Columban Open Quiz 07: Vroom… Vroom…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Quizzing
Finally, some inter-school quiz contest to bunk classes at my new school. These actually help a lot if you want to build a good rep amongst your teachers and fellow classmates. But before you go out to some quiz, some things that you need to check for are,
- · Whether your school is invited…
For me, the answer to that would be an eternal NO! Remember which school I study in? So what you need to do is, convince your Principal well enough so that she herself calls up the host school and registers her school for participation and that too for ONE single team! (There were atleast 42 teams from St. Columba’s School (SCS))
- · Anyone coming?
Lone Warriors do not always perform well in quizzes; neither do they get enough encouragement from the school to proceed further. The situation worsens if he doesn’t do well in the contest, which is why I decided that we need a solid team. Thankfully, we had one!
Sanket Amdalli: An extremely talented bloke from Vadodara, formerly known as Baroda. He is the semi-finalist at India’s Child Genius and has secured wonderful ranks in several national level Olympiads which includes a rank 42 in FTRE!
Sourabh Biswas: A bong from Nagpur, he went all the way to the T.V finals of the Bournvita Quiz Contest. A truly brilliant chap who is also an avid reader.
Sambit Mishra: A geek from Damanjodi, Orissa: Came third in the Young World School Quiz, one of THE largest school quizzes in India.
Prashanth Kanduri: Well, you can’t forget this bloke, can you? Major achievements include Regional Finalist Position (Andhra Pradesh) at the Bournvita Quiz Contest.
We named ourselves PS3. Nope, we aren’t huge fans of console gaming, but it expands to our first names. (PS^3 would make it clearer perhaps.) And this isn’t my first time at SCS. I had gone there previously at class 9th only to come back empty handed.
With team to go, the school had organized an Air-Conditioned 4X4 SUV named Tata Safari! (Now, from where/how did they get that?) After circuiting the GPO at Ashok Place 42 times and getting ourselves chellaned for taking the U-Turn at the wrong place, we finally made it to St. Columba’s School. It appeared as if our school has never represented itself in any such contest. The guys at the registrations were gaping at us as if we were inhabitants from the legendary planet of Magrethea! After 30 minutes of waiting and bird-watching, and scanning all our potential competitors (and also eying out for the computer geeks I know), we finally entered into the air-cooled hall. Moving air, speeds up sweat evaporation at the surface of the skin, which in turn cools you down thus, making you feel more relaxed. The hall over there is actually an indoor basketball stadium with retractable hydraulic baskets hanging from the roof. It was impressive to look at. The seating arrangement for so many schools was good. 4 chairs for every team. We were team no. D - 42+2, staring at the stage with weird look.
The prelims began, and it was such a relief to get the very first question right. Sanket and Sambit caught the sports and old movies part firmly. Trivia on Movies, Technology and Observation-based questions were mine. Sourabh did the literature, history and mythology part nicely. The quiz was very good and well adhered to SCSOQ standards. I had a great time the last time I came here as well. A totally thought provoking quiz for one, as one can never prepare for such a quiz. Well, actually you cant prepare for any quiz. True quizzers do it with sheer observation and true know-how of what they see, hear, smell, taste or touch. The more things you are into, the better your chance of doing well in a quiz. Coming to the quiz again, it was a very cleverly made one. To my other team members, it was a one of a kind quiz. They had never before faced such a type of trivia based quiz.
At the end of it, anyone must admit. 30 minutes is simply too less for a trivia based quiz consisting of 50 questions which even included 5 audio and 5 visual based questions. For a normal straight-forward quiz, this was fine as you either know the answer or you don’t. But over here, you need to think, recall apply some brains, check the grammar that those guys have used and decipher out what they are actually asking. Some more time would have been handy. The multimedia ones were great fun, we got 7 out of those 10 right. At the end of it, we had the answers called out. Unlike the last time, they didn’t ask the participants the answers to their questions and neither did they give Cadbury Perk Chocolates to those who answered them correctly.
When they finally started announcing, we felt happy on side that we got nearly 14-15 answers right but also started losing hope as all the teams shouted “YAAAY!” for every answer the guy blurted out. We started feeling that we were too bad to come here. A corner of my mind was screaming faintly though, “We may make it at the last spot!” After a small pause, the results were promptly announced. Keeping our fingers crossed, we heard the 10th team – SCS, 9th – SCS, 8th – Amity. Hopes were nearly down to zero after the 7th one too wasn’t ours. We turned back and then suddenly it sounded like it was D-44 announced in a mono-mike. “Woah, a moment of partial victory there! What were those n00bs shouting ‘Yay’ for? For getting their answers wrong?”
