Dempo Biz Quest

Date: 6th January 2011
Time: 9 am
QM: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly
Flavour: Business
Venue: SS Dempo College of Commerce and Economics, Altinho, Panaji.
Who can participate: College students, in teams of two. Both team members must be from the same college.
Prizes: Rs 10,000 for the winners, 6,000 and 3,000 for the second and third places respectively.

Twenty Paces - Round 1 results

All the Round 1 matches have now been completed. Here are the results of the matches that took place on the 19th of December.

1. Akash Kulkarni (1) bt Amit Shet (-2)
2. Shubham Tiwari (3) bt Ameya Mardolkar (0)
3. Paul Gatward (6) bt Mahesh Prabhu (5)
4. Sachin Chatte (3) bt Ashwin Mysore (1)
5. Prajakt Kamat (1) bt Saheel Wagh (-1)
6. Aniruddha Sen Gupta (7) bt Kanchan Gatward (3)
7. Shaswat Salgaonkar (4) bt Anil Rodrigues (2)
8. Paola Mambro (3) bt Mangesh Sonawane (-1)

Here is the updated draw. Round 2 matches will take place on the 16th of January 2011.

An Affair to Remember

A review of the Goa Open Quiz held on 18th December 2010.
The second edition of the Goa Open Quiz promised to be much a bigger and better affair than the first, and it was. Firstly, an eleventh hour crowdsourcing drive had managed to round up considerably attractive prizes in cash and kind, and secondly, a few outstation teams, well-known names in the quizzing world, had confirmed their participation. 25-odd teams lined up for the prelims, which was a nice mixture of toughies and workable ones with the odd sitter thrown in.

The prelims saw the four outstation teams - all from Bombay - make their way into the final, where they were joined by two teams of the more local variety.
The content in the final was set a couple of notches higher, and there wasn't much separating the top 3 or four teams after the first couple of rounds. But once Kartik Bose FC (Annanya Deb & Srinath TB) got into the swing of things there was no stopping them, and midway through the quiz they began to pull away from the rest of the pack. A few nice cracks and bonuses pocketed meant that the other teams were left to fight for second place, a battle eventually won by Banker & Shoe-Banker (Abhinav Dasgupta and Shubhankar Gokhale) with a couple of fine answers right when it counted. The other two Bombay teams - Vikram aur Vetaal (Vikram Joshi and Vibhendu Tiwari) and By the Boat Club (Meghashyam Shirodkar and Anand Shivshankar) finished third and fourth to round up a productive evening for the visitors, while the two Goa teams - Lumbar Puncture (Adish Talwadker and Anant Lawande) and Over-the-Hill Brothers (Rajiv D'Silva and Harshvardhan Bhatkuly) played good hosts by bringing up the rear.

Nandini Sahay, Director of The International Centre Goa, gave away the prizes, the top 3 finishers taking away a booty of Rs. 16,000/, Rs. 10,000/- and Rs. 6,000/- respectively. The audience was not left wanting, and a few nice answers from the audience were suitably rewarded. All in all, a memorable evening.

Shootout at Dona Paula

A review of the Twenty Paces round 1 matches by Anjali Sen Gupta

The second round of the preliminaries was as exciting as the first one. The audience had come prepared to see violence and gore, and they got their money’s worth! Each match had the audience cheering and rooting for the players.

The first match saw Amit being ousted by Akash after some tense back ’n’ forth by the two. Ameya then met his end at the hands of Shubham. And then there was a perceptible tension in the air as the QM, Rajiv D’Silva, announced the next match, perhaps the most eagerly-awaited one of the evening.

A hush descended as Mahesh and Paul walked to their appointed places. The two took aim… points went flying back and forth… as the dust settled, the onlookers saw that it was Paul who had survived.

In the other shoot-outs, Sachin downed Ashwin, Prajakt won against Sahil, Kanchan went down fighting to Annie, Anil lost to Shashwat, and Paola beat Mangesh.

Goa Open 2010 questions and answers

The prelims



The finals

Goa Open 2010 results

The Goa Open 2010 quiz saw the Bombay teams come, see and conquer. Time for Goa quizzers to raise the bar, and get their own back.

• 1st: Kartik Bose FC (Anannya Deb and Srinath TB) -- 100 points
• 2nd: Banker and Shoe-Banker (Abhinav Dasgupta and Shubhankar Gokhale) -- 45 points
• 3rd: Vikram aur Vetaal (Vikram Joshi and Vibhendu Tiwari) -- 35 points
• 4th: By the Boat Club (Meghashyam Shirodkar and Anand Shivshankar) -- 30 points
• 5th: Lumbar Puncture (Adish Talwadker and Anant Lawande) -- 15 points
• 6th: Over the Hill Brothers (Rajiv D'Silva and Harshvardhan Bhatkuly) -- 5 points

Goa Open 2010 sponsorships and prizes

In the interests of transparency, here is the list of all the contributions received for prizes in cash and kind for the Goa Open from friends and supporters of SEQC, some of whom have preferred to remain anonymous. Also listed is a break-up of how these funds were utilised.

Crowdsourced contributions

• Anonymous donor, through SEQC: Rs 1,000
• Anonymous donor, through SEQC: Rs 1,000
• Vidyadhar Gadgil, through SEQC: Rs 2,000
• Anjali/Annie Sen Gupta, through SEQC: Rs 6,000
• Anonymous donor, through SEQC: Rs 2,500
• Sanchita/Anil Rodrigues, through SEQC: Rs 3,000
• Anonymous donor, through SEQC: Rs 1,000
• Anonymous donor, through Mahesh Prabhu: Rs 5,000
• Unicorn Developers, through Raunaq Rao: Rs 5,000
• GoaCAP, through Annie Sen Gupta: Rs 1,500
• Anil Nair, through Annie Sen Gupta: Rs 5,000
• Anonymous donor, through Annie Sen Gupta: Rs 500
• Anonymous donor, through Sanchita Rodrigues: Rs 5,610*
• Costa Constructions, through Ira Almeida: Rs 5,000
• Costa’s Time Collection, through Ira Almeida: Rs 1,000

Total inflow: Rs 45,110
* Rs 8,000 was contributed in cash, of which Rs 2,390 was used to purchase audience prizes

Outflow

• Cash prizes handed out: Rs 42,000
• Refreshments (paid to ICG): Rs 1,436
• Buzzers (paid to Wilson Vaz): Rs 1,500

Total expenses: Rs 44,936**
** Rs 174 was transferred to the SEQC kitty

Prizes detailing

• 1^st place: Rs 16,000
• 2^nd place: Rs 10,000
• 3^rd place: Rs 7,000
• 4th, 5th and 6th place: Rs 3,000 each

Total cash prizes: Rs 42,000

Audience prizes (received in kind)

