Bombay Quiz Club

We’ve put the quizzes back !

2012-01-20T01:49:00.000-08:00

After the longish break around New Year’s Eve, the quizzers will be back to their usual Sunday pastime. And one of the best of them kicks off the year.

Sumant Srivathsan is many things for the BQC; Factotum, promoter, representative and quite the disciplinarian. For those of you who haven’t been lucky enough to see him as a quizmaster, your chance is this Sunday. He has hinted at a lot of audio/visuals, to go with his masterly questions. Get your best answering skills along, for if it’s a BQC session, Sumant almost always has the last word.

Quizmaster: Sumant Srivathsan
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 22nd January, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
Where: Pinstorm, Ground Floor, Swati House (Next to Kotak Bank on Linking Road), North Avenue, Santa Cruz (W).

Directions

League table

Suchintan Chatterjee

2011-12-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

This weekend will see the last quiz of 2011 being conducted.. Suchintan Chatterjee will be the Quizmaster. This will be his second quiz of the year and if it is anything close to what his first quiz was like, it will more than suffice for the three week gap, as we will be breaking for the Christmas and New Year weekends.

Quizmaster: Suchintan Chatterjee

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 18th December, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions

League table

Quiz this weekend

2011-11-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

Vikram and Anannya will be conducting a quiz this Sunday. Anannya will cover the History, Travel, Geography and Sports quotient and Vik will take care of the rest. These two have set wonderful quizzes for us in the past so this should be fun.

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 20th November, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

League Table for those still keeping score : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar8fkIHYmT2NdHEwUVZCamZoMkg1enJEOEZnT00wc0E&hl=en_US#gid=1

The tag team rolls on

2011-11-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

One might get suspicious as to why Konga (Pradeep) and Atul always host their quizzes together. But we at BQC certainly dont, coz we totally luxuriate in the awesomeness they deliver. For those of you yet to experience it, come over on Sunday and see for yourself.

Quizmaster: Atul Mathew (with half the quiz prepared by the foriegn-export Pradeep Ramrathnam from NYC)

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 20th November, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions

League table

Debonair Redux

2011-10-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

Its a landmark weekend for India as Anannya Deb hosts his second quiz of the season this Sunday. In other news, there's some car race and some metal ka band concert happening somewhere in the north while the talented Mr.Deb shoots questions. For us BQC folk, that order of valuation makes perfect sense. Anannya's perfectly engineered quizzes make the racecars look like rusty jalopies and the band like a a quartet of hairy has-beens.

Also, opening for Anannya, is the written quiz organised by our calypso friends in Goa. This one shall be a solo written quiz of 120 questions. And since Anannya knows a thing or two about pwning a Goa quiz, he shall be proctoring it, so the rest of us can have a chance.

Quizmaster: Anannya Deb

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 30th October 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

3pm-4.30 pm - The big Q. (Please get a pen along.)

4.30pm-4.45pm - correction of papers

4.45 pm onwards - Anannya's quiz

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

Directions

From Old Generals to Young Guns

2011-10-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a spotless display by the BQC graybeards; Bala hosting and Rajiv winning. This Sunday, the focus shifts to a young turk who reminds these veterans of their merry budding youth. Abhinav Dasgupta, who has had a bumper year so far, will be taking the quizmaster's hot seat. Some trivia about the QM : He is the reigning Landmark Mumbai champion. He has quizzed in 5 states in the last 5 months. He has seen more dead people than Haley Joel Osment. He has read more books than India has lost Test matches.

And if that is not enough, this quiz is also one of our themed quizzes. Literature and mythology being the flavours of the day. (The veterans must already be licking their lips. After all, Bala coined the term 'literature'. And Rajiv was in school when mythology happened)

Quizmaster: Abhinav Dasgupta

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 16th October, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions.

League table.

And we're back

2011-10-07T01:02:00.000-07:00

The BQC returns after a month long hiatus for the first part of a double header. Bala will be QM for the second time this year.

Details:
Quizmaster: Bala
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 9th October, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
Where: Pinstorm, Ground Floor, Swati House (Next to Kotak Bank on Linking Road), North Avenue, Santa Cruz (W)
Directions: here

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones.

Mukund Sridhar

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

2010 Landmark Champ Mukund Sridhar plays host this Sunday. He's promised to cover a wide range of topics - from History/Geography to Pop Culture Questions so it should keep the Vikram Joshis and the Anand Sivasankars busy.

Quizmaster: Mukund Sridhar

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 11 September, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions:here

Vibhendu Tewari

2011-09-01T20:41:00.001-07:00

Vibhendu Tewari hosts the second half of our Sunday double header. He's promised us an A/V heavy quiz so it should be fun.

Details of the morning quiz : here

Quizmaster: Vibhendu Tewari
When: 2:30 PM, Sunday, 4th September, 2011 (Please be there by 2:15 PM for team assignments)
Where: Pinstorm, Ground Floor, Swati House (Next to Kotak Bank on Linking Road), North Avenue, Santa Cruz (W).

Oasis Quiz Lone Wolf Edition 2011 Mumbai

2011-08-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Oasis Quiz Lone Wolf Edition is the annual lone wolf quiz conducted by ELAS, the quizzing club at BITS Pilani.

It will be a 90 minute 120 question written solo quiz, held simultaneously across various venues across the country. The quiz is open to all. The college-level winner in each venue will be invited to Pilani during Oasis, the annual cultural festival of BITS-Pilani to participate in a mega showdown. Prizes for college category and open category winners. The winner here will be crowned champion and, needless to say, will win lots of money and pride and honour.

We will be having our regular BQC session after the quiz (at around 14:00-14:30). Details on that quiz in a bit.

Please get a writing instrument along as this is a written quiz.

Proctor: Atul Mathew

When: 11 AM, Sunday, 4th September, 2011 (Latecomers will not be entertained)

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 the quiz.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.

Delhi Vs Mumbai

2011-08-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

Travellers from the north used to bring news of a quizzer called Dr.Bhatta, calling him the most adept and cultivated quizzer they had seen. He had travelled far and wide, sparring his skills with duellers from the Dutch and Peruvian quizzing cliques. In this country, he garnered great acclaim for his tour de force in Mastermind and Tata Crucible, and also created the Kutub Quizzers, which has since churned out a bevy of Quizzers. He has now thrown down the gauntlet to us Mumbaikars, and we will have to turn out in numbers in order to put up a worthy fight. It is going to be chaotic, more chaotic than any purportless Anna Hazare public rally.

(A mole tells us that Dr.Bhatta. the Nat Geo champion, will load up on History and Geography for the quiz. We will have to use our secret weapon. It starts with a Vikram and ends with a Joshi.)

Quizmaster: Dr. S Bhattacharya

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 21st August, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

League table : here

Dr. Bhatta

2011-08-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

After Mitesh (2008) and JR(2010), Bhatta joins the list of guest QMs at the BQC. Kutub Quizzer's Dr. Bhatta has done some wonderful quizzes in the past and we're hoping for more of the same this Sunday.

Quizmaster: Dr. S Bhatta

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 21st August, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones.

Debonair - India Edition

2011-08-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

They call him the BQC’s answer to the KQA yearbooks. Anannya Deb has compiled more quizzes than most quizmasters have framed questions. We thought we’d pull a fast one on this sports and gen guru by asking him to put together a themed India quiz in a very short time. And the answer is all set to smack us in the face in three days time. Be ready to be quizzed about almost anything India; from the time of the Mehrgarh settlements in the Indus valley, to the now 63 years and 51 weeks old modern nation.

If you want to win, we suggest you set up camp for 3 days in the India section of Landmark, and then crush a pill into Vibhendu’s lunch before coming.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones.

Details:

Quizmaster: Anannya Deb

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 7th August, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

League table : here

Pravin Varma's first act.

2011-07-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

The next few weeks are set to be a roller coaster ride for us people, as we have more quiz-masters and less Sundays to accommodate them. We begin our back-to-back quizzes from this Sunday itself. Mega-whats finalist Pravin Varma hosts. The quiz he says, will include a pot-pourri of topics to keep everyone engrossed and entertained. Be there, this one wont get rained out.

Quizmaster: Pravin Varma

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 24th July, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

League table : here

The Duke is no Fluke

2011-07-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

Freshly baked Landmark Mumbai champion Srinath T.B takes his turn to play quizmaster this Sunday. Quality is a given, but this one promises quantity too, as he plans to have a really long quiz (a welcome change from recent archetypes). Don’t make any other plans for the evening.

Quizmaster: Srinath T.B

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 17th July, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

League table : here

Aditya Gadre

2011-06-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

After a hectic 3 day quizzing weekend in Bangalore, the BQC resumes normal service this weekend. Table Topper Aditya Gadre (who recently defected from the BCQC to join us) will be Quizmaster . There's a small issue of a Wimbledon Final in the evening so it would be great if we started on time.

League table here

ASKQANCE results: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Quizmaster: Aditya Gadre

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 3rd July, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

Play it again, Vikram Joshi

2011-06-15T22:45:00.001-07:00

As time goes by, Vikram Joshi never ceases to amaze as he keeps churning out highbrow quizzes with such fine frequency. The reigning Landmark National champion (and fresh off his victory at the WQC), hosts his first quiz of the season this Sunday. He plans on being a bit adventurous, by including sports and other hoi polloi friendly topics in this quiz. It will be nothing less than top-notch quizzing.

Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 19th June, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
Where: Pinstorm, Ground Floor, Swati House (Next to Kotak Bank on Linking Road), North Avenue, Santa Cruz (W).
Directions: here

Mahaquizzer 2011 Results

2011-06-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

Mumbai contestants in the Mahaquizzer Top 100:
Rajiv Rai 75
Harikrishnan Menon 73
Sumant Srivatsan 67
Vinoo Sanjay 67
Mukund Sridhar 65
Anannya Deb 64
Balakrishnan S 58
Vibhendu Tiwari 55
Vikram Joshi 52
Govind Grewal 52
Abhinav Dasgupta 48
Nikhil Sonde 48
Pravin Varma 48
Prasann Potdar 46
Anil Kothuri 46
Sumo 43
Aditya Gadre 40
Chandrachud Basavaraj 37
Anand Sivashankar 36
Srinath 36

Ladies Winner Preyoshi Ganguly 29
College Winner Pranav Shetty 27

Rest of the results: http://kqaquizzes.org/2011/06/10/mahaquizzer-2011-top-100-and-international-results/

WQC 2011 Results

2011-06-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

1st - Vikram Joshi 119

2nd - Sumant Srivatshan 114

3rd - Rajiv Rai 110

Sectional Winners:

Entertainment: Vikram Joshi 14

Culture: Vikram Joshi 17

Lifestyle: Sumant Srivathsan 19

Science: Antariksh Bothale 20

History: Vikram Joshi 23

Media: Sumant Srivatshan, Govind Grewal 22

Sport:Shubhankar Gokhale 19

World: Antariksh Bothale 20

Dhruv Mookerji

2011-06-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

Completing a hat-trick of bong quizmasters, Dhruv Mookerji will host his first quiz for the BQC this Sunday.

Dhruv, an actor by profession and a stand-up comic by avocation, guarantees a wholesome quiz with a large helping of visuals and audio.

We can expect a treat.

Quizmaster: Dhruv Mookerji

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 5th June, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

2011 World Quiz Championship Mumbai

2011-05-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

We start off our double header this weekend with the Bombay Round of the World Quiz Championship this Saturday. Details of last year's event here .

Registrations are now closed. We will accept on-the-spot-entries if adequate seating, and enough surplus question-papers are available

Team Size: Solo Written Quiz

Co-ord: Vibhendu Tewari

Entry Fee: 50 Rs.

