Quizzing at Hyderabad

Indias Top at WQC and Mahaquizzer-2011

2011-06-16T16:55:00.003+05:00

Indias Top 10 at WQC:
1)Arul Mani
2)Dr. S. Bhattacharya
3)Sankhay Krishnan
4)Samanth Subramanian
5)Lathish
6)Rahul Kottalgi
7)Vikram Joshi
8)Gopal Kidao
9)Manu Sudhakar
10)P Srikanth

Indias top 10 at Mahaquizzer:
1)Arul Mani-BNG
2)Anstup Dutta-BNG
3)Swmanithan -CHN
4)Shouvik Guha-KOL
5)Srikanth Parmeswaran-COIM
6)Samanth Subramanian-DEL
7)Jayshree Jayak-KOL
8)Rajiv Rai-MUM
9)Harikrishnan Menon-MUM
10)Lathish-Hyd

TC Hyderabad 2010-Finalists bring knocked out in round one!!!

2010-08-21T08:29:00.004+05:00

TC has been a delight for quizzing enthusiasts like me for years helping me broaden my horizons and get exposed to the world of intellectual brilliance year after year.This year TC has introduced a wild card round for team finishing 6th to 11th in the prelims giving them a fair chance to make it to the the teams on stage but I was surprised to see that the National Finalists and the Students edition international champion bite the dust in round one!!!.Game -Set and Match is over is round 1 set 1!!!

Its like Roger Fedrer and Rafael Nadal loosing out in round 1 of Wimbledon highly improbable but possible if the right draws are not drawm.Isnt it time that TC decides on giving a direct nationals entry to the previous years winners given that the National champion is the best among 2000 competing teams.My heart goes out to the young quizzing lad from Mahindra Satyam who is the reigning International champion of the TC students edition who was knocked out in the very first round too.

Shouldn't the number of teams that make it from a centre that has all the Big wigs taking part be more than one.There a number of new cities added every year which gives the quizzing enthusiast from these cities a chance to be a part of the TC journey but cant a weighted formula be worked out so that the best is saved for the last and doesn't bite the dust in round one?These are some of the questions that come to mind.Shouldn't TC re look at its format of selecting just the top team for a location represent the national finals where the other good teams would have been eliminated in the regional rounds as well?A formula on the lines of Ranji Trophy Plate League and Elite League?

Tata Crucible Hyderabad round 2010-A virtual final

2010-08-21T07:20:00.010+05:00

On my way home after witnessing the Hyderabad round of Tata crucible 2010 there were multiple thoughts running across my mind -How often do you witness a quiz that has :
1)Current reigning National Champion 2) The current reigning International Campus edition Champion 3) The 3rd runner up of Brand equity national finals 4)Defending champions from Hyderabad 5)Finalist from Hyderabad on numerous occasions all together in the very first round of a multi city contest chances are 1 million.The quiz was an amazing display of stratospheric quizzing each team matching the other blow by blow taking the quizzing to newer and newer heights with each ques tionsand left the audience gasping with delight and sheer awe in terms of intellectual magic and brilliance on display.

If at all there was a quiz competition that witnessed the final being contested in the very first round it was this years Hyderabad round of TC.Murali and his able partner put to display their sheer quizzing acumen in the round of lateral questions in addition to answering a few tough chest nuts right from the word go ,the reigning champions Vizag steel showed why they were the National champions right from the word go.If at all there is any quizzer who had taken quizzing to a new level when it mattered the most it was JK and Latish from Google.Raghu and Raghuram the 3rd runner up from Brand equity demonstrated what a very well seasoned matured team can do on their day.Niteesh from Microsoft came with his usual quota of sparks of brilliance.A very tough lateral which wasn't cracked by the esteemed and august 6 teams on stage was cracked by our own Business quizzing champ Raja Sateesh from ICICI.But one team that very quietly in their own unassuming Rahul Dravid no nonsense style displayed brilliance,agility and presence of mind when it mattered the most were the eventual winners from Infosys who stunned Google by hitting a last ball six but pressing the buzzer in answering the question on EID Parry's head quarters.

No thriller film could match the sheer intellectual pleasure that one witnessed at TC Hyderabad for that matter the closest that come to match this entertainment ,excitement and sheer pleasure that I can recall from the recent past was the India vs Pakistan T20 finals. Amazing!!! simply delightful Guyz if you've missed witnessing this round you can say you've missed the very best that Tata Crucible 2010 has to offer and you've missed the Finals contested in round one.Cant get better than this anywhere anytime in any corporate business quiz.

Innovative Team names

2010-08-19T08:31:00.002+05:00

I had the good fortune of attending this years Greenko quiz conducted by HQC and I must say that the names of some of the team that had taken part were by far the most innovative ones that I had seen in the recent past with the likes of "Mother India hunters " "Bijli Bani Jwala"..and apparently one of these teams called itself "Haseena ka Paseena"!!!! at this years land mark quiz.Some of the more innovative names that come to my mind are "Patna ke Priestlies " the " Head Bangers" only the "Paranoid survive","Chennai 27" and "Swami and Friends".Guess it would be a great exercise to compile all of these innovative names to come up with a all time time top 100Innovative team names list.

