Singin' in the Rain - an Insider's View from Chennai

15th August 2006, 9:30 PM: A steady drizzle – the indications of an impending storm - was falling down from the gloomy Chennai sky. The entire nation was celebrating India’s 60th Independence Day and we….were Singin’ in the Rain. On August 15th 1998, I had disembarked at Chennai Central, on the threshold of my first job, and into the world of Corporate Quizzing. It was eight years now…and things had changed.

For all those years, I was more or less, one of the whipping boys in the field of quizzing. The situation had not changed when, after two years, I shifted to Bangalore – in fact it had worsened. Off late we were improving - what with an on-stage finish for the Odyssey Quiz in January 2006. But the events that unfolded on August 15th 2006, literally took us by storm.

Every year, on August 15th, the city of Chennai witnesses an “event of epic proportions” – the Landmark Quiz, one of the biggest and most prestigious open quizzes. Teams from all over Chennai, as well as from other cities such as Bangalore, Cochin, Pondicherry et al., converge on the famous Music Academy to vie for the top honors. Our first attempt at the quiz last year had ended in abject disappointment at Derek O’Brien’s now-infamous questions. With “history” behind us, I did not have high hopes when we set out for the quiz.

It was a Tuesday, and hence no Shatabdis to Chennai – which meant, I could as well avoid the early morning journey to Bangalore City station. Before the sleepy suburb of Krishnarajapuram could even wake up, I was there at the railway station, waiting for the Lal Bagh Express. The train came ten minutes late, giving me ample time to complete the Sudoku in the day’s edition of “The Hindu”

For a holiday, the train was only sparsely populated – no Arul Manis, Avinash Mudaliars, or “B”s – Only Sumeet Shetty, Pranav K Wankawala, Jayendra Bisnik and yours truly. The journey was more than six hours long, but when there are more than two SAP guys together; you can expect that there would be lots to talk about. Interspersed with lots of snacks and drinks breaks, we had long discussions about the IMS 3 year Celebrations - A jealous Bisnik trying his best to insist that people in IMS did not have any work, arguments about whether Salarpuria is a better quizzing venue than Campus, the upcoming Sports and Entertainment Quiz - how we could attract more number of girls to participate in that, Code Olympics 2006, and of course some unmentionable gossip (I don’t remember what it was, but we did promise Bisnik that even if we did leak it out, we would make sure to mention that “Bisnik didn’t tell us”).

By the time we got down at Chennai (15 minutes late), Bisnik was already getting sentimental about the city. He kept insisting that we ditch the quiz and go for a dip in the sea at Besant Nagar Beach. We somehow managed to convince him that we would surely take him there once we get screwed in the quiz prelims. Armed with four big bottles of water we set out for our first destination – Kabul (no, not THAT Kabul, but a restaurant near the Music Academy). For all the hoop-la about security threats all over the country, there were just a handful of policemen waiting at the station. From their expressions it seemed to me that they too, like Bisnik, would have preferred to be at the Besant Nagar beach.

The auto rickshaw drive to the restaurant was memorable one – since 1. It cost a whopping 100 rupees for a 15 minutes ride, with four persons bundled into a single auto, and 2. as one of us pointed out, it was like taking a “supari” on someone – we had to pay 50 rupees as advance amount. The lunch at Kabul was a sumptuous affair – though not for MY pocket, since it was on me. The place seemed to be “haunted”, since there were lots of “Ghost” items in the menu. Bisnik seemed thoroughly disappointed, since there were no drinks served there – being the Independence Day, the whole city was “dry” (even otherwise it is…).

By the time we reached the venue, it was already brimming with people of all ages! 2:30 was the reporting time and the hall was already getting filled. P. Rajesh (whom we respectfully call as “uncle”), had flown in that day all the way from Mumbai. He was to be the third member of our team: “Immaculate Misconception”. In an attempt to grab the prize for the best team name, Pranav, Bisnik and Vishwa(nath Ramamurthy) had named themselves “Landmark Express: Bangalore to Chennai”.

Even though our seats for the quiz were reserved, it was lousy – in the upper balcony and that too, towards a side. There was still one more hour to go for the quiz, and as usual, Pranav took out his ubiquitous digital camera and started shooting. Some unintelligible rock music was blaring out of the speakers – perhaps the only time that the hallowed Music Academy will witness such a thing. We were already planning as to how the spend the evening after we get knocked out in the prelims. I wanted to watch (of all the things) a Tamil movie, whereas Bisnik was still going on about visiting Besant Nagar beach. Shetty’s long nose had disappeared inside the Penguin Landmark quiz book that I had purchased a few moments ago. Soon (as usual), Uncle was into his afternoon siesta. Looking around, I could see a lot of school children and families…and a few familiar faces as well – “No Questions Asked” (that guy who always comes in the “Che Guevara” T-shirt), one of the contenders for the trophy, were lurking around just behind us!

