Adil Najam

Miracles can still happen. But they are unlikely to.

In a few hours (at 6PM Beijing time) Pakistan’s field hockey team will play its fourth qualifying game against South Africa. Pakistan can and should win this game. But as important will be the results of the Australia v. Netherlands match, also to be played today at 8.30PM Beijing time. If Australia beats the Netherlands (possible) and – and this is very important – Pakistan then also beats the Netherlands (quite unlikely) and ends up with a goal average better than the Netherlands then Pakistan may – and, yes, its is still a may – have a chance to slide into the semi-finals (things will also depend of what Great Britain does in its remaining games). Had we not lost our first game to Great Britain we might have had a realistic chance; but we did not.

[UPDATE: Pakistan did defeat South Africa, 3-1, but the Australia-Netherlands game ended in a draw which means they have both now moved into the Semi-Finals, and Pakistan has not.]

As it turns out, then, it will take more than just a miracle now for Pakistan to medal at Beijing.

Mast Qalandar (aka Aziz Akhmad)

Our primary school consisted of 20 odd students, both boys and girls, but mostly boys, ranging in age from 5 to 10, and one teacher. The school had no building. We just sat under a thatched canopy resting on wooden poles, covering an area of a large bedroom. The floor was raised three or four steps above the ground, plastered with mud, and carpeted with a layer of dry pine needles (actually they are leaves but called needles because of their narrow and long needle-like shape). We sat on the “carpet” cross-legged or however we could make ourselves comfortable. This was in a remote mountainous village in the Frontier province of Pakistan.

Adil Najam

If you have seen this before, can we please request that you hold your answers for now. If you have never seen this picture before, can you guess what major Pakistani city this is?

See correct answer here. See more details on the photograph and on answer here.