Tag: Badminton

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-8

About: the world this week, 18 February 2024 to 24 February 2024; Israel in Rafah; Gone Alexei Navalny; Pakistan Government combine; Sandeshkhali; Indian Cricket – Ashwin and Jaiswal; Indian Women’s Badminton -Anmol.

Everywhere

Israel is preparing to mount a ground invasion of Rafah – the last place of relative safety – in Southern Gaza. It hopes to significantly damage Hamas’ remaining capabilities by continuing its full-scale military operations in the Gaza Strip, and making it safe for start of the ground operation. And rescue of 130 hostages.

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that, as a contingency move, Egypt is preparing, an area at the Gaza border, which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier.

Israel has served an ultimatum to Hamas to release all hostages before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan to avert an attack on Rafah. That’s about five weeks away.

This week, the United Nations (UN) Security Council failed to adopt a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East. The United States vetoed calls for an immediate ceasefire. Amid intense fighting, the UN says, people in Gaza face starvation, disease, and death as the humanitarian situation nears total collapse.

The situation is grim but then, all that is required is for Hamas to release all the hostages – held since 7 October 2023 – which should bring the war to an end.

On the other war, this week marks the second year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two years have passed since Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The military stalemate between the countries appears to be continuing without any end in sight. And the mind-boggling, unimaginable hardship of people of Ukraine continues.

Late last week, in Russia, Alexei Navalny, 47, former lawyer and President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, fell unconscious and died after a walk at the ‘Polar Wolf’ Arctic Penal Colony where he was serving a 19 year prison sentence. The icy ICK-3 Prison in the Siberian region of Yamal-Nenets, 2000 kilometres from Moscow is where Navalny spent the last few weeks of his life.

The death of Navalny robs the Russian opposition of its most prominent leader as Putin prepares for an election, which would keep him in power until at least the year 2030.

Last year, a Russian court convicted Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism, handing him a sentence of 19 years in prison. Navalny was at that time already serving a 9 year jail term, on varieties of charges, that he says were politically motivated. The extremism charges are related to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. It was his fifth criminal conviction and his third and longest prison term – all of which his supporters say are a deliberate Russian strategy to silence Navalny.

Alexi Navalny rose to prominence as a fierce critic of President Putin more than a decade ago. He documented and publicly spoke about what he said was the vast corruption and opulence among the ‘crooks and thieves’ running Russia. He skilfully combined the use of social media with traditional campaigning, political organising and personal charisma to build a network of offices, and a political media machine. Subsequently, his movement was outlawed, members arrested, and most of his team now lives, in exile, in Europe.

Navalny earned admiration from Russia’s Opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent. Navalny said he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020, which Russia denies. Navalny was also physically attacked at least two times: a suspected poisoning attempt when he was in jail in 2019, and an assault in 2017 in which a green liquid was thrown in his face that nearly blinded him. Despite the harsh prison conditions he maintained a presence online and his team continued to publish investigations into Russia’s corrupt elite, from exile.

In Moscow, at a memorial to the victims of Russia’s political repression in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters, some people laid roses and carnations.

One note read: “Alexei Navalny – we remember you.”

People were warned not to take part in any mass meetings in Moscow. Supporters arranged meetings to honour Navalny in London, Paris, Oslo, Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Geneva, Prague, Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Vilnius.

Navalny is married to Yulia Abrosimova, and had two children, daughter Darya and son Zakhar. His last word to his wife Yulia on Valentine’s Day was, “Baby, you and I have everything, just like in the song: cities, airfield lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometres between us. But I feel that you are near me every second, and I love you more and more”- A popular Soviet-era tune.

Yulia has vowed to carry-on the fight against Putin’s Russia. “In killing Alexei, Putin has killed half of me. Half of my heart and half of my soul. But there is another half of me, and it tells me that I have no right to give in. I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work, I will continue the struggle for our country,” she said.

After weeks of wrangling, Pakistan’s two dynastic parties, the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have reached a power-sharing agreement. Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, will be Prime Minister – he carries on with the job – and Asif Ali Zardari – he returns to the job, he once held – the husband of assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto will be President. All this, while another former PM Imran Khan cools his heels in jail, and whose Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) backed independents won the majority of seats but were unable to cobble together a Government.

