Landmark quiz and other stories

Once again I lag harithekid. Once again, he’s beaten me to blogging about an event we went to together. Of course, in this case, I don’t blame him, as his team made a stunning comeback to finish on the podium. And I won’t stop cribbing that the cheap Landmark guys didn’t give anything to teams placed 4th to 8th while the team placed 9th as well as sundry members of the audience (most of whom didn’t even answer a question) went home with boxes of goodies.

That cute chick didn’t appear. However, the similarities between this quiz and the landmark quiz of two years back were numerous. Both times, it was

sw_aadisht

one levers guy (then it was dushyanth, this time it was kodhi) and I. Both times, there was A cute chick I saw just before the quiz. Both times, we sat somewhere in the middle of the hall, somewhere towards the left. Both times we qualified, and sat at Table 7. Both times, the cute chick i’d seen before quiz sat at the same place. Fourth or fifth row from front. Towards the right of the audience. Ideal position for me to put eye contact during the finals. Both times there was this family team (Rohith Kamath (ex-IIMC), his mom and his cousin (who made quite an impression on many a quizzer)) which had qualified and which sat at table 2. I think the similarities end there. I’m not sure.

The prelims had been decent. There were a few downright bad questions. Like that on eggs or on the kimono or any of the other “multiple choice questions”. There were also a few workoutable things, which we managed to work out. And we had just about qualied.

The finals had a few good fundaes. A fwe of them. Good fundaes but not sure if they made good questions for a Category 22 event (this is where the “modified infinite bounce” funda is good – you can afford to put a few uncrackable questions with good fundaes without affecting the quiz). And a lot of muck. The best part of the quiz was Derek pulling harithekid‘s leg. I’ll come to the worst part in a while.

Clearly Derek reads blogs. Or someone on his team does. And he knows that us south indian quizzers dont’ like him. And blog about him. He knows that we think Calcutta quizzing is very “trivia-based” and a test of knowledge, as against south indian quizzing which is a test of logical reasoning. And after a particularly bad landmark in 2005, the Landmark guys told him that he better put better questions or else… And he has been attempting to make a “good quiz”. What he calls an “esoteric” quiz. What he thinks are “good fundaes” – which means lots of connects.

After four rounds, the last two teams are going to be chucked out. Given that it was ’rounds’, this meant that derek required to have had 32 questions for this phase. And it turned out he had only 30. And two questions which had to go to the audience went to the teams. So much for India’s most “popular” quizmaster. So much for the lakhs he charges landmark to do this quiz. Derek, go back!

There were a few sitters in the finals, and we were guilty of missing out on a couple of them. And were duly punished as we were the second team to get chucked out. However, this time there was no space to sit near the chick-of-the-day. We went back and sat with Baada’s team. The quiz went on. The quality didn’t improve. You don’t put questions such as a straight identification of Kasper Schmeichel in the finals of a Category 22 quiz – incidentally the question almost went uncracked. The quiz went on… and we watched.

This time I’m not writing any letter to the chick-of-the-day. i didn’t find her as impressive as the one i’d seen two years back. Or maybe the novelty factor of seeing a chick at a quiz has worn off. Anyways this female looked very similar to one female who goes to the same gym as me. So I have a semblance of a handle. But I’m unlikely to put blade. If only i were to meet? that female somewhere!

Sometime in the middle of the quiz, just before we got chucked out, Derek came up with his masterpiece. It was a music round (think about the balance of the quiz when one fourth of the quiz is just about music!! ) and our man plays two old Hindi songs and asks us to connect. Question moves for a while when Anil takes a long shot with “they are both from the same raaga”. Derek goes delirious. As arbit as that! The kind of question I’d answered on my way to second place in the KQA Lone Kid 1994. Nowadays they don’t ask such questions even in school quizzes.

Anyways, Derek decides this is his best question. That it is his masterpiece. That it is his chance to get back at the bloggers. After everyone has overcome the shock and awe, he proclaims “this one is for the bloggers out there” and proceeds to hold up his middle finger. I hope this action was noticed. I hope this action came to the notice of the Landmark guys, and that this is reason enough to not extend his contract. He is much better off on his home turf of Calcutta, asking questions about the color of a Gulab Jamun.

And Derek, if you are reading this, here is a massive middle finger for you. Rather, I should be saying K2U