My Name is Khan – The Second Watch!!

Warning: May contain a few spoilers.

I am perplexed whether to talk about the movie – My name is Khan or the issue – My name is Khan.  I’ve been staring at this blank page for almost 15 minutes now and have written and deleted quite a few introductions to my review coz. I’m still not sure whether to talk about the movie or the issue because the movie is strictly ‘good- not bad’ to say the least but the best part about it is it treads into a sensitive and very relevant issue. 

It may not have happened on 9/11 as the movie says, but it did happen somewhere near the turn of the century – this religious polarization of the world.  Without getting into the reasons for this happening, one of the results has been that it has become difficult to be a Muslim today.  Celebrating holi, lighting lamps or bursting crackers on Diwali, lining up in temples on Shiv-ratri, wearing a saree or salwar kameez, feasting on a turkey etc. can just be seen as enjoyable traditions or customs but keeping a big beard, praying five times a day, wearing a hijab and celebrating Eid by sacrificing a lamb have become subtle symbols of siding with extremism. 

And if you have Karan Johar – the Lady Gaga of Bollywood, dealing with this extremely sensitive issue, it sure looks like a very bad idea.  Surprisingly though, Karan seems to have finally grown up.  Not that I did not enjoy Kuch Kuch Hota Hai but never thought that he could refrain his cheese when it came to serious subjects. 

On second base, you again had a potential disaster.  Shahrukh Khan, the man who, with every passing day, gets closer to becoming Dev Anand the Second; both of them have two things in common – heart throb status in their 40s and a head that is always at 10 to 6 or 10 past 6.  Give him a condition – Asperger’s syndrome and in all probability, his neck could have disconnected from his body and his head could’ve gone out for a walk, all on its own.  Again, surprise surprise, it didn’t happen.  Actually his condition meant that he could not express emotions and I think that was a neat trick by his director to restrict him.

And then with all the controversy it generated and the initial 5 star reviews which gave the impression that Shahrukh has pulled an Aamir, it was tough to sit and watch the movie without expectations. 

All said and done, the movie is … for want of a better word… ‘Not bad’ and it does try to do justice to the issue it represents.  After a brief ordinary introduction, Shahrukh as Rizwan in the first half is in brilliant form when, he comes to America and starts selling cosmetic products.  There are quite a few similarities with Forrest Gump though, but I didn’t mind it.  After all, don’t all autistic conditions look equally cute on screen.  His expressions of giggling goofily when being confronted with love are indeed special.  Kajol does manage to still look pretty after all these years of being out of action. 

The second half however, I thought, lacked something, I can’t put a finger on it precisely though.  Yes, there are moments where it is difficult to hold back the tears and the lump in the throat just doesn’t go away but still, I feel the portrayal of the issue could have been a lot better.  Kajol, unfortunately seems to have lost the edge.  Her rage at her son’s death when she asks Rizwan to leave, does seem a tad unreal.  It is Shahrukh who excels with his subdued performance as Rizwan.  His speech at the church remembering his son, devoid of any expressions because of his condition, does extract tears and is very hard to watch. 

The problem however, with the movie was that you do feel empathy towards the person Rizwan but there is no empathy generated towards the muslim Rizwan.  I mean, the tears and the hard to watch moments have nothing to do with the issue the movie claims to portray.  The tears flow when he talks of his son but not when he is arrested and tortured in prison.  Actually, his naivety in not comprehending the torture does feel overdone coz. though, he was autistic, he wasn’t dumb.  I guess, this is where the movie could have been a lot better. 

Shankar Ehsan Loy have once again given refreshing music.  Though Sajda is the popular track in this album, I loved the rendition of Noor E Khuda by Shankar and Adnan Sami.  ‘Tere Naina’ is yet another nice and vibrant track.  The music does gel with the movie nicely. 

So I guess, the movie isn’t really SRK’s best performance till date as the 5 star reviews suggest (coz. we still have Swades and Chak De), but it is a fair effort and a reasonably good watch.  Just don’t expect the movie to provide as much entertainment as the controversy it generated and you’ll be fine.

Internet vs. A Million Dollars

I just heard a snippet on the radio about a popular video that asks ‘Would you give up the Internet for a Million Dollars?’  At first, sounds like a pretty easy question.  “Yes of course, I would”  But think again.  That would mean, in addition to letting go of FB, Blogs, Twitter and all the unnecessary stuff, you’ll also be giving up email, google, smart phones, airline bookings etc. etc.  

