“I know it. I know it!”; “Superb Question!”. These phrases, and more, assault your ears as you enter the room of an officious-looking building on Linking Road, Bandra
When it comes to quizzes, no one can beat the members of the Bombay Quiz Club
“I know it. I know it!”; “Superb Question!”. These phrases, and more, assault your ears as you enter the room of an officious-looking building on Linking Road, Bandra, at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon. You could be forgiven for thinking that you’ve walked into a late afternoon party. In an office are a group of casually dressed individuals engaged in a heated debate. The party is on, but it’s a party of a different kind. Welcome to Bombay Quiz Club (BQC) — the city’s quizzing community.
The members, around 35 to 40 of them, trickle in slowly, some with wives in tow. They are divided into eight teams in such a way that the ‘seeded’ players — the ones with the highest points — are not in the same team. Every session sees a member volunteer to be the new quizmaster. “If not, we hold a gun to his head,” chuckles Sumant Srivathsan, who joined the club a year ago.
Everyone is seated in their groups, the laptop and LCD are set up, paper and pens are taken out, coffee is served, and the questions begin. The quizmaster has to come up with his unique quizzing style. The quizzes are not the usual knowledge-based ones. Amit Verma, one of the founding members, says, “The quizzes are more of the problem-solving kind.”
This week’s quizmaster was Devang Ghia. His style included three written rounds and two general rounds. The theme round was a written round which saw all the participants rack their brains to get the theme, which was centred around Yash Raj Films.
The camaraderie between the teams even when they were competing with each other was refreshing. The dark horse, Team 6, won the quiz by a a point, a fact that did not sit very well with the runners up. But everything was taken in the right spirit. Team 1 seemed to have the most fun; they gave incorrect and sometimes really weird answers. Says Avinash Mudaliar, a professional quizmaster: “I come here mainly to have fun. These meetings are great stress busters.” The others agree. “People from different professions like bankers, engineers and students come together to quiz each other,” said Pradeep Ramarathnam.
For one year, the BQC had no fixed location. “Once we had a meeting at the food court in Inorbit Mall, but the people there thought we were conducting a business meeting as we had our laptops with us,” says Amit. One they finalised on a place in Bandra, they meet every second Sunday. They also have a blog to keep members updated. But this eclectic mix of people lacks only one thing, female quizzers.
l_joanna@dnaindia.net 
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}