ChinmayC Blog

If the unprecedented nastiness pervading the Indian political scenario even six months before the all important General Elections-2014 is any indication we could very well prepare ourselves for things to follow. Desperate to win and grab power to rule the country political parties are throwing away all decency and restraint and are indulging in a war of calling dirty and dirtiest names to counter each others' chances. From ‘ shehzade ’ (Prince—BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi launching an attack on the Congress’s so-called dynastic rule to ‘fascist’, ‘Hitler’, ‘psychopath’ or ‘megalomaniac’. Leader M calls leader NM as the most communal person of the country while utterly bitterly failing to contain communal clashes breaking out again and again in his state. The same leader M has his sights focused on becoming the next Prime Minister and for that ‘noble’ purpose he marshals all minor or break-away parties into a conventions against communalism while communal clashes r...

George Bailey Ecstatic India beat Australia by 6 wickets in a high scoring thriller in Nagpur today and drew level in the ODI Series. India’s much talked about batting strength clicked in the right time and with tremendous contributions from Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni prevented Australia from running away with a straight Series win. This was despite a record-breaking 156 by Australian captain George Bailey earlier.  Team India’s persistently indifferent bowling and fielding notwithstanding, in the first 22 overs of the sixth one day international in Nagpur today India did manage to put Australia in some spot of trouble. Australia could score just 89 runs in those overs losing two wickets. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar coming in again replacing Vinay Kumar struck for the first time capturing Hughes for 13 in the 7 th over. Spinner Amit Mishra coming in replacing Unadkat combined well with Ashwin and kept Australia on a tight leash. Finch fell in the 12 th over to A...

Sachin Tendulkar today played his last innings in Indian domestic cricket in Lahli, Haryana where the Ranji Trophy Group A match between Haryana and Mumbai had been on for the last four days. The best cricketer of the world led his team Mumbai to victory by 4 wickets himself remaining unbeaten with a gritty and trademark-Tendulkar innings of 79 superlative runs. Thanks to the living legend of Indian cricket this first class domestic match has been getting all the media attention and craze of the cricket-loving nation which is so unusual otherwise. To make the occasion most memorable the pitch in Lahli had a lot of green and a lot of seam in it making it very difficult for the batsmen to get runs. And, the match has been very exciting all through with both teams having chances to win. Set 240 runs to win in the fourth innings to the match Mumbai had a torrid time chasing the target yesterday with wickets falling at regular intervals. But the master-blaster stood through as if determine...

If the 7-match One-Day-International cricket series between India and Australia in India is divided into two, then Australia has won the 3-match series 2-1 and in the on-going 4-match series rains lead by 2-0 with the 4 th ODI at Ranchi washed out by rains during India’s chase of Australia’s 295/8 and the fifth ODI at Cuttack today abandoned without a ball being bowled. For Team India it is all the more uphill, because already losing the first ‘series’ now it has to draw level with ‘rains’ to have a chance of beating Australia in the 4-match series and by doing so wining the BCCI-desired 7-match Series. The richest cricket Board of the world, BCCI, does possess a magic wand to get it’s ‘desires’ always sweetly translated into realities. And why not, it still has N Srinivasan as its diehard President despite all the ‘odds’. It has also maneuvered South Africa into sweet submission accepting the alms of a Two-Test and Three-ODI Series to be played in South Africa so that it can have it...

Legendary Bollywood playback singer Prabodh Chandra Dey (1 st May 1919 − 24 th October 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, passed away in the early hours of Thursday in Bangalore. The veteran artiste had been suffering from old age related problems for a long time and today he breathed his last today at the ripe age of 94. Manna Dey had been a part of the classic trinity of legendary male playback singers of India— Mohammed Rafi , Mukesh and Manna Dey. Kishore Kumar and later Mahendra Kapoor were also around in that classical era. While Mahendra Kapoor more or less settled down as the best 'Rafi Voice’, riding on the first superstar of Bollywood wave, Rajesh Khanna , Kishore Kumar's popularity exploded and he became the No.1 playback singer from, to be exact, 1969 when movie Aradhana that launched Rajesh Khanna was released all over. Rafi died in 1980, Mukesh in 1976, Kishore Kumar in 1987 and Mahendra Kapoor in 2008. Of these five all-time greats Manna Dey become...

It is said in almost every part of this world that too much greed is not good. An Assamese proverb says that when the lazy tiger kills its 100 th cow, its end is near. The nationwide greed of politicians and middlemen or rather dalals for the windfall out of the artificially-made-scarce onions has just become unprecedented, brazen and extremely unscrupulous. For nearly two months they have been making tonnes of bucks by selling a mass cooking item at a price more than 400 percent higher than normal. Same scenario prevails with only onion prices varying from 60 to 110 rupees per kg all over India. Few days back in Mumbai prices started to fall to 60-50 rupees per kg, but now rising again without any rhyme or reason to 70-90 rupees. With food inflation raging Diwali this time is going to be a dampened affair indeed. This is what should ideally happen to the enemies of the masses. Common people including high middle classes have already drastically cut down their onion consumption. The...

