BCQC - October and November 2008 newsletter

Oblig Question: (1637, Original) French: "Je pense, donc je suis"; Latin: ?

A round up of the last two months of BCQC quizzing. October saw several quizzes, including a BCQC Open Quizzing Day, while November was very, very quiet thanks to a lot of people having to answer more boring questions in exams and such-like.

Quizzes

1. Oct 02 – Oct 04: Mindspark

Mindspark is the College of Engineering, Pune (COEP)'s annual science and technology college fest. Three quizzes, set and conducted by COEP quizzers, were held as part of this, its 2^nd edition.

a. Chakravyuuh: The 9^th edition of Chakravyuuh was held on the 2^nd of Oct. This, an open general quiz, is COEP biggest quiz of the year. Read this report for results.

b. Torquest: This is a Science and Technology quiz only for college students which was won by Abhishek and Raghav. A summary of results here.

c. Barqing Mad!: The report of this open Entertainment quiz can be read here.

2. Oct 12: BCQC Open Quizzing Day

Every two months or so, the BCQC organizes two open quizzes in a formal setting. The morning quiz is usually based on a theme, or is specifically for schools or colleges, or is simply just unconventional. The afternoon quiz is an open General quiz. A list of all these BCQC Open quizzes is available here on our website.

As part of this series, two quizzes were conducted in October.

a. Balls, Ballots, Bollywood: This was an India quiz on politics, cricket, and Hindi films, conducted by J. Ramanand. A full report and analysis can be read here. The quiz-creator assures that the questions will be made available before the year is done! :-)

b. BCQC October General Quiz: A report of this quiz conducted by Apurva and Akhil can be read at this link.

BC Quizzes

We had fewer BC quiz sessions in the last couple of months and no theme quizzes as part of "Requiem for a Theme". Expect this to change in December. BC sessions are informal quizzes in an unusual setting - by the riverside at COEP.

Upcoming Quizzes

The plans for December consist of one or two theme quizzes as part of BC sessions. These will be announced on our mailing lists. December also will see one of India's biggest college events, IIT Bombay's Mood Indigo (20-23 Dec). The website suggests there are a couple of mainstream quizzes (General, Sports) and some fancier ones (Food and Beverages, Travel and Places, and 3 short Lit quizzes).

I've started so I'll finish

* The BCQC was covered by the Times of India. The article can be read online here. Do not, I repeat "do not", take the utterances contained within too seriously. We quiz, we joke.

Incidentally, this story involves what we call a "fox paws". Members of the BCQC were interviewed back in August for this story. A story featuring our photos appeared the next week in this article, with only one tiny problem: the featured group was one with the noble aim of raising voter awareness among Indians. Some of our friends inquired if the BCQC had finally got around to doing something constructive with their time, but we're happy to reassure you that's not quite the case. We do urge you to participate in the electoral process, but if you just want to quiz, that's fine by us too. It's a democracy, after all.

* Curious to know how a quiz is put together? You might be interested in reading about the making of Balls, Ballots, Bollywood (parts one and two).

* If you are in Bombay and looking for quizzing succour, drop by our friends at the Bombay Quiz Club.

* If you are organizing a quiz and want to let people know about it, write into us ("contact"-at-"bcqc.org") with the salient details and we'll put it up on our website.

* We love to hear comments about quizzes, especially those that we do. Use the comments sections on our blog posts to do so

See you at the next quiz!

Answer to Oblig Question: Cogito, Ergo Sum ("I think, therefore I am":: Rene Descartes)