ChinmayC Blog

The Indian summer begins from around the end of March and temperatures start soaring reaching the peak in the month of May in the range of 40 to 47/48 degree Celsius in most parts of North, North-Western and Central regions. This year, 2022, however, the heat began from the second part of March and temperatures soared to much above normal by mid-April reaching the forties. Immediately thereafter, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had declared heat wave conditions and then orange alert in various parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Normally, heat wave conditions are declared when temperatures cross the 40 ℃ mark and orange alert as the 45 ℃ is crossed. The capital city Delhi has been in heat wave conditions for the last fortnight and on Friday, the 29 th of April, the mercury has crossed 46.4 ℃ making this month the hottest ever April in the capital in 72 years. As per the IMD data this April could very well be the ...

The law enforcers, the police and other related agencies, wield immense power to utilize it for the protection and the betterment of the common people if they want to do so. But unfortunately, such powers are more often misused and so, we keep on hearing stories about police corruption from the petty level of taking bribes on any pretext to the highest level of politician-criminal-underworld nexus. This is a global phenomenon, not just limited to more prone countries like India. Such is the impact of police corruption in society that thousands of fictions in terms of thrillers written or movies or television series have been made all over the world since decades. In most commercial films in India, we see police personnel portrayed as horrendously brazen and sadistic characters. In the US and the West through the franchises of James Bond, Mission Impossible and The Bourne Identity among others we invariably confront a traitorous bad cop within the system. I cannot possibly mention vario...

This really promised to be one of the most fiercely competitive matches of IPL-2022, at least for me as this involved possibly the two best teams of the tournament—the newbies sensation Gujarat Titans (GT) and the resurgent veterans Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Wankhede stadium Mumbai on 27 th April 2022. And it did indeed prove to be a down-the-wire thriller with the raw pace of fast bowling, power batting and intense body language in the field. It had the classic ups and downs for both teams all throughout. Put into bat by GT, Hyderabad was reduced to 147/4 in the 17 th over, but a power-hitting display by Shashank Singh of 25 not out in the 6 balls of the last over took SRH to a challenging score of 195/6. In the chase after GT got off to a good start with a brilliant innings of 68 runs in 38 balls by Wriddhiman Saha, the 5/25 burst of the raw-pace-sensation Umran Malik happened reducing GT to 140/5, needing 56 runs in 24 balls to win. Then, the best power batting display of t...

In the digitalized modern world, every device has either to be updated regularly or discarded entirely for a new one to keep the user relevant to the times. If the old device continues to be used in total disregard to the warnings the user becomes useless and almost a nuisance to the society and the other users. In such a state-of-the-art setup the Indian National Congress (INC or simply the Congress) seems to be the only device…sorry…a national political party, that steadfastly refuses to be updated, showing an unearthly disdain to change in pace with the times. It has done nothing after losing promising young firebrand leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and others; it has done nothing after its 23 top leaders, famously forming the G-23, separated themselves from the party asking for reforms and structural changes; it has done nothing to change the leadership even after losing elections again and again since 2014; and it has done nothing even after the celebrated poll-strategist Prasha...

Hanuman Chalisa is a collection of forty verses (chalis in Hindi means the number 40) except for two Doha or couplets in the beginning and one Doha at the end, in praise of Lord Hanuman who apart from being the exemplary devotee or Bhakta of Lord Ram is also regarded as an incarnation of Shiva and so, is recognized as a God. The scripture of Hanuman Chalisa is authored by Tulsidas (1497/1532—1623), the famous Bhakti poet-saint of the 16 th century India, renowned for composing the Ramcharitmanas (Lake of the deeds of Rama), retelling of the epic Ramayana. Ramcharitmanas is a monumental poetic creation because of the fact that Tulsidas composed it in the Awadhi or Oudhi language that is taken as a dialect of Hindi and thus taking the epic to the huge arena of the common Indians; Sanskrit scriptures are understood mostly by the scholars of that language. Hanuman Chalisa is also composed in Awadhi.   As we mentioned Hanuman Chalisa is a collection of forty chaupais (four-line-stan...

