Adil Najam
It is difficult right now to think or write about anything except cricket. I tried. I really did. I failed.
Good can, and does, come out of sports; and especially an unexpectedly brilliant sports performance. Of coruse, bad can also come from the same. We do not yet know what will come out of Mohali, Chandigarh, in the World Cup 2011 Semi-Final between India and Pakistan. But as one think of what might, I am immediately drawn back to April 18, 1986, to another India-Pakistan match, and to a performance that I have earlier wondered could be Pakistan’s greatest cricket moment ever.
What came out of it, you ask. If you were in Pakistan at that time or in the days and weeks after that, you would not ask. A glow of confidence, goodwill and pride that is, well, priceless. But if you insist, here is something else that came out of it: great art and great humor. Bushra Ansari in a parody of Salma Agha on Miandad’s chakka. Priceless.
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iFaqeer
I finally make it ‘back home’ this winter after a much-delayed hiatus. I hadn’t been able to travel for almost six years now. So getting back to Karachi was particulalry pleasant and memorable.
One thing that I found particularly helpful was this set of 10 Tips for Visiting Karachi preared by The News. It is good advice that many of us sometimes forget:
1. Things have changed: Do not expect Karachi to be the same as when you left it two years ago, ten years ago or possibly in some cases several decades ago. This is a booming town. Traffic has multiplied. New roads, more buildings, underpasses and overhead bridges have been constructed. Distances have increased. There has been a media explosion. Attitudes are changing so are the fashions and the prices of goods. The work culture has also changed along with some of the values you may be expecting to return to.
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Adil Najam
The game – the only game – that everyone in India and Pakistan were waiting for is now set. Pakistan meets India in the Semi-Final on Wednesday, March 30, at Mohali in Chandigarh, India. Either India or Pakistan WILL make it to the Final. Which one?
We know which one we want to get to the Final, but which one do you think will? Maybe the poll has lost meaning by now, but since we have been asking this question from the beginning of the World Cup (#1, #2, #3) lets keep going. What do you think happens to Pakistan from here onwards:
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