In a crazy quizzing month, during which I had already been to more than 10 quizzes Titash, Rahul & myself climbed aboard the Puri Express on the night of 13th February, 2010 to attend the General & Biz quizzes at KIT Bhuvaneswar next day.
Before I get to the quizzes I must mention some of the crazy things that happened on the fateful Saturday night of the 13th.
The 3 of us had got sleeper tickets but unfortunately while two of the tickets were in the same compartment one was not. So I made my way to the solitary seat at around 12 A.M. There were a couple of guys sleeping on my seat, huddled under a common blanket. I nudged them gently but they wouldn't budge. So I nudged harder & shone my torch into their faces. They woke up & I told them they were in my seat. They moved down from my seat and promptly settled down on the floor of the train & were snoring within minutes. I lay down on my seat & closed my eyes. Presently a TT came along, having been informed by some of the people sleeping on berths that somehow people sleeping on the floors below them, were causing a disturbance. He woke up the people sleeping on the floor. There were around 9 including the two who were in my seat before. There was a huge ruckus because the 9 did not have sleeper tickets & the TT made them leave the train at the next station which was Kharagpur. The 9 then went to one of the overcrowded General Compartments, where you would be lucky to find room to breathe, got around 20 more people and came back to board the same compartment again. The TT rushed off to get the Police.
He came back with one policeman !!! ONE !!! And he too was half asleep !!!
There were around 30 people without tickets !!!
Majority wins & the TT could do nothing as all of them moved in and occupied every inch of free floor space in the compartment.
Now the people who had complained initially started protesting from their berths. The lazy mutts didn't even have the guts or energy to get down & see some action. I, on the other hand, was watching the drama unfold, wishing I had a tub of Popcorn to munch.
One of the protesters came up with the corny line, " There are Ladies here !!"
To which the reply was even cornier, " Babu! Hum garib hain par hum mein insaniyat hain !!"
I almost fell off my seat laughing. After around 20 minutes of the TT & some people trying their best to get the alleged miscreants to leave, I stepped in.
"There is no point squabbling like this. They won't leave. You shouldn't have complained in the first place. So we just have to put up with 20 more now."
And put up we did.
Somehow more people from the general compartments got wind of the situation in our area. They started flooding in. At 2 A.M I was lying on my seat with 4 people sitting almost on top of me. I couldn't get a minutes rest !!
Just before reaching Bhuvaneswar, I went to the Toilet. I took off my glasses to wash my face. The train suddenly jerked a bit, my glasses slipped out of my hands and fell right through that dreaded circular hole where no man dares to go !!!
What a night !!
We got off the train at Bhuvaneswar at 6 A.M & went to the Lingaraja Temple to spend some time. After a few hours there we went to KIT where the quiz started after a long wait.
And all I can say is, the trouble was worth it !!!
Mitesh Agarwal conducted two wonderful quizzes. The format was innovative & it was the fairest format we had ever come across at a quiz. We were quite angry in the General Quiz prelims when we received a negative for an answer we were convinced we got right but in the end we realized where we had gone wrong.
The format which Mitesh Agarwal told us was becoming quite common down south was very fair. We were surprised to hear it wasn't Infinite Bounce but then he revealed a format where if you knew an answer you would always get points for it, and if the question was a workable one you did have a chance of guessing it. It worked like this. When any team got a direct all other teams were given a few seconds to write down the answer, if they knew it. If they got it right they got full points else negative. After this writing period was over the question passed like a normal quiz for all those teams who did not write. It was a very fair format.
After two excellent quizzes in which we finished 2nd in the General Quiz & 3rd in Biz, it was time to head back. The return journey unlike the previous one was quite uneventful.
Here are some questions :
Q After the Saddam era, Why did people in Iraq refer to their situation as the "Purple Revolution" ? Because purple is the colour of voting ink
Q Which sport was developed by Venetian punters to land quickly ? Pole vault
Q Why did Colgate takeover the Mennen Talcum powder company in 1992 ? They made the Teen spirit deodorant
Q Why did AMD codename their chips Kryptonite ? Because Intel was nicknamed the Superman of Silicon Valley
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