Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Julian wins Mastermind Junior title



The hunt for SEQC's Junior Mastermind came to a tense climax on the evening of December 18, at the same location where the senior contest had been played out two years previously -- the beautiful setting of the Divli Lawns at the International Centre Goa (ICG) in Dona Paula. Rajiv D'Silva, who had been the Quizmaster for the entire event, set things up nicely before the contests began, with some funny introductions to the participants.

The final result may have been true to form -- with Julian D'Costa taking the title -- but the path there was anything but easy. The specialised subject round saw the four finalists arrayed close together, with just 3 points separating the first from the last.

At the end of the specialised subject round, Tarun, whose chosen topic was 'The Synoptic Gospels', was placed fourth, with a score of 10; Shubham, who had elected to be quizzed on the band 'LMFAO', was on 12; and Kunal ('The Inheritance Novels of Christopher Paolini') and Julian ('Platonic Solids') were tied at 13 each.

For the first time in the competition, one could see distinct signs of nervousness on the faces of the front-runners.

The four finalists in the hot seat.

In the general knowledge round, Tarun more or less dropped out of the reckoning with a low score. Shubham, who was up next, did only slightly better, setting up an edge-of-the-seat face-off between Kunal and Julian.

Kunal was characteristically polished at his general knowledge, setting Julian a target of 11 to win the title. For a little while, as Julian stumbled on a couple of questions, it seemed that it was going to come down to the wire, but in the end, he finished with 12 points, for a cumulative total of 25 points to Kunal's 23.

SEQC was lucky to have pulled off something of a coup, having chess wunderkind Ivana Furtado at hand to give away the prizes. Also visiting for the day, and forced into the photo op was a distinctly uncomfortable Vidyadhar Gadgil, who had been crowned SEQC's senior Mastermind two years ago.

Chief Guest for the event, Ivana Furtado, flanked by a beaming Junior Mastermind, Julian D'Costa, and an awkward senior Mastermind, Vidyadhar Gadgil.

Ivana evidently enjoyed the event enough that she, along with her father, stayed back to witness the second event of the day -- the Sports Quiz conducted by Amit Shet. That was also quite a hit, with a sizeable crowd watching the six finalist teams battle it out on stage.

Ameya and Rohit, the latter attending his first SEQC quiz, pipped Annie and Gadgil at the post, winning by 65 points to 60. The young team of Shashwat and Shubham came in 3rd.

Ivana presenting the 1st prize for the Sports Quiz to Ameya and Rohit.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Read my lips - NO Quizzing

Liberation Day Football Match

Date: 19th December 2011
Time: 8.00 am. Skirmishes will begin at 8.15 sharp. We ought to be finished (deliberate choice of word, that) by 9.30 am.
Venue: Caranzalem Beach. Along the stretch of beach just across from the main gate of the Goa Science Centre.
Participation: Open to all.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Mastermind Junior Finals

Date: 18th November 2011
Time: 5.45 pm, right after the Sports Quiz Prelims
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Format: Classic Mastermind
Venue: Divli Lawns, International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Finalists: Julian D'Costa, Kunal Naik, Shubham Tiwari, Tarun Mascarenhas.

From Thomson to Thompson

(Jeff and Daley, to be precise)


Date: 18th December 2011
Time: 5.00 pm. Prelims will begin at 5.15 sharp.
QM: Amit Shet
Flavour: Sports
Venue: Divli Lawns, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Participation: Open to all, in teams of two. Registration on the spot.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

SEQC December Results

QM: Yogesh Pai

1st: [Akshay Rege, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Justin Pereira, R. Nirmala, Samyak Rajanala, Shubham Tiwari] & [Atharv Joshi, Conrad Fernandes, Kanchan Gatward, Rajiv D'Silva, Sunil Sardessai] - 135
3rd: Carmen Pereira, Jay Kamat, Mahesh Prabhu, Nitish Fatarpekar, Sajan Venniyoor, Shaswat Salgaonkar, Yash Pathak - 100
4th: Aditya Mallya, Ajachi Chakrabarti, Ashwin Mascarenhas, Kunal Naik, Nikhil Shirsat, Rani Pathak - 85
5th: Manguesha Kamat, Nate Hook, Nitish Wagle, Paola Mambro, Paul Gatward, Tanmay Naik, Sanket Nayak - 50
6th: Agastya Keni, Anjali Sen Gupta, Cyrus Pereira, Malcolm Gurjao, Ratan Doddalinganavar, Shobha Doddalinganavar, Soham Gaunekar, Srijit Kumar - 45

The next Panjim monthly will be held on the 8th of January 2012, to be hosted by Nitish Wagle.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Mega-Whats 2011

The third edition of Mega-Whats, the KQA’s National Open Quizzing Championship will be held on Sunday, 11 December 2011.
The quiz will be held across thirteen cities simultaneously - Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Mysore, New Delhi, Pune, Thrissur, and Thiruvananthapuram.
The Goa edition will be held at the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.
Please register in advance to ensure good seating.
An entry form is provided here–scroll to the end of the page: http://kqaquizzes.org/megawhats/

The details:
  • Date: Sunday, 11 December 2011
  • Please report by 1430hrs at the venue. Since we need to ensure a coordinated start nationwide, the quiz will start at 1500hrs sharp. The doors will be closed five minutes before we begin.
  • General quiz, open to all.
  • Teams of FOUR members (or less).
  • Prior registration is essential.
  • To register, please use the form as indicated above.
  • Please provide the names of the four people who comprise your team; also indicate whether you are taking part in the school, college or open categories
  • Registrations will close on Tuesday 6th December 2011. City co-ordinators will allow entries after the cut-off date at their discretion.
  • The school category is open only to teams comprising students from Std. VIII-X
  • Contesting teams will answer in writing a quiz of six sections and about sixty questions, inclusive of audios, videos and visuals.
  • Answers and scores will be announced immediately after the event–prizes will be given out for Best School Team, Best College Team, and Best Open Team.
  • The prizes aren’t small–they are insignificant.
  • We will rank the top 100 teams across the country–this list will go up by the 25th of December.
  • The rankings will be announced after adjudication. The decision of the quiz-masters will be final and binding on all participants.
  • The city-winners will face off in June 2012 as part of the KQA 29th Anniversary.
For more details, please visit www.kqaquizzes.org or call Arul Mani at 097312-14519

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Clash of the junior titans

A report on the SEQC Mastermind Junior semi-finals


The quest for SEQC's Mastermind Junior moved one step closer to its goal, as the semi-finals threw up the four contenders who will battle it out in the final. As with the first-round matches, the contests were exciting, if a little more clear-cut in their results.


