Quizzing then and now
Of late Pune has got the title of the 'most improved quizzing city'. We proudly boast of Mastermind India who is not only Pune's own but Boat Club's own J. Ramanand. (His blogs make interesting reading. Ramanand's blog). It was good to hear that Abhinav Vidyalaya reached the TV round of the ESPN quiz and other schools like Bishop's also performed well.
This reminds me of my own quizzing days in school, when things were not so glamorous are they are nowadays, with being on TV, and all. The first interschool quiz that I took part in was the Maggi quiz in the 7th Standard. I had somehow impressed the teacher who thought I had good G.K. to merit a spot along with Siddharth Rege of another class to represent the school.
The elims were at SNDT which at that age for me, was another country. Luckily my father was free to take us. So early Sunday morning we wait outside our school for the great Rege to arrive. The man does not show up. There was little time left and I started panicking. Then strolls Paul James a classmate, who like a good Catholic was on his way to St. Xavier's Church for Mass just across the school. So I rope him in to partner me cause I had this idea that you SIMPLY CANNOT take part alone. He was not a quizzer at all. Something better than nothing.
We go for the elims and they were fine. Then there were two blank spaces at the top where you write the participant's names. I knew that the entry form from our school was Parikh and Rege. So I wrote those two names thinking that we would be disqualified. James, I think for his part contributed one answer. More importantly he helped me grab more Maggi packets, being sitributed for free than the other teams did.
The elims were forgotten in the mess of school HW and football matches. Then one fine day I was called to the office. We had qualified for the semi-finals. The two students were Parikh and Rege.
This time it was a Nehru Memorial Hall ( the scene of many interschool battles) which was kinda of home territory. Rege profusely apologised for the missed appointment. Apparently the rickshaw that he took broke down and he reached there late. We did not prepare much. I read the Manorama Yearbook. Everybody did those days. I wonder what they do these days. We were nervous under the arc-lights, the audience who clapped but you could not see and other teams who looked better prepared than us. We was 2nd throughout the quiz and then came from behind to win by a small margin beating Abhinav Vidyalaya. Also I thanked what proved to be fortuitous, writing Rege on the form instead of James Paul. We were in the finals despite some goofs. I remember a question "How many faces does a dodecahedron have?" Damn are you actually supposed to know that?
Finals of Maggi Quiz
We then took stage once again. This time we we better prepared with all the octahedrons and dodecahedrons and all that nonsense that used to ask. Its now considered impolite to ask such questions. Luckily it was a Saturday. So we had some support from students. Quizzing has been always a step-son and not considered worthy enough to send cheering squads. More in that vein Quizzers are not worshipped like rock-stars. Does quizzing make it easier to nail chicks? Luckily despite these odds, given a chance St. Vincent's students are usually very vocal supporters. At that time I felt the tension and the performance anxiety.
Rege and I had a look at the trophy before the quiz. It was HUGE. I wanted it bad. Real bad.
The finals started. The team from Jnana Prabodhini looked lethal to us. It is a school for high IQ kids. We thought we did not stand a chance. It was our day. We cleaned eveything that day. It was so magical, that one of the answers Rege blurted out incorrectly but the quiz-mistress ( I am being very PC and not dirty) heard the correct answer. We were slapping high fives and rolling along. We hit shots in the dark and they turned right. We just romped home. Abhinav finished 2nd. I later got to know that team well - Satyen Kale ( a legend in his own right) and Ashutosh Joglekar. Interestingly George Thomas representing Vidya Bhavan won the senior category. I have that photograph back home of the august George smiling benignly in the camera. I was to make his acquaintance later. Satyen and I for long recognised each other with the Maggi quiz. It's a small world.
Winning on debut was good cos I never wanted to give it up. I became a semi-hero for a couple of days. The Maggi quiz never took place after that year. So the rolling trophy after all these years (10 years ago) is still in the principals office. Hopefully beneath all that now dulled brass it still reads :
St Vincent's High School
Hirak Parikh
Siddharth Rege
Almost everything that happens in quizzing happened.
Missing partner. ..some lucky breaks...being asked just what you know...answering correctly what you did not..pre-final jitters..gleaming trophies..
Of course I did not attain immortality. Shucks!!
Blog makes it to the new edition of the OED!