World Quizzing Championship -2010

2010-06-10T06:44:00.003+05:00

I finally could take part in the World Quzzing Championship this year at Hyderabad.It was quite refreshing to take part in a quiz that was free from local bias ,quizmaster preferences a quiz which was a very good mix of all the possible mix and match to enthuse all sorts of people .
It was quite refreshing to know that a non regular at the local quizzing circles steal the show at Hyderabad.
The highest score was a whopping 180 !!! world wide ..

BEQ 2010-Hyderabad Round

2010-05-16T11:11:00.004+05:00

Much to every bodies relief this years BEQ Hyderabad round was held in the comforts of HICC Novetel,providing the participants and audience much needed respite from the sweltering heat wave that has hit Hyderabad for the past 2 weeks.

The Hotel had a decent spread of refreshments lined up.

The prelims had a very good mix of easy,tough and chestnut questions to separate the chalk from the cheese .Unlike in the past Derek didn't announce the score of all the participants who took part in the prelim ..Guess he was running late and had to cover up for lost time waiting for participants to arrive.This unique feature of Derek announcing the scores after the prelims has helped wannabe finalist benchmark against the better ones and has come them come back the next year.Surprising the scores of the 4o odd teams were not announced.

The finals was a battle between the " Men of Steel " vs " Software pros".Vizag steel which has been doing consistently with Mr Murthy and Mr Rahul made it to the stage along with one more team of theirs...Bhilai steel to made it to the top6...Google ( a seasoned team of Lathish and JK( a consistent regional finalist for as long as I can remember)),Microsoft( Niteesh and his partner),and IBM (with Raghu (the KC quizzer) and Ragu ( the legendary TCS finalist at Tata Crucible ) made it to the final.

Unfortunately JWT Mindest the winners for the past 2 years didn't make the cut for the top 6 but didn't go home empty handed and Mr Anwar bagged a handsome audience prize from Club Mahindra.

One thing which is consistent for the past 2-3 years at BEQ Hyderabad is that the winner was somebody who cracked the clincher not because of being a regular at quizzing but has been someone who has seen the world as was the case for the past 2 years (Mr Anwar clinching the quiz for JWT the past 2 years ) and Raghu clinching it for IBM ( with his answer on type of pastas) which only experience can teach you.

Raghu-Sr is a deserving finalist esp due to his never say die attempts at BEQ ..I remember he made it to the top 6 in 2001 with Vishwanath Chavali and just missed the cut last year.Hats off to his undeterred efforts at BEQ he has a very good partner in Raguram Jr a good all round quizzer from KC.

A special mention of Raja satish who cracked the audience question on RGIA theme song ..a very good answer..Murli Duggineni cracked the Ceaser salad answer in the audience.Murli and Rajeev Kondapali couldn't participate as their companies Idea and Mahindra Satyam were sponsors of this event

Prelim Scores not being announced

2009-08-25T10:27:00.004+05:00

Ive seen many quizzes being conducted where people take the pains/trouble to travel all the way sometimes braving the elements at times juggling their responsibilities both at work and in their personal lives to take part in the prelims of the quiz .The prelims get them keyed up but the announcement of the finalist turns out to be a dampener leaving the others who've not made it lurking in the dark not knowing where they stand only for the only reason that the Organizers don't bother to announce the scores of teams that have taken pains to be a part of the prelims -the justification being to avoid Controversies (wonder as to why would controversies arise!! in the first place)

Wonder what makes it so difficult to announce the scores esp when all the answers sheets would have been corrected ? (I meant atleast announcing the cutoffscore /scores of finalists would help)
No wonder the same teams make it to the podium.(Killing the enthusiasm of the budding quizzers who go back not knowing where they stand compared to the guyz whove made the cut).

P.S: Clarified a few points raised in this post earlier after getting a comment on this post .

Tata Crucible-Campus Edition -Hyderabad

2009-03-23T13:40:00.003+05:00

Postivies:
1) Great to see the wildcard round .
2) Good first timers turnout
3)Amazing single man show by the winning team
4) Great to see so many Engineering team make it to the finals
5) Refreshing to see Fresh talent emerge

HEART BREAKERS:
1) Must say the quizzing standard of the participants was low
2) Not too many audience prizes on offer

Quiz questions Accessible only to a few-Baffling practice

2009-03-10T11:30:00.004+05:00

A number of the highly respected quiz groups in the country have stopped sharing the questions of the quizzes conducted by them at public forums (their websites/e-grous/blogs) which limits the access to the great wealth of knowledge to only a select and fortunate few who either have access to the repository of questions or happen to attend the quiz.
Isn't this information arbitrage ??? The only exception being Rajeev Kondapalli( of the quinkie and 'Numbers only' fame' who very diligently shares all his content on his blog.

Agreed that in this age of Plagiarism and copyrights and all these groups have adopted the practice of taking the quiz questions or archives off the website to protect their IP (so to say) but why limit access to knowledge to all esp in the age of the Wikipedias and Googles where knowledge and wisdom and information is freely accessible to all .

A baffling practice isn't it !!!!

KQA Quizzes -hats off

2009-01-25T11:25:00.002+05:00

I had the good fortune of witnessing the Quiz conducted by KQA a couple of weeks ago and all that I had to say was hats off to the Quiz in terms of the content.It was such a whiff of fresh air as compared to the stale quizzes of Hyderabad which are centered around the tastes of a few that I was pleasantly surprised and delighted at getting into the 'learning more mode' rather than 'winning mode' which was one of the few reasons that I got hooked onto quizzing.