When: 3 PM, Saturday, 4th June 2011 (Please be there on time as we have to wrap up by 6)

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

Registrations so far:

Aditya Gangrade

Aditya Sharma

Alankar Jain

Amit Pandeya

Anand S

Anannya Deb

Aniruddha Sen

Ankush kumar Chakraborty

Anoop Vasu

Antariksh Vinod Bothale

Aparna Dixit

Arish tavadia

Arjun Sinha

Arjun Siva

Ashish Sharma

Atul Mathew

Augustine Correa

Avirup Bose

Chandrachud Basavaraj

Devang Ghia

Francis Thomas

Govind Grewal

Harikrishnan Menon

Harshal Modi

Jose A

Mayur Srinivasan

Mukund Krishnan

Praful Patil

Pranav Shetty

Prasann Potdar

Prashant Shanbhag

Priyadarshan Babu

Rajarshi Chanda

Rajiv Rai

Riccu Varghese

Rinie Nag

Rupesh Gupta

S BALAKRISHNAN

Saransh Verma

shivam sharma

Shubhankar Gokhale

Siddhartha Banerjee

Somsubhra GanChoudhuri

Sourav Roy

Sreeharsha

Srimukh Prasad V K

Srinath TB

Sumant Srivathsan

sumit singare

Suraj Menon

Varun Sharma

Vighnesh Vatsal

Vijay Shanbhag

Vikram Joshi

VINOO SANJAY

Mahaquizzer 2011

2011-05-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

MAHAQUIZZER 2011

MahaQuizzer 2011, the seventh edition will be held in Bangalore and several other cities on Sunday 29th May 2011.

Bombay Venue:

Landmark Bookstore

Infiniti Mall, No.619, New Link Road

Oshiwara, Lokhandwala

Andheri West

Coordinator: Rajiv Rai (98192-18415)

KQA Proctor: V V Krishnan (99206-90605)

As usual, the quiz will require takers to answer 150 questions in 90 minutes.

We have a new bunch of setters this year: Mitesh Agarwal heads a team comprising Urmila Lakshmanan, Vivek Kartikeyan, Rajagopal P.S., Rahul Suhas Kottalgi and Gautam Shenoy.

Prizes in each city for best School, College, Lady and Open entrant.

Registrations for Mahaquizzer are now closed. Centre Coordinators may accept on-the-spot-entries if adequate seating, and enough surplus question-papers are available.

View a list of all registered participants here: http://kqaquizzes.org/2011/05/13/mahaquizzer-2011-registrations/

Supriyo Saha

2011-05-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Supriyo Saha hosts his first BQC quiz this weekend. It's a General Quiz with a slight MELA (Music,Entertainment,Literature,Arts) bias so it should be fun. See you Sunday.

Quizmaster: Supriyo Saha

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 15th May, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

2011 Kartik Bose Open

2011-05-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Anannya hosts the latest installment of the Kartik Bose Open this week. Based on his recent adventures, you can expect a lot of questions on SE Asia. And let's not forget Kartik Bose.

Quizmaster: Anannya Deb

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 8th May 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.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.

Ameya Samant

2011-04-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Ameya Samant hosts the second quiz of the new season this Sunday.

Details:

Quizmaster: Ameya Samant

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 17th April, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Norwegian Open Solo Quiz

2011-03-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian Open Solo Quiz

We kick off Season 6 of the BQC with a quiz set by the Norwegian Quiz Association. This quiz is conducted across several cities across the world. The BQC will be organising the Mumbai round.

The rules:

Written quiz with 6 sections

240 questions in 90 minutes

Entry Fee: Rs. 50/- (free for school students)

For more details,log on to http://www.norgesquizforbund.no/

Solo event. Please bring a pen along.

Mumbai Proctor: Rajen Prabhu (9833498749)

When: 11 AM, Saturday 2nd April 2011 (we'll be starting at 11 sharp so that we can wrap up in time for the final)

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 the quiz.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.

Meghashyam

2011-03-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Meghashyam hosts the last quiz of the season this Sunday.

The details:

Quizmaster: Meghashyam Shirodkar

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 27th March, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

The BQC - IIT Bombay Quizzes - Recaps, Reviews and Recognition

2011-03-15T04:03:00.000-07:00

On 6 March, 2011, the BQC and IIT Bombay hosted the inaugural Bombay Open quizzes, a day-long event with up to four quizzes. We'd like to thank IIT-B and its students for support with:

the venue - a new, large and comfortable lecture hall;
printing posters and directions;
audio-visual equipment, including the buzzers which were used in all quizzes;
research for the Open Sports and General quizzes; and
a generous number of student participants in all quizzes.

And our sponsors:

Anand Sivashankar, Anannya Deb and Atul Mathew, for contributing Rs. 5,000 each towards prizes, particularly for the Sports Quiz;
Rajiv Rai, for contributing Rs. 12,000 towards prizes and a dozen other expenses; and
Vibhendu Tewari, for not asking for Rs. 7,000 back from the BQC for earlier expenses.

In the absence of formal corporate sponsorship, it's wonderful that these guys can open up their wallets to host an event of this nature. Particularly when they're giving up a significant amount of time to go with their financial contributions. Many thanks, gentlemen, and here's hoping we can set a trend with benefactors growing in strength.

With a view to making the BQC Open a regular event on the annual quizzing calendar, here's a quick recap of the events that took place, and a few considered thoughts (consolidated from various sources who offered great feedback) on what worked, did not, and what needs to happen in the next edition.

The College Quiz
Vikram Joshi and Pradeep Ramarathnam hosted a mostly enjoyable quiz that hit the right spot for college students - lots of pop culture, Internet memes and a lot of stuff that wizened quizzers will find familiar, but was completely new to the college crowd. One hopes this will prepare them better for the Open Quiz, where these questions will be dismissed from sight as "peters".

The first quiz of the day usually tends to last longer than it ought to, and this was no different. But on a day as packed as this one was, it would have been helpful to keep a tighter control of time.

The results:
Winners – Paddy, Surinderjeet, Mayur (IIT-Bombay)
First Runners up – Jaideep, R.Tamizhmarai, Aravind Vijaysarathy (IIM-Ahmedabad)
Second Runners up ( 3 way tied ) – Indrasen, Neel, Pulkit (IIT-Bombay); Rahul Gaur, Siddarth Shanbhag, Mukul Gupta (IIT-Bombay); and Sushil Shanbhag, Rushi Bhavsar, Rama Kulkarni (ICT-Bombay)

The Science and Technology Quiz
Hosted by IIT-B students for the college students, the written quiz of 32 questions was predictably heavy on computers- and Internet-related content, but was quite a bit of fun. A neat question on the "relationships" between planets and another on the discoverers of sub-atomic particles, were the highlights of the quiz. As a last minute addition to the schedule, it was a wild card that turned out quite decently in the end.

The Open Sports Quiz
Anand Sivashankar, Ananya Deb and Atul Mathew sponsored, researched and hosted this quiz. While the prelims covered a good spread of sports, the finals showed a preponderance towards the Olympics. The great thing about the quiz was its willingness to look in directions other than old familiars like cricket, the English Premier League and Formula One racing.

There was some confusion regarding who was in control of the quiz. While there might be some value to asking the questions one has set, it is also important to not lose the flow of the quiz while switching back and forth between three quizmasters. It is even more critical that only one opinion holds on details such as partial scoring. Maybe the one who asks the questions should decide what is acceptable as an answer. Also, the cool part in "The Four Musketeers" is "Musketeers", not "Four".

The Results:
Winners – Alagarsami, Anil & Ramkey
First Runners up – Vijay TSR and Nitish Khadiya
Second Runners up – Sumant Srivathsan, Omkar Nene and Aniket Khasgiwale

The Bombay Open Quiz
I'll defer to a favourable review by Surya of the quiz, with thanks from Rajiv, Vibhendu and I. One of the great sources of entertainment to a quizmaster is to listen to teams discuss their answers, and it is equally delightful to see how teams arrive at the right answer. The winning team of Krishnamurthi (JK), Nitish Khadiya and Bhargava could do virtually no wrong, even when they pulled guesses out from places lacking in sunlight. It was particularly good to see teams come in to attend this quiz from out of town, and more so when they come from places as far as Chennai, Hyderabad and even Delhi. Thanks for the support!

The Results:
Winners – J. Krishnamurthy, Bhargava & Nitish Khadiya (Team: Swami & Friends 1)
First Runners up – Alagarsami , Anil & Ramki (Team: Swami & Friends 2)
Second Runners up – Anand Sivashankar, Kunal Sawardekar & Avaneendra (Who refused to be categorized by ideas such as team names)

Comments and Feedback
The following is a compilation of email and verbal feedback from several participants and organizers. Many thanks to all of you for your bouquets, brickbats and recommendations!

Four quizzes in a day are too many. We all agree completely. Even three is a stretch, but with a timely start, it's the ideal number.
The venue was not quiz-friendly. No argument here either, because not only was it difficult to locate on the IIT-B campus, it was also rife with issues. Seats were too far apart for discussion between teammates. The stage is not suitable for teams to sit facing the audience (even partially).

While we're grateful for being provided with a venue for no cost, this is clearly not a venue with a future. Not only is IIT-B hard to reach for most people in Bombay, the venue itself is not ideal for hosting what we would like to be a showpiece event. We need to take this to a more formal auditorium in future editions.

The audio system was substandard. There was a lot of trouble with mics when the QM had to move around. This was particularly problematic in rounds where the text was not displayed on the slide, as in the buzzer round. Speaking of which ...
The buzzer system was poorly designed. There were issues with the lights and sound working together, and the switches were not connected with sufficient length to distribute the teams along the front of the room.

Once again, this is something to account for in future editions. A functional, audience-friendly buzzer system is a critical element to making the rounds work smoothly.
It is unacceptable for the A/V system to be buggy in a room that isn't very big, and where only two mics are in place at any point of time. It would have helped to check the room out before the event, but availability was an issue.

Quizmasters need to figure out the flow of their quiz. This was specifically for the Sports Quiz, where three QMs all asked their questions during the quiz, as well as offering sometimes divergent opinions on scoring. Best to resolve such issues beforehand, or even better, just let one person be the QM for the round.

People like to ask the questions they have put together, but it is probably better from a presentation/performance perspective to make one person the host. Supporting content can be provided from off-stage by the other researchers as required.

The event is not scalable without larger sponsors. This year's edition was fully funded through contributions from BQC members mentioned at the top of this post, and the BQC's own corpus. However, the BQC does not raise enough funds through subscriptions to continue to fund this event on its own, and it is essential to move to the next level. This involves registration of the BQC as a charity, and opening a bank account - a long-pending action item.

This will also help us move to a venue that can make the event more audience-friendly, along with the attendant improvements in publicity and quality of production.

For a long day, plan for food. People need to eat, especially if they are expected to sit through three quizzes in a day.

Please let us know how we can do better or differently. Like we said, we want to make this work on a long-term basis.

Suchintan Chatterjee

2011-03-10T07:06:00.001-08:00

We return to our regular quiz meetings after a successful BQC Open. Suchintan Chatterjee will be QM for the afternoon. There's no meaningful cricket match on Sunday so I'm expecting a full house :)

Quizmaster: Suchintan Chatterjee
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 13th March, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

Open Quiz Poster

2011-02-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

Sarat Rao

2011-02-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

Sarat Rao returns to the BQC to host the last quiz before the BQC Open next week.

The Details:

Quizmaster: Sarat Rao

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 27th February, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

2011 BQC Open

2011-02-13T02:04:00.000-08:00

The inaugural Bombay Open series of quizzes is being brought to you by the Bombay Quiz Club and IIT Bombay. The event is happening on Sunday, March 6th at IIT Powai (Lecture Hall Complex, opposite KReSIT) and comprises 4 quizzes:

Gen Quiz for Colleges (mixed college teams allowed, school teams are also welcome)

Timings: 10 am to 12:30 pm

Quiz Masters: Vikram Joshi and Pradeep Ramarathnam supported by the IIT research team of Rushabh Shah & Eeshan Malhotra

Cash prizes: 1st prize - Rs. 6K, 2nd prize - Rs. 4K, 3rd prize Rs. 2.5K, 4th, 5th, 6th places - Rs. 1K each, 7th and 8th places Rs 750 each.

College Sci-Tech Quiz (mixed college teams allowed, school teams are also welcome)

Timings: 12:30 pm onwards

Quiz Masters: Mukund Madhav, Eeshan Malhotra

Prizes: worth Rs 5K+

Open Sports Quiz

Timings: 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Quiz Masters: Anand Sivashankar, Anannya Deb and Atul Mathew supported by the IIT research team of Rahul Gaur & Ishan Shrivastava

Cash Prizes: 1st prize - Rs 9K, 2nd prize - Rs 4.5K, 3rd prize - Rs 2.5K, 4th - 8th places - Rs 1000 each.

Open General Quiz

Timings: 4:15 pm to 7:45 pm

Quiz Masters: Sumant Srivathsan, Vibhendu Tewari and Rajiv Rai supported by the IIT research team of Ashwin Krishnan, Antariksh Bothale, Nidhi Shanbhag.

