Home Coming

Ok so finally I get the time to write about my last quiz. The quiz that I conducted in my second home, Scindia, the place where I spent the formative years of my life. That’s where I conducted my last quiz. I am an Ex-Scindian and I’ve been conducting the Platinum Jubilee Memorial Quiz(or Plat as it is fondly called) for 3 years now.

Just 6 years ago I was on the other side of the table (for the record I came second) In the three years that I have been a quizmaster for this quiz, Scindia has won it once, in 2010. Today, I am more interested in talking about why I feel nervous before taking the stage for Plat, every time. (The review for the quiz can be found here) Is it because emotions always take a front seat whenever I go back to my alma mater? Or is it just a figment of my imagination? Or is it because the burden of expectations in a familiar setting is a lot more?

The concern comes from the fact that in my brief history of 2 years of being a quizmaster, in the last year or so (at least) I have never trembled when on stage. But in Scindia, the night before the quiz I had a difficult time. So was the case in 2009 & 2010 Plat. That uneasiness and restlessness just wouldn’t go. I could hardly sleep. And even in the morning when I was getting ready I was shivering, for no reason. The only comforting factor was when Ma’am Bishnoi (my English teacher from school- one of the few teachers still in Scindia from my time) came and made tea for me and when Mr. Ramesh Sharma (the band teacher) tied the tie for me, a simple task I just couldn’t pull off (thank you, shaky hands).

Ok the quiz began and for the first ten minutes I ran out of jokes. They-just-wouldn’t-come-to-me. I started pathetically (I missed the introduction of teams!!), but after about 10 odd minutes I approached the flow(As Tony Hsieh says in Delivering Happiness). The teams were comfortable, so were I and the audience. As I keep saying, one of the bigger determinants of the success of a quiz is NOT how the participants perceived it, but how the audience thinks it is. Being a showman working towards the feedback effect is what I strive for; it just brings out the best in me. The greater the feedback the better the performance, the better the performance the greater the feedback. Repeat.

The obvious answer I think is the fact that there’s a huge emotional connect I have with Scindia. The friends, the teachers, the pride in being a Scindian, the daily routine set according to the Astachal and the byes after every meal as if it’s the last time we’re meeting, amongst other priceless memories weigh heavily on me. The aatma of Scindia is what I’m talking. The fact that I spend 2 extra days before the quiz every year in school in its usual form, unlike the noise of the Founder’s day, adds to the tension. But will I trade off those emotionally drenching two days for those 10 minutes of solid start? I don’t think so.

Thank god I only ask the questions!!

MCGS, Ajmer Quizzing Workshop

Deshan and I conducted a quiz workshop last weekend in MCGS, Ajmer. This post is not a report/review of the same (you will find that here) but I just wanted to talk about my experience and a few learnings.
Starting with the experience, one word.. Fantastic. The workshop, atleast from our end, was awesome. And going by the reactions posted on the facebook wall that we created in the workshop, we did fairly well. Before reaching MCGS I did have some vague memories of the last time I was there, for IPSC Cultural Fest. 8 years ago. Spending three days in that campus just refreshed all those memories (Himanshu if you ever read this, recall the Hidamba incident)
Moving on, the fact that we customized the workshop to a great extent coupled with a lot of real time exercises meant that we slept for close to 10 hours in 72 hours. It was crazy but it was fun. And all that definitely wouldn't have been possible without Abhiram, Abhishek and Po.

Now to certain learnings which we noted down while on our way back. I won't keep it quizzing workshop specific but I hope it would make sense for anyone dealing with kids:

• Be informal but be authoritative




• Give them opportunities to practice skills/learnings/whatever it is that you are doing




• It is difficult for kids to be mentally present for a long time at a stretch so provide them with avenues to distract their mind. Being a facilitator of distractions helps you when you really want them to pay attention.




• When preparing for the workshop keep in mind that more than just imparting those skills that you intend to, you also have to create an experience for them.




• For every activity/game/exercise/speech ask why you are doing this and what do you wish to achieve for your participants at the end of it.




• Customize it for your participants. Every school may have similar demographic characteristics but they have different psychographic characteristics. Interacting with them in the earlier stages of the workshop really helps. Activities and talks related to a lot of real time incidents create a much greater impact. More than just being challenging it also kills boredom emanating from being repetitive.




• Even if you're doing a workshop for a very traditional art form- use technology. Being as non-techie as a non-techie can be, mark my words. Use technology.




• Ensure what you communicate has been received well. DO NOT ASSUME.




