ChinmayC Blog

The Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, August 6-21,2016, have come to a grand close today. We have no space here to cover all those terrific achievers from across the world. Therefore we will concentrate only on India, although it has been a disappointing tale. As usual, India sent the largest ever contingent to participate in various sports disciplines, but for eleven long days the country fumed and fretted for an elusive medal which was made worse by some negative vibes, comments and hiccups. However, four magnificent ladies from a largely patriarchal society came to the fore and the focus of concentrated attention giving the countrymen a rare opportunity to feel proud of them.  In Badminton expectations were mostly from Saina Nehwal, but she failed not even through to midway in the competition. And came PV Sindhu, not at all in contention for a medal, and fought like a tigress competing with players much much higher in world ranking. She set the ball of euphoria rolling by en...

If you are following the political turmoil basically over the issue of corruption in India for the last two years rather seriously you cannot help but suffer from frequent spells of pessimism. You tend to feel that in 99.9 percent of cases corruption finally emerges victorious thanks primarily to the politics of corruption fought so shamelessly and without any sort of ideologies. So powerful are the lobbies of vested interests, so powerful are the people in power, so powerful are the chains of mutual interests and so toothless and ineffectual are the legal and judicial systems that the corrupt finally escape even after being charged or jailed or whatever. As you can righteously feel pessimistic in the recent IPL Spot Fixing Scandal after all the big stories of corruption almost every accused is currently out on bail and things do not at all augur well for justice being done in near future. The premier investigative agencies pursuing cases howsoever diligently are always targeted for a...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday suspended the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for its repeated failure to abide by the constitution and rules set by the apex body. This is the biggest shame and embarrassment possible for the largest and most populated democracy of the world. And ironically this comes just after India’s best ever haul of medals in London Olympics 2012 . The decision renders India disqualified to participate in any major international sports events and of course in the Olympics. India now have the unique distinction of sharing the shame with Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.  Such was the rampant lobbying, corruption and colossal disregard to both national and international decorum in the sports bodies of India in general over the years that this huge embarrassment was in fact anticipated by many . Politics, personal ambitions and corruption have been the distinctive features of the Indian sports bodies, particularly the IOA. Even after the scam o...

Article first published as London Olympics-2012: The Best Ever Haul For India! on Technorati. The Six Indian Olympic Heroes! The largest ever contingent from India to the London Olympics-2012 achieved the best ever haul of medals for the country. The quest for an elusive Gold medal remained unfulfilled, but India won 6 medals including 2 silver and 4 bronze which is double to that of 3 medals including 1 gold and 2 bronze achieved in the Beijing Olympics-2008. The Indian wrestlers provided the final boost to take the Indian tally to six.  The desperate wait for a gold medal continued till the last hours of the London Olympics. Hopes were pinned on the Indian wrestler in 66kg freestyle category, Sushil Kumar who was scheduled to play his bouts on the final day of the Olympics that is yesterday, the 12 th of August, 2012. He defeated his Turkish rival—the gold medalist in the 2008 Olympics— after an engaging fight in the first bout and entered the quarterfinals. The most elect...

London Olympics-2012 is also going to be remembered for an entire set of wrong reasons! The fixing charges in Badminton Women’s Doubles matches created waves of consternation throughout the globe. The charges were proved to be true as all eight badminton players from China , South Korea and Indonesia involved in fixing tactics were disqualified. At the same time a whole lot of cheating charges had been coming slowly out in the open. The cases of cheating somehow seemed to affect mostly Indian athletes, particularly the boxers. While a vast nation stuffed with over a billion human beings still search hungrily for the first Gold medal some Olympic officials were hell bent on denying them even the deserved honors. The first anomaly was noticed in the London Olympics inauguration ceremony itself when a mysterious lady in red was seen accompanying the Indian contingent for no connected reasons. She was not a part of the contingent and still was devouring prime focus. Later it was sorry-sor...

Badminton competition of the London Olympics-2012 has come under a cloud of match fixing after two women’s doubles matches played yesterday. This is an unprecedented trend affecting the most ancient Games on earth. And this is very worrisome too. The fixing charges involve eight women badminton players—the World Champion pair from China , two pairs from South Korea and one pair from Indonesia . The Badminton competition is being played on a round robin basis for the first time at the London Olympics. All these teams have qualified for the quarter finals and so they allegedly tried to manipulate their preliminary matches so that they avoid meeting their respective compatriots in the semi finals. The two matches involving China and South Korea and then South Korea and Indonesia had been reduced to farces yesterday with all players trying to miss the shots in a desperate attempt to lose. The crowds too sensed the farce and began jeering at the players. Badminton World Federation (BW...