Cash Prizes: 1st prize - Rs 12K, 2nd prize - Rs 8K, 3rd prize - Rs 4K, 4th - 8th places - Rs 1000 each.

Prize for the best college team based on prelims scores.

Audience prizes through the day (worth Rs 5K).

Please note the following rules and regulations:

1) All participants are required to get a valid photo ID. In case of college students this should be a valid college ID card.

2) All quizzes for teams of 3.

3) Entry fee for open quizzes - Rs 150 per team. There is no registration fee payable by students. Spot registration.

4) No accommodation arrangement in IIT. The quiz timings do allow participants to come in by the first flight and leave by the last flight to most major cities in India.

You can contact Mukund Madhav (9930735131) from IITB for any clarifications.

Top flight quiz masters, top notch prize money (over Rs 70K in cash) and the scenic IIT Powai for setting. Can we ask for more? Yes, we need your enthusiastic participation to complement the event and make it an annual fixture.

Kala Ghoda Literature Quiz

2011-02-11T05:25:00.000-08:00

Quizmaster(s): Sumant Srivathsan, Vibhendu Tewari,Anannya Deb

When: Sunday, February 13 · 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Where: BNHS auditorium,Kala Ghoda,Bombay, India

Teams of 2

More details on the FB page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144319408963213&index=1

2011 CEAT Open

2011-01-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

The freshly minted Landmark Pune champion Rajiv Rai will ask questions from the 2011 CEAT Open. Rajiv has already conducted two great quizzes for us this year ( Kurukshetra and the Round Table Quiz) and this promises to be no different.

The details:

Quizmaster: Rajiv Rai

When: 2:55 PM, Sunday, 30th January, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

Bala

2011-01-13T04:51:00.000-08:00

Bala kicks off the New Year with his first BQC quiz this Sunday. We have quite a few quizzes lined up over the next few weeks - Landmark Pune,The CEAT Open,Kala Ghoda Lit Fest, The BQC Open and The BQC Sports Quiz.

League standings here

The details for this Sunday's Quiz:

Quizmaster: Bala

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 16th January, 2011 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Directions: here

Mega-Whats 2010

2010-12-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

The second edition of Mega-Whats, the KQA's National Open Quizzing Championship, takes place this Sunday in nine cities across the country. The BQC had a strong showing at last year's event,with 3 of our teams in the top ten.

The Mumbai round will take place at the IES Management College in Bandra. There are prizes for the Best School,College and Open Teams. There is no entry fee.

More details on the event here

Quizmasters: Arul Mani and Kiran Vijayakumar
Team Size: Teams of FOUR members (or less)
Centre coordinator: Ashwan Lewis
When: Sunday, 12th December 2010
Reporting Time:1430
Quiz starts at 15:00
Where:Seminar Hall, 6th floor, Management College, IES MCRC “Vishwakarma” M.D. Lotlikar Vidya Sankul, 791, S. K. Marg, Bandra Reclamation (Opp Lilavati hospital), Mumbai – 400 050 Board Line : 91-22- 61378484

Francis Rodrigues

2010-11-25T05:00:00.001-08:00

Francis Rodrigues hosts the final BQC quiz of the calendar year this Sunday. If his last quiz in 2008 was any indication, we should be in for an interesting afternoon at Pinstorm (Phallic Museum in Iceland #youremember).

League Standings here

Quizmaster: Francis Rodrigues
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 28th November, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

The Round Table Quiz (Mumbai edition)

2010-11-09T05:48:00.000-08:00

The long awaited Round Table Quiz finally takes place in Chennai this Saturday (details: here). Since quite a few of us can't make the trip to Chennai, the QM has decided to let us have a shot at the quiz. Vibhendu will be QM for the afternoon as Rajiv as away for the weekend. Like Rajiv's season opener,we'll be starting the quiz at 3 sharp (I'm expecting a big turnout so please turn up on time)

Quizmaster: Vibhendu Tewari

Research: Team Quizician (Movin Miranda, Anustup Datta,Gopal Kidao and the BQC's 3 time defending champion Rajiv Rai)

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 14th November, 2010 (Please be there by 2:30 PM for team assignments)

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

The Roti,Kapda aur Makaan Quiz

2010-10-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

Vik Joshi conducts his second themed quiz of the season this week on 3 of his favorite topics - Food,Fashion and Architecture. We'll be starting an hour later so that people have time to return from Dhananjay's quiz at JBIMS.

The details:

Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi

Theme:Food,Fashion and Architecture

When: 4 PM, Sunday, 31st October, 2010 (Please be there by 3:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Quiz this weekend

2010-09-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late update, but we will be having a quiz this weekend. Srinath TB will be QM and if his last is anything to go by, we should be in for a treat.

The details:
Quizmaster: Srinath TB

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 26 September, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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

Shubhankar Gokhale

2010-09-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

Shubhankar Gokhale has made a Tiger Woodsian debut at the BQC this season and currently lies second in the standings,just behind Vikram Joshi. Vik won't be caught by Shubhankar this weekend as the latter hosts his first BQC quiz at Pinstorm.

Speaking of the League Table,here's the top 8 at this stage.

1.Vikram Joshi 42
2.Shubhankar G 38
Rajiv Rai 38
4.Abhinav Dasgupta 31
5.Srinath TB 31
6.Mukund Sridhar 30
7.Pradeep Ramrathnam 28
8. Pravin Varma 27

The Details:
Quizmaster: Shubhankar Gokhale
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 12 September, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

s05e13

2010-09-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

This Sunday's quiz, the 13th of BQC's fifth season, will be conducted by the reigning MMI champ J Ramanand. The details:

Quizmaster: J Ramanand
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 5th September, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

Govind Buble

2010-08-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Young Bubbles hosts the BQC session at Pinstorm this week. The details:

Quizmaster: Govind Grewal
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 22 August, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

The India Quiz

2010-08-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

The BQC's resident India Quiz expert Vibhendu Tewari steps in to conduct a very special quiz this week. We're expecting a big turnout so please turn up early to avoid any disappointments.

The Details
Quizmaster:Vibhendu Tewari
Theme: India
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 8th September, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

Directions

2010-07-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

Vikram Joshi Part Deux

2010-06-25T07:29:00.001-07:00

Vikram Joshi conducts his second BQC quiz in as many weeks with a quiz on his favorite subject from high school - The Social Sciences.

Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi
Theme: The Social Sciences (With special emphasis on History&Geography)
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 27th June, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

Vikram Joshi Haazir Ho

2010-06-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Vikram Joshi hosts his long awaited quiz this Sunday at Pinstorm. There's also the small issue of a treat after his recent exploits at the Landmark Quiz and the WQC.

Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi/ Pradeep Ramarathnam
Theme: General
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 13th June, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

Mahaquizzer/ World Quiz Championship Results - Mumbai

2010-06-06T00:59:00.000-07:00

Mahaquizzer results from Mumbai

1. Mukund Sridhar - 84
2. Rajiv Rai - 83
3. Sumant - 72
4. Vikram Joshi - 67
5. Vinoo Sanjay - 65 (6 stars)
6. Anannya Deb - 65 (5 stars)
7. Vibhendu - 62
8. S Balakrisnan - 58
9. Prasann Potdar - 49
10. Govind Grewal - 47

WQC Results
Total includes the best seven sections
1.Vikram Joshi 94
2.S Balakrishnan 86
3.Vinoo Sanjay 83
4.Govind Grewal 76
5.Anannya Deb 69
6.SP Rajen 65
7.Vibhendu Tewari 63
8.Arnab Bhattacharya 61
9.Mithun Kidambi 59
10.Atul Mathew 59

Sectional winners (30 points for each section)
Entertainment- Govind Grewal,Vikram J (10)
Sport - Atul Mathew (14)
History- Vikram Joshi (19)
Science - Arnab Bhattacharya,Vinoo Sanjay (14)
Culture - S Balakrishnan (16)
Lifestyle - Vikram Joshi (23)
Media- Govind Grewal (17)
World - Arnab Bhattacharya, Vinoo Sanjay (11)

The Kartik Bose Open

2010-06-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

Anannya Deb will host this week's BQC session at Pinstorm. Since we're a week away from the FIFA World Cup,Anannya has decided to throw in a special World Cup round as well. He's also promised us that there will be no #kartikbose references in the quiz.

The details:

Quizmaster: Anannya Deb
When: 3 PM, Sunday, 6th June, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz.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.

World Quiz Championship 2010 Mumbai

2010-05-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

The International Quizzing Association will be conducting the World Quizzing Championships across various countries next Saturday. Bombay is among the eleven venues in India.

Format:Solo Written Quiz
8 sections( 'Culture', 'Lifestyle', 'Media', 'World','Entertainment', 'History', 'Sciences', 'Sport & Games') of 30 questions each to be answered in 2 hours.

Entry Fee: None
When: 4 PM, Saturday, 5th June 2010 (Please get there early as seating is on a first come-first-sit-basis)
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 the quiz. 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.

Vikram Joshi Haazir Ho

2010-05-15T00:46:00.000-07:00

This week's BQC session will be hosted by freshly-minted Landmark Mumbai champ Vikram Joshi. The quiz should be fun, of course, but this is an ideal opportunity to fleece Vik for an all-you-can-consume booze-up afterward. Provided he can be captured for the duration of footing the bill.

Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 16 May, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)
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 the quiz. 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.

The Urban Legend Lit Quiz

2010-04-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there were rumblings of a literature quiz in Pune. Originally expected to take place in 2009, it had been postponed due to several unforeseen circumstances, including H1N1, the Landmark Quiz, Pune, and general inertia. Imagine our surprise, then, that it actually happened, with eyewitnesses testifying to its existence.

So, in an effort to independently verify these rumours, we have asked Anand Sivashankar to present it at the Bombay Quiz Club. Come on over, in the true scientific spirit, we shall explore the legend of the Lit Quiz. After that, we can safely move on to UFOs, the Chupacabra and the Abonimable Snowman.

Quizmaster: Anand Sivashankar

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 25 April, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz. 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.

New Season Kicks Off

2010-04-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

We'll be kicking off the new BQC 2010-11 season with an old-but-mostly-unseen quiz. Rajiv Rai will play quizmaster, with questions from the excellent Kurukshetra Open 2010 held in January. Some of us were there for that quiz, and we'll be sitting this one out. The rest of you, this is going to be awesome.

This is also a good time to make two announcements:

If you hosted a quiz for us last season and have not shared your questions with me, please do so ASAP. There are plenty of online storage services which you can use to send out large files. Our subscriptions are incentivized through this sharing, so we absolutely must have them sent out.
Speaking of subscriptions, it's that time of the year again, and I'll start passing the hat around on Sunday. Please to be contributing generously. :)

Quizmaster: Rajiv Rai

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 11 April, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

The No Enthu Da Open

2010-03-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Aadisht Khanna first talked about doing a 3-way No Enthu Da Open in three cities - Bombay, Bangalore and Madras - sometime last year, but in an appropriate nod to the team name, NED was put, and it didn't quite work out. This year, considerably less NED has been put by Karthik, Aadisht and Aswath, and we will have an NED Open in all three cities on Sunday. Of course, we said "considerably less" NED. Since our QM is going to be in Madras this weekend, a Monkee will jump into the breach and host the quiz here.

Though we're calling it an Open, this is a regular BQC session. Seeding and randomisation of teams will be done before the quiz.

Quizmaster:Atulya 'Monkee' Bharadwaj

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 28 March, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

Double-Barrelled BQC

2010-03-13T01:14:00.000-08:00

We'll have a half-and-half session this Sunday, courtesy Amit Varma and Mahesh Murthy (who's already done one quiz for us this season). It's IPL time, so please try to be there on time, so that we won't hold back all the eager T20 fans from their frenzy. :)

Quizmaster: Amit Varma, Mahesh Murthy

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 14 March 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

Back In Blog - But It's Just Business As Usual

2010-02-26T21:42:00.001-08:00

We haven't been too regular about updating the blog announcements and results for quite a while now. But that doesn't mean we haven't been quizzing - so we'll try and catch up on the results and league standings as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, it's quizzing as usual on Sunday, and Abhinav Dasgupta, who filled in on short notice in December (thanks, mate!) will do a proper quiz this weekend. The short quiz was good fun, so we should certainly expect more of the same this time around. Details and directions below.

