Interrobang

Mechatrix 2005 26 Feb 2005 at VIT - set & conducted by Anupam Akolkar Results 1st: B.V.Harishkumar & J. Ramanand 2nd: (jointly) Meghashyam Shirodkar & Anand Ayyadurai, Kunal Sawardekar & Siddharth Dani 4th: (jointly) Salil Bijur & Ganesh Hegde, Sudarshan Purohit & Srihari Suthamally 6th: Harsh Ketkar and Rashmi (could someone please patch her surname in?) Report Considering this was probably the first time Anupam has attempted a quiz of this scale, quite a creditable effort. The elims actually outshone the finals in my opinion. In the finals, there were some very good questions, then there were some questions where answers were too pedantic, and there were some that were not so good according to me. Also, there were some inconsistencies in what answers were expected and the QM gave away hints in the middle of passing - but these are defects that can be smoothened by experience. For the record, we topped the elims, picked Team B again when asked to ...

Virtual Memory Virtual Memory was the quiz held as a part of Digital Renaissance , an event organized by students of Comp. Dept. in MESCOE . Results 1st: Vasukeshav Sharma & Chandrakant Nair (AFMC) 2nd: Kunal Thakar (VIT), Kunal Sawardekar (FC) 3rd: Anish Bhat & Hrishikesh Kavade (SCOE) 4th: Harshavardhan & Nitin (MESCOE) Joint 5th: Ganesh Hegde & Anirudh Kasbekar (VIT); Sameer Valzade & Kurush (MESCOE) Quiz setters & hosts Aditya Udas, Shriniwas Kulkarni, Aditya Pethe

The whole Larry Summers saga coincides with a discussion that Rony, Rajk, Sarika and I had last weekend about why quizzing is such a male-dominated activity. The discussion didn't really throw up any answers. Quizzing, at least in India, is a very "young" sport. It is different from other sports, in the sense that it requires no physical activity(tennis, football), no training or preparation(chess) and no investment(music lessons). Quizzing is all about one person asking questions, and others attempting to answer them. Why then does quizzing in India have such a paltry female following? It really is a mystery. Any theories?

Vishwatronix, VIT Te-Quiz-La was the quiz held in VIT as part of Vishwatronix 2005, an event organised by IEEE and students of Electronics dept. A sci-tech-GK quiz with lot of questions based on scientific fundas. Results:- 1st: Nikhil Kundargi & Neel Mehta (PICT) 2nd: Harshavardhan Ketkar & Arnab Pal (VIT) Joint 3rd: Shriniwas Kulkarni & Abhijit (MESCOE), Aditya Pethe & Kartik (MESCOE) Joint 4th: Ganesh Hegde & Anirudh Kasbekar (VIT), Anupam Akolkar & Anand Ayyadurai (VIT) Quiz set by: Siddharth Dani & Sumedh Berde OT: Quiz in MESCOE on 25th Feb. For more details contact Aditya 9890233360 Open Quiz at Mechatrix, VIT on 26th Feb. For more details contact Anupam 9890613484

Indian Quizzing Fanatics & the World's Best Quiz Questions UK's Largest Quiz Organistation (or so they claim) picked up the BCQC story Have seen this site earlier when Shrirang pointed out attempts to have a world quizzing championship a while ago. The site is interesting, given that the UK has a deep-rooted culture of quizzing (mostly of the trivia/pub nature). Saw this link to the search for the World's Best Quiz Question(s) . Send in your entries to them.

Order, Order!! One little-explored facet of an Infinite Rebound format quiz has been the order in which teams are seated. In most quizzes, the order is decided by randomly picking chits. However at Quiz-o-mania, the organisers tried an innovation in which the teams got to pick their position on the stage. This was done in the descending order of elims scores, i.e the team which topped the elims got to pick first, and so on. Now the innovative idea here was to try and give the top scoring teams a reward by giving them a choice in seating. However, I am not sure if that indeed happened. In fact I am quite sure that the opposite is what happened. I'll explain how by citing my own example. Sarika and I were 3rd (or 4th) in the elims. When it was our turn to choose, we decided to take the spot to the right of Ramanand and Harish, who topped the elims, and in my books, were favourites to win the quiz. My logic behind this choice was that except for their "directs", we would...

BCQC in the Indian Express The In-Quiz-Itives  (Photo: Indian Express, Pune edition - 21 Feb 2005) (From left: Ganesh Hegde, Siddharth Dani, Kunal Thakar (at the back), Salil Bijur, Kunal Sawardekar (frontmost), Rajkamal (behind Salil), Nikhil Kundargi, Gaurav Sabnis (right-behind), Ramanand ) Earlier: The BCQC feature by the Pune Times of India

Quiz-o-Mania 2005 (VIT) Results 1st: Gaurav Sabnis & Sarika Chuni 2nd: (jointly) Anand Sivashankar & Vibhendu Tiwari, B.V.Harishkumar & J. Ramanand Other finalists: Shivaji & Vivek, Kunal Sawardekar & Meghashyam Shirodkar, Anupam Akolkar & Anand Ayyadurai Quiz setters & hosts Salil Bijur, Ganesh Hegde, Siddharth Dani & Kunal Thakar Report Most good quizzes in Pune over the last few years have been extremely close races, and VIT's Quiz-o-mania was no different. Continuing from where they left off last year, the organisers put up an entertaining display. The elims (of 42 questions with the now obligatory DNA question wrapping it up) was well-crafted, especially in contrast to last year. Then many of the questions were unnecessarily longwinded, but this time they were to the point and many of them workable. The "Lagaan/Bhuvan Shome" question was particularly appreciated and we enjoyed unravelling the Pink Floyd one. There was a mo...

