Mukul Chaudhary (BCCI/IPL photo)

New Delhi: When Mukul Chaudhary packed his bags and left for home after IPL 2026, there was a deep sense of satisfaction with him. There was the joy of a memorable debut season, highlighted by his six-hit blitz against Kolkata Knight Riders that helped Lucknow Super Giants pull off a surprise heist.The experience of sharing a dressing room with stars he had only seen on television while growing up. And there were invaluable lessons that helped him understand his game better. But most of all, one thing stood out.The greatest satisfaction for Mukul was knowing that he would finally be able to reduce the financial burden of his family by repaying the bank loan he had taken years ago to build the house.After impressing in domestic cricket, Mukul was bought by Lucknow Supergiants for Rs 2.60 crore in the IPL auction. Now, with his first IPL season over and his salary secure, the young player is ready to return home and help his family pay off the debt they have accrued over the years.“Before all this, my father was a teacher. Then we sold our house. My grandfather, who had retired from the army, helped us with some money. We also borrowed from my uncle. From him we bought a piece of land and later took a loan from the bank to build a hotel on it. For a long time, we lived in a rented house. Ever since I started playing cricket, our family has been moving from one rented house to another,” Mukul told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive interview. Is.”“Now everything will go away [Now all those debts will be cleared]. I’m glad I could do this for my family. Thanks to IPL and LSG.”

The first IPL six, a memory foreverMukul still gets goosebumps when he thinks about that IPL night at Eden Gardens.Facing KKR, the youngster played one of the finest innings of the season, hitting 57 runs in just 27 balls with the help of seven sky-high sixes, giving Lucknow Super Giants a spectacular target. After sealing the victory, Mukul stood in the middle of the field with folded hands, head bowed towards the sky, enjoying the moment.“A lot has changed in T20 cricket. The impact player rule has come in. Earlier, batsmen were expected to play long innings and stay at the crease. Now teams have two all-rounders and batting goes up to No. 9. The mentality has changed – as soon as you come in, you are expected to attack,” he said.“Earlier, a coach in an academy would work with 20 or 30 kids. Today, an entire support system is built around a talented player from a very young age. Look at Vaibhav Suryavanshi, when he was growing up, his father used to travel with him everywhere. It has become extremely important to have a mentor and special trainers.Players now have personalized training programs, book individual practice grounds and are far more focused. All of this has changed the game significantly,” he explained.

For Mukul, IPL was always more than just another tournament.“IPL is a big platform for someone like me. I feel lucky to have got this opportunity. Every cricketer’s first dream is to play for India and the IPL opens that path. I never thought that so many things would happen so quickly. My family was also very happy. Whatever happened next was completely unexpected.”hard work behind successLong before the IPL spotlight, Mukul spent countless hours chasing his dream. He traveled frequently between Gurgaon and Bharatpur (his residence) to play matches and improve his game, often spending the whole night in buses before batting the next day.“I also trained extensively in Gurugram. There were days when I would catch an overnight bus, reach Bharatpur in the morning, play a match there, travel back overnight and then play another match in Gurugram the very next day. Mukul said, “For two-three months my entire focus was on cricket.”He said, “My brother stayed with me throughout that time. He took care of my diet and daily routine as I continued my studies. He helped me a lot. I wouldn’t call it a struggle, but it definitely required a lot of hard work. The goal was always to take my game to the next level.”The sacrifices were rewarded. After impressing in age-group cricket, Mukul scored 173 runs at a strike rate of 198.85 in five innings during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26, and earned an IPL contract with LSG.“Even before my father got married, he had a dream that his son should play cricket. The financial situation was not very good in the beginning. But my father and mother did everything to support me. My brother was always with me, took care of me and helped me fulfill my dreams.”Learning from Pant, Marsh and PuranIPL was not just about performances. It was also a crash course in handling pressure and understanding match situations.

“I learned a lot from my time there. One thing everyone kept telling me was to stay positive, whether it was dealing with pressure situations or molding your batting as per the demands of the match.”“Mitchell Marsh would often say to me, ‘Bat as deep into the innings as you can. If you’re still there, you can win the match for your team. There’s no point in throwing your wicket away in a hurry.’ I also learned a lot from Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran. And yes, I spent a lot of time working on my sixes as well,” he said.However, the biggest impact was that of the captain Rishabh Pant.The biggest support for me was the trust shown in me by Pant Bhaiya. He would always say, ‘Brother, we believe in you, so you also need to believe in yourself.’ You’re here because you’re good enough to be here. You didn’t get to this level by chance, you did something special to earn this opportunity. So support yourself and have faith in your abilities. Their belief in me gave me a lot of confidence,” he said.Big plans aheadMukul finished IPL 2026 with 170 runs in 10 matches at a strike rate of 141.66, which included 12 sixes. Despite LSG’s disappointing campaign and becoming the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, Mukul is confident about the future.“I would just like to say that we could not perform as well as they expected this season. But we will make sure that next time we do not fall behind. We will come back stronger and perform much better.”“I learned a lot from this IPL. This tournament taught me a lot and I have already started thinking about what I want to improve before the next season. In a few days, I will start preparing again,” he said.