After hopping up the stage, we saw a shady character who looked like a cross between the mobile version of Stephen Hawking and Mr. Bean. Shortly, we also found out that he was our nerdy quizmaster. The sound system of the hall wasn’t very good this time. We could only understand the questions because it was displayed on the screen and the hints because the quizmaster was in audible range! Coming to the ‘staged’ quiz, the seating wasn’t very good there. They were nothing but plain stools and no tables. The teams were seated close enough to hear each other’s whispers. Gladly, the static of the microphone and the cacophony of the crowd didn’t let others hear our answers (happy 
) and neither did it allow us to hear theirs (sad 
).
The questions were very good in the stage rounds, especially the ‘Connect’ questions. One of those questions featured Elisha Cuthbert, Newton, some bloke who looks like Newton, and the Newton Pendulum. The only thing that I saw that was connecting the four was Popular Mechanics for Kids. QM said it was a brilliant answer, but the real answer was Cuthbert Calculus. The QM got the 42-jokes thrown in the middle, he understood the PJs, and was quite lively in giving good hints. So there we were out of the semis with the 6th place with tons of rocket fuel burning in our eyes all set to blast off in the next quiz!
Also, we had lunch at Nirula’s which is a furlong away from there. The Rs. 50-wala-unlimited-buffet offer is out. It has been shifted to the breakfast time now, sigh!
PS: Post Scripts:
1. Would like to thank Uma for persuading me to watch V for Vendetta, helped in the audio round!
2. I want the entire COQ questionnaire, for all the groups A, B, C, D. Prelims, Quarters, Semis as well the Finals! I don’t know how you get it, I just want it! Any SCS guy lurking around? [pacific64(at)gmail(dot)com].
3. Anybody knows about any other quiz coming up? Please notify me in case it is.
4. I found “Infinite Bounce” terrible out there. After some thinking and analysis, I found it to be better than the direct/pass system. Also mention if your school is organizing a quiz with that system of scoring!
5. Also found out that our team does have potential. We just need to attend more quizzes.
6. Quizzes involving trivia have pretty long questions. By the time I finish reading the last line, I forget what was in the first. By the time I finally manage to fully understand it, the time’s up. So I want a very good sound system the next time I attend a quiz having tons of trivia. Atleast let me hear it properly!
1. Aditya Mubayi and Kunal Savarkar are wonderful quiz-makers and quiz-masters. Hope to see such quizzes in the future. 
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review
Posted by Uma Damle | Filed under Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows
I am not a raging hot-blooded HP fan. Well not now at least.Used to be one at one time but the thoroughly lousy movies and even lousier book 5 led to the transformation (That is my personal opinion and is not being forced upon anyone who doesn’t quite agree with me. I do not fancy waking up one morning to find a mob of raging hot-blooded HP fans at my doorstep clamoring for my head).I started reading the book with expectations approaching to zero but after a breathless 5 hours 10 minutes 42 seconds I kept the book down to bow down to Rowling.
This sure as hëll isn’t a kiddie book anymore. Rowling has been merciless this time. Half a dozen significant characters topple like cards in a castle when the blow comes in cold blood….just like that. The danger is real and the wizarding community is engulfed from all sides. The characters no longer pretend that the world is fine and dandy. This is a war…and every war has casualities. Throughout the book the omnipresent air of danger around the entire wizarding community is so palpable that you can almost smell the stench of death or worse that lies awaiting in the shadows to pounce at the slightest provocation. There are small joys, weddings, births and personal victories but the characters don’t have time to dwell over them before another terror, another death eclipses them.
Rowling hasn’t wasted book space this time on Quidditch matches, christmas dinners, teenage romances, school classes, dueling clubs and similar things that are insignificant in the cold cruel real world of actions and consequences that Harry lives in now. This makes the plot so incredibly taut and fast that whenever I thought it was safe let my guard down and stop chewing my nails something would happen that would make me chew my nails with renewed vigor (My manicured nails now look like a bunch of rodents have been to work at ‘em).
The painfully real beginning hits the reader like a slap on the face. This sets the feel of the rest of the book which (as I have already said) moves at a breathless pace. There are no slow moments(unlike the 5th book which felt like chewing gum that’s been chewed for too long towards the end) The climax is surreal despite rising to a chaotic final crescendo. But alas the ending was an unexpectedly expected one, not expectedly unexpected as I expectedly expected of her (Lather rinse and repeat to understand ;p ) But then as I come to think of it she could hardly screw the whole story just for the sake of giving us a surprise in the end.