• When planning activities think of activities that are inclusive. Appreciate everyones hardwork and unless facing time constraints, give them an opportunity to present their skills in front of the gathering. Apologise if you're unable to do so.




• And finally, Expect the best. Prepare for the worst.

Well that's it for now. Keep Quizzing!

Why quizzing does what it does to me

I might be the only loser blogger who's been blogging for three years without anybody else having read his blog. But that's ok I've found a corner for me to sulk I'll go there after I'm done with this blogpost.
Now today's post as the the headline says is why am I hooked to quizzing and what keeps me hooked. I'll start with some incidents I remember and will always remember till the rest of my life.

• Incident 1-

When I was in Grade 5 or 6 in Sommeville School, Noida we had a weekly SUPW period where you could choose one hobby out of quizzing, craft, dancing, music etc. I chose quizzing. So our teacher Mrs. Batra used to come up with interesting questions every week and also asked us students to prepare 5 odd questions, which we asked in the class. I don't know if it was an effective way of keeping all of us engaged but I for one was engaged in this manner. I used to go back home every thursday(that's when the class happened) and would start preparing the questions for the next week's class. Why? Maybe I was born for quizzing. Coming back to the incident, at the end of the class Mrs. Batra used to take a 15 Question test for us. In one of these tests she asked a question - 'Which car manufacturing giant's name means People's Car'? (Mind you we were in grade 5/6) The correct answer just for the record was Volkswagon. I was the only one who got it right. Mrs. Batra and my fellow students were amazed but thats not the point I want to make here. I wanna talk about how I knew the answer. In those days TOI's Delhi Times had one page that was called Folks Wagon- which talked about nonebrities (Page 3 type people who weren't actually celebs) The question said People's Car and I could connect the dots People's Car-People's Wagon- Folks Wagon- aha!- Volkswagon. That connection was a you-had-me-at-the-hello moment with quizzing for me.

• Incident 2-

Fast forward to late 2000s. College 2nd year. I along with my partner Mayank Purohit went to an East-Delhi College Maharaja Agarsen for a business quiz. We thought it'll be easy money since we did not expect good quizzers to turn up, that is exactly waht happened. No good quizzing team but us. So we were sure to go back with deeper pockets and boosted ego. So the quiz started and as expected we were the highest scoring team to qualify beating the second best team with a comfortable margin. The final started and we were kept on tenterhooks by an unknown team. After the penultimate round we were ahead by a slender margin of 5 points, which made us a little uncomfortable. The final round was a Rapid Fire 6 questions 30 seconds type. I don't like rapid fire. I may have an unskewed win-loss ratio but still. The round started and we were the first team to go for the rapid fire. The Quizmistress started and without seeking Mayank's help I gave out all the answers. All 6. It was like I knew what the next question will be. Like I had lived that moment before. Like they say in sports - the striker knew where he will receive the ball so he positioned himself accordingly and his support also knew where the striker will position himself so it seemed as if they had lived that movement before (Example: the 98 all star finals which Jordan's team won- just find its video or report you will love it- Those are the kinds of moments you live for as a sportsman) It was a similar moment for me. My mind and tongue worked in a superfluous manner. And when I gave that 6th answer -Vodka- the Quizmistress went -Fuck. She didn't say it loudly just her lips moved. Like me she too was in awe of me. And my partner Mayank- who I hadn't bothered confirming the answers with- went berserk.

There are more such stories I will keep updating over time.

Thank You Danny Meyer



 This little blogpost is inspired by Danny Meyer's Setting the Table. Thus, thank you Danny Meyer.
I found a very interesting paragraph in which I find a lot of similarities. So I'll go sentence by sentence to convey what I wish to. Here goes-



You may think, as I once did, that I'm primarily in the business of serving good food. actually though, food is secondary to something that matters even more.


Similarly in quizzing- I once thought that the institution of quizzing is about knowledge. But according to what I've experienced (in terms of what I've been through) knowledge is secondary to something that matters even more.

In the end, what's most meaningful is creating positive, uplifting outcomes for human experiences and human relationships. Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple and it's that hard.

That something is the experience- of the audience, of the paricipants and of the quizmaster. What's most meaningful is creating positive and uplifting outcomes and human relationships.

• Positive outcomes- That you take a lot of learnings back home with you




• Uplifting outcomes- Gives you a reason to remain enthusiastic about this institution




• Human relationships- Build a lifelong relationship with quizzing that you keep going back to it again and again. What I mean here is propagating quizzing in your community/institution not as a GK test(like mahaquizzer and world quizzing championships- precisely the reason why I was there for only one season, I'm sorry if you endorse it but WQC and Mahaquizzer are not quizzes) but as a meaningful experience which does all the above three.