      

Considering you won’t be able to use email anymore, you probably are worthless in the job market except if you are a waiter or a farmer.  Heck, even farmers might be checking the weather on the internet these days, who knows.  So effectively, you have no job, no social life but you’ll have a million dollars. Even if you invest the million dollars in some bank account or fund, you won’t be able to access online statements or get updates about Fund performance on the net.  You’ll have to rely on the old method of paper statements and monthly fund reports that would reach you almost a month after the month end.

A million dollars do not sound that appealing anymore!

Take a look at the video, none of the people surveyed were  ready to give up the internet for even around a billion dollars and in that sense, if we have the internet, aren’t we billionaires already?  (The video though points out an interesting aspect about worth vs. price – People are paying pennies for the Internet which is actually worth a billion dollars to them. That is a discussion for another day).

But for now, let us billionaires continue to enjoy our billion bucks.  And that brings us to another question.  How much has our life changed as a result of the internet and technology?

Earlier we used to memorise everything from phone numbers to general knowledge such as the Tallest Tower, Highest Bridge etc.  Now we just google it up.  We no longer remember anything anymore; so is this reliance on the internet making our brains idle and useless?

You’d probably be nodding your heads in agreement!

The answer is NO.

Fresh research suggests that this reliance on the internet is changing the way our brain works.  The brain is less likely to recall information if it knows it can be found elsewhere.  Instead our brains now create room for more power of analysis and have moved away from memory storage.  Amazing piece of research this, I must say.

When our parents grew up as kids, their day would consist of a planned schedule of 5 hours school, 2 hours nap, 2 hours for studies, 2 hours for games outside, 2 hours extra activity (learning music / stitching) and 1 hour TV.  Given this change in the way our brains work, and the fact that a school going child spends on an average 7.5 hours on various media including internet and TV everyday (a survey in US), it would be amazing to see how kids of today grow up.  Their brains no longer need to remember a lot so that brain power would be put to some other use.

Come to think of it, there definitely would have been some change in the way our brains work given the fact that the speed of major discoveries is just getting faster by the day. The speed with which our life is changing, thanks to new inventions, is just mind boggling today.  Compare this to generations living in the 1500s.  They probably would live their entire life without witnessing a new thing. 

 We however, live in the generation wherein things have been invented, become the rage and also become obsolete just within few years.  Think Walkmans, Floppy disks etc.  Thus Brands today grow very fast compared to the earlier years where say a Bajaj Chetak took decades to create brand loyalty towards it.  Today a Nano or an Iphone is a favoured or unfavoured Brand within days of hitting the market.  Similarly, the shelf life of a brand is also very short compared to earlier.

It is amazing how our intelligence is changing our lives almost every day, in ways more than we can imagine. Right from the way we do things to even how our brains are evolving.  In the 2000 years though, there is one thing that hasn’t changed – the size of our brain; it still weighs the same 1.5 kgs.

Lakhs of people turn up for KKR victory at Kolkata

The IPL triumph given Kolkata a new icon and renewed zeal to chase bigger victories.  Kolkata got their new Khan dada and Gautam Gambhir as the sons of Bengal. More than one Lakh people were out of their homes to get a glimse of King Khan on the streets of Kolkata.  Around 70,000 people accumulated at the Eden Gardens to watch KKR team and Shahrukh Khan celebrate their victory.

 

 Kolkatans were split in their opinion about the delirious celebrations on Tuesday. But they were quite unanimous in the feeling that the city now looks upon Shah Rukh Khan as one of its own.

It's not often that Kolkata emerges on top in any national event, pointed out psychologist Dola Majumdar. "Naturally, Kolkatans were eager to make sure that the victory was duly celebrated. Shah Rukh Khan's presence converted the celebration into a hysteria.

 

 

 You had India's biggest star asking you to savour our city's success. Sourav Ganguly may not have been there but SRK made sure that he wasn't missed. Sourav Ganguly have failed taking KKR to the top, so people of Kokata hardly missed him on this celebration day. Even this season Ganguly played against KKR leading the Pune Warriors Team, and placing the team at the bottom of the charts. Many people are of the idea that Ganguly 's depature from the team KKR has proved beneficial for the team. People needed an     icon to serve as the icing on the cake and Shah Rukh provided just that. 

