Two Close Quizzes in a Close Season

The world of tennis has looked much more competitive this season because Roger Federer's not been his usual dominant self. Well, there's Roger, and here's Rajiv. Last year's BQC league was dominated by Rajiv Rai, but this year he's off to a slow start, at least by his lofty standards,: he finished third in both the last two BQC quizzes. The field is deeper this year, and the competition is stiffer, and while there's little doubt that Rajiv remains the favourite to win Wimbledon this year's league, there are plenty of young lads who fancy being Nadal and Djokovic.

Quiz No. 5 of the season took place on Sunday, June 8, and was conducted by Abhishek Nagaraj. Aadisht Khanna and Ajith Prabhakar stormed to a narrow win over Kaustubh Chakravarty, Pradeep Ramarathnam and Mukund Krishnan. The quiz was entertaining in various ways, but a last question mix-up caused much confusion. It was a multi-part question with many +15s and -10s and -5s and so on, but after much activity, the question was scrapped. The positions of the teams had changed because of the question, but its scrapping enabled Aadisht to end up in first and Rajiv's team to take third place.

Quiz no. 6 took place on Sunday, June 22, and was conducted by Ameya Samant, with Amit Pandeya shooting 18 questions at the end as Ameya took his place as a participant. Both parts of the quiz had plenty of excellent fundas on India, a feature sometimes missing from BQC quizzes. The quiz was won handily by a team consisting of me (Amit Varma), Vibhendu Tiwari, Ananya Deb and Kedar Sastry. Mukund Sridhar, Udatta Duarah and the toggling combo of Ameya and Amit Pandeya pipped Rajiv's team to second place by half a point.

Now, very quickly, the results, followed by the BQC Season Three standings.

BQC Quiz 5

First: Aadisht Khanna and Ajith Prabhakar.

Second: Kaustubh Chakravarty, Pradeep Ramarathnam and Mukund Krishnan.

Third: Rajiv Rai, Anand Sivasankar.

Fourth: Ananya Deb, Kedar Sastry and Nrupal Chaudhari

Fifth: Mukund Sridhar, Sarat Rao and Naveen Unni

Sixth: Amit Varma, Amit Pandeya and Dhananjay Shettigar

Seventh: Udatta Duarah, Ameya Samant and Francis Rodrigues

Eighth: Sumant Srivathsan, Devang Ghia and Sumit Roy

And now for our latest quiz:

BQC Quiz 6

First: Amit Varma, Vibhendu Tiwari, Ananya Deb and Kedar Sastry

Second: Mukund Sridhar, Udatta Duarah and Amit Pandeya/Ameya Samant

Third: Rajiv Rai, Brian D'Souza and Akanksha Mohan

Fourth: Arun Srikumar, Nrupal Chaudhari and Francis Rodrigues

Fifth: Govind Grewal, Mukund Krishnan and Rahul Bhaskar

Sixth: Pradeep Ramarathnam, Devang Ghia, Ajay Ravindran and Sumit Roy

Seventh: Sumant Srivathsan, Souvik Basu and Shiv Anant Tayal

Eighth: Aadisht Khanna, Dhananjay Shettigar and Gautam Bastian

Points for the league table are given as follows: Each member of the winning team gets 10 points, each runner up gets 7, and members of the team coming third get 4 each. If second and third are tied, then 5.5. Here are the standings:

BQC Season three Standings (from six quizzes, as of June 22, 2008)

27 points
Amit Varma (from 6 quizzes)
Sumant Srivathsan (6)

25.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (4)

25 points
Rajiv Rai (4)

24 points
Kedar Sastry (6)

20 points
Govind Grewal (5)

19.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (5)

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar (3)
Mahesh Murthy (2)

16.5 points
Amit Pandeya (6)

15.5 points
Ananya Deb (4)

14 points
Ajith Prabhakar (5)
Udatta Duarah (5)
Vibhendu Tiwari (4)

11 points
Ameya Samant (4)

10 points
Aadisht Khanna (2)
Mitul Kodali (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (4)
Sandip Sen (1)
Shrikant Narasimhan (1)

8 Points
Anand Sivasankar (4)
Brian D'Souza (4)
S Balakrishnan (3)
Sireesh Talluri Rao (2)

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (3)
Kaushtubh Chakravarti (1)
Mukund Krishnan (2)
Mukund Sridhar (3)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (3)
V Sreeharsha (1)

5.5 points
Janardhan R (1)
Leo Mirani (1)
Nrupal Chaudhari (3)
Prasann Potdar (1)

4 points
Akanksha Mohan (1)

The next quiz will be conducted by Devang Ghia on Sunday, July 6. That will also be the day of the Wimbledon final. Will Roger Federer storm back to the top?

It's That Time Of The Month

You know the one, where you look in your email/feedreader/alternate blog-tracking source and go, "Damn, I forgot it was this weekend," followed by shuffling up to the spouse/other and mumble, "Honey, I can't take you to Goa this weekend."

She, who heard you right the first time, will say, "What was that? I didn't get that."

You will repeat, and she will glare. As you wilt under that fierce power, you will reveal the dastardly plot behind your change of plans.

"Ameya Samant is conducting this weekend's quiz at the BQC," you will whisper, awe and respect punctuating your hushed words. She will rave about your irresponsible ways, your negligence towards family, and the preference of infant-chomping cultists over her and the kids.

But a higher power calls, and you must follow, so you will trudge out of your home and onto the mean streets of Bombay.

If you're a woman, of course, you'll probably leave a note on the fridge and come over to Pinstorm on Sunday.