And this goes for the QM also. Because at the end of the day it's the QM's responsibility with his flawless presentation(conduct+content+presentation format) to hold the audience and the participants' attention whilst giving them a reason to continue their association with this institution. It's that simple and it's that hard.

Puppetry Workshop

I attended a puppetry workshop last week with Abhiram at the Katkatha trust. From 5th to 12th June. An 8 day 10 hours a day intensive program. Well there were 9 adults from varied fields. 3 school teachers from Coimbatore, a film-maker, a theater professional, an NGO employee, a fresh graduate and 2 quizmasters (ya, that's us). Well our main trainer Anurupa Mem (that's what we fondly called her) was an Internationally acclaimed in India puppeteer (an internal puppet community joke)

Quizzing, from my side of the table, (quizmastering??) is an interesting way of presenting content. Similarly, puppetry is another interesting way to present content. While the former is a presentation of stories after stories (question after question) knit beautifully the latter is one class act. Now why am I talking about the two in one sentence, that's because I want to integrate the two. Seamlessly. How will I do it? I do have a vague idea but let's see if it actually clicks. But one thing I am quite sure of is that my first puppetry+quiz show will not happen before 2012, that's the amount of practice you need to do. (unless of course I leave everything else- quizzing, new media and football- to pursue puppetry only)

Now coming back to the workshop. We were initially taught the nuances(movement, anatomy etc.) of the Bunraku, the importance of which I realized over time. We then moved on to making puppets. Some chose Shadow puppets while the others chose Mouth puppets, we chose the latter (not because we are bad at drawing but because we suck at it). Making a mouth puppet took close to 5 days #firsttimers. And in the middle of all of this were adjusted a few puppet exercises, but its all about practice, practice and more practice. We, Abhiram and I, were also invited to attend puppetry jam sessions. Will give us a great platform to test ourselves.

PS: The only regret- the puppet didn't quite turn out to be that impressive, thanks to my stitching and visualising skills :(

Random Grumblings- How not to conduct a quiz

Ok so this one's a quiz review for a quiz that wasn't conducted by me but by somebody else. And I couldn't resist writing about it so yes here I am.

A quick preview of what follows and the kind of quiz it was: One word, shady.

Now to talk about it at length-

What: Delhi Leg of Exchange4media's, 3rd edition of Media Quotient.

Where: The Park, Parliament Street

When: 6th May

Who: Sponsors(as far as I can remember) Star News, Reebok, Timex, Sandisk.

So it was pretty evident that a lot of money was splurged on the event, as is the case generally with other for the media-of the media-by the media events. And in a media event of this magnitude one did not expect that the preparation level could reach such depths. To a certain extent I can understand that since these media guys wanted to focus on the media fraternity the QMs were from various media houses. Namely, Sudha Natarajan (Deputy CEO, Lintas) and Senjam Raj Sekhar (Head, CorpComm, Bharti). Well on the verge of being labelled sexist [yet again] I'd say the latter was by far the better of the two. But that does not mean he was good. If on a scale of Rebecca Black to Beatles, Ms. ji was Rebecca Black then Mr. ji was Justin Beiber. Their preparation was conspicuous by its absence. It seemed that the organisers told them in the morning to stop by at Park to conduct a quiz while on their way back home from work. That's not it, even the organisers [or the event management team so-to-say] wasn't too sure of how to conduct a successful quiz successfully the third time. I don't know how it was last year but what I do know is if the CMO of Star News calls this event successful then he really needs to see a couple of Tata Crucible episodes. This quiz was at par with the worst of Daulat Ram and Gargi college quizzes.

I'll just now move on to pointing out a few mistakes that the organisers (QMs included) made-

