Apart from an appetite for quizzing, you will need a high threshold for puns to participate in “Cannot Place 2013”, a quizzing festival being held in IIT Delhi over the weekend. The three-day festival packs in 10 quizzes which include “Capital Punishment — The General Quiz”, “Sholay — The FLAME (fashion, literature, art movies and entertainment) quiz” and “Ball, eh? Ball, eh? — The sports quiz” among others.
Organised by Option 44, Gurgaon, and Kutub Quizzers, Delhi, the festival aims at becoming a fixture in the Capital’s lean quizzing calendar. “The idea for the festival came around three months back…we noticed that every metro has some central quizzing activity that happens and we were pretty surprised that we don’t have our own festival going in Delhi,” says Avinash Mudaliar, founding member, Option 44.
“We always say among ourselves that Delhi is a city that gives you ample opportunity and means to showcase your power, money and clout, but not as much when it comes to anything related to the intellect. This is truly sad when we consider the amount of intellectual capital (pun unintended) that we have in the city. In our small way, we wanted to provide one such platform — where quiz, trivia and knowledge enthusiasts could come and compete against each other in a festival where the only thing that matters is how well read you are, and how curious you are about the world around you,” he adds.
If there is a lack of a genuine quizzing culture in the city, it is due to the absence of a focal point for all the quizzing activity. “Delhi is such a large place that there is a lot of fragmented action going on — some in Delhi University, some in Gurgaon…we want there to be one community and one place where all of us come together and evangelise about this mind-sport and get more people together.”
Teams, comprising a maximum of three members, can register for the quizzes on the spot for a fee of Rs.150. If you do not have a team, you can always find yourself one at the event. The denominations of the prizes range from Rs.1000 to 12,000 and can be collected after the events. There are gifts to be had for intrepid audience members as well.
From passionate hobbyists to the idle curious, “Cannot Place 2013” is expected to draw quizzers of all hues. To design questions keeping this variation in mind must not have been easy.
“To set a tough question is very simple,” says Mudaliar. “That is exactly what we are trying not to do. The questions are framed in such a way that there are clues embedded in them. They should lead participants to an answer, rather than them having to memorise facts and regurgitate them…”