SCOE Elements Quiz Organised by: Sinhagad College of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Conducted by: Mihir Shah, Rahul Gokhale and Mohit Results: Winners: Kunal Sawardekar (FC) and Anupam Akolkar (VIT) Runners up: Akshay Raut and Akshay Panday (SCOE) Second Runners up: Ganesh Hegde and Aniruddha Kasbekar (VIT) Also: Kunal Thakar and Siddharth Dani (VIT), Vasukeshav Sharma and Chandrakant (AFMC), Ekalavya Bhattacharya and Shaheen Ahmed (FC)

Wall Street '05, Fergusson College India Quiz 1st: Ganesh + Salil (VIT) 2nd: Vasukeshav + Chandrakant (AFMC) 3rd: Symbiosis Law 4th: AFMC Joint 5th: Ashish + 1 (FC), AFMC QM: Neel Good, original questions. The visual round turned out to be a damp squib as most of them were the identify types, and couldn't be seen properly by participants & audience. Something better than IE should have been used. Business Quiz 1st: Manish + 1 (SIBM) 2nd: SIFT QMs: Neel, Shakti The chosen format was based on CNBC's The Challenge, and given the topic, the finalists found it a cakewalk. Entertainment Quiz 1st: Kunal T. + Siddharth (VIT) 2nd: Symbiosis Law 3rd: Ganesh (VIT) + Shivaji (BJMC) 4th: Nitin + Apu (MESCOE) 5th: Aditya (MESCOE) + Salil (VIT) 6th: Vasukeshav + Chandrakant (AFMC) QM: Kunal S. We understand the problems faced by the organisers - the time constraints, technicalities, etc. almost making it Mood I Ent Q-C'vyuh 04-esque. The q...

Illuminati, Unify '05 Unify '05 was the fest orginised by SICSR (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research) where among other events (the main being a fashion show) was a quiz. Results:- 1st: Vasukeshav & Chandrakant (AFMC) 2nd: Kunal & Puranjay (FC) Joint 3rd: Salil & Siddharth (VIT), Kunal & Nitesh (VIT) Now the less said about the questions, the better. It just confirms the rule about Symbi and quizzing. The theme of the day was the Renaissance, with heavy inspiration from the Da Vinci Code (the abrupt break in the quiz for the Mona Lisa story). However, it was fun to see the hosts 'rehearsing' for an empty audience in the beginning, and Siddharth at his usual best, arguing on questions like 'With which foot did Armstrong step on the moon?' and 'Which is India's fastest land animal'. Also the quizmaster (an SICSR prof)'s request for decency in answering (Kunal S will expain that). There was also a visual rou...

The "Chakravyuuh" logo [Designed by Niranjan Pedanekar] 

The Genesis of Chakravyuh This is a mail i had sent on the Inquizitive list a couple of years back, describing the birth of COEP's own quiz, Chakravyuh. The mail was written at a time when it looked as if Pune quizzing was dead, and the rejuvenation from VIT and Fergusson had not taken place. I must be one of the luckiest quizzers in Pune, timewise. Boat Club (BC) quizzing was in a state of rapid evolution from the time I was in first year until the time I was in the final year. Those must definitely be the best 4 years (if not among the best) of quality quizzing in COEP and in Pune. There were great quizzes and quizzers in colleges like AIT, Fergusson, AFMC (grudgingly, I admit, they make the cut), COEP and of course PICT and a really good Verve quiz (very ephimeral, driven by just one exceptional individual - Hirak Parikh). Of late, the zenith has been reached with a Mastermind from our midst. But all other indicators suggest of a stagnation, if not a decline. I ...

Verve 2005 I'm sure the guys at EYF (Express Youth Forum) who organise Verve must have chanced upon the blog reviews before they woke up and decided to make a better quiz as last time. The result was a school quiz brought out on to the college level. But it was better than last time. There is a strong hunch that the elims questions were lifted from Mastermind India. The finals had some better questions, with plenty of current affairs. The quizmistress/quizmiss (I don't recall her name) is supposedly in this field for many years, though it was pretty evident that the questions weren't hers. (It was also noted that she would blush whenever a wrong answer was given.) Sample questions from elims:- Who are the chairman and MD of GAIL? Who is the ex-officio chairman of India? (authorised source, we're told) Passing for the first 2 rounds was D&P. A request for a round reversal was granted, but to our dismay, the following rounds were non-passing: the topic...