In the first semi, 'The Chronicles of Narnia' served Julian well, allowing him to build up a sizeable lead in the specialised subject round. There wasn't much to choose between Shubham and Jatan, though, at this stage. Answering questions about the 'ICC World Cup 2011', Shubham notched up 13, while Jatan was just a point behind with the tough subject of 'The Life and Career of Niccolo Paganini'. In the general knowledge round, though, Jatan lost a bit of steam, and Shubham easily overhauled him to join Julian in the finals.


In the second contest, Tarun, who had taken the place of Anand as a result of the latter's unavailability, surged ahead, using his knowledge of the Tintin comics to rack up 16 points to Kunal's 14 from questions about the band Nirvana. Akshay's score of 8 points from his specialised subject of 'The History of Goa under Portuguese Rule' virtually ruled him out of contention, which was confirmed when he scored just 5 in his GK round. Tarun and Kunal were already through, so it was only a matter of pride as to which one came out on top. Scoring an impressive 16 points in the GK round, Kunal opened up a significant gap over his younger competitor, and sounded a warning to Julian that perhaps the final is not going to be a cakewalk for him.


On December 18, after what will hopefully be a sizzling Sports Quiz, Julian, Kunal, Tarun and Shubham will battle it for top spot. Should make for a scintillating evening on the whole.

Monday, November 28, 2011

SEQC December

Yogesh Pai, of the Tirupur Tughlaq dynasty that holds sway over Coimbatore, logged on to a travel portal sometime back and booked a Quiz, a Flight and a Hotel in Goa, in that order (I am told there are hefty discounts if one books all three together). The net result of all that is that this weekend, we will for the first time have a guest quizzer donning the quizmaster's hat. Some measure of SEQC's ill repute can be judged by the fact the Yogesh at first set out to put together a raunchy, adults-only quiz, but he then thought better of it when he learnt of the unseemly amount of women and children that throng our quizzes. So NO sex, but still expect a good one.
And to sweeten the deal, Aniruddha Sen Gupta will re-run the quiz that he did at BITS a while back, so those of you who weren't there, be there.

Waves Quiz Re-Run

Date: 4th December 2011
Time: 3.00 pm
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
Flavour: General
Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Participation: Open to all, entry free


SEQC December

Date: 4th December 2011
Time: 5.00 pm
QM: Yogesh Pai
Flavour: General
Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Participation: Open to all, entry free

Sunday, November 27, 2011

SEQCm November - Results

QMs: Lynn Barretto Miranda & Sanjay Parab

1st: Andy Carvalho, Ira Almeida, Nathan Moniz, Paul Gatward, Pravin Ghadia, Rajiv D'Silva - 120
2nd: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Eulalia D'Mello, Harsh Hegde, Kanchan Gatward, Leander Paes, Nitish Wagle - 110
3rd: Abhijeet Virginkar, Aditya Mallya, Akshay Mysore, Ameya Mardolkar, Chandrashekhar Rao, Sahil Ramchandani - 100
4th: Allan D'Mello, Anjali Sen Gupta, Ansuya Gadhia, Ashwin Mysore, Nathan Hook, V. R. Muralidharan, Zibane Paes - 50

The next Margao monthly will be held on the 14th of January 2012, to be hosted by Dr. V. R. Muralidharan.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

SEQC Mastermind Junior - Semi final results


Semi 1:
1st: Julian D'Costa - 32 (The Chronicles of Narnia Novels - 20, GK - 12)
2nd: Shubham Tiwari - 21 (The ICC World Cup 2011 - 13, GK - 8)
3rd: Jatan Rodrigues - 16 (The Life and Career of Niccolo Paganini - 12, GK - 4)

Semi 2:
1st: Kunal Naik - 30 (Nirvana, the Band - 14, GK - 16)
2nd: Tarun Mascarenhas - 23 (The Tintin Comics - 16, GK - 7)
3rd: Akshay Rege - 13 (The History of Goa under Portuguese Rule - 8, GK - 5)

The top two in each semi final go through to the final, which will be held on the 18th of December.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

SEQCm November

Date: 26th November 2011
Time: 5.00 pm
QM: Lynn Barretto Miranda
Flavour: General
Venue: Urban Health Centre, opp Hospicio Hospital, Margao
Participation: Open to all, entry free

Thursday, November 17, 2011

BiG Q 2011 questions and answers

The question paper for the BiG Q 2011 has been uploaded to Google Docs. Click here to access the question paper. Click here to access the question papers with the answers included.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Navy Week Quiz

Organized by: Naval Aircraft Servicing Development Organization & Funky Heads Event Management Co.
Flavour: General
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Participation: Open to students of Std. XI & XII, in teams of 3. Only one team per institution.
Stage 1: Written preliminaries and Semi-Finals, 16th November 2011, 9.30 am, Naval Aviation Museum, Dabolim.
Stage 2: Finals, 23rd November 2011, 10.00 am, Rajhans Auditorium, Dabolim.
Attractive prizes for the participants and the audience. For more details, call Kaustubh on 9765328710.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

ThanQ for BiG Q

Though this was on the question paper that we handed out, we at SEQC would like to also publicly acknowledge the various people instrumental in making the BiG Q 2011 a successful event.

Our grateful thanks to Arun Hiregange and Movin Miranda, who set this quiz. Also to Redact Media for sponsoring the prizes for BiGQ 2011. SEQC also thanks the venue administrators for allowing us the use of their facilities free of cost.

The successful execution of this event would not have been possible without the help of Rajiv and Tallulah D’Silva, Mahesh Prabhu, Ameya Mardolkar, Ira Almeida and Anjali Sen Gupta.

Finally, thank you to all the participants for giving it their best.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Mastermind Junior Semis

Date: 13th November 2011
Time: 5.00 pm.
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Format: Classic Mastermind
Venue: Zuari Hall, International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Semi-Finalists: Akshay Rege, Jatan Rodrigues, Julian D'Costa, Kunal Naik, Shubham Tiwari, Tarun Mascarenhas.

SEQC November Results

QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

1st: Amit Naik, Anil Rodrigues, Arun B., Atharv Joshi, Conrad Fernandes, Leroy Veloso, Paola Mambro, M. S. Raghunandan - 117
2nd: Anand P. S., Kanchan Gatward, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, Rajiv D'Silva, Sanchita Rodrigues, Shaunak Sardessai, S. M. Govekar, Sunil Sardessai, Suvrat Bhobe, Urjita Bhobe - 110
3rd: Achintya Bhobe, Ajachi Chakrabarti, Ira Almeida, Jatan Rodrigues, Kunal Naik, Malcolm Gurjao, Paul Gatward, Nikhil Shirsat, Sadhika Buddhaseth, Shakuntala Buddhaseth, Shubham Neurekar - 107
4th: Agastya Keni, Ana Vaz, Analia Pinto, Andy Carvalho, Brijesh, Christy George, Jonathan Vaz, Julian D'Costa, Ralsten Gonsalves, Sabulal P. C., Shashank, Tanmay Naik - 78
5th: [Akshay Mysore, Akshay Rege, Anjali Sen Gupta, Mahesh Prabhu, Noella Fernandes, Pravas Ravi, Soham Gaunekar, Taran Mukherjee, Vikram D'Silva] & [Ameya Mardolkar, Dominick Da Costa, Juan Vaz, Julio Vaz, Julian Fernandes, Karen Almeida, Parind Phadte, Shaswat Salgaonkar, Shubham Tiwari, Varun Srikanth] - 75

The next monthly in Panjim will be held on the 4th of December, to be hosted by Yogesh Pai.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The BiG Q 2011 -- Top 20 and other scores

The top 20 scores for BiG Q 2011 are listed below. The entries in blue signify participants in the Schools category. For the scores of all participants across the four Goa venues, click here.

