A Knock Out (Karan and Omkar)- recap of the Margao April Quiz

Review of the Margao April monthly by Assis Sequeira

For reasons not entirely clear, the regular Last Sunday Quiz at Margao draws fewer participants than the First Sunday Quiz at Dona Paula. It reminded me of the Port town of Vasco da Gama in the late 1990s, when shops, bars, and restaurants would remain deserted for the last few days of the month. But as the calendar page turned and salaries disbursed, these locations would spring back to life.

Margao quiz has its own charm, the huge auditorium, with great acoustics and lighting and the promise of a samosa that Dona Paula cannot match in texture and taste. With his trademark smile, Srijit, ably assisted by Vilas, shuffled participants into four evenly matched teams. Another hallmark of Margao monthly is its ability to attract fresh faces. This time, Gurjot with charming Poonam and the Phadtes (husband-wife duo of doctors from BITS Pilani) joined the fold.

The young quizmasters, Omkar Bhurke and Karan Dhingra, wasted no time in setting the pace. The opening written round featured ten clever questions—each tied to an IPL team through wordplay or picture clues, with bonus points for spotting the overarching connection. Only one team managed a perfect score; few others did crack the overall link.

The main rounds included a grid box challenge and two sets of Infinite Pounce questions. The grid comprised 16 boxes labelled Place, Animal, Name, and Thing, each numbered 1 to 4. The twist? Every answer was a single word beginning with one of just four letters. As the round unfolded, we realized with delight that the letters spelled QUIZ, each used exactly four times.

After a spirited tea break, with the customary samosa rush; the final round of four connects proved to be the true test. Tough to crack, yet immensely satisfying when solved, they had participants muttering, “I should have guessed that sooner!”

And that, to me, is the hallmark of a great quiz: one that keeps you on edge, challenges your instincts, and rewards persistence. This one certainly did. Thanks to the masterly shuffling by Srijit there was a winner no doubt, but the other teams were not too far behind.

Hats off to Karan and Omkar — what a knockout performance!

Margao monthly – 26/Apr/2026 – scores

QMs: Karan Dhingra and Omkar Bhurke 

1st: Team IV (Srijit Kumar, Parind Phadte, Abha Lal, Paul Gatward, Mohammed Danish, Amanda Fernandes, Brian Fernandes) – 325 points

2nd: Team II (Abhijeet Virginkar, Soham Gaunekar, Ajit Nair, Sameer Dhingra, Neil Barretto, Gurjot Sindhu, Poonam Chowdhury) – 310 points

3rd: Team I (Ira Prem, Devika Shetty, Viola Rodrigues, Magali Vaz, Maria Barretto, Kuhika Seth) and Team III (Amey Parsekar, Vilas Pavithran, Assis Sequeira, Shruti Nair, Diksha Mandlik, Tanvi Shet, Shubham Phadte, Leechi Dhawan) – 270 points

Margao monthly quiz – 26/April/2026 – content

QMs: Karan Dhingra and Omkar Bhurke

SEQC Panjim May Quiz

Date: Sunday, 3rd May 2026

Time: 5.00 pm

Venue: Goa Business School, Taleigao

Click here for map

QM: Rajiv D'Silva 

Participation: Open to all

SEQC Margao April Quiz

Date: Sunday, 26th April 2026

Time: 5.00 pm

Venue: SGDH Auditorium, 5th Floor, South Goa District Hospital, Margao

Click here for maps link

QM: Karan Dhingra & Omkar Bhurke

Participation: Open to all

Around the World in 50 Qs – 12/April/2026 – content

QM: Annie Sen Gupta

Around the World in 50 Questions– 12/April/2026 – Results

 QM: Annie Sen Gupta

Points:

1^st: Team 1:110 points 

Clayton D'Gama, Paola Fernandes,Naintara Jain, Anjali Dar Sengupta, Soham Gaunekar, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly

2^nd: Team 2 : 105 points

Saud Sayed,Vilas Pavithran, Rasika Fernandes, Ananya Singh, Dhanraj, Rupika V, Shujoy Dutta

3^rd: Team 4 : 95 points 

Eaunak Nevgi, Kunal Naik, Namit Kumar,Daksh Chauhan, Viola Rodrigues, Swati Parab, Omkar Bhurke, Palash Kulkarni

