IPL: Purple haze envelops Kolkata

Like so many words in different languages around the world, the Bengali word 'hujuge' doesn't really have an accurate counterpart in English. The closest one can get is 'fadistic', a word Bengalis have coined to describe themselves. It means, simply, that people of the state and its capital city Kolkata love fads, get excited easily, and are usually happy to drop all that they might be doing to join the fun.

So while cynics may point out that the Kolkata Knight Riders team has very little 'Kolkata' in it, the city and its mercurial Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have been in the middle of a never-ending party since the team won the Indian Premier League title on Sunday night.

As always in Kolkata, politics is never too far away from sport. A report in prominent Bengali daily Sangbad Pratidin starts with: "The Bengal of change. The Knight Riders team doesn't have the CPI(M)-tainted Sourav Ganguly anymore. Shah Rukh Khan and Gautam Gambhir have embraced the change with tremendous enthusiasm." The report adds: "Mamata Banerjee has been by Shah Rukh's side from the time the battle (the fifth edition of the IPL) started."

The report adds that the other day, Banerjee told Khan that he has to win. Khan, apparently, replied that he would.

Gambhir has been harping on "This win is for Kolkata and its people" from the moment the official broadcasters caught hold of him immediately after the win in Chennai. Ananda Bazar Patrika quoted Gambhir on Tuesday morning as saying, "I am a Kolkata boy. I have always felt it. When I reached Kolkata with the trophy, I couldn't tell if I was in Delhi or in Kolkata."

Khan has also mouthed similar lines, almost without a break. He is quoted in The Telegraph as saying, "Korechhi, lorechhi, jeetechhi" meaning "We did, we fought, we won", a somewhat Caesaresque play on the team's theme song. Khan has been the brand ambassador of West Bengal since the start of IPL V.

Manoj Tiwary, the local boy who hit the winning runs in the final, has hardly had a minute's rest since reaching Kolkata. He told Bengali daily Ek Din that he was always confident he would hit the winning runs. Tiwary, along with Khan and Gambhir, have featured on the front page of practically every Kolkata daily - English or Bengali - for two days in a row now.

Gambhir was reportedly mobbed by supporters outside the team hotel in the city on Monday, as were some other prominent members of the team. The lobby of the team hotel has been bursting at the seams with fans - young and old, male and female - seeking photographs and autographs for posterity and the I-was-there bragging rights.

On Tuesday afternoon, Banerjee's felicitation of the Knight Riders team (minus the overseas personnel with the exception of Shakib Al Hasan and Trevor Bayliss, the coach) was televised live by news channels - national and regional.

Yes, there have been comments on Twitter and Facebook questioning the logic of the government spending so much money despite the state's poor financial position. Banerjee's response, so far, has been that not much money has been spent on the carnival. "We are just showering the team with our love and affection," she said.

So long as the people in the city have their share of joy, who's to complain?