The BiG Q 2011 by Numbers

The turnout for the BiG Q 2011 was rather disappointing -- just 72 participants this time, compared to more than 120 last year. The competition, however, was as keen as ever.

As per the provisional scores, the top score across Goa was that of Rajiv D'Silva, who had 62. The next best was Ajachi Chakrabarti, whose provisional tally was 57. But during the verification process, I found that Ajachi's paper had been poorly marked. By the time I had corrected it for myself, Ajachi's score had risen to tie with Rajiv's!

Contemplating the prospect of joint winners for the event, I reached for Rajiv's paper. The marking of his paper, it initially seemed, had been perfect, but I noticed one correct answer left unmarked -- and, by the margin of the froth on a glass of beer, Rajiv came out on top, to be deservedly crowned Best-in-Goa Quizzer. Ajachi wins the Best Open Quizzer (BOQ) title from Vasco.

Though the fight for the top spot was as even as it could be, a more remarkable performance was that of Julian D'Costa. This little Boy Quizzard of ours -- a student of Class VIII -- notched up a score of 55 to top the Margao centre!

In Panjim, too, Shashwat Salgaocar, a Class XI student, took the title of BOQ (as Rajiv, the BiG Q, is not eligible for a second award), pipping out the favoured Adish Talwadker by a point. Shashwat, too, benefitted from the checking of the scores, climbing from a provisional total of 39 to a final score of 46.

In both Panjim and Margao, following the norm that no one person will be eligible for two prizes, the Best School Quizzer (BSQ) prizes will go to the second best among the school category participants -- Vilas Pavithran in Margao (with a score of 34) and Kunal Naik (33) in Panjim. Anand P.S. wins the Vasco BSQ title with 25 points.

Among the venues, Ponda was disappointing, with a turnout of just four participants. Anirudh Shirsat scored 33 to be named the BOQ for Ponda, but there were no takers at all for the BSQ prize. That prize we will hand out to the highest-scoring unrecognised school participant across all the locations, which happens to be Akshay Rege (26) from the Panjim venue.

As there are other quiz clubs that have decided to conduct the BiG Q at their venues, we will not be putting up the questions and answers on our blog till about the middle of November. As a courtesy to those clubs, please refrain from giving away any of the questions and answers on public forums until then. I have a lot of funny answers to reveal, but will refrain from doing so till the other cities are done with their BiG Q events.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

SEQCm October - Results

QM: Abhijeet Virginkar

1st: Akshay Rege, Nitish Wagle, Remedios Fernandes, Sanjay Parab, Lynn Barretto Miranda - 170
2nd: Nathan Moniz, Aditya Mallya, Sairaj Prabhudesai, Kiril Vaz, Ira Almeida - 90
3rd: [Sahil Ramchandhani, Andy Carvalho, Pravas Ravi, V. R. Muralidharan] & [R Kumar, Anirudh G, Anirudh Shirsat, Paula Mambro, Julian D'Costa] - 80

The next Margao quiz will be held on the 26th of November, to be QMed by Lynn Barretto Miranda.

Monday, October 31, 2011

SEQC November

Date: 6th November 2011
Time: 5.00 pm
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
Flavour: General
Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Participation: Open to all, entry free

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Waves Open Quiz 2011



Venue: BITS Pilani (Goa Campus), NH17B, close to Dabolim Airport
Date: November 4, 2011
Time: 12.15 pm
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
Flavour: General
Participation: Open to all, entry free. Teams of three.

Land up by noon, as registration, etc, takes a little while. There will be a 25-question prelims, followed by a six-team final. Cash prizes for winning teams.

For more details, contact Sohag Sen, Quiz Coordinator, BITS Pilani, on 9552518857 or Aditya Ramani on 9975153043.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

SEQCm October Quiz

Date: 29th October 2011
Time: 5.00 pm
QM: Abhijeet Virgincar
Flavour: General
Venue: Urban Health Centre, opp Hospicio Hospital, Margao
Participation: Open to all, entry free

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The BiG Q 2011: all the details

Date: October 23, 2011
Time: 10am-1pm
Locations: Margao, Panjim, Ponda and Vasco (venues detailed below)
QMs: Arun Hiregange and Movin Miranda
Flavour: General
Format: Solo written quiz, 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes
Participation: Open to all, entry free

Venues and coordinators
  • Margao: 1st floor, Urban Health Centre, opposite Hospicio Hospital
    Coordinator: Ira Almeida, 9657320872
  • Panjim: Zuari Hall, International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula
    Coordinator: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, 9860089733, 2289883
  • Ponda: GVM’s SNJA Higher Secondary School, Farmagudi
    Coordinator: Ameya Mardolkar, 9823171842
  • Vasco: St Andrew’s School, St Andrew’s Church
    Coordinator: Mahesh Prabhu, 9823010242
Pre-registration for all venues closes at 9pm on Friday, October 21. Spot registrants will be allowed in on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability of extra question papers at the respective venues.
    Schedule
    • 10-10.15am: Check-in and spot registration
    • 10.15-10.30am: Participant briefing
    • 10.30am-12noon: Quiz time
    • 12noon-1pm: Corrections, score tallying, announcement of venue winners*
      * On-the-spot corrections and tallying will be carried out through the exchange of papers among participants. The scores thus recorded will only be provisional. The final tallying will be done by an SEQC team, and the prizes awarded to winners at the SEQC monthly on November 6, 2011, at the International Centre Goa (ICG) in Dona Paula.
    Prizes
    • Best School Quizzer (BSQ) at each venue: Rs 400 each
    • Best Open Quizzer (BOQ) at each venue: Rs 600 each
    • Best-in-Goa Quizzer* (BiG Q): Rs 1000
      * The second-placed quizzer from the BiG Q's venue will be awarded the BOQ prize for that location.

    Thursday, October 13, 2011

    Looking once more for the Best Quizzer in Goa



    For two years now, SEQC has been posing the same question: who's the best quizzer in Goa? It's time to find an answer to this question a third time around.

