Jacques Lacan and the sexual act

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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

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

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.

PS: Africa is a continent.

Udatta Duarah saves the day

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...

... 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:

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

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

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.

Jesus Meets Sisyphus

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...

... 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:

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

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

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.

Souvik Basu Starts His Rampage

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BQC Quiz 5

First: Aadisht Khanna and Ajith Prabhakar.

Second: Kaustubh Chakravarty, Pradeep Ramarathnam and Mukund Krishnan.

Third: Rajiv Rai, Anand Sivasankar.

Fourth: Ananya Deb, Kedar Sastry and Nrupal Chaudhari

Fifth: Mukund Sridhar, Sarat Rao and Naveen Unni

Sixth: Amit Varma, Amit Pandeya and Dhananjay Shettigar

Seventh: Udatta Duarah, Ameya Samant and Francis Rodrigues

Eighth: Sumant Srivathsan, Devang Ghia and Sumit Roy

And now for our latest quiz:

BQC Quiz 6

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

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

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

Fourth: Arun Srikumar, Nrupal Chaudhari and Francis Rodrigues

Fifth: Govind Grewal, Mukund Krishnan and Rahul Bhaskar

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

Seventh: Sumant Srivathsan, Souvik Basu and Shiv Anant Tayal

Eighth: Aadisht Khanna, Dhananjay Shettigar and Gautam Bastian

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

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

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

25.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (4)

25 points
Rajiv Rai (4)

24 points
Kedar Sastry (6)

20 points
Govind Grewal (5)

19.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (5)

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

16.5 points
Amit Pandeya (6)

15.5 points
Ananya Deb (4)

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

11 points
Ameya Samant (4)

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

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

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

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

4 points
Akanksha Mohan (1)

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

It's That Time Of The Month

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Details:

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

Directions:

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

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

A Weekend Of Quizzing

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

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

Quiz 1: The World Quizzing Championships

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

Coordinators: Avinash Mudaliar and Kedar Sastry

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

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

Quizmaster: Abhishek Nagraj

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

Directions:

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

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

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

Rajiv Rao Begins the Beguine

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

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

The results:

1st with 26 points
Rajiv Rai
Sumant Srivathsan
Govind Grewal

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

Prasann Potdar
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Ananya Deb
Nrupal Choudhari

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

Anand Sivasankar
Dhananjay Shettigar
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Amogh Bhole

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

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

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

And now for the league table.

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

27 points
Sumant Srivathsan (from 4 quizzes)

25.5 points
Rishi Iyengar (4)

20 points
Govind Grewal (4)

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

14 points
Kedar Sastry (4)

12.5 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam (3)

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

9.5 points
Amit Pandeya (4)

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

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

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

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


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

Can you take on the Brothers Rao?

BQC regulars Sireesh and Sarat Rao will conduct their first BQC quiz this Sunday. They're both quality quizzers, but quiet blokes, so little is known of their interests, which adds just a touch of drama to the quiz. Fun should come. So must you. The details:

When: 3:00 PM, Sunday, May 25, 2008. (Be there by 2.45 please.)

Quizmaster: Sireesh Talluri Rao, Sarat Rao.

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

Directions:

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

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

The results of the last quiz and the current league standings are here. Newcomers are welcome, and don't need to form teams before coming -- all attendees are drafted into teams by a draw of lots. Everybody takes part, there are no elims. Come.

The Iyengar Strikes Back

The night after Rishi Iyengar won the first quiz of this BQC season, he was woken at 3 am by a strange, acrid smell, much like the singed flesh of a horse. He sensed something on the bed. He moved his leg; his knee bumped into something; something still warm from having recently been alive. He switched on the light and realised that he no longer had a racehorse. Or rather, that it no longer had a head.

Attached to one ear was a note that said, "Rajiv Rai wasn't there."

Iyengar crushed the note in one palm. Then he crushed the head in the other. Yes, the reigning BQC league champion hadn't been present in that first quiz. But he would, sooner or later, take part in a quiz. And then Iyengar would show him, and show whoever had written this note in Govind Grewal's handwriting, what Iyengars are all about. Having soothed himself with this thought, he went back to sleep.

And ya, you've got the storyline, so I'll cut the crap. Rajiv took part in his first quiz this season, and Rishi won, ably helped by an unusually strong team. Joint-league leaders Sumant and me had an off-day, which allowed Rishi to take the lead in the league table. Prasann Potdar was the quizmaster. There were many questions on wine and Kyrgyzstan, and quite a few weren't workoutable, but a good time was had by all. Here are the results:

1st with 48 points
Rishi Iyengar
Sandip Sen
Avinash Mudaliar
Kedar Sastry

2nd with 35 points
Rajiv Rai
Mahesh Murthy
Rahul Bhaskar

3rd with 28 points
S Balakrishnan
Ajith Prabhakar
Amit Pandeya

4th with 24 points
Sumant Srivathsan
Sarat Rao
Devang Ghia

5th with 23 points
Udatta Duarah
Ameya Samant
Shiv Anant Tayal

6th with 21 points
Ananya Deb
Amit Sharma
Sriram Krishnan

7th with 18 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
Francis Rodrigues
Sandeep Rajpurohit