Derek’s entry on stage was greeted by thunderous applause from the kids, some of whom were jumping up and down on seeing their Bournvita idol. Being the nice guy that I am, I too applauded. The prelims started off in ominous fashion: “Technically, which vegetable should be washed, cut from the bottom, and discarded at the top?” This was followed by two multiple choice questions – typical of Derek! Just when I thought that this was going to be another dreary evening, the questions started getting more and more interesting. Our team had a specific game plan – Uncle would do the thinking, Shetty would write down the answers and I would, well, copy down the questions. It helped though, since there was no rerun of the questions, and we had to go back to various questions to fill out the answers. As the answers were announced, we were busy counting off how many we got – 25 out of 40. Quite a few of our guesses had paid off, and we had not suffered from “Vinay Syndrome”. Not bad, but maybe not enough…Incidentally, the answer for the first question was “carrot” which of course, prompted discussions (similar to last year’s hanging flag question) as to why radishes or brinjals cannot be cut from the bottom.

Pranav was already insisting that we should try for audience prizes and should catch hold of prime seating positions in the front near the stage. However, Derek had already announced that seats for the finals are not reserved and were up for grabs. He even got away with his statement that the second row was reserved for supporters of DMK and the third row for the supporters of AIADMK. After the prelims, we made a spirited dash downstairs, only to find that no one was budging from their seats. By the time we got back, we found that our seats were already occupied! The result: we had to climb higher up to find seats – which we finally did in some corner.

The finals were preceded by the launch of the Penguin-Landmark Quiz Book Vol. – 2 (the one Shetty was so engrossed in sometime back). This was followed by US-based author Vikram Chandra’s sneak preview of his book “Sacred Games”. Derek soon called on stage his partner-in-crime, Gautam Padmanabhan, and Navin Jayakumar’s mother to announce the finalists. Mrs. Jayakumar called out the first name: “The Three Musketeers”. I felt as if lightning had struck me when Derek announced that they had scored 23.5 to qualify. Soon enough, Mrs. Jayakumar announced on the microphone: “Immaculate Misconception!” The name had proved lucky!

It took us some time to climb down and make our way backstage among the maze of people. There was another surprise waiting for us backstage – we had won the prize for the Best Corporate Team. They wanted something to identify us as a corporate team. Sumeet produced his business card; me, my company ID card; and uncle, his Amex corporate card. In the draw of lots, we had picked ourselves as the seventh team. The curtains were still drawn and it was all dark on stage as we took up our places. Derek was still calling out the finalists’ names. Some of them were really interesting: “Namita Bachao Andolan”, “3M: Mama, Machan and Mappilai etc.

It was time to blast off, and as the curtain lifted, the sight that I beheld was that of a full house! This was heaven... But soon I was brought down to earth by what captured my attention on stage. There, sitting next to us what the team “No Standard and Very Poor” (according to Derek, the first ever finalists to come wearing shorts), with the familiar face of that lawyer with the French beard, who often partners Avinash Mudaliar. His partner had done one better than Uncle. He had flown down from New York for one week to attend the quiz. Right in front of us sat our friends, “No Questions Asked”. And right across us, on the other side, sat two juggernauts: The defending champions: The Know Brainers - Rajiv Rai and Co., and the best quiz team in South India: Q.E.D – Samanth Subramanian (with his traditional cap) and Co. The format of the quiz meant that the last two teams after each round should exit the stage – which meant, I mused, that at least we didn’t have to prolong the pain after the first round.

As is usual with Derek’s quiz, there was the customary power point show, progressing year by year as the quiz went along. There were to be twenty two questions in the first round. The first three questions were cracked directly by the teams, and it seemed to follow the pattern until it reached us. We got an absolute gem: “What is common to Nivi, Gond, Kodagu and Kache?” The answer turned out to be “various styles of wearing a saree”, but none of the teams got it! On the next run, we were luckier: “What is so special about the color International Orange?” I should thank my boss for sending me to San Francisco. But by the end of the first round, we were not in any great position to talk about – we had answered only two questions, which was more or less the same as any other team

At the end of the round, Derek called us on centre stage…Was this it? Had the expected happened? It turned out to be the announcement for our Best Corporate Team award – and the whole crowd got to know that we were from Bangalore! When the results came up, “No Questions..” were leading and we were surprisingly in 3rd place – the rule that points gained in prelims get carried over had helped us. 3M and The Three Musketeers had to exit the stage.

