Springfest 2010

A team of around 15 people from Enquiry made the short trip to IIT Kharagpur to take part in the quizzes of Springfest 2010.

We had to get up in the wee hours of the morning to catch a train from Howrah. We all got up on time except the one who had the tickets !! The great Kunalda !!

We had a train to catch at 6 A.M & Kunalda calls me at 5:40 in the morning asking "Are you awake yet ? I just woke up. I don't think i will get to the station on time."

"You moron, I am 5 miutes from the station & you are asking me if I am up yet ?" is not entirely what i said but it's all i can reveal here from my curse-riddled, foul mouthed rant in reply to his query.

I don't know how, maybe my curses did the trick, but Kunalda made it to the station just in time, along with Titash, who must have been waiting more than half an hour for Kunalda on a bitterly cold January morning, poor soul.

Coming back to the quizzes. First in line was The Sports Quiz conducted by Kunal Malhotra
(This is a different Kunal from our Kunalda) on 22nd January 2010. All of us made it to the stage with Boss, Panda, Sarba & myself winning followed by Titash, Nrisinga, Nironko & Sumantra in 2nd. IIT KGP finished 3rd. The quiz was good and some might say I am being overly critical if I say some questions were old chestnuts.

The fact is, and I am not being even a little pompous when i say this, almost all of us in Enquiry are excellent Sports quizzers which is why we find a lot more old chestnuts than most.

The Sports quiz was quickly followed by the Cyber Quiz again conducted by Kunal Malhotra. We changed teams for this and once again most of us made it to the stage. This time around we were left clueless as other teams seemed to find one old chestnut after another whereas we fretted over missed opportunities and stuff we felt we should have known. The quiz was good. I am not sure of the results but i think a team from NIT won with IIT KGP tying for 2nd with a team comprising Panda, Raktim, Sarba & Sumantra.

After the Cyber Quiz I realised something we all know but often forget. "What you know is easy, what you don't is hard". The Sports Quiz was an example of the former and the Cyber of the latter.

I heard somewhere that Kunal Malhotra had been forced to make the Cyber & Biz quiz in a day. If that's true, Hats off to him !! I know how difficult it is to make even one question at a college level quiz in India. To have made 2 quizzes in a day is phenomenal.

The next day Kunal Malhotra did the Biz quiz which IIT KGP won and Boss, Kunalda, Titash & myself finished 2nd.

Then followed the General Quiz conducted by Dr. Bhattacharya from the Qutub Quiz club in Delhi. He did a great quiz and Boss, Panda, Sarba & myself won followed by Debanjan, Priyanka, Jishu & Arindam in 2nd.

Most of us left after the General Quiz but those of us who stayed back took part in the Movie Quiz the next day.

About the Movie Quiz. Perhaps you will not hear this kind of a review for a quiz again so read the following text carefully. To sum up the quiz, it was a waste of good questions !!!!

We have all been to quizzes with stupid formats. They NEVER have good questions. But in the words of Micheline Roquebrune the 2nd wife of Sean Connery "Never Say Never Again".

This quiz had some wonderful questions. But the format. It was so complex, it was ridiculous. There were questions when the only teams to answer got no points. Half the teams were asked 30 questions whereas the other half got only 25. The scoring was so complex it needed a top notch accountant to tabulate. After a tiresome, long, gruelling quiz Debanjan & Co. won with NIT Rourkela 2nd followed by IIT KGP & us tied for 3rd. If only the quiz had been done in a straightforwrd way it would have been immensely enjoyable and we wouldn't have had to return home late in the evening, in a crowded train with all of us carrying severe headaches.

Over all the Springfest quizzes were excellent and we had a good time. The accommodation was fair. I have been to far worse. This was the first time I went to the Springfest & might be the last. I wish I had been here the past 3 years.

Here are some questions from the Sringfest you might enjoy :

Q What did opponents claim players like German goalie Harald Schumacher & Arthur Ashe do in order to distract them ? They tried to hypnotize their opponents

Q Connect Mohammed Yousuf with AG Kripal Singh ? Only test cricketers to have converted religions

Q Where would one use the monetary unit Linden dollars ? In the Second life

Q What was shipped part by part to Lake Havasu Arizona and re-assembled in Oct 1971 ?
The London Bridge

Q In poker what is a hand containing pairs of black 8s & black Aces called ? Dead man's hand

Q 2 parts marble chips to one part cement along with goat milk to act as a glue is used to make what in the world of entertainment ? The terrazo squares on the Hollywood walk of fame.