1. The most important thing in a quiz is a good quizmaster to keep the show alive and not murder it like Ms. Sudha and Mr. Quizzer-14-years-ago did. By that I mean, a good speaker is not sufficient enough to be considered as a good quizmaster. Also, from personal experiences I've seen certain bad speakers who turned out to be decent QMs.
2. If you still want to persist with these set of QMs, fine. The least you can do is give them a couple of days notice. It looks easy to be a QM but trust me its not. Just because you have a paper with Q and As in your hand does not mean that you will read through it without stammering/stuttering and people will love it.
3. I have lost count of the number of Quizmasters that I have seen who keep repeating the basic mistake of giving hints after a couple of teams have passed the question. These two were no different. Here comes the icing on the cake from last evening- teams raise your hands or clap or press the office boy buzzer instead of a proper electronic buzzer in a buzzer round, we have highly educated;) third umpires to spot the fastest hand raiser/clapper et al. I mean come on how ridiculous can you get.
4. The event management team- You can't have the spotlight right from the front at a height of 6ft. in an event where the performer has to interact with the audience. The spotlights need to be at least 12 ft to 15ft high. 6ft. makes sense when there is a fourth wall, say for example in theatre, but it's good to avoid it in any case {of course if the play demands it a manual spotlight can be lower} This made life difficult for the QMs as well as the participants. The QMs couldn't interact with the audience without having their palms outstretched to block the halogens harsh light falling straight on their face, while the participants couldn't see the LCD screens placed in front of them properly.
5. Again for the event managers- A quiz does not need 20 pretty girls in skirts to be conducted peacefully. It needs one good quizmaster. You can do without these girls. Unlike the IPL girls showing legs does not add to the Glamour Quotient of the Media Quotient. Plus if you're anyway spending so much money then why not get the best mathematicians to do the scoring. A certain Ms Shakuntala Devi will surely help. Jokes apart, how difficult is it to do scoring in multiples of 10 for six teams. Remember(strictly for a quiz)- the lesser the organisers the better the quiz turns out to be.
6. QMs- It does not help your humour in anyway to tell everyone if you are a neighbour of a participant or your doodhwala is the same. Just do your job. I've conducted a good number of quizzes and as a result share a healthy relationship with a few of these regulars. And as a rule when on stage I don't tell the others that I know some participant beforehand[however popular that participant be], just to avoid any sort of controversies that may arise due to allegations of favouritism[yes, been there faced that;)].

If an aspiring professional quizmaster is reading this or even somebody who's reading this wants to conduct a quiz(zes) in his/her club/school/college keep these points in mind.

Well that gives me a topic for my next post.

But I can't forget- do the coke brrrrrr instead of raising hands in the buzzer round. That was hil-wait-for-it-larious.

Till then,

Happy Quizzing!

Richie Rich: O$ama

We all know that OBL was a rich man, thanks to his inherited wealth, but how rich? And did he actually live like one. Let’s find out.

Born in 1957, OBL was 10 when he inherited $300 million, when his father Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden died in a helicopter crash, thus countering the myth that poverty breeds terrorists. Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was an illiterate dock worker in Yemen who saved enough money to start a construction company. Born in 1908, he emigrated to Saudi Arabia at a young age. In 1930, he began a construction company, and after coming to the attention of first monarch of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, he eventually achieved such success that his family became known as “the wealthiest non-royal family in the kingdom.” The company, now the Saudi Binladin Group, is worth in excess of $5 billion.

Well saying that Papa Laden was worth a ton of money, shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that he had to feed a huge number of mouths. Papa Laden had 22 wives who, combined, bore him at least 54 children. Osama himself was believed to be the 17th child overall, the only child of Mohammed bin Laden and his tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas.

Coming back to Li’l Osama, his exposure to radical Islam began after he shunned Western universities and studied at a university in Saudi Arabia, where he learned from Muslim preachers that following strict Islam was a defense against corruption and Western decadence. And with 1993 and 2001already under his belt the more he succeeded in killing, the more radical he became. He also started issuing fatwas, with the most infamous beingMuslims should kill Americans – including civilians – anywhere in the world.

And as the world absorbs the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, government warnings of counter strikes show that the death of one man won’t kill Al-Qaeda. One reason: the terrorist group doesn’t need bin Laden for money.

Contrary to popular opinion, the death of bin Laden does not strike a blow to the organization’s financial health. OBL did not support Al-Qaeda through a personal fortune or a network of businesses. He did not utilise his business resources for Al-Qaeda’s operations, they essentially lived hand to mouth.

How Al-Qaeda survives has kept the world’s top intelligence agencies in a pretty pickle. This game of swat-a-fly has changed the way global institutions function. Banks must now take responsibility for knowing who their customers are and also keep a strict eye on any unusual behaviour.

Though Bin Laden’s death is an important moral blow to Al-Qaeda, but is it an irrecoverable blow is yet to be seen.

Random Shit 1

Allow me to kill the fun of the guessing game by not keeping the suspense and tell you what this is. This is a sensor for your plants that will send you a tweet when the plant needs water. Now as expected the folks at ThinkGeek have stretched the limits of geekiness. The thing that they're true blue masters of.

Once it knows that your plant has gone dry, it will send a tweet saying 'Water me' (what else).

