So Long Wingco

Wing Commander G.R. Mulky, 'Wingco' to all Bangalore quizzers, passed
away early this morning. He was 82.

From the KQA newsletter, " Wingco had founded the Karnataka Quiz Association in 1983 in partnership with other enthusiasts and ran its affairs with great determination till the year 2000. He was similarly involved with the founding of Sursagar, a society devoted to promoting Indian Classical Music. Wingco was also actively involved in counselling activities for the old in association with the voluntary organisation Vishwas... "

I have quite a few fond memories of Wingco having first met him in my 9th standard. In those days, he attended every quiz that the KQA did. He had incredible enthusiasm and his energy belied his age. In fact until a few years ago when I returned to Bangalore after a long spell out of it, except for short vacations of less than a week, I had no idea of how old he was. I only knew he was retired. Several times in the open quizzes, Wingco went out of his way to keep the school children interested. It is a little disheartening when you are young and do not make the finals, despite your best efforts. At such stages, you need some encouragement and my school team was the recipient of best school team at one such quiz, where we had some 9.5 points. Another school team (incidentally we beat this team to emerge best school team for the year in the KQA rankings) had 10 points. And there was only 1 best school team prize. Wingco gave away 2 best school team prizes, making a special consideration for us, since we had essentially done equally well. That boosted my otherwise dull day that day more than a decade ago and has ensured quizzing is a part of my life.

On another occasion, Wingco and me, with 2 other people made the finals of an open quiz. That was amongst my first few open quiz finals in life! I was thrilled to bits with that, all because of his magnanimity. He was a brilliant quizzer and could have easily formed a team with other people, but chose to accompany someone like me on that day and many other days. He frequently recommended relatively unknown people whom he knew to be enthusiastic quizzers, to teams which required one or two members, so that they could do better and sustain their enthusiasm for quizzing. He would walk around and tell people about others looking to complete teams, long before it became common to ask on the mike for for members. Some people are usually shy to ask others. Wingco knew that and took it upon himself to make quizzing a true team sport.

He institutionalized quizzing in Bangalore and will remain one of my pleasant memories of Bangalore for life. May his soul rest in peace.