Bizquiz @ Manfest '09!!!

Hi friends

What a show! What a quiz! What a loser am I!

Well, this sums up my feelings of what was perhaps one of the best quizzes I have seen or been to in a long time. It was a great performance by Mr. Avinash Mudaliar as a quizmaster and some of his questions were too good! And as usual, I messed up the prelims and failed to qualify to be on the stage.

Well, I have no regrets. Avinash was at his best with his rib-tickling laughter and he was certainly more entertaining than what I had heard about him in some of the blogs. He entertained all of us profusely, inspite of having started late because of delayed flights and other problems.

The buzzer round had some flaws. I clearly saw one of the teams having pressed the buzzer (lifted their hands first) and yet the “independent jury” awarded the question to the home team (they were clearly the 2nd team to lift their hands). The remaining rounds were good and the format was clear and simple. What was tiring was the QM explaining the logic behind the scoring system, which was actually cliché.

Since I have seen both Giri (Pickbrain) and Avinash in action, I have learnt a lot about the art of quizzing. It was a good experience because as a audience member, you can concentrate more on the quizmaster than the quiz itself, giving you plenty of time to think about what is being done and why. From my experience, Avinash was a far better presenter and his questions were also more crackable. However, Giri has a more elegant style to his quizzing. He is calmer, more composed and shows power. His style is more suited to TV, as compared to that of Avinash, whose style is more spot-on.

The best part of the quiz (for me) was the ending. The winners were Mr. Amit Pandeya and Mr. Rohan Khanna. I was actually a big fan of Mr. Pandeya as I used to attempt his quizzes on the quiz groups in Yahoo. But I never realized that he would remember me. He remembered my full name (Varun Reddy), that I used to study at NIT Kurukshetra and told me that he was telling Rohan just before the quiz that “I think that Varun Reddy studies here at IIM Lucknow, but I am not sure he remembers me.” For me, this was as big as a Bollywood fan meeting Amitabh Bachchan. I was so thrilled that I called up Jango just to tell him what happened! I also met the QM at the end of the quiz to tell him how much I liked his style.

Well, I didn’t win any audience prizes. I was denied one prize by one of my year mates (also a Hyderabadi) – I won’t name him, but I will make sure he pays for it in the future (Revenge is in the air). There were 2 other questions that I could have got, but they didn’t come to the audience specifically. One of them was perhaps one of the toughest questions of the quiz (and I managed to get it right!)

Well, I am confident that I can become a good quizmaster in the future. My focus would be on general quizzes and not “just” biz quizzes. I want to promote trivia quizzes and will, one day, become the best QM in India – that’s a promise I made to myself.

My quizzing partner in IIML, Debratna Nag, said he would help me out in this. We are in this together. So will my college friends Jango and Anda (I will ask them and I am sure they will not say no to it). Anyone else interested in my venture? I am all set to start it all by 2014 (tentatively) and my aim is to host my first quiz at IIM Lucknow, making even a General Quiz as a flagship event here. I will do it parallel to Karthik Narayan’s IQL (I dare not clash with my quizzing idol) and I will concentrate more on North and Western India (Even South-Western India) and the premier institutes. IIM Lucknow would be a good platform to start it all - don’t you feel so?

Anyone interested leave a comment or contact me with your details (just in case I don’t know you personally). I would need all the help I can get. Yes, I am not joking about this. I am serious and I will start it as soon as possible. 2014 is just a tentative year. I can be early too.

I need people to help me with the logistics, questions for the quizzes, publicity and sponsorship issues. I would also need people who can get me quiz-hosting opportunities at various colleges in the country – engineering or management. I am also open to schools and quizzing for charity. So if anyone feels he/she can help me out in any way please do let me know whenever you find the time.

And I am not doing this just for the money or the fame – I am doing it because I want to quiz. I want to show the world what good quizzing can be and how quizzing can develop into a sport not just for a few brainiacs, but for one and all. This is similar to the theme that KN runs on - that quizzing is for one and all. Every person who attends a quiz must be able to enjoy it and not just those who qualify for the finals.

BTW, since we are on the topic of quizzing, check this out if you are in Chennai on January 26th this year.

Ciao till my next post.