ChinmayC Blog

The female Goddess of the Shakti cult in the forms of Amba Devi and Durga Devi is descending on earth tonight to mark the beginning of the illuminated lunar fortnight. Today is the  the new moon day called Amavas and the last and most important day of dark lunar fortnight called Pitru Paksha which belongs to dead ancestors of all Hindus who pay homage to their forefathers.(Pitru)  As this fortnight has everything to do with the dead it is termed inauspicious and no crucial decisions are taken during this period. From tomorrow Navratri festival in worship of Amba Devi will be celebrated in mostly western India with singing and dancing every night till late for nine days. This form of dancing is called Dandiya Raas . From the sixth evening of this fortnight Durga Puja will start. Goddess Durga , the most powerful form of the shakti cult, is worshipped in India in terms of 'Durga Puja' during Sept-Oct every year. This puja covers five days including the day of installing ...

Another bout of cricket movie shows are supposed to be on now in India! Excuse me! Well, just like Bollywood movies cricket has also got reduced to three hour shows thanks to the historic invention of Twenty20 cricket since 2008. More seriously, the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT) tournament has already started and should be in full swing. But something is missing! Where is the hype and the war cries? Who are playing whom and where? Movie houses not showing the cricket movies? Despite being in the media I am totally oblivious of this! Feeling guilty I asked a friend today why nothing is said and written about the tournament. The friend burst out in anger, 'What a joke! Do they (Team India) have the right to play such games after the shameless showing in England? They are earning money! Let them earn! Why should we bother?' I was taken aback. Is this India speaking? A cricket crazy nation suddenly turning its back on 'cricket'? Anyway, is this good omen for 'cricket...

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi , arguably India’s greatest cricket captain who led India during 1961-75, passed away this evening in a New Delhi hospital after a prolonged and incurable lung disease. He was 70. Just before he made his debut for the Indian cricket team in 1961 Pataudi met with a car accident and lost vision completely in his right eye. But with great determination and courage he went ahead and played for India till 1975 making 6 centuries and 16 half centuries. After playing only four cricket tests he was made India’s skipper in 1962 at the young age of 21. Though under him India won only 9 out of 46 tests he led India to the first ever series win abroad when India beat New Zealand 3-1 in 1967. Pataudi was known for bold leadership qualities, agility in the field, powerful batting display, all-round abilities and of course, very good looks and posture. He was properly nicknamed ‘Tiger’ by the India cricket fraternity. Nostalgic memories are rushing to my mind. We never saw him...

Thanks to the crusader against corruption Anna Hazare, fasting or basically not eating has become a hot selling property. Almost everybody ranging from politicians to spiritualists are vying to have a tryst with this phenomenon. The craze is simply explained by the media attention amounting to hype the act of fasting generates. Add on benefits are also apparent where politics take over.The fasting personalities catapult themselves in the national or even international platform for future aspirations. The state of Gujarat in north western India is presently witnessing fast and counter fast. The Chief Minister of the state, Narendra Modi,  has launched his three day fast at an air conditioned auditorium on a goodwill mission for communal harmony. Justifiably so, since the Chief Minister belonging to the main opposition party at the national level has been ravaged by communal controversies since last nearly ten years with several court cases running. But his actual progress initiative...

The Indian Hockey Team won the inaugural Asian Hockey Championship held in China beating arch rivals Pakistan. And the championship for money started anew. The Hockey players came home triumphant, but they thought celebrations were not up to the mark—that is say—to the level of cricket triumphs! They were felicitated in a ministerial level function, but mayhem followed. They were given cash incentives of 25,000 rupees each (just above 500 dollars) which the players indignantly rejected. The Indian Hockey federation haplessly cited ‘no money’ as the reason and sent an S0S to the Indian sports minister. Immediately in the afternoon yesterday the minister hiked the amount to 150,000 rupees each along with 2.5 million rupees offered by a state government. The hockey players were righteously angry. Recently, the world cup cricket winning Indian players were given 20 million rupees each along with many add-on thrown in by many connected with the game. At least give us something that can comp...

This morning around 10am a high intensity bomb blast  rocked High Court premises in New Delhi. The blast took place at the peak hours when lawyers and clients throng the gates. So far nine deaths have been confirmed with more than fifty injured. Some sources indicate more than 10 dead and around 45 grievously injured. Casualties are feared to go up. After Mumbai serial blasts of July 13, 2011 terrorists now have targeted the national capital . As usual there was no intelligence inputs which looks ominous. Besides, there had been another blast, though minor, at the same place in Delhi on May 25, 2011. As if first they experimented the possibility and today carried out the actual plan. Much more experiments and plans could be in the terror pipelines. Our intelligence network must gear up for the challenge. This is not undermine the tremendous progress our intelligence has made to bust terror modules all over India since 2008. Never give the upper hand to the cowards excelli...

"Donkey...Donkey...!... ...Lift your ears, And blow your horn To wake up the world This sleepy morn!"   Why should former England cricket team skipper Nasser Hussain call some members of Team India donkeys? If Team India has already conceded a total defeat margin of 5-0 and is in the process of making it 10-0 with the five match ODI series starting today, Nasser should have been the happiest cricketer on earth, considering the fact that he himself suffered many ignominies at the hands of India in the past! Well, nobody calls someone a donkey out of happiness or sheer pleasure. If somebody should have called Team India 'donkeys', it should have been the Indian public. One former Indian cricketer nearly did it! He said that Team India did not play or field so badly  to be called donkeys! Meaning if Team India goes on to concede 10-0 total defeat margin then they can be rightfully called donkeys! Right? It's a horrendous comment, you see, from the point of view of th...