Friday, April 07, 2006

About the club

Time to let the world know about the club. We were sent a list of questions by a magazine, which makes our job easier. Now we know what you want to find out.

Who are you?
We are a bunch of quizzers, who have taken part in quizzes across the country. Most of us are in our twenties, though some of us look back wistfully at that time.
We have won and conducted a lot of quizzes in many cities - Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad. However, Bombay, where we stay doesn't have a quiz club as of now. Hence, this effort to bring quizzers together and quiz.

If you could just clarify how your quiz club works. According to your blog, you fix a date and time to meet and quiz away.
We quiz in person, always. We fix up a date, time and venue via the blog (it is generally close to where we work/ stay) and through phone calls and then meet on that day to quiz. We are always on the lookout for venues. So, if you have a classroom, room, hall, let us know.

We can also hold quizzes for your organisation (school, college, corporation).

When and where do you meet?
Anytime we can find 4-5 people at a place. However, we would most likely meet on Saturday afternoons. We are open to people hosting quiz parties in other times (as long as they promise decent food/ beer!)

So i'm a little confused by your list of "dry questions". Does this mean that you quiz both online and when you meet?
The dry questions are generally from the last quiz we have done, for the members and other people who could not attend. We can also occasionaly, post questions which we have come across in other blogs or researched ourselves, but can't wait to tell the world about it.

How do you come up with questions? Surfing the net? Reading? Some of them are pretty obscure.
Before we answer that, we need to tell you about our brand of quizzing.

The kind of quiz we do is based on problem solving and not knowledge. The idea behind a question is to give facts and clues so that the quizzers can work out the answer. Let me demonstrate.
i) One of the questions in our first quiz was about an area which was named after an Englishman colonist and after Latin for woods. Now, a quizzer will look at the time (1681) and Charles 2 to work out that the area is most likely in US - so the answer is most likely some American city or state. Now the job is to find which one.
ii) It can't be famous New York, Philadelphia or Los Angeles as they have different origins (Amsterdam then York, Brotherly love and City of Angels). Now, one quizzer will probably run through different cities, while his teammate will look at other clues.
iii) Hence, a quizzer will look at other clues. Latin for woods makes is a clue. What are the other things a quizzer has heard about woods? One is Flora (can it be Florida? no, it has Spanish origins). How about Sylvan (Pennsylvania, yes)?
iv) The quizzers will round off the answer. Yes, William Penn was a famous colonist. It has to be Penn-Sylvania.

This kind of research for questions, by the way, happens all the time. When we read books, watch movies, listen to music, watch TV. Different quizzers have different way of making questions. One way which is common is that the moment we hear something interesting, we write it down. Then, before a quiz, we look at our notes and construct questions (find additional clues/ info in wikipedia for example). Quizzing ultimately is a great way to get to know the world a little deeper.

How do you go about getting attendees? Are most of them from among your friends? Is your club is open to all those interested?
We are open to all (though in our first meeting, 3 out of 6 were colleagues!!). The plan is to create a quizzing culture in Bombay.

We plan to meet once every four weeks, as of now. We would either hold a quiz party (everyone brings 10 questions) or an open quiz. We can hold topical quizzes (entertainment, literature, sports, India) as well as general quizzes. We all do it for love of quizzing. Hence, if you want to fall in love with this activity, let us know.

Do you refer to each other by your blog names or your real names?
We prefer to be known by blog names. This is for various personal and professional reasons. Obviously, you will get to know us in person and know our real names. Please do not reveal in comments and posts about this club.

Who are the founding members? Whose palms do I have to grease to get in?
Really speaking this club was founded on April 1. The quizzers who attended were Amit, NU, Milo minderbinder, Pangalactic Quizblaster, AD and I. Gaurav couldn't (but he pointed out Amit to us). Abhijit said he will but couldn't. Prostetnic Vogon and Saint expressed interest but couldn't attend, but they are responsible for having a venue outside of Prabhadevi (but they were responsible for creating excitement by mentioning the club in Delhi). You can call all of us the founding members. Though if you find us, you can join the finding member's club as well.

No palm greasing. Just bring in 10 questions. Better still host a quiz.

31 comments:

Amit Pandey said...

Your first meeting sounded like either a group of Masons or Opus Dei !!

There was no word about it till after the event. Hopefully you guys will let me and other like minded quizzers prior to the next meeting...

Unknown said...

lets all take turns to host a quiz.

i volunteer to host a soccer quiz, sometime in june, and i'll see if i can find someone to assist :-)

work is a bit hectic now, plus househunting so cant do it now - plus close to WC

Unknown said...

Sorry chaps, had planned to do a dekko but had some work spilled over to Saturday. If you are looking for venues to do a quiz, I can suggest couple in the suburbs (Chembur and Bandra). In fact, in case there is a quorum, I can probably set up and do a full quiz (infinite bounds). Participants can contribute (say 10-20 bucks) from each member going towards free Coke/Mangola for the winners.
My number is 9820500198, Cheers, Anannya

Unknown said...

great to see that bombay is finally having some quizzing activity. though too late for me, having moved on.

a comment on "workoutable" questions. in the example mentioned, the quizzer wood still need to KNOW that sylvan is Latin for wood, or that William Penn was an English colonist, who lived during the time of Charles II to arrive at the answer. I do not think either is common knowledge. And in the 17th century, England had colonies all over the world, so US is not so obvious.

as a certain QM from Cal often quips, "If you know the answer, you can work it out."

Anonymous said...

Hi guys

Great going, wud love to catch up and join the quizzing scene :)

Anonymous said...

can we contact u for conducting a quiz.... pl leave a contact number....

The Clerk said...

