The Hindu Business Line : Questas, Sun Micro teams joint winners at Ad Club BL quiz

Sharing the price: The joint winners of the Ad Club Business Line Quiz 2007 Mr Amit Pandeya and Mr Manish Tandon of Questas Software (left), and Mr Mitesh Agarwal and Mr Vishwajeeth Narvekar of Sun Microsystems, with quizmaster Giri Balasubramanian (third from left) and Mr M.P. Varghese (extreme right), Deputy General Manager, Union Bank of India, in Chennai, on Saturday.

Our Bureau

Chennai, Dec. 1

Four tie-breaker questions and yet no result was nerve-wracking enough for quizmaster Mr Giri Balasubramanian (and the audience) to ask the contesting teams if they could share the first prize at the Ad Club Business Line Quiz 2007.

The teams — Questas Software represented by Mr Manish Tandon and Mr Amit Pandeya, and Sun Microsystems represented by Mr Vishwajeeth and Mr Mitesh — crowned joint winners of the quiz, shared the booty comprising a cash prize of Rs 25,000 from Business Line, Samsung LCD television sets, management books from Wiley India, executive leather bags and wall clocks from I-Care Communications, executive shirts from Venfield, Stanza and Tibre, a gift coupon worth Rs 5,000 from Bally Ceramics and air tickets from Paramount Airways.

Both these Mumbai-based teams played a cautious game throughout the quiz, choosing not to answer questions they were uncertain about. The strategy paid off as other teams — two teams from Vizag Steel, a combo from Cambridge Technologies and Kotak and another that chose to call itself ‘Clueless’ — took risks, especially during the buzzer and rapid fire rounds, eventually missing the coveted championship.

The teams went through six rounds before the joint winners were declared.

Besides the six qualifying teams, four more teams (Citibank, Hindu On Mobile, TCS and Wipro) were also awarded prizes comprising books, shirts and accessories for being a part of the top ten qualifiers.

Informed audience

The 250-strong informed and enthusiastic audience stumped the quizmaster and the contesting teams on most occasions, winning away gift hampers from Henkel, G.M. Pens and Tibre. ‘What is the Rajini Virus’ (one that works on a multiplier effect of 100), ‘What is a squiggly in Wal-Mart parlance’ (the hyphen that separates Wal and Mart), ‘What did the Patna Municipality do to collect tax from evaders that has today been adopted by advertising agencies?’ (employ eunuchs to collect money) were some of the questions the audience tackled with élan.

Questions directed to the teams were largely from areas like current affairs, brands, Indian and international business and marketing. Some questions were also left to the quizmaster to answer, such as ‘what is promission?’ (a method of cremation where a body is frozen in liquid nitrogen and then shaken so as to convert it into particles).

‘Humbling experience’

Mr Balasubramanian, known among quizzing circles as Pickbrain, fondly recollected that it was at this hotel 13 years ago that he made his debut as a participant at the Ad club Business Line quiz. Mr K. Venugopal, Joint Editor, The Hindu Business Line, said “it was a humbling experience” to witness such talent and knowledge among participants and the audience and that the quality of the quiz was getting better every year.

Forty teams from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, Visakhapatnam, Bhilai and other places participated in the event sponsored by Union Bank of India and Singapore Institute of Commerce.