Thanks to KQA that the spirit of knowing more has been rekindled in me.

A Good Quiz -one which contains questions with a decent shelf life

2008-10-07T11:42:00.003+05:00

As indicated by one of the comments posted on my blog:
***************************************************************************************
Anonymous said...
the true quizzer is someone who reads what he wants to instead of mugging up as if he's appearing for a graduation exam. quizzing has to grow beyond knowing who is the latest CEO of so and so company and how many brands does emran hashmi endorses. a good quiz is the one which contains questions with a decent shelf life. unfortunately, this is not happening now-a-days, especially on the business quizzing front. Quizzing has to grow beyond identifying momofuku ando after seeing just three hairs on his eyebrow. you can count the good quizzes on the fingers of your left hand. so let's stop all this ruckus and read only what we want instead of winning some moolah in a quiz.

**********************************************************************************

Couldn't help post this comment posted on my blog as a post as I couldn't agree more with what the Anonymous person said.
No wonder that the best Quizzes in the country attract the best Quizzers (in the true sense) even if there is no moolah

Vizag Steel-Truly Men of Steel

2008-09-19T08:18:00.006+05:00

How many quizzers would dare to chose a tougher quizzing venue like Kolkatta to take part in a Quiz prelim I'm sure not many.Vizag Steel have proven time and again ( much to my delight) that they can not only steam roll quizzes at Hyderabad but enter the lions den (Kolkatta) and emerge victorious.

They've won the prelims at Kolkatta and BBU.To be honest I wasn't supporting them at this years BEQ being a Hyderabadi to the core but they done it again won at a tough venue.

Vizag Steel seems to be setting new standards not only with their exemplary behaviour,poise,humility but now with their courage and performance too which they've being displaying for quite sometime..

Go on Vizag Steel wish you luck to get the big one at the finals at this years TC.

JUST IN: Vizag Steel set a record in Crucible history by being the first company to have 2 teams in the National Finals .
Did Someone say they are not good!!!!

Not many Classic -"Lone Wolf Quizzes"

2008-09-08T08:54:00.007+05:00

Across the different quizzing forums youd find very few Lone Wolf Format quizzes now a days.
The Classic Lone Wolf format quiz is slowly fading into the oblivion .Except for Sarang of late not many quizzes are in the Classic Format.
The Classic format(Lone Wolf Format) is loosing out to the "I piggy back on you format ."Guess the traditionalists are giving way to the razzle dazzle ( Quiz for the masses formats).
Its these Classic quizzes that have brought to light the individual brilliance of quizzers across the country unlike the Razzle Dazzle quizzes which are quite lacklustre and mediocre .

The Best and the Worst Quiz masters

2008-09-01T10:57:00.002+05:00

Trying to collate info across Club Quizzes,college quizzes,corporate quizzes
The Best:
1) Siddhartha Basu(without doubt)
2)
3)
4)
5)
The Worst:
1)
2)

Please voice your opinion so that we can come up with this list...we shower Kudos !!! on the Best and Brickbats on the really Bad QM's

Tata Crucible 2008 -Hyderabad Edition

2008-08-11T09:45:00.004+05:00

It was raining Cats and Dogs on the day of the quiz .I was pleasantly surprised to see the quizzing herd to have come to the attend the quiz despite the downpour.

Positives of the Quiz:
1)A good prelim which separated the chalk from the chaff
2) The QM wanted feedback at the end which shows QMs are becoming more receptive to change
3) Things went down to the wire you couldn't predict the winner until the last question .
4) The best team on stage won the quiz(Googles team of JK and Latish are solid all round quizzers)
5) Good attention to keeping time and being on schedule ensured we had a weekend at our disposal.

Negatives of the quiz:
1) Great difference in the standard of questions posted to the participants in one round(the Connect round) .This difference in standard of questions posted made the difference in the final standings .A few teams getting very easy questions and a few getting scorching tough questions-Guess on a Rainy day the QM and his team also get lazy -after all he has to conduct the quiz across 16 locations!!!
2)The tea served was rationed ( Guess due to inflation ) on a rainy day the least a person expected was a cup of hot tea.
3) Some insensitive remarks made towards a)AP's outlook towards a major Blockbuster and b)some of the teams deciding to participate as different teams this year -were in very poor taste.
4) The AC was smelling of a dead rat!!!..which made the audience move to one side of the hall

Guess Vizag steel has left it to the lesser mortals to win at Hyderabad especially at Tata Crucible for the past two years

Top Ten Quizzes in India

2008-06-25T14:45:00.006+05:00

1) Mahaquizzer -For being a Open quiz and reaching out to people across locations.The only grouse being it has a bias towards Science. and allied subjects
2) WQC - For being a Open quiz and reaching out to people across locations-except in Hyderabad where it reached out only to a few
3)KQA Open -For being a Open quiz giving opportunity to a lot of people to participate but limited to a region to which a person has to travel to to participate
3) Landmark Quiz
3) Odyssey Quiz
6) K-Circle Open- Had it been conducted regularly would have been at the no .3 slot
7) Tata Crucible - One quiz that has no entry fee which allows anybody from corporates and schools to participate.The content is well researched at times
8) Sarang - Considered to be THE MOST COVETED quiz to win if you are a true quizzer .But is limited in reach as in if you cant travel down to Chennai then your not in
9)Brand Equity - For the amazing prizes that it has at stake .Has been a trend setter in Business quizzing for years. This has become a must win quiz for Corporate Quizzers.
10)CRY-Fact Quiz- One of the best quiz formats on display

Its quite disheartening to see that there are very few sports quizzes,film quizzes that are conducted regularly .Would have loved to see a sports quiz figure in the list.

