London: Amid all the hurling jibes at the Indian defeat in ICC Champions trophy, a Facebook post spoke about positivity, love and friendship. The post was shared almost 10,000 times and received thousands of reactions as well as comments.
Archana Mohan addressed Pakistan and said ‘thank you for defeating us’. In her note, she mentioned about how her family members, who identified positive traits that could be learnt from Pakistani players instead of the usual mud-slinging, that she had been expecting.
“‘I wish we had players like theirs’, my husband said ruefully. ‘From the bylanes of Peshawar to an ICC event, they are cricketers in the purest sense’, he said dreamily. ‘And what about that boy Fakhar Zaman’, my father in law, said, his cup of filter coffee simmering just like his voice. He is a Navy man no? That’s what a soldier does for his country,’ the ex-serviceman said proudly”, she wrote.
However, the post was later removed from her profile, the note can be read below:
Pakistan, thanks for defeating us!
Dear Pakistan
I was sure I would wake up with a soul wrenching hangover after you pulverized my team yesterday. To be honest, I wanted to bury myself in a hole and keep newspapers at bay so I didn’t have to relive ‘that’ no ball again.
But something happened this morning.
Instead of the pooja room, where she usually offers prayers every morning, my mother in law was in the living room, waxing eloquent about Mohammad Amir. ‘God works in mysterious ways,’ she said. ‘The boy who made a mistake in his youth has grabbed his second chance. What a great redemption!’
‘I wish we had players like theirs’, my husband said ruefully. ‘From the bylanes of Peshawar to an ICC event, they are cricketers in the purest sense’, he said dreamily.
‘And what about that boy Fakhar Zaman’, my father in law, said, his cup of filter coffee simmering just like his voice. He is a Navy man no? That’s what a soldier does for his country,’ the ex-serviceman said proudly.
At work, the colleague who had only a day earlier tweeted a crude slur on Pakistan confessed he had watched everything there was on Youtube about Sarfaraz Ahmed. That man, he said sheepishly, is something else.
On my social media feed, there were dozens of messages congratulating Pakistan and saluting their never say die spirit. ‘Marry me Babar Azam’ said one of them!
It felt like utopia.
What if India had won? I shudder to think of how low some of us would have stooped in our boorish behaviour.
It has been a tough few years for Pakistan. Lack of finances and the reluctance of other teams to play there on account of security reasons has crippled them to some extent but as this win shows, you can never write them off. Irrespective of the result, I am sure, we will always remember this unbelievable comeback from the team that was expected to crash out in the first round itself.
I can’t believe that I am saying this but thank you Pakistan for winning the match. Thank you for being an inspiration.
India may have ended up second, but many of us won something more important than a shiny trophy – the tag of being a good sport.
Perhaps there may still be hope for the two countries after all!
#indiavspak #championstrophy2017
People on social media got overwhelmingly touched and seemed positive with their comments, even from across the border. Hassan Ahmad commented, “After watching so many Indian news channels where everyone seemed so annoyed, where Kambli was saying ke Pakistan ne hmare kaprhe utaar diye, I was so disgusted. But people like you give me hope ke we have people around who take sports as it should be apart from all the political differences. Love your post. Stay blessed”, while Ameenah Cruz wrote, “Ditto for the ‘Perhaps there may still be hope for the two countries after all!’”