A report on the SEQC November 2009 quiz
Three reasons why I like Srikant Subramaniam:
1. He's got gumption. It isn't easy to jump into setting and conducting a quiz in a closed group like our quiz club when you barely know the nature and level of participants. Many of our own quizzers hesitate to do so even after having been with the club for a year or more. Yet Srikant put his hand up (cricketers and commentators have really ruined this phrase, like many others) after attending just one quiz. Even a bout of instruction from the club conscience didn't faze him.
2. He's got a grin. Everything Srikant does, he does with a smile. I can just imagine him listening to aforementioned club conscience with the same big grin plastered across his face. Must have driven CC quite up the wall.
3. He's got game. Once the quiz got going (it took its time, owing to technical difficulties), it was really enjoyable. The questions were in a classical quiz mould, which most of us have a preference for (I do, at least). And Srikant really wanted them all answered. So much so that he was often willing to send questions round for a second spin, with additional information thrown in, if people didn't get them the first time around.
For me, personally, the quiz began very pleasantly, as Anjali was picked for the first time in the same team as I. The pleasure was, however, short-lived, as the need to even things out saw her despatched to another team almost right away. Up till the end of the first round of 30 questions, things continued to be personally satisfying, with Anjali-Adish's team tied for top place with ours. But then Rajiv's team started pulling away, and taking Gadgil's with him. Eventually, that's the order in which we finished. This win extends Rajiv's lead at the top of the SEQC leaderboard. Will be difficult to catch up with him, but there's still half the SEQC year left. To use another phrase which has had its face systematically squashed into the dust by the cricket bandwagon, anything's possible.
