Thursday, May 08, 2008

Road to Kenya - or back to my roots...

Zee's Notes: Inshallah in 6 weeks i'll be joining the athletes and spectators on the Road to Kenya as part of the Golden Jubilee Games to be held in Nairobi. Now for me it's going to be 35 years since I left as a young lad with my family. Though I am born and spent much of my childhood in Dar-es-salaam, it is Nairobi, where I spent just 2 years, that has forever stayed etched in my heart as being the best place I ever remember in Africa. I vividly recall the Hirani Estates in Parklands where we lived, I can never forget the Aga Khan Academy where I studied and I hope that ice cream place run by the most kindly gentleman from South Africa is still there. My dream as a youngster was to play for the Aga Khan Cricket Club and many afternoons after school I would go watch the likes of Fayaz Hasham, Kamru Shamasdin and Shamshu Allidina, to name a few, practice at the Parklands facility - heck sometimes they would even let me bowl a few at them. The irony is that many years later I would play cricket in Canada with these very same legends of East African cricket. Life was simple and when I go back I hope to connect back to that time when the world seemed so conquerable and Africa was a land of great optimism and promise. I look back and consider myself darn lucky to have the opportunity to grow up in Canada but going back will bring back those days - well you know the feeling - it's not going home but it's going back to your roots...Here is something I saw on the net yesterday - hope you like it...

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