Wait until dark -- and then there was light...

Annie, as expected, provided a rare quizzing treat on the evening of 18 December 2009 at the Goa Open Quiz. Meant for teams of two members, it was truly an ‘open’ quiz – age, sex, caste, creed, religion no bar.
The quiz itself was a cracker (see for yourself), and the lawns of the International Centre in Dona Paula provided a pleasant setting. There was a glitch about the schedule – due to being held in the open air, the quiz could not start till the sun went down, due to projection problems. So we actually began only at 6pm. But after that it was two hours of pure fun, with Annie shedding light on some interesting nuggets of information, presented in an innovative manner.
Sixteen teams took part, a rather small number, but these teams really battled it out in the prelims, leaving six teams to go through to the finals.
The finals had five rounds – straight questions, buzzer rounds (which would pass if no buzz or wrong answer), a theme round, etc. All very exciting fare. One problem though was that since the quiz was done by the ‘infinite bounds’ system, the buzzer rounds passed a little chaotically. But then Annie always experiments, and sometimes the experiments don’t go perfectly, but there’s always something new...
The winners were, inevitably, Rajiv D’Silva & Harshavardhan Bhatkuly – by the inevitable wide margin. Drastic measures will have to be taken if this team is ever to be defeated. I have procured some voodoo dolls and am busy sticking pins in them – everybody is invited to contribute their mite.
In second and third place were two young teams – Joshua Fernandes & Nathan Fernandez in second and Amit Shet & Suraj Kamat in third. Let’s hope this trend continues and middle-aged fogies are knocked into the dustbin of history, where they rightfully belong.
Nandini Sahai, Director of ICG, was a gracious host, and kindly offered ICG as a venue for other SEQC quizzing events in future, an offer that will certainly be taken up, with the Mastermind semi-finals slated to be held there. Broadway Bookstore generously provided the prizes.