Uncle came into his own in the second round, cracking questions left and right. By this time, not surprisingly Derek had taken a liking to our team name, and didn’t miss an opportunity to crack jokes at the same – especially when we gave the answer for a question as “Rosemary’s Baby”. An extension of the second round was the buzzer round called “The Brain of Chennai”, in which only one member of the team had to participate. Me and Shetty conveniently put the onus of this round on Uncle and disappeared backstage. By now, Q.E.D was on the up, and Swamy from Q.E.D romped to the title of “The Brain of Chennai”.

The round had however, changed some important equations. “No Questions” had had their lead eaten into and in fact were no longer leading. Due to the fact that Uncle had not attempted even a single question (and no negatives), we were still in the hunt. Exit “Namita…” and “No Standard & Very Poor”. Now it was three seasoned teams against one team of first timers – eight questions to go in the third round. That is when QED decided to get into the act. They would not let any question get past them! The result was that “No questions” and “Know-Brainers” found questions drying up. The use of the “infinite bounce technique” meant that every question would start from us, since in the order of seating; we were now, next to QED. We managed to crack a couple of questions to move closer to the other teams – and the only people cheering us were our fellow team from Bangalore, somewhere up there in the balcony!

It was now down to the last question of the round, with the result going any way. It came as a bolt out of the blue as Derek started talking about Stefan Edberg and Michael Stich playing out that long-drawn semi final at Wimbledon 91, and how Edberg had remarked that if Jimmy Van Allen hadn’t lived, “we would still be playing out there” – and it was directed at us! A groan that escaped from the “No Questions…” team told us that something had really gone wrong! They still were hoping for a pass, but for such a question we were not going to miss as Derek himself agreed (“you’ve got your ten points, now give me the answer”)!

Before the results were announced, there was the small matter of announcing the best team name. Pranav’s efforts had gone in vain, as this time Derek opted for the Zidane-Materazzi formula. However, none of the four names chosen in the final list were worth mentioning much. According to me the best amongst the lot was “The Brahmin who sold his lungi”, but the audience disagreed. They plumped for “Materazzi to Zidane: Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna”. ???

The results left us jumping with joy! QED were leading with 130 points, with us placed second at 83, and “no questions..” at 70. Those ten points had made the big difference. There was still one more round to go, but we could not recover from the 47 points deficit. Within 3 questions, the Best Quiz Team in South India had beaten us. Prizes were given away, lots of hands were shaken, but I was still in a daze. After exchanging all the congratulations, we came down from stage and proceeded outside. It had started drizzling. Uncle declined the invitation to dinner, as he would be celebrating through the night. The five of us had a nice little dinner at the usual haunt – Palki – across the road (Phone calls and SMSes from my friends had already started). Now it was time to return back, and another memorable auto rickshaw ride (the driver’s hobby was to visit all the petrol pumps on Nungambakkam High Road). In a few hours time, we would all go our separate ways. Until then, it was time to cherish our victory.

Five Days Later…

Our victory is now a sensation in the office. The mails have started flowing in. Realization has dawned that perhaps we should take our quizzing more seriously. I now reflect back onto the reality of our victory. Was it a false dawn? Maybe, maybe not…But as Sumeet mentioned yesterday, “If Odyssey was something you can talk to your grandchildren about, then what about this?”

“We came, we saw…we screwed it up”

One of the best ways of making easy money in this world is through quizzing – not to leave out the additional benefit of not having to pay tax. It wouldn’t then be very much surprising that this truth would have dawned on others too. For years, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Calcutta have vied for the unofficial title of “The Quizzing Capital of India”. For a person who began quizzing quite late in life (during my ‘Engineering’ days), I was surprised when around 450 teams turned up for the Landmark Quiz on November 1st at the Chowdiah Hall. I had not yet witnessed the Odyssey Quiz.

I had heard of the Odyssey Quiz in the past. They advertise it as ‘The biggest Open Quiz in India’. I didn’t think much of it when it saw the mail for the 2005 edition, to be held on January 26th, the Republic Day. But then, in a weak moment, I, along with Vinay and Arindam decided to go ahead and give it a try. We were further pumped up by the fact that during the preceding weekend, we managed to qualify for the finals of the KQA monthly quiz (what happened in the final is an altogether different story).

So we ended up booking tickets to take us to Chennai. We were to return on the same day (and that too, in AC first class). I was more than happy, since the trip would give me an opportunity to indulge in a less glamorous (to the common man) and much maligned hobby – train spotting. As D-Day dawned, we reached Bangalore City station in the wee hours of the morning, (clad in the thickest jackets to beat the cold) catch the Lalbagh Express. To my disappointment, all the seats in our coach were facing away from the engine. Even though I took the window seat, it would mean that I would need to always glance backward with my SLR camera, to get a shot of any train.