P.S: I must've missed out mentioning a few quizzes that are considered legendary in terms of their appeal,content . Please do let me know about them if I have not mentioned them here in my list

World Quiz Championship- no prior intimation of the venue

2008-06-20T09:10:00.005+05:00

Wonder why there wasn't any news on the venue for the WQC @ Hyderabad on any of the quizzing mailing list .Except for one blog that had a mention of it and if you had happened to visit it or knew the people behind the blog you would have come to know about " The World Quizzing Championship" .The irony of the quiz is that its a World Championship only for a few quizzers who happened to know about it - Isnt that the Ironical of a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

The Best quizzers are never Good Quiz Masters

2008-06-19T08:48:00.005+05:00

Ive noticed time and again at least at Hyderabad(of late) that the best quizzers are never the best QM's isn't that a paradox or is it "sheer insecurity of sharing their wisdom".

There used to be a time when I used to attend quizzes and would go back home filled with bliss ,awe and sheer joy of having learnt so many new things-of course this was in the good old days of QM's like Pratap Reddy.Now a days whenever the so called the " Know all(KA)" conduct quizzes its far from being enlightening its more of happenings of the recent past that is canned and dished out.To my horror one of the " Know all(KA)" QM's did a entire quiz from the previous " Sarang" editions and one of the other " Know all(KA)" did a recap of the past quizzes-shocking!!! isn't it.

Gone are the days when we had to put up with a two hour quiz on "PHOENICIAN EMPIRE" or "WORLD WAR-2" now a days you don't even get that( thank God for that -but atleast that was better) you get mere rephrased , re packaged questions.

You can rest assured that whenever a "Know all(KA)" QM does a quiz it would turn out to be a "DAMP SQUIB" coz the KA doesnt feel obligated to give it his best shot.

" Yes !!!!Baby you say that I havent seen enough" ( A retort to one of the comments posted on my blog) but I have seen enough of this happening time and again .

I yearn for a quiz that is fine balance between being enlightening and not being too foccused on one area which only a few people could do with great aplomb( Pratap Reddy is one of them).

Just attended a very good quiz conducted by students of BITS on Saturday at Hyderabad

Top Ten Quizzers in India

2008-06-16T16:14:00.013+05:00

I usually don't believe in compiling such lists esp for quizzing but cudnt resist creating one.Herez my list
1)Mitesh Agarwal
2)Arul Mani- For his commendable performance at the World Quiizing Championships .
3) G Srikanth,Jaspreet Bindra,Masood Hussaini, and Pratap Reddy (For doing well consistently for years at India's GRAND SLAM quizzing events)
4) Rajeev Rai- winner of BEQ 2007, finalist this year
5)Gopal Kidao & Samanth Subramanian
6) AlagarSwamy-(The quizzing legend from Hyderabad who has been winning various quizzes across India)
7)Sabysachee Chandra-consistently been the finalist at BEQ for years and was the champ this year.Winner of the Tata Crucible Tata round every year
8)Gautam Gosh- ( guess he'll be in my top 10 list for ever)
9) Vizag steel's team-( Rahul and the bearded partner of his)-cant help mentioning a team here coz it wud be unfair to slot them at different places ( finding a place here for the wonderful role models that they are )
10) Priyamvadh Patnaik-the most complete quizzer that Ive ever seen-wins at open quiizes,corporate quizzes,club level quizzes.(Roger Federer of quizzing-infact better than him as Federer is not good on clay but Priyamvadh is good everywhere)

P.S: These are the people whom Ive seen in action so the other legends please pardon me for not mentioning you in this list as Ive not witnessed your quizzing exploits live.

Scrap the trailblazer round

2008-06-16T16:01:00.004+05:00

Ive seen that of late a set of QM's seem to be too fond of the trail blazerround which is seriously flawed.

Trailblazer round- One question is linked to the other and now a days 26 questions are asked where each answer of question represents an alphabet.
The Pros: This round is good for people who understand the line of thought of a QM or have been associated with him.Ideally a trail blaizer should be 10 questions long and not 26 questions long. Its fun to have such rounds at a informal quiz but not at a competitve serious quiz.

The Cons:You miss one question and you miss the chain .With graded scoring adopted in such rounds you are bound to bite the dust if you miss a question or two.This round is heavily in favour of people familiar with the QM and his line of thought.

This round shouldnt find its place in any of the serious quizzes if people want quizzes to be clean and fair to all the paticipants

"Prelim Toppers not winning the stage round"- Jinx

2008-05-02T09:45:00.002+05:00

Time and again QM's have announced with pride that the Prelims toppers never win the Stage rounds and it has been happening is it a Jinx!!! not really if you look closely its a flaw in the way the quiz is designed as pointed out in one of my previous posts on Stage rounds being flawed.