 

The jamboree was Kolkata's way of trying to get over the all-round gloom that prevails in the state, argued psychiatrist Gautam Ghosh.

"We have been falling short of our own expectations far too often, especially in sport. No one follows local football keenly any more. In cricket, we have rarely triumphed. So, an IPL win was a nice way of asserting our supremacy in a field in which we have never dominated. The fact that we had SRK leading the charge from outside the field gave us a sense of getting even with the rest of the country. This hysteria might translate into some positive energy," Ghosh said.

The mass hysteria seen all along the victory march and at Eden Garden where the team members shook a leg with SRK in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee was a great thing to see, feels fellow psychologist Indrani Dutta. Mamata Banerjee is the one to be praised for giving the idea of celebrations and then arranging for such a wonderful event in such a short time.  It is rightly pointed out as true 'Paribartan'  by governor M.K Narayanan.

               

"It was not just a cricket victory that was cheered. What we witnessed on Tuesday was a collective release of pent-up frustration and a zeal to observe whatever success comes our way. The IPL win may not have been reason enough to dance on the streets the way people did. But the heady cocktail of SRK and the Kolkata brand was enough to make people hysterical. After all, we have lost our biggest cricket icon to another team, and we have little else to cheer about. While the celebration was fine, the hysteria can't be justified," said Datta.

     

Former cricketer Devang Gandhi differed. An IPL victory was awaited for the last five years and the win was obviously going to be greeted with cheer, Gandhi said.

"It had been anticipated since 2008. With a star like Shah Rukh Khan leading the KKR pack, celebrations were obviously going to be colourful. Kolkata is a city of intense, emotional people. We take defeats to our hearts and believe in celebrating wins heartily. This is what we saw on Tuesday. But yes, it should have been a little more disciplined," he added.

Gandhi, however, agreed that the wild scenes were also a reflection of the fact that Kolkata is starved of victories.

                 

With the state government throwing the party, the celebrations were going to defy logic, argued academic Amal Mukhopadhyay. "It had little to do with cricket. People swarmed the streets to see Shah Rukh Khan dance with the team." said Mukhopadhyay.

But most agreed that the victory has placed SRK - and Gautam Gambhir - in every Kolkatan's heart."He has always been a big star. This victory has now got him associated with Bengal, cricket and Kolkata which makes SRK even dearer in this part of the country. He is now a cricket icon as well," said Ghosh. Most were ready to overlook the fact that few local boys wore the purple jersey in Chennai last Sunday. What mattered was the team that the city had been rooting for had finally triumphed.

                             

Check out the exclusive vedio of Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla dancing to the tunes of bengali songs.

Kolkata Knight Riders win IPL 2012 : Bollywood Reacts

Reactions from the Bollywood film fraternity is pouring in after King Khan aka SHAHRUKH KHAN's  Kolkata Knight Riders won the 2012 edition of IPL.
                 

• Kunal Kohli - The most touching moment of the match was when SRK’s daughter hugged him all tense & he comforted her. What a sweet moment that was :-)
• Mushtaq Shiekh – KKR are the champions!! SRK dream has finally come true!! Today he stands on top of the heap!! Shukar Allah!!
•             
• Dabboo Ratnani – Wow!!!! We won!!! Ecstatic about the win!!! Sending lots of love to KKR & hugs to SRK Juhi Chawla
• Raima Sen – KKR welll played.. yippe.. happy to be in Chennai.. time to celebrate
•             
• Raj Kundra – SRK so happy for you!! Congratulations and well deserved!! Baby K waiting for the cup now! :)
• Kumar Taurani – Congratulations KKR CSK, u r also champions.. Tough fight
•              
• Lara Dutta – KKR it is!!!!
• Sanjay Duri – Heartiest Congratulations Juhi Chawla SRK and KKR team.
•                                         
• Sophie Chaudhary – WHAT A MATCH!! What an incredible Final!! And YES!!!! NEW IPL CHAMPIONS!! KKR. My heart won! Thrilled for SRK! Truly well deserved!
• Lalit Modi – Kkr kkr. Kkr. Love it. Congrats. Great Game. Showed one and all. Love it. Yeh hai ipl
•               
• Karan Johar – Yayyyyyy!!!! More power to team KKR and SRK!! And what a match!!! KKROCKSSS Congratulations Juhi Chawla!! The new victorious team KKR!! Lots of love!!
• Anubhav Sinha – You are all welcome to the party… Say it louder guys. KAY….. KAY…..AAAAR
• Bipasha Basu – Congrats SRK ! Great win fr KKR!