This March blog,n made it as a 'real' word to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) along with the derivatives like blogging, blogger. etc. I am posting the entry since the OED is not available for free (how stingy can you get?).
blog,n
Computing.
= WEBLOG n. 2.
Etymology
[Shortened < WEBLOG n.
1999 TBTF for 1999-08-30: Aibo Rampant in cistron.lists (Usenet newsgroup) 30 Aug., Blog., a Web log... First spotted on the Eatonweb blog, er, Web log on 1999-08-25, though Eatonweb's proprietor Brigitte says the coinage is due to our very own TBTF Irregular Peter Merholz.]
[1999 www.bradlands.com (weblog diary) 23 May, Cam points out lemonyellow.com and PeterMe decides the proper way to say ‘weblog’ is ‘wee'- blog’ (Tee-hee!).] 1999 P. MERHOLZ in peterme.com (weblog diary) 28 May, For those keeping score on blog commentary from outside the blog community. 1999 Scotsman (Nexis) 30 Aug., Many of the early 'blogs link to one another and have built quite a community of webloggersthe authors who maintain them. 2002 Salina Jrnl. 21 Apr. B6/3 Blogs..contain daily musings about news, dating, marriage, divorce, children, politics in the Middle East..or millions of other things or nothing at all.
Movie Fest
"One of the gifts one movie lover can give another is the title of a wonderful film they have not yet discovered. In university, I had a Shakespeare professor who was the world's leading expert in ``Romeo and Juliet,'' and who used to say he would give anything for the ability to read the play again for the first time. When I meet someone who has never seen ``The Third Man'' or ``Singin' in the Rain,'' I envy them the experience they are about to have.
Robert Ebert
Chicago Sun Times
Since I got back I have more movies in three days than I have in the past 8 months. Today I shall start the Apu Trilogy. Back home I never had a TV. Why didn't I is a topic for another blog. Till then though, the reason is not what you think.
I finally saw the The Manchurian Candidate. Not as chilling as yesterday's The Silence of the Lambs. Axelrod the screenplay writer said that the movie ""The poor thing, you know, went from failure to classic without ever passing through success. It would be nice for it to have some success.". Not surprising that the off beat thriller was not re-released till 1988 since the Kennedy assasination. American politics is still a political circus.
Class Struggle
"The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle."
Karl Marx
"The history of all hitherto existing airline passengers is the history of class struggle from economy to business."
Hirak Parikh
Thanks to overbooking and my willingness to act as a martyr ( by agreeing to fly on the next flight) I was promoted to business class..actually World Business Class. While the Economy class have-nots are stowed as galley slaves with barely enough breathing room (forget leg room) the privileged few roll in the lap of luxury. I played the part of a regular really well. While there were riots in the queue for the bathroom way back in the plane, I was up front freshing up with the wonderful softening lotion and squirting some perfume. I was really in seventh heaven for the first time in all these years that I have flown. Casually flicking the buttons on my personal TV screen, even more casually asking for my glass of Champagne(it does not taste like horse piss like i was told ( more so I am intrigued how did he ever taste horse piss?)). More casually noting that some of my fellow passengers fumbling with the buttons to get the foot rest up..Ach these bourgeois! I was also told that the air hostesses are better in the Business Class. Much to my disappointment there were two excellent stewards. Better to have one good looking air hostess than two efficient stewards. How casual can NWA get?
Last Tango
This is my last night home.The vacation has come to an end. It feels like that I just got here and now its time to go. I have very few regrets though about the trip. I did almost all the things that I wanted to do. I have not yet gone to Marz-o-Rin despite the 'impression' that it gave to readers (Javed :( ). It has been a long and dangerous summer. I passed Laxmi road twice today. Once in the searing heat of the afternoon and once again in the evening. This is the first time in my entire life I actually made an effort to look at the buildings properly. A looked around when stopped at the great red lights while the traffic snarled around me.
The Dagdusheth Chowk is full of neon signs that coexist with black brick structures, old wooden windows, broken glass-panes, dust over the ages that no one bothers to clean, old signboards with peeling paint. New buildings with ceramic tiles and old ones with the rough granite stones. Business is still conducted on first floor offices with rickety wooden stairs with carved banisters. A mix of old and new. Few steps forward and a few back. Pune with aspirations of a slick metro with wide roads and fly-overs. The narrow streets of city and the crowded gallis still remain.
