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we partied like it was 1992, did you?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATgqWAz-18k&feature=fvw

I remember waiting for my school bus in 1992, on my way home from a boring day at school. My friend, Zeba ran towards me, red as a tomato, screaming "we've won, we've won the world cup"... we abandoned waiting for the school bus and ran all the way home, stopping to congratulate any Pakistani in the street. This wasn't a scene from a street in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad, this was London. And on June the 21st 2009 I got to feel that euphoric feeling again where like that young schoolgirl I once was, I wanted to run through streets hugging random strangers and dance all the way home.

I can't begin to explain how passionate I am about Pakistan. For a second generation Pakistani born and bred in London, I sometimes think I am overtly passionate and the affinity I share with the country where my parents were born sometimes overwhelms me.

I'm not a sports fan, I don't watch cricket and I just about get my head around the rules but when Pakistan is playing and it's a tournament as important as this one, and the country is going through the internal turmoil that it is, you stop whatever it is you are doing - in my case, celebrating my birthday - and you support the boys on that cricket pitch. I screamed the bar down in Bayswater (where I was watching the game with my friends consisting of twelve Pakistani's, one Bangladeshi, one Indian/South African and one Finnish) each time "boom boom Afridi" (oh mere Pathan sher!) scored a chakka or a chowka and when it got immensely close, and nerves danced on the palms of my hands, I still remained transfixed on that screen, whispering a silent dua over and over again.

I wanted Pakistan to win, not just because it would mean we beat the others, but because Pakistan so needed this victory right now. Pakistan needs to feel that there is still hope, and that hope is not just limited to a bat and ball playing game.

Pakistan, I love you and I have immense faith in you, you're a fighter, a survivor. You will rise above the troubles you are encountering right now, you will prove all the critics and analysts wrong, you will prosper. There will be peace within and with your neighbours and with the world at large and you will be a successful state... oh so successful insh'Allah.

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Uploaded on Jun 24, 2009

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