ChinmayC Blog

What a pity! Team India went all the way to Johannesburg, South Africa to play just one match against the hosts. That too, a T20 cricket international or a three-hour cricket movie . But unfortunately even that little show was brutally cut short by rains. Winning the toss a still defensive Indian skipper opted to field first and his non-strike bowlers helped South Africa to post a mammoth 219/4 in allotted 20 overs. India started well and raced to 71 runs in about 8 overs when rains came down. As per the D/L method India were below the required runs and so South Africa were declared winners by 11 runs. The wonder worked ponders for India and us! The reasons for this one-off wonder were not far to seek. This was supposed to celebrate the 150 years of India-South Africa relations. But in fact, the landmark was achieved in 2010 itself and there were celebrations too in various ways. So this must have been preserved and reserved for ‘wonderful’ celebrations! For a change Dhoni did not m...

From ancient times it has been a proven war strategy to try strike the enemy at it weakest point. At the moment the ruling coalition of India seems to be the common enemy thanks to all sorts of campaigns and bizarre happenings. And of course, the coalition has been at its weakest due to the number game and a series of unending scams. If a few crucial allies withdraw support the ruling coalition of India will be reduced to minority and these allies got emboldened by the recent election results in five states of the country where Congress—the main part of the coalition—did poorly including at the most politically strategic state of Uttar Pradesh . Opposition political parties saw another opportunity to corner the government and joined hands with the allies directly or indirectly. The state election results also indicated a possible reemergence of regional forces at the cost of the national opposition parties. The debate on center-state power equation in the federal structure of the cou...

Paan Singh Tomar was a real-life hero of India—a great athlete specializing in Steeplechase run winning National awards for the country. He was in army service while achieving his medals during 1958-64. He was seven times national champions and also represented India in Tokyo Asian Games in 1958. His record in 3000 Steeplechase stood the test of time for nearly a decade. After retirement he returned to his native village and tried to live happily as a farmer. But eventually the pride of India turned into an outlaw and was killed by Indian police in 1981. As a great sportsman he was unheard of, but carried a big award as a most-wanted dacoit of India’s notorious Chambal Valley . The melancholic story of this real-life hero inspired director Tigmanshu Dhulia to make this movie titled Paan Singh Tomar that released all over India on March 2, 2012. There is no dearth of dacoit-genre films in India, but Dhulia opted for the serious kind of cinema with a strong statement. Powerful story-t...

Suspense films are a rare genre in India. You can very easily count such films since the sixties to the present. Maybe genuine suspense plots do not fit into the mass-entertainment formula mostly adopted by mainstream Hindi cinema called Bollywood. Efforts have been made over time to make such movies, but most often elements of suspense get submerged and totally neutralized in the flood of song-dance sequences, overpopulated action scenes and compulsorily loud comedy track.  Kahaani (The Story), directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh , successfully emerges as a genuine suspense flick keeping you engrossed and guessing till the very end. Released on March 9, 2012 the movie had earned wide critical acclaim and also the super hit status as a Bollywood movie.  In a female-oriented plot Vidya Balan plays the role of the protagonist Vidya Baghchi (pronounced as 'Bidya' in Bengali), a software engineer in an advanced stage of pregnancy who lands i...

Bangladesh broke the hearts of thousands of fans when they failed to reach the target of 237 runs set by Pakistan by just 3 runs at the Asia Cup-2012 final played at Mirpur, Dhaka today. It was a thriller down to the last ball bowled. Bangladesh had Pakistan in a spot for most part of the match, but chasing in a big Final watched by home crowds pressure started building up along with the asking rate and Pakistan managed to have better nerves to win their second Asia Cup title. Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first as had been their preference throughout this tournament. Pakistan had a horrible start and continued to struggle losing wickets on regular intervals on a slowish pitch. Shahid Afridi came good when the team needed him most and somewhat rescued Pakistan from a tottering 133/6 in the 35 th over to 178 in the 42 nd over. Sarfraz Ahmed scored the highest individual score of 46 for remaining unbeaten. Crucial runs were given away by Bangladesh after the Pakistan i...

Even the historic feat of Sachin Tendulkar failed to inspire the Indian cricket team. Instead of celebrating the glorious moment with a win Team India gave away the match to Bangladesh after posting an imposing total of 289. Aiming for the perfect yorkers Indian bowlers were only raining full tosses which helped Bangladesh tremendously in the death overs. This loss became India's costliest mistake finally leading to the team’s ouster from Asia Cup-2012. In fact losing to Bangladesh , still termed as ‘minnows’, has a legacy. In World Cup Cricket-2007 India lost to them in a group match which led eventually to India ’s elimination from the Super Eight stage. Virat Kohli’s heroics add to the ironies. He played like someone possessed on two occasions. First in the CB Series played recently in Australia when faced with a do or die situation Team India had to win against Sri Lanka with a bonus point which they did thanks to Virat Kohli, Gambhir and Raina. Same situation arose in Asi...

Dashing Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh has just won the most challenging match of his life—his battle against cancer. He had been suffering from mediastinal seminoma --a rare germ cell cancer in his left lung maybe from the time of the World Cup-2011 when he had bouts of coughing and vomiting even while in action. The brave soldier never showed his pain but went ahead fighting for his nation. His exemplary efforts contributed significantly towards India becoming the World Champions and him being crowned with the Man of the Series award. Yuvraj had been officially discharged from a hospital in Indianapolis, USA where he successfully completed the three cycles of chemotherapy. Doctors said that he had earned the ‘I will never return’ tag and could come back to normalcy within the next two months. Chemotherapy did not affect his liver and kidney adversely and these organs remained robust which was so important for a normal cricketing life, the doctors added. Yuvraj tweeted his thanks to a...