India Vs Pakistan! Resolution Vs Resolution! And Indian Navy Tragedy!

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 Pakistan and a new dialogue of Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif scheduled next month. Bowing to building national opinion the Government of India was forced finally to put the blame on Pakistan.

Meantime, Pakistan failed to appreciate the good neighborly gesture and a fresh opportunity for peace talks. As always used to denials, Pakistan never took the blame for the proven unprovoked firings, but to add fuel to fire charged India with unprovoked aggression. Not only that, Pakistan’s National Assembly on 13^thAugust, 2013 passed an anti-India resolution condemning its neighbors for acts it never committed. The ‘democratic’ Prime Minister of Pakistan showed how much pressure was being applied on him by the eternally anti-India Pak Army and the powerful terrorist leaders including Hafiz Saeed prominently.

Naturally, opposition political parties today were not in a mood to spare the Government of India. They wanted action more vociferously now, come what may. The Indian Parliament today also passed an anti-Pakistan resolution sending out a strong warning to its aggressive neighbors. The ‘friendly’ Indian Foreign Minister has today made 26/11 investigations a ‘key’ conditions for future talks with Pakistan. On his address to the nation on the eve of the Independence Day the President of India Pranab Mukherjee too said ‘there is a limit for our patience’. What’s next? Pray!

As if keeping up with the turbulent times being witnessed over the last few days the worst ever tragedy since 1971 struck Indian Navy when at least two major blasts destroyed its prized submarine INS Sindhurakshak in Mumbai’s Naval Dockyard in the wee hours today. Numerous fire tenders fought hard for hours to contain the huge fire even as the Defence Minister flew down to Mumbai to take stock of the situation. A fatal confusion still prevails about the fate of the 18 sailors trapped in the submarine as rescue operation continues. The Indian Navy says it hopes for the best and is ready for the worst.

Then, there are quite a few intelligence alerts about possible terror attack across the country. The situation on the eve of the 67^th Independence Day remains fraught with apprehension and tension. Let peace prevail. Happy Independence Day!

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

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!