ChinmayC Blog

India have won the five-match one day international cricket series  defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the fourth match played in Colombo today. Taking an unassailable lead of 3-1 India is thus set to take home the Micromax Cup in Sri Lanka. The last match to be played in Pallekele on August 4, 2012 is reduced to a formality, but, of course, both teams would like to exit the series positively with a win.  For the second time in Colombo Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first. They made a solid start with openers Dilshan (42) and Tharanga (51) putting up 91 runs for the first wicket. The Indian pacers were not effective and went wicketless. Thiramanne chipped in well today made 47 runs with able support from Chandimal. Sri Lanka were poised for a huge total crossing 150 in the 31 st over with the loss of only two wickets. But the slide happened just then. Though Indian skipper Dhoni’s blue eyed boy Rohit Sharma was not dropped after two consecutive ducks Manoj Tiwary...

Three power grids in northern, eastern and north eastern India collapsed around noon today plunging 20 states and 2 Union Territories of India in darkness. The northern grid collapsed yesterday putting almost whole of north India into darkness. The situation instead of improving worsened today with all three grids linking 22 states collapsing . Six hundred million people, half of Indian population, had been affected. The astonishing part of this massive failure was that nobody knew exactly why it happened. Even those in 'power' did not know why half of the nation became powerless! Some of the blame had been given to few states for overdrawing power from the affected grids. Putting a stop to a possible start of the blame game the new Minister of Power said that the power situation had to be managed better for development of the country. In fact, in a major cabinet reshuffle today P Chidambaram, the erstwhile Home Minister, was given the Finance portfolio; Sushil Kumar Shinde...

In a land of over one billion people one single medal counts too, it's not necessary that it be a gold one. It is like just one droplet in a vast ocean, but it still creates ripples throughout. That is India ! Basically, a land of happy people for whom even the slightest opportunity is good enough to rejoice and feel proud of their country. In such special moments people do not bother about their problems--ranging from poverty, illiteracy, social exploitation and horrific violence to stark inequalities. The people of this miraculous country had an occasion to rejoice today.  On the third day of the London Olympics-2012 today one Indian won a medal. Gagan Narang did it in the10m Air Rifle shooting event, after Beijing Olympics-2008 gold medalist Indian hero Abhinav Bindra crashed out in the qualifying round. This achievement comes after a series of failures in various disciplines and only a few random cases where the competitors will have another chance to go further....

India broke today Sri Lanka’s record of never losing a one day match at home after setting a 250+ target batting first against any team. And, the partnership that broke the record was the highest Indian sixth wicket partnership against SL in SL. Suresh Raina (65 off only 45 balls) and Irfan Pathan (34 off 31) crafted an exhilarating unbeaten partnership of 92 runs off 69 ball to romp India home in a thriller going down the wire. For the third one day international of the Micromax Cup between India and Sri Lanka the venue shifted to Preamdasa Stadium in Colombo. Both the teams made one change each. India brought in pacer Dinda in place of expensive Yadav and SL replaced out-of-form Thirimanne with Jevan Mendis. And, SL won the toss this time electing to bat first. Batting first on a pitch that offered both bounce and movement Sri Lanka was in trouble immediately. Relishing the conditions Indian star pacer Zaheer Khan found his best immediately and captured the wickets of both the open...

The much awaited London Olympics-2012  starts tonight, the 27 th July with a grand opening ceremony planned in some amount of secrecy by the celebrated filmmaker Danny Boyle (famous in India for his controversial and yet Oscar winning movie The Slumdog Millionaire ). But in India the Olympics would actually start in the wee hours tomorrow, the 28 th of July. After a series of controversies concerning sponsorship, concerning India and concerning serious security issues the once-in-four-year mega World Event is finally going to unfold in all its grandeur. India is very big country, but its presence in the Olympics has always been little—in terms of medals won particularly Gold medals. This is unfortunate and is mainly the result of a commercial approach to sports with sponsors coming  forward to put money in only money-spinning games like cricket. The government’s policy has been lukewarm too with a lot of former or promising athletes rotting in uninhabitable environs or in un...