Bipasha Basu performing at the Opening Ceremony of IPL 5

•                      
• Shabana Azmi – I know nothing about cricket but I watched d match and prayed really hard for KKR to win! Congrats 2 the team,SRK and Juhi. Maza aa gaya
• Neha Dhupia – A match so worthy of being the final… Well played CSK and a huge congratulations to KKR and SRK !
• Vijay Mallya – Congratulations to KKR-New IPL Champions. So IPL VI finals will be played at Eden Gardens !!
• Farhan Akhtar – The wait is over. Well done KKR. Congratulations SRK and all team owners, members and staff. Let the good times roll….
• Genelia D’Souza – KKR r d Winners, yayyyy, congrats SRK n d team, ul gave us a super game, well played CSK
• Preity Zinta – Just landed in India & heard the good news ! Congrats SRK, Gauri & KKR for winning IPL 5 ! I’m sure 2night the Party is not gonna end !
• Vishal Dadlani – Congratulations to SRM and the team! Ami Kolkata.. WE RULE!!
•          

Satyamev Jayate: Aamir Khan targets corrupt doctors

With medical students as audience members, fourth episode of Aamir Khan’s television show 'Satyamev Jayate' focused on health care services in our country. Aamir’s guests on the show included doctors, victims and families who lost their loved ones due to negligence of doctors.

The show started with the story of VS Venkatesh who had to go thorough four surgeries because of an infection in his leg. He later got to know that the entire process that has cost him Rs 2 lakh was unnecessary and his infection could have been treated with medicines. Arvind Kumar from Hyderabad was kept in ICU for three days and was advised a surgery when all he needed was an ORS packet.

Is this mere negligence or we should call it a fraud? In a country where doctors are considered equivalent to God, the list of such cases is unending. Major Pankaj Rai’s wife Seema was suffering from a kidney ailment. Without her family’s permission, doctors took her to the operation theatre for kidney and pancreas transplant. Rai had to pay Rs 8.25 lakh for the surgery and Seema lost her life too. Doctors didn’t even inform the family about her demise and the switched off their mobile phones.

Dr Anil Pichad from Mumbai who owns a pathology lab revealed that he used to overcharge patients for tests as he had to pay commission to the doctors. After he went through a personal tragedy, he realized his mistake. He has stopped bribing the doctors now and takes nominal charges from patients.

It was surprising to know that many women in Kowdipally village of Andhra Pradesh were asked to get their uterus removed. The operation is expensive and the farmers had to sell their land or take loans for it. In most of the cases, the surgery wasn’t needed.

Major General (Retd) Som Jhingon, former Medical Council of India chief revealed that for medical colleges it’s only about making money. He tried to run MCI in a disciplined way, but when he failed to do so, he resigned after a year. Dr KK Talwar, Chairman, Board of Governors, Medical Council of India revealed that since 2008 there is not even one case where the license of a doctor have been cancelled. Dr Talwar had no satisfying reply to Aamir’s questions.

Dr CM Gulhati, Editor, Monthly Index of Medical Specialties says that health services aren’t a priority in India. He said the government should spend at least six percent of the GDP on the health services.

At the same time there are doctors who are trying to help poor people in getting better medical services. Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, founder and chairman, Narayan Hrudayalaya group of hospitals, Bengaluru revealed that under their Yashswani scheme every farmer pays Rs 10 per month and government adds Rs 30 to it annually. Dr Shetty explained how his group of hospitals has brought medical services in the reach of poor people.

Dr Samit Sharma, IAS, Managing Director, Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation was Aamir’s next guest. He revealed that the actual cost of medicines is pretty low, but they are sold on much higher prices. According to WHO, 65 percent of Indian population still doesn’t have access to basic medicines. Dr Sharma says that they have started generic medical stores in Rajasthan, which provide medicines on actual cost. A packet of blood cancer medicine costs Rs 1.25 lakh usually. Same generic medicines can be bought in less than Rs 10,000.

The previous episodes of the show focused on social issues like female foeticide, child sexual abuse and dowry system. Unlike the previous episodes of ‘Satyamev Jayate’, this episode wasn’t high on emotional drama. Aamir raised a very important topic this time and the show was packaged well. Let’s wait and watch how the show scores on the TRP scale this time.

