Bharat bandh: All roads lead to Mohali

Mother of all clashes: The Mohali effect

Prime Ministers, India Inc honchos, film stars join lucky ticket holders for the clash of the titans

New Delhi: What are you doing after 2.30 p.m. today? Difficult to answer any other day but the definitive question on Wednesday as executives, factory workers, students and every other segment of society plotted and planned to watch the India-Pakistan World Cup semifinal amid the anticipation and anxiety that precedes any big-ticket event.
From the taxi driver in Mumbai and the shopkeeper in Bihar's Aurangabad district to the tense police official in Kashmir and the stressed student in Uttar Pradesh's Sant Kabir Nagar, the nation's attention had all but swivelled to the grassy oval at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium in Mohali.
It was as if all roads led to the suburban town in the Indian Punjab, barely 300 km from Pakistan's Lahore city, ahead of today's semifinal that would also be watched by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.

According to a survey by industry lobby Assocham, 60 per cent of office-goers will miss work today.
In power-starved Bihar, thousands of cricket fans took no chance and turned to their rusty transistors just in case electricity outages make their TV sets useless when it most matters.