Assam is burning. Widespread ethnic violence for the last three days has 38 people killed, over 200,000 people fleeing from homes to 150 relief camps and 500 villages abandoned. This is the inevitable outcome of a continuous process of neglect, political mismanagement and brutalization making such violence occur again and again in a land that was so serenely beautiful with peace loving simple and hospitable people. The root cause being the unchecked infiltration from Bangladesh since decades. Assam has been like another India within India with its tremendous diversity in terms of ethnicity, culture, language and religion. During British rule Assam was a bigger state along with the princely states of Manipur and Tripura to constitute the full North Eastern region of India. After independence states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram were formed out of Assam due to ethnic distinction and self assertion. But even the reduced Assam managed to still retain much of its di...

Indian cricket tour of Sri Lanka-2012. The same venue of Hambantota like in the first one day international that India won by 21 runs following a powerful batting display. Only the strip was different and Indian skipper Dhoni happened to see some more grass there, and that a strong wind was blowing. But Lankan skipper Mahela said it was dead grass, but, of course, wind was unusual in that venue. Again, a same day and night affair like in the first. The same result in the toss— India winning. The same decision—to bat first. And, the same team, no changes. But for a change the Indian innings began well today. They had a brisk start scoring 31 runs under 4 overs with Gambhir and Sehwag going strong. Then, it was entirely a different tale to tell.   Virender Sehwag started the slide giving a fierce Perera his first wicket. It was a downhill journey then onwards. Classy Virat Kohli fell to Perera for just 1 in the sixth over. Rohit Sharma who failed in the first ODI too was the third to...

The Republic of India has got a new President elected today, July 22, 2012. Pranab Mukherjee, the former Finance Minister and the chief trouble shooter for the coalition government of India , has been declared elected for the top office. The poll for the post took place on 19 th July and counting of votes was taken up from today . As expected, Pranab Mukherjee swept the elections winning nearly 70 percent of total votes cast. He got astounding support from the members of the Indian Parliament irrespective of party lines. The votes in the Indian states split up depending on which political party the particular state government belonged to, but there were surprises too in some of them in favor of Pranab. The fact that Pranab Mukherjee was a candidate no political party could possibly object got vindicated in the results. It had been a straight contest between the UPA-2 (United Progressive Alliance—the ruling coalition) nominated Pranab Mukherjee and the largely self-styled candidate P...

India defeated Sri Lanka by 21 runs in the first one day international cricket match at Hambantota in Sri Lanka today. India won the toss and elected to bat first. The start was a little shaky with Gautam Gambhir getting out early and Sehwag, joining the team after a break, was living dangerously. But with the ever dependable Virat Kohli the duo steadied the innings and very soon anchored the team for a big total. Settling down to his attacking best Sehwag looked good for a century, but was unfortunately run out for 96. Kohli showed his class by notching up his fourth hundred in five matches scoring 106 runs off 113 balls. With a sound knock of 54 by Suresh Raina and a cameo by skipper Dhoni Team India reached an imposing total of 314/6 in allotted fifty overs. For Sri Lanka all their bowlers proved to be expensive and only Perera managed to capture three Indian wickets. Set a daunting target of 315 runs Sri Lanka too started shakily losing Dilshan early to Irfan Pathan. They kept on l...

Team India is set to kick off the new cricket season. They meet their traditional rivals Sri Lanka in the first one-day international tomorrow at Hambantota, in Sri Lanka . The India-Sri Lanka bilateral cricket series hosted by Sri Lanka is part of the Future Cricket Tour Programs (FTP) prepared by the International Cricket Council (ICC). India Tour of Sri Lanka-2012 consists of five one day internationals to be played during July 21-August 4 and just one Twenty20 international on August 7. Most members of Team India attended a two-day warm up camp in Chennai before coming to Sri Lanka . While Sachin Tendulkar opted for rest Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have come back into the team. India skipper MS Dhoni is under pressure to perform after the disappointments of the  Australia Tri-Series and the Asia Cup , and the slide in ICC rankings. Seemingly refreshed by a hard-earned rest of about two months Dhoni had said during the camp that their performance would show what improve...