In a land of over one billion people one single medal counts too, it's not necessary that it be a gold one. It is like just one droplet in a vast ocean, but it still creates ripples throughout. That is India ! Basically, a land of happy people for whom even the slightest opportunity is good enough to rejoice and feel proud of their country. In such special moments people do not bother about their problems--ranging from poverty, illiteracy, social exploitation and horrific violence to stark inequalities. The people of this miraculous country had an occasion to rejoice today.  On the third day of the London Olympics-2012 today one Indian won a medal. Gagan Narang did it in the10m Air Rifle shooting event, after Beijing Olympics-2008 gold medalist Indian hero Abhinav Bindra crashed out in the qualifying round. This achievement comes after a series of failures in various disciplines and only a few random cases where the competitors will have another chance to go further....

The much awaited London Olympics-2012  starts tonight, the 27 th July with a grand opening ceremony planned in some amount of secrecy by the celebrated filmmaker Danny Boyle (famous in India for his controversial and yet Oscar winning movie The Slumdog Millionaire ). But in India the Olympics would actually start in the wee hours tomorrow, the 28 th of July. After a series of controversies concerning sponsorship, concerning India and concerning serious security issues the once-in-four-year mega World Event is finally going to unfold in all its grandeur. India is very big country, but its presence in the Olympics has always been little—in terms of medals won particularly Gold medals. This is unfortunate and is mainly the result of a commercial approach to sports with sponsors coming  forward to put money in only money-spinning games like cricket. The government’s policy has been lukewarm too with a lot of former or promising athletes rotting in uninhabitable environs or in un...

Sania Mirza, the No.1 female tennis star of India, had been silent throughout the biggest Indian tennis fight as she was not guaranteed to participate in the London Olympics. The moment she got the wild card entry into the Olympics Sania got wild and justifiably so.  Sania Mirza attacked the All India Tennis Association (AITA) for using her as ‘bait’ to pacify and lure a disgruntled stalwart (read Leander Paes) to represent India in the London Olympics-2012. She interpreted AITA’s compromise as ‘an insult to womanhood’ and a decision that reeked of ‘male chauvinism’. She also alleged that the said compromise had broken up the French Open Grand Slam winning combination of herself with Mahesh Bhupathi in the mixed doubles. She also criticized Paes’s father for demanding a written assurance from her that she would pair only with Leander in the London Olympics mixed doubles. While expressing her anguish for such an unwarranted demand Sania said that she was committed to her country an...

We have always heard about the Indian cricketing superstars dictating terms to their controlling Board on when they need rest or which format of the game they need to play and so on. But what the Indian tennis players have been doing to their selectors would make the cricket superstars look like silly brats! Both sets of players show a common characteristic though—self interest first and the pride of the nation later. Leander Paes, the best international doubles tennis player for India, wanted the next best Indian to pair him so that the chances of getting an Olympic medal in London got maximized. The All India Tennis Association (AITA) toed his line from the very outset. But a crisis situation developed when the next best players—Mahesh Bhupathi—refused to play with Leander. The IATA then hooked up Rohan Bopanna, the next best seeded player, for pairing with Leander. But Bopanna also refused and agreed to play only with Bhupathi. The Indian Sports Ministry tried to intervene by sugge...

The duo of A and B has been most productive for India winning three doubles Grand Slams over the years of togetherness. They had been the best of friends too and many described them as husband-wife preferring to remain silent on who was the better half! But A and B fought…and fought bitterly in 2002 splitting up and going separate ways. They continued to team up and not ‘pair’ up for major international tournaments though. Maybe reaching an understanding about who was the better half they patched up and played as a pair for the Australian open in 2011. But they fought again just before the London Olympics and fought the bitterest ever . B does not want to be paired with A at any cost as B lost faith in A irreparably. Both of them want C as a partner. Now C loathes A and wants only to be paired with B. D—their father—pulled them up hard and stuck to what it thought the basic need of the hour . That A and B pair had been the best ever and the only real chance for Olympic honors. Coming ...

Article first published as The Dow Controversy! on Technorati. The Dow Chemical Company is a multinational corporation of United States. It is the second largest chemical manufacturer of the world going by revenue turnover. The official partner of the 2012 London Olympics finds itself in a big controversy due its link to Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) which was held responsible for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy . In the night of December 3rd 1984 world’s worst industrial catastrophe hit the city of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. A leak of methyl isocyanine and other chemical gases occurred from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) and ravaged the city for days after resulting in a massive loss of human lives. Estimates vary on the actual casualties. Official sources put the immediate toll at more than 3000 due to gas-related problems and the figure continued to increase to 15000 over the years. The number of injured has been put at about half a mi...