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Couple of days earlier than Afghanistan’s recreation towards India in Delhi, the Afghans within the capital are craving for his or her roots. At a post-graduate males’s hostel in Delhi University’s North Campus, Haseebullah Siddiqi, who fled Afghanistan in August this yr earlier than the Taliban regime took over, was taking recipe directions from his mom
Haseebullah, actor in Punjabi films, is making ready a feast for his childhood good friend Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Afghanistan’s wicketkeeper-batter.
“We grew up in Khost, and played cricket together. I met him during the IPL earlier this year. This is the best I could do for my brother,” he will get emotional. He drops his cellular and cusses in Pashto.
While Haseebullah is piecing collectively his dismantled telephone his good friend Mohammad Rafi shares a again story. Rafi too is an actor, he performed small roles in Akshay Kumar starrer Housefull 3. “He hates it when Afghanistan lose a game. He smashed his phone multiple times when Afghanistan lost a close match against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup.”
In one other room on the hostel, Nazamudin Asar is drenched in sweat after taking part in badminton for 2 hours. Sipping his Afghan tea in a 12×12 ft room, he pipes up, “Are tickets available for India vs Afghanistan match? I have been trying for the past few days.” He smiles as he provides, “muskil hoga nahi (It will be difficult, right?)”.
Asar, 28, hails from Kandahar and has been residing in India for 9 years and is within the last stage of writing his PhD thesis on the India and Afghanistan commerce route through the years. “I love badminton. I fell in love with the sport after I moved to Delhi in 2014. But cricket back home has grown popular because of this team. It’s an emotion, a feeling, that provides entertainment to the people who don’t know what the future lies for them.”
Little Kabul
Mohammad Usman, a second-year Political Science (H) pupil from Dayal Singh College, helps his father to run a grocery store in Janpura’s Bhogal space, also referred to as mini Kabul, and might’t wait to get a glimpse of his idol Mohammad Nabi. But he’s uncertain whether or not his abbu will enable him to go and watch the match.
“If abbu agrees, then I will go and watch the match. My friends are going. But I don’t think I will be able to go. I am the eldest in my family. My younger siblings have exams and I will have to be here at the shop,” he says with a smile.
Usman’s household moved to India in 2016 from Jalalabad after his father, he says, acquired fixed threats from the Taliban. Since then he has managed to check and in addition assist his father arrange a store. He needs to turn out to be an IAS officer.
“For us, it’s easy to juggle between work and study. We are pathans, we never get tired. It’s in the DNA. Back in Afghanistan, we have to learn things quickly. You have to look out for yourself and your family. Political Science is an easy subject (laughs). I want to do a masters from JNU or Jamia and then will go for public service exams,” he says with a glint in his eyes.
Usman loves Indian cricket and cricketers. He is a fan of Rishabh Pant as a result of he hits sixes on demand and loves the aggression of Virat Kohli.
‘It’s a Talibaani sport’
Amidst the thrill about seeing their stars in flesh and blood, there are some blended emotions as nicely. Musa Khan, who runs a dry fruit store with Haji Zahir calls it a Talibaani sport and has no real interest in going or cheering for them.
“I hate cricket. It’s a Talibani sport. I love football and swimming. I was in the third year of my engineering course in Kabul. Our college was run by the South Korean government. In 2021, I was supposed to go to Seoul for my internship. Now here I am in India, without a visa, running a shop with my future in the dark,” he says.
On August 15, 2021, Javed Lala was on a flight to Amsterdam to current his paper “Reestablishment of Democracy in Afghanistan with the failure of American policy.” It was solely when he touched down and opened his telephone he received to know in regards to the Taliban taking on Afghanistan. Since then he has lived in Amsterdam, working in an Afghani restaurant because the Indian authorities shouldn’t be giving visas to the Afghanistan citizen.
“I have one year left to complete and submit my PhD. My professors at DU have tried hard but it is futile. The Indian government is not giving visas to us,” Javed tells this newspaper from Amsterdam. “And there are thousands more like me.”
He explains why cricket was by no means a sport in Afghanistan and the way it has prospered in his nation.
“Cricket is a Talibaani sport. It was by no means widespread in Afghanistan. You have seen the film Khuda Gawah (starring Amitabh Bachhan and Sridevi), the film reveals a sport, ‘Buzkashi,’ the place the horse riders battle it out for a goat. It is our nationwide sport. It’s a type of battle of tribes, who’s superior. Yes, with the Russian invasion, soccer additionally grew to become widespread however cricket was by no means a sport.
“You see all of the cricketers. They have grown up in refugee camps in Peshawar. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was based throughout the first regime of the Taliban. People within the UK media had been going gaga over the truth that they’ve saved cricket. Boss, that’s their child.
“Apart from tribal sports and football, hockey used to be a big thing during the 1970s. It was because of Zahir Shah, the last ruler of the Afghanistan Kingdom. Helmand is now the most dangerous place in Afghanistan but it used to be a hub of hockey. They used to have a girls team. Zahir Shah has studied in Dehradun and used to play hockey a lot. That’s the reason it was a popular sport. Now it is an authoritarian state like Iran and Saudi Arabia,” he says.
Lawyer promoting burgers
Raissuidin Haidri runs a burger store in Lajpat Nagar together with his good friend Mohammad Almas.
Haidri was a Supreme Court lawyer in Kabul who was in India throughout the Taliban’s takeover. He has not seen his son, who was born a month later in Kabul.
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“I have twin daughters and one son. I have not seen them for two years. I am struck here. I came here for a legal workshop and now I am selling burgers. Do you think I give a f*** about cricket.”
Meanwhile, Almas was a journalist in Herat and left Afghanistan in 2018. He has not spoken together with his mother and father and is frightened about their security, since his village is worst affected by the earthquake that hit his nation on Sunday.
“I spoke to a relative; he said my father and mother are safe,” he says. “I have watched Afghanistan’s match against Ireland in Noida. It was fun, and tickets were cheap. I will try and get a ticket in black on Wednesday as well. I love my country and I will support them throughout the World Cup,” he arms over a burger to a buyer.
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