QM: Dr. Chandrashekhar Rao
It was a deceptively simple evening. Time passed as though
it were a lady, smoking a cigarette, strolling along the rainy evening streets
of Paris. Perhaps she looked like Vivien Leigh in Cleopatra and Antony. And we waited, bated breath, for Doc to pounce on us, gullible
creatures.
He did it twice!
Despite all the warnings, we fell for the mesalliances of
questions that seemed far too simple. We thought Doc was giving us a respite.
Well, he wasn't. He is a master trickster, playing us like putty. The
pace was consistent across the three rounds, especially more so in the rapid
fire. There was pin drop silence as we ate out of his hands, terrified of
tripping up and falling flat.
The questions themselves were as wide spanning as Doc’s
interests, with some clever fundas and lots of AI. Doc must have used up all
the water of the longest river that lies wholly in Goa while creating those
images of Tintin-Greta and Suited-up Annie. The questions were approachable
even for rank beginners, and he generously offered up interludes from the
Afsoses with some simple, face-value fundas. Yesterday, I learnt how metatextual
Heathcliff’s name was, and how both Liechtenstein and the Shatrughan
Sinha family might have benefited from being more imaginative with their
national anthem and choice of names for their four sons respectively.
The last question was especially poignant because not all of
us will get swan songs like Gloria Swanson. Some, will have abruptly
curtailed lives, leaving behind half dreams and wistful memories. Life goes on
of course, until one day too soon, we must meet our Afsos.
Teams and scores:
1st place: Team 5: 480 points
Bani Singh, Ravi Hela, Mohnish Sardesai, Ruchira Porob,
Rajiv D’Silva, Srishti Maruca.
2nd place: Team 4: 470 points
Annie Sengupta, Anjali Sengupta, Sanjay Parab, Sahil
Ramchandani, Lynn Baretto Miranda, Swati Parab, Sunil Sardessai, Arthy Muthanna
Singh
3rd place: Team 2:415 points
Mursaleen, Leroy
Veloso, Nathan Moniz, Nitish Wagle, Aastha Dua, Raunak Nevgi, Amey Parsekar, Zoya Parsekar
4th place :Team 1: 345 points
Ira Prem, Bhaskar Chakravorty,
Terrence D’Costa, Yashoda Joshi, Chinmay Naik, Tanmay Pereira Naik
5th place: Team 3:325 points
Ajay Poonia, Soham Gaunekar, Nikhil Shirsat, Devansh Cholera,
Pranav Khadpe, Simran Dhond
6th place: Team 6: 290 points
Utsav Banerjee, Ishan Kakodkar, Parind Phadte, Devika
Shetty, Srijit Kumar, Dr Ira Almeida
