All Hail the King - Post by Shyam Shreyas

Manas Wi, as he calls himself now, walks up to a bunch of QuizCorpers, as we call ourselves, after a UTPT quiz, and goes, “Nice quizzes da. We have the Arbitarium, the Sports Quiz and the General Quiz at Utsav. You guys should come.” Varun hits him with, “You guys should really call these the Arbitarium, the Arbit Sports, and the Arbit General Quizzes.”

The King, may he rest in peace, always was quick-witted and sharp-tongued. Once you got to know him better, you realized that he applied the same rules to himself and was always a sport about being the butt of jokes, poor and great impressions of his rants included. He was one of the ‘cool’ quizzers, at least by my definition of having fun while quizzing than indulge in it as it were the competitive sport we often make it out to be.

He was a loyal friend, who always kept in touch and loved hanging with QC whenever he could. Datta, Cry and I met for a drink a few months before I left Bangalore and I have revisited that evening many times over in the last few hours. When I called him on one of the UTPT 2011 nights, he wrote back thanking me for the call and told me he missed hanging with QC during UTPT the most.

Being one of the ‘responsible’ seniors of QuizCorp, I am fairly certain that Kryptos (guess I’d have to explain, Kryptonite/Kryptos is my team at QC, I refuse to use the past tense here) had a significant role in introducing Varun to the ‘pleasures’ that the world had to offer and watch him grow up. He always was a fun drunk. I’m sure Jose, Soda and Raj have more stories to recount about Cry’s antics at NITK/IIT/Any given quiz fest where he was drunk.

Maybe I would have had more stories to talk about had I stayed in touch as he often pestered me to. The guilt hangs heavy. The last conversation I had with him, he was telling me how he would have loved to be in NY with the rest of us, but circumstances dictated otherwise. We had a minor disagreement, but looking back, I know I was wrong.

The King had a penchant for poking people in the eye to size them up and take them on. This time, he went too far.

To the Prince... I knew - RIP Varun

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! 

Informals '14 Part 8: Bollywood qqqqqqqquiz (not kkkkiran)

                                                                                    By   Nupur Neti, 1^st Year TC

                                                                                           Progya Parmita ,1^st Year IEM

1.       Connect : Maqbool, Omkara, Ram Leela, Angoor

2.       ID this minimalist poster:

                        

3.       X is located in Mumbai. It is also known as Bollywood’s Box Office. On 11 January 2013, it broke the Guinness record for something. ID the place and what is the record it broke?

4.       You see, the whole country of the system is juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere because you are a sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity. Where have you heard this?

5.       X became CNN's Top Song in 2012. Its rapid spread to nightclubs and discos in Tokyo, Japan were reported soon after release, and a viral video of Japanese women dancing to it spread soon afterwards. Police officers in India used versions of the song and its title to combat road rage and encourage bike riders to wear helmets. However In April 2012, a petition was filed seeking a ban on the song citing negative influence on children, claiming to inciting violence and aggression. ID X.

6.       X was released in the 90s. While it didn’t initially do well at the box office, it has grown to have a cult following. It repeatedly references to another iconic movie Y which was written by the father of one of X’s lead actors. X and Y are so famous mainly due to their memorable dialogues, friendships and hilarious antics. The same actor plays the second in command to the main villain in X as well as  Y.  Both X and Y are in the top 3 for the list of highest rated Bollywood movies by IMDb. ID X and Y. 

7.       X is the screen name of Mary Evans who was born to a Greek mother and a Scottish father. Her role often involved beating up Indian men and a lot of stunts which gave her the first part of her screen name. She was famous for her role in the movie Hunterwali, one of the first female lead movies in Bollywood. ID X.

8.       X was born as Johnrao Prakashrao Janumala and brought up in Dharavi. As a child, he earned money by selling pens on the streets of Bombay by imitating Bollywood stars and later worked with factor in Hindustan Unilever’s factory where his performances earned him the name X. He is one of the most well-known actors in his field and is inspired by Johnny Walker, Kishore Kumar and Mehmood. ID X.

9.       X was initially to be named Inquilaab as his mother was profoundly influenced by the freedom movement. He moved to Bombay to work as a film actor but for a long was rejected repeatedly as film makers wanted someone fairer and “He just wasn’t fair enough”. Hence he moved on to narration and background for many years until Indira Gandhi sent a personal letter of recommendation and thus he got his big break. ID X

10.   X is the first Hindi film to gross over  1 billion, and when adjusted for inflation, it is still one of the highest earning Bollywood films ever. Painter (Late) M. F. Husain was reported to have seen the film 85 times. Filmmaker Karan Johar named it as the one film that changed his life. ID X.

