It was a lazy Sunday morning in Bangalore and we (me,Sana and Ananth) took a budget hotel room in Cottonpet road to refresh, get ready etc… We were unaware of the last night news and turned on the TV to find the Pune Blast, which killed 9 people. The distress dawned upon us and we were cursing the terrorists and went in to the analysis of who would have did it. After few moments I cried “Should look at the history of German Bakery? Does it have any cultural importance like leopold cafe?”

Ananth “Come on man, can’t you see it as a news? You already jumped in to the trivia mode. That’s what Yaggy (fellow Quizzer and friend) said that life’s a trivia for quizzers”

Although my heart went to those young people who lost their life in the blast, my quizzers mind was already thiniking about something else. I went in to a deep thought process and started thinking whether Yaggy’s statement is true. I was interested in quizzing from school days but the chances were less in those times as I was in a small town and maximized my talent in the few chances I got. The college time was even worse. I started real quizzing only in my MBA days and it took sometime to digest the quizzing scene in Chennai. I realised I am a kindergarten baby among the behemoths of quizzing here. I understood the fact that you got to specialize in topics… As I was comfortable with business, I started knowledge mongering in business topics.

Everything became a question for me. From the business of child trolleys to god channel, from sanctity to shit (sulabh??), everything had a quizzing importance for me. Few of my friends used to tease me on the peculiar habit of analysing the manufacture labels of the products we buy. A few used to get angry at the insane trivia I come up with some brands, although it’s for my own good to reiterate stuff and a few have asked me to get a life. Don’t you think I need to get a life, when I went to a quiz on a valentine’s day?

May be we quizzers take life as a trivia. But the passion which runs in the quizzing fraternity equals the passion of Sachin when he plays cricket, passion of Brazilian when he plays football,passion of Kamal Hassan when he acts, passion of ilaiyaraja or Rahman when they make music because for almost all of us quiz is something similar…

The sparkle of eyes, the thump on the thighs, a hi-five with the team mate and applause of the audience is worth to take life as a trivia ( and of course the sweet money… Is that not?

– Post From My iPhone

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Do you know John Adrian Shepherd, the guy who is credited for the invention of ATM born in Meghalaya? I just learned it on Saturday in Bustle 2009 – the annual corporate quiz organized by MOP Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai. I think it’s important that I should do the review for this quiz, because i am still remembered for the most infamous review of last year’s quiz. “Hey, you are the guy who wrote the review right, hell of a quiz man” was usual. Let’s forget it, because hats off MOP Organizing team, Lalitha Balakrishnan in particular for choosing Mitesh Agarwal to do the quiz this time. Yehi hai right choice ….

This was the second quiz of Mitesh’s I am attending, first was Hindu Business Line quiz. The difference shows when a quizzer turned quiz master doing the quiz in comparison to a non-quizzer. His simple, straight to the point without any nonsensical extra fittings is #awesomeness. The Prelim was little bit on the tougher side but at this level of Business Quizzing in the country, it is needed. The highest score was 25 (I think) and the cut off was 20 in 35 Question prelim. Most of the teams were hovering around 15-17 ( including us) and it was wonderful to see the 6 best teams on stage.Ramkumar (kabala) and Prashanth topped the prelim.

Now comes the most wonderful part of the quiz. The first part of the quiz was totally based on Indian Business and there were 35 questions – one question each for 28 States and 7 Union territories ( including National Capital Territory of Delhi) and mind you all the questions were based on the state. Usually in Business Quizzes, the quiz masters tend to international business houses if they want to make the quiz tough. Mitesh showed that the Indian Business have even more interesting things to say than the International Business houses. You deserve a standing ovation, Mitesh. It was fantabulous. There were 2 more rounds with combination of Indian and International businesses. All the rounds were in Buzzer.

