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.