4th: Team 3 and Team 6 : 80 points

Team 3: Abhijeet Virginkar, Amey Parsekar, Bonny Furtado, Nashon Pinto, Ershad Safi, Arkan Safi, Arsalan Safi,Tarun Robins, Abir Kamat, Kani Bernard

Team 6: Pradyumna Madelkar, Walusha Ann Fernandes,Kanchan Gatward, Srijit Kumar, Devika Shetty, Parind Phadte, Ruchira Porob

6th: Team 5: 70 points

Kaivalya, Chandrasekhar Rao, Sheryl Afonso, Jyoti Boyana, Megan Zoe De Souza, Mervyn Fernandes, Ajit Nair

April Panjim monthly – 05/April/2026 – content

QM: Nitish Wagle

Panjim monthly quiz – 05/April/2026 – Recap and results

QM: Nitish Wagle

How do we know where we fit in?

When nothing in the world seems to make sense, what is it that binds us as a group? How do we forge the connections that provide meaning, and what tools help us define where we stand? How many times must we keep asking these questions until we find the niche that gives us our place in the world; that makes us say- “yep, I belong here. This fits perfectly”.

Connections, and how we define them, seemed to be the theme of Nitish’s excellent quiz at SEQC last sunday. Interspersed with some animal nipples , domestic abuse(!) and other such whacky topics thrown in as well , as suggested by our esteemed fellow quizzers. However, what struck us was how easily he tied these topics, with genuinely good fundas like identifying a young, uncredited Tabu in the movie Bazaar!

There were 5 rounds with the first being such a complete bouncer for some (Nitish claimed it was "topical," but in the mad world we’ve been plunged into, the list of current topics is infinite). The questions (along with the answer slides this time, thankfully) were a delight: accessible, informative, and anchored by a refreshingly non-gimmicky points system. There were even leftover echoes of his "Origins" quiz from a few months ago.

Someone reminded me the other day , that if we are looking for people that speak our language, then, we need to speak many languages,so we will have many people of our own. Folks at SEQC are such people- multi lingual polyglots, who are bound by ties of curiosity, of a shared wonder at esoteric etymologies, who rhyme Idris Elba with Nellie Melba. In a world that currently feels alien, what a rare and beautiful thing it is to be connected to this group.

Points:

1^st: Team 5: 260 points

Bonny Furtardo, Ajit Nair, Rajiv D’Silva, Upesh Pradhan, Rupika V

2^nd: Team 1: 245 points

Kanchan Gatward, Ruchira Porob, Anjali Dar Sengupta, Annie Sen Gupta

3^rd: Teams 2 and Team 6 : 185 points

Team 2: Raunak Nevgi, Dhanraj, Pranav Kudale, Paul Gatward

Team 6: Srijit Kumar, Parind Phadte, Amita Kanekar, Viola Rodrigues, Prabhav Sidhaye

5th: Team 4: 180 points

Kaivalya Karkare, Sunil Sardessai, Soham, Karan

6th: Team 3: 165 points

Aastha Dua, Omkar Bhurke, Swati Parab, Chinmay, Shujoy Dutta, Mervyn.

 

Around the World in 50 Questions

 The Sunday Evening Quiz Club (SEQC) will organise 'Around the World in 50 Questions' – a Travel & Leisure Quiz – on Sunday 12 April, starting 4pm, at the Goa Business School in Taleigao. The quiz, to be conducted by Annie Sen Gupta, will feature a board game format, with teams proceeding along a route on a world map by answering questions. The questions will cover such areas as Travel & Places, Food & Drink, Sports & Games, Pastimes & Hobbies, etc. The quiz is open to all, and entry is free.

 

Margao monthly quiz – 29/March/2026 – results

QMs: Melchior Teles and Assis Sequeira

1st – Team II (Ira Prem, Magali Vaz, Maria Barretto, Amita Kanekar, Viola Rodrigues): 250 points

2nd – Team IV (Srijit Kumar, Neil Barreto, Terrence D'Costa, Devika Shetty, Sunil Peesapati): 205 points

3rd – Team III (Sanjay Parab, Nihal Bhobe, Ajit Nair, Anand Lobo + 1): 120 points

4th – Team I (Swati Parab, Girish Deshpande, Nirmala Deshpande, Anjali Dar Sengupta, Ira Almeida): 100 points

Margao monthly quiz – 29/March/2026 – content

QMs: Melchior Teles and Assis Sequeira

Part 1



Part 2