Actress and model Mira Sethi’s latest post on social media translates emotions of a girl whose father makes the whole nation pride by glorifying name of her country in the world.
Mira is the daughter of Chairman Pakistan Super League (PSL) Najam Sethi, who played central role in hosting the PSL final in Lahore which is being dubbed as a successful attempt to revive cricket in Pakistan.
Following the successful staging of the mega event, a top International Cricket Council (ICC) official has promised to hold a four-match Twenty20 series in September this year in Pakistan.
“I try not to write or debate or pitch in about my father on public forums because he’s a public figure and what I feel for and about him — affection, love, pride, amusement/bemusement — may not be what others feel (certainly in that order),” Mira Sethi wrote on Sunday.
“Today I am emotional. I am sitting in Qaddafi stadium with goosebumps on my arms.I’m not a huge cricket watcher. I watch T20s because they’re short and fun. I also really like Misbah. He’s a graceful man,” she said.
She said: “I am emotional today because the energy in the stadium is electric. Everyone is smiling. A girl of 6 waved at me from her stand above: “Mira baji!” A huge grin on her face. Her mother beside her, waving, smiling, laughing, actually.”
Narrating about the environment of the event she said: “25,000 Pakistanis — young and old and men and women and excitement-addled children — are here. Some of the kids are too young to know or be obsessed with cricket. But they’re smiling because their parents are smiling: Something Good Is Happening. They want to be a part of it.”
Recounting efforts and concern that her father put to make this event successful and the stress Najam Sethi underwent after some international players refused to visit Pakistan she said, “A week ago I went up to Abu’s study at 1 am. He was stressed out. Some foreign players had refused to play in Lahore. The franchise owners had concerns. Pakistanis were worried. Abu was pacing in his nightsuit, a creme-coloured khaddar shalwar kameez he has worn since I was a child.
“I hugged him and told him that, actually, I was worried too. And I was. It was a perfectly legitimate concern. There was a lot to take care of.”
Pakistan has become a cricket-starved nation as it has been around eight years since no international cricket event, except the PSL final and tour of Zimbabwe team two years back, could be held in the country.
The model also shared how jubilant she herself was watching the event materializing, “And today, here I am, sitting in Qaddafi stadium, the crowds roaring, doing “waves,” countdowns, chants, engaged in selfie-itus that would give our actresses a run for their money.
“I went up to Abu and squeezed his hand. “You’re wearing a woolen suit,” I said. “It’s too hot for this type of suit”.”
“I don’t feel hot at all,” he laughed.
I knew exactly what he meant: his mind and heart had expanded with joy. Heat? What heat? His mind was somewhere else, she added.
Read More: ICC will send World XI to Pakistan in September
“The stadium is lit up. Pakistan is lit up. May this flicker grow into a steady ray that arcs over this land.
“I love you, Pakistan. Pakistan Zindabad (long live Pakistan),” she wrote on her Facebook account.
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