If elections in Pakistan are a step forward, what transpires during the elections and after the results are declared, is often many steps backward. With the same kind of people getting together in various permutations and combinations, Pakistan does not seem to be moving in the right direction at all.

Over the past week, the word Sandeshkhali was on the lips of most of India. Sandeshkhali is a village in the Sundarbans, North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal State. Why is it in the news?

Sandeshkhali has been on the edge and ‘boiling’ over allegations of harassment and sexual exploitation by local Trinamool Congress (TMC) Party – the ruling Party in West Bengal – leaders, especially a TMC leader called Shahjahan Sheik. He was seen to be wielding great power, popularity, and influence in the village, even more than the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) or the Member of Parliament (MP), or even the Police, of the area.

The ‘can of worms’ began emerging last month, when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reached Shahjahan’s residence to interrogate him in connection with a probe into a Ration scam. A mob that had gathered at the place thrashed and chased away the ED Officials following which Shahjahan absconded – going into hiding. Using the ‘breakthrough opportunity’ villagers, especially women, of Sandeshkhali have found courage to speak out against the many horrific crimes of Shahjahan and his aides — Shibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar. The allegations are that women were sexually assaulted in Sandeshkhali, often at gun point, and his men had usurped their lands to set up prawn farms. And that tribal people were forcibly made to transfer their lands, by the TMC leader.

Women came out in the streets, in large numbers, saying, “In Sandeshkhali, TMC workers have been raping women for months now – Sheikh Shahjahan, Shibu Hajra, and Uttam Sardar are raping them. We had come to the Police peacefully with the demand to arrest them. If they do not arrest them in Sandeshkhali, how will the women in Sandeshkhali gain confidence?”

Shahjahan, also known as Bhai, has had an incredible journey. He started off in the year 1999 as a trekker driver, who doubled as a conductor at times, and also worked as a vegetable vendor at the local market. Not much is known of his family or his education. It was thanks to his uncle, Moslem Sheikh, a local Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader, that Shahjahan got a break in politics, getting himself elected as a Panchayat Pradhan. After Sheikh gave Shahjahan his first breakthrough, he started looking after the local fish trade.

Later in 2013 he switched his political affiliation, aligning with the ruling TMC. And built his own faction within the party, in which role he carried various tasks in the party hierarchy including, ‘doing all that is required’ to win elections.

As the years passed by Shahjahan accumulated wealth of untold proportions, such as three palatial houses. Allegations of land grabbing; collecting a cut from every fish trader in the area; forcing villagers to give up their wages and welfare payments; running an illegal cross-border trade, and the kind, are doing the rounds. Shahjahan’s rise to the top saw him embroiled in criminal cases with the police having registered several cases against him – from extortion to assault to even murder. In 2020, he was accused of double-murder of two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

The National Commission for Women (NCW), whose team visited the area, in a damning report, has highlighted widespread fear and systematic abuse in Sandeshkhali, implicating both police officers and the TMC.

Late last week, India’s cricket off-spinner Ashwin Ravichandran became only the second Indian bowler, after another Indian spinner, Anil Kumble (619 wickets) to take 500 Test wickets. This, when he got rid of England’s opening batsman, Zak Crawley, on the 2nd day of the third India-England Test Match at Rajkot, India.

In the 500 wicket league, Ashwin is the 9th bowler and 2nd fastest (98 Tests) to reach the milestone, behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan who did it in 87 Tests. Ashwin is also the third all-rounder and first Indian with 500 test wickets & 3,000 runs ‘under his cricket cap’.

In the game of cricket, records keep tumbling every time a match is played – at every turn of the ball and heave of the bat!

Then came along another star. This time in batting, in the same Rajkot Test.

Newcomer, 22 year old Yashasvi Jaiswal made an unbeaten, scintillating 214 runs (off 236 balls) along with Safaraz Khan’s unbeaten 68, in a 172-run fifth wicket partnership to take India to 430 for 4 wickets-declared. Chasing an improbable target of 557 England collapsed to 122 – All Out on day 4, due to a fiery spell of bowling by Ravindra Jadeja who took 5 wickets giving away only 41 runs. India leads the 5 match series, 2-1. Now some statistics.