    The BiG Q 2011, which expands to the 'Best-in-Goa Quizzer' will be held on Sunday, October 23. This is the BiG Q’s third year, following on from two successful editions. The BiG Q went from 80 participants across three venues in 2009 to more than 120 in four locations last year. This year, too, the event will be conducted simultaneously in Margao, Panjim, Ponda and Vasco, and it is hoped that the turnout will be significantly larger than last year.

    The BiG Q is a written quiz for solo participants, with 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes. Reporting time at the venues is 10am. This year, the BiG Q is being set by last year’s overall winner, Arun Hiregange, with help from Movin Miranda. Both of them are among the top in the country.

    Entry to the quiz is free, and open to all, from the youngest school student to the sprightliest senior citizen. There are prizes for Best Open Quizzer and Best School Quizzer (for students of up to Class XII) at each of the four locations, plus a special prize for the Best-in-Goa Quizzer.

    Pre-registration is essential for participation. To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, using the Subject line 'BiGQ2011 registration' and mentioning in the body of the message your name, contact details and the city where you will take the quiz.

    The venues at which the competition will be held in different cities will be announced here soon.

    Wednesday, October 5, 2011

    SEQC October monthly results

    QM: Nitish Wagle

    1st: Agastya Keni, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Jared D'Lima, Jatan Rodrigues, Sanchita Banerjee, Shaunak Sardessai, Tanmay Naik, Taran Mukherjee - 105 points
    2nd: Ameya Mardolkar, Ashish Rebello, Atharv Joshi, Maithili Majithia, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, Sachin Chatte, Saurabh Lawande, Soham Gaunekar - 50
    3rd: Akshara Kulkarni, Akshay Rege, Ananya Mukherjee, Anjali Sen Gupta, Arathi Abraham, Nikhil Shirsat, Om D'Costa, Shaila D'Souza, Varsha Kulkarni - 40
    4th: Anand P.S., Ayush Majithia, Conrad Fernandes, Delano Rodrigues, Julian Fernandes, Kunal Naik, P.D. Mukherjee - 25
    5th: Akash Kulkarni, Anil Rodrigues, Kedar Naik, Mahesh Prabhu, Paul Gatward, Shubham Tiwari, Srijit Kumar - 20
    6th: G.S. Banerjee, Kanchan Gatward, Lara Pereira, Nitish Fatarpekar, Paola Mambro, Samrah Kazi, Shashwat Salgaocar, Sunil Sardessai, Sushmeet Hawaldar, Tallulah D'Silva - 10

    Wednesday, September 28, 2011

    Add-on quiz on October 2

    There's been sufficient interest in the add-on quiz I had said I would conduct, so we're on for 4pm on Sunday October 2 at ICG. This will be a casual, non-leaderboard event.

    The October monthly by Nitish Wagle will take place immediately on this being completed, hopefully by 5pm.

    Annie

    Monday, September 26, 2011

    Mastermind it!

    A report by Annie Sen Gupta on the second set of first-round contests of SEQC's Mastermind Junior competition, held at ICG, Dona Paula, on September 18.

    Not having been in town on the date, I couldn't be there for the first set of Round 1 match-ups in the SEQC Mastermind Junior competition. Watching the second set, which were held on September 18, I really regretted having missed the first day.

    The competition was fierce, and the performance of the young SEQCites superlative. It felt like Mastermind at its best -- in most cases, assured quizzers easily navigating the specialised and general knowledge question sets. With Rajiv as QM, the sombre interrogation that Mastermind is supposed to be had a friendly touch to it, appropriate to the age of the participants.


    The first contest was perhaps a little one-sided, with Kunal Naik powering his way to an assured victory over close friend Soham Gaunekar and the indefatigable Nitish Fatarpekar. Kunal had chosen a potentially too-vast subject, 'The Simpsons', but his range of knowledge on the subject saw him establish a decent lead in the Specialised Subject round, which he consolidated with his General Knowledge.


    The second contest was the cliffhanger. It began with some drama, with Samrah Kazi, who wasn't originally slated to be one of the contestants, bravely stepping up to take the place of Akash Kulkarni, who was a no-show. Sadly, fortune didn't favour the brave, as Akash's specialised topic of 'The Indian Premier League' had her stumped. The big surprise came in the performances of the other three in the group. Shashwat Salgaonkar, certainly one of the favourites for the crown of Junior Mastermind, was first bested by Shubham Tiwari, and then by Tarun Mascarenhas. A huge upset seemed to be on the cards.

    Going into the GK round with a 10-point disadvantage, Shashwat seemed to be out of it when his total after his GK set put him barely 3 points above Tarun's score from the specialised set. Shubham, on next, did cross Shashwat's score, but set Tarun a target of just 5 points. With the contest seemingly in the bag, though, came anohter twist. Tarun only managed 4 points in his GK set, and Shubham went through from this match.


    In the final group, too, Maithili Majithia scored 9 in her specialised set to finish ahead of the more fancied Akshay Rege (8) and Agastya Keni (6). Agastya had perhaps bitten off more than he could chew when he chose 'The National Basketball Association from 2000-2011' as his specialised subject, but it was the GK round that was his real bete noire. Maithili failed to capitalise on her lead, and did poorly in her GK set. Akshay roared back and this contest reverted to form.


    Up ahead are the semis on November 13, with Shubham, Kunal and Akshay joining Jatan, Julian and Anand, who had earlier qualified from the previous Sunday's Round One contests. The competition can only get more tense, and I'm looking forward to being at this event. I suggest you mark it on your calendars as well.

    From Boys to Men

    A report by Tallulah D'Silva on the SEQC Junior Mastermind First Round held in Margao on the 11th September.




    Junior Mastermind debuted at Margao with a surprisingly large turnout, the largest since its inception less than a year ago. Although the number of participants from Margao were a handful for this version of the quiz, the quizmaster’s decision to have its debut in this southern town seemed to have worked well with some dropping by to see what the quss ( fuss over a quiz!) was all about. Prior to the quiz, Rajiv D’Silva briefed the contestants on stage procedures and the other nuances of the quiz, reiterating the fact that most of these kids weren’t around when the Mastermind series were televised across the country! The first group had Julian, the local quiz wiz kid and the only experienced junior to have participated in an earlier version of SEQC Mastermind held more than a year ago, beginning the proceedings so as to help others that followed get acquainted with the structure, pace and routine of the first specialized subject round. Having chosen the Asterix Comics, Julian did extremely well with just 1 pass and 19 right answers. He scored highest in the GK round too topping in his group with 31 points. Anand P S topped in the next group with Tamanna Arora close behind by only a point having scored poorly in the general knowledge round. The last group saw Atharv Joshi who chose a toughie (Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis) and one of the favourites losing to Jatan Rodrigues by 4 points although having an equal score of 11 in the general knowledge round. The kids conducted themselves extremely well and audience proved very supportive in turn. Looking forward to the next clash of the Lilliputians!