8th with 16 points
Amit Varma
Govind Grewal
Ajay Ravindran

The league table gets quite competitive now. Here's how it looks:

BQC Season three Standings (from three quizzes, as of May 11, 2008)

20 points
Rishi Iyengar (from 3 quizzes)

17 points
Amit Varma (3)
Avinash Mudaliar (3)
Mahesh Murthy (2)
Sumant Srivathsan (3)

14 points
Kedar Sastry (3)

10 points
Govind Grewal (3)
Mitul Kodali (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (3)
Sandip Sen (1)
Shrikant Narasimhan (1)

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

7 points
Ajay Ravindran (2)
Pradeep Ramarathnam (2)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Rahul Bhaskar (1)
Rajiv Rai (1)
Udatta Duarah (2)
V Sreeharsha (1)

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

The next BQC quiz will be conducted by Sireesh Talluri Rao on Sunday, May 25 -- more details will follow on this blog. But before that, there's the nationwide quiz, Mahaquizzer, being conducted by the fine folk at the KQA this Sunday. Click here for details, and do Mumbai proud.

Prasann Proposes, Potdar Disposes

Prasann Potdar is the quizmaster for tomorrow BQC quiz, and if you quiz and are in Mumbai, you are advised to turn up. Or else... or else! The details:

When: 3:00 PM, Sunday, May 11, 2008. (Be there by 2.45 please.)

Quizmaster: Prasann Potdar

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

Directions:

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

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

The results of the last quiz and the current league standings are here. Newcomers are welcome, and don't need to form teams before coming -- all attendees are drafted into teams by a draw of lots. Everybody takes part, there are no elims. Come.

A Close Fought Battle

A close fought battle resulted in a win for the extremely strong team comprising Amit Varma, Sumant Srivatsan, Shrikant Narasimhan and Mahesh Murthy. Avinash Mudaliar and co. also performed well and were the only team to crack the second theme. The quiz was fairly easy by normal BQC standards. This did not detract from the interest, quality and workability of the questions, though. Amit Varma and the Jew lead the league table at this very early stage in the season. Normal services will be restored once Rajiv Rai returns to do battle from this weekend on.

At this point there are no seeds, with teams being formed through random draws. If the first two quizzes are any indication, this BQC season is going to be extremely competitive with little to differentiate teams not containing Rajiv Rai. The top five league positions could be occupied by just about anyone. Several new faces have added to the overall strength and diversity of the league, while many of the younger quizzers who joined us last season have become increasingly dangerous. It just goes to show that a steady diet of infants and a sharp battleaxe are all that is needed to thrive in the league.

Ia! Ia! BQC fthagn!

1st with 135 points (on tiebreaker)
Amit Varma
Sumant Srivathsan
Mahesh Murthy
Shrikant Narasimhan

2nd with 135 points
Pradeep Ramarathnam
Udatta Duarah
Avinash Mudaliar
V Sreeharsha

3rd with 130 points
Kedar Sastry
Ameya Samant
Anand Sivasankar
Sireesh Talluri Rao

4th with 120 points
Vibhendu Tiwari
S Balakrishnan
Sandeep Rajpurohit
Abilin Mukherjee

Tied 5th-6th with 105 points
Rishi Iyengar
Govind Grewal
Samrat Sengupta
Aditya Agrawal

Amit Pandeya
Francis Rodrigues
Mukund Sridhar
Mitul Kodali

7th with 90 points
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Sritanu Chakrabarti
Brian D'Souza
Neelabh

8th with 70 points
Ajit Prabhakar
Sarat Rao
Devang Ghia
Sriram Krishnan

The league standings are calculated with 10 points going to each member of a winning team, 7 to each runner up and 4 to each of the quizzers coming third. At the end of two quizzes, the standings are:

BQC Season three Standings (from two quizzes, as of April 27, 2008)

17 points
Amit Varma (from 2 quizzes)
Sumant Srivathsan (2)

10 points
Rishi Iyengar (2)
Govind Grewal (2)
Mitul Kodali (2)
Sandeep Rajpurohit (2)
Mahesh Murthy (1)
Shrikant Narasimhan

8 Points
Sireesh Talluri Rao (2)

7 points
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan (2)
Ajay Ravindran (1)
Pradeep Ramarathnam (2)
Udatta Duarah (1)
Avinash Mudaliar (2)
V Sreeharsha (1)

4 points
Vibhendu Tiwari (2)
S Balakrishnan (2)
Brian D'Souza (2)
Kedar Sastry (2)
Ameya Samant (1)
Anand Sivasankar (2)