India-Forums.TV

[aryan]

MOHALI: In his suitcase, Mohammed Bashiruddin Khan is carrying a lot of things: three mobile phones, white pills for his ailing heart, a Pakistan flag and tickets from World Cup games he has seen over the past fortnight in Dhaka and Colombo. What he doesn't have, and wants at any cost, is a ticket for the Mohali game.

'In Colombo, they gave me a free ticket to watch the game. In Dhaka, I paid 500 taka. But here it seems impossible to buy a ticket for the semifinal match. Beg, borrow or buy, I want to watch the India-Pakistan game on Wednesday.

'I am one of the few Pakistan fans who has managed to reach Mohali. I am hoping authorities consider this and give me a ticket. If my country is playing here, I have a right to watch the game,' he says.

Then he raises the pitch a level higher. 'The Indian Prime Minister has extended an invitation to Pakistan's Prime Minister to come over, yet a Pakistan fan is being denied a ticket. How ironic is this?,' says Khan, who has also watched the 2003 and 2007 World Cups in South Africa and West Indies.

Khan grew up in Karachi. His wife comes from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. He now runs Chicago's Ghareeb Nawaz hotel, well-known for its biryani and Indian-style chilli chicken. He holds an American passport.

A Shahid Afridi fan who also loves to watch Sachin Tendulkar bat, Khan flew in to Chandigarh Sunday afternoon from Colombo via Chennai and Mumbai after watching the Lanka-England quarterfinal. On the flight, he says, somebody offered him a ticket for Rs 35,000. 'That's what happens when there's more demand than supply,' says the Pakistan fan who speaks with a lisp. Dressed in a blue checked shirt and khaki trousers, Khan stood out with his salt and pepper beard in the crowd of ticket seekers outside the Mohali stadium. 'I knew that tickets could be a problem. So I had tried to book them online. My daughter, son and I sat on three separate laptops to beat the others in queue. But the site crashed the first day. The next day it said, sold out,' he complains.

Khan left Pakistan for USA in 1977. He has plenty of health problems. A couple of heart attacks forced him to retire from business. He is also a diabetic. 'I take 12 pills a day. My wife advises me not to travel much, but I don't listen to her. Watching a good game, meeting people from different countries ' what's life without pleasures?' he asks. Outside the stadium, Khan has already found empathy among locals. 'I have realized there's no animosity against a Pakistani among ordinary people. I have been cracking jokes with them. When I stood outside the stadium, they kept offering me water,' he says.

Who will win the match? Khan gets serious. 'It will be a close game,' he says. Then he adds, 'The World Cup must stay in Asia.'