Random Shit Scale- 4.5/5

IPL 4

Well this post is just an analysis of the Indian Premier League-4. The edition that comes a week after the greatest achievement of a 1.2 billion strong cricketing nation and the first edition post the dismissal of Lalit Modi.

Its been 4 days since the league started with almost every team playing at least a game each. So a quick review of all teams. But before I do that I would also like to mention that the lack of frenzy, the franchise loyalty that the fans showed in the IPL in its past editions is pretty evident by its absence. Apart from he DD vs MI game there has hardly been any stadium with capacity crowd [This game had capacity crowd for three reasons-

• Delhi is known for its jugaad so a lot of people know at least someone who in turn know someone who can get them complimentary tickets or better still just bribe the policemen on duty, this is a fact because that is what my friend circle did in the 2010 IPL's DD vs MI game to get in,
• The ground (Feozeshah Kotla) ain't that big and I don't mean seating capacity here(45000) I mean the conspicuous seating capacity, the architecture is so poor that people sitting on the ground floor's back rows can't see the ball in case of an aerial shot so everybody tries to occupy the front 15 rows and the stadium looks full house, also the case is the same with the first floor crowd since the ceiling obstructs the view, then comes the second floor from where it is difficult to spot the ball and you can't even see the full ground (thank you M/s Siddiqui and Khanna for leaving behind your common sense at home when designing the stadium).
• And finally, MI has SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR so the stadium has to be full house. I am guessing the 65000 capacity Eden Gardens would be full house too. (KKR is minus dada, still)

Now, a quick analysis-

• CSK- With the core group unchanged add to that game changers like Styris this is the team to watch out for. X Factor- MSD. The Weak Link- Hard to find.
• DC- Looks a very promising team on paper, like the first three seasons. Lacks a strong middle order. X Factor- Dale Steyn. The Weak Link- since its a completely revamped team adjustment will be an issue
• DD- Too much reliance on a couple of players. Not the force that it was earlier. Though certainly unpredictable, courtesy the Kotla pitch where they will play half their matches. X Factor- Virender Sehwag. The Weak Link- No stars at all
• Kings XI- Looks like a decent line up. With Gilly, DK and Broad looks can be decieving. X Factor- Adam Gilchrist. The Weak Link- Middle order needs some firepower
• KTK- Full of former Indian players, RP Singh included. But they have BMac and Mahela to take them through. X Factor- Brendon McCullum
• KKR- Unlike the KKR of yesteryears this team has the experience and skill to go all the way. X Factor- Yusuf Pathan. The Weak Link- Unknown uncapped players
• MI- Certainly a brilliant team. Good all-round balance and attack. MI couldn't have been any better especially with the core intact. X Factor- SRT and that man Pollard. The Weak Link- Weak and MI cannot be used in the same sentence
• RR- Well you never know what trick Warnie can pull off from under his hat. Add to that Watson and Roscoe. But needs the Ranji Trophy holders in its line-up to perform. X Factor- Shane Warne The Weak Link- No reliable domestic players
• RCB- A dynamic team. Just what you expect from Mallya. Has a lot of former DD players plus a dashing domestic attack. X Factor- AB De. The Weak Link- Not a great bowling unit.
• PWI- A perfect blend of youth and experience. Is the team that can chase down any target with the firepower it has. X Factor- Yuvraj Singh. The Weak Link- Lack of quality local players.

Lets talk about the reasons for a possible decline in popularity of IPL4-

1. India won the CWC and that euphoria of being the world beaters hasn't sunk in yet (well you can't blame us; it's just been a week). Plus there are no grudges/rants against any Indian player so you won't be hurling abuses at them for non-perfomance or performing exceptionally against your favourite team as the love can't change to dare-I-say-hatred in 10 days time. So it will take a couple of close games to get people back into the groove.
2. CWC victory in the same year as the re-shuffling of teams hasn't helped the cause either. It will take a while for DD fans to see Gauti wearing Purple and Gold and not Dark Blue and red or Yuvi wearing Black and not Pink. It takes a while for people to associate themselves with some player or the other. I can't buy the logic of the lack of any local players in these franchisees. Well how many of us go to the Palam grounds to watch Mithun Manhas, Virat Kohli and Rajat Bhatia strutting their stuff in the Ranji ties. So how can you feel that local touch with them. I see no difference in a David Warner or a Unmukt Chand, because I can see them only once a year, in IPL thats it and I am least bothered about their performance in the domestic circuit[I here actually refers to the general public, because I personally follow Ranji Trophy with as much enthusiasm as Sheffield Shield)
3. It might be but am not too sure of this one, overdose of cricket and the now-informed viewer knows that ESPNStar is a much better telecaster of cricket than the money controlled SetMax. No seriously, watching cricket on SetMax is so irritating (and I haven't started on Neo yet- Neo please don't give me a break) especially when you see those same ads over and over again.
4. Finally, in a country of more than a billion people I guess I'll be the only one to say this but I think Lalit Modi was a fantastic administrator. Hogging all the limelight aside he has given us an unsinkable ship in the name of IPL. A visionary, Lalit Modi, knew that club format is the future of international cricket with only 10 teams playing the sport in a professional manner. Having said that I hope Chirayu does a good job in taking the mantle forward.