The prelims is open to everybody and the best team tops invariably.But the stage round introduces many flaws some of which are listed below
1) Questions are not open to all teams which means things are subject to draw of luck
2) The place at which a team sits either strengthens or weakens theie chances of crcaking a questions
3) The quizz master has a specific set of question to each team rather than throwing each question open to all

With so many external elements of draw fo luck associated with the stage round how can a good team win ? in most cases they get knowcked out by probability of the different elements in play

So the next time the team that tops the prelims doesnt win the stage round ..QM's please re look at you Stage round format.

BEQ-2008 gets Sober!!!!!

2008-04-22T08:28:00.002+05:00

Surprise !!!!!Surprise!!!!!
DOBrien know for his stingy remarks ,knowing for hurling friendly slurs at companies and participants has metamorphosised into a Angel .This years BEQ saw him being sober and nice to participants and companies conspicuous by its absense was his Stingy,acidic sense of humor.
He has done away with the arbitary "Identify the advertiser/promotion round' with ads that are seen by everybody.Is he retiring from Quizzing!!!!
JWT-Mindset were the winners this year and kudos to Mr.Anwar whom Ive been noticing participating every year from the time I got on to the BEQ bandwagaon and has consistently done well.Was happy to see a Hyderabadi team win knockiung out Vizag Steel the Good old boys of Quizzing.I hold nothing against Vizag Steel which is a fine quizzing team but it felt sick seeing a team from outside winning and this year was a welcome change.Just heard that JWT Mindset reached the top 4 at the finals which was won by TCS -Kolkatta one of the best Business-Quizzing teams in the country-Sreekanth and Sabyasachi you desreve it ..Congrads!! to you.

BTW did you guyz notice Derek trying to seek into cricket I had seen him on NDTV Sports Unlimited airing his views on one of the CRICKET !!! matches..Derek and Cricket???

Flaw in Quizzing Formats-Quizzers or GUESSers?

2008-04-21T08:23:00.004+05:00

Ive been a quizzer at times and have been a part of the audience and have noticed time and again as to how flawed the stage rounds of quizzes are.I am trying to be a V Jayadevan to quizzing to point out the inherent flaws in the stage rounds and the so called Infinite bounce formats
Lets me explain this with the following example:
Scenario1:
Say there are 6 teams on stage and the question passes from one team to the other when the question which is directed to a team is not answered.
1) Quizzers as such are supposed to smart people so if a a question is directed to say Team 1 and they don't get it right this eliminates one of the possible answer choices which leaves Team 2 to whom the question passes with 4 out of the 5 possible choices (which the team arrives at due to their quizzing acumen ) to guess and as the question passes on the probability of guessing the right answer increases and team 6 is almost certain chance of getting it right
2) The flaw in directing a question to one team and not giving the others a chance to take a shot at it is that it introduces the element of luck to a great extent.Say Team 1 is asked a question andt say Team 4 ,Team 3 also know its answer it deprives them the chance of scoring.

Solution : Keep the questions open to all so that whichever team knows the answer gets points and we don't end up killing hard earned quizzing acumen because of the element of luck

3)How does one decide the better team out of the 6 on stage if each question is open to all on stage
Solution : If 1 team cracks it and no one else cracks it they get a bonus point .If 2 teams crack it they split the bonus points

4) How do you make sure that if one of the team answers it that the other teams on stage don't mimic them
Solution1 : Quizzers are people with "REALLY BIG FAT" egos they wouldn't end up stooping down to copying someone that too at a stage round.They are a lot with immense pride in their intellect and hence would trust their knowledge and wisdom to take a crack at a question.
Solution 2:Devise questions that bring out the intellect rather than the Guessing ability.

P.S : This format cannot be applied to all rounds say buzzer round( the biggest farce ) or non passable questions round .

I thought highlighting this inherent flaw in Quizzing that has been in existence for decades so that we can make ammends .

Taking caring of the above ( though not a exhaustive list) would bring out the best quizzers and not the best GUESS Masters at quiz shows.The proposed format is debatable but give it a thought and you can see the gains from it esp at a stage .

More of Quizzes of Intellect and Brilliance are the need of the hour rather than mere Guesswork on display.I Foresee a great resistance to this format being used right away due to the status- quo that prevailed for years !!!!!but thought would bring it to the limelight to shake things up for the better.

LETS make quizzing free of the element of CHANCE and luck..we are smart enough to take care that quizzing is free of CHANCE/LUCK as far as possible arent we ?

Snubbing by the QM's

2008-01-20T19:54:00.003+05:00

Ive been to a number of corporate quizzes and have noticed the QM's snub the participants and take digs at them or thier companies mock at them all of which seems to be very ugly.Doing it once or twice for fun is OK ,but mocking time and again makes one feel as to why do I or my company pay to participate in this quiz and in turn put up with all of the QM's tantrums !!!!Sometimes the QM's are blatantly politically incorrect and mock the companies too,does it mean the companies taking part will put up with all of this lying down....Food for thought isn't it.!!!!!

Quinkie completes 4 years

2007-06-05T08:29:00.000+05:00

Quinikie the Biz quiz group from Hyderabad has completed 4 years.Con grads to Murli and Rajeev.Keep up the Good work.
Its about time Quinkie has it offline quiz which would evoke a lot of interest from Biz quiz enthusiasts

ACE 2007 Corporate Quiz

2007-06-04T09:34:00.000+05:00

The Hyderabad chapter (http://www.ashanet.org/hyderabad) of Asha(http://www.ashanet.org) invites you to take part in our annualsignature fundraising event, the ACE 2007 Corporate Quiz.

