Malbari Hotel----An Old Man's Day Dreams, "Dada Bhai Returns "

It was a fine afternoon,weather was a bit cold,not freezing but we were feeling uncomfortable.It was so too because we had decided to get together after a long gap.Since long one or the other friend has some problem so we were unable to sit and enjoy our cup of tea at our dear Malbari hotel.

Streets wore a festive look as it was the day of a test match between England and Pakistan.As it was cold we were enjoying candy made of dry fruits like peanuts,almonds and tills.There was a new element our malbari has brought a tv to his shop to watch the match. A small crowd of young men has gathered around us and malbari was proudly adjusting them and was raising the volume of his tv.The test  match was turning into a very intresting match as people were enjoying seeng their former rulers being beaten like a punchbag.

We were also enjoying  the match and eating dryfruits candy . You can hardly imagine our gora sahib ever enjoying such delicious dry fruits candies made of gur,as the real taste of the dry fruits is  mostly  hidden under chocolate.

Every now and then people cheered as our players knocked down the English players. The climate was getting colder as the match progressed. We are a very special nation, we don't say anything when our politicians and officials eat away our bread and butter but we cheer up when a player hits out during a match.

The crowd was getting larger and our malbari friend was getting happier and happier. He was grinning from ear to ear because his hot tea was selling like hot cakes. We were the VIPs of the crowd because we had the chairs to sit on while others were standing to watch the match.

We had ordered tea and slowly sipping to war off the cold. The match was going on at Dubai but this part of Karachi; was vibrating with slogans of Pakistan Zindabad.

I wondered why so much excitement, it was not likely to be seen in a test match. I told so to Yaqoob Kidia. He was thinking just like me. He told that a match should be arranged between India and Pakistan and the nation winning should be given the control of Kashmir, so that 64 years old problem may get solved most peacefully.  Siddiq master peeped in, that is your thinking Yaqoob ! When the match would finish people in the stadium and Indian and Pakistani cities will start rioting. And our militaries would pick up arms and God forbid, if one of the Generals get out of his mind, he will throw A Bomb on the other side, Thus there would be no problem of Kashmir to solve. Thus everything would be peaceful.

As a nation we are collectively strange. Rulers of both the nations keep their people always worried about bread and butter.....sorry only bread.  Our people have forgotten how the butter tastes.  It was getting colder so we stopped a push cart which was laden with second hand woolen sweaters. We in Pakistan call these things as Landa Bazar items which means that the clothes are brought from London. It is paradox of our thinking that we lovingly purchase gora sahib's rejected clothes.

We at the Malbari hotel were engrossed in watching TV and so Saeed Ajaml throwing ball and getting the English players back to the pavilion. The English call themselves number one test playing team but actually they are not even number ten. They use all accusations to disqualify our players but we get usually more and more players out of our hats. We have no ground worth the name, to get our players sufficient practice. No foreign team has visited Pakistan in many years. We expect Bangladesh team would be visiting  Pakistan in April this year. Lets pray that our political and law & order situation stays better so that we may have more and more cricket in our land.