Since this is a very early review I respect people’s desire to read the book and unravel the story themselves, I’ll just give the basic plot with no spoilers: Harry is on the run with Ron and Hermione attempting to accomplish the task entrusted to them by Dumbledore - Finding the horcruxes that contain bits of Voldemort’s soul and destroy them to make him mortal again. They travel from place to place in the country, away from safety and comforts of home and school, trying to avoid capture, making mistakes, often losing conviction yet moving on (Reminding me a lot of Frodo,Sam and Golum’s journey in LOTR). They escape several horrendously tight spots by the skin of teeth, suffering irrevocable losses each time yet they never dither. Along the way they also discover something more than the horcruxes, something they didn’t intend to find - The deathly hallows (What they are is something that cannot be told in a supposedly spoiler free review).
Meanwhile darkness seeps like poison throughout the veins of the magical world rapidly as Voldemort and his supporters move in open and unleashes a regime of terror on muggles, muggle-borns, squibs and all those who oppose him.Both the ministry and Hogwarts are under his dominance.
We also get answers to all unanswered questions as the story unfolds. Even things mentioned only in passing in earlier books constitute as the missing pieces in the jig-saw puzzle. We discover things about Lily Potter, Snape (I always knew that a character as enigmatic as he had a story to tell) and…Dumbledore - the haloed wizard who we discover had feet of clay after all.
What I really really admire about Rowling’s books is that she is never hypocritical. She doesn’t pretend that world is fairy tale where on one hand there are good people who are harmless fluffy bunnies with not a drop of anything bad about them an on the other the black báštárdš who are just pure evil. Both the good people and the bad people have hints of grey and white… everbody has their own insecurities, their own fears to deal with (Well, I think people like Voldemort and Umbridge are just deviant perverts and don’t comply to this theory). She also showed that there will always be people for whom the end justifies the means and those people who hurt any propaganda that jeopardizes their position of advantage.
Rowling has surpassed all the previous books with this one. The narrative is flawless, the humor (which is very scanty in this book) subtle. She makes you weep with grief at every death and parting, feel as terrified as the characters in dangers, sigh with relief at every narrow escapes, feel jubilant at every small triumph…. she makes you leave your mundane world behind and enter that of Harry’s which is built so convincingly engaging that you could just reach out and touch it. This was by far her best.
So ended the journey we begun with Harry 10 years ago. The journey has had its ups and downs but well… all is well that ends with a well written book.I close it with a tear in my eye and a smile on my lips as I bid adieu to Harry Potter - the boy who lived, lives, and will live forever in a magical corner of my heart.
My verdict:8/10
Bluegenemaid
Distant memoirs of television…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under General
I actually got the idea of writing about this from another blog I read called Moonstruck.
A very long time ago, I was a television addict. Not just because it had many, very interesting shows, but also because I had nothing else to entertain myself. Now, Television shows for me are just restricted to very selective NatGeo stuff, a few on StarOne, Cricket and a few football matches, and music channels just in case my internet connection fails! (I am on MTNL, hence that is very rare!)
Here are a few notable television picks from my walnut worth of memory. I guess it would be better if you keep some control on your sense of ratiocination here…
X-Men Evolution
If you think young Prashanth, think sci-fi. I used to love any superhero stuff that had some good scientific reasoning behind it. Cartoons like Superman (or any from DC comics) were simply to unreal to be watched. Words like neogenics, mutation, genes, evolution and many other terminologies ripped off from Darwin appeared fascinating to me. Now, couple believable amount of science (for a guy in class V) with a super solid storyline (and deadly looking girls in anime and guys with adamantium claws). I was simply hooked to the storyline which spanned several series of nearly 42+10 episodes. Actually, those many episodes were telecasted on Cartoon Network (CN). I was really disappointed when the story was snapped in the middle and the production halted without any conclusion leaving memories and questions that haunt me till this date… “WTF happened to Apocalypse? What happened to the sewer dwelling Morlocks?…”
Jonny Quest
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest to be precise, this was one cartoon which took me a few episodes to actually start understanding what the whole series was about… (Fact: I was 8 when I started watching this!)
I first got attracted to this show because of the breath-taking adrenaline-rushing soundtrack that this had. Secondly, the gorgeous looking 3-d visuals of the quest world. Thirdly, a stunning female anime star named Jessie. (I have something with red-headed femme animes… Jean Grey, Jessie, Mary Jane…)
But what hooked me to this series after I started to comprehend it was its episodic relavence to real-life paranormal and scientific mysteries. Controversial events such as the Cover-up at Roswell, Easter Island Statues, etc were highlighted and a fictional conclusion of questions were given giving me loads of food for thought. I appreciate the amount of realism in this anime till date! Some animated series don’t deserved to be called cartoons!
