iQuizLeague

26th January, 130 odd people from Chennai, experienced a new phenomenon in a remote corner of Mylapore. That was the day when PM was watching the parade from his bed. Sad, he couldn’t catch a glimpse of what happened inside Karpagam hall that day. I was one of the fortunate mortals, who was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.

Mylapore, the place to be..

The venue chosen for the India Unplugged Open Quiz, was, aptly, the oldest part of Chennai. Near the Mylapore Tank, it was a place that was easily accessible to everyone. I reached the venue at 8.45 as  one of  the official photographers-cum-volunteers. I thought i was early, but was surprised to find that the entire crew was there and had set the stage for everything that was to take place.

Peaceful Beginnings..

The quiz was supposed to begin at 9.30 and I was quite surprised to find the audience turn up from 9.00 am and register themselves. In the next 30 minutes, Sanandan and Vinod(Malcaluffin) had one of the busiest moments of their lives as enthusiastic quizzers young and old started flooding the hall and got themseles registered to be a part of history. It was IQL’s first open quiz, after all. The Prelims After many a ‘final call for registration’ was made, Karthik Narayan, the family man, kickstarted the proceedings. Everyone stood for the national anthem in attention, and few did a Sashi Tharoor (but they didn’t interrupt like he supposedly did). The National anthem pepped up everyone’s spirits and the prelims of India Unplugged raised it even higher. Karthik, the benevolent quizmaster, did a good job in helping us understand the essentials of the questions and giving us enough time to think about the answers. As i was not a part of the core research team, i was allowed to participate in the quiz. My partner, Aditya from NIT Trichy, was a sort of mind reader. He read my mind, and answered the questions in almost exactly the same words i would have put it in. Now i wish he had read Karthik’s mind instead of mine. The quality of the prelims was quite good. It was a perfect blend of sitters, disguised sitters and toughies. Then came Matti, our other quiz master who volunteered to rush through the prelims. He simplified the job for us, gave us loads of clues and many who hadnt cracked the questions in the first go, would ve done that during this session. Matti, definitely needs to practice Occlumency a bit more religiously. I went forward, took a few more picures and went to help correcting the answer sheets as answers were being discussed by the audience. And you thought only Glenn McGrath was famous for his “oohs” and “aahs”. Glenn, take a look at Chennai Quizzing Circuit. Any decent quizzer would ve scored more than 12. The cut off was around 17. We checked and crossed checked the answer sheets of all teams that had scored more than 15 to make sure that only the best got through to the finals. And then the results were announced

The Finals

The six teams that qualified for the finals are as follows. (not in order)

Anil and Kido ( Raju na raha Gentleman)

Vijay and Ashwin (MILF – Mother India Liberation Fund)

JK and Kiran(no name)

Udupa and Ramkey (Karpa Gamblers)

Ramana and Devi prasad (common man No.6)

ashwin prabhu and rajagopal ( banana republic)

Matti set the ball rolling and started the finals. If he gave away a tad too much during the prelims, he was an impeccable quiz master in the finals. The first round was called “India Unabridged”. Teams vied to score marks and it was a productive round for all the teams

Sylvianism and Kat Nine

Sylvian Patrick was weaving magic with his apple laptop and the presentation was very very professional. Karthik was doing a great job as a scorer as he had to be swift and attentive through out the quiz. A flawless presentation is one if it seems to blend with the surrounding environment and adds as an aid to the ultimate cause instead of being an eye stealer. Sylvianism was truly visible in the presentation he did.

It was a big moment for Karthik, understandably. And his entire family was there to see the spectacle. His beautiful, newly wed wife was seen running around with the camera, taking numerous pictures in the choicest angles while his dad was also supportive behind the scenes.

The second round – “you me and Chennai” was done by Sana, who took some time off his phone to help us with the proceedings. A really decent effort and many a wild feather was not ruffled during this round either. Questions were on par with the ones you could see during Madras Day.

The final round was done by my favorite quiz master, Malcaluffin. This round was called “Rock On India”, question wise similar to the first round, but subtly different in the content covered. There was a minor disagreement between JK and the quiz master during this round. Jk is someone who is known to give clear answers and Vinod is known to be someone who searches for the keywords in the answers given irrespective of what one might blabber. Couldn’t point out whose fault it was anyway as even we, who were in the middle of everything didnt exactly hear what JK had claimed to have said as the answer. But for this lone incident, it was a wonderphul round. Mention must be made about the breakneck competition that intensified with each question. Four out of six teams had a chance to come first, till the last question and sitting next to KN who kept track of scores was a wonderful experience. It was a nail biting finish and Kido and Anil won the quiz after bingoing the last question. Ramana and Devi Prasad came second.

Mr.Fazal Mahmood, a practising Chartered Accountant for more than 20 years and a resident of Mylapore, presided the prize giving ceremony as our chief guest and distributed the prizes. I convey IQL’s heartfelt gratitude to him for being there. I also take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of IQl, British Council and Pothys for sponsoring the prizes and Mylapore Times and Ergo for being the media partners.

Quality speaks for itself

A quality quiz speaks for itself. the efforts taken by the team was quite visible. I felt happy as seasoned quizzers congratulated KN on what a wonderful quiz it was after the quiz got over. To conduct an Open Quiz in such a short span of time. and take care of all the logistics, sponsors in that small span of time is no mean task. Credit must be given to the entire team for that – Karthik, Vinod, Sana, Sylvian, Yagneshwar and Matti. They were ably supported by Saktish Kumar, Murthy and KN’s uncle who had come all the way from Coimbatore. The way they helped, willingly took forth responsibilities and took care of minor incidences was commendable.

Sukrit, Manas Nayak and Kamal Rathi desreve special mention. Sukrit shelled out money from his own pocket and got us sponsorship from Kellogs. Many an audience question was asked and everyone got their Kellog snack, making the quiz a food for both the brain and the stomach. Manas helped in contributing and refining the questions and was in close touch with the research team. Kamal also sent us MarchAhead T shirts. All the finalists received one and the rest was given in audience prizes. Raji aunty,too, blessed us with her presence.

Regards,

Hantan