If you are a fan of North American soccer, you probably hate it when October rolls around and the Major League Soccer season is finished. However, at this point the NFL and NBA seasons are firing up, which tends to take your mind off the problem. However, if you actually play the game, winter is a pretty desolate time, since there is little or no outdoor soccer activity – especially in northern states, where there is snow on the ground. You can feel all your training slipping away from you, and just know it is going to be a tough job to get back in form next year. Therefore, this comes as one of the biggest benefits of indoor soccer. It’s a perfect place to keep your ball skills honed to perfection – or as close to perfection as they ever are. No longer do you have to relearn half of what you know in the spring – instead, you can be pretty close to match shape after a couple of weeks. Of course, indoor soccer isn’t the same as playing outdoors , but in the absence of the real thing, ...

MS Dhoni Team India got thrashed by 72 runs in the first one-day international against Australia in Pune thanks to its listless batting display with nobody managing to dig in there or failing to convert good starts into big scores. Team India thrashed Australia by 9 wickets in the second ODI in Jaipur thanks to its incredible batting display involving just three of the top order overhauling a mammoth total of 359 runs and giving India their biggest ever victory against Australia. Team India failed to clinch the third ODI in Mohali today despite strange tactics adopted by Australian batsmen and a huge target set thanks to the incredible Captain Cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni making an unbeaten 139 runs off 121 balls. Common to all these three ODIs of the 7-match one-day Series between India and Australia has been India’s bowlers or rather pacers persistently failing to deliver the results desired by their captain, particularly Ishant Sharma and Vinay Kumar continuing to struggle.   Indi...

The shocking incident happened in the backdrop of newly recruited lady teachers being posted haphazardly in different places of Assam totally ignoring rules for ensuring women safety. Rules say that women should not be posted more than 5 kilometers away from their home. One such lady appointee got posted in a primary school somewhere in Darrang district of Assam far away from her home. The lady teacher had to join for the sake of her family. Immediately she noticed that the school authorities were misusing the funds meant for providing free midday meals and for months the school children were deprived of their rightful meals so important for so many needy families. The lady teacher decided to raise her voice against such brazen corruption. She failed to imagine what that rogue principal of the school was capable of doing to her in retaliation. She got gangraped in broad daylight while returning to her temporary place of accommodation. The sordid details came to light and widespread...

Now it is final. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is going to be missed fully in the cricket field in a matter of days. Sachin has announced his retirement in Mumbai today from Test cricket after his 200th Test likely to be played in his hometown Mumbai this November. At the moment he has 198 Tests to his credit and two Test matches have been specially arranged by the BCCI inviting West Indies in short notice. West Indies has already agreed and the BCCI succeeded in its bid to capture the momentous occasion for the world's best cricketer. Sachin Tendulkar had earlier retired from one-day, IPL and all varieties of T20 cricket. The greatest cricket spectacle will no longer be in display and a superlative records-breaking career spanning more than twenty years is coming to an inevitable close. Meanwhile the hurried through fast-paced Australian tour of India for which Cricket Australia has faced a lot of criticism back home has taken off tonight with a T20 international match in Raj...

 22nd Death Anniversary of Amulya Kumar Chakravarty We had the Sunday, the 6th of October, lined up with two back to back programmes. First at 10.30am, a Painting Competition for little kids organized for the first time by Shrutinaad, and then the main sixth Amulya Kumar Chakravarty Memorial Translation Literature Award-2013 Ceremony at 3pm at the same venue that is Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra, Guwahati. But Sunday morning brought us some disappointment. Heavy overnight downpour filled our campus. We hoped the day would light up later. Nature had other plans though.  Rains started first with a drizzle and then pouring down. However we were ecstatic seeing huge groups of kids with parents filling out the forms defying rains. Due to the torrential rains that followed we were allotted an inner veranda. The start was a little delayed, but everything was in order with our dear friend and renowned sculptor Biren Singha as Chief Guest guiding the kids to perfection.  Meanwhi...

As I cool my heels in my native city Guwahati make no frills about all the thrills of politicking in the meantime. Starting with the Bill or rather the Ordinance to protect convicted politicians the Prime Minister of India returned from the US and, as anticipated widely, decided to kill the Bill in his Cabinet meeting thanks to Rahul Gandhi's vitriolics. All got seemingly well between the head of the Government and the Vice President of the party that leads the Government. As an immediate casualty of the killed bill Bihar veteran Lalu Prasad Yadav got convicted for stealing food from the animals and sentenced five years in jail. At the moment the politician is having sleepless nights thanks to the jail mosquitoes and insects that do not discriminate. Some other about to be convicted criminal politicians are fast losing hope in their own system. And today Assembly Elections are declared for five states starting November 11 to December 4 with the date of counting fixed on 8th Decem...