Hi, I'm Arjun Siva from IMT Ghaziabad. I'm back in bbay now, MBA all done! I would love to be part of BQC. Pls tell me where and when the next meet/quiz is.

Unknown said...

Hi guys am Harish frm malad....am keen to join you people...pls lemme know when and where....

Unknown said...

hey guys, i'm Gopika working with CNBC. i'm new to Mumbai. Would love to attend ur gathering someday. Do lemme know the details regarding the next meeting. Also can anyone let me know where this Y B Chanvan Auditorium is? finals of the Tata Crucible Quiz is scheduled to be held there.

djoiiii said...

can i get in touch with anyone from the club?im from dna and am interested in doing a story on the club...please email me on l_joanna@dnaindia.net

Anonymous said...

I was excited to read about your quizzing activity,I would like to clarify that Iam not 20 something now ,but was some 25 years back.So may be Iam a grandpa by your standards,but I would like to be a part of the quizzing gang.I have been conducting quizzes for almost 10 years but for school children
I do have some problems though ,I dont have a fixed hours /fixed day off job and I stay at Ambarnath u will require some research to know where it is.But I would like to join your gang ,Can I ? If yes how ?

Appy's Diaries said...

Hi,

My name is Apoorva Vora, i would like to know from u guys/gals how do i get to join your club.

Thanks
Apoorva

Sid said...

Hi
I represent the Indian Memory Council, part of the World Memory Council. We are holding the Indian memory champs sometime next year the winners of which shall participate in the world memory champs.

The soft launch and training for the same shall happen across Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, with the Mumbai leg to be held on Sep 13 for corporates and college students, and Sep 11,12 for school students.

Please let me know how I can send across details about the same to your group members. My email id is siddharth@pmgsports.org and contact no is +91-9920016377.

Cheers
Sid

Unknown said...

Hi guys,
I am Nabeel a 8th std student from vashi and was very curious to know about the club.

So please do let me know if anything comes up for our age children

Thank You and nice knowing about your BQC.

NABEEL.

Anonymous said...

Can I have your contact no.

Anonymous said...

We are a newspaper group who conduct corporate quiz. In case we want to forward the details to Bombay Quiz Club can we have one email id to do so. my id is sakshisd@gmail.com

aayush makharia said...

dude i am coming to your quiz man , this sunday right . tooo goood , i love the reasonong round of your quiz , the same format was there for tata cruicible , too good man , i am coming .

aayush makharia said...

I AM COMING THIS SATURDAY FOR THE QUIZ , I AM DEFINATELY COMING MAN

Anita Paul said...

I'd like to know who to contact about conducting a quiz for the company I'm part of. Is there someone I can send an email to? If so, could I have the address? Thank you so much.

Unknown said...

Avinash Saxena

I'd like to join and I'm ready to give an arm and a leg to get in.

atulyan said...

whom and how do i contact for your june 13th quiz

Shobhit said...

Hi..I would like to join this club,what should I do for that?

vibhor said...

Hi,
I am Vibhor from Goa Institute of Management. We are organizing our annual National Corporate quiz WIZBIZ. This is the 11th year of this event to be held on 26th Feb 2011 at Goa. WIZBIZ 2011 would be hosted by Mr. Avinash Mudaliar. We would like to invite your members for WIZBIZ and also for 3 online quizzes to be held on 18th,19th,20th Feb.
Let me know how I can post the details of WIZBIZ 2011 to your members.
WIZBIZ website: www.wizbiz.co.in

My id vibhor.ronge@gmail.com
Mobile: 09158769633

aayush makharia said...

Is the club active because i would really like to come for the events or sessions of quizzing

Priyadarshan said...

Would like to know how to reister with the club.

aayush makharia said...

Hey Everybody,

I hope you all are doing fine. I just wnated to know if anybody is having a quiz competition or a meeting because I would be really interested. I attended the Tata Cruicible Quiz it was really great, we can try to host something like that on a smaller scale.

Rick said...

Hey,
I'm not part of the quiz club but I'd like to. Anyway could you mail me the question paper for yesterday's WQC?
Danke

Sunita said...

Hello BCQ,

Happened to read about you guys in today's TOI. My congrats to you all on starting something different. Though for me this has been a 18 year habit which now I am finding hard to break in Mumbai. I was a part of (still am!unofficially) a quiz group on the tiny Kingdom of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. The group still exists to date and was started by 4 couples in 1992 as an offbeat means of entertainment from the regular gossip and party sessions. The group regualrly meets one Friday of the month and 1 couple hosts the quiz session for a minimum 7-8 families. (kids have been included sometimes in the past but not regularly) I know for a fact that this can be an addictive pasttime and a very enlightening one at that. But I was sad to learn that there are no women in your group. I think it is more the pressure of work and home that forces them to stay away. I wish I could be a part of you youngsters...ahh...maybe I will soemday love to attend a session. I wish you all the best. If need be I can be contacted on kiranbakhru@gmail.com

Gordon said...

Hi I am Gordon, and am running a website for quiz its inquizitive.co.uk , I would like to have a link exchange process..

Pls contact me using quizlinkers@gmail.com

Sree said...

Hi,
I am currently doing my MBA in Sp Jain institute of management. AS a part of our annual cultural fest, we are planning to conduct an open quiz on a large scale. Since this is the first time we are doing this, would like to get in touch with Bombay quizzing club. Looking forward for your response. you can contact me at
pgp13.sreerangarajan@spjimr.org

Sree said...

Hi,
I am currently doing my MBA in Sp Jain institute of management. AS a part of our annual cultural fest, we are planning to conduct an open quiz on a large scale. Since this is the first time we are doing this, would like to get in touch with Bombay quizzing club. Looking forward for your response. you can contact me at
pgp13.sreerangarajan@spjimr.org