It was my last tango, my last ride through the streets, zipping through as I did all these years. Its great to be on one of the bridges in the evening and feel the cool breeze. Soon these stinks, smells and scents will become memories. Good-night!
Gola-walas
The traditional crushed ice gola has reached cult status these days. The humble gola has been revived from oblivion. Unfortunately the prices too have skyrocketed along. The 21st century is a savvy purveyor. With a menu card and some special golas like the Jamnagar special more expensive than some ice creams!
Arundhati Roy and her Harlem Renaissance
The latest issue of Outlook has another essay of Ms. Controversy Roy. A lecture that she delivered at the Riverside church. A place for many famous anti-war speeches. Its a typical Roy piece. Link to radio speech
Replete with satirical similies, statistics and heartless bashing. Her style is 'written with all heart trying to appeal to the rational mind'. I find it hard to believe her statistics which she uses to support her most important points. I wish I can get hold of the complete text and check some of her statistics. 'Empire' is now synonymous with USA. ( I recommend reading Rafique Zakaria's piece in Newsweek last April - The arrogant empire ).
Of course being a story teller it makes excellent reading for her pungent sarcasm. Also her renaming of things. Her talent for prose that's verse is undimished.
She has not made any original points.The essay can be termed as saying nothing much of consequence though. I was looking more for her unique insights into the matter. There are none that we have not heard before. Her solution to the problem is ridiculous. I wish I can share her hope that we as citizens of the world can wrest our democracy back. Of course the last lines will always be quotable.
"..You are not a great nation but can be a great people. This is the time. Seize it."
Catching up
I have not posted for a long time.I have lots to write about the 'trip' back home. I have not. It's flattering that people are hitting this blog and leaving comments. Keep 'em coming guys!
I am thinking of good reasons for not posting.
A slow internet dial-up courtesy the great VSNL
The heat of the past few weeks just put me to sleep
Laziness(yes I am admitting this!)
In the Meantime..
9th May
I conducted a quiz on the Boat Club where I attended the quiz club on a H-1 visa many Saturdays. It's a ghost of its former self with four people taking part. The pedigree of the contestants was of course not at all under question. Not that the tag that they were all on BBC Mastermind last year adds or subtracts their ability. (One is Mastermind India, the other a semi-finalist and the third another who made it to the TV rounds). It something that would be nice to crow about among tyros somewhere else. Hah! The quiz was fun despite the protests about the amount of stage questions.The great kanda bhaji was unavailble though. Life's not perfect.
19th May
I turned 23. Which does not seem to be any great numerological signifincance for me to really shout from the rooftops.It was an interesting day though. After a really long time that I went to Sinhagad with my parents. We left at about 5:00 am so we escaped the heat. The view from above halfway point is great. What appalled me is the amount of rubbish that people throw. I was about to yell loud abuses (no one was around) to there barbarians who litter.I paused there for a couple of seconds.
Maybe it being my 'Happy Birthday', I was looking at things differently. I picked up one of the plastic bags and started collecting the rubbish.
Among the rubbish was Goa/Manikchand Gutkha packets (do these guys survive to get to the top or does cancer kill them first?), someones left-foot slipper( my sympathies), chocolate wrappers. My efforts were noticed by a couple who asked me if I was from an organisation. Can individuals make a difference? Not alone. I know that. I hoped that atleast if the hillsides were not 100% clean after I finished. I felt I contributed in a way.
I felt a little guilty that I had not what I could have done much before. Personally its time to stop simply pointing fingers. I hope I can do that the rest of the year. Happy Birthday!
Back Home
Nothing changes and yet everything does. Its great fun to be back,even if its 40 C in the afternoon. Ann Arbor has its attractions but then Pune has its distractions!
Marz-O-Rin has a brand new top floor. This will make it even more popular. A balcony is a great vantage point for ogling. Wish they had done this years ago in the days of my youth. Hah!
The traffic is still as chaotic but thankfully my Puneri driving instincts have not at all diminished. Doing 120 kmph on I-94 is no challenge compared to 30 kmph on Laxmi Road on Saturday night. Yeah on Saturday night on my 'rusty but trusty' M-80. I was already taking the free lefts and doing the 'orange gamble' quite effortlessly.
