Vonamor Quizzing : Started On the Rocks

You know not what a kick of alcohol could mean unless you taste it. Same it seems is true for most of the feeling of elation in life. I never used to understand why would Abha feel too happy on giving an answer on stage, I knew it must be thrilling, but “Thrill” cannot be defined but can be felt. It was Tata Crucibles Corporate Quiz Pune Round Yesterday.

Firstly, for everyone I have not been a full time quizzer and quizzing came to me in my dowry. Thanks to my wife, she has introduced me to quizzing, which I find enjoyable.

Sunday evening event I am sure anywhere with the right ingredients could be a real good crowd puller and in this city of college students, quizzing it seems is a very famous sport. The crowd yesterday at the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel in Pune was huge and amazing. People poured in slowly but by the time the quiz started it was a packed house.

Tata Crucibles event is divided in to 2 tracks : A tata track for tata companies and a non tata track for all the others “who could yet not make it to tata” (as Giri Balasubramanian, pick brain says).

In Tata Track My wife Abha was representing TCS along with Soumya , who came down all the way from Mumbai for the quiz. Along came very cute Antara, her daughter. Soumya’s husband Arnab and his partner Arka represented the TIFR team. In non Tata Track, I had participated with Sandeep Singh.

Prelim I thought was tough. But it was absolutely wonderful. Unlike the quizzes where you answer the crammed questions this was more of working out the answers / Knowing current affairs. There were in total 25 questions and cutoff for both tata and non tata track, I assume would have been around 11. (Questions at the end of the Blog)

Then came the Tata finals with 6 teams on the stage. Abha and Soumya, Arnab and Arka, all made it to the stage with other teams from (pardon me if I get the names wrong , TACO, TAL, Tata Motors, TIFR, TCS and CRL). The first round was a direct question round and it looked like a warm up round for the teams. The teams got pumped up with the next buzzer rounds. TAL had been leading confidently with the rounds and were playing safe. TIFR and TCS were close enough to get them in any round. The questions at times were absolutely very difficult and at times it felt that yes this can be done. Last round was a buzzer round with possibility of scoring 10 points on each question, TAL leaded TCS with 10 points. In came a question, “ whom have Ranbaxy tied up with for distributing the free samples of their drug at a public place?” I knew Abha knows this answer and was sure with this answer they will tie with TAL. Tata Motors (who had by then given many wrong answers and had scored good negative scores) were in a hurry to score and come back, they went for the buzzer and gave a wrong answer again (they said Daiichi Sankyo, whereas the answer was PVR cinema for the drug Revital), Abha lost it on that question and they came second. But the improvement in quizzing that I have seen in Abha over last 2 years is simply fantastic. I could have never imagined my wife cracking a question on Football. She stumped me with an answer to a question “Which Football club has Tata Tea tied up with for …? “ … bang ! came her answer “Arsenal”. Amazing quizzing and amazing fight for a seat to the national finals. Congratulations TAL. Beautiful Effort Abha and Saumya.

Post the Tata track final came the non Tata Track round, I was hopeful and could get through on to the stage with Sandeep Singh. We were all pumped up with first question of the quiz directed to us “which company, incorporated in 1950 produces Trademark brands Zebra, Eastern Star and Army at their Sonepat Factory?” And I knew how difficult it would be for us to perform well :), (the answer was Atlas cycle which none of us got correctly). The first round passed on with BMC software team of Harish and Subhadip and Kotak’s team of Asit and Samrat being the 2 teams that scored. Then was a round on Tata, we gave a wrong answer and a right one(Sandeep Singh Cracked one on Tata Communications), which brought us again to zero. Third round was of connect and we had to guess the connect form the multiple clues. This was a difficult one. We cracked a passed question in this round. It had a song played “Chura ke dil mera”, “had a colourful ad as a second clue” “A flag with black yellow and white horizontal stripes” and a “Mascot with Mcdowells logo” … Shilpa Shetty features in Romanov Ads for Vonamor, I see her in newspapers all the time , how could we go wrong … First 10 points.