A small town of Assam—long time ago. The town had only one movie theatre and every Friday there was a change of movies. As small kids we were always focused on the movies being screened there. On Fridays, a cycle-rickshaw covered with huge posters and fitted with a loud speaker used to roam the town streets announcing the new movie. It came to our area too and we used to wait eagerly for the spectacle.                      On a particular Friday the spectacle arrived and it announced the release of a new film called ‘ Aradhana ’ ( Worship -1969) with a brand new hero named Rajesh Khanna. We never heard about him before. Songs of the movie were also being played and we got instantly attracted. We decided to watch the movie pretty soon. But rumors of a particular song (we came to know much later that the sexy song was captured in one camera take) prevented our parents giving the green...

After ushering in the most bizarre twist to the Indian Presidential Elections-2012 and after maintaining the most unmitigated suspense over her party's support Mamata Bannerji, finally, decided to vote for Pranab Mukherjee--the Presidential candidate nominated by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA-2). The unstoppable Chief Minister of West Bengal had earlier said that her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), would declare its decision 72 hours before the polling date on July 19, 2012. And today, with less than 48 hours to go, she informed the press in Kolkata that her party had no other option but to support Pranab and that she was doing it to uphold democratic traditions as abstaining from voting would've amounted to betrayal of the people. If fact, after her Kalam drama Mamata became helpless as her partner-of-the-day Mulayam Singh Yadav dumped her the moment Pranab Mukherjee’s name was officially announced. But the firebrand leader maintained even today that Pranab...

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) agreed to host a One-Day International Cricket Series with Pakistan in India this December. The decision was taken at meeting held in New Delhi today. The series will consist of three one-day internationals (ODI) and two T20 matches. The ODIs are likely to be held in Delhi , Kolkata and Chennai while the shortest games in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The landmark decision means the two greatest rivals in cricket lore will be having a bilateral cricket series after a gap of five years. The last bilateral series was hosted by India too in 2007 when India won both the one-day and the Test series. The decision comes after persistent requests by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in recent months. The PCB wanted bilateral cricket series to be played either in Pakistan or in neutral territories, but the BCCI was not in favor of playing Team India in Pakistan . The cricket link between the two countries snapped after the horrific Mumbai terror at...

In the Middle Ages India was utterly divided along dynastic states and those of the invaders apart from the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, caste and religious divisions already inherent. There was tremendous infighting too and therefore security in a particular locality or fief was a great concern. So the feudal lords decided what was best for them, set the harshest rules for the society and enforced those with vigor. The feudal lords were predominantly the land owners and they commanded most of other wealth like livestock and natural resources of the fief. Women too were considered as part of their property and that defined the larger relationship issues for the society. The feudal lords of the 21 st century India continue to remain as reactionary and as powerful as in those times. They still decide what is best for them and accordingly for the society. The 21 st century India remains utterly divided too despite the formation of a republic after Independence in 1947. India of the med...

Article first published as Tributes To Dara Singh: The Legendary Wrestler-Actor Of India! on Technorati. He had 500 professional wrestling bouts to his credit and remained undefeated in all them. His opponents included the names of the greatest international wrestlers of that time like King Kong from Australia, George Gordenko from Canada and John Desilva from New Zealand. He was the first ever sportsperson to be nominated to the upper house of the Indian Parliament. Towering over six feet with eight-pack abs and a strikingly handsome appearance he was the first he-man of Indian movies. He was also the first Indian movie hero to take off the shirt! He acted in nearly 200 Hindi and Punjabi films since the early sixties till 2007 as the main leads and character roles.  Dara Singh , born in 1928 in the state of Indian Punjab, was encouraged to take up the wrestling profession thanks to his physical assets. After achieving mastery over the art he was mostly invited by the kings of Ind...