More experiences on Stage Level of major quizzes

Stage Finalist in the following:
[stories about each to follow soon]

1. TATA Crucible 2006 Corporate Round, Regional Final, Mumbai.

2. Couple O' Questions, Regional Finals, TCS Mumbai, February 2007

3. BIM Trichy Enigma Online Quiz, National Finals, August 2007 [B schools]

4. NIFT Ahmedabad Business Quiz in Eclipse - February 2008 [B schools]

5. Finalist, Inter college quiz at DAIICT Gandhinagar - March 2008

6. Best Newbie Team - Boat Club Quiz Club, Pune - [May 2008]

7. Wild Card Stage Round, TATA Crucible Campus, Ahmedabad [Feb 2009]

:-)

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities!

True. Very true! The same goes with any team. A team's strength lies in the diverse qualities of its team members and not in the alike qualities. Read On... :)

Jan 2005:
My passion for quizzing was not going to end after graduation. I was now ready for Corporate Quizzing! Very few companies run an internal national level annual quiz event. *Couple-O-Questions* is a very successful in-house event of TCS Maitree conducted in Feb every year. TCS Maitree is an extensive forum of women (and men) who reach out to the Tata Consultancy Services family as well as the wider community. The concept of *Couple* in the quiz is that a team must have male-female pair! So now I faced a challenge to find a "quizzically yours" lady as my partner. And the hunt began.. ;)

My first *search* email went to the lady who interviewed me during recruitment drive. :p Unfortunately, she was out of India for some assignment. :( The next mails were *chain mails* to my friends saying, "Wanted a lady who has proven track record of winning quizzes in past!". Looks like a matrimonial ad?! :-)
After 2 weeks of search, the quest ended and I found an MBA who had won a number of quizzes during her college days. Interestingly, she was also looking for a partner.
I never did such a dramatical thing to participate in a quiz! :D We shared some quiz books/internet websites,etc. until the prelims and were set for the event. A tough 30 question prelim was pretty manageable 'coz she was great at literature questions and moi at current affairs. Teamwork at its best! :)

Feb 2005:
An email popped up in the inbox saying that my team was one of the six regional finalists! :O
Though we were just about confident about the selection, such an email always gives you a pleasant surprise. :) And more importantly it was going to be held on my Birthday! :p

Some more weeks of preparation and the D-day arrived. It was a very chilly evening [as far as Bombay's winter is concerned] at the beautiful Banyan Park office. We had a good start in the quiz, but in the subsequent rounds many of the *pass* questions were eaten up by a *legend quizzer*, who was sitting just next to us.

That's how it goes on stage quizzing! :D At the end of the game, we found ourselves in the fourth position. Never mind, we won quite a good amount of shopping vouchers and were served some lavish dinner! What was good that we both complemented each other in different fields of quizzing. :) That's what a winning team is made of. Isn't it?

PS: Updates :->
Sep 2006:
1) This same team participated in Brand Equity Quiz 2005 as well, but were kicked out in the prelims. :) My quizzing partner left this company soon and went onto some other Indian IT giant! ;) Dunno if there is a quizzing tradition in that firm. :

2) Mr. *legend quizzer* is a Tata Crucible 2006 National Runner-up and Brand Equity 2006 Regional Finalist as well. A truly amazing brain! :)

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.....

Presenting a real life story to prove the quotation of the title of this post.

Sep 2002:
The yearly flagship event of Indore Management Association "All India Brand Guru Quiz" took place. Top B-schools/Engg. Colleges & Corporate houses battled this highly entertaining quiz event, based on the lines of Economic Times Brand Equity Quiz and TATA Crucible, for some high profile prizes. The dynamic Harish Bijoor being the quiz master.
We heard of this event in the college and went to witness the show. In fact, what prompted us to go for the show was the prize for the most whackily dressed up person in the audience. We had painted our faces with tri-colors, et all and two of my friends actually won that prize. :p
On a serious note, my quiz freak classmate realised that if prepared well this can be cracked easily. We both decided to have a go for this quiz the next year and started preparation for the it straighaway.

Sep 2003:
The announcement of the next edition of the Brand Guru Quiz had come and we straightaway registered ourselves for it. This was my final year in engineering and the placement season was going to start soon with "Asia's No.1 Software Company" decided to visit the campus for a day after this quiz. But we were more excited about this quiz than the job, may be because this time the co-host of the show was going to be Mandira Bedi !

In all 70 college teams and 30 corporate teams took part. Our aim was to get in top 3 of the college teams and then compete with the top 3 companies in the Grand Finale. Some of the colleges were IIML, IIMI, MICA, NIRMA, ICFAI, International Business School, IIPS, etc. and some of the corporates being TCS, Bennet Coleman & Co Ltd, L&T, HDFC, ICICI, Eicher, CSC, JP Morgan Chase, Hindustan Times, GAIL, Airtel, et all....
Did I say our aim was to come in top 6 for the Grand Finale !! ;)

The crossword prelims started and we had totally cracked it.
We cleared each hurdle and reached the top 3 ..defeating IIMI as well... yaaaaaay!! :)

The final six included IIML, IIPS, TCS, TOI, CSC and IET (my college)

As I told before, TCS campus placement was gonna happen a day after this finale... and we both had this gut feeling that surely these TCS quizzers are going to come to the college for the same.
When we approached them for the same, they diplomatically sent us away saying,
"A new team from Mumbai is going to fly down for it.. we are here only for quizzing".
All our efforts to impress them seemed to go in vain. :(

Anyways, lets get back to the finale.... a very enthralling stage round.
As it happens on stage, the team sitting next to you decides your future and in our case IIML sat on our left hand side and blocked almost all the pass questions.. grrrrr! :(
TCS was playing brilliantly and it was a close fight between TCS and IIML for the top 2 spots.
Finally, IIML cleaned up TCS for the first prize of an Acer Laptop each and both the TCSers won themselves a Royal Enfield Motorcycle each. Wow !!
We finished fourth, ahead of CSC and TOI, winning an LG Double Door Refrigerator each. :)

Finally we congratulated the teams and parted. Gosh, we had campus interview a day after !

My quiz freak friend was not interested in taking up any IT job so he refrained from the campus interviews.. But I sat for it and cleared the three initial online rounds and went to face the first interview. Out of the six panels, I was randomly sent in one of them.... as soon as I entered the room I was shocked to see the sight!
One of the last night's TCS winner was sitting on the other side of the table !
I was glad that she rememberd me and was even pleasantly surprised when she said, "So, you were my competitor last night and now shall become in the company as well!".

I sailed through the rest of the process and got a final selection letter. :))
It has been 21 months in this company and I have enjoyed every moment of IT!

So then, what do u say... "Am I lucky ?"

PS: Updates about the characters of this post ->
Apr 2006:
1) My quiz freak friend... he did not appear for any campus interview intially and got selected in IIT D for MBA course. He appeared for the same quiz in Oct 2004 as well and again won a refrigerator! He is going to finish his MBA this year and will join Infosys! :)
2) My TCS Quizzers: I am in contact with them... Both of them have been in TCS London from a very long time... I am one of the core members of the soon to be launched "TCS Mumbai Quiz Club" and shall continue this fever.
3) The IIML fellow who won the Acer laptop, went on to join SBI after passing out and won the Brand Equity Quiz of 2005.