Yashasvi Jaiswal became the first player to smash 22 sixes in a cricket test series – a hat-rick of sixes too. He becomes the first Indian to hit maximum sixes in a test innings and to get to his 3rd 150 runs in just seven Test Matches. He is the third youngest player to score two Test double-centuries behind Vinod Kambli and the great Don Bradman. He is the first Indian batsman (and third overall ) to convert his first 3 tons into 150 plus scores. He is the third Indian after Kambli and Virat Kholi to hit 200s in two successive tests…that’s a breathtaking list of records, already!

Jaiswal’s success story is amazing and truly inspirational.

The son of a small shop-keeper in Suriyawan, Bhadohi Village, Uttar Pradesh State, Yashasvi Jaiswal moved to Mumbai at the age of 10, on the advice of his seniors who detected his cricket talent. Jaiswal’s uncle put him up in a Dairy shop where he worked in the morning and was also allowed to stay. Unable to work in the evening, after cricket practice, the Owner kicked him out. Jaiswal then found shelter in Azad Maidan – a sports ground formerly known as Bombay Gymkhana Maidan, which has about 22 cricket pitches – in a Muslim United Sport Club Tent. Here it was a tremendous struggle, without bathroom facilities or electricity, and being forced to cook for others in the Tent. He used to sell pani puri outside Azad Maidan to earn money at night besides playing matches at the club. His life changed when Jwala Singh, a well-known local coach in Mumbai, found him and took responsibility for providing him with shelter, coaching, and mentoring.

Jaiswal’s fortunes looked-up when he was selected for the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, which was a turning-point. He dominated the Under-19 World Cup, smashing five 50s and finishing as the highest run-getter. He translated his World Cup success into an Indian Premier League (IPL) bid of INR 2.40 Crore, then thrived with 625 runs in 14 matches for the Rajasthan Royals.

“In India, when growing up you work hard for everything… I have done that since my childhood. And I know how important every innings is and that’s why I really work hard in the practice sessions”. Great wisdom on young shoulders!

Meanwhile, in Malaysia, Indian Women scaled a historic peak by winning the Badminton Asia Team Championship (BATC) with a 3-2 victory against Thailand in the final in Shah Alam. India’s ace player P V Sindhi gave a winning start to the team, but the teams played-on to tie at 2-2. Then, 17 year old teen shuttler Anmol Kharb clinched the deciding match for India with a 21-14, 21-9 convincing win over World No. 45, Pornpicha Choeikeewong. Anmol was on her first international tour and ranked 472 in the world. She displayed the proverbial nerves of steel and played like a seasoned campaigner. The rest, they say, is history.

Anmol Kharb is the 2023 Indian National Badminton Champion – Women’s Singles. She hails from Faridabad in Haryana State and initially played for the Dayanand Public School, Faridabad, before shifting bases to Noida at the Sunrise Shuttlers Academy under coach Kusumm Singh, a former national-level peer of Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal and Ashwini Ponnappa.

India is in safe ‘young hands’ – working awfully hard all the time.

More heart-warming success stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Leave your tent, work hard, play the game of your life, and stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-28

About: the world this week 9 July to 15 July 2023. A Defence Alliance summit; politics in the Netherlands; a disease outbreak in Peru; floods all over the World; poll violence in India; onwards to the Moon; Hollywood strikes; Badminton and Tennis stories; and a transgender beauty.

Everywhere

NATO Summit

This week, leaders from the 31 countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance met in Lithuania’s Vilnius, on a two-day event. They discussed the war in Ukraine, defence spending, and Sweden and Ukraine’s membership. At least one of those is making progress. Sweden is now on its way to joining NATO, after finally gaining Turkey’s support. As for Ukraine, NATO’s Secretary General said that the NATO will extend an official invitation once the ongoing war with Russia is over with an accelerated process. And in the meantime Ukraine will be supported with arms, ammunition, and kind, to keep up their spirits.

Turkey’s argument for keeping Sweden out of NATO was that it is harbouring Kurdish separatists whom Turkey has designated as terrorists. Sweden has toughened its stance against the PKK (the Kurdish militant group) and lifted restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.