Grockit’s New Web-Based Teaching Product Makes Learning Look Pretty

Social learning start-up Grockit launched Learnist on Thursday, a stand-alone product separate from Grockit’s flagship online collaborative test preparation service.

Learnist builds on Grockit’s social teaching concept while adding another element that company founder Farb Nivi claims is crucial: The visual element.

                                  

Think of Learnist as something of a mashup between Pinterest and Wikipedia. Users find content from across the Web — videos, news stories, music, Soundcloud links and what have you — and post it to a personal board that other users can follow. It’s ideal, Nivi says, for teachers who want to curate multimedia lessons for students to follow, though without the feel of a stodgy, traditional lesson plan.

Grockit has already garnered a following, attracting more than a million users through its test prep service product alone. But the user pool for online test prep is only so large. With Grockit’s wiki-like Learnist product, the company hopes to spread its reach far beyond the cramming crowd. Facebook integration, which the product indeed has, will only help to further the cause.

Naturally, iPad and iPhone apps are in the works, to be expected in the coming weeks.

For Hire: Good Virtual Assistant for Android

When the iphone 4S first came out, one of its most talked-about features was Siri, the smartphone’s voice-controlled virtual assistant. The concept wasn’t new, but what made Siri special was that it understood everyday language and responded with contextual answers. Android phone users might have felt envious of Siri. But there’s no need to be jealous.

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III will come with its own Siri-like feature called S Voice, but for other Android phone owners, there are a number of virtual assistant apps available from the Google Play Store. I spent this past week testing two of them, Vlingo and Speaktoit Assistant, on the Samsung Note. The apps aren’t exclusive to Android. Vlingo first launched on BlackBerry in 2008, and also works with Symbian and Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. Meanwhile, Speaktoit began on Android in 2011, and now supports iOS, with a Windows Phone app arriving in June.

Both of the Android apps are free and let you perform multiple tasks using voice commands. Speaktoit is more conversational, capable of using context to answer questions like Siri does, but it needs a bit of training to work with casual phrases, which Siri does without training. Vlingo, on the other hand, performs better, but lacks the ability to create calendar appointments, which is an important feature for a virtual assistant, thus tipping the scale in Speaktoit’s favor.

Of the two, Vlingo is definitely more of your no-nonsense personal assistant. It doesn’t offer any friendly banter; in fact, unless you press the Read button or turn on the SafeReader function to read incoming messages, it doesn’t talk back to you at all.

Vlingo’s list of abilities includes basic tasks, like dialing contacts, as well as more specialized requests, such as buying movie tickets. However, it seems to me that the app’s inability to create new appointments should be a key feature of a virtual assistant app.

This became especially clear over the past week as I was planning a surprise birthday party. In all the chaos, it would have been nice to create appointments with Vlingo. As it was, Vlingo didn’t understand the command “Create new appointment,” and searched the Web instead.

Vlingo says that while the ability to create appointments and alarms is a frequently requested feature, it does not have details about when this function might roll out.

This is an unfortunate drawback of an otherwise solid app, as Vlingo’s voice-recognition software was accurate from the start. When dictating messages, I appreciated that the app capitalized letters at the beginning of a sentence, inserted apostrophes where appropriate, and understood commands for adding text to the subject line. Speaktoit does not do any of this.

You can use Vlingo to update your Facebook status, send tweets, and check into Foursquare, as well. I sent a tweet using Vlingo, and I liked that it brought up a separate window, so I could attach a photo, whereas Speaktoit only gives you the option to send.

Be aware that you will have to log into your social networks and email accounts on both apps, so they can perform such functions as accessing your address book for voice dialing. Both companies say they do not collect any personal data without a user’s permission or disclosure, but earlier this year, Vlingo was hit with several software bugs that resulted in the app gathering more data than intended. The company has since tightened its security protocols to fix the issue.

One other unique feature about Vlingo is its InCar mode. Though still in its beta, or testing, stage, you can use this mode to call, compose and send text messages or navigate to a place, all by voice. As long as you have the app open, you can say, “Hey Vlingo” to launch the voice-recognition system.

Speaktoit Assistant is an app that’s more like Siri in that it offers more personality when answering questions; it even adds a human touch with a customizable avatar. You can choose between a male or female assistant, and change its hair, voice and more. There’s also a simple microphone if you find the avatars to be cheesy.