• Dinner for two at La Fontana, Baga, through Kanchan Gatward
• One pair of Titan Fastrack sunglasses, through Anjali Sen Gupta
• One-night stay for two at Hotel Fidalgo, Panjim (two prizes), through Kanchan Gatward
• Welcome lunch for family of four at Hotel Fidalgo, Panjim, through Kanchan Gatward
• Sapphire Almonds chocolate boxes (five prizes), through Sanchita Rodrigues
• Arcor Butter Toffee boxes (two prizes), through Sanchita Rodrigues

Twenty Paces - The Battle Resumes

Rounding off the quizzing double-header this weekend, the second set of Round 1 matches take place this Sunday with the following quizzers facing-off against each other:
1. Aniruddha Sen Gupta vs Kanchan Gatward
2. Shaswat Salgaonkar vs Raj Kunkolienkar
3. Ameya Mardolkar vs Tallulah D'Silva
4. Paul Gatward vs Mahesh Prabhu
5. Amit Shet vs Akash Kulkarni
6. Joseph de Sousa vs Akshay Thatte
7. Prajakt Kamat vs Saheel Wagh
8. Sacheen Chatte vs Ashwin Mysore

Shubham Tiwari, who qualified for the main draw but missed his Round 1 match last month, will be on standby to take the place of any no-shows.

Date: 19th December 2010
Time: 5 pm. Please be at the venue by 4.45 pm.
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Venue: Zuari Hall at The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.

Prizes for Goa Open

The crowdsourcing drive for sponsorship of prizes for the Goa Open seems to have worked quite well, with more than Rs 30,000 in the bag already, and the possibility of a substantial chunk coming up soon. Thank you, all who have contributed so far. A complete list will be uploaded on the blog by Friday.

Announcing the Goa Open 2010

A good quiz, great prizes and Goa too!

The Sunday Evening Quiz Club (SEQC) is organising the Goa Open 2010 quiz on the evening of Saturday, December 18. We are hoping that the quality of the quiz, the promise of great prizes and the added bonus of a trip to Goa will bring in a decent lot of outstation quizzers as well.

Date: Saturday, December 18, 2010

Timings: Registration 5pm, prelims 5.15pm, finals 6.30pm to 8.30pm

Venue: International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula, Goa

QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

Flavour: General

Participation: Open, teams of two. Entry free

Registration: To pre-register, mail details of your team (both team member names, plus a teamname if you can come up with one) to seqcgoa@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Goa Open 2010 registration’

Prizes: Rs 32,500 in cash and counting, plus goodies like hotel stays, free meals, etc

More details, as and when they become available, will be put up here and on the Goa Sunday Evening Quiz Club group on Facebook.

SEQC December Quiz - Results

QM: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly

1st: Abhijeet Virginkar, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Jatan Rodrigues, Sachin Chatte, Shubham Tiwari, V. Sundarajan Iyer - 80
2nd: [Akash Kulkarni, Conrad Fernandes, Mahesh Prabhu, Pradeepkumar Pednekar, Rajiv D'Silva, Siddharth Shetty], [Aaron Fernandes, Agastya Keni, Ajachi Chakrabarti, Atharv Joshi, Kiril Vaz, Raunaq Rao] & [Akshay Rege, Joseph de Sousa, Kanchan Gatward, Kunal Naik, Paola Mambro, Prajeet Madkaikar, V. R. Muralidharan] - 70
5th: Akshaya Sundararajan, Anmol Naik, Kedar Naik, Leroy Veloso, Omkar Borkar, Sunil Sardessai, Valmiki Naik - 65
6th: Anil Rodrigues, Anjali Sen Gupta, Priyesh Pandey, Raj Kunkolienkar, Shivam Tiwari, Soham Gaunekar - 40

The next monthly will be held on the 9th of January 2011, to be hosted by Atharv Joshi and Raj Kunkolienkar.

Sponsors required for Goa Open prizes

It's been our intention to make the Goa Open an event that attracts quizzers from all over India. Two major factors are already in the bag in this respect -- a high-quality quiz is guaranteed, and there's always the charm of coming to Goa. The third -- great prizes -- is something we've been struggling to put together.

We've managed to collect a reasonably good haul of prizes in kind -- stay offers at hotels, meals at top restaurants, salon treatments, book coupons, things like that. But the cash component we were hoping to put together for the prizes have proved to be more elusive. We have now decided to try another route -- crowdsourcing.

We'd like to appeal to anyone who's interested in propagating the cause of a knowledge culture in Goa to put their hands up, and donate anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 for us to put together a sizeable pot. This will all be distributed as prizes for the teams that participate, or used for essential production costs. To whoever's reading this: we hope you will support us, and will also send this message onwards to other people who might be willing to contribute for the cause.

Pledges can be made by e-mail to Anjali Sen Gupta (anjalidar@gmail.com), who handles finances for SEQC, or to the SEQC mailbox (seqcgoa@gmail.com). You can also call or SMS Anjali at 9860089733 to pledge a contribution. She will then get in touch with you about how, when and where to transfer the money. Contributions will be welcome in cash, by cheque or Demand Draft made out to Anjali's name, or by electronic transfer to her account.

Blast from the past

A report on the December 2010 SEQC monthly

In starting off on this report, I decided to check back on when Harsh Bhatkuly, a founder-member of SEQC, had last conducted a monthly at the club. I knew it had been a while, but the answer astonished me nevertheless. The last SEQC monthly that Harsh conducted was in November 2008! That was much before the SEQC monthlies moved to their permanent address at the CCP Building. It was held at his Savoir Faire office in Mala. All of 9 people participated!

Compare that to how it's been at the more recent monthlies -- the November 2010 one had 60 participants, the October edition had 59 and the September one set the record with 71. The December monthly wasn't quite as well-attended, but still a quantum leap from the last one that Harsh conducted.

By his own admission, Harsh's quiz lacked the vintage flavour that most of his quizzes have. All the other ventures he now has his fingers in -- Harsh is rapidly becoming Goa's big media baron -- perhaps prevented him from devoting as much time as he normally might to a quiz. Still, Harsh being who he is, it was a quiz that everyone enjoyed, and that most people found both accessible and challenging enough to stimulate their brains.

It was a close-fought affair, but Annie's team squeezed through in top position, beating off a couple of close challengers.

December has a lot more quizzing for people to look ahead to, with MegaWhats, the Goa Open and the remaining first-round matches of Twenty Paces coming up on subsequent weekends. It is the winter of our content.

BIOTAG Environment Quiz 2010

Date: December 6, 2010
Time: 10 am
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
Flavour: Environment and ecology
Venue: Vividha Higher Secondary School, Navelim Sanquelim
Participation: For students of higher secondary only, in teams of two. To apply through the school.

