For anyone who knows me even a little bit, must have known about my passion for quizzing. For others who haven’t known me in person, but who happen to stumble upon here must have guessed it from the number of quiz related posts that dominate this blog. And for those who actually follow me through this blog and have borne the trauma of reading through each of the posts must have also got aware about my infinitely numerous narrow misses at such big quizzing events.
With the regularity that I was missing qualifying for the finals, and needless to say the wafer-thin margin, it was becoming more of a rule than exception. It wasn’t any soothing experience when all those qualified teams would ‘pass’ some question whose answer I would know better than the back of my hand. It goes without saying that it earned me some lousy gifts as audience prizes. ‘What the hell was I doing sitting in the crowd?’ I kicked myself time and again.
All I could do was pen my feelings down and give vent to the pent up frustrations in me. And that is what I did through my article ‘Luck! No chance’ (http://ameyadilse.blogspot.com/2009/02/luck-no-chance.html). An innocent suggestion from my friend meant that I mail the link to the god of quizzers, Giri. And wholla! he actually commented back to it. He, in a manner fitting to his character, was very appreciative about me and was kind enough to email me back a few words of encouragement. Oh boy! That was the only silver lining to my debacles all this while.
It was not to be the last time that I had to experience such narrow miss, and suffered the same plight at BITS Pilani Quark Fest. As I tied on the same score with the last qualifying team, it was the tie-breaker question that did me in. ‘deja vu!’ I sighed. ‘Seen it, done it, been through it’ was what I was feeling then.
Thus in frustration I called up my good friend as I do quite often than none. Though himself a good quizzer in school days, he had been on some kind of quizzing sabbatical since. But as his good luck would have it, one casual attempt at Tata crucible-Pune and he ended up on stage thus earning his quiet some accolades. He was someone whom I often turn up to when in tizzy and boy! What a motivation he instilled into me with his one statement. He said and I quote “Sachin Tendulkar took 89 ODIs to score his first century”. That one statement and the barometer of my spirit had spiked from the deepest abyss to its summit. And with new zest I was anticipating to participate in the next quiz.
Like a vulture on rain-starved barren land eagerly awaiting the next rain, I had my eyes glued onto the quizzing calendar. And boy! what a treat it was for my eyes. Come 27th February 2010, and there were not one, not two but three quizzes lined up that day. Along with its yearly corporate quiz Wiz-Biz, GIM were also organising a college quiz ‘Inquizzitive Minds’ for the first time. But the biggie of the day was the Tata crucible that was coming to town the same evening. The initial schedule suggested that GIM’s ‘Inquizzitive Minds’ clashing with the ‘Tata Crucible’, but a quick rejig by the GIM organisers meant all was settled. So thus I had my schedule packed for that Saturday and it read something like this:
9.00 AM – Inquizzitive Minds – International Centre Goa
2.00 PM – Tata Crucible Quiz – National Institute of Oceanography
6.00 PM – Wizbiz – International Centre Goa
Though a Saturday was something I used to look up to for an extended siesta, this one was certainly different. I had to break the jinx and I was hoping to do it that day. So seeking blessings from my parents and the all-mighty I left my home for the venue.
Not expecting the GIM organizers to start their quiz on time, I was yodelling my way to the venue when my cellphone blared to life. ‘Lisa calling...’ the screen flashed. Few keystrokes and a short conversation made me realise I was wrong in expecting the prospective managers from GIM not to be punctual. However I was able to convince Lisa in delaying the start by just a few more minutes as I made indicator needle to gobble a few more notches on the speedometer. Oh! You must be wondering, Lisa who? Well she was my partner for the opening quiz of a day. By her own admission she was a quizzing greenhorn though I really didn’t mind that.
Rushing to the venue still gasping for breath, I panted my way through the prelims. The prelims wasn’t very easy and thought I shall be eliminated yet another time. But surprised was I, when my team name ‘Don Quixote’ was called up as finalists. The finals were easier, and had not been for some goof-ups from my part I should have landed in a better position than the third spot that we both secured. The positive take away was not just being able to break the jinx; I had another reason to celebrate. One of the member of the winning team was my partner for the next quiz, the big one of the day Tata Crucible.
The Tata crucible venue was just a stone’s throw away, albeit by a rather strong man. A quick lunch and we landed up at the venue quiet in advance of the reporting time. The organisers further had decided to wait for an ‘on-the-way’ team, which transcended in our wait being longer. But who mind this extra few hours of waiting period when we wait for the entire year this event. Post-prelims, and after discussing the hits and misses over tea, we settled in our seats with our fingers crossed. The format was designed such to eliminate crowding of stage with teams from same institute and ensure at least 4 unique institutes make it. Thus the top teams from 4 unique institutes would directly qualify themselves (even if and quiet often when their scores are lower than the second best team from another college) with the rest slots to be battled out for amongst the rest top six teams. My anxiety had picked out as Giri emerged to declare the names of the six wild-card teams that would slug it out for the last two slots in the finals. And lady luck was totally shining on me, as mine was the first name to be announced, albeit the usual pronunciation goof-up ( http://ameyadilse.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-ameya-no-no-its-ameya.html ). So it was me and my partner Pratyush representing GIM along with another 3 GIM teams and 2 from BITS that would have to face 8 questions on the buzzer for the coveted spot in the finals. A couple of questions into the round and one of BITS team had already got itself qualified leaving 5 of us. Till question 7 it was all even-stevens among 4 of us as some overambitious attempts by one of the team got themselves a few negatives. Thus it was for the Q# 8 to decide who would continue to be on stage?
“The secret formula of Coca-Cola stored in the vaults of Sun-Trust Bank” was our ticket to the finals as we banged the buzzer before Giri could complete the question. That was it... finally... finally I had got myself qualified for TC finals. The feeling was totally ‘on-top-of-the-world’ as for me I had won the battle. Probably me and my partner were a bit too overhelmed, as our performance in the finals was nothing but mediocre. As teams raced ahead, it was a team of young doctors from GMC emerged as the Goa champions. Not winning, yet as happy as the winners I was already on the way to the venue for the next quiz.
GIM annual corporate quiz ‘WizBiz’ would be the grande finale of the day. Being a student of eMBA at GIM, I had got special concessions to participate in the same; and together with my long time quizzing partner Chirag, I was looking to maximise our gains. Chirag was a great partner to have at any quiz, and he had specially flown down from Bangalore for this one. For he wasn’t the only one who had covered some miles to attend this quiz, but so had many bigwigs from the world of quizzing. The pretty handsome prize booty meant it attracted quiet some teams from the expanse of the country, especially from KQA. Although stacked against some formidable teams, we did fancy our chances of qualifying for the finals. For I was having a lucky outing and secondly the quiz-master was kinda lucky for us. Back in 2008 when Ajay Anthony has hosted WizBiz we were able to clear the elims and we were hoping to repeat the feat once again in 2010. And so we did as we qualified for the on-stage finals. Likewise the prelims, the finals too were a really entertaining and informative affair with a great mix of some tough ones sprinkled with old chestnuts. Though absolutely fair and unbiased format adopted, we still found ourselves wanting to answer questions that we knew but unfortunately were grabbed by our opponents. But all given and said, it was really a fun-filled and exciting one.
Thus there was me with my hands full, quite literally with prizes, certificates and gift vouchers and even more so having my heart filled with joy of the experiences I had over the entire day. I had been asking god to just break the jinx and get me past one of the elims . And see, what he got for me? No wonder , somebody has said it right “Uparwaalah deta hai, toh chappar phaad ke” :)