Go Dutch

Netherlands is heading to the polls in November 2023 following a collapse of the current four-party coalition Government headed by Prime Minister (PM) Mark Rutte of the VVD – People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. The other coalition parties are, Democrats 66, Christian Democratic Appeal, and Christian Union.

The coalition parties disagreed over asylum policies and were split in crisis talks chaired by the PM, late last week. The PM had been trying to limit the flow of asylum seekers, following a row last year about overcrowded migration centres, which were opposed by other coalition partners. Asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by over a third last year to more than 47,000, and about 70,000 applications are expected in 2023. PM Rutte tried to force through a plan, which included a cap on the number of relatives of war refugees allowed into the Netherlands at just 200 people per month. A compromise proposal, known as the ‘emergency brake’, which would only trigger the restrictions in the event of an excessively high influx of migrants, was not enough to save the government. The four parties could not reach an agreement on migration, and therefore decided to end the Government.

Mark Rutte at age 56, is the country’s longest serving Prime Minister. He has been in office since 2010 – heading different coalitions. The current government, which took office in January 2022, is his fourth coalition.

The Farmer-Citizen Movement, which became the biggest party in the upper house of parliament after a shock election win in March this year, said they will not serve in any future government led by Mark Rutte. Wait until November!

Gulliain-Barre Syndrome

Peru has declared a national emergency after an unusual outbreak of rising cases of Gulliain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a rare autoimmune disorder triggered by an acute bacterial or viral infection. The serious, but rare neurological disorder affects the nerves and causes weakness in the muscles, and even paralysis. Symptoms include back pain, numbness or tingling sensation in feet and arms, loss of reflexes and breathing difficulties.

Four people have died and over 180 cases have been reported. Peru had a similar outbreak in 2019. And now the country is struggling with the worst dengue outbreak in its recorded history, this year.

What does GBS do to the human body?

In a person with GSB, the immune system starts attacking healthy cells instead of sick cells. The Myelin sheaths (a layer that wraps around the nerve cells/neurons) of the peripheral nerves are attacked and prevents neves from sending certain information, such as touch sensations, to the spinal cord and brain. This causes a feeling of numbness. In addition the brain and spinal cord can no longer transmit signals back to the body, leading to muscle weakness.

Causes are unknown but it normally sets in after an infection. Two in every three people with GBS had diarrhoea or a respiratory illness several weeks before developing GBS symptoms. There is no specific cure but symptoms can be treated and the disease managed. On the positive side, it is not contagious and cannot spread from one person to another.

Floods

Floods in North India watered the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi – an outcome of the Monsoon’s torrential rains.

The summer Monsoon brings South Asia 70-80% of its annual rainfall, as well as death and destruction due to flooding and landslides.

In the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, flash floods over the last weekend brought down a bridge and swept away several hutments. Many districts in the State received a month’s normal rainfall in a single day.

Streets across the northern states, including in Punjab, Delhi, and Uttarakhand, were flooded. In some areas, rescue personnel used rubber rafts to rescue people stranded inside their homes.

Roads in several parts of New Delhi were submerged in knee-deep water as it was inundated with 153mm of rain, the highest in a single day in July in 40 years. The River Yamuna has crossed the danger mark of 206 metres in Delhi, prompting the relocation of people residing in flood-prone areas to safer locations.

Delhi, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh have received 112%, 100% and 70% more rainfall than average so far in the current monsoon season that started on 1st June.

Floods are flooding the news not only in India but in the United States where deadly floods stumped the north-east, while heatwaves set to boil much of the southern and western United States, kicking off a week of dangerous weather as warnings about the climate crisis intensify.

Flash floods overwhelmed New York’s Hudson Valley. And flood warnings were still in place in parts of nearby Vermont this week, as the state capital Montpelier’s downtown was under water and officials fear a local dam could fail for the first time since it was built, threatening further inundation.

Japan too joined the flood-bath. Three people were killed and three others are missing in flooding in southwest Japan caused by the region’s ‘heaviest’ rain ever. Rivers overflowed and hillsides collapsed as record amounts of rain were dumped on parts of Kyushu island. The national weather agency logged 402.5mm falling in Kurume this Monday, the highest ever recorded in the city. Roads and power-lines were cut, and thousands were ordered to evacuate as further downpours were expected. The Japanese Meteorological Agency, said the rains were perhaps ‘the heaviest ever experienced’ in the region.

