ChinmayC Blog

In the first conviction of the 16-December horrific Delhi Gangrape case the Juvenile Justice Board today in Delhi announced the verdict awarding a sentence of three years to be served in a reformatory home to the juvenile accused and considered deducting eight months already served by the accused in jail from the three years. Because, the accused was just six months short of 18 years of age on the night of the crime. And, not because he was the most brutal of the six depraved animals, not because he was instrumental in inflicting the most inhuman tortures on the victim leading to her death on 29 th December and nearly murdering her male friend too and not because he was the chief instigator of the sub-human herd. He was in fact found guilty in all these except for the attempt to murder of the male friend and this perfectly made this gangrape ‘the rarest of rare’ case where death penalty has been officially recommended by the new Rape Law recently. Besides, the animal did attain maturi...

It is not for nothing that Chennai Express has broken all records in Bollywood history and Rohit Shetty has become the most successful director ever of Indian Cinema. Shahrukh Khan’s Chennai Express has crossed Rs.202 crore (2020 million rupees) mark beating the four-year-old record set by Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots . Rohit Shetty has already given three Rs.100 crore club movies namely, Singham , Golmaal3 and Bol Bachchan , and this unique feat has never been achieved by any other Indian film director.   Chennai Express in its third week run has achieved this with loving audiences all over and overcoming quite a few bad reviews. The reasons are not far to seek. You are pleasantly reminded of the Shahrukh Khan of yesteryear when he was superlative in comedy scenes for his immaculate timing, for his sprightful elegance and for his typical gesticulations plus monosyllables. All these qualities of the Bollywood superstar have come back in Chennai Express to regale you yet again and yo...

When the national capital along with its northern allies lead the way in torturing, maiming, raping and murdering women of all possible age-groups how could the financial capital be far behind! A city boasting of being safe for women over the years has lost this tag forever as crimes against women, intimidation and murder of liberals and all kinds of mafia related shootouts increase ominously. On a more sinister note this could just be the reflection of what is going all around the country. Like the nosediving value of the Indian rupee all values of the society are plummeting to all-time lows. Greed, lust, corruption, violence, intolerance, chauvinism, perversion etc are becoming the new parameters of modern life. Why? Because, our political parties and leaders need to contest and win the General Elections-2014. Because, to achieve that goal they need to have a hopelessly divided and morally defunct society. Because, they have to impose a new ‘governance’ on us for the same ‘noble’ o...

The crusade against superstition, rituals of blind faith and black magic went on for nearly twenty years, but the much awaited law never got passed. The crusader got killed in a brutal and cowardly attack in Pune yesterday, and the day after the Government of Maharashtra finally saw enough reason to clear an anti-superstition Ordinance to eventually replace the Bill that was first introduced in 1995 and even after 29 amendments in the draft failed to see the light of ‘reason’. The total closure in Pune today and spontaneous protests across a shocked and stunned Maharashtra seemed to have forced the government to take the decision. The Maharashtra cabinet today decided unanimously to promulgate the Ordinance for enacting the Maharashtra Eradication of Blind Faith Bill as a law. If the fraud Babas , the money-rich self-styled godmen, the regressive fundamentalists and the brazen exploiters of religious sentiments heaved a devilish sigh of relief yesterday it is rank bad news for them t...

Narendra Dabholkar This is exactly why politicians can always exploit religion to divide people and create their vote banks. They know we tend to be dogmatic or intolerant about our religious sentiments, practices and rituals. We are ready to commit even sins to have the first view in temples or any place of worship; we can hardly digest any criticism regarding our beliefs; we take the extreme views as far as our religious practices are concerned. Therefore, superstitious and black magic rituals get mixed with our beliefs. Nobody can convince us of the irrationality inherent in our practices. Result is intolerance and even violence—exactly the way some political parties want us to do. At 7.30 in the morning today a progressive journalist-writer and social worker, Narendra Dabholkar, was brutally shot dead in Pune, Maharashtra. Narendra Dabholkar was taking a morning walk when two motorcycle borne assassins fired indiscriminately at him and fled leaving him in a pool of blood. He was r...

