Chirag lights up SEQC (with more than a little help from some newcomers)

A hugely enjoyable evening once again, thanks to some grand hospitality from Tallulah and Rajiv, and an extremely innovative quiz devised by Rajiv. SEQC Quiz no. 4 saw the largest participation ever, with 23 participants matching their wits against Rajiv and each other. It was great to see a large number of new members and here's a big welcome to them all! We missed Maneesha, who probably had something else to do or forgot that she had promised to turn up with some people from Synapse.

Chirag Mutgi, long-standing SEQC member, mounted a quick smash-and-grab raid from Bangalore, and along with his team members Pravin, Renuka and Luis waltzed away with the honours in his first live appearance. This team pulled ahead in the 'Six Degrees of Separation' round and never looked back.

Kudos to Rajiv for devising a quiz that had something for everybody, from the newbies to the veterans. It worked perfectly to maintain the interest of all the participants and tested their imaginations. Chirag showed here that a hyperactive imagination (okay, let's call it creative thinking) can be a great plus in quizzing. Or maybe that team was more QUI than the others, showing that 'influences' are a great help in helping one to connect things and see things in a holistic light...

Apart from the 'influence' which everybody quizzed under, Tallulah and Rajiv provided some great snacks and a groovy ambience. There was plenty of fun and laughter and out-of-the-box thinking. A little discipline among the participants next time may be a good idea though. How about double negative points for answering out of turn?

Rajiv quizmastered brilliantly, controlling an unruly group that often questioned his decisions. Everybody remember, the decision of the quizmaster is final! Ve haf vays of making you stop talking!

This brings me to a proposal that I tentatively mentioned yesterday: given that the quizmaster puts in a lot of effort, shouldn't we be awarding the quizmasters 4 points (with retrospective effect) rather than the meagre 2 points we are giving them now?

Okay, now for some 'dogging': the questions varied tremendously in difficulty level, making the quiz a little patchy, and bringing in a rather large slice of luck. The 'Six Degrees of Separation' in which we were asked to make six connects between two people/organisations ranged from the blindingly obvious to the extremely tenuous/far-fetched. Also, there seemed to be a little too much of Western pop culture in the questions.

Let's see what Ameya has for us in Ponda on 5th October, which is the date for SEQC Quiz 5. If Ameya's One-for-the-Day samples (which we had over 20 of before work pressures forced him to quit sending them out) are any indication, we should be in for a treat.

A thought here: seeing the quizzes we've had till now, when it's my turn to be quizmaster, I'm going to come out with a traditional quiz – a series of questions to be answered within a strict time frame. No video, audio or graphics. After all, it was the Bournvita Quiz Contest which first introduced me to quizzing in the 1970s. Every Sunday at 1 pm we would put on Vividh Bharati and have a barrage of questions to answer. So how about one like that? Nerds of the world unite! Be warned, don't ask me to be quizmaster!

And, finally, here's wishing Harsh and Rajiv luck in the Tata Crucible national finals. Are they going to be telecast live? We're all rooting for you. SEQC ka naam roshan karo!