Popeye the Sailorman
Hëll, it is so badly embarrassing to say but, till the age of 7-8, I was in love with this dumb cartoon called Popeye. It consisted of a series of small-length cartoons which are as predictable as Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM) is…
A big fat idiot, a tall, skinny girl and this bloke in the middle whose adrenal glands respond to the stimuli of small doses of Spinach which seems highly rediculous now, but this used to make me eat Palak at home when I was young…
The Little Lulu Show
Simply brilliant. “Witty, cool, smart, decent, creative” would be my words to describe this series. Its about a group of six elementary school kids and their life, family, and everything else. It wouldn’t just be a 30 minute long show with 3 small quickies, but would also have decent punches of humour with some stand up comedy. I would laugh at Lulu’s jokes even at this age!
A very high credit to the development of my English vocabulary and language style goes to this very show. I initially started watching this only because it was the only cartoon in which we could have fun by only understanding the language. In other words, this is was very different from the slapstick stereotypes that used to come then…
Dexter’s Laboratory
It was my childhood ambition to become the world’s biggest geek. At the age of 6-8, this was my source of scientific jargon. I used to get hold of those words, keep it in my head, refer to the dictionary/encyclopedia/book or ask some elder more about this and ultimately show off my newly found knowledge at school and even have fun in the whole process.
I was attracted to this cartoon because the very thought of a secret laboratory in the bedroom, a “super-conducting” Christmas Tree, a “dispersing” steel plate, etc were music to my ears. Only months later did I realize the joke behind such inventions. Nevertheless, this cartoon had a hand in developing my geeky inclination…
Looney Tunes
“Eyeehhh, tch-tch, What’s up Doc?“, This is one line that has been making me laugh ever since I started understanding English. It wasn’t just Bugs Bunny, but also the entire Looney Toons parade consisting of Daffy, Porky, Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, Roadrunner, Wile-E-Coyote, Sylvester and a few more which I have forgotten.
It was a perfect combo of witty, slapstick, cat-mice-chase, witty dialogues to give a healthy amount of entertainment. Even Baby Looney Tunes and Tiny Toon Adventures were very very amusing.
Sheep in the Big City
Not many people know about this show but it was my very first exposure to the satire/sarcastic/parody/pun sort of humour. It was about a sheep named Sheep which was mysteriously stranded in the big city. General Specific, who wants to use the sheep-powered ray gun needs a sheep. So now we have Sheep on the lam(b) from the military as well an angry scientist named Angry Scientist! LMAO..!!
Complete with Oxymoronic Commercial shows in the middle, this was a cleverly made entertainer.
Spiderman
Now, this ain’t animated. He is a real life guy who is among the top 50 most important people on earth today. Conservationist, television host, naturalist, researcher, a very cool narrator and my idol for many many years. Kudos to this guy and Steve Irvin, for it was due to the efforts of them that my area of interest was tilted to the nature/wildlife side.
Many of my friends and avid readers of my blog have felt this…
The Crocodile Hunter
Just like Jeff Corwin, the late Steve Irwin was also a conservationist and the owner of the Australian zoo. He too used to go into the wild and handle those creatures or really get a close look at them. I only used to dream of going to such places as a kid. And guess what, all this watching did pay off! I did go to such trips and I did get to perform all those antics!
Steve’s style of going wild was wilder that Jeff’s. To increase viewership ratings, Steve used to put his life on the edge with the most deadly creatures with the least amount of safety equipment. Sadly, one such shoot ended the show, ended his life but surely didn’t end my interest towards naturalism. Steve would be in my heart forever!
Popular Mechanics for Kids
Till the age of 10, this was a cool technology show that I used to watch on discovery kid. For one primary reason, Elisha Cuthbert! Yes, I have been admiring Elisha ever since she was 12 years old and I was about 6.
Other than that, I used to marvel at the 3d animations of cross-sections of machines that they used to show to explain the workings. The narration was very clever and sharp. This show too had a good hand in developing my language as well as Geek Quotient.
Garfield
Last, and certainly not the least, Garfield. Don’t start yawning yet as there is heavy entertainment hidden in boredom. Garfield clearly illustrated this. I remember some of Garfield’s one-liners even till this date. I never imagined someone to be lazier than I was… and funny at the same time.
I used to laugh out loud for days on seeing the plight of Jonathan Arbuckle, the guy who owned both a lazy cat and a stupid dog.
Seriously, my memory isn’t that bad either. Stay tuned for more from my long gone past. Am I not sounding a lot like Logan?