    Animal Instincts quiz results

    QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

    1st: St Britto's High School, Mapusa (Aaron Carvalho, Kendrick Fernandes, Onkar M. Nagvekar) - 128 points
    2nd: G.S. Amonkar Vidya Mandir, Mapusa (Akshata Tar, Suraj Parmekar, Rajendra Deshprabhu) - 101 points
    3rd: Holy Family School, Porvorim (Ashish Narvekar, Gilbert Soyus, Saheel Maulingkar) - 76 points
    4th: St Mary's High School, Mapusa (Aliana Rodrigues, Rachita Alvi, Reissa Ribeiro) - 52 points

    SEQCm September monthly results

    QM: Kiril Vaz

    1st: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Asif Ali, Harsh Hegde - 160 points
    2nd: Ajachi Chakrabarti, Paul Gatward, Sahil Ramchandani, Sanjay D. Parab - 110 points
    3rd: [Abhijeet Virgincar, Leander Paes, V.R. Muralidharan, Zibane Paes] & [Abdul Razzaq, Akshay Rege, Ameya Mardolkar, Anjali Sen Gupta] - 70 points

    SEQC October

    Date:2nd October 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Nitish Wagle
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
    Participation: Open to all, entry free

    Friday, September 23, 2011

    SEQCm September Quiz

    Date: 24th September 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Kiril Vaz
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Urban Health Centre, opp Hospicio Hospital, Margao
    Participation: Open to all, entry free

    Thursday, September 22, 2011

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - First Round Results

    Group 4:
    1st: Shubham Tiwari - 27 (The Mahabharata - 15, GK - 12)
    2nd: Tarun Mascarenhas - 26 (The Percy Jackson Book Series - 22, GK - 4)
    3rd: Shaswat Salgaonkar - 25 (The 2010 FIFA World Cup - 12, GK - 13)
    4th: Samrah Kazi - 3 (The Indian Premier League - 1, GK - 2)

    Group 5:
    1st: Kunal Naik - 29 (The Simpsons - 15, GK - 14)
    2nd: Soham Gaunekar - 20 (The Life and Career of Eminem - 11, GK - 9)
    3rd: Nitish Fatarpekar - 12 (The Transformers Movie Series - 8, GK - 4)

    Group 6:
    1st: Akshay Rege - 20 (The Musical Career of Green Day - 8, GK - 12)
    2nd: Maithili Majithia - 10 (The 2010 Commonwealth Games - 9, GK - 1)
    3rd: Agastya Keni - 6 (The National Basketball Association from 2000-2011 - 6, GK - 0)

    Winners in each group go through to the semi-finals, to be held on the 13th of November.

    Tuesday, September 20, 2011

    Tata Crucible - Goa Round

     Date: 22nd September 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Giri 'Pickbrain' Balasubramanium
    Flavour: Business
    Venue: Cardium Auditorium, National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula
    Who can participate: Teams of two, representing their company/organization.
    Prizes: Rs 75,000 for the winners, 35,000 for the runners-up
    More details at the official site.

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011

    Animal Quiz


    Date: September 18, 2011
    Time: 9am
    Venue: St Britto's School Mapusa
    Organised by: Department of Animal Husbandry, Goa
    QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
    Flavour: All creatures great and small
    Participation: This one's for school students only, from classes VIII to X, in teams of three. The organisers have been in touch with schools, largely in Bardez, about sending teams.

    Tuesday, September 13, 2011

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - Round One continues...


    Date: 18th September 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm.
    QM: Rajiv D'Silva
    Format: Classic Mastermind
    Venue: Zuari Hall, International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
    Participants: Shaswat Salgaonkar, Kunal Naik, Akshay Rege, Akash Kulkarni, Soham Gaunekar, Agastya Keni, Shubham Tiwari, Nitish Fatarpekar, Maithili Majithia, Tarun Mascarenhas.

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - First Round Results

    Group 1:
    1st: Jatan Rodrigues - 25 (The Films of Quentin Tarantino - 14, GK - 11)
    2nd: Atharv Joshi - 21 (Einstein's Annus Mirabilis - 10, GK - 11)
    3rd: Ashwin Mascarenhas - 13 (The Kane Chronicles - 11, GK - 2)

    Group 2:
    1st: Julian D'Costa - 31 (The Asterix Comics - 19, GK - 12)
    2nd: Saheel Wagh - 14 (The I-League 2010-11 - 9, GK - 5)
    3rd: Sahil Prabhudesai - 2 (The Harappan Civilization - 1, GK - 1)

    Group 3:
    1st: Anand P.S. - 23 (The Sherlock Holmes Books by Arthur Conan Doyle - 14, GK -9)
    2nd: Tamanna Aurora - 22 (The Harry Potter Novels - 19, GK - 3)
    3rd: Iona Francis - 3 (The Solar System - 3, GK - 0)

    Winners in each group go through to the semi-finals, to be held on the 13th of November.

    SEQCm August - Content

    Incredible India Quiz Open - Content

    Wednesday, September 7, 2011

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - First Round

    Date: 11th September 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Rajiv D'Silva
    Format: Classic Mastermind
    Venue: Urban Health Centre, Margao
    Participants: Atharv Joshi, Julian D'Costa, Tammanna Aurora, Ashwin Mascarenhas, Saheel Wagh, Anand P. S., Jatan Rodrigues, Sahil Prabhudesai, Iona Francis.

    SEQC September Results

    QM: Sirish Nimmagadda

    1st: [Adish Talwadker, Akshay Rege, Anil Rodrigues, Kunal Naik, Pamela D'Mello, Paola Mambro, Rohan Fernandes, Samrah Kazi], [Amruta Patil, Aniruddha Sankoli, Jiten Majithia, Nitish Wagle, Parind Phadte, Shaswat Salgaonkar, Shaunak Sardessai, Tallulah D'Silva, Valmiki Naik] & [Agastya Keni, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Anjali Sen Gupta, Atharv Joshi, Jared D'Lima, Raghunandan Mysore, Riza Noronha, Sanchita Rodrigues] - 13
    4th: [Ajachi Chakrabarti, Amita Kanekar, Mahesh Prabhu, Shubham Tiwari, Soham Gaunekar, Sridevi P., Suraj Shenai] & [Conrad Fernandes, Maithili Majithia, Nikhil Shirsat, Nitish Fatarpekar, Sachin Chatte, Sadika Buddaseth, Sajan Venniyoor, Vasav Panchal] - 12
    6th: Akash Kulkarni, Ashwin Mysore, Neeru Khera, Neil Khera, Priya Naik, Rajiv D'Silva, Sunil Sardessai, Vighna N. P. - 10

    The next Panjim monthly will be held on the 2nd of October, to be hosted by Nitish Wagle.

    Oasis Lone Wolf Quiz 2011 - Results

    1.  Aniruddha Sen Gupta 70.5
    2.  Rajiv D'Silva 48.5
    3.  Ajachi Chakrabarti 41.5
    4.  Chirag Mutgi 31.5
    5.  Adish Talwadker 23.5
    6.  Valmiki Naik 21
    7.  Ashin George 18.5
    8.  Anjali Sen Gupta 18
    9.  Atharv Joshi 12.5
    10.  Ananth Kachroo 11.5
    11.  Sohag Sen 10
    12 . Aditya Ramani 10
    13.  Paola A Mambro 10
    14.  Bhargav Vishwanathan 9.5
    15.  Sumedh Kaulgud 8
    16.  Akshay A Rege 7.5
    17.  Vasav Panchal 2

    Tuesday, August 30, 2011

    SEQCm August results

    QM: Amit Shet

    1st: Abhijeet Virginkar, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Fatima Moniz, Marc Mascarenhas, Tallulah D'Silva, Terrence D'Costa - 105
    2nd: Akshay Rege, Harsh Hegde, R. Kumar, V. R. Muralidharan - 60
    3rd: [Adish Talwadker, Danny Travasso, Leander Paes, Nathan Moniz, Nitish Wagle, Paola Mambro] & [Anjali Sen Gupta, Julian D'Costa, Ira Almeida-D'Costa, Rajiv D'Silva, Viola Rodrigues, Zibane Paes] - 40

    The next Margao monthly will be held on the 24th of September, to be hosted by Kiril Vaz.

    SEQC September

    Date: 4th September 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Sirish Nimmagadda
    Flavour: General, with a generous dose of Indian mythology
    Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
    Participation: Open to all, entry free

    Oasis Lone Wolf Quiz 2011

     
    Organized by: BITS-Pilani
    Date: 4th September 2011
    Time: 10.30 am. The quiz will begin at 11.00 am sharp.
    Format: This is a solo written quiz. The quiz will consist of 120 questions, to be answered in 90 minutes. 
    Venue: International Centre Goa, Dona Paula - Panaji.
    Participation: Open to all. Participants must register beforehand by sending an email to seqcgoa@gmail.com. Last date for receiving registrations is 3rd September 2011 at 5.30 pm. Spot entries will be accommodated depending on availability of question papers and seating

    For more details, click here.

    XCHR Goa History Quiz - Results

    QM: Rajiv D'Silva

    1st: Mushtifund, Panjim (Akshay Rege, Raunak Sakhardande, Shaileja Chopdekar) - 130
    2nd: Rosary, Miramar (Cyrus Pereira, Jared D'Lima, Trisha Lopes) - 75
    3rd: Rosary, Miramar (Aldrich Rodrigues, Krishna Arar, Larren Colaco) - 60
    4th: Loyola, Margao (Gavin D'Mello, Marc Mascarenhas, Rohit Viegas) - 30

    For pictures of the event, click here.

    Thursday, August 25, 2011

    Aavishkar Quiz

    Organized by: Padre Conceicao College of Engineering
    Date & Time: Round 1 &2 on 8th September 2011 at 11 am, Final on 9th September at 2.00 pm
    QM: Niyan Marchon
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna
    Participation: Open to college students.
    Prizes: 3k & 2k for Ist and 2nd respectively

    For more details call Prajakt on 9049889267 or click here.

    Monday, August 22, 2011

    In'Quiz'itive Goa

    Organized by: Dhempe College of Arts & Science
    Date: 24th August 2011
    Time: 9.30 am
    QM: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly
    Flavour: Goa
    Venue: Club Gaspar Dias, Miramar
    Participation: Open to college students, in teams of two.

    SEQCm August Quiz

    Date: 27th August 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Amit Shet
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Urban Health Centre, opp Hospicio Hospital, Margao
    Participation: Open to all, entry free

    Incredible India Quizzes - Results

    School Edition:

    QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

    1st: Kunal Naik & Soham Gaunekar (Sharada Mandir School) - 60
    2nd: Shashwat Salgaonkar & Shubham Tiwari (Mushtifund Aryaan HSS) - 42*
    3rd: Suraj Painekar & Rajendra Deshprabhu (G.S. Amonkar Vidya Mandir) - 41*
    4th: Atharv Joshi & Mangesh Sonawane (KV INS Mandovi) - 40*
    5th: Shukr Usgaonkar & Tahir Noronha (Mushtifund Aryaan HSS) - 39*
    6th: Siddharth & Aditya (Navy Children School) - -5
     * separated based on tie-breaker performance, after 4 teams ended tied at 40 points during the regular quiz

    Open Edition:

    QM: V.R. Muralidharan

    1st: Amita Kanekar & Annie Sen Gupta - 120
    2nd: Rajiv D'Silva & Harshvardhan Bhatkuly - 95
    3rd: P.C. Sabulal & Nitya Sabulal
    4th: Sachin Chatte & Ramnath Pai Raikar
    5th: Ameya Mardolkar & Ajachi Chakrabarti
    6th: Wilson Vaz & Mahesh Prabhu

    (On account of the scoresheet being misplaced, scores of the teams placed 3rd-6th have not been posted. If anybody remembers these scores, or has the scoresheet, please leave a comment)

    Saturday, August 13, 2011

    XCHR Goa History Quiz


    Date: 20th August 2011
    Time: 9.00 am
    QM: Rajiv D'Silva
    Flavour: History of Goa
    Venue: The Xavier Centre for Historical Research, Alto-Porvorim
    Participation: Open to students of Class X and below, in teams of three.
    Prizes: Rs. 5000, 3000 & 2000 for the winners.

    For more details, visit www.xchr.in.

    Wednesday, August 10, 2011

    SEQC August 2011 monthly -- questions and answers

    SEQC August 2011 monthly -- Results

    Another massive turnout at the International Centre Goa (ICG) for the August monthly, with close to 50 people participating, including a sizeable number of new participants. SEQC continues to thrive. Here are the results:

    1st: Atharv Joshi, Francis James, Jatan Rodrigues, Kanchan Gatward, Rajiv D'Silva, Rohan Fernandes, Shaila D'Souza, Shubham Tiwari - 155
    2nd: [Adish Talwadker, Akshay Rege, Akshay Surender, Chandrashekhar Rao, Mohan Kamat, Neeru Khera, Neil Khera, P.D. Mukherjee, Sameer Shaikh] and [Abhijeet Virgincar, Ajachi Chakrabarti, Ashwin Mascarenhas, Fiona Cardoz, Paniendra Kolluru, Sanchita Rodrigues, Shashwat Salgaonkar, Y. Sumanth Reddy] - 145
    4th: Aaron-Paul Fernandes, Anirudh Wodeyar, Ashin George, Kunal Naik, Nishant Udupa, Nitish Fatarpekar, Sachin Chatte, Srijit Kumar, Sunil Sardessai, Valmiki Naik - 135
    5th: Agastya Keni, Ameya Mardolkar, Anjali Sen Gupta, Soham Gaunekar, Sunil Thomas, Surbhi Verma, Vernon Fernandes - 80
    6th: Amit Shet, Anil Rodrigues, Dominic Da Costa, Nikhil Shirsat, Paola Mambro, Sahil Prabhudesai, Shishir Shankhwalker - 75

    The next SEQC monthly will be held on September 4 at ICG. The QM (to be confirmed) is likely to be Anant Lawande.

    Tuesday, August 9, 2011

    Kids' Special - Results

    QMs: Akash Kulkarni & Shubham Tiwari

    1st - Akshay Rege, Saheel Wagh, Sahil Prabhudesai, Atharv Joshi - 180
    2nd - Jatan Rodrigues, Julian D'Costa, Maithili Majithia, Iona Francis - 150 points
    3rd - Shaswat Salgaocar, Nitish Fatarpekar, Ashwin Mascarenhas, Taran Mukherjee - 120 points
    4th - Soham Gaunekar, Kunal Naik, Agastya Keni - 105 points

    Thursday, August 4, 2011

    Time once again to flaunt your I!Q

    Incredible India Quizzes return after successful debut


    [click image for enlarged view]

    On Independence Day last year, the International Centre Goa (ICG) in Dona Paula hosted the Incredible India Quizzes on Independence Day, August 15, in partnership with the Sunday Evening Quiz Club (SEQC). The turnout was overwhelming, and the seeds of an annual event were well and thoroughly sowed. This year, too, the Incredible India Quizzes will be held at the ICG, starting from 2pm on August 15.

    The Incredible India Quizzes (IIQ) 2011 will be conducted as two editions -- the first one for Schools, and the second an Open quiz. The focus of both quizzes will be on all things Indian. The content will include audio, visual and video questions, buzzer rounds, and all the other bells and whistles that go into making an exciting event. The Schools edition will be conducted by SEQC founder-member Aniruddha Sen Gupta and the Open edition by Dr V. Muralidharan, both of them accomplished quizzers and experienced quizmasters.

    Great prizes will be on offer for winners, participants and audience members.

    Entries are invited for teams of two for each of the quizzes. Entry for both quizzes is free.

    For the Schools edition, both team members must be from the same school, from any level up to Class XII. There is no restriction to the number of teams from each school.

    For the Open quiz, any two people can team up. Participants in the Schools edition can also register for the Open edition, with the same or different partners.

    The last date for registration is Saturday, August 13, 2011.To register or for answers to queries, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, with 'IIQ 2011 registration' in the Subject line, and the names plus contact numbers or e-mail IDs of both team members (with school name, if entry is for the Schools edition) in the body of the message. Alternatively, you can send in your registration in the form of a letter listing the names of team members to Arjun Halarnkar, Programmes Manager, International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.

    Monday, August 1, 2011

    SEQC August

    Date: 7th August 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
    Participation: Open to all, entry free

    SEQC Margao July - Content

    Wednesday, July 27, 2011

    SEQC Margao July 2011 monthly: Results

    The July monthly quiz of the Margao chapter, moved up by a week in order to accommodate documentary filmmaker Sarat Rao, saw the largest turnout yet for the venue. School student Akshay Rege put together a good quiz, and conducted it with equanimity.

    QM: Akshay Rege

    1st: [Abhijeet Virgincar, Atharv Joshi, Chadwick D'Mello, Haniyah D'Mello, Harsh Hegde, Jose Lourenco, Julian D'Costa, Nitish Wagle, Paola Mambro] & [Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Anjali Sen Gupta, Bruce Barreto, Ira Almeida, Maria Barreto, Nitish Fatarpekar, Prashant Maurya, Zibane Paes] - 135
    3rd: Blessie James, Danny Travasso, Doreen Dias, Lynn Barreto Miranda, Nathan Abranches, Nathan Moniz, Paul Gatward, Sanjay Parab, Sarat Rao - 120
    4th: Chantal D'Costa, Fatima Moniz, Elizabeth D'Mello, Jaiprakash Hegde, Kanchan Gatward, Leander Paes, Russel Barreto, Terrence D'Costa, V.R. Muralidharan - 85

    The next monthly quiz in Margao will be held on the 27th of August. The QM for the quiz is yet to be decided, and will be announced later.

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - Prelim results

    Here are the scores of the preliminaries of SEQC Mastermind Junior. Ties were broken using starred questions and sudden-death countback.

    1. Shaswat Salgaocar - 17
    2. Atharv Joshi - 16
    3. Kunal Naik - 16
    4. Julian D'Costa - 15
    5. Akshay Rege - 14
    6. Tammanna Aurora - 12
    7. Akash Kulkarni - 12
    8. Ashwin Mascarenhas - 10
    9. Soham Gaunekar - 8
    10. Saheel Wagh - 8
    11. Agastya Keni - 8
    12. Anand P. S. - 7
    13. Shubham Tiwari - 7
    14. Jatan Rodrigues - 7
    15. Nitish Fatarpekar - 6
    16. Sahil Prabhudesai - 6
    17. Maithili Majithia - 2
    18. Iona Francis - 2

    Details regarding the first round will be communicated to the participants shortly.

    Monday, July 18, 2011

    Southbound Again

    Its that time of the month again when all of us on the more happening side of the Zuari cross over to the more beautiful side for a spot of quizzing. And tea - a huge incentive in weather like this.

    SEQCm July

    Date: 23rd July 2011
    Time: 5.00 pm
    QM: Akshay Rege
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Urban Health Centre, opp Hospicio Hospital, Margao
    Participation: Open to all, entry free

    Friday, July 15, 2011

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - Preliminaries

    Date: 24th July 2011
    Time: 9.15 am
    QM: Rajiv D'Silva
    Flavour: General
    Format: Written
    Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.
    Participation: Open to students of Class XII and below.

    For more details about the event check this post.

    Quizmastering For Dummies (by dummies)

    SEQC Quizmasters' Workshop

    Date: 24th July 2011
    Time: 3 pm
    Programme:
    3pm-3.50pm: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
    3.50-4pm: Tea break
    4pm-4.50pm: Rajiv D'Silva
    4.50pm-5.30pm: Technical session
    Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.
    Participation: Open to all. Participants will have to pay a registration fee of Rs. 100. Pre-registration is essential. To register, email seqcgoa@gmail.com.

    SEQC Kids' Special

    Date: 24th July 2011
    Time: 10 am
    QM: Akash Kulkarni & Shubham Tiwari
    Flavour: General
    Venue: Zuari Hall, The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.
    Participation: Open to students of Class XII and below.

    SEQC Mastermind Junior - Call for entries

    Tournament format: 27 contestants will be chosen through a written preliminary and organized into 9 groups of 3 each based on the preliminary scores. Winners from each group will contest in three semi-finals of 3 each, following which 3 finalists will contest for the title.
    Quiz format: Classic Mastermind. Two minutes of rapid-fire questions on a specialized subject of the contestant's choice, followed by two minutes of questions on general knowledge.
    Key dates: Written preliminaries - 24th July 2011
    First round - 11th September 2011
    First round - 18th September 2011
    Semis - 13th November 2011
    Final - 18th December 2011
    Venues: The written preliminary will be held at the ICG, just before the Kids' Special. One of the first rounds will be held in Margao, at the Urban Health Centre. The Semis and the final will be held at the ICG.
    QM: Rajiv D'Silva.
    Participation: Open to students of Class XII and below. To register for the preliminary, send an email to seqcgoa@gmail.com. Spot entries will be accepted provided there are spare answer sheets.

    Thursday, July 7, 2011

    SEQC and the Battle for Corporation Hall

    A report on the July monthly by Aniruddha Sen Gupta

    Though we've stopped reporting on quizzes of late, and despite Rajiv having already done a mini-report on the July monthly, there was enough action on the day to make me feel that it was worth providing a full run-down (I suffer from the opposite of Writer's Block -- it's called Writer's Blog). So here you are.

    It was a dark and stormy evening. (No, seriously, it really was.) Some time before the quiz, Rajiv, Anjali and I had met up with a small contingent of quizzers that had landed up from Hyderabad. Shepherding them around Church Square was one of our own Lost Boys, Sirish von Synapse. After a cuppa at Kamat's, we dispersed in the rain with the intention of re-gathering at the CCP Hall.

    When Anjali and I got there, the Hyderabadis and a few others were milling around near the main gate of the CCP Building. People tend to do that, so I wasn't surprised. The surprise, though, awaited upstairs. When we got there, sundry other early SEQC birds were hovering about on the staircase and in the anteroom, with the bewildered air of sheep who have been locked out of their pens without a shepherd or sheepdogs to guide them to their beds. Amidst the unhappy sheep sat a bald-headed overlord revelling in his moment of glory. Bewildering sheep is evidently something he got off on.

    Let me explain about these small-time CCP overlords. We've been secretly battling them for a while now -- behind the scenes of your comfortable SEQC quizzes has raged a gritty, grimy battle not unlike the hidden conflict in Matrix. The Corporation (ah, what an ominous name for a faceless group of super-villains), as with most government bodies, is run not by the known names at the top, but by the unknowns at the bottom. The Mayor and Commissioner and others like them are there for all to see, but the real keys of power are in different hands altogether, those of the peons who let people into the rooms and halls, and lock up when they're done.

    And therefore, while the people at the top have shown all manner of overt support for our club's activity (the Deputy Commissioner had recently averred that he was himself something of a quizzer in school and college, and expressed his interest in attending one of our quizzes), the little men who really run things have been looking for ways and means to sabotage our events. For a while, that had led to us having to move our monthly quizzes to the unearthly hour of 4pm (unacceptable to many of our siestakar SEQCites). We thought we'd won this battle when we got permission to return to the old time slot, but that only took the conflict to the next level.

    So what we were now facing outside the CCP Hall was the secret weapon that the enemy had deployed -- the ostensible 'loss of keys'. That's an obstacle that, short of breaking and entering, we had no defence against -- and despite some oblique refences and suggestions, none of us were willing to let the situation escalate to such a level of Mutually Assured Destruction.

    But the lack of a room was not the only challenge we were facing at the moment. Looking around the by-now-crowded anteroom, it was clear there was another key ingredient missing -- the quizmaster. Dr Muralidharan, who was supposed to have the conn, was instead conspicuous in his absence. When it turned out that there had been no confimatory conversation with him in the days leading up to the quiz, some of us feared the worst. No, no, not that he was dead -- come on, guys! -- just that he had forgotten that he was supposed to be conducting this particular event.

    The phone calls were now flying thick and fast. Rajiv was in touch with Tallulah, who was talking to the Mayor and the Commissioner and perhaps God himself. Anjali was trying to talk to Dr Murali, whose number she didn't have, through the medium of Ira, whose number she did. The Sharada Mandir kids were calling each other while sitting on the same sofa. Mahesh was closing a business deal. The overlord was unimpressed and continued to be as bald and keyless as ever.

    In the midst of it all, one ray of hope appeared. Dr Murali rode through the gate, his shirt front stained -- not with blood, but with what we assume must have been the rain. His sparse hair was standing on end, but his brave head was unbowed. Looking like Hamlet's father's ghost (by the way, did you know that the dad was also called Hamlet?), he said, "I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand an end, like quills upon the fretful porpentine." (Of course I looked that up -- what did you think?) And he proceeded to unfold his tale, one full of crashed cars and mad dashes by numerous modes of conveyance from Margao to Panjim, not unlike the tale of Phineas Fogg and Passepartout.

    Dr Murali's dramatic appearance didn't solve everything, though. If anything, it added another spanner to the collection that was currently messing up the works. In the course of his harrowing adventure, he had had to leave his trusty laptop in his crashed car. He had managed to get away with just the clothes on his body and the Powerpoint file of the quiz on a pen drive. Unfortunately, a close search of the anteroom revealed that there wasn't any other laptop lying fortuitously around. More calls followed -- this time to Sachin who, thanks to his enviable ability to never be on time, had not yet left home. He promised to bring along the critical piece of hardware.

    By the time he got there, our telephonic bombardment had exhausted our ammunition, but got us no footholds in the ongoing battle. We now turned to the possibility of conducting the quiz in the anteroom itself, which had begun to resemble lodgings that Siraj ud-Dowla would have been proud to have dreamt up. If Paul -- our sole resident Brit -- had been around, no doubt he would have fled screaming, "The demons of 1757 are upon me" followed by unitelligible curses about black holes and Calcutta.

    But though we were willing, even eager, to shine a light in this dark claustrophobic space, the bald overlord would have none of it. More recriminations ensued, and more telephone calls were made. Finally, Rajiv made the call that worked -- to Arjun at the International Centre Goa. The ICG gang has always been staunch supporters and allies of ours, allowing us free use of their facilities for so many of our events. Even so, this request seemed to be really extreme -- but Arjun pulled out all the stops and told us he could arrange a hall for us.

    So it was that the battle-weary platoons of SEQC trudged off to the heights of Dona Paula. Some forty men, women and children had braved the hour-long conflict and there were very few casualties. Only a handful of would-be quizzers quit and went home. The rest of us made it to ICG, where we were treated to a quiz that, like all of Dr Murali's creations, was quite a revelation. As J. Krishnamurthi, one of the Hyderabad contingent who attended, put it, "a whole lot of bouncers with a few full tosses thrown in". Well, that's not unlike what the Indian team has currently had to put up with in the West Indies. And if they can do it and come out winners, so can SEQC. With some help from ICG.