Outside Bangalore, I got to see something which I’ve never bother to watch in the past one year – the sunrise. With the sun coming up, I took off my jacket to reveal the saffron-coloured kurta (with some Sanskrit inscriptions) I was wearing on that day. My teammates gaped in horror at it. Ever since the leading newspapers had carried my name on their front pages (“Ravi Subramaniam turns approver” – dated: Jan 21, 2005), they had been quite reluctant to take me along with them. However, I had paid for the tickets, leaving them with very little option.

As we pulled into Jolarpettai, I dropped a bombshell that one of my friends had contracted typhoid after drinking water from the station. After hearing this, Vinay went into a fast, refusing to eat anything which had “local water content” in it. We would go on to survive the journey on potato chips and biscuits. Arindam had had the common sense to bring along some sandwiches. By the time we reached Chennai Central I had managed to getaround 10 photographs of trains, much to the amusement (or was it disgust?) of my teammates.

The ride by auto rickshaw to the venue was memorable. For me, it brought back memories from the two years I had spent there. Vinay was rather impressed by the fact that we spotted at least four Honda City cars during our 15-minute drive to the venue – the great Music Academy.

Other than a few volunteers running around the place, the venue looked rather deserted. The organizers assured us of our registration. We escaped for a lavish lunch across the road. I managed to call up some of my friends and acquaintances, and also sprain my ankle quite badly - as a result of which Vinay had to abandon his ambition to visit the Landmark bookstore.

By the time we crossed the road back, the venue was an ocean of people. To make things worse, we did not have our registration number. To my utter surprise, I found that almost 900 teams had turned up! After a bit of haggling, we managed to find our team name – Norwegian Midnight (why ”Norwegian Midnight”?? beats me! Ask Vinay) scribbled somewhere in the list of registrations. We were assured of a seat!

The Music Academy is perhaps one of the oldest public halls in the city of Chennai – a place coveted by the lovers of Carnatic Music. To give a concert there is a feather in the cap of any musician. It was definitely great to be back there after four years. The hall filled up in no time. Teams had come from everywhere – Trichy, Bangalore, Mysore, Hyderabad, and even from New Delhi.

The quizmaster, Praveen Goday (Vinay found a passing resemblance of Benny Hinn in him) made a grand appearance at exactly 3:00 p.m. – on time. The questions for the prelims sounded unusually easy, compared to some of the quizzes we have attended. From the dimensions of the Indian National Flag to Amitabh Bachhan’s career as a narrator, we were quizzed on anything under (and over) the sun. Goday even had some tricks up his sleeve – at the end of question 28, from somewhere in the audience; a mobile phone started ringing. As some of the contestants wondered which idiot had forgotten to switch off his mobile phone, it turned out to be question number 29. Goday asked us to identify the composer of the piece! As the answers were being announced, we realized that missing even a single question was going to cost us a lot. The familiar oohs and aahs of the contestants could be heard everywhere. We managed to score 21 out of 35 – one more than Mrs. Gayatri, the middle-aged lady sitting behind us. We soon learnt that she and her son were the runners-up from the previous year’s edition!

The final 8 consisted of some well-known names in quizzing. QED - perhaps one of the best teams in South India - were the defending champions. Giving them company on stage were the husband and wife team from Chennai – the Jayakumars, V V Ramanan, Avinash Mudaliar, Arul Mani and our own Ramkey (“Only when we got on stage did we realize the magnitude of the quiz - when we had a look at the upper-most gallery”: says Ramkey). The quiz itself was an audio-visual treat. From Project 119 – the Chinese target to win 119 gold medals in sports they are weak in, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to how the Thyagaraja composition “Chakkani Raja” was used by girls in Thanjavur to communicate their preferences to prospective bridegrooms, the audience was treated to a scintillating brain-war. Time passed in a jiffy and soon, we were at the end of the day - QED had managed to hold off the challenge of the Jayakumars and Avinash, to defend their title.

As we scrambled out of the great hall and made our way to the station, Vinay remarked: “Man! It was worth coming all the way!” (A comfortable sleep in AC first class awaited us) For me, it was a trip down memory lane – to the place where I started quizzing as an amateur. We knew we never stood a chance to qualify for the finals. But still we gave it our best. And perhaps, the greatest gain from the trip was Arindam’s brain-wave, which gave us our new team name: “We came, we saw …we screwed it up.”