The finals saw one of the greatest come backs you could see in Business Quiz, the famous team of JK and Gopal Kidao pulled of an wonderful comeback from being the last but one team to be the winners of the quiz. Wow, guys its a pleasure to watch you answering those questions.I just could not understand how they got the first two people to be killed by Industrial Robots and then said to myself, “Syl, you are seeing one of the best team in India”. Oh if you think that it was a comfortable win, it was definitely not the case. Rajen Prabhu ( Sumo) and Swami were in hunt till the last question of the quiz. They even took the guess for the last question and it was wonderful to see a sportive fight. Another team I should mention is the team all the way from Mumbai – Pradeep (Unilever) and Francis (Asian Paints) – they were in hunt for the title till the last round. It was a triple headed fight and the audience savored it. The other two teams were Vinod Ganesh & Anil (Irevna) and Yaggy & Karthik ( Infosys) and they did a good job as well. I think Yaggy is getting back to his best

As a whole it was one of the best quizzes i attended in the recent past. I think the organisers from MOP understood the trick of the trade. Get the best quiz master, who can give you the best for the best quizzers in India. It’s easy to say but tough to do…they know it better I believe.  If my last year’s critical review for the same quiz done by Sumant.C.Raman, hurt anyone in the organising team, I apologise for it. I think there is no better way than giving you appreciation through this review….

And last but not the least, the Emcee for the day from MOP was so categorical in saying “after the most successful Bustle 2008″ -  We know how successful it was. Don’t worry, we got the joke ( ahem ahem)…Didn’t you guys?

P.S: I have uploaded the prelim questions with pictures in Scribd (attached below) – Sorry for the bad language in some of the questions and some pictures may not be the same picture shown in the quiz. I just got through google searches

MOP Bustle 2009 – Prelim

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Hiya all,This is the first of the Connections Mania Series I am coming up with. All these questions were part of the quizzes i conducted last year…Please mail in your answers to qfactory1@gmail.com or qfactory1@yahoo.co.inPoint System: 5 Point for giving the connection alone and 10 points if you connect all the clues to the connect. 

1.Connect to a company. ( The video clue is from a Tamil Movie by the name Varalaru. The language doesn’t matter. There is a major clue in the clipping itself)          
         [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFDOkiWHSQ]     

Ans: Maruti
Thirupathi Venkatachalapathi was the first customer of Maruti.
The guy in the pic is R.C.Bhargava, first Chairman Maruti Udyog Ltd.
Amitabh and Abishekh endorsed for Versa, even a there is a small mention of Jayaji in the Advertisement.
The clip is from the movie “Varalaru” starring Ajith Kumar, the electronic wheel chair used by the hero is specially designed by Maruti Udyog Ltd for the movie.  
   
2. Connect 
  

Ans: Western Union Money Transfer.

The Newyork and Missisippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company is the first name of the company.
It was merged with First Data Corporation in 1995.
Bid Pay is the online money transfer service for e-commerce but it was closed in 2005.
They are the sponsors for Chennai Dynamos in PHL. 
    
3.  Connect ( video clue follows)  
  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZloVFi0nWo]   

Ans: Parle
Parle was started in 1929 at Mumbai.
Chox is the brand of parle.
Vikram is the brand ambassador for Parle G in Tamilnadu.
Kajol is the brand ambassador for Parle Marie ( The Anti-Marie Campaign)    

4. Connect to a company
  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbZJmNSNA4c]  

Ans: Colgate.

It was started in 1806 by William in the Dutch Street of New York.
Axion is the brandof Dish Wash from Colgate.
Make a Wish foundation is the NGO promoted by Colgate.
Saif Ali Khan is the brand ambassador.    

5.  Connect to a company (video clue follows) 
  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBqrVyOf-SI] 
   
Ans: Kinetic.

The person in the pic is H.K.Firodia, the founder.
King 100 is a utlity vehicle for load carrying.
Jai Hind Sciaky is a JV with Sciaky Company of Japan.
Sachin Tendulkar first endorsed Kinetic Luna.
Bipasha Basu endorses the new Flyte range of Scooters  
 
6. Connect to a international brand
 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKo4YQLoxyo]  
Ans: Johnny Walker The place in the map is Kilmarnock, Scotland where Johnny Walker is produced.
The picture is of Johnnie Walker, the founder
Official sponsor of Mclaren Mercedes and the movie is the official song of ICC World Cup 2007, in which Johnnie walker is a sponsor.
A character is modeled after the striding man in the book and Johnnie Walker is extremely popular in Japan.  

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