(http://www.ashanet.org/hyderabad/index.php/Events/ACE2007).Date: June 16, SaturdayTime: 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.Venue: Khemka Auditorium, Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, HyderabadRegistration fees: Rs. 5000 per team, Rs. 4000 per team if more thanone team represents the same corporatePrizes worth Rs. 60,000 to be won.

Funds raised from the event will be used to support the mid-day mealprogramme at the Ramakrishna Upper Primary School, Yellammabanda,Kukatpally, Hyderabad. Most of the kids in this school are children ofstone quarry workers. The Asha sponsored mid-day meal programme hasresulted in significant improvement in attendance levels and theoverall wellbeing of the children.We need your help! If you want to participate, please download andfill the participation form(http://www.ashanet.org/hyderabad/events/ACE2007/docs/ACE07_Participation_Form.pdf)and contact us. If you can help us find sponsors for the event, pleasedownload the sponsorship package(http://www.ashanet.org/hyderabad/events/ACE2007/docs/ACE_2007_Sponsorship_Form.pdf)and share it with prospects.

Contact :Ravi Mundoliravim_asha@yahoo.com98494 19142

KQA-MahaQuizzer

2007-05-25T09:41:00.000+05:00

Year after year KQA has done a commendable job of organizing the KQA-Mahaquizzer all around the country on the same day...now that calls for some coordination,making it the only National level quiz (considering that all quizzes are staggered being conducted on different days and giving the participants taking part in the latter legs of a prelim a unfair advantage of being better prepared)

The fact that there is no bias towards any particular area in the questions asked and that the entire quiz is conducted free of cost for the pure 'Love for Quizzing' makes KQA Mahaquizzer stand out as a clean ,neat and a genuine effort of Quizzing.

Like last year I plan to take this years KQA-Mahaquizzer quiz.Lets see how it goes.

Hyderabad Quizzing Club

2007-05-14T14:24:00.000+05:00

I had attended the HQC quiz ,which was pleasant with the AC switched on(to beat the scortching heat) .The participants were grouped based on excels random sort(which I thought was a Good Practice)

I thought that the quiz was very random ,with no care given to maintaining a Uniform standard for the questions . Priyamvadh(from Orissa) was asked to identify the "Odissi" dance form.Give me a break !!!!.

Some of the questions were very easy ,they were dismissed as "Draw of the Luck" by the QM a convenient excuse for laziness.All said and done it was a very good effort in creating a 'Quiz of reasonably Good standard'.

Swami the Lone Ranger from Hyderabad

2007-04-26T09:27:00.000+05:00

Our own Swami(Alagaraswamy) seems to be the lone ranger from Hyderabad,winning competitions all around the country,making to the top 6 teams at the Mumbai round of BEQ and winning the quiz at KJSIMS..Cheers!!! to swami

A true Quizzing enthusiast-Muneer

2007-03-28T17:26:00.000+05:00

Man this Guy Muneer tarvels for 3 hours,one way to attend the weekly sessions at KC,or any other quiz.
Rustic to look at,he is a Genuine quizzing enthusiast to the core who came to the lime light during Sid basus Concern India quiz with his answers..Muneer hats of to your enthusiasm.

Role "Vizag Steel " Models win again at this years BEQ

2007-03-23T09:32:00.001+05:00

Vizag Steel-should change its tag line as "Men of Steel Humble as a Saint"

Vizag Steel have won this years BEQ at Hydbad yet again.It feels great to see a down to earth ,humble team win a quiz yet again.

Especially when humble people is a rare breed to find among "Quiz winners".No wonder it is delight to see them win year after year.

Proud,Pretentious,Conceited people..so called "Great Quizzers"...the humble Vizag steel has humiliated you once again by their humility in Victory.

BEQ seems to have changed for the good the quiz starts at 6:30 as compared to the previous years ,and snacks were served too.

When arrogance ,A "Holier than though " attitude seems to be the " in thing"..Vizag steel are a refreshing set of "Nice Guys","Humble Guys" to emulate as Role Models.

Brand Equity -2007-

2007-02-26T09:11:00.001+05:00

With the previous editions of BEQ having themes of Films,Elections,Russian General,my guess is this years theme would be

With the the QM hurling "Balls" ( which balls were used in the recent series...swami said TVS) remember....!!! Im without doubt that this year will have Balls!!! No Balls and Wides and Power Plays...

Hope this years BEQ has lesser room for Chance and has questions that would seperate the genuine quizzers from the rest (who make the cut out of sheer luck)..

Any clue as to who the QM would be !!!!????with the QM's joining politics ??

Swami & BT Business Acumen a Love Affair

2006-12-19T11:32:00.000+05:00

Our Own Swami made it to the 'top two' of this years BT-Business Acumen quiz too...Three cheers to Swami

"Business Class treatment at Economy Class fares"-Harsha Bhogle-Kaikoo-2006

2006-11-14T12:50:00.000+05:00

Man the treatment that we got,I mean the refreshments that were served were truly great,considering that the enrty fee was just Rs200/-.

Hats off !!! to the organizers of Harsha Bghole -Kaikoo-2006.

Guess BRAND EQUITY and other quizzes which rip companies of 4grand should take a cue from this quiz to serve decent refreshments as most of the particpants, come to take part in this quiz some where around 5:00pm on a working day,obviously tired and hungry.