Quizmaster: Abhinav Dasgupta

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 28 February, 2010 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

The Celebrate Bandra Quiz

2009-11-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

The folks at the Celebrate Bandra Festival asked us to put together a quiz for this year's edition. Details below - and cash prizes are there. I'm not sure how much, but it should be worth the early escape from work. The quiz, that is. We all know real quizzers don't get rich. ;-)

Quizmaster: Sumant Srivathsan

Research: Anannya Deb, Amit Pandeya and others. :)

When: 4:30 PM, Saturday, 28 September, 2009

Where: Crossword Bookstore, Linking Road, Bandra

Teams: Two or fewer members, no bars of any kind. Until after the quiz.

Monkee Business

2009-10-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

Atulya Bharadwaj will do his quiz this Sunday, as we get into the thick of quizzing season. We will start an hour later than usual (see the new time below) as many of the regulars will be in South Bombay attending Dhananjay Shettigar's JBIMS Quiz. Dhananjay tells me that he will finish by 2 PM, which should give us all adequate time to get back to Santacruz for our regular season. For those who plan to be in Bangalore for the next season of the Landmark Quiz, this should be a great chance to sharpen your skills.

Quizmaster: Atulya 'Monkee' Bharadwaj

When: 4 PM, Sunday, 25 October, 2009 (Please be there by 3:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

And Finally, We Present...

2009-10-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Atul Mathew and Pradeep Ramarathnam have been promising their quiz for ages now, and after much postponements and emergency quiz schedules, we now get to actually have this urban legend quiz. This is Chakravyuh weekend in Pune, but we hope that you'll all be back after Saturday's Open Quiz to attend this one. After all, this is the BQC, and we're just better.

Quizmasters: Pradeep Ramarathnam and Atul Mathew

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 11 October, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

Yokozuna

2009-09-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, a fellow quizzer and I shared a desk in school. Since then, we have both grown large enough to no longer fit in such a desk. But Bombay is a big city, and it can accommodate many such large types. Sumo hosts his first BQC session on Sunday, and as always, it should be a cracker.

Quizmaster: Rajen 'Sumo' Prabhu

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 20 September, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

The Results So Far - Part 2 of 2

2009-09-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

The rest of the results from this season. Regular service will continue with Amit on Janardhan's quiz.

QM: Anannya Deb

First
Anand Sivashankar
Balakrishnan S.
Rajen Prabhu

Second
Pravin
Srinath Narayan
Sumant Srivathsan

Third
Akanksha Mohan
Janardhan R.
Rajiv Rai

QM: Ajith Prabhakar

First
Kritika B.
Nandan Krishnaswamy
Rajiv Rai
Souvik Basu

Second (Tie)

Anand Sivashankar
Atulya Bharadwaj
Dipankar Goswami
Vibhendu Tewari

Amit Pandeya
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Gautam Chaturvedi
Sandip Sen

QM: Sarat Rao/Vibhendu Tewari

First
Abid EH
Atulya Bharadwaj
Bikash Mohapatra

Second
Ameya Samant
Mayuresh Madbhavi
Sritanu Chakraborty
Sumant Srivathsan

Third
Dipankar Goswami
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Prasann Potdar
Srinath Narayan

QM: Ameya Samant/Sumant Srivathsan (QFI Open)

First
Anand Sivashankar
Dharmendra
Pradeep Ramarathnam

Second
Ameya Samant
Bikash Mohapatra
Sarat Rao
Sumant Srivathsan

Third
Anannya Deb
Mayuresh Madbhavi
Srinath Narayan
Tanul Mishra

The Results So Far - Part 1 of 2

2009-09-06T02:12:00.000-07:00

I've been way behind in doing this, but here are the point-scorers in each of the quizzes so far since May.

QM: Vijay Shankar/Amit Pandeya

First
Sumant Srivathsan
Sumit Roy
Vibhendu Tewari

Second
Anannya Deb
Kaustuv Gupta
Pradeep Ramarathnam

Third

Atul Mathew
Bikash Mohapatra
Srinath Narayan

QM: Govind Grewal

First
Abhik Ghosh
Anannya Deb
Diwakar Pingle
Shiv Anant Tayal

Second
Ajith Prabhakar
Amit Pandeya
Devang Ghia
Francis Rodrigues
Vijay Shankar

Third
Ameya Samant
Dipankar Goswami
Janardhan R.
Mukund Sridhar
Sumit Roy

QM: Mukund Sridhar

First
Anand Sivashankar
Jitaditya Narzari
Mehar Sridhar
Roshith Mohan
Sumant Srivathsan

Second
Anannya Deb
Atulya Bharadwaj
Sarat Rao
Vishwesh Ramnath

Third
Ajith Prabhakar
Atul Mathew
Shruthi Ravi
Vikas Sahu

QM: Mahesh Murthy

First
Ajith Prabhakar
Rajiv Rai
Sumit Roy
Vibhendu Tewari

Second
Dipankar Goswami
Jay Menon
Mukund Sridhar
Souvik Basu

Third
The scoresheet is missing, so we don't know who came third. If you know, please tell us and we'll update the sheet.

Emergency Measures Quiz This Sunday

2009-09-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Atul Mathew and Pradeep Ramarathnam were supposed to give us a full quiz this Sunday. However, due to a variety of reasons (which can be approximated to them being lazy gits, if one is so inclined :)), they won't be able to do the quiz they'd originally planned. So Atul will share with us questions from a recent BCQC session. As always, the dirty details:

Quizmaster: Atul Mathew (with a little help from our friends in Pune)

When: 3 PM, Sunday, 6 September, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 PM for team assignments)

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 the quiz.

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.

This Sunday's BQC Session

2009-08-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Janardhan R. will host his first quiz for the BQC this Sunday. It should be fun - and hopefully we'll see a lot more first-time QMs at the BQC in subsequent sessions.

QM: Janardhan R.

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, August 23, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 pm.)

Venue: 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 the quiz.

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.

The Talented Mr. Deb

2009-08-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

The monsoon might have been a bit of a damp squib this year, but the BQC has been quite a bit of fun so far. More fun and games this Sunday, courtesy of Anannya Deb, who puts his leaderboard position on the line and becomes QM for the afternoon. If his last quiz was any indication, this one should be a doozy. Be there, it's not like you'd rather be doing something else.

QM: Anannya Deb

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, August 9, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 pm.)

Venue: 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 the quiz.

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.

The Prodigal Returns

2009-07-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

Ajith Prabhakar sent us all a nice email saying goodbye to the BQC, apparently for something better in Trivandrum. Clearly he left something behind, because he's in town this weekend, and asking questions. We'll call it the Ajith Prabhakar Farewell Special, and buy him beer afterwards.

You should join us - for both quiz and beer.

QM: Ajith Prabhakar

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, July 26, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 pm.)

Venue: 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 the quiz.

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.

Any Given Sunday

2009-07-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

That's usually when quizzers are free to do what they do best. This weekend being one such, the Bombay Quiz Club gets its motor running. Vibhendu Tewari and Sarat Rao will be our driver and tour guide respectively. I'm sure Sarat would like to drive, but given his vision, Stevie Wonder is probably going to be his navigator. It should be a fun ride. You should come along.

QM: Vibhendu Tewari and Sarat Rao

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, July 12, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 pm.)

Venue: 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 the quiz.

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.

This Sunday, At Pinstorm...

2009-06-12T04:09:00.000-07:00

The BQC Season Four rolls right along, with Vijay Shankar at the helm. He promises a fun quiz for one and all, and the winners might be able to gain enough experience points to buy the Armour of Invulnerability. No wait, wrong game. This one's a quiz, folks. I promise.

The details are below.

QM: Vijay Shankar

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, June 14, 2009 (Please be there by 2:40 pm.)

Venue: 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 the quiz.

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 Long Weekend Of Quizzing

2009-04-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

A fantastic weekend of quizzing lies ahead for Mumbai quizzers, as the Landmark Quiz this Friday is followed by a BQC quiz on Sunday. Details:

The Landmark Quiz, Mumbai

QM: Navin Jayakumar

Time: 2.30 pm, Friday, May 1, 2009 (Please register in advance at Landmark Bookstore.)

Venue: St Andrew's Auditorium, Bandra.

Prizes: Hazaar Landmark coupons.

BQC Quiz 3, Season 4

QM: Mahesh Murthy

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, May 3, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 pm.)

Venue: 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 the quiz.

It's All Happening Here

2009-04-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

If Tony Greig was doing commentary on the BQC, he would not find it necessary to manufacture excitement: it really has all been happening here at the BQC. The first two quizzes of Season 4 were action packed events, though we will not report the bloodshed here, and there will be no pictures of the carnage. This is a family blog.

The results:

Quiz 1, April 12, conducted by Rajiv Rai

1st (163 points) Vibhendu Tiwari, Anannya Deb, Ameya Samant, Janardhan R, Akshat Trivedi

Tied 2nd-3rd (141) Atul Mathew, Sumit Roy, Govind Grewal, Bikash Mohapatra

Tied 2nd-3rd (141) Rohit Ajitkumar, Shiv Anant Tayal, Hanisha Vaswani, Jitaditya Narzari, Nandan Krishnaswamy

4th (139.5) Sumant Srivathsan, Devang Ghia, Souvik Basu, Siddharth Sinha Ray

5th (137) Amit Varma, Sai Ganesh, Dhananjay Shettigar, Srikant Narasimhan, Nrupal Chowdhary

6th (117.5) Diwakar Pingle, Sandip Sen, Ajith Prabhakar, Arvind Krishnaswamy, Amlesh Mishra

7th (116.5) Pradeep Ramarathnam, Amit Pandeya, Francis Rodrigues, Dipankar Goswami, Ram Shankar

8th (81) Anand Sivasankar, Chinmay Kamath, Rasik Tirodkar, Vishwesh Ramnath

As the scores indicate, this was a close quiz, with four teams separated by half a question fighting for second place, which was decided on the last question.

Quiz 2, April 19, conducted by Dhoomketu

1st (with 90 points) Sumant Srivathsan, Govind Grewal, Souvik Basu, Chinmay Kamath

2nd (71) Rajiv Rai, Atul Mathew, Anand Sivasankar, Dipankar Goswami

3rd (48) Amit Varma, Atulya Bharadwaj, Sarat Rao, Roshith

4th (45) Amit Pandeya, Jonas John, Sriram R, Vikas Sahu

5th (43) Rishi Iyengar, Mukund Sridhar, Rohit Ajitkumar, Hanisha Vaswani

6th (42) Ajith Prabhakar, Sandip Sen, Srikant Narasimhan, Francis Rodrigues

7th (41) Anannya Deb, Jitaditya Narzari, Supriyo Saha, Mina Anthony

8th (39) Vibhendu Tiwari, Sumit Roy, Janardhan R, Vamsi Krishna

All the teams had a chance to finish in the top three in this quiz, a battle decided, once again, right at the end. In BQC quizzes, members of the winning team get 10 points each for the BQC League Table, followed by 7 and 4 for second and third, and splits if there are ties. In open quizzes with elims and finals, like the forthcoming Landmark Quiz, finalists get two points each. Here, then, are the league standings right at the start of Season 4.

BQC Season 4 (from 2 quizzes, as of April 19, 2009)

15.5 points
Govind Grewal

12.5 points
Atul Mathew

10 points
Akshat Trivedi
Ameya Samant
Anannya Deb
Chinmay Kamath
Janardhan R
Souvik Basu
Sumant Srivathsan
Vibhendu Tiwari

7 points
Anand Sivasankar
Dipankar Goswami
Rajiv Rai

5.5 points
Bikash Mohapatra
Hanisha Vaswani
Jitaditya Narzari
Nandan Krishnaswamy
Rohit Ajitkumar
Shiv Anant Tayal
Sumit Roy

4 points
Amit Varma
Atulya Bharadwaj
Roshith
Sarat Rao

These are early days, and no doubt there will be much movement on this league table. Watch this blog for announcements of future quizzes.

The Return of Dhoomketu

2009-04-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

In 1949, The Fearless Nadia starred alongside Ram Singh, John Cawas, Boman Shroff and the magnificent Sona Chatterji in a film called Dhoomketu.

In 2009, 60 years later, on a full moon afternoon in April, Dhoomketu returns. Here are the details of our next BQC quiz:

QM: Dhoomketu.

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, April 19, 2009 (Please be there by 2:45 pm.)

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

Directions:

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.