Right from the beginning, Speaktoit looks to get more personal by asking for your name. Unfortunately, my assistant Sam and I didn’t get off to a good start, after she interpreted “body” for “Bonnie.” After four tries, I finally gave up and typed in my name. (We made up after I asked Sam to be my best friend, and she said, “I thought we already were.”)

Speaktoit uses Google’s voice-recognition system (Vlingo uses its own, but you can switch to Google), and the first few rounds can be rough. However, the system learns your voice as you continue to use it, so accuracy should improve over time. I found this to be the case in my testing.

Even so, there’s a bit of a learning curve with using Speaktoit. While the app says you can ask questions as you normally would in real life, I found that’s not necessarily true. For example, I asked, “How deep is the Pacific Ocean?” and Sam said, “I’m still learning about that myself, Bonnie. As soon as I know, you’ll know.” But if I asked, “Find depth of Pacific Ocean,” Speaktoit brought up Google search results.

Once you learn these tricks, Speaktoit serves as a good virtual assistant. It has several advantages over Vlingo, including the fact that it reads back answers out loud. The app also does a better job with location-based requests. With Speaktoit, you can ask, “What is today’s weather?” and get the forecast for your current location, but with Vlingo, you have to include the city in your question.

To be sure, neither Vlingo nor Speaktoit Assistant is perfect. Thankfully, they’re free, so you can try both. But with a bit of time and training, Speaktoit is a more capable virtual assistant, with its talk-back abilities, full calendar management, and better location-based results.

IPL 2012: Kolkata Knight Riders -- How strong is their bid for a maiden IPL title?

Feroz Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders stand on the verge of clinching their first ever Indian Premier League title. Consistency has been the key to their superb show in the ongoing edition of the tournament. Led by Gautam Gambhir, the team looks confident after outmaneuvering table toppers Delhi Daredevils in the first qualifier.







After analyzing what can work for and against KKR

• Played: 16

• Won: 10

• Lost: 5

• No Result: 1

• IPL titles: None


• Strength: Their spin attack led by Sunil Narine is their biggest strength. The West Indian recruit has trapped many a batsmen in his web of spin bowling. Rajat Bhatia too has bowled well and provided wickets at crucial times.

• Weakness: Batting. Not more than often, it has been KKR’s batting that has been an area of concern. Jacques Kallis has been steady at the top but scores at a slower rate when compared with the standards of T20 cricket. Big hitting Yusuf has been a flop for them barring their last match when he scored a quick 40 helping his team to post a competitive total in the first qualifier against Delhi. What else can work against their favour is that this is going to be their first ever IPL final appearance while their opponent CSK have been a sort of regular visitors. 

• Key players: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine 


• Squad: Gautam Gambhir (c), Brendon McCullum (wk), Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rajat Bhatia, Sunil Narine, Brett Lee, Iqbal Abdulla, Chirag Jani, Iresh Saxena, Jaidev Unadkat, Manvinder Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Sanju Samson, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Mohammad Shami Ahmed, Eoin Morgan, Marchant de Lange, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan. 

Who can be the trump cards of Kolkata Knight Riders in the final?

Biswajit Jha

After four years’ of despair, disillusionment and despondency, IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders are finally just one match away from clinching the IPL title. Unlike the previous years, KKR have mostly been in the news for cricketing reasons. They were led from the front by Gautam Gambhir and ably supported by Brendon McCullum, Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, L Balaji and Shakib Al Hasan. But the real impetus has come from a little known Indian origin West Indian Sunil Narine. The mystery spinner has wreaked havoc on all the opposition batsmen. He, along with Gautam Gambhir, virtually helped KKR reach the final. 


Gautam Gambhir: 

                                  
Interestingly, Kolkata needed a Delhi guy to take them to the final! Clichéd as it may sound, but the fact is Gambhir led KKR from the front since the beginning of IPL season 5. He batted consistently, led his troops on the field like a good general. It seems that he took his stripping of Indian vice-captaincy seriously and wanted to prove the selectors wrong. Most of his on-field decisions were immaculate; he has always remained one step ahead of the match, a must in T20 cricket where everything happens so quickly. 