I have a hunch that if the IPL isn't as successful this time people will blame it on the first two reasons, but I think the fourth point will be the most important reason for its failure.

Chirayu Am-in. Lalit Modi-out.

Bizooka, The Biz Quiz, Thapar University

With the best of Punjab descending at Saturnalia, the annual cultural fest of Thapar University, Patiala, the standard was a little beyond my expectation. Well the quiz began on time, one of QryptiQ’s firsts in the year 2011. There were 20Qs in the prelims including four tie-breaker questions. After about 5-odd questions I saw a few restless teams. Here’s the conversation that followed-

Me: What’s wrong there at the back?

Participant: Sir we don’t have a pen.

Me: So you’ve come without a pen for the quiz?

Participant: Yes sir this is Punjabian di Spirit. [Thumping chest followed by a hearty laughter]

Me: Allright, somebody please lend him a pen. Also I hope you haven’t forgotten your brain.

Participant: No sir that’s in my pocket.

Me: Instead of a pen?

Participant: Yes sir that is Punjabian di Spirit. [Thumping chest followed by a hearty laughter- just a bbbbbrrrrrr oyyyeeee was missing;)]

So that’s how we started the day; a warning of things to come. The finals began on a slow note as a lot of questions were passed to the audience. All teams got their act together and were on the scoreboard by the third round. Now the highlight of the quiz came in the last round. Here’s how the scorecard read before the last round-

Team A-12, Team B- 10, Team C- 0, Team D- 4, Team E- 26 Team F- 20. Also note Team C [Arithmetic Progression] and Team E [Hyper Intelligent shades of Blue] were from the same college [Thapar] while Team F[Tukke Maar Khan] was from Chitkara.

In the final round there were three questions with 18 points at stake. All questions on the buzzer. Chitkara got two answers back to back for six each. Score card after the penultimate question- Team E- 26 Team F-32. For the third question F was smart enough to adopt the strategy of going for the buzzers since they had nothing to lose[They told me later on]. I started the final question- This technology was founded by the French scientist Nicholas Bion.. *Buzzer* Much to everybody’s surprise it was Team C, yes Team C and Not Team E or Team F. Team E was shocked and so were the others, the only difference being the latter could afford laughing at Team C’s sudden burst of enthusiasm. Well that wasn’t all, Team C did not know the answer, not even a wrong one, they just passed and the only explanation they could come up with ‘I don’t know why I got excited and pressed the buzzer’

What followed is anybody’s guess.

Final Scores- Team F- 32, Team E- 28[they cracked the third question with a 2 pointer], Team A-12

Review for the General Quiz later.

I am too tired and tied up to write another review so I'll just quickly finish it up in a few lines. The general quiz Feeling Quizzy was equally enjoyable if not less. The quiz had a lot more teams participating and a lot of them came without pens[There was a lot of drama because of this but all in good humour]. The team that led from the front carried on with the momentum right through till the end, finishing their day on a high after that eventful last round of the Business Quiz. Since this quiz was slightly low scoring [not because of the lack of answers but because of the negatives collected after a few positives] one round made a lot of difference for the second placed team.

Final Scores: Team D[Hyper Intelligent shades of Blue]- 31, Team E[The Penless Wonders*]- 24, Team F[FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU**]- 15

*Read through the review again to figure out what it means

**I don't know what it means

De Ghuma Ke- The Cricket Quiz, St. Stephen's

It was a hot Saturday afternoon and the mercury was rising. Qryptiq was all padded up for the

Open Cricket Quiz at the St Stephen’s College as part of their annual quizzing fest, Quizzotica. Unlike the usual

tardiness of DU quizzes, we were given the indication of the quiz starting on time. But alas, it wasn't to be as a filler quiz ended up lasting an hour. And as we were lining up to start, the co-ordinator

requested a shift of venue, similar to a batsman moving out of the way at the last moment much

to the frustration of the bowler steaming in, to accommodate another quiz. However, after all

that pre-match hullabaloo (including the lack of an audio system), the preliminary rounds of the