The results of last Sunday's quiz will be uploaded along with this one once this is over. If we survive. Dhoomketu is coming!

BQC's Season 4 is all set to open

2009-04-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

The first quiz of the Bombay Quiz Club's Season 4 will be conducted by the Season 2 and 3 champion, Rajiv Rai, this Sunday. That means that, for a brief while at least, someone else will lead the league table this season. Do not miss this chance!

Details:

QM: Rajiv Rai

Time: 2.30 pm, Sunday, April 12, 2009 (Please be there by 2:15 pm.)

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

Directions:

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.

Important: Do note that this quiz starts at 2.30 pm instead of at 3, when we usually begin. Please be at the venue by 2.15. Thank you.

Rajiv Rai Dominates Season 3

2009-04-09T03:34:00.000-07:00

Rajiv Rai topped the league table after the final BQC quiz of its third season, winning by a whopping margin of 47 points over his open-quiz team-mate, Sumant Srivathsan. Their third man, Vibhendu Tiwari, finished the season with a strong win to take third place in the league standings. After that we were all bunched up like college kids in a moshpit, headbanging furiously as these three strummed their mojo.

No, well, really, this season, more than the last two, the competition was severe. BQC's quizzing depth can now safely be compared to any other major city, and on a given day there are 10 to 15 people capable of kicking serious ass and winning a quiz on their own. There was much action in the second half of this season, especially, when some new and some improved quizzers put in a seriously strong show. That means Season 4 will be tight. We'll all be in the moshpit.

The 25th and final quiz of the season was a grand affair conducted by Anannya Deb. There were more than 100 questions, and many local Bombay fundas. A good time was had by all , and it was a fitting way to end the season.

And so, the results of this last quiz:

1st place Vibhendu Tiwari, Goving Grewal, Srikant Narasimhan.

2nd place Rajiv Rai, Sidharth Vij + 1

3rd place (tied) Sumant Srivathsan, Anand Sivasankar, Vijay Shankar

3rd place (tied) Ajith Prabhakar, Kaustuv Gupta, Devang Ghia

And now, will a roll of trumpets and a tray of turnips, the results of season 3!

BQC Season three Standings (from 25 quizzes, as of March 31, 2009)

131 points
Rajiv Rai

84 points
Sumant Srivathsan

71 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

58 points
Udatta Duarah

54.5 points
Amit Varma

53.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

48 points
Atul Mathew

47 points
Ajith Prabhakar

46 points
Kaustuv Gupta

45 points
Sumit Roy

44 points
Govind Grewal

42.5 points
Rishi Iyengar

41.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam

40 points
Ameya Samant
Sajith Pai

39 points
Atulya Bharadwaj

37 points
Rohit Ajitkumar
Shrikant Narasimhan

36 points
Souvik Basu

35 points
Sandip Sen

34 points
Bikash Mohapatra

33.5 points
Anannya Deb

32.5 points
Francis Rodrigues

32 points
Brian D'Souza
S Balakrishnan

31 points
Anand Sivasankar

27 points
Mahesh Murthy

26.5 points
Prasann Potdar

26 points
Vijay Shankar

24 points
Kedar Sastry

22 points
Amit Pandeya

21.5 points
Sarat Rao

18 points
Shiv Anant Tayal

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Devang Ghia
Mukund Sridhar
Rahul Gaur

15.5 points
Akash Bansal

14 points
Akanksha Mathur
Mitul Kodali

12 points
Sireesh Talluri Rao

11 points
Ravi Venkatesh

10 points
Amit Sharma
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Phani Prasad
Rushi Bhavsar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Manish Mishra

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Arjun Swarup
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Meher Sridhar
Nandan Krishnaswamy
Norbert Fernandes
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
Roshith
Shreya
Sidharth Vij
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Barun Chakrabarti
Gopal Kidao
Mithun Srivatsa
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Supriyo Saha
Vijay Chittoor
Vikas Sahu

2 points
Shambhu Shankar

More updates on Season 4 will follow on this blog. Watch this space.

A Grand Ending to a Great Season

2009-03-20T00:54:00.000-07:00

On March 22, 2009, the third season of the Bombay Quiz Club draws to a close. Anannya Deb will conduct. The league standings are here, but there isn't really much at stake -- unless you're speaking of abstract notions like pride, and honour, and the respect of your beer-sozzled peers. Come and partake. The details:

QM: Anannya Deb

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, March 22, 2009 (Please be there by 2:40 pm.)

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

Directions:

Five-in-one quiz report

2009-03-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

Right, after immense and inexcusable tardiness, this post combines five quiz reports in one. Four of them are regular BQC quizzes, and one is a lit quiz conducted for the Kala Ghoda fest. In BQC quizzes, members of the top three teams get 10, 7 and 4 points respectively. In open quizzes with elims and finals, the non-placing finalists get two points each.

In the delay in posting these results, some records were damaged (or maliciously done away with; who can tell?). As a result, some results are incomplete, and we shall fill them in later as news filters in. Until then, here's what we have:

BQC Jan 25 -- conducted by Souvik Basu
1st Amit Varma, Sajith Pai, Udatta Duarah + 1, 2nd Unknown as of now, 3rd Sumit Roy, Kaustuv Gupta + 2

BQC Feb 8 -- conducted by Mukund Sridhar and Atulya Bharadwaj
1st Pradeep Ramarathnam, Souvik Basu, Sarat Rao, 2nd Vibhendu Tiwari, Shiv Anant Tayal, Bikash Mohapatra, 3rd Sumit Roy, Govind Grewal, Arvind Krishnaswamy

Kala Ghoda Lit quiz -- conducted by Sumant Srivathsan
1st Mahesh Murthy and S Balakrishnan, 2nd Anand Sivasankar and Ajith Prabhakar, 3rd Girish Shahane + 1, Other finalists Govind Grewal and Shambhu Shankar, Amit Varma and Arvind Krishnaswamy.

BQC Feb 22 -- conducted by Pradeep Ramarathnam and Atul Mathew
1st Rajiv Rai, Atulya Bharadwaj, Rohit Ajitkumar, 2nd Vibhendu Tiwari, Brian D'Souza, Roshith, 3rd (tied) Sumant Srivathsan, Vijay Shankar + 1, 3rd (tied) Ajith Prabhakar, Devang Ghia, Kaustuv Gupta

BQC March 8 -- conducted by Amit Varma
1st Sumant Srivathsan, Kaustuv Gupta, Bikash Mohapatra, 2nd Rajiv Rai, Shiv Anant Tayal, Meher Sridhar, Rahul Gaur, 3rd Anannya Deb, Atulya Bharadwaj, Barun Chakravarti.

And now for the league standings:

BQC Season three Standings (from 24 quizzes, as of March 8, 2009)

124 points
Rajiv Rai

82 points
Sumant Srivathsan

61 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

58 points
Udatta Duarah

54.5 points
Amit Varma

53.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

48 points
Atul Mathew

45 points
Ajith Prabhakar
Sumit Roy

44 points
Kaustuv Gupta

42.5 points
Rishi Iyengar

41.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam

40 points
Ameya Samant
Sajith Pai

39 points
Atulya Bharadwaj

37 points
Rohit Ajitkumar

36 points
Souvik Basu

35 points
Sandip Sen

34 points
Bikash Mohapatra
Govind Grewal

33.5 points
Anannya Deb

32.5 points
Francis Rodrigues

32 points
Brian D'Souza
S Balakrishnan

29 points
Anand Sivasankar

27 points
Mahesh Murthy
Shrikant Narasimhan

26.5 points
Prasann Potdar

24 points
Kedar Sastry
Vijay Shankar

22 points
Amit Pandeya

21.5 points
Sarat Rao

18 points
Shiv Anant Tayal

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Mukund Sridhar
Rahul Gaur

15.5 points
Akash Bansal

15 points
Devang Ghia

14 points
Akanksha Mathur
Mitul Kodali

12 points
Sireesh Talluri Rao

11 points
Ravi Venkatesh

10 points
Amit Sharma
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Phani Prasad
Rushi Bhavsar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Manish Mishra

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Arjun Swarup
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Meher Sridhar
Nandan Krishnaswamy
Norbert Fernandes
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
Roshith
Shreya
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Barun Chakrabarti
Gopal Kidao
Mithun Srivatsa
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Supriyo Saha
Vijay Chittoor
Vikas Sahu

2 points
Shambhu Shankar

The last quiz of this BQC season will be conducted by Anannya Deb on Sunday, March 22. More details on this blog in a few minutes.

The March Quiz

2009-03-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

There are two more quizzes to go in the BQC's third season, and the penultimate one takes place this Sunday. Details:

QM: Amit Varma

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, March 8, 2009 (Please be there by 2:40 pm.)

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

Directions:

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.

Yes, I know -- the results of the last four quizzes haven't been published here yet, and I am solely to blame for that. I shall wait till this one is over now and publish the results of all five together. Many apologies for the delay. As for the standings, very briefly, Rajiv Rai has now sealed first place, Sumant Srivathsan has sealed second place, and Vibhendu Tiwari is, I think, half a point ahead of me (Amit Varma) for third. And as I'm not taking part in this next quiz, by virtue of being QM, you can consider that place settled as well. The war is over -- two fun battles remain!

The Other S Basu Conducts A Quiz

2009-01-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

The 20th quiz of the third BQC season will be conducted this Sunday by Souvik Basu, with a little help from questions by J Ramanand. Given that it's the Republic Day weekend, some of you might have considered leaving the city, taking a break with the family, suchlike.

Ha.

The details are below; keep yourself away if you can.

QM: Souvik Basu

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, January 25, 2009 (Please be there by 2:40 pm.)

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

Directions:

David Thrashes Goliaths

2009-01-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

The first quiz of 2009 was in jeopardy when the scheduled quizmasters backed out, but Pradeep Ramarathnam saved the day by conducting an old quiz that he had once attended. BQC's third season has entered its last leg, with Rajiv Rai far ahead of everyone else in the league table, and only Sumant Srivathsan even remotely close to him. Would there be a mighty battle between these two in this quiz? There was -- for second place.

Atul Mathew, Sajith Pai and Phani Prasad put together a fantastic show, leading almost from start to finish, to win by a hefty margin. Sumant's team ended up second; Rajiv's team finished third; and while the top places in the league table remain unchanged, we just got yet another demonstration of the immense depth of the BQC.

Here are the results:

1st with 402.5 points
Atul Mathew
Sajith Pai
Phani Prasad

2nd with 375 points
Sumant Srivathsan
Ravi Venkatesh
Francis Rodrigues

3rd with 325 points
Rajiv Rai
Shiv Anant Tayal
Vikas Sahu
Supriyo Saha

4th with 237.5 points
Amit Varma
Atulya Bharadwaj
Vishvesh R

5th with 227 points
Anannya Deb
Sarat Rao
Srikant Narasimhan
Puneet Raj

6th with 175 points
Ameya Samant
Devang Ghia
Srinath Narayan
Amalesh Mishra

7th with 142.5 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
Rahul Gaur
Roshit Mohan
Mukund Krishnan

8th with 135 points
Udatta Duarah
Prasann Potdar
Akanksha Mathur

The league standings, after 19 quizzes of Season 3, stand thus:

BQC Season three Standings (from 19 quizzes, as of January 11, 2009)

107 points
Rajiv Rai

70 points
Sumant Srivathsan

53.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

48 points
Atul Mathew
Udatta Duarah

47 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

42.5 points
Amit Varma
Rishi Iyengar

40 points
Ameya Samant

38 points
Ajith Prabhakar

37 points
Sumit Roy

35 points
Sandip Sen

32.5 points
Francis Rodrigues

31.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam

30 points
Sajith Pai

29.5 points
Anannya Deb

28 points
Govind Grewal
Kaustuv Gupta

27 points
Rohit Ajitkumar
Shrikant Narasimhan

26.5 points
Prasann Potdar

26 points
Souvik Basu

25 points
Atulya B
Brian D'Souza

24 points
Kedar Sastry

22 points
Amit Pandeya
Anand Sivasankar
S Balakrishnan
Vijay Shankar

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Bikash Mohapatra
Mahesh Murthy
Mukund Sridhar

15.5 points
Akash Bansal

14 points
Akanksha Mohan
Mitul Kodali

13 points
Devang Ghia

12 points
Sireesh Talluri Rao

11.5 points
Sarat Rao

11 points
Ravi Venkatesh

10 points
Amit Sharma
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Phani Prasad
Rahul Gaur
Rushi Bhavsar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Manish Mishra

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Arjun Swarup
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Nandan Krishnaswamy
Norbert Fernandes
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
Shreya
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Gopal Kidao
Mithun Srivatsa
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Shiv Anant Tayal
Supriyo Saha
Vijay Chittoor
Vikas Sahu

The next quiz will be conducted on Sunday, January 25. More details will follow on this blog.

