Frankly, I wasn’t even supposed to go for this quiz. Originally, my school was planning on sending only 4 teams, with each team having 4 members each. However, one of the guys, Siddharth Bhatia, backed out, because he’d got bad marks, and his parents weren’t the happiest in the world, at the time. So, I was more than willing to take up his position. Later, another opening was filled by Karthick.

I was told of this about 2-3 days before the event, which was held over 3 days – from 24th to 26th July. Plus, I was supposed to submit a web designing entry for a competition at Birla Vidya Niketan, by the 24th as well, so I didn’t exactly prepare for the quiz too much. By the way, the website is deplorable. No one else has yet seen it. The event at BVN is stretched over a couple of days, and the CD was to be submitted on the first day, and I’m not sure if the coordinating teacher has sent the CD. This might mean that I will not be embarrassed in front of an assortment of people I might/might not know.

In fact, we was chucked into this BVN thing without even a day’s notice, and Karthick had to call his Mom from the reception for an impromptu visit to my house to make the website. We had a few hours to make a decent website, and we, being ultra-amateur web designers, failed horribly. Arjun tried to help by sending over a template, but it was a bit too late, and we didn’t have the brains to integrate our content successfully in the little time we had left, and modify the color themes to match the topic (“The age of UFOs”…wooo…; the only alternative was “Cultural Heritage of India”…barfing sound). Later, I told our computer HOD, Bani Ma’am not to send us for non-major events, as Karthick and I are in 10th. Academics has to be given at least a little priority.

Anyway, I was told that the preliminaries for the Columban Quiz were being held over the 24th and 25th, and that we were in the 25th batch. So I had a day. In school. So, I sat down with my team, consisting of Tushar Krishnan (a programmer for the Code Warriors), Saurabh Chaudhary (a former Bournvita Quiz Challenege – Asia champion) and Raikon Terang (whose first name sounds like a telecom company). There were a few more people, and we were in the senior library, shooting questions at each other from Siddharth Basu books. I didn’t doo much shooting, though. A waste of time, but the only thing we could think of.

Being fully prepared for a quiz is equivalent to having a copy of Wikipedia in your brain. In the Columban Quiz, you needed to know old songs, as well as pictures. Mind-bogglingly confusing…

DAY 1

Well, this is the first time I’m taking a mobile phone to school. Mom got it for me from Dubai – it was an on-the-spur-of-the-moment purchase, a Nokia 3109. I’ll give a full-fledged review later. And my number is __________ (I’m not that dumb!).

Anyway, on reaching school, I first went to class, because I was yanked out of class during Maths class for the quiz, the previous day, and someone had taken my Maths textbook. I was unsuccessful in finding it. Then I went to the A-Block Lounge, where we lounged around for quite a while. It’s basically the place non-CW guys hang around till everyone comes, for competitions. CWs use the iLab. We found that the BVN event also had its first day that day, so a bus was first being assigned ot them, then one to us later, as an afterthought.

I’m no stranger when it comes to the ways of our schools bus drivers. These poor souls get up in early in the morning, drive bleary-eyed to pick up equally bleary-eyed students and teacher and drive them to school. After this, they need a cup of hot, steaming tea to freshen them, and they refuse to budge till they’ve had one.

The tradition remained unbroken.

We finally set off around 8:30 – 8:45 AM. I was in no mood to sit in a circle with other quizzers and exchange questions and answers. I just put on my earphones, and relaxed.

Trust me on this, it helps!

St. Columba’s School is situated in the middle of Delhi, near Gole Market, near Connaught Place, and it almost beats Modern School, Barakhamba Road in terms of being as near as possible to the heart of Delhi.

Upon reaching the Edward Rice Hall, or something of that sorts, we found a little crowd of quizzers. Tushar registered, and we got the team number – C-26. Frankly, I would’ve preferred 42.

Ankur, fear not. The spirit of Douglas Adams will not die with your coming of age. I vow to be the next torchbearer.

Anyway, groups A and B already had their elimination round and quarter-finals on the 24th. We were in group C and were next. We gave our bags to the group D guys and entered the hall. We answered around 9 questions correctly in the prelim and attempted around 15 (out of around 35). I contributed around 3-4 answers. When the answers were being discussed, we were pretty depressed, because most of our answers were wrong. There were quite a few teams which were cheering all the time and I suspect that they were doing this just to depress others, including us. Anyway, we qualified.

What I’d like to point out is the cheer we gave. It was ultra-spontaneous, lasted around a second, and we clammed up instantly. No one clapped. (Cricket, cricket)

Well, then we gave the quarter-final. 10 teams qualified for it, out of which 5 teams would qualify for the semi-finals against 5 teams from group D. Out of the 10 teams in the semi-finals, 4 teams would qualify for the final against 4 teams who win the semi-final between groups A and B. The quarter-final were pretty tough, and I’ve noticed that unlike most tech quizzes, it’s pretty OK not to know 75% of the questions! We topped the QF.

Now begins the drama.

