Murgha of the Day

Musharraf's cigar making headlines in India

President Pervez Musharraf is known to be in headlines across the globe for all the right and wrong reasons but rarely he makes headlines that would give him a celebrity stature. And even rarer it is for his 'half-smoked cigar'. Yet, one of the leading headlines circulated by an Indian newspaper, Newindpress.com features Musharraf's half-smoked cigar. Newindpress.com broke all records in accurately breaking the news about how Musharraf's half-smoked cigar turned memento for Chappell's wife on her visit to Pakistan. According to the newspaper, the half-smoked cigar is the most precious thing Judy, wife of India cricket team's coach, will be taking back to India from Pakistan.

Never have a cigar gotten so much attention in this part of the world, nor the cigar was another CBM (Confidence Building Measure) sponsored by the India-Pakistan peace talks. But kudos to the media and its ability to make news out of anything, the cigar managed to steal the headline spot. On the insistence of the news-hungry media to fetch all the details, Judia informed, "I picked up the cigar with a tissue paper and am carrying it with me to India."

From the details that have emerged so far, Judy came across Musharraf's half-smoked cigar during one of his meetings with the Indian Cricket Team. Musharraf, oblivious to his celebrity charisma in India, was careless enough to forget the cigar in the ashtray and provided the perfect opportunity to Judy to carry out her mission. Hats off to Judy, who managed to sneak the cigar right under the ISI's nose. Maybe this cigar will someday turn up on Ebay or maybe it will end up in a museum, but surely it has a certain value attached with it after this incident. However, this incident has forced me to realize that West and Indians both seem particularly fascinated by Pervez Musharraf's personality and charisma. Maybe, we should exploit this avenue into generating some revenue. Risking harsh criticism, I would boldly suggest making Musharraf posters, T-shirts, cigars, guns and other memorabilia available to the visiting foreigners. It may as well help as in surpassing our GPD growth rate of 8%, just maybe ...

Tagged : Pakistan , Musharraf , Cricket

.

posted by Abrar @ 2/15/2006 03:20:00 PM