The IIM Calcutta Quiz Club (IcQc) got its activities up and running for a new season of quizzing with the always enjoyable Freshers’ Quiz. The Freshers’ Quiz was this time christened as the K-Bomb Invitational, in cognizance of the supreme efforts of an ex-President of the Club in making the club so popular and well liked. The Quiz was conducted by yet another ex-President of the club, “Mr.” Shankar Karthikeyan. In midst of his busy work schedule, Mr. Shankar made questions while on his way on the bus, as the participants were pouring in etc…

But as it turned out, this did nothing to detract from the quality of the quiz! A record attendance for a quiz in IIM Calcutta, a figure approaching three digits took part in an exciting opening round where some sitters were interspersed with some which caused pencils to be chewed and brows to be furrowed. As the students pondered over questions ranging from Narakasura to Pegasus, from Bruno to Calvin and from Puskas to Sharapova, the quiz master kept an eye on the chocolates which inevitably brighten up such quizzing occasions.

8 teams were chosen in the final, with the cut off score being 13 out of a maximum of 24. With only one 2nd year student allowed in a team, teams comprising of regular quizzers C. Ram Shankar, Abhishek Nagraj, Ankit Kapoor etc. took the centre stage, not to mention teams consisting the 2 Club Presidents for the year, Atul Nath and Sreekanth Reddy. But what was heartening and encouraging was to see full throttled performances from teams made up only of PGP1s, a good sign for the future of quizzing in the college.

The finals were held in a festive atmosphere, with some teams showing extreme enthusiasm in answering even other teams’ questions! Starting with a Long Visual Connect on Olympics destinations and ending with a long visual connect on liquor brands, the quiz straddled areas like football, technology, current affairs, mythology etc. The Quiz Master was liberal in distributing the chocolates for good answers, though the unfortunate scorer did not get one this time due to his sometime erratic scoring. (Just about 200 people kept scores to verify so it didn’t turn out to be an issue at all…)

A 2 member team comprising of 2nd year student Abhishek Nagraj (the Darth Lord behind JokaTimes)and 1st year student graduating from NIT Trichy, Sunil Chandrashekar, finished first. Sreekanth Reddy, Amrutanshu Mishra and Nishanth came second. Ankit Kapoor’s team (popular for unspecified reasons as Captain), with Saagar Sinha and Anand came third.

JokaTimes caught up with the quizmaster and asked for his reaction to the enthusiastic response. The Quizmaster thoroughly enjoyed the event and promised to come back again to the campus for more quizzes. The winning team was busy splitting their (imaginary) spoils but your JT reporter managed to catch them partying (see attached pic).

JokaTimes congratulates the winners and hopes to be able to replicate reporting of last season’s numerous successes in Quiz competitions in the outside world, again, this season as well. The signs are surely in the right direction!

For JokaTimes,

Sriram