After my quarter final, I wanted my bag back. I had left it with Karthick, who was part of a team from Group D. I tried finding them outside, but found that Group D was already on its way in. So I asked some people there if I could pop into the hall, find Karthick, and get my bag. After one teacher and two volunteers, I was allowed to get in. I didn’t know the team number of the other team, so I just tried to scan the sea of multicolor (but mainly white) uniforms for my pals. Eventually, I asked someone about where DPS VK was sitting, and he gave me a look, a kinda ‘uh-oh’ look, or maybe something pitiful, but he led me to the main entrance, where I found the two teams battling it out with a teacher. The organisers were not letting them in. Eventually, even the Principal got involved, who also denied them entry. They were allowed to get their bags though, and sulk away.

At this point, I find it necessary to clarify why they were not allowed to get in. This is how Karthick, along with inputs from Aishwaria, put it. They were getting bored, waiting outside, for Group D to enter. So, after the written preliminary, when the rest of the teams who did not make it to the quarter-final came out of the hall, our 2 teams wanted to watch our quarter final. So, they asked one of the volunteers if they could watch the quarter-final. He told them to get in through the exit. They watched the entire QF, and later, after the QF, when they were arranging chairs for Group D’s prelims, they told them to step out for a second. I don’t know what happened after this. They might/might not have gone to the canteen, with/without their bags. Anyway, when teachers found out that they had been in the hall during our QF, they disqualified them.

I consider this unfair, because if there were conflicting questions between Group C and D, they should not have been allowed in in the first place. According to Karthick, this was a mistake on the part of the organisers, and I tend to agree with him. We tried arguing our case, but it didn’t work. So, they missed a day of school for no reason.

Anyway, after the poor guys left at around noon, we had time till 3:30 for out semi-final. So, while Group D’s prelim and QF was going on, we hung around in the tent outside, listening to music through a Nokia E90, a Nokia 3109 and an iPod nano. There were 4 guys. Then we went to the canteen -  a little subterranean dungeon, with ads of H2GO bottled water all around. The counter resembled something out of a WWII prison cell. We left that place pretty quick, for sanitary reasons.

Then we decided to go and buy a bottle of Coke, emulating some other guys we saw. This required us to go to Gole Market, outside the school, unfortunately, we did not know that we had to turn right outside the gate, and instead, turned left, reached St. Paul’s Cathedral, the post office, and after a lot of walking, some market. We did eventually get the Coke and some ice. I only got to know Gole Market was to the right, on Day 2.

Anyway, after coming back, we hung around for some more time. We decided against entering the auditorium, because we might be disqualified. Eventually we did enter and found Shrek 2 playing. Sigh!

Then, the first semi between Group A and B began. The quizmaster, Kunal (I forgot his last name) was a pretty nice guy, keeping the mood light, mocking almost all the team names. We were ‘Les Dieux Quatres’. I had no hand in naming the team, and later I found out it meant ‘The Four Gods’ or ‘The Godly Four’. Whatever. Anyway, when out semi-final began, that’s how the quizmaster reffered to our team – Whatever. He basically couldn’t understand the team name. The semi-final was also pretty tough, and I could answer only a question or two, but we made it to the finals. The top four teams qualified, and the scores were 45, 45, 45, 40. Phew.

Saurabh went home by car and … oh, there was no bus to ferry us to school, so we went by autos. Now, Gole Market is not exactly next doors to Vasant Kunj, so the prices were around Rs.90~100. Plus, it had rained and the weather hadn’t cleared up, so autowallahs were out to fleece people. Eventually, we did find two autos willing to take 4 people. Unluckily, I was talking on the phone to Mom when we found them, and the other two guys got into one auto, leaving me to sit with Brijesh sir. Not that he’s bad company, just that students tend to be better company than teachers.

Went home and took some advice from Ankur on how to prepare for the final. Found that a lot of the questions from Day 1 were from the sources he mentioned.

DAY 2

Day 2 was shorter and sweeter. Got there around 9 AM, interrupted by Saurabh, who kept calling up to know where I was, impatient fellow. I made the mistake of telling him that I had reached, whereas I was a few hundred yards away, and he called thrice in that spanse of time! He’s the one with the E90. Tushar wanted to strangle me coz I didn’t turn up at school, and went directly to St. Columba’s.

The quiz was tough…for me at least…didn’t get a single one of the questions which went past my team. Thankfully, this wasn’t true for my teammates, and we came 2nd, after a nailbiting tiebreaker for 2nd and 3rd positions. We had the same quizmaster, although in different attire. In fact, he didn’t want a tiebreaker, but apparently, the prize amount couldn’t be divided between two teams equally. I would think that it was a simple matter of adding up the prize money of 2nd and 3rd positions and dividing by two. Plus, there was no trophy for second and third, so, no issues there. But, yippie, at the end of the quiz, they served refreshments. This was a relief, because we were left without any food on Day 1. But the refreshments were just a samosa and a sandwhich. Comparing it with Access, this was nothing at all.

We got a cheque for Rs. 4000. But, it was addressed to The Principal, DPS Vasant Kunj, so it will be quite some time before I get by thousand bucks. Anyway, this quiz means that I’m finally into the Quiz Club, officially. Earlier, it was a forgone conclusion that most CW members were passive members of the Quiz Club, but this quiz might, just might earn me a badge.