Poll Violence

A democracy places at its cornerstone a simple mechanism for people to choose who will govern the country or their immediate locality and deliver on improving the quality of their lives: voting. Periodically, people vote for candidates of political parties in free and fair elections – ensured by the ruling Government- which is almost always followed by a peaceful transition of power, at least in India.

In perhaps one of the worst poll-related violence seen in recent times more than 25 people were killed during the civic body elections in India’s State of West Bengal. The mayhem, intimidation and ransacking that have accompanied the Panchayat Polls in the State last fly in the face of fundamental principles of democracy and underline a stark reality: the fairness of the election is under a cloud.

Several districts reported booth capturing, damaged ballot boxes, and attacks on presiding officers. This violence is not an aberration in West Bengal: It is entrenched in the state’s political culture, with parties in government — the Trinamool Congress (TMC) now, and the Communist Part of India (CPM) and Congress before it — wielding it to control the street, and thereby monopolise state power.

This time, in village after village, the ruling party systematically used bombs, barricades and cadres to ensure that opposition candidates and supporters were unable to move about on polling day. Where they have the clout to do so, some opposition parties have acted in a similar manner. As a result of the violence in the run-up to filing nominations last month, the High Court had ordered that central forces be deployed in the state. But the onus of ensuring a safe election is not on the uniformed personnel alone-the political class in the state, especially the ruling party and State Election Commission, bears a lion’s share of that responsibility. From the 1960s until the 1990s, tactics such as booth capturing and intimidation of voters and polling officials defined electoral politics in many states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Most of India has rejected that form of politics and moved on. However, West Bengal still lives with it.

India heads to the Moon

India aims to put its man on the Moon in the future. And in the run-up it’s testing out end-to-end capability in safe landing and ‘moon-roaming’.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up on Chandrayaan-2 which got to the moon and its Lander swooned just above the surface of the Moon and crash-landed when the Moon was expecting a soft kiss on its rugged cheeks. ISRO is now wiser and hopes to keep the Lander ‘in check’ and from ‘falling too quick’ to the charms of the Moon.

India launched Chandrayaan-3 it’s unmanned spacecraft to the Moon with a flawless lift-off from base Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, this friday afternoon using the time-tested launch vehicle LVM3.

Chandrayaan-3 consists of a Propulsion Module (PM), a Lander Module – Vikram, and a Rover – Pragyan. The PM will carry Vikram, with Pragyan safely ensconced inside, on an orbit around the Earth; and then gradually take it into a lunar transfer trajectory after which it will inject Vikram into the lunar orbit at about 100km from the Moon’s surface. After orbiting around the Moon and getting closer, Vikram will be de-boosted to land with the Propulsion Module separating and saying good bye. Vikram will then softly touch-down on the Lunar South Pole region – previously unexplored – and after giving the Moon a few winks, will open its doors for Praygan to roll out and roam the Moon.

The Moon Landing is scheduled on 23 August 2023. If successful, India will be the fourth nation to land on the Moon after the United States, Russia, and China.

Hollywood Strikes

Hollywood’s Actors and Writers are on a strike. And this is the first time two Unions – Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA)- are doing this together. The last time was in 1960 when future United States President Ronald Reagan led the strike.

Actors Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp are card-holding members of the SAG-AFTRA and are lending their fire-power and magic.

The strike follows a row over pay and the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with film studios and streaming services and failing to reach an agreement on how to go about it. The Unions are worrying about contracts keeping up with inflation, residual payments in the streaming era and safeguards against the use of AI mimicking their work on film and television shows.

Sports

This week, India’s Lakshya Sen, ranked 19th in the World, won the men’s single title at the Badminton World Federation (BWF)’s 58th Canadian Open 2023. He defeated China’s Li Shi Feng, the reigning All England Champion, in straight games, 21-18 and 22-20.

This remarkable victory marks Sen’s second BWF World Tour Title. His previous triumph was at the India Open, in January 2022.

Sen displayed amazing talent and ability to excel under pressure outclassing his opponent. The match was filled with extraordinary rallies, characterized by fast-paced exchanges at the net. Sen saved four game points in the second game before clinching the championship point with a decisive smash.

