Mohali, Chandigarh: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and Indian captain M S Dhoni smile ahead of the opening ceremony
Posted to my yahoogroup earlier:
I don’t usually post articles that haven’t been published yet, but will make an exception for what I’ve written ahead of the ‘mother of all matches’ in Chandigarh on March 30, 2011. If you are not Indian or Pakistani and don’t follow cricket, this may mean nothing to you. If you are, it doesn’t need explaining. My two short pieces to be published in The News on Mar 30th (Mohali: let it be an ‘aman ka chakka’ and “Something happening in Mohali today?” Salman Ahmad, rocking to a cross-border beat – ‘tension leney ka nahi’), below for the weekly Aman ki Asha page.
But before that, a news flash: Aman ki Asha’s Milne Do campaign against visa restrictions for Indians and Pakistanis wanting to visit each other’s countries won Best Campaign award at the APNS awards ceremony last night.
Back to Mohali: My uncle Zawwar Hasan, a retired sports journalist, predicts India will win. My aunt says that all his predictions so far have been wrong, so the odds in favour of Pakistan winning are high 🙂 heh Read his lively commentary at his blog
My favourite placard from the 2004 series: "NO nuclear test, NO missile test, just TEST CRICKET"
Some blogs I came across that reflect the spirit we’d like to see prevail:
Cricket – An Opportunity For Peace Between India & Pakistan (Loud Thinking)
Boom Boom Cricket! (Mullah, Military & Media, by )
May the Best Side Win! (Silsila-e-Mah-o-Saal, by Sabahat24)
These blogs are from Pakistan, but it was two Indian journalists (Shivam Vij & Dilip D’Souza) who courageously started a facebook ‘event’ called “Indians who want Pakistan to win the Mohali semi-final and vice-versa” -. Not a very popular position, but incredibly, it gained over 100 ‘likes’ in one day. More popular on facebook, with over a 1500 likes already is “Together We Shall Win“ started by two Indians and two Pakistanis, mentioned in my article below:
SHORT PIECE – 1
Mohali: let it be an ‘aman ka chakka’
Many, including Aman ki Asha, will cheer both sides, be happy for the winner Continue reading
Filed under: Cricket, Pakistan-India | Tagged: #cwc, #wc11, 2004 test series, @IndoPak_Peace, @itwittthere4iam, @Khan_Zubair, @pathan_, @RR2303, Aman ki Asha IT Committee, Amin Hashwani, ghoom taana, harvard, india pakistan semi-final, Juhi Chawla, junoon, Kajol, Mehmal Sarfaraz, mohali, Rahim Lalani, Ravi Dhariwal, salman ahmad, Salman Khan, shahram azhar, shubha mudgal, Together We Shall Win | 4 Comments »
Journeys to democracy 