By Rajan (Casillas)
It was my final year of Engineering - two semesters and a
few months as a active member of RV QuizCorp. While many of my seniors were
around; it was and is just not the same if you are out of college - a feeling
till date I have, whenever I attend (and so rarely) one of the RVQC hosted
quizzes or the OTRs.
Back in the college, I loved sports quizzing over other
topics and probably movies gave a good run to my otherwise heavy inclination
towards sports. It was after the fresher's quiz in 2005 I met two bright
students - both shy and had passion for quizzing and the excitement was to be
seen if and when the question remotely came close to having a sporting
connection.
I guess being a three-year senior didn't matter to us as
'sports' ended up being the ice breaker.
'Varun' as I called him lived close to my house. On most
occasions he was my pillion while on our way back home. It was not a surprise
that we talked a lot of about sports and I was impressed with the fact that he
was ears when I went about talking. Over the course of few months in his first
semester, we participated in quite a few 'Sports Quizzes' held in Bangalore. He
became my teammate for two member teams and Aditya (Bagri) joined us for the
teams of three event.
What do I recall? A shy, nervous guy of 18 years uttering
the word 'Pickles' when asked to identify the dog's name on the screen.
Probably, I remember the incident vividly as it happened to be our first quiz
together and he answered it while I was struggling to recall the name
correctly. We came second in that open quiz. He was excited like a kid and I
remember the joy he had - while we were having some tea at his place that
evening. His mum joined in as well. And not to forget him being a ardent
supporter of Liverpool FC.
There is a tradition in RV QuizCorp - about not losing
finals at the NLS Sports Quiz. NLS hosted one of the best sports quizzes in
town and being in the final year - there were expectations. Let's say we nailed
it as a team and I was happy to see these two 'young' sports enthusiasts would
take 'the strong sports tradition of Quiz Corp' forward. That was 2005!
He visited my place often and we would end up spending a lot
of them just talking about sports! We kept in touch after my college graduation.
We met at the OTRs or the UTPT which I attended till 2008. I was out of India
by the time he graduated in 2009. He promptly used to send me the sports
quizzes he conducted, in particular the 'Game Theory' of 2009.
Call it a three-year gap - I did not get to be an active
part in his transition from a prince to be a guy known as the 'King' by his
peers. To this day, I do not know the origin of his nickname but knew him a
little to pen a few lines from my memory.
To Varun, RIP - You will always be remembered by me as 'the
prince' and in who I saw a bit of myself whenever it came down to sports!
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