Another most important challenge Gambhir faced was when he took over the captaincy from Kolkata’s very own Sourav Ganguly. He needed to win the hearts of the passionate Bengalis. And he did it in style. The 5th May-match against Sourav Ganguly’s Pune Warriors virtually established Gambhir as the leader of KKR. In that match, Gambhir made a quick fire 56 on a turning Eden track and gave the team a much needed win. 

In the 16 matches so far in IPL 5, Gambhir has made 588 runs, highest among the KKR batsmen, with an average of 39.20 with 6 fifties. His consistency was such that in the last 10 matches, he just failed in just two games.


He has brought certain calmness to this high-profile team which never reached the semi-final stage in the earlier four editions. The way he backed under-performers in the team speaks a lot about Gambhir the leader. His faith on under-fire Yusuf Pathan finally paid off in the last match against Delhi as he played that decisive innings in the end. 

Tactically, he outsmarted most of his counterparts by relaying on spinners. In most of the matches, KKR fielded three tweakers which proved to be a very handy strategy on slow and low Indian tracks. 

Sunil Narine: 

                                
It’s seems Kolkata Knight Riders management has a penchant for the ‘mystery’ spinners. First, it was Sri Lankan Ajatha Mendis, who played for them in the second and third editions. And now, West Indian Sunil Narine. But unlike Mendis, Narine set the IPL 5 on fire and led Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan owned team to the final almost single handedly. He bamboozled the best of the batsmen with the new ball. Even the great Tendulkar failed to ‘read’ his ball and got bowled. He was equally threatening with the old ball. He was hardly taken to the cleaners in any of the matches. He contributed in every victory KKR registered in this season of IPL. 

The Trinidadian Narine, who held the `Purple Cap` briefly, has taken 24 wickets in 14 matches, and those wickets came at an enviable average of 11.95 and by far has been the best spinner, if not the best bowler of IPL 5. Not just his number of wickets, but the number of runs he conceded is also amazing. He has just given away 5.20 runs per over in a format where an economy of 7 per over is considered to be reasonable. 

Before the IPL, the spinner had the Australian batsmen in trouble in the ODI series that he played just before the IPL. Some of the Australian batsmen openly admitted their inability to ‘pick’ him properly. Seeing him bamboozle the batsmen, most of the West Indians back home are, ruing his absence from their squad that is touring England currently. 

But what makes him a special commodity? KKR coach Travor Bayliss puts it like this: "He is one of the mystery spinners. That, combined with accuracy and a bit of extra pace, has made him more than a handful. Even if you`re lucky to pick the ball he has bowled, there`s no guarantee that you`ll actually get him away for runs. More the batsmen play him, more the chances of picking him, but Narine has it in him to stay one step ahead. He`s such an unbelievable talent." 

Jacques Kallis: 
                      

Like always, Jacques Kallis has been the pillar of strength for Kolkata Knight Riders in this season as well. He gave KKR batting line-up a sense of solidity at the top. His calm presence in a maddening format has helped KKR put up good score in most of the matches. But, his main contribution has come with the ball. Gambhir has had the luxury of going with three spinners with Kallis in the team. And he responded really well. His bowling at the death speaks volumes about this soft-spoken bloke’s cricketing ability. Apart from scoring 340 runs so far, Kallis has taken 14 wickets in this season. 


Shakib Al Hasan: 

                                
The one thing for which Gambhir has been criticized throughout the entire season was his decision to leave out Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan from the playing XI. Out of 16 matches Shakib has played just 7. But whenever he got the opportunity to play, he performed either with bat or ball. Though statistically it was not a tournament to remember for Shakib the batsman, but he delivered with his slow left-arm spin in almost every match he played. He claimed 11 wickets. He started with the new ball, bowled in the middle overs, again came on to bowl at the death. But wherever he bowled, his real contribution has been in strangulating the flow of runs. 

Rajat Bhatia: 

                      
Again statistically, Rajat Bhatia may not look like a man behind Kolkata’s dream run this year, but the low profile Delhi medium pacer played a very important role. His 12 wickets in 16 matches won’t show his real contribution. But he played a role similar to what in batting terms a ‘grafter’ or a ‘sheet-anchor’ plays. No glamour attached to it but if you consider it from a team’s point of view, the role is one of the most important one. It’s Bhatia who have shown that you can be a valuable addition to your team even with the military medium pace. Though he could not perform well with the bat, his 7.29 economy rate with the ball has made him one of the vital cogs in KKR bowling line-up. 

