Thoughts on the Panjim monthly- 11/Jan/2025

This is not a recap per se. Nitish said he is going to run this quiz online at some point, so I will not write any spoilers. This is more of an exploration post the quiz.

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A good quiz is merely a cipher because it allows the brain to feel whatever it wants to feel. We might feel elation, at times dejection, frustration or in rare moments, even exuberance; we can feel all this or nothing at all. Yes, a good quiz is a cipher, a mirror, to see what we choose to see.

And what is it about a good quiz that makes us feel this way? Why do we subject ourselves to the torture of racking our brains and hearts for answers? And where exactly, are those answers coming from? Are they inside us, or are they hidden in the warm camaraderie of the team? Or are they in fact pulled out of the thin air by a well-devised clue (a Gujarati one, perhaps)? Are they held secret in the grids of our childhood games?

A good quiz, like the one hosted by Nitish last Sunday, leaves one hungry for more. It creates an atmosphere fuelled by thoughtful questions, engaged teams, and the raucous bonhomie of the evening. Is that what compels a quizzer to return? After all, our only reward is a subtle nod from the Quizmaster and a few points. Why do we come at all, when we could be metaphorically, lazing in a hammock instead?. Perhaps we come to belong in the collective laughter when a teammate unintentionally flubs a 15-pointer question after she makes a point on the unfairness of a 15-pointer question.

In that sense, quizzing is much like the tortures of young love: we suffer through exquisite pain for the promise of something beautiful. We are like addicts searching for the next high, or cult members in a trance. Everything makes sense in that moment when the answer fits the question. We find heaven in the hallowed halls of the GBS.

The quiz itself was beautifully structured, with the titles of the rounds themselves designed as questions. There were 6 rounds, and dispatched at a quick pace, spanning from politics to sports, history, geography, religion, food and more.

We have had a great start to 2026 and it is only January. There is more to come, and more to know about own selves through what we choose to see and remember.

So long then, until next Sunday.

Scores:

Team 6: 350 points

Aniruddha Sengupta, Naintara Jain, Aastha Dua, Devika Shetty, Mervyn Fernandes

Team 3: 330 points

Raunak Nevgi, Shujoy Dutta, Melchior Teles, Assis Sequeira, Devansh Cholera, Dhanraj

Team 4: 305 points

Ajay Poonia, Ajey Patil, Soham Gaunekar, Anirudh, Kanchan

Team 5: 285 points

Mayur Shett, Smita Nair, Ashwini Joglekar, Ruchira Porob, Viola Rodrigues, Abhijit, Ajith Nair

Team 2: 265 points

Poonam Chowdhury, Gurjot Sidhu, Karan Dhingra, Vilas Pavithran, Bonny

Team 1: 230 points

Dr. Chandrashekhar Rao, Sunil Sardessai, Srijit Kumar, Anjali Sengupta, Parind Phadte

Goa Open 2026

The Goa Open is back after a gap of 6 years. It's scheduled for Sunday, January 18, at the Goa Business School.

It's open to all in pre-formed teams of 3, but with a caveat: only one person from each of the following 2 Lists can be in the same team.

List 1: Rajiv D'Silva, Nitish Wagle, Ira Prem, Srijit Kumar, Vilas Pavithran, Doc Shekhar, Mayur Shett, Raunak Nevgi

List 2: Ajey Patil, Shujoy Dutta, R Samyak, Aastha Dua, Ruchira Porob, Soham Gaunekar, Parind Phadte, Anjali Sen Gupta

Apart from that constraint, you are free to form your team in any way you like.

The quiz will begin with a written Prelims at 3.30pm, from which the top 8 teams will qualify for the Finals.

Date: Sunday, 18th January 2026

Time: 3.30 pm (please be in place by 3.15pm)

Venue: Goa Business School, Taleigao

Click here for map

QM: Annie Sen Gupta

Participation: Open to all in pre-formed teams of 3, with rider as detailed above

Panjim January monthly – 4/Jan/2026

QMs: Raunak Nevgi and Shujoy Dutta

Food & Travel Quiz – 28/Dec/2025 – content

QM: Swati Parab

 

A trivial start to 2026 :Recap of the Panjim monthly- 4th January 2026

Here we go again. A bright, shiny new year unspooling before us, waiting to be filled with memories and musings. It feels like the new year is not made of days but threads, dangling in front of us. Some threads are glamorous and remarkable -these are the “Big Life Events”- and some are colourful and happy, marking all the fun we have had.  Most, though, are beige, because they represent our daily lives in all their unnoticed, ordinary glory. Yet, some of these beige threads are actually Trojan horses, sneakily making their way into our hearts, so we remember later.

Now, frankly my dears, what kind of thread do you think the quiz hosted by Shujoy and Raunak shall be? Perhaps only time will tell. One fine day at a party, you might throw in trivia about how there is only one British monarch named Victoria, or how Armenia uses Ararat Mountain symbolism despite it being in Turkey.

Quizzers must be annoying to other party guests.

Last Sunday’s quiz was a good start to the new year. The homage to Trivial Pursuits was sweet as that is how Shujoy said he started quizzing. Raunak had some sports questions that even lay people could answer. What else do we need at the start of the year other than a host of new things to learn and some wedges!

They had 4 rounds with one hex round at the end. Round 1 was written, for answers ranging from 1-10 only. You would think it would be easy to guess how many times an Indian PM has visited Pakistan!

Rounds 2 and 4 were set in the Trivial Pursuit format. Questions ranged from geography, history, arts and literature, sports and leisure and entertainment. Each topic had wedges that would earn the team bonus points. Due to the nature of the game, the questions alternated between topics for each team. Therefore, even though it continued for two rounds, it felt quite dynamic. The questions were also assiduously set by the QMs.

Round 3 was called sibling rivalry. It paired two teams for a set, with 3 questions each. The Gen Alpha slangs were fun to decipher and thoroughly confused the multiple generations present.

Thus ended the inaugural SEQC quiz of the year 2026. Thank you to the quizmaster duo for knitting such a beautiful patchwork thread into our Sunday. Hope this one has whetted your appetite as we have a full quizzing calendar ahead.

See you at the next one!

Scores:

Team 3: 370 points

Team 2: 330 points

Team 4: 315 points

Team 6: 305 points

Team 1: 295 points

Team 5: 250 points