The pinnacle of a quiz contest is a tie-breaker that never ends. Watching two evenly matched teams refusing to budge, amidst an audience that understands what ‘smart quizzing' is all about, is a rare sight. The 13th edition of the Ad Club - Business Line Quiz held here on Saturday was witness to one such marvel of unbreakable will.
The tie-breaker to determine the runners-up took a good 20 nerve-wracking minutes. Each of the 10 questions along the way could have thrown up a winner.
Eventually, a three letter answer sealed it for Prasad Shetty and R. Arvind, who were adjudged the runners-up. “What did British army officer General R. Cawthome found in 1948?” It was Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
“We lost count of the number of questions,” Mr. Shetty said. “A couple of times we thought we would lose. But we held our nerve,” he said.
Ajay Kasargod, who ended up on a losing side, said “We have been coming from Bangalore each year for this quiz. If you are passionate about quizzing, it is fun even when you lose. Besides, those who know the most answers necessarily need not win.”
Within minutes of losing by a whisker, Mr. Kasargod was arm in arm with Mr. Shetty, discussing some of the tricky questions.
The quiz, which was conducted by Giri Balasubramaniam, was peppered with a fair share of them. Neither the teams on stage, nor the audience, knew that the word ‘cab' originates from the Spanish word for goat ‘Cabriole', since goats were used for transportation once upon a time.
Another interesting titbit was that the world's largest currency printer, De La Rue Currency, which is involved in the production of more than 150 currencies, started off in 1822 as a manufacturer of playing cards.
For the automotive fans, a fascinating background story to the Chevrolet Volt, manufactured by General Motors, is that its body is made of a plastic resin that was used in the booms that mopped up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
However, the winners of the quiz – Mithesh Agarwal and Rohan Khanna – made it long before the final rounds.
K.Venugopal, Joint Editor, The Hindu and The Hindu Business Line , said that despite having attended the Business Line quiz for the past 13 years or more, many of the answers still eluded him. “I was sitting among the audience and Googling to find out which is the fastest supercomputer in the world. Some of the participants in today's quiz must be at least four to five times faster,” he said.
N.Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Overseas Bank, who was the chief guest, presented prizes.
The quiz was presented by Indian Overseas Bank. The lead sponsor for the event was SAIL and associate sponsors were Geojit BNP Paribas, Wings and Isha Homes. The gift sponsors were Samsung, Landmark, SMART, Viveks, Whirlpool, I Ads & Events, Roshans, Venfield Shorts and Valore T-Shirts.
The hospitality partner was Sheraton Park Hotels and Towers.