The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament is rallying to a close in London and in the Women’s Singles Finals it’s Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur versus Czechoslovakia’s Marketa Vondrousova. Both reached the finals coming through enthralling semi-finals at the All England Club, and are seeking their maiden Grand Slam title having previously fallen short in major finals.

Meanwhile in the Men’s Singles, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic beat Italian Jannik Sinner to enter the finals. Djokovic will face either Carlos Alcaraz or Daniil Medvedev, in Sunday’s final where he is bidding to tie Roger Federer’s record by lifting an eighth Wimbledon crown.

Please Yourself

Rikkie Valerie Kolle has made history as the first transgender woman to win the Miss Netherlands Title. It’s the first time in the Dutch pageant’s 94-year history that a transgender woman has been crowned winner.

It means the 22 year old will be the second openly transgender competitor to take part in Miss Universe in December this year. Rikkie says she dreamed of winning pageants like this as a child. “The journey started as a super insecure little boy,” she said. “And now I’m standing here as a strong and empowering and confident woman. I’m really proud of that”.

More gripping stories will be launched in the weeks ahead. Roam the world with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-20

About: the world this week, 15 May to 21 May 2022, America keeps gunning its own, India aces Badminton-Men and Boxing-Women, Music of Ukraine, Entering NATO, and the Gyanvapi Case.

Everywhere

America Keeps Shooting

Late last week a gunman killed 10 people and wounded three others at the Tops Friendly Super Market Store in Buffalo City, New York State, a predominately Afro-American neighbourhood. The victims range in age from 20 to 86 and at least 11 who were shot were Afro-American.

The suspect was identified as Payton Gendron a rifle-toting 18 year old from Conklin, New York. He is said to have written a white supremacist manifesto online, travelled to the Store and live-streamed the attack. He was heavily armed, wore tactical gear, and a tactical helmet with a camera. After the gunfire, he exited the store, put his gun to his head, to his chin, then dropped it and took off his bullet-proof vest. He got on his hands and knees, and put his hands behind his back, when the Police, who arrived within two minutes of the shooting, had him arrested.

Last year, Payton had threatened to shoot in his high school and underwent a mental health evaluation by state police before being released. Under federal law, an evaluation alone doesn’t reportedly bar people from owning a gun.

The crime was termed as a racist hate crime.

Close to the bullets of this shooting, one person was killed and 5 injured in a Church shooting in the town of Laguna, 70km southeast of Los Angeles.

Will America ever get over the dreadful habit of shooting itself down?

Badminton

A First Ever Historic Win for India

I came across this unverified story and I don’t know how true it is, hence will keep it as fiction. There was a man called Badmin, a courtier in Mughal Emperor Akbar’s court who invented a game for the royal family’s entertainment. He cooked-up the idea of a shuttle-cock game when he saw a rooster being taken to the Royal kitchen to be made into a Royal meal. He made a feather-cock for hitting, with a racquet designed by his wife. Badminton was named after him – flies the story.

The Thomas Cup also called the World Men’s Championships, is an international Badminton competition among the teams of the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The Thomas Cup is held once in two years -earlier it was once in three years -and is one of the most important Men’s Badminton Competitions in the World. Often held together in what is called The Uber Cup, for Women, it also shuttles around as the Thomas and Uber Cup. And both determine the supremacy of a country in the sport of Badminton.

The Thomas Cup was the idea of British Sir George Alan Thomas, a successful badminton and chess player in the 1900s. And is named after him. The first Tournament was held in 1948-1949 with Malaysia winning the inaugural held in England, beating Denmark. Only five countries have ever won the Tournament: Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, and Denmark. And Indonesia has dominated with 14 wins. Believe it or not, the United States (US) of America was a runner-up in the second Thomas Cup, held in Singapore in 1952, losing to Malaysia. Obviously, the US lost interest in the game as thereafter their presence fizzled out.

India stormed in to the finals of the Thomas Badminton Cup 2022, being held in Bangkok, Thailand, late last week, which was a first ever achievement is almost 73 years. They defeated the great Danes of Denmark in the Semi-finals and a day earlier out classed Malaysia in the quarter-finals to reach the finals against Indonesia.