This quiz was a welcome change in the otherwise stingy 'refreshmments served' quizzes that all of us are used to,man why is every body trying to make quizzing a SERIOUS affair,take a cue from Harsha Bhogle -Kaikoo-2006

Murli 'Qunikie' Duggineni wins

2006-11-02T10:55:00.000+05:00

'Good People!!!' (unlike perpetual snobs!!!) too win a great number of quizzes.Murli Duggineni won the latest quiz conducted by Harsha Bhogle in Hyderabad.A low key quiz which did not have much publicity,was won by Murli and Deepak.

This adds to the string to several victories that Murli has had in the recent past.

Cheers!!! Murli ,quiziing needs a lot of ' humble' role models like you.

Vizag Steel(Rahul and the Bearded man) and Murli have been the torch bearers of the rare breed of HUMBLE QUIZZERS..please keep up the Good Work.

Congrads!!!

Pure Quizzing-Quizzing for the Sake of Quizzing

2006-09-25T11:35:00.000+05:00

Attending quizzes like K-Circle open makes me feel happy that there is atleast somebody who has quizzes just for the sole purpose of quizzing and nothing else,pure unadulterated quizzing .
Guess QM's should put in an effort to attend such quizzes to know how different such a Open Quiz is from theri style of quizzing.

Hats of K-C ,keep up the good work.

Tata Crucible -2006-Hyderabad Round

2006-07-12T09:40:00.000+05:00

Giri seems to be a reactive as well as a proactive QM..making some welcome changes to corporate Biz Quizzing..asking more visible adds unlike Brand Equity...trying to ensure fairplay..in the main rounds...
but failed to improve on the prelims format..i still feel the prelims are not fool proof and give room for a lot of luck the fact that 11 teams had been tied in the prelis goes to show that there is a lot of room for luck..luck or no luck...Deloittes team of Vinod and Stayams team of Priyamvadh always seem to make it to the stage...
One notable observation was he was priding himself on the winners of the collegaite quiz,turning out to be winners at the corpoarte which looked absurd to me..he should relook at the content of the quiz wasnt some of the content very academic..and not something which a seasoned employee would know by virtue of years of experince ..gained...Guess giri should give the content of the quiz some thought ..the presnetation of the some of the questions with essays written on the ppt made reading difficult..
All in all it was good to see a quiz master ,making changes to the quiz and making an attempt to reduce the randomness associated with quiz.Cheers to Giri on that aspect.
If some of you look at the Star teams that I have mentioned in my blog you would see that 3 of them reached the finals yet again:Delloitte(speraheaded by Vinod),Vizag Steel(I guess the second string team) and the team from ICICI lombard (which had one of the students from IPE).
Feels good to see one QM taking the pains to make quizzes less of a farce..and yes hats off to ICICI lombard for their speed and mental agility.
P.S: Giri can you schedlue the quiz at 6:00pm from now on ..this is a corporate quiz and not a school quiz ,where people would come down at 4:30pm..agreed 80 teams had come in but it is a inconvenience toall of us ...

What is Quizzing ???

2006-06-17T09:16:00.000+05:00

Hi! ,
After attending all those quizzes by the legendary QM's ..I always seem to think what is quizzing.Quite often I end up rhinking what quizzing is all about.Is it a set of questions that the QM feels are the things that people should know are they commonly know facts.There is always a deabte as to what %age of the questions should be answerable ,what % age should be infotainemnet ?

Can recall Siddahartha Basus questions to be intellectually srimualting ,but of late havent found too many quizes to be of that breed...

Guyz post ur opinions on what you feel Quizzing is ????

Humor in Quizzing

2006-05-28T09:53:00.000+05:00

For long quizzes have been Serious with Hardly any room for humor .Two people have changed this Dramatically and have made Quizzing Lively and very Entertaining ,thanks to "Derek O Brien",and "Nihal Koavali",Quizzing is no longer a serious ,heat gerenrating activating.

Derek and Nihal Thanks !!!! Keep up the Good work.Hope many more people like you touch and influence the Quizzing world

KQA's -Maha quizzer

2006-05-21T17:39:00.001+05:00

A good format for quizzing ,no glitz and glamor associated with it just pure quizzing?/??what do you guyz say .

Harsha Bhogle/Siddhartha Basu over looks Hyderabad

2006-05-21T17:39:00.000+05:00

Wonder why Harsha Bhogle has overlooked Hyderabad,for his sports Quiz the last time he conducted the 'Dockers Sports Quiz " the response was very good wonder why hez overlooked Hyderabad .

The same is the case with Siddhartha Basu's Concern Indian Foundation quiz ...

Guyz why us .....we hardly have 7-8 quizzes a year .....???

Deloitte -definetly the number one team from Hyd

2006-04-20T09:51:00.000+05:00

The spate of final Quals definetly puts Deloitte ahead of the other Quizzing Teams from Hyderabad.

If I am not wrong Deloitte have won /reached the regional finals of
1)CRY -FCAT Quiz
2)PSG tech Quiz
3)Brand Equity(2005-2006).
4)Rotary Business Line Quiz.

Good show Vinod & Co.

Teams from Hyderabad do well in the -Rotary Business Line Quiz

2006-04-19T10:00:00.001+05:00

In the recently conducted Rotary Business Line Quiz teams from Hyderabad /A.P did well.
Deloitte and Vizag Steel made it to the top six and bagged Big prozes,prizes better than Brand Equity.

