Thoughts on the Panjim monthly- 11/Jan/2025

This is not a recap per se. Nitish said he is going to run this quiz online at some point, so I will not write any spoilers. This is more of an exploration post the quiz.

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A good quiz is merely a cipher because it allows the brain to feel whatever it wants to feel. We might feel elation, at times dejection, frustration or in rare moments, even exuberance; we can feel all this or nothing at all. Yes, a good quiz is a cipher, a mirror, to see what we choose to see.

And what is it about a good quiz that makes us feel this way? Why do we subject ourselves to the torture of racking our brains and hearts for answers? And where exactly, are those answers coming from? Are they inside us, or are they hidden in the warm camaraderie of the team? Or are they in fact pulled out of the thin air by a well-devised clue (a Gujarati one, perhaps)? Are they held secret in the grids of our childhood games?

A good quiz, like the one hosted by Nitish last Sunday, leaves one hungry for more. It creates an atmosphere fuelled by thoughtful questions, engaged teams, and the raucous bonhomie of the evening. Is that what compels a quizzer to return? After all, our only reward is a subtle nod from the Quizmaster and a few points. Why do we come at all, when we could be metaphorically, lazing in a hammock instead?. Perhaps we come to belong in the collective laughter when a teammate unintentionally flubs a 15-pointer question after she makes a point on the unfairness of a 15-pointer question.

In that sense, quizzing is much like the tortures of young love: we suffer through exquisite pain for the promise of something beautiful. We are like addicts searching for the next high, or cult members in a trance. Everything makes sense in that moment when the answer fits the question. We find heaven in the hallowed halls of the GBS.

The quiz itself was beautifully structured, with the titles of the rounds themselves designed as questions. There were 6 rounds, and dispatched at a quick pace, spanning from politics to sports, history, geography, religion, food and more.

We have had a great start to 2026 and it is only January. There is more to come, and more to know about own selves through what we choose to see and remember.

So long then, until next Sunday.

Scores:

Team 6: 350 points

Aniruddha Sengupta, Naintara Jain, Aastha Dua, Devika Shetty, Mervyn Fernandes

Team 3: 330 points

Raunak Nevgi, Shujoy Dutta, Melchior Teles, Assis Sequeira, Devansh Cholera, Dhanraj

Team 4: 305 points

Ajay Poonia, Ajey Patil, Soham Gaunekar, Anirudh, Kanchan

Team 5: 285 points

Mayur Shett, Smita Nair, Ashwini Joglekar, Ruchira Porob, Viola Rodrigues, Abhijit, Ajith Nair

Team 2: 265 points

Poonam Chowdhury, Gurjot Sidhu, Karan Dhingra, Vilas Pavithran, Bonny

Team 1: 230 points

Dr. Chandrashekhar Rao, Sunil Sardessai, Srijit Kumar, Anjali Sengupta, Parind Phadte