This Sunday the finals were played in Bangkok. With the winner being the first to win three out of five matches, India opened with Lakhsya Sen playing singles, who hustled from behind, one set down to set the stage for what was to become a stupendous Tournament. The second match was a doubles. And Ranki Reddy and Chiraj Shetty paired like shuttle & cock, again coming from behind to win. Now, it was over to the singles again, with India’s former World No 1 Srikant Kidambi being unforgiving in winning in two straight sets. The winning shot – a powerful and clever cross-court smash, which sent the opponent diving to reach it – said it all. Srikant had not lost a match all week, and he played the match of his life. There were a few hiccups and many a heart missed many a beat. And I felt the doubles team did not play to their true killer potential, but kill they did!

Suddenly, it looked too good to be true. India’s National Anthem playing in Bangkok was music to the ears. Where was India all these 73 years?

Indians always ‘perform well’ in Thailand – was the thing doing the rounds on social media!

Boxing

This week, India’s Nikhat Zareen, 25, boxed her way to win Gold at the Women’s World Boxing Championship, 52 kg Category, thrashing Thailand’s Jitpong James. Nikhat hardly seemed to break into a sweat. And showed she had a good pair of long hands – reaching and punching with precision. This year, the Championship was held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Nikhat is only the fifth Indian woman to achieve such punching glory. The others before her are: Mary Kom – a record 6 time Champion, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL, and Rekha KC.

She thanked her parents for doing all they possibly could, to make her a boxer. That’s the secret power layer inside the gloves!

Music

The Sounds of Ukraine

Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra sang won the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 amid a tidal wave of support and sympathy for the nation following Russia’s invasion. Ukraine’s song ‘Stefania’ beautifully mixed rap with elements of Ukrainian folk music to create the winning numbers – awarded a staggering 492 points by the jurors.

The UK also had an exciting night, as Sam Ryder had a considerable lead at the halfway point and placed second overall with his song, ‘Space Man’. This is the highest rank the UK has reached, since 1998

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the victory, and said ‘we will do our best’ to one day host the contest in the now battered port city of Mariupol. Zelenskiy and the Kalush Orchestra synchronised to harmoniously sing, ‘any victory is meaningful for Ukraine at this time’. That sure rings a bell. Stefania mom mom Stefania!

War

Mariupol Goes

Russia appears to have scored a victory, gaining complete control of the Ukraine’s south-eastern port city of Mariupol. It’s Russia’s first major win (I hate to call it that) since the start of its unwarranted, crazy invasion.

Ukrainian said its troops have ‘fulfilled’ their combat goals in Mariupol.

The mission to defend the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol from Russian forces ended on Monday, as over 900 fighters, some seriously wounded, have been evacuated. Ukranian forces holed-up in the Steel Works began the process of surrendering. President Zelensky said, ‘Ukraine needs its heroes alive’. The sprawling four square mile complex is a maze of tunnels designed to survive a nuclear war.

Entering NATO

This week Finland and Sweden, after remaining neutral for decades, decided to join the defensive North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and formally sent their applications. Russia’s President shouted hoarse against the move while Turkey – already a NATO member- said it would block their entry, accusing the Nordic countries of harbouring terrorists-Kurdish militants -wanted by Turkey.

To join NATO all 30 existing member countries must unanimously agree that a new country can join. Now, that’s a battle looming ahead. Everyone wants their pound of flesh!

Please Yourself

A Matter of Faith

Gyanvapi means the ‘well of knowledge’ derived from the Sanskrit ‘Gyan’-knowledge and ‘Vapi’- Well. The name itself says it all?

The temple town of Varanasi, on the banks of the River Ganges in India’s Uttar Pradesh State, is considered the oldest living city in the world, with 3500 years of documented history: it is also called Kashi, the most sacred place of Hinduism in India.

The Gyanvapi mosque stands next to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath Temple – dedicated to Lord Shiva – in Varanasi. It acquired its name from an adjoining waterbody-holy well. It was constructed by the ‘last effective Mughal Emperor’, Aurangzeb, in 1669 upon demolition of an older Shiva temple -a Vishweshwar Temple, at the spot. The facade was modelled partially on the Taj Mahal’s entrance; the original plinth of the temple was left largely untouched and continued to serve as the courtyard of the mosque, while the southern wall-along with its cusped arches, exterior moldings and toranas (a gateway)-was turned into the Qibla Wall (the wall that faces Mecca). To this day, there are many surviving external elements of the original temple. A well-preserved sketch, by a James Prinsep, in the British Library, in London, has the original caption titled ‘Temple Of Vishveshwur, Benaras’, referring to the ‘Gyanvapi Mosque site’.