The First BQC Quiz Of 2009...

2009-01-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

... will be conducted by Pradeep Ramarathnam this Sunday, January 11. Our scheduled quizmasters backed out, and Pradeep has kindly stepped into the breach to provide half a quiz. We still need another half, but shall have that sorted out before the quiz begins. The details:

QM: Pradeep Ramarathnam + 1

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, January 11, 2009 (Please be there by 2:40 pm.)

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

Directions:

Jacques Lacan and the sexual act

2008-12-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

Arvind Krishnaswamy conducted a quiz for the BQC yesterday, and much activity happened. Jacques Lacan described an orgasm with an equation, Veerappan proposed to Phoolan Devi, Robbie Williams became Peter Gabriel and a pretty female terrorist almost killed Chou En-Lai. Amid all this action, Sumant Srivathsan resumed his winning ways, romping to victory with able team-mates Sandip Sen and Brian D'Souza. Rajiv Rai and his team ended up second. Aadisht Khanna, Pradeep Ramarathnam and Sireesh Rao split third place with Ameya Samant, Devang Ghia and Akanksha Mohan; and Jason Kresja conceded many, many runs.

This was the last BQC quiz of 2008, and scenes of immense mourning followed the quiz, as well as some hedonism. But that must remain confidential.

The results:

1st with 138 points
Sumant Srivathsan
Sandip Sen
Brian D'Souza

2nd with 96 points
Rajiv Rai
Atulya Bharadwaj
Nandan Krishnaswamy

Tied 3rd-4th with 68 points
Aadisht Khanna
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Sireesh Rao

Ameya Samant
Devang Ghia
Akanksha Mohan

5th with 64 points
Amit Varma
Anil Kothuri
Srikant Narasimhan

6th with 46 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
Janardhan R
Bikash Mohapatra

7th with 42 points
Udatta Duarah
Rahul Bhaskar

8th with 26 points
Atul Mathew
Swapnil Patil

And now for the league standings:

BQC Season three Standings (from 18 quizzes, as of December 21, 2008)

103 points
Rajiv Rai

63 points
Sumant Srivathsan

53.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

48 points
Udatta Duarah

47 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

42.5 points
Amit Varma
Rishi Iyengar

40 points
Ameya Samant

38 points
Ajith Prabhakar
Atul Mathew

37 points
Sumit Roy

35 points
Sandip Sen

31.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam

29.5 points
Anannya Deb

28 points
Govind Grewal
Kaustuv Gupta

27 points
Rohit Ajitkumar
Shrikant Narasimhan

26.5 points
Prasann Potdar

26 points
Souvik Basu

25.5 points
Francis Rodrigues

25 points
Atulya B
Brian D'Souza

24 points
Kedar Sastry

22 points
Amit Pandeya
Anand Sivasankar
S Balakrishnan
Vijay Shankar

20 points
Sajith Pai

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Bikash Mohapatra
Mahesh Murthy
Mukund Sridhar

15.5 points
Akash Bansal

14 points
Akanksha Mohan
Mitul Kodali

13 points
Devang Ghia

12 points
Sireesh Talluri Rao

11.5 points
Sarat Rao

10 points
Amit Sharma
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Rahul Gaur
Rushi Bhavsar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Manish Mishra

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Arjun Swarup
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Nandan Krishnaswamy
Norbert Fernandes
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
Shreya
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Gopal Kidao
Mithun Srivatsa
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Ravi Venkatesh
Vijay Chittoor

The next quiz will probably be on January 4, 2009. Watch this space for further updates.

The Christmas Quiz

2008-12-18T18:33:00.000-08:00

To account for the Christmas holidays, the 18th quiz of this season will take place a week early, on December 21. This Sunday. Arvind Krishnaswamy will conduct, hopefully in a Santa Claus suit. Be there -- or wait till next Christmas. The details:

QM: Arvind Krishnaswamy

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, December 21, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm. Ha!)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones.

The winning team get free reindeer. Er, wait, we're out of stock. Okay -- they get stinky socks to hang by the fireplace. Fine?

And Then There Was One

2008-12-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

Rajiv Rai did not place in the 17th quiz of BQC's third season -- but that made little difference to the league table. By winning two tough quizzes just before that, he ensured that he extended his lead in the standings to a point from where one of his nearest contenders will have to win five quizzes in a row with Rajiv not scoring to overtake him. Forget it.

Vibhendu Tiwari also continued a good run, and is now second in the standings. Sumant Srivathsan had early leads in the first two quizzes, but ultimately managed not to place in any of them, and slipped to third overall. [Update -- the last two sentences no longer hold; we made a mistake by giving Vibhendu points for a quiz he did not attend. Now corrected.) Udatta Duarah made a move up the charts.

The first of these three quizzes was conducted by Mitesh Agarwal on November 16. It was a wonderful, well-balanced quiz, and ended with Rajiv's team sneaking ahead of ~~Vibhendu's~~ Aadisht's.

Two weeks after that, Atul Mathew conducted a quiz, followed by Gopal Kidao, our guest of honour from Chennai, asking questions from an India quiz. (They also took part in the half conducted by the other, swapping places on the same team.) This quiz ended in a tie -- and Rajiv's team beat Udatta Duarah's team in the tiebreaker.

Aadisht Khanna was QM on December 14, and the quiz was nail-bitingly close, with all eight teams in the top three at different points of time. Udatta's team won on the tiebreak, as his partner Atul Mathew jumped on the only BQC question ever about a porn film. He will be remembered for this.

The results are below; mea culpa for being so late with them. They are incomplete, with latecomers' names not included. In Mitesh's quiz, I know that Vibhendu's team came second, but as he seems to have been a latecomer himself, I don't know which team he was part of. All these details will be filled within 24 hours. Many apologies. [Update: Corrections have now been made to this post.]

BQC Quiz 15 -- Mitesh Agarwal

1st Rajiv Rai, Mukund Sridhar, S Balakrishnan. 2nd Aadisht Khanna, Ajith Prabhakar, Ameya Samant. 3rd Anannya Deb, Prasann Potdar, Devang Ghia and Mithun Srivatsa.

BQC Quiz 16 -- Atul Mathew and Gopal Kidao

1st Rajiv Rai, Sajith Pai, Anand Sivasankar, Ameya Samant. 2nd Udatta Duarah, Ajith Prabhakar, Prasann Potdar, Bikash Mohapatra. 3rd Gopal Kidao/Atul Mathew, Arvind Krishnaswamy, Sandip Sen, S Balakrishnan.

BQC Quiz 17 -- Aadisht Khanna

1st Udatta Duarah, Atul Mathew, Kaustuv Gupta, Amit Sharma. 2nd Vibhendu Tiwari, Devang Ghia, Mayuresh Gaikwad, Shreya. 3rd Govind Grewal, Akanksha Mohan, Vijay Shankar, Atulya Bharadwaj.

And now for the league table:

BQC Season three Standings (from Seventeen quizzes, as of December 14, 2008)

96 points
Rajiv Rai

53 points
Sumant Srivathsan

51.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

48 points
Udatta Duarah

47 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

42.5 points
Amit Varma
Rishi Iyengar

38 points
Ajith Prabhakar
Ameya Samant
Atul Mathew

37 points
Sumit Roy

29.5 points
Anannya Deb
Pradeep Ramarathnam

28 points
Govind Grewal
Kaustuv Gupta

27 points
Rohit Ajitkumar
Shrikant Narasimhan

26.5 points
Prasann Potdar

26 points
Souvik Basu

25.5 points
Francis Rodrigues

25 points
Sandip Sen

24 points
Kedar Sastry

22 points
Amit Pandeya
Anand Sivasankar
S Balakrishnan
Vijay Shankar

20 points
Sajith Pai

18 points
Atulya B

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Bikash Mohapatra
Mahesh Murthy
Mukund Sridhar

15.5 points
Akash Bansal

15 points
Brian D'Souza

14 points
Mitul Kodali

12 points
Akanksha Mohan

11.5 points
Sarat Rao

11 points
Devang Ghia

10 points
Amit Sharma
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Rahul Gaur
Rushi Bhavsar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Sireesh Talluri Rao
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Manish Mishra

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Arjun Swarup
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Norbert Fernandes
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
Shreya
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Gopal Kidao
Mithun Srivatsa
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Ravi Venkatesh
Vijay Chittoor

The next quiz will be conducted by Arvind Krishnaswamy on December 21. Details to follow within five minutes on this blog.

Slumdog Non-Millionaire

2008-12-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

"If thy wants to be rich," thunders Shylock near the start of William Shakespeare's famous play, "be not a quizzer but a moneylender. Therein lie the rewards of life."

And yes, in the real world, it may seem that we slumdog quizzers never get rich -- in monetary terms. But our afternoons of enjoyment at BQC quizzes have their own value, and cannot be measured in rupees or paise. And here's the staggeringly amazing part -- the enjoyment is free!

Yes, BQC quizzes are open to all, and you are hereby invited to the 17th quiz of BQC's Season Three, to be conducted by Aadisht Khanna this Sunday. Memorize the details carefully -- as soon as you finish reading this post, this website will vanish, so burn these words in your memory:

QM: Aadisht Khanna

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, December 14, 2008 (Please be there by 2:45 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers should note that they do not need to form teams in advance -- teams are formed by a draw of lots. So if Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif turn up for one of our quizzes, which is not unlikely, they might well be on the same team as you, oohing and aahing in admiration, and resting their palms on your thigh, as you answer those difficult questions about things they have never even heard of. Motivation enough?

ps. And ah, I plead guilty on not putting up reports of the last two quizzes. By tomorrow...

The Quiz Must Go On

2008-11-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a terrible, terrible week for everyone who lives in Mumbai or cares for it, and at one level it seems perverse to plan enjoyment of any kind. But the best way to fight these blues is to get on with life as usual, and we at the BQC will do just that this Sunday, when the 16th quiz of our 3rd season is conducted. The details are below:

QM: Atul Mathew

Time: 3 pm, Sunday, November 30, 2008 (Please be there by 2:4 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones.

Also, I realise that I haven't yet put up a report of the last quiz. Mea culpa; apologies. I shall now wait for this quiz to pass and upload both reports together.

The Mitesh Agarwal Quiz

2008-11-13T18:03:00.000-08:00

This Sunday's quiz, the 15th of BQC's third season, will be conducted by Mitesh Agarwal. Mitesh is flying down specially for this quiz, and rumour has it that he has spent the last few days in the US, quizzing Obama's transition team. Questions like, Is Africa a country or a continent? I am told that Obama's team passed. But what about us?

This quiz, btw, starts half an hour earlier than the others, because it needs to wind up before a business quiz in the evening that many BQCites wish to attend. A pox on them. The quiz will start at 2.30 pm sharp, and quizzers are requested to arrive at the venue by 2.15. The details:

QM: Mitesh Agarwal

Time: 2.30 pm, Sunday, November 16, 2008 (Please be there by 2:15 pm)

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

Directions:

Udatta Duarah saves the day

2008-11-13T17:37:00.000-08:00

The BQC quiz of November 2 almost didn't happen, with the scheduled quizmaster backing up at the last moment. The night seemed dark, the sky was cloudy, the quiz was in doubt. Then one man emerged from the shadows to save us. "My name is Duarah," he said. "Udatta Duarah."

Udatta put together a wonderful quiz at the last moment, and the 14th quiz of the BQC's third season saw a full house. Like all of Udatta quizzes, it went down to the wire, with the last round of differential scoring causing much turmoil. Vibhendu Tiwari's team came out of nowhere in the last one-third of the quiz, charging into the top three, and then taking away first place. Rajiv Rai's team came second.

For saving the quiz at the last moment, the managing committee decided, after arduous deliberation, to award 6 points in the league table to Udatta. His real reward, of course, shall come in R'lyeh.