IPL 5 Qualifier: Five reasons for CSK’s win over Delhi in the second qualifier

At the start of the tournament, Chennai Super Kings looked out of colour, while Delhi Daredevils were in top form. As the tournament progressed and reached its business end, the defending champions got back their mojo and that confidence propelled them to the finals of the IPL 5. They registered a comprehensive win over the table topers Daredevils in the second qualifiers, winning it by 86 runs.

Here are few points throwing light on what worked in Chennai’s favour against Delhi at Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday night. 

Murali Vijay’s blast

Murali Vijay demolished the much feared Delhi bowling attack fearlessly to register his second IPL century becoming the first Indian to do so. He struck 15 boundaries and 4 sixes in his innings of 113 (58) that set the tone of the match. His batting oozed confidence and intent to perform for his team.

MS Dhoni’s calmness

Much was being said about how MS Dhoni had lost his midas touch and how he has used all of his luck. But the captain of a team that has won two consecutive IPL titles again gave a glowing example of his shrewdness and calm approach to the game by leading his team to yet another final. Not just by his captaincy, the Ranchi lad’s batting also came good when it mattered as he struck a brisk half-century against Mumbai in the eliminator and then scored a quick 23 (10) to take his team to a massive total of 222 runs in the second qualifiers against Delhi.


Virender Sehwag’s poor captaincy

Delhi Daredevils were the hot property of IPL 2012 with their star studded batting line-up and a venom spitting pace attack. Everything seemed to work in their favour until the first qualifier when they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders. Sehwag’s decision to demote Ross Taylor in the batting order came under severe criticism in that match. In the finals, Irfan Pathan got injured so the team dropped Purple cap holder Morne Morkel in favour of Andre Russell to fill the gap of an allrounder. They missed him miserably as their bowlers were spanked all over the park by the Chennai batsmen. 

The curious decision to hand off-spinner Sunny Gupta a debut in a crucial match like this was beyond reasoning when they had Shahbaz Nadeem in their ranks who had done reasonably well in the tournament to be included in the playing XI. His decision to come at no 3 when he has opened for the outfit in the previous games also seemed out of tune.

Failure of Delhi batting

Since Kevin Pietersen’s left the squad to fulfill national duty, Delhi’s batting lacked the assuredness. The addition of David Warner in the latter half of the tournament was supposed to make up for the loss. It seemed to work as the Australian showed his class hitting a century against a hapless Deccan Chargers in the league matches. Ross Taylor also failed to make any significant impact. Sehwag too faded away as the tournament progressed.

Fielding

David Warner and Virender Sehwag dropped one catch each during Chennai’s batting. Electric fielding sometimes raises the spirit of the team as a whole but Delhi failed on this front not once but twice, dropping two sitters. Naman Ojha did took a brilliant one-handed catch to dismiss Michael Hussey but the Australian made up for it by taking a good running catch to halt Sehwag’s innings at just 1 run during Delhi’ chase. 

Shahrukh Khan banned at Wankhede Stadium

The Wankhede stadium scuffle involving Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan on Friday threatened to turn into a tug of war between the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), which controls the venue.
                The MCA banned Khan for five years from entering the stadium for misbehaving with its officials after Wednesday's IPL match, but league chairman Rajiv Shukla said the BCCI would have the last word on the matter.

"State bodies can only recommend, a final decision has to be taken by the BCCI," he said.

                            

MCA president Vilasrao Deshmukh, however, made it clear there would be no rethink on the ban.

"The BCCI will say what they want to, but we (MCA) are an independent body and the Wankhede stadium is our property. We have taken a decision to protect the dignity of our association," he said.

Deshmukh said Khan's entry to Wankhede was barred for all activities - even international matches and events.

"He didn't call me up, nor has he apologised. We have filed a police complaint and it's up to the police to act. From our side, the matter is closed," he said.

Several senior BCCI members backed the MCA.

"The stadium is MCA's property and the decision won't come for ratification to the board," said one member.

Another member found Shukla's statement "strange" and said: "What can a third party do if I decide on who should be allowed to enter my house?"

According to rules, the BCCI can't interfere in the matter, but what Shukla may have meant was that the board would use its clout to reverse the MCA's decision.

"The BCCI can only request the MCA, and who will refuse the BCCI?" asked another senior board functionary.

If so, it will then become a case of whether the MCA can stand its ground against the BCCI's pressure.