Organised by: Biology Teachers Association of Goa (BIOTAG)

Omniscience: Mood Indigo's Quizzing Festival

20th-21st December Brace yourself for the ultimate quizzing experience at Mood Indigo this year! Cash Prizes as you've never seen before, quizzes set by some of the best quizmasters in the country and participation from all over the nation all in one place! Come, be a part of this extravaganza of epic proportions. Team Size for each quiz: 2
The Big Five: Cash Prizes for each of the 6 qualifying teams
1. General Quiz Quizmaster: Dr. Navin Jayakumar Total cash prizes worth INR 32,000
2. Sports Quiz Quizmaster: Mr. Charanpreet Singh Cash Prizes worth INR 32,000		3. India Quiz Quizmaster: Mr. Ramanand Janardhanan Cash Prizes worth INR 25,000
4. Business Quiz Quizmaster: Mr. Charanpreet Singh Cash Prizes worth INR 25,000		5. Entertainment Quiz Cash Prizes worth INR 25,000
BTW Quizzes: Kind Prizes for the top 3 teams.
1. Bottoms Up! The Alcohols Quiz		2. XEROX Quiz A Quiz about plagiarism/everything copied
3. Burnout The Automobiles Quiz		4. 200 Not Out The Sachin Tendulkar Quiz
For more details and registrations, visit http://www.moodi.org/#Competitions/Omniscience Last date for registrations: 5th December, 2010. For any queries, contact Gouri Nawathe || +91- 9769834643 || gouri@moodi.org

Times of India Big Quiz

North Goa preliminary: 1.30 pm, 1st December 2010, Don Bosco High School, Panaji
South Goa preliminary: 1.30 pm, 2nd December 2010, Mahila Nutan English High School, Margao
South Goa semifinals: 9.00 am, 7th December 2010, Ravindra Bhavan, Margao
North Goa semifinals: 9.00 am, 9th December 2010, Hotel Fidalgo, Panaji
Finals: 9.00 am, 13th December 2010, Ravindra Bhavan, Margao.
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Participation: For students upto Class X, in teams of two. Contact 9881075752, 9764594928 or 9764011180 for details.

SEQC December Quiz

Date: 5th December 2010
Time: 5 pm
QM: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly
Flavour: General
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open

MegaWhats 2010

The second edition of Mega-Whats, the Karnataka Quizzing Association's National Open Quizzing Championship will be held on the 12th of December.
The quiz will be held across nine cities simultaneously - Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, Thrissur, Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi and Kolkata.

The venue in Goa will be the International Centre - Goa at Dona Paula.

The details:

Date: Sunday, 12 December 2010

QMs: Kiran Vijayakumar and Arul Mani
   1. General quiz, open to all.
   2. Teams of FOUR members (or less).
   3. Prior registration is essential.
   4. To register, please email Mahaquizzer@gmail.com with Mega-Whats 2010 and the city you are competing from in the subject-header.
   5. Please provide the names of the four people who comprise your team in the email–also indicate whether you are taking part in the school, college  or open categories
   6. Email registrations will close on Tuesday 7th December 2010.  Centre coordinators will allow entries after the cut-off date at their discretion.
   7. The school category is open only to teams comprising students from Std. VIII-X .
  8. Please report by 1430hrs at the venue. Since we need to ensure a coordinated start nationwide, the quiz will start at 1500hrs sharp. The doors will be closed five minutes before we begin.
  9. Contesting teams will answer in writing a quiz of six sections and about sixty questions, inclusive of audios, videos and visuals.
  10. Answers and scores will be announced immediately after the event–prizes will be given out for Best School Team, Best College Team, and Best Open Team.
  11. The prizes aren't small--they are insignificant.
  12. KQA will rank the top 100 teams across the country–this list will go up by the 25th of December.
  13. The rankings will be announced after adjudication. The decision of the quiz-masters will be final and binding on all participants.
14. The city-winners will face off in June 2011 as part of the KQA 28th Anniversary.

Twenty Paces gets buzzing

Twenty Paces, SEQC's solo knock-out quiz, promised by its very format to be an exciting competition. The first round match-ups, half of which were held on November 21, certainly lived up to that promise.

Several of the shoot-outs went into sudden death, and at least a couple of them resulted in upsets, including one huge one, as schoolboy Anurag Panicker knocked Harsh Bhatkuly out of the reckoning in a tie-break battle. The buzzer format, and tension of the one-on-one format, takes its toll even on the best quizzers.

Adish Talwadker was perhaps the only ranked quizzer who made it through with complete ease, winning his face-off against Soham Gaunekar 8-0. Some others who are usually among the SEQC seeds, picked up negatives along the way to falter, or come close to faltering.

Earlier that evening, eight participants who couldn't take the regular prelims tried out for the five Wild Card places that were up for grabs. A couple more huge shocks there -- Ajachi Chakrabarti and Rajesh Panicker failing to make it through as Wild Cards.

Lucano Alvares got 9 of the 10 Wild Card questions correct to qualify top of the pack, only to be knocked out by Leroy Veloso in the last match of the evening, evidently unnerved by a few early negatives.

Full marks to Sheriff Rajiv D'Silva, who conceptualised the format, and conducted the event with the ruthlessness and panache that Gene Hackman brought to the shoot-outs in 'The Quick and the Dead'.

The full scores are detailed in an earlier post.

Twenty Paces - Round 1 results

Wild Card Round:
1. Lucano Alvares - 9
2. Sunil Sardessai - 5
3. Akash Kulkarni - 4
4. Ramrao Wagh - 3
5. Atharv Joshi - 3
6. Rajesh Panicker - 2
7. Ajachi Chakrabarti - 1
8. Nitish Fatarpekar - 0

The top 5 finishers from the Wild Card Round qualified for the main draw.

Round 1 results:
1. Anjali Sen Gupta bt Jatan Rodrigues 4-3
2. Anant Lawande bt Joshua Fernandes 4-3
3. Valmiki Naik bt Atharv Joshi 5-2
4. Adish Talwadker bt Soham Gaunekar 8-0
5. Anurag Panicker bt Harshvardhan Bhatkuly 4-3 (Sudden Death tie-break)
6. Sunil Sardessai bt Wilson Vaz 5-4 (SD tie-break)
7. Kunal Naik bt Ramrao Wagh 4-3 (SD tie-break)
8. Leroy Veloso bt Lucano Alvares 6-2

Here is the updated draw. Round 1 matches will resume on the 19th of December.

Twenty Paces - Round 1

Round 1 matches kick off this Sunday with the following quizzers facing-off against each other (not necessarily in this order, though):
1. Valmiki Naik vs Wild Card 5
2. Leroy Veloso vs Wild Card 1
3. Anant Lawande vs Joshua Fernandes
4. Adish Talwadker vs Soham Gaunekar
5. Harshvardhan Bhatkuly vs Anurag Panicker
6. Wilson Vaz vs Wild Card 2
7. Anjali Sengupta vs Jatan Rodrigues
8. Kunal Naik vs Wild Card 4

Date: 21st November 2010
Time: The Wild Card round will begin at 4.15 pm, Round 1 matches will begin at 5 pm.
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Venue: The International Centre - Goa, Dona Paula.