Controversial streamer Clavicular sparked widespread backlash after calling Bitcoin “trash” and a “terrible investment” during a viral livestream. He argued that the cryptocurrency lacks intrinsic value and claimed that its biggest gains are already behind it. His comments were criticized by crypto proponents, who defended Bitcoin’s growing institutional acceptance and long-term potential. The rant also revived discussion regarding Clavicular’s past disagreements with fellow streamer Sneekko and past crypto-related controversies.

Controversial streamer Clavicular’s past reopens with viral livestream clip, Bitcoin Harsh Criticism Soon his comments went viral on social media, drawing sharp reactions from fans and foes alike, as crypto enthusiasts rushed to refute his views.The debate was a sensitive moment for the crypto market. Bitcoin’s continued attraction to institutional interest and long-term investors, and Clavicular’s apparent dismissal of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, have reignited old debates about value, risk, and the future of the digital asset.

Clavicular’s Bitcoin rant divides the crypto community

During a recent livestream, Clavicular offered one of his strongest criticisms of Bitcoin to date, arguing that the asset offers little value to investors.“I think, ‘Bitcoin is absolutely worthless. Bitcoin, don’t trust this crap. It’s a terrible investment,'” Clavicular said.The streamer questioned the fundamentals of Bitcoin and claimed that its decentralized nature made it difficult to view it as a traditional asset.“It’s not a thing. It’s not a product. It’s not anything,” he said.Clavicular also argued that Bitcoin’s historical growth has already provided most of its potential profits, suggesting that future investors should not expect the same level of returns seen during previous market cycles.His comments immediately sparked reactions online. Some traders scoffed at the criticism, seeing it as a bullish sign for Bitcoin’s future performance. Others questioned whether the influencer fully understood the property he was criticizing.“Possibly the clearest bottom signal in the history of financial markets,” one social media user wrote, while others pointed to growing institutional adoption as evidence that Bitcoin continues to gain credibility.

Bitcoin debate revives clavicular crypto controversies

The latest comments also drew attention to Clavicular’s previous public disagreements with fellow streamer Sneekko. Earlier this year, the two debated the future of Bitcoin amid market volatility.While Clavicular maintained his skepticism, Sneekko defended cryptocurrencies and encouraged diversification.“Fiat currency is not based on anything. Bitcoin is decentralized. You can’t create more Bitcoin than that,” Sneekko said.He added, “I think you should diversify.”“You must have gold, you must have silver, you must have bitcoin, you must have crypto, you must have real estate.”The renewed attention has also brought back the discussion surrounding Clavicular’s response to a failed meme coin project involving another content creator. At the time, his comments about receiving advance notice of token launches drew criticism from those who felt influencers were treating speculative crypto projects too casually.Overall, these controversies highlight the growing divide between internet celebrities and crypto investors. While outspoken creators continue to make headlines with provocative opinions, the digital asset community remains quick to challenge claims they deem misleading or uninformed. For Clavicular, the latest Bitcoin debate has once again put him at the center of an argument that shows no signs of fading.

Techie who murdered parents is mentally healthy, police say

Bengaluru: Was he schizophrenic and did his illness cause him to stab his parents to death? This question haunted everyone when police arrested 33-year-old software engineer Rohan Chandra for stabbing his parents – Naveen Chandra Bhatt, a retired Navy captain, and Shyamala Bhatt – to death at their villa in Vigyan Nagar near HAL township in February.A neighbour, Dr Madhavi Nair, was among the witnesses to the attack and shifted the couple to Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road, where she worked. However, both victims were declared dead.While taking statements from neighbors and witnesses, the police learned that Shyamala had told them that Rohan was facing anxiety issues and was schizophrenic. Based on this, the police transferred him to NIMHANS.However, after a week of observation and treatment, NIMHANS doctors declared Rohan a fit person, and there were no symptoms of stress or anxiety or schizophrenia, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield) Saidulu Adawatha.“The doctors gave us the clear go-ahead, saying we can interrogate Rohan and later produce him in court. With that certificate, we continued our investigation and interrogated Rohan in detail,” he said.According to the findings of the investigators, Rohan was mainly troubled over two issues. His parents refused to give him financial help of Rs 10 lakh, which he wanted to invest in a startup he wanted to launch. After completing his master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence in the US, Rohan wanted to start a company that could provide AI tools. But his parents refused to give him the money, saying that he had to do a job.Secondly, his father was not allowing Rohan to port his mobile number from Jio to Airtel, police said.“Rohan had used the Jio number for a long time and had shared it with others. He wanted to retain the number and switch to Airtel. But his father rejected the request. On that fateful day of February 11, a heated argument took place between Rohan and his parents and ended in brutal murder,” the police chargesheet states.The nearly 500-page charge sheet contains statements of around 40 witnesses and also includes the report of the forensic science laboratory.Forensic reports confirm that the blood stains found on Rohan belonged to his parents. Police said, this establishes the fact beyond any doubt that Rohan was the murderer of the couple.