Mumbai Indians (MI) becomes the first ever franchise in Indian Premiere League (IPL) since its first edition in 2008 to have lost eight games on the trot at any stage of the tournament. After losing a last-ball cliffhanger against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) that MI should’ve won the franchise succumbed to its 8 th loss against the newbie Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) last night at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. The appalling factor about the match was the total listlessness and the utter lack of a will to win on the part of MI. This reflects very badly on its captain and India captain Rohit Sharma that he should fail to regroup his eleven after loss after loss and after loss…! Ironically, as we said in our earlier pieces, all its matches have been played on its ‘home’ grounds and the performances have angered the fans and also cricket lovers, righteously.   Well, the IPL has always been more of a business extravaganza than cricket that does still allow us to have glimpses of exc...

India Post over the recent days has been observing various URLs/Websites getting circulated in social media such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and through emails / SMS containing tiny URLs/ Short URLs, claiming to be providing Government Subsidies through certain surveys, quizzes.   We wish to inform the citizens of the Country that India Post is not involved in any such activities like announcing Subsidies, Bonus or Prizes based on Surveys etc. Public receiving such notifications/messages /emails are requested not to believe or respond to such fake and spurious messages or share any personal details.   It is also requested to not share any personally identifiable information such as date of birth, Account numbers, mobile numbers, place of Birth & OTP etc. India Post though is taking necessary  action to prevent these URLs / links / Websites to be taken down through various prevention mechanisms.    Public at large is once again requested not to b...

It was a rare moment. It was vintage Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the firebrand yet cool former India captain, in his long-forgotten role as the Finisher. The match between the bottom ranked Champions, the defending Champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the five-time Champions Mumbai Indians (MI), played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on 21 st April went down the wire with CSK needing a four in the last ball to win. And MSD was at the crease. In that momentous last over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat and CSK needing 17 runs to win, the first ball gets the blast-away Dwaine Pretorius (22 off 14) out LBW; Dwaine Bravo comes in and takes a single to let Dhoni take over; 16 runs to get now in 4 balls; Dhoni hits the third ball to a towering six; next ball a four; the fifth ball Dhoni hits the ball and scampers desperately back for the second run to be able to face the last ball, a feat that he missed in the historic semi-final against New Zealand in the ICC World Cup-2019; now a 4 needed in ...

After watching this cliffhanger of a match between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the second of the Sunday double-header today in Pune I just couldn’t stop myself from writing a bit about it. Chasing a moderately challenging but tricky nonetheless target of 170 runs set by CSK the GT started in a horrible way passing through the phases of regular fall of wickets at 1 for 1, 2 for 2. 16/3. 48/4 and 87/5, losing in the process all the batsmen except for David Miller and without the momentum-building skipper Hardik Pandya, not playing today due to injury. At the stage of 87/5 in the 13 th over GT was looking at defeat needing 83 runs in 38 balls with only one recognized batsman Miller and stand-in skipper cum bowling all-rounder Rashid Khan just coming in who did not quite do well with the bat in the previous matches. As you know nothing is for certain in cricket, a game of glorious uncertainties, Rashid Khan had other incredible ideas as if he was in a dream.   ...

An out and out formulaic Bollywood movie ‘Bachchan Paandey’ has been theatrically released all over India on 18 th March 2022 and then Amazon Prime Video started streaming it from 15 th April. The movie’s release has been pending since December 2020 due to various reasons including the pandemic. ‘Bachchan Paandey’ is produced Sajid Nadiadwala of the famed filmmaking house of the Nadiadwala that is celebrating 70 years of filmmaking and is directed   by Farhad Samji. The film is reportedly a remake of the Tamil movie ‘Jigarthanda’ (2014) and also supposedly inspired by the South Korean flick ‘A Dirty Carnival’ (2006). The hero or the antihero or the protagonist or the antagonist, whatever you may decipher after watching the movie, of the movie is the immensely popular action-comedy hero Akshay Kumar with the female lead played by the new generation heroine Kriti Sanon. Popular comedian and character actor Arshad Warsi also plays a key role and Jacqueline Fernandez does a came...