Twenty Paces - Prelims Results

Here are the results and scores of the Twenty Paces prelims held on the 7th November. (The number in the last column indicates the question number it took to break a tie by sudden death.)
Based on the rankings, here are the match-ups for Round 1.
Update: Click here to find the draw.

SEQC November Quiz - Results

QM: Paul Gatward

1st: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Anjali Sen Gupta, Avinash Mandora, Kunal Naik, M. S. Raghunandan, Paresh Mandora, Pushkar Shirodkar, Saheel Wagh, Shubham Tiwari, Vinitta Panicker - 97
2nd: Ameya Mardolkar, Anmol Naik, As'ad Shah, Kiran Desai, Prajeet Madkaikar, Tallulah D'Silva, Rajiv D'Silva, Raj Kunkolienkar, Taran Mukherjee, Valmiki Naik, V. R. Muralidharan - 93
3rd: Aniruddha Borkar, Anurag Panicker, Jatan Rodrigues, Jayant Karn, Joseph De Souza, Mahesh Prabhu, Omkar Borkar, Ramrao Wagh, Sachin Chatte, Shraddha Moye, Shweta Moye, Suyash Kamat, - 84
4th: Abhijeet Virgincar, Akshay Rege, Ashwin Mysore, Blessie James, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Kiril Vaz, Paola Mambro, Prajakt Kamat, Shaila De Souza, Soham Gaunekar - 75
5th: Cynthia Latimer, Fred Latimer, Kanchan Gatward, Malcolm Rocha, Nalini Rocha, P. D. Mukherjee, Sanchita Rodrigues, Savitri Rane, Simon Charlesworth - 71
6th: Akshay Thatte, Amit Shet, Anagha Panicker, Joshua Fernandes, Leroy Veloso, Nitish Fatarpekar, Rovan Vaz, Shaswat Salgaonkar - 67

The next monthly quiz will be held on the 5th of December, to be hosted by Harshvardhan Bhatkuly.

The Empire Strikes Back

Paul Gatward's oft-repeated complaint about our quizzes is that there's too much "Indian stuff" that he has no chance of answering, so will it be payback time now? Turn up to find out.

SEQC November Quiz

Date: 7th November 2010
Time: 5 pm
QM: Paul Gatward
Flavour: General
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open

Twenty Paces - Prelims

Date: 7th November 2010
Time: 4.15 pm
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Format: Written. The top 28 finishers will go directly into the main draw of the tournament. 4 slots are reserved for Wild Card entries. For more detail on that, see below. For more detail on the rest of the tournament, check this post.
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open. To register in advance, send an email to rajivdsilva[at]gmail.com.
Wild Cards: These are for those who can't make it to the prelim on the 7th November for one reason or the other but are available for the main tournament. To register as a Wild Card, send an email to the above address stating that you would like to enter as a Wild Card. Wild Card entrants will engage in a written face-off before the first round matches to determine who goes through.

The making of the BiG Q 2010

On another blog, tambdimati.com, I have posted a review of how I prepared the BiG Q 2010 quiz. You can access it by clicking here.

BiG Q 2010 prizes

The prizes for BiG Q 2010 will be awarded at 5pm on Sunday, November 7, at the Corporation Hall, CCP Building, opposite Cafe Central, off 18 June Road in Panjim. Everyone is welcome to attend, and have the pleasure of staying back for the SEQC November monthly, which will follow.

The prizes, which total Rs 5000 in cash courtesy of a friend and supporter of SEQC, Sanjeev Fatehpuria, are:

* The BiG Q 2010: Rs 1000

* The Best Open Quizzers for the four venues: Rs 600 each

* The Best School Quizzers for the four venues: Rs 400 each

Those who took the BiG Q quiz and want to collect their BiG Q 2010 answer sheets, can do so from me on the day. After that, the papers will be kept with the respective venue coordinators for a fortnight, for participants to collect if they like.

Arun Hiregange wins BiG Q 2010

The Best-in-Goa Quizzer (BiG Q) this year turned out to be someone from outside Goa. Arun Hiregange, a Bangalore quizzer acknowledged as being among the top 10 in India, was in Panjim for the weekend, and scored 78 points to emerge on top in the quiz held on Sunday, October 17.

A Karnataka Quizzing Association counterpart of Hiregange's, Thejaswi Udupa, took the Best Open Quizzer prize at Panjim (the BiG Q not being eligible for both prizes), with a score of 77, while Rajiv D'Silva finished close behind at 73. Other top finishers were Dr V. Muralidharan (Best Open Quizzer in Margao with 66 points), Ajachi Chakrabarti (who topped in Vasco with 65) and Anirudha Borkar (the Ponda winner with 58).

In the Schools category, Raj Kunkolienkar of Mushtifund Higher Secondary won the top spot in Panjim with 44 points, fending off a close challenge from Julian D'Costa, the Best School Quizzer (BSQ) in Margao with 43. The Schools category toppers in Vasco and Ponda were Anurag Panicker (31 points) and Shraddha Moye (16), respectively.

The inaugural edition of BiG Q, held in September last year, saw more than 80 participants take the challenge in Panjim, Vasco and Margao. This year, Ponda was added to the list, and the number of participants across the four venues rose by 50% to top 120.

BiG Q 2010 Top 20 and complete rankings

The top 20 finishers in the BiG Q 2010, across all venues and irrespective of category, are listed below.

For the complete list of scores of all 124 participants with their rankings, click here.

BiG Q questions and answers

The question paper and answers to the BiG Q have been uploaded to Google Docs. Here are the links:

* Question paper

* Question paper with answers

BiG Q winners

This is the list of the top scorers at the four venues for the BiG Q 2010, held on October 17. A full list of scores will be made available soon.

* BiG Q: Arun Hiregange (score: 78)

Margao

* Participants: 30 (22 Open, 8 School)

* Best School Quizzer (BSQ): Julian D'Costa (score: 43)

* Best Open Quizzer (BOQ): Dr V.R. Muralidharan (score: 66)

Panaji

* Participants: 48 (29 Open, 19 School)

* BSQ: Raj Kunkolienkar (score: 44)

* BOQ: Thejaswi Udupa (score: 77)

Ponda

* Participants: 24 (18 Open, 6 School)

* BSQ: Shraddha Moye (score: 16)

* BOQ: Anirudha Borkar (score: 58)

Vasco

* Participants: 22 (10 Open, 12 School)

* BSQ: Anurag Panicker (score: 31)

* BOQ: Ajachi Chakrabarti (score: 65)

Be Quick or Be Dead

Tournament format: 32 contestants will be chosen through a written preliminary and organized into a tennis-style draw. The championships will feature 16 first round matches, 8 second round matches, 4 quarter finals, 2 semis and the grand finale that will throw up the champion.
Match format: Each shoot-out will be a one-on-one affair, with twenty questions being asked, all on the buzzer. Winners progress to the next round, losers exit the competition.
Key dates: Written preliminaries - 7th November 2010
First round matches (Top half of the draw) - 14th November 2010

First round matches (Bottom half of the draw) - 19th December 2010

Second round matches - 16th January 2011

Quarters, semis and final - 20th February 2011

Venue: The written preliminary will be held at the CCP Hall, just before the November Monthly. All other rounds will be held at the ICG.

