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Politics And Sports In The Time Of Pandemic!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - July 22, 2021

It was cruelly insensitive on the part of the Government of India to declare in Parliament that there had been no COVID-19 deaths during the second wave due to lack of medical oxygen in the country, when not only the thousands of the affected families but also millions other anxious or someway related families just cannot erase the nightmarish images of people dying gasping for breath on hospital beds, in the hospital passages/corridors/lounges, on the outside courtyards or on the streets, in the parked cars, within the four walls of homes; hospitals sending SOS for oxygen, desperate doctors even breaking down; and round-the-clock media reports and most disturbing visuals. The reason given by the government is even more ludicrously insensitive: that the states did not report the deaths due to the lack of medical oxygen. Well, most of the states, particularly the ones ruled by the same dispensations would hardly advertise their failure or the stark lack of preparedness. The govern

Terrible Portents, Terrible Country: Brazen Invitation To COVID-19 Third Wave In India!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - July 15, 2021

Sometime in February 2021 daily COVID-19 cases started rising in the state of Kerala, and then obviously, cases showed a upward trend in Maharashtra from March onward. But as we have said so many times earlier that during that time nobody was talking about a lurking second wave and the governments of the country called India were obsessed with elections of various types, religious celebrations to propitiate various communities while the larger public indulged themselves no holds barred after what they called nearly a year-long deprivation. And, the murderous second wave ravaged the country: medical infrastructure hopelessly overburdened; governments caught fully unprepared and thousands dying in the hospitals gasping for breath or dying in the streets waiting for some air or dying in the parked cars or at homes hoping to get the medical oxygen desperately; the crematoriums/burial grounds unable even to do justice to the dead bodies; and many disposed bodies of people of rural areas per

Dilip Kumar: The Legendary Hero Of The Classical Era Passes Away!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - July 07, 2021

Another golden chapter of Hindi cinema has drawn to a close. Dilip Kumar, the legendary hero of the classical era traversing over six glorious decades of providing top-class entertainment to millions of fans the world over, has passed away at a Mumbai hospital today morning. He was admitted in the ICU on 30 th June due to a prolonged illness, and in fact, for the last more than a month he had been in and out of hospital with constant prayers from his loving wife Saira Banu, one of the most popular heroines of the classical era, family, friends and millions of fans for his recovery. However, finally the doyen of Hindi cinema bowed down to destiny and the will of God, calling it a day at the ripe age of 98, two years short of what could have been the most memorable occasions of Indian film industry. Dilip Kumar has always been a tremendous fighter, both in his films and in his great variety of roles as well as in personal life fighting serious health issues for several years. In 2

Park Sarcastic!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - July 06, 2021

Parks in big congested Indian cities perform one of the noblest humanitarian services of providing comparatively safe and cosy corners to young couples, married or unmarried, to spend some precious private moments. But of course, there are various types of parks: some are smaller with bushy overgrowth all around and patches of thick grass interspersed with narrow gravel paths and stone benches at convenient corners; some other medium-sized but similar parks have additional facilities for children playing including toy gyms; some larger parks have cemented pavements rounding off the greenish ground in between, the pavement is meant obviously for the walkers; and some still larger parks with almost genuine football-cricket grounds in the middle with cement pavement running all along the square, and concrete benches thrown beyond the pavement, toward the borders. The latter variety is a multipurpose park—for morning and evening walkers, football-cricket matches, and of course, for the lov

India’s COVID-19 Situation: A Crucial Juncture!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - July 05, 2021

The largely preventable or at least controllable marauding second COVID-19 wave in India seems to be ebbing with around 39000 new infections in the last 24 hours and around 700 fatalities in the same period. However, the crisis is far from over with the spree of unlocking taking place all around the nation and the most feared third wave lurking somewhere in the corner. Most of the places except for educational institutions and cinema halls have been reopening in most of the states, with only containment zones still put under strict restrictions. The grim milestone of deaths at over 4 hundred thousand has also been reached with at least two hundred thousand extra fatalities suspected. Further, unlocking cannot be avoided indefinitely due the issue of livelihoods, and in light of the fact that the national positivity rate is now around 2.5% unlocking is technically justified. However, the state governments of India must display extreme caution and aggressive testing, tracing and containm

A Lockdown Remix Experience In Peoples’ Land Kolkata!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - June 09, 2021

If we can assume that people are already familiarized with the concept of lockdown as it has been more than a year since the national lockdown was imposed in India in March 2020, on the basis of this assumption we can go on to opine that the present version of the lockdown in Kolkata and the state of West Bengal has been a remix. Of course, the local media here has been terming this as only a ‘near-lockdown’, and we also know the kind of ‘mixed’ approaches adopted by various states of India to lockdown, but the experience here is unique and not related to most of the other states. We have decided to call it a remix, because under this process the old is often presented in a new getup to attract and excite the common people, and the state lockdown here has been a genuine remix with continuous tweaking to make it more and more user-friendly for the larger interests of the common people of West Bengal, particularly the state capital of Kolkata. Yes, peoples’ interests. Nothing moves

The Unlocking Spree Begins Amid The Inevitable Risks Of Another Looming Wave!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - June 07, 2021

About 10 million people, as estimated, have lost their jobs/income following the state-wise lockdowns across India in view of the marauding second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is feared that 10 million more people are likely to lose their jobs/income till the economy gets back on rails. Therefore, nobody can deny the inevitability of the pandemic-oriented debate of Lives Vs Livelihoods, and the easing of the curbs has to follow at some stage. However, experts keep on saying that the unlocking process must be well thought-out and gradual. Even then, the associated risks with the forecast of a third wave in about six months cannot be eliminated, and Maharashtra, a state that has adopted a very mature 5-level unlocking as per the prevailing positivity rates and the occupancy percentage of oxygen beds across the respective districts, has still pointed out that the state government has taken calculated risks with those decisions. The national capital region Delhi, with the positi

Is The Nightmarish COVID-19 Second Wave In India Ending Soon?

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - May 30, 2021

In the first week of May 2021 the new daily COVID-19 infections breached the 4-Lakh (four hundred thousand) mark which added to the scare and the macabre dance of death witnessed all across India. The country’s health infra, stretched to impossible limits, was crumbling with the shortages of beds/ICU beds, ventilators and the supply of the life-saving medical oxygen. People were dying due much more to the lack of oxygen than COVID complications, particularly in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra that suffered the most in terms of all the numbers was in fact the only Indian state to have done adequate advance planning of stocking up oxygen and no patient died there due to lack of oxygen, whereas the neighboring state of Goa was going through hell. Some irresponsible experts didn’t help matters much at this crucial juncture by predicting that India would breach the 5-Lakh or the 6 or 7 or even the 10-Lakh daily cases numbers in the coming days, and that about a million people were fate

Why No Lockdown In West Bengal Or Still No National Lockdown?

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - May 10, 2021

A stupendous election victory against the might of the national ruling party; Didi Mamata Bannerjee installed for the third term as Chief Minister of West Bengal; and the immediate promise to take the fight against the COVID-19 virus in its deadly second wave head on. But, in the days that followed the state government had not shown any real intent to take on the promised fight, deciding only to augment a little the earlier state administration order that was announced a day prior to the counting of votes on 2 nd May 2021, to shut down restaurants, cinema halls, malls, gyms, sport complexes and so on, and to schedule the business hours of the general markets. The order came the very day of the oath-taking ceremony, no doubt a very subdued affair due to the situation, of Mamata Bannerjee as the new Chief Minister; but, unfortunately, the new order yields precious little in terms of strict curbs or a most-preferred complete lockdown. The order follows largely the same format of the p

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