OPEN CRICKET QUIZ began with 20 questions instead of the usual 25, as the quizmaster was too busy

the night before evident from the lipstick smudged all over his face..NOT[ that was a cover up for thegulal thanks to the holi party in office the previous day]. Piyush Chawla bashing was peppered

throughout the quiz (the perils of being Dhoni’s sweetheart). The prelims was a closely contested

affair with only 2.5 marks separating the top 6 teams. There were some usual suspects in the

finals. Team A, B and C were quick off the blocks with little separating them, while the other three

lagged behind without opening their account in the initial part of the quiz. However, the Brothers

of Bhatta displayed their consistency throughout the quiz and their experience showed, as they

switched to top gear in the final round with a murderous performance, scoring 21 out of a possible

24 points. Team E leapfrogged into contention in the penultimate round cracking all the answers

but missed out in the final round. Team D they were never really in the game, guess they had an off day. Team C were always knocking on the door with some fabulous

answers, they looked like hardcore Cricket Quizzers. Would like to see more of them in other quizzes as well. They ended up tied for second spot with Team

F, who gave some neat answers to claim that spot (the teams decided to split the pot after some

careful, structured analysis of the opportunity cost involved)

Going by the rule of thumb that ‘90% of the questions should be workable and answerable’ and

coupled with occasional humor, arguments and above all fabulous answers (even though the

absence of sledging would have lighted up things), the quiz had it all. We would like to thank

IMS for partnering with us.

Final scores in descending order- 46 (Team B), 26 (Team C and Team F), 24 (Team A)

Associate Nations in World Cup

Let’s start with the most competitive match yet in the 2011 World Cup. The England vs Netherlands game. Thanks to some alarmingly clumsy performance by the English fielders and some ’skillful’ batting by Ryan ten Doeschate Netherlands posted the highest score by an associate nation against a test side in a World Cup.The professionalism that was abandoned by the English while fielding, they adopted while batting and saved huge embarrasment for themselves.

With associate cricket in the spotlight like never before following the decision by ICC to trim down the no. of teams to 10 from the next World Cup. This performance showed the sports second tier in the best and most timely light imaginable.

Let’s take a look now at both sides of the coin.

In the 2011 WC it is unreasonable to expect Associate Nations to beat the likes of India or Australia. The Dutch perhaps demonstrated the skill set that these cricketers possess and in the process gave a good example of why associate nations need to be there. In the coming weeks the associate nations will be playing for their future. Everytime they go out their on the pitch they need to show that they are capable of reaching the Quarter Final if they perform to the talent and self-belief that they have. The Lorgats around the world feel that the world cup should take place amongst the absolute cream and thus should be trimmed to the best 10 for two reasons- to avoid the lopsided contests that we have seen in the past one week and the marathonesque length of the 14 nation Cricket World Cup vis-a-vis the 32 nation FIFA WC. The ICC has an agreement with its broadcaster Espnstar that there should be a minimum no of matches in the event. So it is irrelevant that the no. of teams that participate should matter but within reason. The 2007 WC was a 16 team 51 matches financially disastrous tournament, courtesy Bangladesh and Ireland’s heroics against India and Pakistan respectively. This time it is a 14 team 49 match tournament. And a 10 team tournament in all likelihood would be an all play all [like the arguably best high intensity 1992 CWC, arguments if any will be entertained only from South Africans citizens] which makes it a 48 game event. So trimming the teams without being able to reduce the length shoots the idea in the foot.

When it comes to cropping teams to avoid the one sided contests that we see in games featuring an Associate side the ICC should recall that in the last two world cups at least one Associate nation progressed to the latter stages of the WC. Seeing the rise of the Associate Nations the no. of competitive teams are not just 10 but more. 1996- 2003 Kenya was the best of the lot with Scotland picking up steam from 2004-2006 and of late we have Ireland surging up through the ranks. Afghanistan’s meteoric rise deserves a mention here as well. The ICC’s continuous funding to the High Performance Program is so extremely important that it ensures the consistency of these results. Sri Lanka, a former World Champion and Bangladesh, whose mere presence is not a celebration anymore, are what they are today because ICC allowed them to participate. These things take time. Extrapolating the future of the associate nations from just a couple of early results in the WC is slightly premature.