QM: Rajiv D'Silva.

Participation: Open. To register, send an email to rajivdsilva[at]gmail.com. Spot entries will be accepted provided there are spare answer sheets.

The BiG Q 2010

Date: October 17, 2010
Time: Reporting time 11am
Flavour: General
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

Participation: Open to all, entry free

Format: Solo, written quiz; 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes

Venues:

• Margao: 1st floor, Urban Health Centre, Margao, opposite Hospicio Hospital; coordinator: Ira Almeida, 9657320872
• Panaji: Goa College of Pharmacy, near Caculo Island, 18th June Road; coordinator: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, 9860089733
• Ponda: GVM's SNJA Higher Secondary School, Farmagudi; coordinator: Ameya Mardolkar, 9823171842
• Vasco: St Theresa's High School, Mangor Hill; coordinator: Mahesh Prabhu, 9823010242

Registration: Pre-registration is essential. To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, listing your name, contact information and the city in which you would like to answer the quiz.

More information: Call Aniruddha at 2415449, Anjali at 9860089733, Rajiv or Tallulah at 9823362217, or the coordinators at the other venues.

Waves 2010

3 quizzes will be held as part of Waves, the annual cultural festival of BITS, Goa.

SpEnt Quiz : 14th October, 2PM. Finals will follow immediately after prelims. Teams of upto 3 members. Open to college and school students.

Vices Quiz: 15th October, 1PM. Finals will follow immediately after prelims. Teams of upto 3 members. Open to college and school students.
Waves Open Quiz: 16th October, 2PM. Finals will follow immediately after prelims. Teams of upto 3 members. Open to all.

Total prizes worth 30K to be won.

For further details visit www.bits-waves.org or contact Shridhar at +91 9960534515 or Aditya at +91 9561939907.

October Quiz - Results

QM: Raunaq Rao

1st: Aaron Fernandes, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Ashwin Mysore, Divya Ramaswamy, Nitish Fatarpekar, Prajakt Kamat, Pranab Mukherjee, Raghunandan Mysore, Sunil Sardessai, Tallulah D'Silva, Taran Mukherjee - 405
2nd: Aadish Talwadker, Anil Rodrigues, Anusha Pai, Jayant Karn, Joshan Abraham, Leroy Veloso, Navin Pai, Shaswat Salgaonkar, Sohag Sen, Vinita Panicker - 355
3rd: Abhijeet Virgincar, Ajachi Chakrabarti, Kanchan Gatward, Kiril Vaz, Krithika Pradeep, Mahesh Prabhu, Priyesh Pandey, Sunil Thomas, Tara Anne Coelho - 320
4th: Ajit Parulekar, Anant Lawande, Anjali Sen Gupta, Dhruv Usgaonkar, Jatan Rodrigues, Joel Vaz, Omkar Borkar, Paul Gatward, Prajeet Madkaikar - 290
5th: Akash Kulkarni, Anagha Panicker, Anurag Panicker, Atharv Joshi, Joel Pires, Paola Mambro, P. D. Mukherjee, Rajesh Panicker, Rajiv D'Silva, Srijit Kumar - 255
6th: Aisha Kalangutkar, Akshay Rege, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Joshua Anranjo, Raj Kunkolienkar, Shishir Shankhwalker, Shridhar Ramachandran, Shubham Tiwari, Soraya Mukherjee, Surbhi Verma - 235

The next monthly quiz will be held on the 7th of November, to be hosted by Paul Gatward.

Announcing The BiG Q 2010

The BiG Q 2010, which expands to the 'Best in Goa Quiz' will be held on Sunday, October 17. This is the BiG Q’s second year, following on from the success of the inaugural edition, in which more than 80 participants from Panjim, Vasco and Margao took the challenge. This year, Ponda will become the fourth city to host this premier quizzing event in Goa.

The BiG Q will be a written quiz for individual participants, with 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes. Reporting time is 11am, and the proceedings are likely to last till 1.30pm or so. This year, the BiG Q is being set by last year’s overall winner Annie Sen Gupta.

Entry to the quiz is free, and open to all, from the youngest school student to the sprightliest senior citizen. We are expecting at least a few outstation quizzers who will probably be here for the weekend, as the BITS Open Quiz is to be held the previous day.

Pre-registration is essential for participation. To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, mentioning your name, contact number and venue. If you need more information, call Annie at 2415449, Anjali at 9860089733, Rajiv/Tallulah at 9823362217, or the coordinators at the other venues:

Margao: Ira Almeida, 9657320872

Vasco: Mahesh Prabhu, 9823010242

Ponda: Ameya Mardolkar, 9823171842

The long quiz of the law

A report on the SEQC October monthly by Aniruddha Sen Gupta

Never expect a lawyer to wind up anything quickly. Raunaq Rao lived up to professional stereotype with his quiz, the October monthly. At least, during its first couple of rounds. He had devised a complex, multiple-clue formula for the questions in the opening two rounds, which made for interesting quizzing, but involved a lot of people running helter-skelter, some vociferous arguments, much confusion regarding outcomes and the delivery of judgements from the bench. A typical day in court, so to speak.

After the first two rounds, though, the dust kind of settled, and the remaining eight rounds sped by like a... um, well... like a case on speed. The level of the questions was such that the quiz was enjoyed by everyone present. Those who often sit stupefied through SEQC quizzes, looking like they've suffered a roadroller incident, were for once animated and joining in the hubbub. One teammate of mine celebrated what he said was the first question at an SEQC quiz that he had been able to answer.

The scoring, however, went for a bit of a toss, with the two scorers split by irreconcilable differences. The hand of an international betting syndicate is suspected.

At the end of the day, we had probably the first SEQC quiz where the scores were not formally announced, as a combination of the lateness of the finish and the discrepancies of the scoring saw people departing sans results. I suppose we'll know who won when Rajiv puts up the scores on this blog.

As Rajiv put it (you know I'd never utter such words on my own), Raunaq lost his QMing virginity in style, and we all enjoyed the defloration. We all look forward to being party to more such cherry-picking incidents in future SEQC quizzes. Caligula never had it so good!

Riviera School Quiz

Organized by: Rotary Club Riviera, Panaji
Date: 8th October 2010
Time: 2.30 pm
Flavour: General
QM: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly
Venue: Gaspar Dias Club, Miramar
Participation: Open to students of Std. X and below in teams of 2.

Heritage Quiz

A quiz will wind up events at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Goa Heritage Action Group. The events that precede it ought to be quite interesting too. Everyone's invited.

