Team India Crowned World Champions!

Finally in the Grand Finale Team India played truly to its potential and won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in great style! The Team scoffed at the idea of depending on one or two stalwarts and blazed away to an astounding victory celebrations for which do not seem to end and justifiably so. After 28 years, first team in world cup history to win it as hosts, first team to win chasing in excess of 250 runs and on! Captain Cool also known as the Great Gambler showed why he is indeed the best Indian Captain of all times. Mahendra Singh Dhoni made a masterstroke by promoting himself ahead of Yuvraj and finally delivered with the bat with such determination to win and such obsession that the World Cup had to come running for his country and of course for the living legend Sachin Tendulkar. Forget his decisions or gambling now, his disarming smile and humbleness make the win more memorable.

Superb fielding and terrific bowling by Zaheer Khan in particular never allowed Sri Lanka to run away for a 300 plus total. Thanks to a brilliant century by Mahela Jaywardene and 63 runs in the last five batting powerplay overs Sri Lanka reached 274 which seemed to worry a lot of Indian supporters and which was accepted by Sri Lanka as the invincible platform for their second title. The potential Indian batting strength was just conveniently forgotten.

To make matters more worrying India lost Sehwag in the second ball of the innings in similar fashion as in the Pak encounter. Sachin showed with a few blazing shots that he was there to stay. But he also went for 18 with a reeling total at 31 for 2. Gautam Gambhir though had different designs and a sound strategy against Murlidharan in particular who was never allowed to settle down to his intensity. With able support from Virat Kohli Gambhir laid the foundation for victory and then Kohli went at 114 for 3, still a fifty-fifty situation. In came the Captain and proceeded with ruthless precision, absolute power and spectacular brilliance. Gambhir threw his wicket with just three run short of what would have been a unforgettable century. He still deserved the Man of the Match award, but Dhoni’s determined and brilliant effort of 91 not out sealed it in his favor.

With Yuvraj Captain Cool clinically completed Mission World Cup 2011 and brought home at home the second glorious honors by dispatching the second ball of the penultimate over to a roaring six. And history was made at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai.

A sweet revenge for the incredibly cruel defeat in the semi final of WC 1996 at Kolkata by the Sri Lankans. Sweeter, because Team India refused to fall prey to the suffocating bowling tactics of Sri Lanka as has been the trend over the years in sluggish conditions. Sri Lanka celebrated the fall of Tendulkar like in WC Football match and maybe took it as the final step towards victory. But Indian batting in full flow is capable of conquering all opposition of the world.

What a match! What a victory! Just continue celebrating!

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!

Kolkata: Cancel the Commerce of the Durga Puja Carnival!

Yes! We ask why shouldn't the pure Commerce show of the Durga Puja Carnival in Kolkata be canceled in view of the worsening medical crisis? For how long this cruel irony of continuing the worship of the Mother Goddess and continuing to torture/kill the Mothers in human forms going to continue? Greed, limitless greed of humans! Dear God! This time Goddess Durga came in a cradle which in itself implies ominous times, and further, the tithis from Mahasaptami onward came mixed in such a way that you get three days of worship, technically. Yet, the greedy and selfie-social-media-crazy crowds of 'devotees' were still not satiated, descending on the Puja pandals in uncontrollable hordes for as long as seven days, and to pander to their greed and to have the maximum of business, most of the Puja organizers disregarded the tithi break-up completely and have been celebrating Bijoya Dashami or the Dussehra well into Ekadashi, the eleventh day! They expect the hordes to descend tonigh...