Brand Equity 2005 - Dhums UP!

Third time lucky! I had been to the Brand Equity previously, but had always managed to miss out qualifying, by a solitary point or two. This year, the format had changed to a crossword and just 5 questions. For whatever reason, my team topped the prelims and that too from Bangalore. As mentioned in Ramanand’s blog, the BEQ has undergone quite some erosion of its own equity with a dip in participation as well as the enthusiasm from the organizers. It seems to be a toned down version of itself although the production value from Derek O Brien and Associates seems as good (or as bad depending on your opinion of him!) as ever! There were digs abound, at everything from Nagma and her dual links with Dawood and Dada (Sourav Ganguly) to Derek’s morphs into Sunju baba from Musafir, Gabbar from Sholay, etc

What kind of teams would you expect from the IT capital to qualify? Here’s the final lineup – Wipro, Mphasis, Fidelity, Motorola, Iflex and IBM represented by yours truly!

Unlike the usual BEQ format where the prelims are tough and the finals are easy (making you want to have been on stage), this year, the prelims were ridiculously easy and finals were of respectable standard. We started off very well being leaders for about 3 rounds and then we just tanked. When the time came for the heads to roll, we were saved by virtue of our high score in the prelims although we were level with the team lying 5th. So much for history. And that was after I had secured a negative for my team, by jumping the gun.

Derek took digs at all and sundry, including one at me, when I gave a ‘creative’ answer. He said he liked it and promptly gave me a diary where I could record all my funny answers!

Then there were the usual takes on pretty women from TOI. Anyways, the net result was that we came a lucky fourth after salvaging some pride towards the end with answers to questions on Ipod (How can one miss a question on one of one’s favourite companies?) and some other improvisations. And what did I get - Loads of goodies – gift coupons for some boutique, some fancy stationery, Provogue, suit lengths, a leather bag, etc.

I now have enough to last myself till the next big quiz! And at home they were more excited than me as I unraveled all my gifts in front of my eager mom and dad.

Actually the quiz wasn’t half as much entertainment as my parents’ reaction to all the goodies was.Once in a while, its nice to get rewarded in kind for a pursuit that one would engage in regardless of the results. And when it is surprising, like this one, all the better.