ChinmayC Blog

Photo: espncricinfo.com  The headline above is not an allegation, it’s only an observation based on hard facts. However, this observation reflects badly on the umpiring standards in the biggest cricket event of the world.   We had recently seen ludicrous umpiring errors in Indian Premiere League-2019. ICC Cricket World Cup can hardly be compared with the former, and we fervently hope that standards would improve as this was just the first week of the tournament. It all happened in the 10 th match of the ICC Cricket World Cup-2019 at Trent Bridge, England between Australia and West Indies. Winning the toss West Indies put Australia into bat, reduced them to 79 for 5 thanks to fiery spells by Thomas and Cortrell that reminded us of the likes of Malcolm Marshall & Co of yore, and as was their wont, West Indies let go allowing the Aussies to amass 288. Still, it was not an impossible target, and West Indies seemed to be cruising nicely with Hope and Heitmyer going great guns....

He took a resolve not to submit the details as required or give in to the new pressure tactics. He considered this move totally unfounded, preposterous and unnecessary. Why should he or any other of his kind at all? How did it relate to the work they all were doing? He was not a broker or an agent or a dealer or a pedlar. He had been a simple honest straightforward employee eking out a living from his salary, didn’t matter at all if it was fat or lean. Whatever he did or didn’t was conditioned by his monthly salary, and he was not ready to share his kitchen details with anyone. Why at all? And what purpose would it serve to the party who wanted such details except for making wrong use of the information. His company suddenly wanted all its employees to submit full property details including family holdings of gold and silver. While most of the employees accepted it as part of duty and were going ahead with the procedure he resisted vehemently publicly announcing his decision never to c...

While most of the World Cup-2019 squads of various nations are having or are going to have training camps soon for the all-important event India continue to have just Indian Premiere League (IPL-2019). Well... That Virat Kohli continued to captain Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) even after the most disgraceful proceedings as far as the team performances are concerned has obvious reason. Being a superlative cricketer that he is and also being Team India captain Virat had been the star attraction of the IPL-2019. Therefore, despite the upsetting losses he was still having most of the commercial time on the air along with some of his non-performers, and an appetizing element of suspense being maintained by the cricketing experts or the media or the spectators that he might stage a comeback for his franchise yet, and who knows..! For similar reasons in terms of money and glamour Indian cricketers just could not leave the IPL halfway while many of the other international cricketers had al...

I saw a masked young man just ahead of me in the check-in queue at the airport. His white mask securely attached to his mouth and nose he was still trying to maintain a 'safe' distance from the unmasked fellow passengers. 'Good', I thought. 'A much needed awareness about pollution.' Settling his luggage he moved on to the security area, putting his hand-bag, laptop, mobile, charger-power banks, wires etc in the box for the x-ray. As I entered the area he joined the short queue at the security gate and I watched him briefly unmasking himself before the security person. Apart from my initial interest in him I was no longer keen to observe him any further now. However, it was not to be. Getting clearance myself I started walking leisurely towards the departure gates as there was some time left for the flight. There I saw him again, not prepared for the surprise in store for me this time. Unobtrusively, and with cold-blooded precision the masked young man walked in...

The harvest festival of Assam starts today, the 14th of January, 2019. Tonight, called Uruka , community feasts are being organised in temporary straw-bamboo structures and at homes plus other venues all over, irrespective of any divisions. If you need to know more about this try the following link: Happy Bhogali Bihu!

In the olden ages Facebook was a manageable affair. Your indulgence time in this fascinating book had to be found, because you could either do it on your desktop or on your laptop and everywhere it was not convenient to do so. The moment the smart phones inundated the eager hands of users things changed completely—for the better or for the worst is yet to be ascertained. Facebook indulgence became an anytime or rather a full time activity, to such an extent that if one picks up the mobile for doing a specific thing one inadvertently gets distracted to FB notifications, and finally forgets about what s/he picked up the mobile for. Its use stopped to be location-specific—it began to haunt users everywhere including travel time, in public transport and in public places apart from very private encounters.   As a corollary to the above users started getting restless thinking about the time being devoted to this indulgence, if the time devoted or wasted is too much, if the things one is ...

The ‘festive’ thought as mentioned above could be interpreted as controversial after the words that follow are swallowed up, and therefore I clarify at the outset that there is no malicious intention behind this thought. There is only the spirit of celebration. The Indian festive season starts around September every year with various non-religious, religious and intra-religious festivals taking place almost every week. Since all such events of worship or otherwise are now called ‘festivals’, these get naturally opened up for everybody to participate. Like the quintessential slogan given in West Bengal by the Chief Minister during the Durga Puja ‘festival’, ‘Religion is mine, religion is yours; festival is for all’. For example, in this year’s Christmas ‘festival’ on the streets of Kolkata you would hardly find a ‘religious’ being among the thousands of intense merrymakers. So then, everyone waits for the occasion from September to New Year Day to participate which translates into roami...