Going Places
A Quiz on Heritage, Culture & Tradition

Date: 2nd October 2010
Time: 5.30 pm
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Venue: Panjim Inn, Fontainhas
Participation: Open

Please Try To Remember The Third of Octember

I have been reading one too many Dr.Seuss books to my son, but that aside, please try to remember that although Raunaq Rao will ostensibly cast aside his lawyer's bands for one day, in reality this whole QMing thing of his may be just another way to hone his cross-questioning skills. Come prepared to stoutly deny everything.

SEQC October Quiz

Date: 3rd October 2010
Time: 5 pm
QM: Raunaq Rao
Flavour: General
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open

Tata Crucible - Goa Results

Winner: Savoir Faire Media (Harshvardhan Bhatkuly & Rajiv D'Silva) - 105
Runners-up: Splash Communications (Ameya Mardolkar & Aniruddha Sen Gupta) - 40
3rd: Bharti Airtel (Pragati Katyal & Wagesh Zade) - 25
4th: Cadbury India (Amrita R. & Chella Pandyan) - 20
5th: Syngenta (Joseph De Sousa & Raghvendra Rai) - 10
6th: Intertrade Agencies (Mahesh Prabhu & Prem Sharma) - 5

Find the official report on the Tata Crucible site.

Road Quizzing

As part of ongoing experiments at SEQC to combine every fun thing known to mankind with quizzing, our first road trip will be held on the 26th of September. The idea, in a nutshell, is this. Take two points, say Point A and Point L, with the former being the starting point at the latter being the destination, and proceed to drive from A to L. Now, along the way are arbitrary points B, C, D etc. where everybody stops for a spot of quizzing. Once we get to L, we quiz some more, have lunch, quiz some more, take a nap, quiz some more, have tea and quiz some more. And on the return journey, that is, from L to A, we again stop at arbitrary points I, J, K, and, you guessed it, quiz some more. (For those who like to see everything graphically represented, here's a schematic of this journey.)

Anyway, so now that this diagram, which I spent three hours drawing, has made everything as clear as mud, let me make things a little clearer:
Point A: Mary Immaculate Church steps, Panaji, at 7.30 am on the 26th of September.
Point L: Nature's Nest, Tambdi Surla.
Points B-K: That's anybody's guess. Basically we stop whenever we want to. As long as we all get back to Panaji by around 7.30 pm.
Participation fee: Rs 250 plus 10 questions a head. The money covers the cost of transport, and the lunch, tea & snacks at Nature's Nest. The questions are to make sure we don't get to point F, for instance, and wonder what we're going to do there. Kids below 10 years of age are exempt from both charges. Everybody can get their questions along in the form of a print or on a pen drive, and we'll figure out when and how to run them. Basically the text-only quizzes can be done en route and the ones that require a laptop/projector will be done at Nature's Nest.
Registration: Prior registration is a must. To register, email me at rajivdsilva[at]gmail.com. We have hired a 35-seater bus for the journey, and that number is the limiting factor as far as the number of participants goes, so registrations will be done on a FCFS basis. The last date for registrations is the 24th of September. For any more details, email me.

Tata Crucible - The Business Quiz

Date: 20th September 2010
Time: 4.30 pm
QM: Giri 'Pickbrain' Balasubramanium
Flavour: Business
Venue: Cardium Auditorium, National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula
Who can participate: Teams of two, representing their company/organization.
Prizes: Rs 75,000 for the winners, 35,000 for the runners-up
More details at the official site.

SEQC September Results

QM: Rajiv D'Silva

1st: Abhijeet Virginkar, Anand P. S., Aniruddha Sankolli, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Anou Raut Desai, Kiril Vaz, Neville Monteiro, Omkar Borkar, Prajeet Madkaikar, Sohag Sen, Tanmay Naik - 230
2nd: Ajachi Chakrabarti, Anagha Panicker, Anant Lawande, Anisha Mahapatra, Anurag Panicker, Jatan Rodrigues, Kanchan Gatward, Leroy Veloso, Nitya, Noah Fernandes, Paola Mambro, Rahul Padgaonkar, Shukr Usgaonkar, Taran Mukherjee - 200
3rd: Adish Talwadkar, Atharv Joshi, Pranab Mukherjee, Raj Kunkolienkar, Savitri Rane, Shridhar Ramachandran, Shubham Tiwari, Siddhant Salgaonkar, Tallulah D'Silva, Vernon Fernandes, Vijay Kulkarni - 195
4th: Akash Kulkarni, Anil Rodrigues, Anirudh W., Kedar Naik, K. S. Rane, Neelay Thaly, Nikhil Arolkar, P. C. Sabulal, Shaswat Salgaonkar, Sunil Sardessai, Suyash Kamat, Valmiki Naik - 175
5th: Akshay Rege, Akshay Surendra, Eeshan Vernekar, Lara Pereira, Lucy James, Nellie Velho Pereira, Nitish Fatarpekar, Paul Gatward, Pawan Garde, Sachin Chatte - 165
6th: Amit Shet, Ananya Mukherjee, Anish S., Anmol Naik, Anusha Pai, Conrad Fernandes, Jayant Karn, Joshua Fernandes, Julian Fernandes, Mahesh Prabhu, Reuben Rodrigues, Shaila DeSouza, Shashank Venkatraman - 140

Click here to view/download a pdf version of the quiz.
The next monthly quiz will be held on the 3rd October, to be hosted by Raunaq Rao.

Putting on weight

SEQC is showing an alarmingly familiar growth pattern. We started off in June 2008 as a slim 14-member group. Till the end of 2008, we hovered around that weight, barring the usual seasonal fluctuations. Then, as the new calendar year approached, we started growing, moving into the 20s. The next growth spurt was when we reached adulthood, so to speak, having completed our first year as a club. We moved out of the homes we'd been living in, and moved to our 'own place' at the Corporation Hall in Panjim and started topping 30 in numbers. Steady growth ensued, and the latest monthly quiz -- conducted by Rajiv D'Silva on September 5 -- certainly heralded the coming of middle age. A sudden expansion occurred -- our number shot up to over 60 -- and we found we no longer fit in our chairs.

As I said, an alarmingly familiar growth pattern -- I seem to remember going through the exact same thing myself!

However, what was not such a welcome trend in my case is great as far as SEQC is concerned. The bigger and fatter we get, the wider the spread of quizzing in Goa. And that can't be bad.

The quiz itself wasn't as chaotic as it could have been, given the number of participants. Okay, in some teams, members were having to walk from one side of the team to the other to discuss answers, but other than that, it was reasonably smooth sailing. Rajiv conducted a crisp, exciting event -- one that everyone could relate to and yet learn from. The main competition was largely between Team Ajachi and Team Annie, with the latter edging ahead in the final round (one of two written rounds with an overarching theme).

There's quite a lot of quizzing in the months ahead, and Goa's quiz gluttons should be quite satiated. Here's to a lot more around the middle, guys!

Postscript: Let's not forget, we also had our first canine member this time around though, sadly, I never got around to meeting him or her.

