ChinmayC Blog

Called the Lifeline of the Greater Mumbai region, the Mumbai Suburban Railway has so far only around a hundred AC trains —divided between its Western and Central lines with not a single rake available for the Harbor line at the moment. The first AC Mumbai local train was brought into service in 2017 by the Western Railway line while the Central Railway line had to wait till 2020 for its first AC rakes. Then the Pandemic delayed all proposals for more and more AC rakes and only this year there was some news of more than 200 rakes to be inducted. There’d been    suggestions that all the local train services be made airconditioned while a few leaders opposed this by saying only the regular services needed to be increased substantially. The price difference is obviously a factor here, for the fares for the AC trains are nearly six or seven times more than the regular fares as opposed to the contention of the Railways that the AC fares are more or less equal to that of the non...

  The fair bright-faced boy with curly black hair, the sweet smile that never ceases to linger on his face and his eyes, his carefree ways and a great sense of humour, his brutal honesty and equally brutally outspoken, and yet the simplicity of his magnetic personality is overwhelming. These are the images that come to my mind whenever I think of him or his songs; even more now when his sudden untimely tragic accidental demise has shattered millions and millions across Assam , across India and across the world. These images are of the late 90s and early 2000s (unfortunately, I don’t have personal photographs as personal cameras or mobiles were conspicuously absent those days.). He is Zubeen Garg . He has been  a living legend of Assam, second only to Bhupen Hazarika , till destiny took him away just when the people of Assam have started celebrating the birth centenary of Sudhakantha Bhupen Hazarika. Zubeen, possibly the greatest singer-artiste ever produced in Assam, in terms...

It's really heartbreaking that a powerful character actor should pass away at the age of just 55 while in prime as far the career goes or the huge promise of a lot more to come. Ashish Warang , an actor of Bollywood and the Marathi film industry , had suddenly passed away on Friday, the 5th of September, 2025. There was a total lack of clarity about his demise initially; only today his friends have come out with a statement that he had not been well for some time. First he had jaundice and although he'd recovered from the disease more complications followed in the next few months, finally leading to a cardiac arrest that proved fatal for the sturdy actor.  Ashish Warang acted with most of the leading Bollywood stars in supporting roles--almost always as a cop. I immensely liked his performances; however, those were very brief roles which didn't linger on in my mind enough to enable me to associate his name with the roles. His face has been very familiar to me, but unfort...

Ganapati (Lord Ganesh) Festival , the biggest 11-day social-cultural-religious festival of Maharashtra , begins this Wednesday, August 27, 2025 with thousands of Sarvajanik (public) and Gharguti (household) Ganesh idols being installed and worshipped across Mumbai and Maharashtra. Throughout the decades of this mass-based pulsating Ganesh Festival Lalbaugcha Raja Puja has been enjoying a special place among the millions of devotees, not only of the state but across India, with His First Darshan being a most sought-after event following which the endless queues mark all of the 11 days.  For Ganesh Festival-2025 the First Darshan of Lalbaugcha Raja for the digital and print media was organized on Sunday evening, the 24th of August 2025, by The Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal at Lalbaug , Mumbai.  On this occasion, Amitabh Singh , Chief Postmaster General of Maharashtra Postal Circle, released a set of four picture postcards on " Ganesh Utsav: Cultural Heri...

In a landmark step towards strengthening India’s international trade ecosystem, India Posht and the World Trade Centre (WTC), Mumbai have signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today in Mumbai to enhance global market access for Indian businesses, with a special focus on MSMEs and entrepreneurs. This strategic collaboration combines India Post ’s unmatched postal reach with WTC’s global trade expertise, thus creating a powerful platform to help Indian enterprises expand their footprint in international markets. The novel initiative is expected to boost exports , facilitate cross-border partnerships, and empower small businesses to go global. The MoU was signed in the presence of Suchita Joshi , Postmaster General, Navi Mumbai Region , Dr. Sudhir G. Jhakere , Assistant Postmaster General and Dr. Vijay Kalantri , Chairman, WTC Mumbai. The ceremony was also graced by Captain Somesh Batra , Vice Chairman, WTC Mumbai; Sangeeta Jain , Senior Director, AIAI (All India Associat...