India bursting at the seams with the ever increasing millions and millions of hapless citizens overcrowding every part of everyday life amenities. You cannot board a bus or travel by a train unless you are a person of robust and strong structure. You cannot find peace in a park or in the sea or river side because your private space is being constantly conquered by your fellow citizens. You cannot afford the comforts or the necessary luxuries unless you have loads of dough with the wealth ever multiplying only for the lucky few. Even food security measures for the poorest of the poor getting criticized for being out of reach for the needy. You hardly ever bother if scores of hapless citizens of overcrowded trains get mowed to death by passing trains or overcrowded buses fall into gorges or overcrowded boats capsize in rivers or natural calamities wash up overcrowded dwellings.  The Indian rupee continuing to crash against the dollar leading to increasing petroleum product prices al...

Since times immemorial we have been witnessing, hearing or eavesdropping incorrigibly garrulous and fighting neighbors in villages, towns and cities of our country and across the globe. But no amount of the most sinister kind of unpredictability of neighborly feuds can ever match that of our two great continental neighbors—India and Pakistan. If their cricket feuds are always mouth-watering their political or diplomatic fights are always infuriating, exhausting and agonizing. Pakistan has committed more than 60 ceasefire violations so far this year, beheaded Indian soldiers in January and just on the 6 th of this month killed five Indian soldiers in totally brazen and unprovoked firings across the border. Still, India tried to play a good neighbor by downplaying the incident by attributing it fully to the terrorists. This did, and righteously so, lead to a national outrage with feelings of nationalism to jingoism. India wanted to continue respecting the new democratic government of P...

Almost every Indian political party hopes to rule one whole nation called India and in the process of doing so through elections leaves the ‘whole’ polarized, divided, seething and disillusioned. The much cherished theme of ‘unity amidst diversity’ has always proved to be a blessing in disguise for all unscrupulous parties or politicians who never stopped exploiting   this by dividing up the ‘diversity’ just to garner votes. Politics of polarization, politics of vote banks, politics based on caste-language-religion-you know what, politics of corruption and even politics of terror have compromised National Security again and again. But the power-obsessed politicians have been totally unmindful of the seriousness of the situation, particularly now with the General Elections-2014 just round the corner. Divisive politics and a perpetually stalemated Parliament have made the country directionless and weak. A weak country is always vulnerable for any kind of attacks or calamities. Such ...

First, the ICC Champions Trophy -2013 with Team India remaining unbeaten throughout, second being the Celkon Mobile Cup Triangular Series in West Indies where Team India fought back from the brink of elimination to win the title and now the bilateral five-match ODI Series in Zimbabwe with Team India white washing the hosts 5-0 most emphatically and convincingly and winning the second Celkon Mobile Cup within a month. The latest Indian sweep and the completion of a hattrick assumes some significance considering the fact it was almost a junior Team India that basically and later most effectively tested India’s bench strength. There is not much to write home about the hapless Zimbabwe team with the Indian media mostly discussing the utter lack of cricket funds in that country and the contrast between Indian and Zimbabwean cricketers in terms of money. In the absence of Indian captain MS Dhoni vice-captain Virat Kohli did a commendable job leading from the front and never failing to insp...

Coming as one more refreshing victory against pervasive Indian corruption the defiantly greedy N Srinivasan failed to come back as the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) President after he had to call off the Working Group meeting in New Delhi today. There had been widespread rumors of a revolt within the BCCI in the last three days following the Bombay High Court stricture against the dubious goings-on in the richest cricket Board of the world. Reports today confirmed that at least 6 BCCI members revolted against Srini, and if he happened to chair the meeting today two vice presidents and at least two members would have resigned. Visuals on a national television news channel even showed how the IPL Commissioner cum a Union Minister Rajiv Shukla brushed aside a Srini greeting in the meeting lounge. The wily fox sensed all this and called off the meeting apparently to avoid an open confrontation. In a press statement issued last evening N Srinivasan was set to defy even the J...