Tribune News Service

Date:08-03-05

Source: Tribune News Service

Emotions of Friendship, love, and brotherhood between traditional rivals ruled the first day of the test series between India and Pakistan, both inside and outside the stadium. Professing a lasting relationship strengthened with emotional bonding, Indians and Pakistanis took the bilateral ties between the two nations a step ahead, using cricket as an anchor. There were cricket players inside the stadium and cricket fans inside and outside, in almost every place in the city and its periphery.

Today too, like yesterday, was full of excitement. While many Indians and their Pakistani guests chilled it out on beer inside the stadium, there were hosts and guests who braved the heat and took theirPakistani kin for a boat ride at Sukhna Lake, an Indian movie shopping in Sectors 22 and 17.

Everyone even remotely connected with cricket was doing his best to boost the Indo-Pak festivities. Radio Buzz, a local radio station is celebrating the Indo-Pak friendship week. For the entire week the radio team would be doing the rounds of the city and recording the requests of the Pakistani guests. According to the Director of the Radio programme, Hardip Chandpuri, the entire effort is being done, to welcome our friends from across the border. We have been requested by elderly people and also the guests from Pakistan. Punjabi songs have been specially sourced from Canada and will be played for the first time in Chandigarh.

Hundreds of events in the city during the past two days reflect the camaraderie between the people. A Pakistani fan brought a giant kite with flags of the two countries printed on it and flew the same across the PCA stadium in Mohali. Only to be confiscated by the police and torn as it was causing an obstacle in the match. But the tearing of the kite should not be taken to be symbolic or a bad omen, the thaw in relations is here to stay, commented Mr Sant Singh of Mohali, who volunteered to escort the Pakistanis.

While, Pakistani are on a splurging spree, the Indian entrepreneurs are living by the maxim, ‘never let go a good opportunity, with many of them descending on the PCA venue with national flags priced from Rs 5 to Rs 200. Tattoos of the Indian tricolour and the Pakistani national flag can be got made on the face for a mere Rs 10.

The scene is not limited to in and around the PCA stadium only. There are several families hosting Pakistani’s in Mohali and Chandigarh. Now even families from Panchkula have come forward to be a part of the celebrations. Mr Sajjad Shah from Lahore is overwhelmed at the hospitality of his Indian host, Mr S P Bakshi. They had initially planned to stay at a hotel in Chandigarh, but a chance meeting with Mr Bakshi son, Arun, in Chandigarh, and the latter proposal that they stay with the Bakshis forced them to shift to the Bakshi house in Panchkula Sector 10.

Their host, Mr S.P. Bakhshi says that he had applied to the authorities that he wanted to host a family from Pakistan, because before Partition he was from Gujarat city in Pakistan. Other than the Shah, Mr Shah Rukh Khan, a former Vice Captain of Pakistan Hockey team, is also staying with the Bakshis here.