ChinmayC Blog

Trinamool means grassroots and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party with Mamata Bannerji as its leader romped home in the 2011 elections of West Bengal seemingly winning the votes at the grassroots and rescuing the poor commoners from the ‘clutch’ of the long ruling Left. The masses of the state had hailed the win as a kind of revolutionary, not knowing what would follow. In fact, a whole lot of shockingly bizarre events followed with Mamata Bannerji as the Chief Minister ranging from Baby Deaths , Rape controversies to curbing of freedom of expression. The Merciless Mamata syndrome showed no signs of stopping. And now, the grass-root reality of her government gets exposed again with the Saradha Chit Fund Case that looted the poor of their lifelong savings.  Chit Funds ( Ponzi schemes ) are very common in India flourishing with the investments of fallible and vulnerable commoners and with rampant political patronization. Scores of poor investors went bankrupt as the Saradha Chit Fun...

Watching Chris Gayle in action the thought often comes to our mind, what will happen if he gets just uncontrollable like the unstoppable bullet train or the speeding bus! That’s exactly what happened yesterday, the 23 rd of April 2013, in Bangalore in his team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)’s match against Pune Warriors during the on-going Indian Premiere League—2013 (IPL-6). His bulldozing yet effortless shots all around the park created world records not just for IPL or T20 Cricket, but also for the world of cricket. Gayle raced to his century in just 30 balls, a world record in all formats of cricket. He hit 13 fours and 17 huge sixes in his unbeaten knock. His tally of 17 sixes created another world record in all formats of the game, and RCB had also achieved a new high of 23 team sixes in a match. He did not seem to end his innings at 175, but the allotted 20 overs were over by then. This became the highest individual score ever in the history of T20 cricket. He helped his tea...

This time it was a five-year-old baby girl, lovingly called ' Gudiya ’ (Doll), who fell to the perverted and fiendish greed of the rapists. She was reportedly abducted by a 25-year-old neighbor of her building on the evening of 15th April, 2013. The distressed family informed the police, but nothing was done except for registering an FIR with lot of delay. The point here to note here is that the family was a poor one with no political or influential connections to impress upon the police. And naturally, the ‘investigating’ officers never bothered to conduct a search in the building complex. The baby girl was raped and tortured for more than forty hours. Finally, somebody heard her crying from inside a locked flat and she was rescued in a most precarious state. The neighbor seemed to have fled the premises as the noise over the abduction grew. The police arrived, and instead of taking the serious girl to a good hospital tried bargaining with the family for a cover-up. The family w...

On Monday, April 15, 2013, it was Boston when terror returned to America after nearly 12 years. Two bomb blasts tore up a colorful and spirited Marathon. Three innocents were killed and scores injured, maimed and incapacitated for life. It could be matter of great concern considering the frightening perspective.  On March 13, 2013, Terror returned to Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir in India after a gap of three years. The terror-ravaged northern state has been rudely reminded of the ugly evil.  And today, a high intensity blast rocked Bangalore in Southern India. More than 15 innocents including several policemen were injured and fortunately no one got killed.  The terror industry seems to be gearing up for another offensive against humanity. A selflessly united global initiative must happen now to stop terror on its track.  For India the the situation is more terrifying with intelligence reports indicating possibility of more terror strikes. The  apparent...

An inspector of Mumbai Police goes suddenly missing. Interestingly he has been working for the Missing Persons Bureau of Crime Branch. The cop left his office at around 2.30 pm on Saturday, the 13 th of April, 2013 and never returned. He reportedly told his colleagues that he was going out for a walk. The Bureau specialized in finding missing persons went on an overdrive trying to search him everywhere including his native place in Solapur, Maharashtra. But for two days the cop could not be traced. The inspector’s family was very much alarmed, because the cop has not been keeping well for the last few years and he had a brain hemorrhage surgery in 2007. Due to that surgery he was not allowed to carry a mobile phone and was advised not to exercise his vocal chords unduly. His wife ran from pillar to post filing complaints and meeting cops. But to no avail. It became a situation of hoping against hope. Monday morning, the 15 th of April, 2013. The office building’s security people swi...

Enjoying a rare off on Sunday today I also had the rare luxury of going for an afternoon nap. To my surprise I managed some sleep, however in fits and starts. And, I had a series of dreams mostly taking me back to my native land Assam which was only natural because I paid a visit there recently and maybe also because our Spring festival (start of four seasons) Bohag or Rongali Bihu has begun—today being Goru Bihu when we worship cattle and tomorrow Manuh Bihu that is our New Year day. In Mumbai we hardly get the ambiance. Anyway, one of the dreams was very interesting. I was walking out of some place in Guwahati and a man suddenly touched my shoulder from behind. I ignored it first thinking it was by mistake. But as I felt being touched again I stopped and the man came around blocking my way. He said, “You live in Mumbai, no?” “Yes, how can I help you?” “Well, I see only posh high-rise buildings there with spacious balconies. I’m planning a visit there and don’t know where to put up...

Pran—a name that terrorized us as little kids; a name that we loved to adore as we grew older and a name that has remained with us till now and forever. We were struck with awe by his villainous portrayals and yet we could not stop liking him—his gait, his style of talking, his looks, his smart dress code and the eternal cigarette in his hands. That time we were not capable of judging him as an actor, but the way he kept us spellbound was only due to his intensely powerful and effective performances. Since we loved him so much even as a villain we longed to see him as a good guy on the side of the fighting-for-truth hero. And, we got that hugely satisfying and gratifying experience too. Pran Krishan Sikand (born 1920) turned 93 in February this year and yesterday, the 12 th of April, 2013, he was chosen for the supreme honour of Indian cinema—the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2012. Maybe a little late as the classic Bollywood actor is almost unable to walk around or talk articulately. Bu...

The ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ of democracy has been fast reduced to a myth, and the emerging truth being ‘of the politicians, for the politicians and by the politicians’. We have seen public eruptions of ire against the politicians regularly over the years in various parts of India, but the politicians remained stoic, incorrigible, uncaring as ever, and active in their usual way. Two recent instances just prove the point on democracy. Firstly, the western state of Maharashtra has been facing the worst drought in forty years and the accompanying crisis of load shedding has made life difficult for the farmers. In a situation like this when immediate relief was the basic need, none other than the Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) of the state—Ajit Pawar—in a public rally recently chose to ridicule a fasting farmer by uttering that it was pointless to demand release of water from the dams since most of them were running dry, and even urinating in the dams would not solve ...