-on-one game or tens of people can be in a team.

*) There is no limit to the size and shape of ‘paala’ (playing area.) It is usually a rectangle drawn in sand by somebody’s foot and the area of a ‘paala’ depends on teams’ stamina and the number of players in a team.

*) As the number of players increase the size of paala also increases proportionally.

*) A ‘langRi paala’ tournament can also be held among three or more teams.

*) There is no time limit to this game. One can play it to their heart’s content or should I say as long as they can continue to hop on one leg.

The Finer Aspects of langRi paala:

*) This game is usally played in schools which are too strict on letting their students bring cricket bats, soccer balls, frisbees etc to school. In such cases the ‘empty handed’ students have no other choice but to recite following ‘sher’ and play langRi paala .

hum bhee tasleem ki khoo DaaleN ge
be-niazi teri aadat hee sahi

I also belonged to one such strict school therefore I excelled in langRi paala much before making to schools’ cricket team.

*) In one version of the game, which is played during school recess the team who gets to ‘bat’ all through the recess time usually shouts ‘muffat ki batting’ in the end and run to their classes.

Note: There is a fine difference between the correct pronunciation of ‘muft ki batting’ and the joyful taunt of ‘muffat ki batting’. The word ‘muffat’ means ‘muft(free)+joy’ and it is used when you get something for free and opposition doesn’t get it.

*) langRi paala is as much a ‘mind’ game as it is physical. One has to get into the skin of opposition by taunts to get them to make mistakes e.g. the batting team may taunt the hopper on one leg by shouting

“chup chup khaRay ho zaroor koi baat hai”

and the hopper may reply this before leaping for the final tagging glory:

“pehli mulaqaat hai ji pehli mulaqat hai”

and then shapaaaka!!! – which is usually the sound effect of a harsh tagging on the back of a batting guy.

The hand sketch to the right shows an illustration of a tagged out batsman.

*) As I mentioned earlier I played most of my langRi paala with Gujrati speaking friends so some taunts went in the form of ‘filmi’ dialogues e.g. the hopper would say in English/Gujrati

“I love you..pyar karo cho”

and the batting side would reply in same poetic wazan as

“ab ke pakaR ke bataa tu.”

*) I want to end this post on this Ibn-e-Insha sher which is Urdu-Punjabi mix and most likely was written for langRi paala. It goes like this:

ajab paida kiye haiN yaar tum ne apni suhbat ke
koi langRa, koi loola, koi kaana, koi Dhera

Moment of Zen: If Hockey Makes a Comeback and No One Notices, Is it a Comeback?

Adil Najam — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:29:26 +0000

Tamashbeen

No one seems to be paying much attention, but it seems that the Pakistan hockey team is slowly but surely making a comeback. Playing in the 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament – one of the toughest tournaments where every team plays every other team – Pakistan’s boys in green are surprising team after team, most recently beating India 3-1.

But the real surprise is that their performance is consistent. They have actually lost two of the five games they have played, but they their performance has been consistent and, I would say, consistently improving. Consistency is not a virtue you ever associate with Pakistan. Hence the surprise.

Pakistan did get a drubbing from the Australians and also lost to Great Britain (but with a smaller margin and a closer game) but the ones we are beating are all significant teams – the match to go is against hosts Malaysia. Sure, this is not mind-blowing performance, but it is now consistently better-than-expected performance. And that is what really counts.

Beyond whatever happens in this one tournament, the larger question one has to ask – also keeping Pakistan’s performance in the recent Asian Games in mind – is whether the Pakistan Men’s hockey team is making a comeback to glory? And if so, if anyone noticing? (And here is the Zen question of the day: If the team makes a comeback but no one notices, does that count as a comeback?)

Starwood Beats but Guides Lower – Analyst Blog

Zacks Investment Research – Analyst Blog August 3, 2009 | Zacks Equity Research Starwood Beats but Guides Lower – Analyst Blog

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.’s (HOT) second quarter earnings of $0.22 per share, were seven cents ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, driven by the cost reduction initiatives implemented by the company. However, revenues were down in the quarter and the company’s guidance is below our consensus estimate. go to web site irs tax refund

EPS from continuing operations was $0.22, excluding special items, compared to $0.56 in the year-ago period. Income from continuing operations, excluding special items, was $41 million, versus $107 million in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA was $200 million, versus $299 million the year-ago period.

The lower results stemmed from significant deterioration in revenue per available room (RevPAR). Worldwide system-wide same-store RevPAR was down 27.7% in the quarter compared to the year-ago period. System-wide same-store RevPAR in North America was down 25.4% year-over-year. Management and franchise revenues were down 18.0% year-over-year.

Margins were also restricted as a result of this revenue decline though the cost-cutting measures provided some relief. Worldwide comparable company-operated gross operating profit margins declined around 530 basis points. International gross operating profit margins for comparable company-operated properties decreased about 400 basis points, and North American comparable company-operated gross operating profit margins declined approximately 680 basis points.

Worldwide RevPAR for Starwood branded Same-Store Owned Hotels decreased 35.5% from the prior-year period. RevPAR for Starwood-branded same-store owned hotels in North America decreased 34.4% year-over-year. irstaxrefundnow.net irs tax refund

We also expect Starwood to reduce its outstanding debt by year-end. At the end of the second quarter of 2009, the company’s total debt was $$3.752 billion, or net debt of $3.626 billion. Assuming the close of the sale of W San Francisco and the receipt of an IRS tax refund of over $200 million, the company estimated its gross debt will reduce to $3.2 billion and net debt to $3.0 billion by year-end 2009. The completion of sale of W San Francisco was already announced by the company last Thursday, July 30, 2009. The sale was made for $90 million.

Guides Low

The company expects RevPAR at same-store company operated hotels worldwide to be down 20% – 22% in the third quarter, while RevPAR at branded same-store owned hotels worldwide is expected to decline 24% – 26%. With these projections, management expects to post earnings of $0.06 – $0.10 per share in the third quarter.

For the full year, the company expects RevPAR at same-store company-operated hotels worldwide to decline 20%. RevPAR is expected to decline 25% at branded same-store owned hotels worldwide during 2009. Management expects to report earnings of approximately $0.65 per share for fiscal 2009 with these expectations.

Industry fundamentals have continued to deteriorate, with year-to-date weekly RevPAR down nearly 20% versus the year-ago period. The fact that declines in room rates comprise a larger portion of the weekly RevPAR declines throughout the industry is troubling, in our opinion.

We believe that the accelerating decline in average daily rate (ADR) will likely increase both the severity and length of the downturn in the lodging industry. Starwood’s rival company, Marriott International (MAR) also posted significant decline in RevPAR. Hence, we expect the shares of HOT and MAR to see more pressure in the coming months and continue with our Sell recommendations on both of these shares.

“HOT” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?

“MAR” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?

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