A Taste of Khatkhate

Chirag's short sojourn in Goa was a happy occasion for the rest of us, who got a taste of khatkhate, largely thanks to Master Chef Harsh. The latter proposed the menu -- a multiple QM spread -- and various cooks got together and managed to put together a broth that sated all those who partook of it.

Harsh also surprised the group by bringing in a guest chef in Prajal Sakhardande, historian, activist and, as Harsh put it, 'war hero'. Those of you in the know, shake your heads wisely now; those who don't know the context, do a Google search.

There's nothing that makes a jaded quizzer quite as happy as welcoming a first-time QM . It's something like, I guess, a vituperation of vampires (yeah, that's the collective noun for them, look it up) might feel when someone new gets bitten. And this quiz had three new victims -- Tallulah, Nitash and Chirag -- as far as SEQC quizzes go. Three young journeymen -- Jayant, Aashray and Gaurav -- were also added into the mix, courtesy Rajiv and Harsh's evangelism at the Mongini's quiz. Kanchan was new to the group, too, but I have this sneaking feeling we aren't going to see much of him after this one (I'd be happy to be proved wrong).

Prajal, who was invited to start spicing the dish, doled out large dollops of Goan history, which were quickly gobbled down by his wife and fellow history buff Anju, getting her team (at that stage limited to pillion-rider Chirag) off to a flying start. Annie's round was a connected-clues round -- a sneaky way to get past the 18-question limit, as his six questions consisted of 24 clues. With most of the questions being cracked on the first clue and therefore fetching teams 40 points each, this round helped the Gadgil-Tallulah-Jayant combine get within spitting distance of the first-round leaders. Rajiv followed with 12 questions with no twist; then Harsh with 18 of his own. After the break, it was the turn of, in sequence, Tallulah, Nitash and Chirag.

The lead see-sawed between the Gadgil gang, and the Chirag conglomerate , which had Aashray added to it after Anju and Prajal had to leave midway through the quiz. Eventually, with Chirag doing the QMing for the final round, Gadgil-Tallulah-Jayant drew ahead to come up top of the heap.

Like any good feast, the Khatkhate quiz carried on well into the night, and it was a sated group that broke up at the end of it all.

Annie's questions have been uploaded to the files section of the SEQC mail group. You can access them here:
http://groups.google.com/group/seqc-goa/files/090125-khatkhate-annie-qs.rtf