ChinmayC Blog

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...

Indian Premiere League-2022 (IPL-2022), with 10 franchises only for the second time and restricted only to fours stadiums in Maharashtra till the play-offs, was expected produce hot rivalries and upset wins or losses in the process. That’s exactly what’s transpired in the first ten days of the T20 cricket extravaganza. More definitively, the results so far are evenly split between successful chases and defenses, thus neutralizing the perception that in the Indian pitches the chasing teams always win the matches. Before going to those details, we must first capture what Pat Cummins, a leading Aussie fast bowler of world cricket in both Tests and ODIs, has done last night in a match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) played at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium, Pune.   MI put up a rather dicey target of 162 runs to chase for KKR on a pitch where the batsmen have been seen to struggle to score runs. MI had the match in good control capturing the top 5 ...

 Jonny Bairstow When a team chases a down a massive target of 337 runs with plenty of overs to spare you can only watch wonder-struck at the sensational batting display that has to be the cause of it and cannot really blame the rival team. England have done this tonight, overcoming the Indian target that looked quite formidable very easily at the end thanks to the spectacular batting performances of all the top three: Jason Roy notching up 55 off 52 balls falling to a terrible run-out; Jonny Bairstow registering a magnificent ton of 124 off just 112 balls; and most importantly, Ben Stokes scoring an incredible 99 in just 52 balls, getting out caught 1 run away from what could have been a memorable century. There were 24 fours and unbelievable 20 sixes (10 of those go to Stokes) in their victorious innings. At one stage of the game they were scoring almost 20 runs an over with Bairstow and Stokes firing all cylinders in their partnership of 175 runs. So then, England won the second ...

In the first one-day international (ODI) of the three-match Series played in Pune India have beaten England by 66 runs yesterday, taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Like the last few matches this game too was played to empty stadiums due to the second wave of COVID-19 virus in India. India’s captain Virat Kohli lost the toss yet again, for the third time in a row taking into account the last two T20 internationals, and it proved to be a good toss to lose, yet again. It was heartening to see India’s regular opening pair, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, coming in to open the innings. Perhaps this being the first match of the series India started very cautiously to avoid the oft-repeated first-match blues, and concentrated on doing the groundwork for a good total. However, they did not get into a shell which also proves to be India’s undoing on many occasions. In the power-play overs they managed to put up 64 runs when Rohit departed for 28 off 42 balls.        The fir...

We got a little late because we had to check out of our hotel this third day being our last of the tour. Our bus was underway around 7am. This morning we were served breakfast at the hotel. Vighneshwar Temple:  Our seventh temple of the Ashtavinayaka tour was the Vighneshwar Temple at Ozhar. It is situated on the banks of Kukadi River, 95 km away from Pune city, just off the Pune-Nashik Highway, in the Junnar taluka of Pune district. The temple is enclosed on all sides by high stone walls, and its pinnacle is made of gold. The Ganesha form worshipped here is called Vighneshwar, ‘Lord of obstacles") or Vighnahar (spelt also as Vignahara, "Remover of obstacles") and is associated with the legend of Ganesha defeating Vignasura , the demon of obstacles. The temple is surrounded by a walled compound with a large gateway flanked by two large stone Dvarapala (gatekeepers) sculptures and a row of four musicians in bas relief on the lintel. One can view the Lenyadri shrine and...