11.   X is a movie whose title is taken from a poem by Dushyanth Kumar and is heavily inspired by another poem written by Ram Prasad Bismil. The film went under severe controversy - first there was some uncertainty over shooting appropriate scenes inside the Amritsar Golden Temple and a 20-second horse race was cut on claims put forward by Maneka Gandhi. What is X?

12.   X had the following to say of the English Band Y : “People say that Y are a fad. But I don’t think so…If you listen to Y properly, you get a feel of old Roman music. Sometimes you get a feel of Indian music, sometimes you get a feel of Assamese folk songs.” ID X and Y.

13.   Music for this song X is done by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and is considered THE song in catapulting this actress on her road to success. A favourite when it comes to antakshari games, the movie released in 1987. The song was such  a success that Filmfare introduced a whole new category of awards - The best choreography award. ID X.

Informals' 14 Part 7: It's time for the gentlemen's game! Ready?

                                                                                By  Rakshith S Ponnathpur,

1^st Year CSE

                                                                                                                    

1) X, considered as one of the finest batsmen of his era, is often confused for another person of historical importance. Even though X played both international and first class cricket for another country, the premier domestic trophy of his home country was named after him. Y, his fellow countryman, was associated with their nation’s cricket board from its inception in 1928 till his death in 1970. A domestic trophy was introduced to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the domestic trophy named after X, and this new trophy was named after Y.  X, Y and the two domestic cups please?

2) X -  229
Virender Sehwag – 219
Rohit Sharma – 209
Sachin Tendulkar – 200*
Charles Coventry – 194*
Saeed Anwar – 194              Id X.

3) The SKY channel introduced this concept which uses the past statistics of every team to analyse, and predict the final score of the team batting first, and to calculate the probability of the team batting second chasing the target successfully. This was seen in the recent India vs New Zealand ODI series and proved to be pretty reliable. What is this new concept?

4) Starting Out: My Story So far  à Alastair Cook
    Out of My Comfort Zone à Steve Waugh
    Playing with Fire à Nasser Hussain
    Blood, Sweat and Treason à Henry Olonga
    Controversially Yours à X       Give me X?
 

5) Give me X, Y and the ???s

2008	158*	Brendon Mc.Cullum	KKR	CSK
2009	114	X	RCB	???
2010	127	Murali Vijay	CSK	???
2011	120*	Y	KXIP	Unsold
2012	128	Chris Gayle	RCB	RCB
2013	175*	Chris Gayle	RCB	RCB

6) X was the only Goa-born cricketer to play for India, and was often regarded as India's best batsman against spin bowling. When he was selected for 1971 tour of West Indies, many considered it to be his last. But he scored a match-winning double hundred and a match-saving hundred and regained his lost form, thus earning the name “The Renaissance Man of Indian Cricket.” X’s son also went on to play first class cricket in another country, and is a famous personality in India in a completely different field today. Id X, and his son.

7) London – Kennington; Barbados – Kensington; Colombo – P Sara; Hobart – Bellerive; Adelaide – ____
FITB and Put FUNDA (in exhaustive list)

8) Rahul Dravid – 2004;  X – 2009;   Virender Sehwag – 2010
These are the three Indians on an inexhaustive list.
Id X. Which list?

9) It was a very important match. One of the biggest matches of the tournament. Pakistan was chasing and X was playing magnificent cricket scoring runs all over the park. Y came in to bowl. X was in no mood to defend. He went down the track and smacked the ball to the point boundary and asked Y to look at the ball and not at him. But then, Y kept quiet. And the next ball, BANG! The stumps were dislodged. Y did the talking with his ball and literally showed the lost batsman the way back to the pavilion. This is undoubtedly one of the signature moments of a contest we all would love to watch anyday. X, Y and the venue for this match?

10) Pick the odd one out and give a specific reason
Adam Gilchrist, Aravinda De Silwa, Ricky Ponting, Mahela Jayawardene, Sir Viv Richards
(Timeline of their career is not the answer)

Answers to Informals '14 Part 6

1. Albert Einstein. He didn’t fail high school and was of course brilliant in Maths
2. Catherine O’Leary along with her cow were framed for the great Chicago fire of 1871.
3. X- Vikings  Y-Horned helmets
4. Flat Earth and Flat Earth Society
5. Vomitorium
6. Goldfish have a memory span of 3 seconds
7. a penny dropped from top of  Empire State Building will kill a person
8.  Dracula and decapitation
9. sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch a.k.a five senses
10. Napoleon Bonaparte