Some how the qulaity of questions was very bad,here is a sample of some of the bad questions:
1)We are not doing socialism here, what we are doingis capitalism, "It is clear that we will not be ableto establish socialism. Let us see how much we can dofor workers from within this.’’
A)West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
2)word of the year- podcasting
A)Podcasting
19.) Significance of this sentence :”arrow hits lantern”wrt current happenings in this benighted land.
A)Laloo losing elections
26. Bollywood's first mainstream English-language filmreleased in 1996:
A)English August..

to mention a few

Quizzes in the Near Future

2006-04-15T10:12:00.000+05:00

Hi!,
Do let me know if there are any quizzes in the near future..seems like the Quizzes in Hyderabad have dried up with the ondet of summer.

Brand Equity 2005-2006 Hyderabad Round - Tukkabazi(guess work rules)

2006-03-09T10:09:00.000+05:00

Derek O Derek...
This years Brand Equity (Hyderabd Round) made me say(Derek O derek ) a number of times.

Guess-work ruled this years round, conisdering that the scores in the Prelims were (22,21,20,19 18 (6 teams) ,17 (5 teams) 16( 2teams) proved that this was one Quiz where you could not seperate the Best from the Rest.

But finally the deserving team "Vizag Steel" won the quiz.Some good teams (Deloitte,Convergys,Agro Tech India,T.I.ME.) did make it to the finals but the multiple choice options given during the prelims had stolen away the chance for some of the other very deserving teams to make it to the Stage.

The Finals was a very non uniform quiz with very easy questions being dished out to some teams and some very tough questions going to the others.

This make me think about the Seriousness attached with conducting this quiz.

Derek O Brien with a Message:
The theme chosen was a Good one conveying the futility of Wars ( Derek getting serious about issues concerning the world and life) was very well conveyed by Derek changing roles from a General (Army ) to a normal man and suggesting that Peace and not War prevails.
Which I think was Good.

There is no taking away the Credit from
Vizag Steel,T.I.M.E Agrotech India,Convergys(Navneet & his partner),Deloitte(Vinods team), Future First , for their performance.

But year after year BEQ makes me think "is it Quizzing" or "Fooling people/corporates" ?

Anways!!! I guess we should look at it as one occassion where we can meet our old friends from other companies ,socialize ( build contacts) and enjoy a light hearted attempt by the Quiz Master at Corporate Quizzing.

Best Quiz Formats

2006-01-20T11:05:00.000+05:00

The CRY-2005 quiz conducted by Gautham Bhimani had by far the best formats I have ever seen

1)If a questions was psoed to a team the team that buzzes first gets the chance toanswer the questions after the Team.

Which according to me is one the fair ways of conducting quizzes.

Criticism:
But the Standard of Questions was not unifomr accross the Quiz leaving scope for luck by virtue of where you sit during the Quiz

Quizzing Legends from Hyderabad

2006-01-16T12:07:00.000+05:00

1)Pratap Reddy: Finalist at the Brand Equity quiz a number of times
2)Jyothsulya Krishna Murthy:Finalist at Mastermind India,University Challenge to name a few
3) Alagaraswamy :Winner of Dockers Quiz,Acumen-2005 Quiz,MICA LOne wolf quiz.

Non Locals
4) Jaspreet Bindra( Winner of the Finals of Brand Equity a couple of times)
5)Massood Hussaini(Winner of Brand Equity)

Good Quizzers:
1)Vinod (Delloitte) ( finalist at CRY FACT quiz,Finalist(Hyderabad Round) at Brand Equity 2005-2006,Finalist at PSG tech quiz)
2)Murli Duggigeni(Moderator of Quinkie)(Two time finalist at Hyderabad Round of Brand Equity). & Rajeev Kondapali(Two time finalist at Hyderabad Round of Brand Equity)
3)Navneet Bhal( Employee of Coversys) ( Two time finalist at Hyderabad Round Brand Equity).

Great Teams:
1)Vizag Steel (Finalsist (Hyderabad Round)(Brand Equity 2004,Tata Crucible)Winners of Hyderanad Round(Brand Equity 2005,ITM Quiz 2005).

Upcoming Talent:
1)Sourabh( class 7 student at Neeraj Public School) (Finalist at All Asia Finals "Bournvita Quiz Contest).
2)Meher( Tear away Quizzer) (Final Year student at ICFAI,Business School Hyderabad)
3)Institue of Public Enterprise Team (Hyderabad)(Finalist at Tata Crucible 2005(AllIndia),Winners of ET in the Classroom Quiz (Hyderabad Round 2005).

Quizzing Groups in Hyderabad

2005-12-20T16:29:00.000+05:00

Besides K-Circle and few Quiz groups in the corporrate circle I dont see too much of activity on the Quizzing front in Hyderabad.

Quizzes conducted in Hyderabad

2005-12-20T16:26:00.000+05:00

1) Brand Equity.
2)Tata Crucible.
3)CRY-Quiz.
4) Hindu Business Line Quiz.
5)K-Circle Open.
6)YuvTal.

well and a few quizzes at colleges
1)ISB
2)IIIT
3)HCU
4)ICFAI

wonder as to why we have so few quizzes in number in Hyderabad???