Caesarean Rhapsody....

I represented Tata Elxsi at the SOS Corporate Quiz on Saturday. The HR at the company had a small quiz to filter out 2 teams. Didn't know that my company had so many avid quizzers. Almost everyone who came, seemed to know more than I did. Finally the legacy of COEP Boat Club quizzing made a difference and I, along with 3 others were shortlisted. I paired up with Keetri L N from DSP group for the final showdown.

The main event was at the ITC Windsor Manor Sheraton. The same hotel where Pushpak was shot and believe me it's much better than what we see in the movie. All the wings and floors are named after British lords and their wives, the architecture being heavily Victiorian. Somehow Bangalore has a fixation with naming stuff after the Brits. Anyhow getting back to the event, the organizers SOS and Vakil Housing were introduced. The quizmaster Movin Miranda is a well known figure in Indian quizzing. The guy was the quizzing sensation when I was probably romping around in my diapers and bib. There were teams from biggies like Motorola, Infy, Satyam, Oracle, Wipro, CGI, Mphasis, O&M, HP, Texas Instruments, Intel, ICICI Bank. But we held a big grudge against the organizers for allowing college guys to participate in a corporate quiz. Anyways, I later realized we were being kiddish, trying to run away from competition and somehow managed to convince my partner the same. On the inside I felt a tinge of fear for the aforementioned companies have all got teams who are regulars at corporate quizzing, here in Bangalore. But somehow, our stars were really shining bright that day and we got 23 answers correct out of 35 in the elims. The cut off was at 18 (Ogilvy & Mather).

In the finals, we had a slow start. Rather, out of the eight rounds, we were absolutely scoreless for the first 6 rounds. The score keeper was having a gala time announcing our score with a hint of mischief. He even said "Tata Elxsi seem to be waiting for a mahoorat to open their account." It felt absolutely ludicrous to be sitting there on the stage with better answers coming from the audience. In the 6th round Keerti got one right, putting a handsome(?) 10 points against our name. Before the final round the scorekeeper again quipped, "Although they can't win from the position they are in right now, Elxsi will be happy to be able to exit with some grace." I still don't know what connotation of 'grace' did he intend.

The final round was a theme based one. There was a central theme which was to be identified based on some clues to be found during the round. There were 6 questions, the answers to which would share a common thing between themselves. The standings at this point were

1. Motorola (80)
2. IIM-1 (75)
3. IIM-2 (40)
4. Ogilvy & Mather (40)
5. Mphasis (30)
6. Tata Elxsi (10) (that's us)

The gamble was that if we could identify the theme after the very first question was answered the team would get 50 points, after the second question 40 points and so on. We could however lose 20 points for a wrong answer at any point. O&M got the first question right. Their question was "The members of the British parliament had called a strike as a protest when the Order of the British Empire was conferred upon whom?" The answer was The Beatles. I promptly wrote it down. The next answer "Jacques Chirac" came from the 2nd IIM team lying 3rd. This was where my days at BCQC helped me. The theme was clear and often used in Pune quizzing circuit. It had to be "Real people to have appeared in Asterix Comics". I raised my hand immidiately attracting the quizmaster's attention. I wasn't alone though. The IIM at 2nd position had also got it right. When the quizmaster announced that we both would get the points, we thought he'd split the 40 points, still leaving us at the bottom of the heap. But when I looked at the score board, it showed 50 against Elxsi which was now the 3rd highest score. The next direct was ours. We got it right and steered clear from any danger of being overtaken by any other team. We were so excited that both of us jumped out of our seats for a high 5 and waved at the second team of Satyajit and Gaurav who had also gone hysterical in the last pew.

It was a big upset and everyone congratulated us during the photo session that ensued the prize distribution. Our team also won the best team name award. We called ourselves "Locked Stocks & 2 Smoked Out Squirrels", a name that I had suggested when I partnered Siddharth Natrajan in college quizzes.

It was when I entered the office and a deluge of mails hit my inbox, that I realized the importance of our success. It was a precedent for the company, which enthused the others to take up this activity. The Head of HR has asked us to have regular quizzes so that we can build more teams to send to such events, which are no doubt prestige issues when company profile comes into question.

Anyhoo, the bottomline is.....I'm elated! I'm proud!! O' Hell, I'm so many things at the same time!!! Go Elxsi....Go BCQC !!

Posted by Anup on Monday, December 20, 2004 at 1:17:00 PM | Permalink