"General Lee Speaking" - the BCQC Nov 2011 Open

No, it's not yet another sign that the Chinese are taking over. It's just a general quiz, this time by COEP's own (partially loaned out to XLRI) Aditya Gadre. Details of this third edition of this season's BCQC Opens are:

Quizmaster: Aditya Gadre

Flavour: General

Format: Written prelims; Finals with 6 teams (but with the Draft Pick system: after prelim, top 6 teams to qualify for finals, members of next 3 teams will be distributed among them.) Up to two members per team; no prior registration needed; no entry fees

Date & Time

6th November (Sunday)

Timings: 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm (report by 1.15 pm) Written prelims: 1:30 pm to 2:15 pm Finals: 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Venue

Classroom 11/13, Mechanical Engineering Dept., College of Engineering, Pune

How to get to the venue

The College of Engineering, Pune (also known as COEP or just "Engineering College") is located very close to other landmarks such as Pune Station, Sancheti Flyover, and the RTO. The Mechanical Dept. is on the same side as the Boat Club (where our informal weekend sessions take place). It is on the opposite side of the Seminar Hall where last month's open was held.

Contact

Phone: Suraj (98903 59065), Aditya (98811 01291), Email: suraj.sk[at]gmail.com

Prizes

Prizes for each finalist, for the Best College Team, the Best School Team, and the Best Newbie Team. Lots of audience prizes.
Prizes are co-sponsored by Landmark (Pune) and BCQC

The BCQC is on Facebook and Twitter as well.

the questions from last month's quiz by Vikram Joshi are now available at the BCQC Questions Blog.

A cricketing theory of Indian quiz groups

The great thing about analogies is that they seldom have to make sense. Often, the seed of such an exercise is in misplaced induction: you start with one element that coincides with another, and then you construct, induction step after step, a cathedral of pure imagination. Here is one such anal-logie, an attempt to equate Indian quizzing groups with Test cricketing nations.

Pune: this is where it began. One day, I realised that New Zealand cricket had much in common with us (the BCQC). In the quizzing map of India, we are a small but committed quizzing city. We tend to suffer from a very tiny pool of quizzers, but don't let that affect our creativity. We tend to be garrulous about our quizzing opinions, but are usually easy-going (and no one really pays much attention to us :-) ). Yes, we are (were?) a cold city; some of our quizzing happens outdoors and in picturesque settings (at least when we had the Dewang Mehta auditorium!). It can also be argued that the BC is a multi-purpose arena, where quizzing has to contend with other sports. And we have had reasonably good individual success at national events.

From now, everything is, as I put it, "illegitimate shoehorning":

Kolkata: This veteran quizzing city is the Olde English Test team. History records it as fostering quizzing in the country. The style is old-fashioned, and the rest of India seems to practice a different form these days.

Bombay: These guys are the New English Test team. Largely made up of talented expats (from South Africa? see below). Competitive like crazy. Have won some big quizzes recently.

Bangalore: My vote goes to Australia as their isomorphic peer. Why? The KQA sets the standard when it comes to quizzes, formats, and quizzers. Perhaps the Australian Test team of a few years ago ;-)

Chennai: Should they be Australia? Or should they be South Africa. I hope no one tries to "choke" me for this. Maybe they are Victoria and New South Wales; two sides of the same Face/Off coin.

Goa: The guys at the SEQC will throw theirs stereos at being typed as the Windies; both have great locations to quiz, drink, and relax, but certainly do some great quizzing. Makes me think: why take quizzing (and such analogies) all that seriously?

There are many more quiz clubs and cricketing nations; scope for more mad connections. Are the guys in Delhi the Pakistanis (unpredictable "Northies" with flair; not ageless, I hope)? And what about the Sri Lankans and the Zimbabweans?

And who are the India of quizzing? (or are we all?) Is it time to ask the Belgians?

Written as a companion piece to this video, recorded by Sarat Rao, who is making a documentary on Indian quizzing (shot on the sidelines of the last BCQC Open)

IIT Bombay Techfest National Open Quiz - Pune details

Forwarding a message from the organisers:

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Techfest 2011-12 shall host the largest inter-institutional quiz in India, The “Techfest National Open Quiz 2011-12”. With a prize money of INR 1,00,000 for the grand finale and much more interesting prizes this quiz aims to bring together the best quizzers from across the nation. The quiz will be held at Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai and the winners of all the cities will finally clash during Techfest 2011-12 to claim the title of the Techfest National Open Quiz Champions. Rest of the details are here.

Quizmaster: Rohit Nair

Format: Written prelims; Stage Finals with 6 teams. Winners to be invited to Techfest, IIT Bombay in January for the Grand Finale. Two members per team compulsary; No cross institutional teams strictly; Registrations on www.techfest.org/tnoq and also on the spot registrations; No entry fees

Date & Time: 15th October (Saturday); Timings: From 11 am
Venue: College of Engineering, Pune

How to get to the venue The College of Engineering, Pune (also known as COEP or just "Engineering College") is located very close to other landmarks such as Pune Station, Sancheti Flyover, and the RTO. The Seminar Hall is near the main building and is on the opposite side of the road from the Boat Club (which is the venue for the weekend sessions).

Contact: Phone: Rohan (98901 06884) Email: rohan.k[at]techfest.org, Arindam (97695 85892) Email: arindam[at]techfest.org