It was a tense last round of resolute quizzing. As quiz master Giri Balasubramanian got down from the stage to pose six questions in the round ‘Short Takes', hundreds of anxious eyes followed him in the nearly-packed auditorium at the finals of ‘BeeQee', a business quiz organised by The Hindu Business Line , here on Thursday. It was presented by Central Bank of India.
Priyambad Pattanayak and Ayyappa Kancherla from Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM) and Govind Paliath and Saran B. of SSN College of Engineering were vying for the first position; for the latter, losing points meant a battle with the team from College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG). Each of the teams was within a striking distance of the other.
The battle became more dramatic with GLIM scoring a negative point, but they soon made it up by getting the question on the first lady employee of Tata Motors right (Answer: Sudha Murthy).
Their consistence in the analytical and lateral thinking rounds and sure-footed replies finally got GLIM the first prize. Incidentally, it is the second win for the duo in a matter of a week (the other being their victory in the regional round of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2011).
Whether it was some quick thinking from the six teams on the stage or some inspired guesses from the audience, BeeQee was stimulating right from the start.
Earlier, a total of 609 teams had participated in the preliminary round.
The line-up of “high quality questions” was evident from the very first round of the finals as most of the teams found them tough to answer. The momentum picked up in the subsequent rounds, which were named ‘Know Ball' and ‘Brand Line'
Did you know that elephant dropping is the ingredient for a paper product venture? It is the brainchild of retailer Mahima Mehra and Jaipur-based handmade paper producer Vijendra Shekhawat. “That's going to be the future of paper,” was Mr. Balasubramanian' s response, much to the delight of the crowd.
Actor Karthi, who sat through the finals, stirred up the crowd at the presentation function. S. Kannan, general manager, Central Bank of India, also spoke.
The team from SSN College of Engineering came second, while R.G. Aishwarya and R. Sai Sundar of CEG came third.