GVM's Inter-Higher Secondary School Quiz

Date: 4th September 2010
Time: Written preliminary at 9.30 am, final at 10.30 am
QM: Wilson Vaz
Flavour: General
Venue: Ravindra Bhavan
Participation: Open to students of Std. XI & XII, in teams of two. Both team members must be from the same school. No pre-registration required.

A case of cheating

The following comment was recently posted by an anonymous writer about the Incredible India Quizzes:

"This quiz sucks!!!4 teams from or school got selected and these selfish people didn't even take 1...this quiz sucks!!!seqc yu suck to the core!!!!"

I am keen that people who come to this blog are aware of what happened, so I'm posting this response on the blog itself, besides having responded to the comment.

From the comment, I assume the writer is from the Navy Children's School (NCS), whose teams had this fate befall them. Let's look at the facts:

1. No team from NCS qualified for the Schools quiz. The scores of the same students during the Schools quiz prelims, which was far easier than the Open edition, were in the range of 5 to 8 points, against the 11 or 12 points that they uniformly scored in the Opens prelims. On the other hand, other NCS teams, including students whose quizzing prowess we have witnessed at other events, did much better in the Schools prelims, including one which just failed to make the cut.

2. During the Schools quiz prelims, we had segregated the teams so that no two teams from the same school sat next to each other. This was almost certainly why the Schools prelims more accurately reflected the ability of these students. During the Open quiz prelims, it was not possible to ensure such separation, and neither did we think it would be necessary.

3. In comparing the answer sheets of the four teams from the school that 'made the cut' in the Open edition, as many as 5 to 8 incorrect answers were common to the different papers, in addition to those which were correct. I would say this is statistically almost impossible, unless the answers were shared among the teams.

4. On two separate occasions during the prelims, I warned the teachers who were with those teams -- and who were, amazingly, complicit in the cheating -- not to let the teams consult with each other. I even had to make the announcement from the podium when they continued to flout my warnings.

Given these facts, it was clear to me that these teams only qualified by cheating, which is shameful. In particular, I find the conduct of the teachers who accompanied the teams on the day appalling.

Neither I nor any other member of SEQC has anything against NCS as such, and we would not stand to gain anything from discriminating against the school. Neither am I suggesting through this post that all NCS students or teachers are cheats -- only the ones that were part of this 'scam'. At least two students of the school (whom I know personally and like) are regular members of our club, and have been a part of teams that have done well in several other schools quizzes that we have organised, including winning the Football Quiz that I conducted at the Vidya Vikas Academy in Margao in mid-July.

Annie Sen Gupta

Quizmaster, IIQ

SEQC September Quiz

Date: 5th September 2010
Time: 5 pm
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open

Dawoodbhai J Noorani Rolling Shield Quiz

Organized by: Loyola Ex-Students Association
Date: 29th August 2010
Time: 9.30 am
QM: Sachin Chatte
Flavour: General
Venue: Loyola High School Hall, Margao
Participation: Open to students of Class IX & X, in teams of two. For more details, download the official invite here.

Incredible Response for India Quizzes

Independence Day saw a massive gathering at the International Centre Goa (ICG), but it wasn't for any speeches or flag-hoisting. It was for the Incredible India Quizzes conducted on the day, organised by the Sunday Evening Quiz Club (SEQC) in partnership with ICG, and supported by the Department of Tourism, Goa. The turn-out for the Schools edition, held in the afternoon, was overwhelming, and the organisers were indeed overwhelmed for a while. But after the initial confusion, things sorted themselves out, and a great event ensured that everyone -- organisers, participants and hangers-on -- had a rip-roaring time.

The school teams answering the prelims papers.

Close to 150 students, in teams of two, took the written elimination test. From those, six teams made it onto the stage for the finals -- Shukr Usgaonkar and Aditya Prabhugaonkar from Sharada Mandir School in Miramar; Jatan Rodrigues and Joel Vaz from Don Bosco, Panjim; Raj Kunkolienkar and Anusha Pai from Mushtifund High School, Panjim; Shubham Tiwari and Akash Kulkarni from People's High School, Panjim; Jayant Karn and Ashray Adappa from Dhempe HSS, Miramar; and Shashwat Salgaonkar and Akshay Rege from Mushtifund High School, Panjim.

Teams on stage in the Schools edition contemplate a question, as Annie tries to appear in control of things.

A close-fought battle ensued, with each team notching up points initially. The quiz had been put together by Aniruddha Sen Gupta, who was conducting both editions. The Schools edition had six rounds on different subjects highlighting India's diversity and complexity, from History and Places through People and Life to Sport and the Arts. A special feature was the topically-named 'Tryst with Destiny', under which each team could choose one of the rounds as its Tryst with Destiny, and gain double points for every question it answered correctly during that round. The Mushtifund team of Shashwat and Akshay chose wisely, and shot ahead of the rest by garnering 60 points from three correct answers on questions related to Places in India.

Hits and misses, deliberations and decisions...

Despite the best efforts of the other teams, their lead remained unassailable till the end. Eventually, they finished on top, with Jayant and Ashray from Dhempe HSS pipping Shubham and Akash from People's High School to second place -- by recognising Aamir Khan dressed in drag in the film 'Baazi' on the last question of the quiz.

An audience member picks up a prize.

Immediately afterwards, the Open edition followed, with participation open to all. This version too saw a huge response, with more than 60 teams of two in the fray. The six that made it onto stage were the mixed team of Nitya and Sabulal P.C.; the all-woman team of Anjali Sen Gupta and Venita Coelho; Mahesh Prabhu and Leroy Veloso; Dhruv Usgaonkar and Aaron Lobo; Rajiv D'Silva and Harsh Bhatkuly; and Milind Joshi and Sudhir Rao.

The Open edition about to get under way.

The Open quiz had a more complex structure than the Schools edition. After two rounds of straight quizzing came a round where teams chose subjects off a grid. The 'buzz-and-grab' feature of this round, which allowed teams that knew the answer to steal it away from the others, lent excitement to this round. Then followed another couple of straight rounds, but with a twist -- the 12 questions were all linked through a theme, which the teams had to try and crack as they struggled to answer the questions themselves. Only two of the teams -- and a few members of the audience -- figured that the questions were related in sequence to 'Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha...' and that the theme was therefore places mentioned in the national anthem. The final round was a visual connect round on the buzzer.

A sizeable audience watches the Open quiz progress.

Experience with quizzing, particularly on buzzer questions, showed clearly during the contest, and this edition turned out to be rather one-sided. Rajiv and Harsh, Goa's foremost quizzing team which has won laurels at the national level, swamped the opposition, winning by a margin of 240 points to the second-placed Anjali and Venita's 60. Dhruv and Aaron took third place, 10 points behind.

The Open teams on stage.

At the end of the hectic but exciting evening, Nandini Sahai, Director of ICG, gave away the prizes -- trophies and cash prizes -- to the top three teams in each of the editions.

