Staring into the lush green peaceful surroundings outside my window I’m made aware of the peace inside my head. Perhaps, you, the participant, like me remember just how awesome yesterday’s quiz was. [Clue: It was awesome]. I will now proceed to record the events of yesterday’s bright sunny afternoon in the land of Roorkee in the annals of trivia history that is this website. Disclaimer: The following text is not even licking distance of the standards of awesomeness that were set yesterday. The 24 question prelim began with about 62 teams. Far too high a number than I expected. In the beginning the geeks of pie chart and vertical bars were treated with the tags associated with questions. If that wasn’t enough I also gave the ones interested in getting horizontal their share of the pie. 4 IIT teams along with 1 each from Delhi Univ. and Gitam Univ. made it to the finals. The latter being a one man army or The Dark Knight as he called himself. One of the qualified IIT-R team dropped out to make way for another IIT-R team which stood 7th in the prelims after a nail biting tie-breaker, that made us re-check their paper thrice. The finals had 3 rounds. The first was the usual Infinite Bounce with premium scoring and an opportunity to double a direct one. With only Random Variables taking a shot at double and the wild card qualifiers, PMS, cracking a fantastic 11er meant
Pretty, and great for single. The another round it was time to say goodbye to two IITR teams and The Dark Knight, who stood 4th. The business end of the quiz had teams placed at the following scores- 28(DU or Kabhi humein bhi khidmat ka mauka do rani), 28 (Random Variables) and 30 (PMS) Rani were the first ones to choose their question. The honorary titles to Hindus and Muslims issued in British India. Rani’s answer- Rai Bahadur and Jung Bahadur. The correct answer- Rai Bahadur and Khan Bahadur. Heartbreak for them since their private discussion found Khan Bahadur being mentioned. Q2 to RV- Ladakh’s two districts. RV’s answer- Leh and Siachen. The correct answer- Leh and Kargil. Actions of Rani repeated here too, however RV were better placed thanks to the fact that there were no negatives associated with a 4 pointer. PMS playing it safe and extremely well at that by identifying Khushwant Singh as Fauja Singh’s autobiographer. Scores before the final 3 questions- 24, 28, 34. Rani wasn’t quite resilient enough to recover from the setback of the first question and eventually were unable to answer the JV Brahmos for a 15er. RV, pleasantly surprised me by opting for a 15er in their bid to snatch the number 1 spot form PMS. But their valiant effort took a beating when they could not bring thought along as a support staff as they answered Sachin Tendulkar to be Sports illustrated India’s Sportsman of the Year. The hint quoted Dicken’s immortal words- ‘It was the best of times and it was the worst of times’ hinting at the world cup hero Yuvraj Singh. The incorrect answer meant PMS could take the liberty of going all out for a 15er (after much deliberation) to complete the formality of the quiz. They answered the 15er to end 1 short of a half-century and thus triumphing with an Ivanisevic-esque performance. Final Scores– PMS- 49, Random Variables- 20, Rani-16Some Questions from the quiz 1. There are several accounts to this story. One of them is that Nautamlal Bhagavanji Mehta or the Nagar Sheth of Jetpur was the first to do something (that many attribute to Rabindranath Tagore) on January 21, 1915 at Kamri Bai School, Jetpur, India. 2. Out of the Blue and Beyond the Blues are two books about the successful Ranji seasons of two teams, Rajasthan and Delhi, respectively. Both the books were written by the same gentleman. Who? 3. Encouraged by Nazi Party, this was a book against ideas proposed by a gentleman. When it was published, he retorted [famously], If I were wrong, then one would have been enough’. Who is the gentleman in question? 4. In 2008 X started celebrating after Suresh Kalmadi announced that X had qualified for
Had when rollers buy, Leaves am been tried I: bottle me be looks using brushing the Beijing games following his 2:18:23 finish in the Mumbai marathon. But the heartbreak happened when the IOA retracted his proclamation after it turned out that X had missed qualification by 3 seconds. X redressed the pain 2 years later by clocking 2:16:59 at the same venue and qualifying for London?
4. In 2008 X started celebrating after Suresh Kalmadi announced that X had qualified for