Temple priests were allowed to reside in the premises and exercise their privileges on issues of Hindu pilgrimage. The desecrated site-especially the plinth-became a popular hub for Hindu pilgrims from across the country.

In the late eighteenth century, the British East India Company gained direct control of Benares ousting the then Nawab Rulers. And in 1780, Maratha Queen Ahilyabai Holkar constructed the present Kashi Vishwanath Temple to the immediate south of the mosque. However, this had a markedly different spatial configuration and was ritually inconsistent. This was after many, before the Queen, had failed to build and fully restore the Kasi Temple to its historic glory. The original Shiva Lingam was supposedly hidden by the Temple priests inside the Gyanvapi well during Aurangzeb’s raid: the plinth continued to be considered as more sacred than the new temple by pilgrims for well over a century- into the early 1900s-before the present Kashi Vishwanath temple succeeded in installing itself as the central component of pilgrimage routes.

A flashback: A Jyotirlinga or Jyotirlingam, is a devotional representation of the Hindu God Shiva: it is a Sanskrit compound of jyotis ‘radiance’ and linga. There are 64 original Jyotirlinga shrines in India, 12 of which are most sacred and called the Maha Jyotirlingam (The Great Jyotirlingas). At all these sites, the primary image is lingam (or Shiva Lingam) representing the beginning-less and endless stambha pillar, symbolising the infinite nature of Lord Shiva. A stambha (tower in English) is a pillar or column which in the context of Hindu mythology, it is believed to be a cosmic column that functions as a bond, joining heaven and earth.

During the past 100 years, the Gyanvapi compound has been fiercely contested by Hindus and Muslims alike with each side ‘investing their faith’ in the well, the mosque, or the temple.

In the year 1991, a title dispute suit was filed in a Varanasi Court for handing over the site to Hindus. The court-case remained pending for about 22 years, before the advocate of the 1991 petition re-filed another plea requesting for an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) study of the mosque-complex. This was on the same grounds that it was a temple that existed for thousands of years -since the reign of King Vikramaditya.

The Gyanvapi Mosque Management Committee, Anjuman Intezamia Masjid (AIM) acting as the Defendant denied the claims and rejected that Aurangzeb demolished a temple to construct the mosque.

On 8 April 2021 the Varanasi Court ordered the ASI to conduct the survey, which was subsequently stayed by the Courts, on a petition by AIM.

Coming over to this year, 2022, the Varanasi Civil Court is in the process of hearing a petition by five Hindu woman who claim there are idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the Gyanvapi Mosque complex. They had petitioned the court to allow daily prayers before idols on its outer walls as well as other ‘visible and invisible deities within the old temple complex. The site is currently open for prayers once a year. The Court ordered a video assessment of the mosque complex, including three domes, underground basements and the pond, and appointed court commissioners for the task. This happened soon after India’s Supreme Court refused to stay the video assessment, when the matter came before it.

The assessment was completed, and certain images were leaked to the media-without the Court’s permission. The Surveyor who leaked the photos was promptly sacked and a Report of the findings submitted to the Court.

Late this week, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the Places of Worship Act 1991 cannot determine the religious character of a place nor does it prohibit ascertaining such character.

What is The Places of Worship Act 1991? It’s an Act enacted by India’s Parliament that provides for the maintenance of the religious character of a place of worship, as it existed on 15 August 1947. And prohibits conversion of any place of worship after such character is known. The disputed site of Ayodhya was exempted as the case on its ownership was in the Courts at that time.

The Supreme Court completed its ruling by transferring the case to the Varanasi District judge, as being local they are best capable of making a decision; noting that the ‘selective leaks’ of the survey report must stop.

Lots of action up ahead, but people need to get together and be friends for life.

More hidden stories will be unearthed in the weeks to come. Judge for yourself with World Inthavaaram.