The ICC needs to have a longer term view not and just the World Cup even though the WC is the most obvious parameter of their progress. The Associate nations should also understand that the ICC’s continuous support to these nations should not be the be all and end all but should only be a stop gap arrangement till they are able to create internal funding for their domestic structure. Developing a series of activities around the men’s senior squad, creating a professional structure [so that they get a lot of fixtures or you will have cases like Ed Joyce, Eoin Morgan and Gavin Hamilton], launching a cricket television channel, and a more active website, all this will attract sponsors which in turn will help creating a pool of thousands of professional cricketers.

Do all this and it won’t be long before we see a 16 nation[or more] best play best ideal WC structure that the viewers and the sponsors demand. But if ICC has its way with a 10 team 2015 WC they should atleast have a proper qualification structure instead of a set of 10 pre-ordained teams. The associate nations should be given an opportunity to qualify by getting a chance to play against the Test nations. The Test nations won’t want it but it would be an impartial process and would give the world a more fairer and a more competitive WC, like the 92 WC which was a screamer of a WC with England and NZ qualifying through to the semi-finals with ease and the eventual winners Pakistan scraping through to the Finals and South Africa being a surprise package just as Ireland, Bangladesh or Netherlands can be this time around. But the structure of international cricket is such that the top nations call the shots and the rest just pick up the scraps.

Tweaking the format to suit the needs of the sponsors and viewers should be the way ahead for the ICC. Since a few want ‘the world in the WC’ and the powers that be think a competitve structure is conducive to a succesful WC commercially how about keeping the current format but just have the top 2 in each group go straight to the Semis. Imagine how competitive it would be, watching top level Cricket teams like Aus-Eng-SL-SA fighting with each other just to stay alive. Keeps both the schools of thought happy.

Here’s a look at the qualification structure in some of the other team sports.

Football-

The FIFA World Cup was expanded to 24 teams in 1982, and then to 32 in 1998, allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part.

Hockey-

The qualification stage has been a part of the Hockey World Cup since 1977. All participating teams play in the qualification round. The teams divide into two or more pools and compete for a berth in the final tournament. The top two teams are automatically qualified and the rest of the berths are decided in playoffs.The final tournament features the continental champions and other qualified teams.

Rugby-

The 2011 World Cup will be contested by twelve automatic qualifiers/seeds (the teams who finished in the top three of the groups at the 2007 World Cup) and eight qualifiers.

The qualification system for the remaining eight places will be region-based with Europe and the Americas allocated two qualifying places, Africa, Asia and Oceania one place each, with the last place determined by a play-off.

As always, Obligatory Questions:

1. He is one of India’s finest spinners never to have played an official test for the country. He is famous for his exploits in the 1973 low scoring Ranji Final between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu where he took 13 wickets steering Mumbai to victory. He is also Mumbai’s highest wicket taker with an astounding 589 wickets to his name. Identify the player.

2. The 1975 East African World Cup team was a coterie of 4 nations. Identify all four.

Smriti- The general Quiz KMC

Smriti- The general quiz organized by the Economics Society of Kirorimal College, Delhi University received a monstrous response with 71 teams participating in the prelims. As is the case generally in QryptiQ’s quizzes 6 teams were selected for the finals. The final from the very beginning was a lopsided affair with the Delhi University veterans Brothers of Bhatta [Arya and M.I.T.] running away with the quiz from start to finish. Truly a Grand Chelem performance it was. They topped the prelims, led the quiz from the first round and ended it as numero uno as well. As for the others, the silent assassins team 3 [Anagh and Wasi-don’t know what college they were from] kept 'nurdling' the leaders but never were the Brothers of Bhatta in a spot of bother. I just loved the way the two teams quietly waited for me to finish the question, with a smile on their faces every time I hoped the ongoing question would transmit over their heads. And more often than not I was proved wrong as they kept answering with ease. Team 1[CBS] after giving a few impressive answers early on lost their cool midway during the quiz apparently because almost every team scored heavily in the stage 2 LVC where they missed out and could never really bounce back from that disappointment. Team 5 [St. Stephens] seemed more like a trivia loving team since whenever they had to work out the answer the word ‘pass’ was on the tip of their tongues. Team 4 [CBS] they got some they missed some and as a result they ended up coming third behind Brothers of Bhatta and Team 3. And finally team 2, guys if you’re reading this I would love to see you in more quizzes, you added a lot of humour to this quiz. They were a team of extremes, when their switch was off they had no issues in publicly choosing to flaunt their ignorance [sample this for an answer- “is the answer err….”] and when switched on they gave some mighty impressive answers.

So eventually the quiz had many shades, lots of emotions, lots of humour, and some glorious answers and just about everything you expect a quiz to be, late start and technical glitches included:)

Final scores in descending order- 59[team 6], 39[team 3] and 22[team 4]