Last night I met up with friends in 'Vaish' (where else?) and had an SPDP (what else?). Great meals start at less than 80 cents! Old jokes with old friends. Priceless.
Swimmin' in the Rain
They say that Gene Kelly had a temperature of 103 when he did his song and dance sequence. Singing in the rain is one of those pleasures that Life gives us for free. Today there is a really good rain that reminded me of the monsoon. I went swimming today and it occurred to me that there are no outdoor pools here so one of life's great pleasures cannot be enjoyed in the NCRB( Rec bldg).
Its great to have thunder overhead and it pouring. While you swim you cannot get wetter. Its fun being totally immune to what is really a great damper(haha) sometimes
Have you ever had this feeling of being in a huge bathtub with the shower also on. Also I forget to mention the water's cold. That's the real fun..
Hummus and Pita
Strangely this Friday's update column is too about food. This might give readers the wrong idea that I am mostly upto eating. Trust me that is not true. I rather talk about something else than the boring exam week.
I hopped(literally did) to Jerusalem Garden to have my hummus and pita. I ended up ordering a falafel plate. Of course the piece de resistance was eating the walnut baklava. The best description can be of a khari type layers soaked in sugar syrup with a filling of walnut and 'mava' in it. It is dee-licious. My aunt often made about a huge box of them each time she came. It's really great. Sinfully great! It cost a buck. What do you get these days for less than a buck?
Without my asking the waitress packed and made a nice little box for me to go. I wish she had asked, "For here or to go". Since I let her decide, I acquiesced with here wishes and left.
I wonder why people here cannot sit and eat? Why is food always on the move. Or atleast it has to always somewhere else than where you paid for it? Weird...
Thai food
Ann Arbor is famous for its great restaurants. Though it does not have too many Thai restaurants. Today I discovered the best of them all. Siam Cuisine is in a little back alley of Main tucked away in a corner. The service and the speed are excellent. What finally counts is the food though. Thai food is more about the aroma than anything. On this count this restaurant scores great. Two scents are predominant-coconut and chili which are then colored by the other exotic herbs and spices. I love the Tom Kha soup and I liked the kothmir sprinkled in it. The other two entrees I don't remember the names. Of late my taste in Thai food has exponenentially increased though my capacity for remembering the names of the dishes has not.
In a way that is good so I don't(cannot) order the same dish again.
What was great about this restaurant is that they offered a fixed dinner menu. This is good cause then you get the correct combination of dishes in the way they are supposed to be ordered rather than a hit-and-miss philosophy when you are in an exotic restaurant.
Only crib is that in Thai restaurants they dont give you a Fortune Cookie.
Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time
A few days ago this part of the world turned the clock ahead an hour to change from EST to EDT. The website below is amazing resource for what I think extremely peculiar. Thanks to that I lost one hour of sleep. Which IS A LOT OKAY? Also it is now dark at about only 8:30pm or so which actually should be 7:30 EST.
Link on Daylight Saving Time
Does it save energy?
Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country's electricity usage by a significant, but small amount, of less than one percent each day with Daylight Saving Time. We save energy in both the evening and the morning because we use less electricity for lighting and appliances.
A rather sloppily written sentence. I dont think that it does save too much energy but the greatest advantage is the more daylight hours in the evening. More time to play ( if I were a schoolboy) and being up and about along with the sun. ( look who's talking?)
Let's bomb Texas they have oil too
The war in Iraq is not yet over. On TV they say that 67 % of Americans support the war now that it has begun. I dont trust the American media one bit. In this land of the free the big media is the least free and always a pawn in someone elses hand. I trust my nose and all the people that I met and spoke to seem dead against it and more against George W. Its a senseless war which will have big repercussions on Bush. Also I predict that he is not going to die in his bed an old man.
I really dont understand the US foreign policy vis a vis the people here. Here there is so much of protest and the freedom to protest. In fact today I missed seeing the most famous item on Ann Arbor's annual calender. "Hash Bash" where flower power junkies, college students, liberty activists gather to legalise 'grass'. The university seems to have clamped down on this in a big way. Most of the times its just more tourists than the actual protesters. Need to check up on this debate.
