Monday, December 29, 2008

SEQC July 2008 quiz

The July Quiz is available as two DOC files -- one with only the questions, and one with both questions and answers -- on the SEQC Google Group. Images and audios were, unfortunately, too large to upload on the listserve, so you'll have to imagine those.

To access the files, just go to:
http://groups.google.com/group/seqc-goa/files
and locate the relevant links (two DOC files uploaded July 7).

Several of the other quizzes are also available at the same location.

SEQC November 2008 Quiz

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

SEQC Quiz 7 – Straight, No Chaser

Last Sunday, Vidyadhar pulled one out of the Old School - no PowerPoint, no audio-visuals, no workoutables - quizzing straight and neat like the shots of ouzo that we downed at the drinks break. Proof, if ever one was needed, that content is king and the frills are secondary.

The turnout was good. Three new faces (Amit, Salil & Yashodhara) joined us, even though a couple of regulars missed out (Hash & Ameya).

Vidyadhar began with a disclaimer that he had never hosted a quiz in his life, and then went on to prove that that didn't matter. The rounds included some classic ones – History, Literature, Mythology & Religion, Geography, Cinema – and some Vidyadhar specials – Revolution and Stuff You Won’t Get Asked in a Business Quiz. It was tough, rack-your-brains stuff, many questions beat everybody, and many had us slapping our heads after narrowly eluding us. I think it’s fair to say everybody got off to a slow start, but once Annie had got his eye in, Team 4 (Annie, Amit & Renuka) began to pull away leaving the rest of us chasing second spot. Some great answers from Salil kept Team 1 (Salil, Anjali, Janice) in the hunt, while Team 5 (PD, Soraya, Mariette) came up with some good ones too, delivered in PD’s inimitable style – with a long Preamble to The Answer. At the halfway mark, which at SEQC has come to mean not the stage when half the quiz is done, but the point at which the drinks break is taken, Team 4 had a healthy lead.

The Break is now a tradition at SEQC, and it’s funny to see the battle-lines being redrawn during the break – Team Smoking (Salil, PD, Gadgil) hovered about in the balcao discussing politics. Team Drinking (Annie, Savio, Rajiv, Anjali, Nitash) milled about the dining table, guffaws getting louder with every passing shot. Team Eating (everybody else) was the first to call time on the break and remind us that the quiz must go on.

It is often said that a drinks break in cricket tends to upset the concentration of the set batsman, not so in quizzing, apparently. Annie’s team continued where they left off, coming up with some great ones to complete an Obama-esque landslide. All in all a very enjoyable day of quizzing, thanks to great content from Vidyadhar and our hospitality sponsor, the Carona Marriott (No relation of the JW).

The final scores:

1st: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Amit Bandekar, Renuka Figueiredo (185 pts)
Joint 2nd: P. D. Mukherjee, Soraya Mukherjee, Mariette Correa & Salil Chaturvedi, Anjali Sen Gupta, Janice Figueiredo (65 pts)
3rd: Rajiv D'Silva, Yashodhara, Deepika Figueiredo (55 pts)
4th: Savio Figueiredo, Tallulah D’Silva (50 pts)
5th: Luis Dias, C. G. Nitash, C. G. Niyati (35 pts)

The last quiz of 2008 has left the championship table looking interestinger than ever, with quite a dead heat at the top. 2009 promises to be a good year!

The next quiz will be conducted by Savio Figueiredo at his place in Aldona on the 11th of January 2009. Watch this space for details.