Friday, September 10, 2010

Lone Wolf Mcquade 2010

I have been meaning to write about this highly enjoyable & different quiz for quite a long time now but something or the other always came up that prevented me from doing so. Finally now I have found some unexpected free time with everyone busy watching the Champions League T20. And that includes my TV serial addict mom & sis who are right now gushing over Enrique as he croons his way into the cricketing world. The only reason I watch T20 (the cheerleaders) have not taken over as yet and so here I am typing away.

Everyone at Enquiry had been mulling over a mastermind format quiz for quite a while and we found the best time to do it was during the semester break, when all of us had ample time to search for suitable topics, read up & refresh our knowledge of the said topics & also for the two quiz masters, Debanjan & Boss, to set questions on a vast range of choices. The date was fixed on the 5th of June, 2010 & the venue was the Worldview bookstore at Jadavpur University.

The preparations for the event began almost a month before June 5th with all of us sending in three different topics to the Quiz masters by email. They had the freedom of choosing any one of the topics on which to set questions. This was a two part solo quiz like the famed Mastermind India Show we had all grown up watching. The first part was of course the topic round that was different for all the participants. The second part was a General quiz set common to all. The entire quiz was written.

The topics started pouring in since the day we announced the quiz was happening. I wanted to be one of the quiz masters as setting questions on so many colourful topics would have been fun & I would have learnt a lot. But since Debanjan & Boss were already doing the question setting I reluctantly backed down & started deciding my own three topics.

After a lot of chopping and changing which must have irritated the quiz masters a lot I finally decided on "Friends the TV show", "Manchester United's 1999 Treble season" & "Archie comics". I read the Wiki pages for "Friends" & "Archies" and watched the "1999 Treble season" video for the millionth time as part of my preparations for the quiz.

A couple of days before the event Boss & Debanjan entrusted me with the task of setting questions on a few topics as they were short on time. I was overjoyed. I would be both a participant & a quiz master as well. In true Mithunda & Rajnikanth style I had successfully killed two goons with a single shot.

The topics I set questions on were "Woody Allen", "IPL 2010", "Brand name origins" & my personal favourite "Sir Alex at Old Trafford".

Then the big day arrived and we all piled into the Worldview bookstore for the event to unfold. Around 30 people had registered for the event but unfortunately only around 25 showed up which meant five of the topic sets and a lot of the quiz master's time was wasted. The quiz masters handed each one of our question sheets and the answering started.

My "Friends" set was moderately tough but I had watched each & every episode of the show at least a dozen times. I was sure I was getting 15 on 20 even before they revealed the answers.

After the round was over & the corrections done I saw I had narrowly edged out Jishnuda to claim top spot. His topic was "Tenida". Gairik finished third and his topic had been "Indian classical instrumental music in the last 50 years".

Everyone did reasonably well in their respective topics but even while we were all writing the answers I could see Sumantra AKA Central having difficulty with the "Sir Alex at Old Trafford" set I had cooked up. He was under the impression he would be getting the "KFC Big Bash T20 tournament" and had read up on nothing else. Apparently Boss had been feeling a little mischievous and had hinted Central might get KFC just to tempt Central. And Central had taken the bait not even reading the Wiki page for Sir Alex, from which I had set around 15 of the questions. He still managed to answer a few of the questions & with a little guidance from a guilt-ridden me managed a respectable score.

We took a little break after the topic round and all of us participants walked to 8B, had some food and enjoyed ice cold nimbu paani before heading back to Worldview for the General set to start.

It started in due time & Debanjan started with his half of the questions. We got busy thinking as it was a workable set, took a few guesses & left a few blank as usual. Then Boss took over for his set. Again it was a workable set which got our imaginations going. The exhaustive theme was very nicely concealed and I was really glad when I realized it on the third clue. Most of the others also got the theme right but the individual answers to the theme were not that obvious so we all missed a few points there. Then it was correction time again and fortunately after getting a lot of guesses right I was top again, this time getting the better of Gairik in second and Jishnuda in third. Monishita Dey topped the quiz in the school category. Her topic had been "Films of Satyajit Ray" where she had scored well.

So the final verdict saw Jishnuda third, Gairik second and myself finishing first. The quiz masters had done an awesome job and received a standing ovation from everyone. We all agreed this must become a regular fixture and were all thinking of doing a couple of Lone Wolf Mcquades every year during the semester breaks.

The Worldview bookstore was a great venue & we thank them for their co-operation.




Here is a full list of the people who registered and their topics :


FORMAT: NAME-INSTITUTE-TOPIC1,TOPIC2,TOPIC3


ANAGH ST. XAVIERS JOHNNY DEPP ITALIAN FOOD PINK FLOYD
ANUBHAB FIEM TINTIN SUPER CARS POST '60 POTTER
ARINDAM JU WC 1987 1992 LEONARD COHEN ALAN MOORE
ARPAN FIEM FAUNA OF PLANET EARTH X-MEN LINKIN PARK
ATMADEEP ISB&M F1 POST 2008 ALCOHOL INDUSTRY Q T MOVIES
DEBANJALI MHSG BOB DYLAN CHARLES DICKENS AUDREY HEPBURN
GAIRIK JU INDIAN CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTAL SWAT KAT FRIENDS
JISHNU IIM B TENIDA SACHIN TENDULKAR HARRY POTTER BOOKS
JISHU JU LEONARDO DI CAPRIO PULP FICTION RADIOHEAD
KIRAN RCCIT COMPUTER SRK 3G TECHNOLOGY
KUNAL JU INDIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS INDIAN FOOD LOGOS
MONISHITA AHG OSCARS SATYAJIT RAY GREENDAY
NAIRIT PRESIDENCY PAGLA DASHU LORD VOLDEMORT HIGGS BOSON
NEIL BESU FIFA WORLD CUP INDIAN MYTHOLOGY COMICS
NRISINGHA XAVIERS FIFA PLAYER MALE ECO NOBEL PERCY JACKSON
PANCHU PRESIDENCY THE BEATLES BATMAN
RAKTIM ST. XAVIERS ITALIAN CINEMA IT BUSINESS
ROBIN JU F.R.I.E.N.D.S TREBLE CHARACTERS OF ARCHIES
SARBAJIT JU DON BRADMAN JAYANTA MANIK TARINIKHURO
SASWATA CU SIMPSONS PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES LOTR
SHIBARJUN ISB&M REAL MADRID AUTOMOBILES WOODY ALLEN
SHREYA LSA WALL STREET COLLAPSE HARVARD WARREN BUFFET
SID JU WOMEN NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS FELUDA HARRY POTTER
SOUVIK JNU 19TH CENT BENG WOMEN BOND ODBHUTURE
SUMANTRA PRESI SIR ALEX AT OLD TRAFFORD KKR KFC BIG BASH
TIRTHA JU BOLYWOOD POST 2000 COMPANY NAME ORIGIN KKR
ABHISHEK XXX ARTEMIS FOWL VAN GOGH P G WOODEHOUSE
ABHISHEK IMT LOTR STAR WARS MARKETING THEORY
SUMIT ST. XAVIERS FRASIER WEST CLASSICAL EAST CLASSICAL
APRATIM DBL ALBUM COVER WORLD CUP POLITICS

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