The top three teams from the Schools edition (above) and the Open quiz (below), display their pickings, as ICG Director Nandini Sahai, Programmes Manager Arjun Halarnkar and Quizmaster Annie Sen Gupta join in.

Incredible India Quizzes - Results

QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

School Edition:
1st: Shaswat Salgaonkar & Akshay Rege (Mushtifund) - 105
2nd: Ashray Adappa & Jayant Karn (Dhempe) - 55
3rd: Akash Kulkarni, Shubham Tiwari (People's) - 50
4th: Aditya Prabhugaonkar & Shukr Usgaonkar (Sharada Mandir) - 40
5th: Anusha Pai, Raj Kunkolienkar (Mushtifund) - 20
6th: Jatan Rodrigues, Joel Vaz (Don Bosco) - 10

Open Edition:
1st: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly & Rajiv D'Silva - 240
2nd: Anjali Sen Gupta & Venita Coelho - 60
3rd: Dhruv Usgaonkar & Aaron Lobo - 50
4th: Nitya & Sabulal P. C. - 30
5th: Milind Joshi & Sudhir Rao - 25
6th: Leroy Veloso & Mahesh Prabhu - 20

IIQ 2010 questions and answers

Questions and answers for the Open and Schools editions of the India International Quizzes held at the International Centre Goa on August 15, 2010.

Schools Edition

Open Edition

The prelims questions and answers can be downloaded from the Files section of the SEQC e-group.

Date: August 15, 2010
Time: Schools edition 3 pm (registration and check-in 2.30pm); Open edition 5pm
QM: Annie Sen Gupta
Flavour: India
Venue: International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula
Participation: Schools edition: students up to Class XII; Open edition: open (what else?)
Teams: Schools edition: two members from the same school; Open edition: two members, Schools edition participants can also participate, with same or different partners
Registration: Send names and contacts of team members to seqcgoa@gmail.com, or letter to Arjun Halarnkar, Programme Director, International Centre Goa, Dona Paula. Spot registration may be allowed, depending on availability of prelims questions papers.
Prizes: Sponsored by Department of Tourism, Goa

Incredible India Quizzes on Independence Day

The Incredible India Quizzes (IIQ) will be organised on Independence Day, August 15, partnership with the International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula. The quizzes will be held at the ICG, starting from 3pm. Here are the details:

* The IIQ 2010 will be conducted as two editions -- the first one for Schools, and the second an Open quiz.

* Entries are invited for teams of two for each of the quizzes. For the Schools edition, both team members must be from the same school.

* For the Open quiz, any two people can team up, irrespective of age, sex, nationality or whatever. Participants in the schools edition can also register for the Open edition, with the same or different partners.

* The last date for registration is Friday, August 13, 2010.

* Entry for both quizzes is free.

* The focus of both quizzes will be on all things Indian. The content will include audio, visual and video questions, buzzer rounds, the works.

* In each of the editions, there will be a written preliminary round for all registered teams, with the six top teams going up on stage for the final quiz.

* A tentative schedule for the day is as follows:
-- 3pm to 3.30pm: Schools edition prelims
-- 3.30pm to 5pm: Schools edition finals (six teams on stage)
-- 5pm to 5.30pm: Open edition prelims
-- 5.30pm to 7.30pm: Open edition finals (six teams on stage)
-- 7.30pm to 8pm: Prize distribution and wind-up

* Great prizes are being offered by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Goa, for the top two teams in each of the editions. Certificates will be awarded to all participating students in the schools edition.

* The quiz will be conducted by Annie Sen Gupta,.

* To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, with 'IIQ 2010 registration' in the Subject line, and the names plus contact numbers or e-mail IDs of both team members (with school name, if entry is for the schools edition) in the body of the message. Alternatively, you can send in your registration in the form of a letter listing the names of team members to Arjun Halarnkar, Programmes Manager, ICG, Dona Paula.

* For more details, call Aniruddha Sen Gupta on 2415449.

Gol! The Football Quiz -- questions and answers

Gol! The Football Quiz began with a written elimination called the Qualifiers. The files for these are uploaded in the Files section of the SEQC Google group. You can access them here:
http://groups.google.com/group/seqc-goa/files

Six teams then qualified for the League Stage:


At the end of the League stage, the two bottom teams were elminated, and the top four teams faced off in the semis, Team 1 vs Team 4 and Team 2 vs Team 3. The two semis PPTs are below:





The teams that won the semis then met each other in the finals



Each of the matches had buzzer rounds, which can also be accessed at the Google Groups URL:
http://groups.google.com/group/seqc-goa/files

A reviewer reviewed

A report on the August 2010 monthly by Annie Sen Gupta

A little bird -- actually, quite a big one -- told me a little story about the SEQC August 2010 monthly. I will retell it, with apologies to the bird and to his informant for playing a little fast and loose with the facts.

The mantle of responsibility for setting the quiz had been draped over the shoulders of our Little Master, Sachin Chatte, at the previous meet. So, this bird called up Sachin a few days before the current monthly was due, and enquired how things were shaping up. The answer was sufficiently non-commital and vague for the bird to assume the worst -- that Mr Chatte had not yet got going on it. Further probing on the subject revealed as much.

"So what's the problem?" the bird enquired.

"It's not very easy," was the response. "You guys are used to it."

"But you did fine the first time around," the bird reminded the recalcitrant QM, referring to Sachin's previous foray on the SEQC proscenium.

"Yeah, but that time I was motivated."

I was told this tale while we waited for Sachin to make an appearance, as a warning that perhaps our QM was going to be a no-show. Thankfully, however, Sachin pulled no such stunt, and reported for duty, perhaps a little late but with laptop full of questions. The bird and I breathed sighs of relief.

In case you didn't know this, Sachin's thing in life is to watch movies first-day first-show, and then make fun of them on television, radio and the odd newspaper (a very odd newspaper, in fact). Watch Prudent TV on Sunday night, and you'll know what I mean. His quiz, he announced early on in the evening, would naturally contain a fair bit of filmology, some music (oh yeah, he's also an RJ on an FM channel) and some cricket.

As Sajan complained after the show, the cricket component seemed to consist exclusively of questions about Bhausaheb Nimbalkar. One question that we realised Sachin had missed out on was what Nimbalkar's first name was. To illuminate, it was Jack -- his full name being Jack B. Nimbalkar. If you don't get the joke, you don't know your nursery rhymes.

All in all, it was a rollercoaster quiz -- some questions as inaccessible as the moon being succeeded by ones completely down to earth. But a lot of fun was had, and there was applause for many questions, even though there was no claque. Must have been a clique. Turnout was a little low, perhaps due to the rain, but there were participants from Margao, Vasco and perhaps further afield.

The end game was cliff-hanging, with Rajiv's answer on 'Smoke on the Water' (from a description of the circumstances by Deep Purple during an interview with Sachin himself) ensuring a tie for the first place -- the first time that this has happened at an SEQC monthly.