The results:

BQC Season 3, Quiz 14

1st with 51 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
Prasann Potdar
Francis Rodrigues
Sajith Pai

2nd with 42 points
Rajiv Rai
Srikant Narasimhan
Norbert Fernandes
Arjun Swarup

3rd with 35 points
Aadisht Khanna
Anand Sivasankar
Govind Grewal
Sarat Rao

4th with 27 points
Amit Varma
Ajith Prabhakar
Mukund Sridhar
Bikram Barua

5th with 26 points
Sumit Roy
Amit Pandeya
Akshay Krishna

6th-7th (tied) with 19 points
Sumant Srivathsan
Sandip Sen
Brian D'Souza
Kaustuv Gupta

Pradeep Ramarathnam
Atul Mathew
Shiv Anant Tayal
Christina Fernandes

8th with 16 points
Anannya Deb
Akanksha Mathur
Vijay Shankar
Asim Anwar

And now for the league standings, which reveal a pitched battle for second place, and none at all for the top spot!

BQC Season three Standings (from fourteen quizzes, as of November 2, 2008)

76 points
Rajiv Rai

53 points
Sumant Srivathsan

44.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

42.5 points
Amit Varma
Rishi Iyengar

41 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

37 points
Sumit Roy

31 points
Udatta Duarah

29.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam

27 points
Rohit Ajitkumar
Shrikant Narasimhan

26 points
Souvik Basu

25.5 points
Anannya Deb
Francis Rodrigues

24 points
Ajith Prabhakar
Atul Mathew
Govind Grewal
Kedar Sastry

22 points
Amit Pandeya

21 points
Ameya Samant
Sandip Sen

18 points
Kaustuv Gupta
Vijay Shankar

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Mahesh Murthy

15.5 points
Akash Bansal
Prasann Potdar

15 points
Brian D'Souza

14 points
Atulya B
Mitul Kodali

12 points
Anand Sivasankar

11.5 points
Sarat Rao

10 points
Bikash Mohapatra
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Rahul Gaur
Rushi Bhavsar
Sajith Pai
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Sireesh Talluri Rao
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Akanksha Mohan
Manish Mishra
S Balakrishnan

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Arjun Swarup
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Mukund Sridhar
Norbert Fernandes
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Ravi Venkatesh
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Vijay Chittoor

The next quiz will be conducted by Mitesh Agarwal on Sunday, November 16. A separate post follows about that.

The BQC Schedule for November and December...

2008-10-29T19:05:00.001-07:00

... is as follows:

November 2: Arun Srinivas is QM.
November 16: Mitesh Agarwal
November 30: Atul Mathew
December 14: Aadisht Khanna
December 21: Arvind Krishnaswamy

Souvik Basu and Shambhu Shankar will probably conduct the one after that, but the entire schedule is tentative -- look for confirmations on this blog the week before the quiz is due.

For now, I can confirm that the 14th official quiz of BQC's third season will be conducted this Sunday by Arun Srinivas. The details are below: note that besides the date, they apply for all BQC quizzes.

QM: Arun Srinivas

Time: 3:00 pm, Sunday, November 2, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

Jesus Meets Sisyphus

2008-10-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

So there's this story about Jesus going for a walk on the hillside when he comes across a dude in a Greek costume rolling a stone uphill. "How now, Sisyphus," he says. "Long time no see. Strange that we always meet here, no?"

"You can kiss my buttockular region," says Sisyphus, who seems irritable for some reason. "And hey, I heard you were dead. What're you doing up and about?"

"I returned to tell the world about this 11th Commandment I thought of," said Jesus. "Coming to think of it, it's especially apt for you. Wanna hear?"

"Yes, but hurry up, I got a stone to roll."

"Ya, whatever. Ok, here's the 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Be Patient.

*

And on that note, an apology for this extremely late post, which shall encompass the results of three Sundays, when good Christians go to church, good quizzers head over to the BQC and Sisyphus does that rock 'n roll thing on a hill somewhere. Brace yourselves.

First up, Udatta Duarah conducted a quiz on September 21, which was, as usual, closely contested. Sumant Srivathsan's team, well down in the points at the halfway mark, made a late surge to win the quiz on the last question. Rajiv Rai's team was second. The results:

1st Sumant Srivathsan + Atul Mathew + 1, 2nd Rajiv Rai + Sumit Roy + 1, 3rd Aadisht Khanna + Vijay Chittoor + Manish Mishra

On October 5, Nishant Gupta conducted the 13th BQC quiz of the season. This was again a close quiz, with the top two teams scoring 73 and 71 respectively. The results:

1st Rajiv Rai + Pradeep Ramarathnam + Rahul Gaur + Francis Rodrigues, 2nd Sumit Roy + Sandip Sen + Atul Mathew + Brian D'Souza 3rd Sumant Srivathsan + Vijay Shankar + Kaustuv Gupta +1

In the weeks following this result, we had a slight mix-up, as we thought at one point that we didn't have a full quiz available for October 19. So that quiz got cancelled, and then kind gents volunteered questions, and we ended up having a non-comp quiz. Rahul Gaur and Sumant Srivathsan conducted half a quiz each, and it was outstanding stuff, and a pity that the points didn't count. I don't have the results with me, but I do remember first place:

1st Amit Varma + Aadisht Khanna + Shambhu Shankar

All in vain. Anyway, the points table now stands thus:

BQC Season three Standings (from thirteen quizzes, as of October 19, 2008)

69 points
Rajiv Rai

53 points
Sumant Srivathsan

42.5 points
Amit Varma
Rishi Iyengar

40.5 points
Aadisht Khanna

37 points
Sumit Roy

31 points
Vibhendu Tiwari

29.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam

27 points
Rohit Ajitkumar

26 points
Souvik Basu

25.5 points
Anannya Deb

25 points
Udatta Duarah

24 points
Ajith Prabhakar
Atul Mathew
Kedar Sastry

22 points
Amit Pandeya

21 points
Ameya Samant
Sandip Sen

20 points
Govind Grewal
Shrikant Narasimhan

18 points
Kaustuv Gupta
Vijay Shankar

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar
Mahesh Murthy

15.5 points
Akash Bansal
Francis Rodrigues

15 points
Brian D'Souza

14 points
Atulya B
Mitul Kodali

10 points
Bikash Mohapatra
Dhananjay Shettigar
Kashyap Pandeya
Rahul Gaur
Rushi Bhavsar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Sireesh Talluri Rao
Srini Rajagopal

9 points
Mukund Krishnan

8 Points
Akanksha Mohan
Anand Sivasankar
Manish Mishra
S Balakrishnan

7.5 points
Sarat Rao

7 points
Ajay Ravindran
Avinash Umapathy
Kaustubh Chakravarti
Mukund Sridhar
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Rahul Bhaskar
V Sreeharsha

5.5 points
Janardhan R
Leo Mirani
Nrupal Chaudhari
Prasann Potdar
Rasik Tirodkar
Vikram Joshi

4 points
Ravi Venkatesh
Neelabh
Rajendra Parmar
Vijay Chittoor

We have many exciting quizzes coming up, and a schedule for the next few quizzes will be put up shortly. Be, um, patient!

Udatta Duarah Asks The Questions...

2008-09-19T22:04:00.001-07:00

... you answer. The 12th BQC quiz of this season will be conducted tomorrow by Udatta Duarah, to great acclaim. (Yes, I forecast the current bull run in the markets as well.) The details:

Who QM: Udatta Duarah

When quiz: 3:00 pm, Sunday, September 21, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

Souvik Basu Starts His Rampage

2008-09-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

As I write this post, there are rumours that Souvik Basu might be cast as an evil android in the next Terminator movie. I cannot confirm the scurrilous gossip, but Mr Basu has always been a man of great substance, as he showed over the last two BQC quizzes, winning both as if his name was Rajiv Rai. (Rajiv himself came third in both, as if his name was Amit Varma or suchlike.) Apologies for the late reports, times have been harsh, and Hank Paulson just refused to bail out the BQC blogging committee. We shall manage on our own for now -- and so, the results:

The results:

BQC Quiz 10 (QM -- Francis Rodrigues):

1st Aadisht Khanna, Ajith Prabhakar, Souvik Basu, Bikash Mohapatra +1

2nd Rishi Iyengar, Atul Mathew, Rohit Ajitkumar, Vijay Shankar +1

3rd Rajiv Rai, Sandip Sen, Manish Mishra, Sumit Roy, Udatta Duarah

4th Sumant Srivathsan, Sarat Rao, Aditya Kandath, Ghevarghese Daniel, Avinash Mudaliar

5th-6th Vibhendu Tiwari, Govind Grewal, Mohit Grover, Ninad Parab +1

5th-6th Anannya Deb, Kaustuv Gupta, Ameya Samant, Sambit Mishra, Ravi Venkatesh

7th Kedar Sastry, Devang Ghia, Pradeep Ramarathnam, Atulya Bharadwaj, Mukund Sridhar

8th Amit Varma, Amit Pandeya, Arun Ganesh, Akanksha Mohan, Arup Banerjee

BQC Quiz 11 (QM -- Anannya Deb)

1st Srini Rajagopal, Souvik Basu, Kashyap Pandeya

2nd Vibhendu Tiwari, Atulya Bharadwaj, Avinash Umapathy

3rd Rajiv Rai, Mitul Kodali, Rajendra Parmar

4th Prasann Potdar, Sumit Roy, Gautam Acharya

5th Amit Pandeya, Vijay Shankar, Santosh Janakiram

6th Govind Grewal, Ajith Prabhakar, Brian DeSouza

7th Amit Varma, Devang Ghia, Bhavin Gandhi

8th Rohit Ajitkumar, Francis Rodrigues, Atul Mathew

And now for the BQC League standings:

BQC Season three Standings (from eleven quizzes, as of September 20, 2008)

52 points
Rajiv Rai (from 9 quizzes)

42.5 points
Amit Varma (11)
Rishi Iyengar (7)

39 points
Sumant Srivathsan (10)

36.5 points
Aadisht Khanna (6)

31 points
Vibhendu Tiwari (9)

27 points
Rohit Ajitkumar (4)

26 points
Souvik Basu (?)

25.5 points
Anannya Deb (7)

25 points
Udatta Duarah (8)

24 points
Ajith Prabhakar (10)
Kedar Sastry (10)

23 points
Sumit Roy (7)

22 points
Amit Pandeya (11)

21 points
Ameya Samant (7)

20 points
Govind Grewal (10)
Shrikant Narasimhan (2)

19.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (9)

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar (5)
Mahesh Murthy (2)

15.5 points
Akash Bansal (2)

14 points
Atulya B (?)
Kaustuv Gupta (3)
Mitul Kodali (3)
Sandip Sen (3)
Vijay Shankar (?)

10 points
Bikash Mohapatra (?)
Dhananjay Shettigar (?)
Kashyap Pandeya (?)
Rushi Bhavsar (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (4)
Sireesh Talluri Rao (3)
Srini Rajagopal (?)

9 points
Mukund Krishnan (4)

8 Points
Akanksha Mohan (3)
Anand Sivasankar (5)
Brian D'Souza (6)
S Balakrishnan (3)

7.5 points
Sarat Rao (6)

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (4)
Atul Mathew (?)
Avinash Umapathy (?)
Kaustubh Chakravarti (1)
Mukund Sridhar (5)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (3)
V Sreeharsha (1)

5.5 points
Francis Rodrigues (9)
Janardhan R (1)
Leo Mirani (1)
Nrupal Chaudhari (3)
Prasann Potdar (3)
Rasik Tirodkar (1)
Vikram Joshi (2)

4 points
Ravi Venkatesh (?)
Neelabh (?)
Manish Mishra (?)
Rajendra Parmar (?)

The next quiz will be held on Sunday, September 21. Details follow on this blog.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday...

2008-09-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

... is upon us again. Anannya Deb conducts the 11th BQC quiz of season 3 tomorrow, a much-awaited event that has led to the collapse in the prices of airline tickets out of Bombay. No one's leaving town; they're all staying to watch the carnage; blood, shattered bone, mangled flesh; the desolate wailing of those unfortunate enough to survive.

Apropos of nothing, I wonder why more girls don't come to BQC quizzes.

Anyway, here are the details:

Who QM: Anannya Deb

When quiz: 3:00 pm, Sunday, September 7, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones.

Okay, cut-paste of details-template over, let us return to the present time. The report of our last quiz isn't yet up -- mea culpa. I shall now put up reports of both the last quiz and tomorrow's massacre in the same report, hopefully on Monday, perhaps on Tuesday, no later.