Second seed Alexander Zverev survived an early scare against Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar before reaching the French Open semi-finals with a 7-6(3), 6-1, 6-3 win at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old Djodar produced a stunning performance in the opening set to break Zverev and go 4-2 up against last year’s runner-up. However, the German weathered the storm, stormed back into the contest and never looked back after winning in a tense first set tiebreak.

French Open: Quarter-finals Day 1 updates

The victory took Zverev into the Roland Garros semi-finals for the fifth time in the last six years, as he continued his quest for a first Grand Slam title.

Zverev’s best chance to win a Grand Slam?

With defending champion Carlos Alcaraz out due to injury and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic already out of the tournament, Zverev is getting one of his best opportunities yet to break his Grand Slam duck.

Yet the German made it clear afterwards that just reaching another semi-final meant nothing to him.

“Not really, I don’t really care. I want to move forward, stay in the tournament and win the matches ahead of me, that’s my goal,” Zverev said when asked again about making the final four.

“It was a very tough test against a very good player.”

Youngsters justify the hype

For most of the opening set, Jodar justified the hype that had surrounded him in Spanish tennis circles.

Kishore equalized Zverev from the baseline and scored his first breakthrough of the match to go 4-2 up, putting the second seed under pressure for a brief period.

Zverev responded in the same way one would expect from a player with far more experience on big stages. Using her trademark crosscourt backhand to repeatedly pull Jodar down, she gradually gained control of the rallies and leveled the set at 5–5.

The opening set lasted for over an hour and ultimately proved to be the turning point of the competition.

After avoiding danger, Zverev dominated the tiebreak before maintaining that momentum throughout the remainder of the match.

The heavy weight of the German’s shot began to weaken Jodar. The Spaniard repeatedly found himself running down both wings and struggled to time the ball consistently from the baseline.

After losing from a position to win the opening set, Jodar’s resistance faded. Zverev won the second set 6–1 and maintained complete control in the third set, winning in two hours and 29 minutes.

Zverev will next face Czech teenager Jakub Mencic or rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca for a place in the French Open final.

– ends

New Delhi: The tender process has been left behind CBSEThe large-scale On-Screen Marking (OSM) project has come under more intense scrutiny after procurement records revealed that Hyderabad-based Koempt Edutech Pvt Ltd had narrowly lost out to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in the technical evaluation before gaining a decisive lead through extremely low financial bid.The scoring pattern has raised questions among some procurement observers whether the tender design disproportionately benefited companies with narrowly defined prior examination-scanning experience compared to companies with larger technology and systems integration capabilities.The contract involved scanning and digital evaluation of approximately 9.9 million answer sheets of Class XII under the CBSE’s fully digitized evaluation system introduced this year.Tender documents reviewed by TOI show that Coempt scored 91 out of 100 in the technical evaluation, just ahead of TCS, which scored 89 points. Both companies were closely matched across several parameters including certification, manpower, security compliance, disaster recovery systems and solution architecture.The main difference emerged in the “previous experience” category, which specifically related to the scanning and delivery of subjective answer scripts for digital assessment.According to the technical evaluation sheet, despite scoring high marks in the technical presentation and live demonstration section, Koempt received full marks, while TCS received zero marks in that category.Koempt also received full marks for its experience in handling large-scale digital assessment projects and managing multiple assessment centers simultaneously. However, TCS got maximum marks under the turnover criteria due to its larger financial scale and operational efficiency.An even bigger difference was revealed in the financial bids.According to the bid documents, Coempt quoted rates ranging between around Rs 24.8 to Rs 25.7 per answer booklet, depending on the processing volume, while TCS quoted between Rs 53 and Rs 65 per booklet in the same categories.The estimated bid price for TCS was around Rs 384.6 crore compared to around Rs 951.3 crore for Koempt – a difference of around Rs 566 crore.Under the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) model adopted by CBSE, the weightage of technical scores was 70% while the weightage of financial bids was 30%. “The bidder with a slight technical edge and a significantly lower bid gets a big advantage when the weighted scores are combined,” said a former central government procurement official.The procurement process has also attracted attention as CBSE did not finalize a qualified vendor in the two earlier tender rounds before modifying some technical conditions in the subsequent request for proposal issued in August 2025.However, officials rejected suggestions that Koempt was favored.CBSE sources said the evaluation was done strictly as per the norms prescribed in the tender document and under the general financial rules governing public procurement. Officials argued that the board had limited discretion in the technical round and that Koempt met all the eligibility requirements set out in the bid conditions.“The company which met the technical requirements and achieved the highest combined QCBS score was selected as per QCBS provisions,” an official said.The tender has acquired wider significance amid growing scrutiny of CBSE’s digital assessment ecosystem and questions over the pace of rolling out the OSM system nationwide for the 2026 board exams.