The Golden Jubilee of the iconic Hindi movie ' Sholay ' was celebrated by the Maharashtra Postal Circle of India Post at an event organized in Mumbai today. On this auspicious occasion the Maharashtra Postal Circle released two specially designed picture postcards and a presentation pack, featuring an exclusive golden cancellation . The event marked 50 years of the cult classic 'Sholay' since its original release on August 15, 1975.  Amitabh Singh , Chief Postmaster General, Maharashtra Circle, officially unveiled the commemorative items and presented the first album to Ramesh Sippy , the acclaimed director of 'Sholay' . The ceremony was attended by noted personalities including Shehzad Sippy , Rohan Sippy , Kiran Joneja Sippy and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur . Senior postal officers, Kaiya Arora , Director of Postal Services (Mumbai Region), Simran Kaur , Director of Postal Services (Headquarters), Maharashtra Circle and Rekha Rizvi , Director, Mumbai GPO we...

On the eve of Uruka , Magh Bihu , this Saturday morning delivers us a shattering blow—more devastating because of its suddenness and unexpectedness. The legendary Hindustani Classical Vocalist and the senior-most artiste of the Kirana Gharana , Padma Vibhushan Dr. Prabha Atre has passed away in the wee hours at his Pune residence at the age of 92. Ragini’s Guru cum friend-philosopher-guide cum an away mother for both of us for a span of nearly 35 years has ceased all of a sudden, leaving us helpless and perplexed. It is very sudden and unexpected as, defying even the nineties, she’s had always been lithe, lively, active and spirited; she’s had been commuting between Mumbai and Pune constantly—still climbing the three flights of stairs in her Matunga flat in Mumbai and doing her creative work and teaching in her Gurukul residence in Pune. Madam, as we called her since 1990, was to perform tomorrow in Mumbai at the Sureshbabu Hirabai music conference that she herself started in 1991 a...

With just four league matches to go the three Playoff slots in the IPL-2023 are still open for grabs, only Gujarat (GT) having already secured the top slot. Thanks to their abandoned match due to rain Chennai (CSK) and Lucknow (LSG) are in some advantage, with 15 points each after sharing a point each. We think this gives bit of an edge to the two teams, because even if they lose their last matches they could still go through depending on what Bengaluru (RCB) and Mumbai (MI) do. But the dangers are also equally palpable. With 14 points each, if RCB and MI win their last matches they will straightaway enter into the Playoffs leaving only one slot to others and in that scenario either LSG or CSK will get thrown out, based on the net run-rate (NRR). And if CSK gets eliminated that’d be shattering for the MS Dhoni fans who’ve been celebrating the former India captain with the speculation rife that this could be his last IPL—the scenes were really evocative in Chennai when CSK marched aroun...

First, of course, let’s talk about the cricket star born last night in the match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, the 56 th match of IPL-2023. His name is Yashasvi Jaiswal who raced to the quickest ever fifty in IPL history taking just 13 balls and then going on to remain unbeaten at 98 off 47 balls to help his team RR win in style. Aged only 22, the southpaw opening batsman Jaiswal has humble origins—from a poor family in Uttar Pradesh—coming to Mumbai to train in cricket at the age of just ten and then struggling there for years, with no place of stay and doing gigs in dairies and paani puri shops. To make this cricketing dream come true he then started living in a tent with the cricket grounds men till he was noticed by a Mumbai training academy for his talent. He has several feats in first class cricket as the youngest player ever, playing for Mumbai in domestic cricket and he started his IPL stint from the year ...

The ‘home’ perception and the celebrations thereof owe their origins to the naming of the competing franchises since 2008. Most of the franchises are named after major cities of the country like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc. and one or two after the source state like Rajasthan Royals. Obviously, it’s always been expected that the cricket lovers of those cities or states would ideally be the supporters of the ‘home’ team and show full loyalties as respective fans (However, it’s not clear as to whether locals of the concerned city only or the full state should become ravenous supporters or not, because in case of Maharashtra there was another franchise named Pune Warriors once, and so it was ambiguous as to who the state of Maharashtra fans should support). And that’s what’s been happening ever since, although the whole ‘celebration’ syndrome defies all logic: because, first, the players for each franchise are selected through the path-breaking auctions with ...

That evening in end-July a Bangla family friend came to our house in Kolkata profusely sweating and drenched in it from head to foot. However he was carrying with him a packet of smoking hot beguni (Brinjal fritters) and Chops (Cutlet fritters). Before he could cool himself enough under the full-speed ceiling fan he commanded us to partake of the items before those cooled off! And yes, we had those gobbled up quick in extraordinary gourmet delight and also supported by hot steaming cups of tea! Well, in our traditional belief that ‘heat neutralizes heat’, particularly when the heat (like May) is oppressively humid (like monsoon)! This dictum is of the utmost importance now, because the supposedly wettest months of the South West Monsoon, June and July, have gone with absolutely no rains in South Bangla and Kolkata city. In fact, the month of July has proved to be the driest July in history in the Eastern and North Eastern regions of the country. And into August now, there’s hardly any...