If I survive. When Anannya Deb asks questions, the earth shakes...

All hands for Mr Rodrigues

2008-08-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

The 10th BQC quiz of Season 3 takes place tomorrow, and will be conducted by Francis Rodrigues. You are free not to come -- but then, you are also free to jump off your friendly neighbourhood skyscraper. All we can do is tell you what's good for you.

The details:

Who: Francis Rodrigues

When: 3:00 pm, Sunday, August 24, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones. Got it? Understood? Come then!

The results of the last quiz and current league standings are here.

The Last Question

2008-08-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

There is no quiz more exciting than one that is decided on the last question. That's exactly how the last BQC quiz, conducted in two parts by Shiv Anant Tayal and Rahul Gaur, ended. When the last question was asked, with two points at stake, four teams had a chance of winning the quiz. Which team won? My team won. This post would otherwise have been too traumatic to write.

Both halves of the quiz were good, with many workoutable questions. It could be argued that there were a few sitters and chestnuts, and few questions went all the way around, but it was good fun nevertheless. Here are the results:

1st with 35 points
Amit Varma
Ananya Deb
Rohit Ajitkumar
Ameya Samant
Rushi Bhavsar

2nd with 33 points
Aadisht Khanna
Atulya B
Kaustuv Gupta
Vijay Shankar

Tied 3rd-4th with 31.5 points
Rajiv Rai
Sireesh Rao
Sumit Roy
+1

Sumant Srivathsan
Souvik Basu
Sarat Rao
Mukund Krishnan

5th with 30 points
Govind Grewal
Ajith Prabhakar
Atul Mathew
Jenish Shah

Tied 6th-7th with 26.5
Amit Pandeya
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Bikash Mohapatra
Shambhu Shankar

Kedar Sastry
Mukund Sridhar
Suraj Balakrishnan
+ 1

8th with 25 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
Dhananjay Shettigar
Francis Rodrigues
Sharath Manian

I've missed out the names of a few latecomers, and will fill them in once my operatives in the field get me the information.

And here come the league standings.

BQC Season three Standings (from nine quizzes, as of August 3, 2008)

44 points
Rajiv Rai (from 7 quizzes)

42.5 points
Amit Varma (9)

39 points
Sumant Srivathsan (9)

35.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (6)

26.5 points
Aadisht Khanna (5)

25.5 points
Ananya Deb (6)

24 points
Kedar Sastry (9)
Vibhendu Tiwari (7)

22 points
Amit Pandeya (9)

21 points
Ameya Samant (6)
Udatta Duarah (7)

20 points
Govind Grewal (8)
Rohit Ajitkumar (2)
Shrikant Narasimhan (2)

19.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (8)

19 points
Sumit Roy (5)

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar (4)
Mahesh Murthy (2)

15.5 points
Akash Bansal (2)

14 points
Ajith Prabhakar (8)
Kaustuv Gupta (2)

10 points
Dhananjay Shettigar (?)
Mitul Kodali (2)
Rushi Bhavsar (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (4)
Sandip Sen (2)
Sireesh Talluri Rao (3)

9 points
Mukund Krishnan (4)

8 Points
Akanksha Mohan (2)
Anand Sivasankar (5)
Brian D'Souza (5)
S Balakrishnan (3)

7.5 points
Sarat Rao (5)

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (4)
Atulya B (?)
Kaustubh Chakravarti (1)
Mukund Sridhar (4)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (3)
V Sreeharsha (1)
Vijay Shankar (?)

6 points
Souvik Basu (?)

5.5 points
Francis Rodrigues (8)
Janardhan R (1)
Leo Mirani (1)
Nrupal Chaudhari (3)
Prasann Potdar (2)
Rasik Tirodkar (1)
Vikram Joshi (2)

4 points
Ravi Venkatesh (?)
Neelabh (?)

The next quiz takes place on August 24. More details will follow on this blog.

One more Sunday, one more quiz

2008-07-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Shiv Anant Tayal steps forward to the plate to conduct the next BQC quiz this Sunday, August 3. This will be the ninth quiz of the season -- admirers of Odin will understand the significance of that number. Be there to be initiated.

The details:

Who:Shiv Anant Tayal

When: 3:00 pm, Sunday, August 3, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones. You'll have fun!

The results of the last quiz and current league standings are here.

The Landmark Boys Assert Themselves

2008-07-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Rajiv Rai, Sumant Srivathsan and Vibhendu Tiwari combined to win the Landmark Quiz in Pune. The three of them asserted themselves at the latest BQC quiz as well: Sumant and Vibhendu won the quiz on Sunday, conducted by Ajay Ravindran, and Rajiv leapt to the top of the BQC League standings by coming second.

Ajay's quiz was painstakingly compiled, but the afternoon was riddled by goof-ups. First there were software issues with the presentation of the quiz; then there was a scoring goof-up (mea culpa); finally, there was yet another software goof-up that led to the excel file on which the teams were saved doing mysterious things, culminating in the record of the teams getting wiped out (Bill Gates culpa). Anyway, after much reconstruction of events, here are the top three teams of the day:

1st place
Sumant Srivathsan
Vibhendu Tiwari
Dhananjay Shettigar
Akash Bansal
Rohit Ajitkumar

2nd place
Rajiv Rai
Udatta Duarah
Sumit Roy
Kaustuv Gupta

3rd place
Aadisht Khanna
Ravi Venkatesh
Souvik Basu
Akanksha Mohan
Neelabh

After eight quizzes, this is how the BQC standings look:

BQC Season three Standings (from eight quizzes, as of July 20, 2008)

42 points
Rajiv Rai (from 6 quizzes)

37 points
Sumant Srivathsan (8)

35.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (6)

32.5 points
Amit Varma (8)

24 points
Kedar Sastry (8)
Vibhendu Tiwari (6)

22 points
Amit Pandeya (8)

21 points
Udatta Duarah (7)

20 points
Govind Grewal (7)
Shrikant Narasimhan (2)

19.5 points
Aadisht Khanna (4)
Pradeep Ramarathnam (7)

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar (4)
Mahesh Murthy (2)
Sumit Roy (4)

15.5 points
Akash Bansal (2)
Ananya Deb (5)

14 points
Ajith Prabhakar (7)

11 points
Ameya Samant (5)

10 points
Dhananjay Shettigar (?)
Mitul Kodali (2)
Rohit Ajitkumar (1)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (4)
Sandip Sen (2)

8 Points
Akanksha Mohan (2)
Anand Sivasankar (5)
Brian D'Souza (5)
S Balakrishnan (3)
Sireesh Talluri Rao (2)

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (4)
Kaushtubh Chakravarti (1)
Kaushtuv Gupta (1)
Mukund Krishnan (3)
Mukund Sridhar (3)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (3)
V Sreeharsha (1)

5.5 points
Francis Rodrigues (7)
Janardhan R (1)
Leo Mirani (1)
Nrupal Chaudhari (3)
Prasann Potdar (2)
Rasik Tirodkar (1)
Sarat Rao (4)
Vikram Joshi (2)

4 points
Ravi Venkatesh (?)
Souvik Basu (?)
Neelabh (?)

You can also view an excel sheet of the league table, with details of each quiz, here. Our thanks to Aadisht Khanna for putting this together.

The next quiz is on August 3. Shiv Anant Tayal conducts. More details will follow on this blog.

Another Sunday, Another Quiz

2008-07-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

Ajay Ravindran conducts his first BQC quiz this Sunday, and girls have already started queuing up at Bandra, from what I hear. It's like when McDonald's first opened in Mumbai, remember? Except that McDonald's stayed open, but once Ajay's quiz is done, it's done. So be there!

The details:

Who:Ajay Ravindran

When: 3:00 pm, Sunday July 20, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones. You'll have fun!

The results of the last quiz and current league standings are here.

Back in the High Life

2008-07-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

Rajiv Rai, defending BQC league champion, got back to his winning ways with a last-question win at the BQC quiz held on July 6. Devang Ghia, conducting his first BQC quiz, put together a stunning set of questions, all of which were well-framed, interesting and workoutable. There was something for everyone -- if you were looking for enjoyment, that is. If it was points you wanted, it was going to be a brutal battle.

Insistent calls for seedings at the start of the quiz were turned down, rather foolishly, by this author -- who then lost his league lead as last year's top two, Rajiv and Rishi Iyengar, found themselves in the same team after our randomisation software did its mojo. Aadisht Khanna's team led by a healthy margin almost all the way, with Rajiv's team, my team and Vibhendu Tiwari's team fighting for the remaining points on offer. (The first three teams get league points.) A thrilling theme round right at the end changed all that, as Rajiv's team won by one point, with 61, over my team and Aadisht's boys, tied at 60. In a quiz where each question was 4 points, this was a brutal margin, and for days the second- and third-placed teams moaned about how they wrote the right answer here and cut it out, or discussed the right answer there but said something else. Without such agonies, what would be the joy of quizzing?

The results:

1st with 61 points
Rajiv Rai
Rishi Iyengar
Shrikant Narasimhan
Sumit Roy

2nd-3rd (tied) with 60 points
Amit Varma
Amit Pandeya
Vikram Joshi
Francis Rodrigues

Aadisht Khanna
Sarat Rao
Rasik Tirodkar
Akash Bansal

4th with 48 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
Ananya Deb
Ameya Samant
Joanna Lobo

5th with 39 points
Sumant Srivathsan
Ajith Prabhakar
Pranob Gupta
Brian D'Souza

6th with 19 points
Ravi Venkatesh
Udatta Duarah
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Avinash Mudaliar

7th with 15 points
Govind Grewal
Souvik Basu
Aditya Agarwal
+ 1

8th with 2 points
Kedar Sastry
Ajay Ravindran
Neelabh
Rohit Bhat

For our league standings, everyone in the winning team gets 10 points, the runners-up get 7, the third-placed team gets 4. We always resolve a first-place tie with tiebreakers, but give 5.5 each if there is a tie for second, as happened this time. So here are the league standings, (sob) a little different from last week:

BQC Season three Standings (from seven quizzes, as of July 6, 2008)

35.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (from 5 quizzes)

35 points
Rajiv Rai (5)

32.5 points
Amit Varma (7)

27 points
Sumant Srivathsan (7)

24 points
Kedar Sastry (7)

22 points
Amit Pandeya (7)

20 points
Govind Grewal (6)
Shrikant Narasimhan (2)

19.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (6)

17 points
Avinash Mudaliar (4)
Mahesh Murthy (2)

15.5 points
Aadisht Khanna (3)
Ananya Deb (5)

14 points
Ajith Prabhakar (6)
Udatta Duarah (6)
Vibhendu Tiwari (5)

11 points
Ameya Samant (5)

10 points
Mitul Kodali (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (4)
Sandip Sen (1)
Sumit Roy (3)

8 Points
Anand Sivasankar (4)
Brian D'Souza (5)
S Balakrishnan (3)
Sireesh Talluri Rao (2)

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (4)
Kaushtubh Chakravarti (1)
Mukund Krishnan (2)
Mukund Sridhar (3)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (3)
V Sreeharsha (1)

5.5 points
Akash Bansal (1)
Francis Rodrigues (7)
Janardhan R (1)
Leo Mirani (1)
Nrupal Chaudhari (3)
Prasann Potdar (1)
Rasik Tirodkar (1)
Sarat Rao (4)
Vikram Joshi (1)

4 points
Akanksha Mohan (1)

The next BQC quiz will be conducted at 3pm on Sunday, July 20 by Ajay Ravindran. Full details will follow shortly on this blog.

Devang Ghia, First Day First Show

2008-07-03T04:21:00.000-07:00

This Sunday at the BQC, Devang Ghia, a longtime regular known for his knowledge of movie fundas, conducts his first quiz of the season. If entertainment is one of your strong suits, and you enjoy being entertained, this quiz should be tailor-made for you. The details:

Who:Devang Ghia

When: 3:00 pm, Sunday July 6, 2008 (Please be there by 2:40 pm)

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

Directions:

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.

Newcomers are welcome at BQC quizzes, and do not need to form teams before coming. Teams are normally formed by a draw of lots at the venue itself, and everybody gets to take part. The questions are generally not the boring "you-know-it-or-you-don't" types, but accessible and workoutable ones. You'll have fun!

The results of the last quiz and current league standings are here.

Two Close Quizzes in a Close Season

2008-06-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

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: