Margao October monthly – 26/Oct/2025 – content

QM: Annie Sen Gupta

Recap of October Margao monthly - QM Annie - 26/Oct/2025

Shock and Awe - A Recap by Assis Sequeira 

Neither the continuous outpouring from the skies with the occasional burst of lightning nor the promise of gridlocked traffic could deter the band of a score and ten determined quiz lovers from reaching the fifth-floor auditorium. The incessant rains did delay the start of the proceedings. US returned, long lost Harsh Hegde breezed in to a warm welcome. But Harsh was not the only surprise entrant. Dr. Neil, an orthopaedic surgeon and Maria, his charming wife joined the growing tribe of ‘populi quizzi’. 

QM Annie in his trademark loosely hanging outfit, the bloating floating pants, the shirt that is like a wind wane and strokable gentle beard plugged the audience in. His poster, crafted by the genius Srijit depicted an electrified Annie, current emanating from his every pore.

Introductions done, Annie dished out answer sheets to the captains of the six competing teams for a deceptively simple written round based on the algebraic ‘X’. Unfortunately for our team no 5, we couldn’t decipher either the Hindi movie or the cricketer with an ‘x’, pushing us to the bottom of the ladder.

Annie progressed to a round of twin questions, combination of an easy and difficult question that were revealed, once you chose a box from the grid of twelve boxes. The titles were eye-catching; ‘Everything about Turkey’ and ‘What is left’ for instance. Incidentally, Turkey box did not feature Turkish towels and the left meant actual left – sinistra. Team 3 led by Vilas forged ahead, closely followed by Team 2 led by Ira.

This was followed by a list question – with a timer of two minutes, listing as many as possible, the twenty countries with ten letters in their name (single word like Mauritania or a combo like New Zealand). Team 1 with Paul aced this round.

A delectable tea break followed, sweetened by Hershey’s carried by sweet Devika. A fully charged Annie fired us with a volley of infinite pounce and pass questions; many of the questions were a déjà vu of what had been covered earlier. Typical Annie at his best. This was followed by the final round of connect questions.

The tables turned and Team 2 led by Ira emerged the winner closely followed by Team 3 led by Vilas. No one was happier than Magali for being part of the winning team. 

In the end, it was the quizzed, who were dazzled by the brilliance of the QM, the intricate connect and linking with the different sets and themes. 

Annie left everyone in shock and awe. Even the gods were kind. The rains stopped when the quiz got over.

Submitted by Assis Sequeira 

SEQC Panjim November Quiz

Date: Sunday, 2nd November 2025

Time: 5.00 pm

Venue: Goa Business School, Taleigao

Click here for map

QM: Chandrashekhar Rao

Participation: Open to all

Margao Monthly - 26/Oct/2025 - Results

QM: Annie Sen Gupta

1st Place: Team II (Ira Prem, Anjali Dar Sengupta, Viola Rodrigues, Magali Vaz, Harsh Hegde) - 315 Points

2nd Place: Team III (Nihal Bhobe, Vilas Pavithran, Devika Shetty, Melchior Teles) - 305 Points

3rd Place: Team IV (Ajit Nair, Soham Gaunekar, Sahil HR, Neil Barreto, Maria Barreto) - 290 Points

4th Place: Team VI (Srijit Kumar, Amey Parsekar, Anirudh Kakodkar, Shiv Nadkarni) - 260 Points

5th Place: Team I (Sidhant Parab, Paul Gatward, Saud Syed, Ruchira Porob, Mayur Shett)- 250 Points

6th Place: Team V (Vardaan Shukla , Archana Shukla, Swati Parab, lynn Barreto Miranda, Sanjay, Assis, Shujoy Dutta) - 240 Points

Recap of the Borders and Boundaries - 19/ Oct/2025 , Margao

 

All the world’s a playground

Last Sunday, Chandrakant took on the ambitious task of hosting a quiz that mixed Geography and Sports, a combination that is not often seen in quizzing. Kudos to him for choosing to make such an unconventional set, which balanced interesting factoids and trivia. The quiz was genuinely enjoyable, and Chandrakant kept things engaging throughout. Brevity is an underrated virtue in a QM, and Chandrakant nailed it, even with five rounds and a rather convoluted points system.

He kicked off round 1 with Roulette featuring two sets of questions on the namesake topics. This format seems to be gaining in popularity, having made an appearance in the last Panjim monthly hosted by Samyak and Chinmay as well. The only issue with this round was that the initial teams get an unfair benefit while listing the responses on the go.

Next up was a direct Q&A “Mixed bag” round with five free pounces per team. However, the teams could also “buy” additional pounces as required. A unique feature here was the option to stake one of three direct questions for double points. The questions spanned from jalebi deliveries to ping pong diplomacies, with national anthem fundas thrown in for good measure. Chandrakant managed to cover a wide range of sports themes as well, eschewing mostly the usual cricket, football, and tennis-related questions.

Round 3 was deceptively simple. Teams picked a topic and had to choose all 5 answers from the multiple choices given. Only one team managed a full house, proving once again that appearances can be deceiving.

After a quick chai and samosa break, we went into the final rounds. The connect round came with a twist: each individual question was a type of cryptic clue. The last round, aptly titled “Conquer the World,” had teams identifying countries marked with red bindis (Operation sindoor?) and their capitals, amidst passionate arguments. The design of this round was smart in that it allowed the teams to choose countries they felt confident about answering. By the end of the quiz, team 4 took first place at 327, with teams 5 and 3 not too far behind.

Overall, it was a nice Diwali Eve quiz which stitched together an interesting mix of geography and sports topics. While the points system could have been a tad simpler, Chandrakant managed it well. Special thanks to Paul for keeping up with the scoring! Here’s hoping we get to see more interesting combinations of topics and new QMs, who take on the task of providing a good evening of quizzing for SEQC.