The city loves this brain game

IT IS more or less a ritual in Chennai, now. The annual combination of patriotism and quizzing - the Landmark Quiz.

Ask the quizzards, they will tell you they wait (some, prepare) for this particular event and are glad it's happening in an otherwise not so quiz-happy Chennai. Another indication of the overall sense of contentment with this quiz is the increasing number of teams that sign up every year, even if only to be eliminated in the qualifiers.

And nevertheless stay on, to watch the nail-biting finals of the event and until curtain call is officially announced. ``But this quiz is all about mood and a certain atmosphere. What if we don't win, we want to be there anyway,'' says a Chennai regular at the Landmark quiz, who has never gotten beyond `getting 14-15 answers right', but is as `enthu' about being there, just the same.

Guess that explains why there were these stragglers outside, watching the happenings on TV monitors, though they couldn't manage to squeeze inside the Music Academy main auditorium and mini hall. No surprises that among the participants were `pattis and thathas' vying with Generation X, (or is it something else now?) to get there. Who says age matters?

This year, official figures put the total number of teams at 960, of which only eight teams made it to the final. Teams also made it from Bangalore, Coimbatore and Madurai, to take a shot at the 40 questions that will bring loads of gifts, money, fame and of course, happiness.

Now for that sample of trivia that you are looking for. Quizmaster Naveen Jaikumar (ably supported by Gautam Padmanabhan) manages to come up with a few new whatchamacallits every year and no prizes for guessing how he manages that. Even in quizzes, there are some things we have to learn not to question. Here goes: Azim Premji, (now, don't ask who) completed his degree in electrical engineering at the age of 54 years. Indian Chief Ministers could not unfurl the national flag on I- Day till 1974. There are road signs in America warning people of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Weird? Maybe, but true.

Defending champions QED comprising Ravi Venkatesh, R. Mohan and Samanth Subramanian retained the title, while Bangalore team `We are like this Wonly' came up second, followed by city favourite `Parijatha'. Teams from DAV and Vidya Mandir won prizes for the best school teams.

Where does the clay to make professional ghatams (musical instrument) come from? Take that and get ready for battle next year. Same time. Same place. Just different questions.

By Ramya Kannan

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