Ayushmann Khurrana-led film ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh Do’ started a decline at the box office after performing well in the first weekend in theatres. movie, with Sara Ali Khan, Vamika GabbiAnd Rakul Preet Singh As directed by its lead heroines Mudassar Aziz. The film maintained low but steady collections at the box office and is currently in its third week in theatres.

19th day box office collection of ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh Do’

The Ayushmann starrer earned Rs 29 crore in its first week, taking its total to Rs 12.95 crore in its second week. Now, on the 19th day, the film showed a mid-week growth of 25% compared to the previous day’s earnings. The film grossed Rs 1 crore on its 19th day in 2,703 shows. With this, India’s total net collection has reached Rs 48.75 crore. Meanwhile, the total India gross collection now stands at Rs 57.84 crore.Well, if the trend continues then the film may cross the Rs 50 crore nett mark in India by the end of this week.In the international market, the film has grossed a total of Rs 7.65 crore, taking its worldwide total to Rs 65.49 crore.

Day/Week Wise Collection (India Net)

First week collection: Rs 29 croreSecond week collection: Rs 12.95 crore15th day collection: Rs 1.25 crore16th day collection: Rs 1.75 crore17th day collection: Rs 2 crore18th day collection: Rs 0.80 crore19th day collection: Rs 1 croreTotal India Net Collection: Rs 48.75 crore

occupancy

The situational comedy-drama, which had no big-budget films to compete with, achieved an overall occupancy of 19.40% on its 19th day in theatres.

More information about ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh Do’

Apart from the lead stars, the film directed by Mudassar Aziz also stars Tighmanshu Dhulia, Vijay Raaz, Vishal Vashishtha, Durgesh Kumar and Ayesha Raza Mishra in lead roles. The film hits theaters on May 15, 2026.Disclaimer: The box office numbers and data in this article are compiled from a variety of public and industry sources. Unless explicitly noted, all figures are approximate, representing a fair representation of the film’s box office performance. These totals may change as official studio data is updated or additional international market reports are finalized. This data is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only.

Jabari Brown and MisterBeast (Image via Getty)

Jabari Brown, the young pilot who became famous online after winning a private jet in a MisterBeast challenge video, has now been arrested in Paraguay in a major drug trafficking investigation. Paraguayan authorities said Brown was detained in Asuncion after investigators found about 261.6 kilograms, or about 577 pounds, of cannabis allegedly belonging to a private plane that arrived from Miami. The case immediately attracted online attention as Brown had gained a large following after appearing in one of MisterBeast’s viral aviation videos.Brown became the fourth person arrested in the investigation, according to Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat, also known as Senad. The plane landed at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, where agents allegedly discovered cannabis hidden inside several suitcases being taken off the plane, authorities said. The story becomes even more shocking for many fans as Brown was once seen as an up-and-coming young pilot after winning MisterBeast’s 2025 video “100 Pilots Fight for a Private Jet”, where he reportedly earned a Hawker 400XP aircraft worth approximately $2.4 million.

For many fans, Brown’s arrest came as a complete surprise. After winning the MisterBeast contest, the then 20-year-old pilot talked about using the plane to start a charter aviation business. His online popularity grew rapidly after the video and many viewers saw him as one of the personalities to emerge from the challenge.However, his name is now being linked to one of Paraguay’s largest international trafficking investigations. SENAD officials described the seized cannabis as a “premium” variety with high THC levels. Officials also claimed that the shipment may have been destined for the Brazilian market, where the drugs could reportedly be sold for around $14,000 per kilogram.Paraguayan authorities said three other US citizens, Marisol Rivas, Anthony Vasquez and David Thomas Wise, were also arrested following the search. Investigators have not identified Brown as the owner of the aircraft involved in the case.According to SENAD, the aircraft was allegedly owned and operated by Keith Silats, an Estonian national who was reportedly associated with Bolt Mobility in the United States. Paraguayan newspaper Ultima Hora reported that Silat was believed to have left the country before his arrest.So far, neither MrBeast nor Brown’s representatives have commented publicly on the investigation. The investigation into the case continues in Paraguay.