A Typical Matchday Prep in Karachi

A typical Arsenal match day preparation includes,

1. Getting the TV booked. Seriously, if ever a third world war takes place which originates from Karachi, Pakistan, ignore whatever insightful reasons that newspapers publish and remember, it was all over a TV in the Jafri household. Early kick offs on a Saturday and late kick offs on Weekdays are perfectly fine, since they correspond to 5:00 in the evening and 12:00 in the night respectively, thus ensuring an empty TV Lounge. Problems arise at the 3’0 clock kick offs, which means 8:00 over here, which means Prime Time, which means my mother watching the TV. It usually ends up with us sharing the remote, with me watching the Arsenal match during commercials. Long live the commercials.

2. Arranging back up. Electricity is a privilege and thanks largely to the extended network of friends that I enjoy in the locality, I can always count on ending up at a friends house shouting Arsenal Arsenal at the top of my voice in case of a black out.

3. If it’s a derby match, or a cup match, then I have to make preparations for friends coming over. The fact that only two are Arsenal supporters and the rest are Manshitter fans also means a whole new list of taunts which I’ll write about someday.

And what day of mine would be complete without reading the Arseblog? It’s fuckin’ excellent, I tell ya!

Cheers.

Nabeel Jafri.