The Details:

Who: Ameya Samant
When: 3:00 pm, Sunday 22 June, 2008 (Please be there by 2:30 pm)
Where: Pinstorm, Ground Floor, Swati House (Next to Kotak Bank on Linking Road), North Avenue, Santa Cruz (W).

Directions:

From the south: If you come north on Linking Road from Bandra to SantaCruz, you'll find a large Benetton Store on the right. At the end of that block is a Kotak Bank at the corner. Take a right and it's the next building, take the first gate and tell the sentry you've come for a meeting.

From the north: If you get on to Linking Road at the airplane park end, you'll cross a HDFC Bank. A block later, you'll see a Kotak Bank on the corner - do not cross it. Take a left at that point and it's the building next to Kotak Bank.

A Weekend Of Quizzing

There are two exciting quizzes coming up this weekend, both at our regular venue of Pinstorm (directions below). On Sunday we have our fortnightly BQC quiz -- this one is conducted by Abhishek Nagraj, with some inputs, I am told, from Niranjan Pednekar. It will this be an inquisition of the BQC by the BCQC, and if you need to ask for explanation of those acronyms, then you don't deserve one. So there.

Also, on Saturday, the Mumbai leg of the World Quizzing Championships will held at Pinstorm. The details of both quizzes follow:

Quiz 1: The World Quizzing Championships

When: Saturday, June 7 2008. (Registration: 4pm. The sessions run from 4.30 to 6.45. Timings non-negotiable as it takes place simultaneously across the world.)

Coordinators: Avinash Mudaliar and Kedar Sastry

Quiz 2: The BQC Quiz (No. 5 of Season 3)

When: 3:00 PM, Sunday, June 8, 2008. (Be there by 2.45 please.)

Quizmaster: Abhishek Nagraj

Location: Pinstorm, Ground Floor, Swati House (Next to Kotak Bank on Linking Road), North Avenue, Santa Cruz (W).

Directions:

From the south: If you come north on Linking Road from Bandra to SantaCruz, you'll find a large Benetton Store on the right. At the end of that block is a Kotak Bank at the corner. Take a right and it's the next building, take the first gate and tell the sentry you've come for a meeting.

From the north: If you get on to Linking Road at the airplane park end, you'll cross a HDFC Bank. A block later, you'll see a Kotak Bank on the corner - do not cross it. Take a left at that point and it's the building next to Kotak Bank.

A report of the last quiz and the current league standings are here. Newcomers are welcome at both quizzes. The WQC will be a solo, written event, while teams for the Sunday quiz will be drawn by lots, so don't worry about searching for a partner etc. Unless you're lonesome.

Rajiv Rao Begins the Beguine

Seeing Rajiv Rai in action at BQC quizzes, you'd think the Singularity had arrived. The winner of the 2007-08 season took his first win of this season a Sunday ago at an enthralling quiz conducted by Sireesh and Sarat Rao. The Raos asked a series of interesting and workoutable questions, and Rajiv's team won easily. Of course, it was abnormally strong to begin with, and when lots were drawn at the start of the quiz, groans went up across the room. Rajiv's partners were Sumant Srivathsan and Govind Grewal, the first a veteran of conducting infant sacrifices, the second the only infant to survive such a sacrifice. Together with the Rai, they were unbeatable.

The battle for second place was insanely close, with four teams finishing within a point of each other, and two other teams close behind. That testifies to the growing quality of the BQC, with most quizzes being close battles between evenly matched teams. Much fun -- and frustration for those left behind.

The results:

1st with 26 points
Rajiv Rai
Sumant Srivathsan
Govind Grewal

Tied 2nd-3rd with 18 points
Rishi Iyengar
Amit Pandeya
Leo Mirani
Janardhan R

Prasann Potdar
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Ananya Deb
Nrupal Choudhari

Tied 4th-5th with 17 points
Amit Varma
Kedar Sastry
Mukund Krishnan
Brian D'Souza

Anand Sivasankar
Dhananjay Shettigar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Amogh Bhole

6th with 15 points
Udatta Duarah
Srivathsa B
Bikash M
Vikas Munipalle

7th with 13 points
Ajith Prabhakar
Devang Ghia
Souvik Basu
Sushan Shetty

8th with 8 points
Francis Rodrigues
Rahul Bhaskar
Phani Prasad
Kaushik Saha

And now for the league table.

BQC Season three Standings (from four quizzes, as of May 25, 2008)

27 points
Sumant Srivathsan (from 4 quizzes)

25.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (4)

20 points
Govind Grewal (4)

17 points
Amit Varma (4)
Avinash Mudaliar (3)
Mahesh Murthy (2)
Rajiv Rai (2)

14 points
Kedar Sastry (4)

12.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (3)

10 points
Mitul Kodali (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (4)
Sandip Sen (1)
Shrikant Narasimhan (1)

9.5 points
Amit Pandeya (4)

8 Points
S Balakrishnan (3)
Sireesh Talluri Rao (2)

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (2)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (2)
Udatta Duarah (3)
V Sreeharsha (1)

5.5 points
Ananya Deb (2)
Janardhan R (1)
Leo Mirani (1)
Nrupal Choudhari (1)
Prasann Potdar (1)

4 points
Ajith Prabhakar (4)
Ameya Samant (2)
Anand Sivasankar (3)
Brian D'Souza (3)
Vibhendu Tiwari (3)


The next BQC quiz will be conducted by Abhishek Nagraj on Sunday, June 8. More details will follow on this blog.