The penultimate round was of code busters identifying logos and guessing the answer. 3 questions passed, I knew answers for most of it, people were fast on buzzer could not get a single one on my plate. Sandeep was not ok with it, he wanted me to be aggressive, the last 2 questions he pressed the buzzer even before we could see the logos :), and thanks to my training from Abha I could crack both. We were the underdogs with just 5 points away from the second position. I think we were tense and we messed up with a wrong answer in the last round. But still ours was a performance that was absolutely unexpected.

One more thing about human psychology that I learned was, Audience love underdogs till the time a winner emerges. We as audience wants to see a good fight, we want to see comeback stories, we want the unexpected. Being an underdog feels good those times, but winners are the one who deserves it the most . Kotak Mahindra Team was fantastic and they won the quiz with a good lead at the end. Harish and Subhaeep too, I thought, truly deserved the second prize. Congratulations to both the teams..

For me, I discovered another enjoyable hobby for myself which gave me that Kick:).

Vonamor Quizzing.

Questions for the Prelims :
1. Which fairly big international brand produces cricket bats under the brand names “Ballistic stealth, velocity, and Atomic”? Puma
2. Which arms company, recently in news which started as Volcanic Repeators by Tom Kins was in news in India recently? It thought of chaning its name to SW at some point in time ? Smith and Wessel
3. There was a print ad, with a man looking down on a small opening in the ground and “he had dropped something” what is it? Lenovo Slim Laptop
4. Mark twain is supposed to have used this word in 1871 for the first time in the his work “roughing it”, it later went on to become name of a magazine. They tried Trademarking it, but being a common English word, it could not be patented. What? Hello
5. Which Famous Novelist appears on the notes of Scotland? Sir James Walter Scott
6. Owned by Random house which publication house is famous for “Borzoi”? Options were Mcmillan / Penguin / Alfred Knoff : Answer Alfred Knoff(I guess I have got the spelling wrong)
7. Which beer brand is made in (a set of places were given, goa, shivalik in Rajasthan….)…. There is a book written on this beer brand ? Cobra
8. JSW + Terapin came up with a set of 6 books for environment consciousness targeted towards children. Who is behind it ? TERI
9. In the world of Online Search what did Yahoo named its technique recently ? Datamine / Gluepage/ undertaker …. The answer was Gluepage
10. Airtel is having a JV with IFFCO to change the face of agriculture, who has now joined them ? Kishan sangh
11. Photo of YC Deveshwar
12. Which Indian Cricketer (with a link being fast) is going to endorse the Fly Brand of Mobiles? Ishant Sharma
13. Which Fames Jeans maker is going to produce OYO (On your Own) brand of kids wear? Spykar Jeans
14. Who was the sponsor for Fairplay award for IPL? Kingfisher
15. A logo was shown. Which famous brand in Rural Area? Avon Cycles
16. Dabur has come up with its health and beauty store. It is a new concept for you consumers. What is its name? Nu u
17. Which famous beverage company has come up with an idea of getting in to a totally different luxury segment with hotels called “The Serai”? The places which makes their beverage are being turned in to holiday spots? CCD
18. Which company has test marketed its brand Probase entirely in Pune. It is known more for its brands “genesis” and “Basics”. Name comes across as a kids company? Hasbro
19. In 1956 Time Magazine called this publication “A short lived Plup”. They say “True to our name we are ________” who? MAD
20. Hearst Corporation , Daily Inc owned Syndication company, one of the largest distributer of comics and text features in newspaper? Kingfeatures / Reuters / Peanuts ? Ans. Was King features.
21. “Nightingale” brand of diaries are made by whom at the beginning of every year? Srinivas Fine Arts
22. N Rangarao, who started this company producing this house hold commodity . what brand. It was in troubles for its name during election time? Cycle Agarbatti
23. Which Hollywood Studio gets its name from a famous landmark in Vancover? Lions Gate Productions
24. Ad of Camlin Markers (one where the husband comes back to life after death when wife’s bindi could not be removed)
25. Ad of SBI life (one where all very old ladies are going for wishing their younger brother chhotu , another elderly gentleman for his birthday)