K-Circle Annual Open Quiz and further plundering…

Attended my first ever open quiz in Hyd last Saturday (5th Aug 2006). Was conducted by JK (who is quite popular in the Hyd quizzing circuit and amongst regular quizzers elsewhere). There were 25 questions (5 tiebreaks) in the prelims and 14 (with 3 tiebreaks) was the cutoff.

After about half an hour spent in general disappointment at having negated 3 perfect answers and then counting our score as 13 and then realizing it was 14, thus being reconciled to some happiness, we (Majji and myself) were surprised to qualify.

6 teams in the final incl. one with both members who had studied from UMass, Amherst (one being the learned Ludwig). They even called themselves by the name of their insti. They won the quiz too. Even beat the venerable Swamy (our teammate on occasion) and Mitesh, Sambora and Ramkey (making up an ISB team of sorts) and some other good teams. Some of the leading lights and old timers had an off day. We had our lucky day. Thank you Bhagwan.

We came 2nd. We had a ball and did as well as we could. Made some decent prize money as well. And what did we do? Splurged on our reading habits… The following are the fresh batch of books that shall enter our Academy (of Dhammotion Pictures ?) ;)

1 Cinema's Strangest Moments - Quentin Falk
2 Wodehouse - Robert McCrum
3 Atonement - Ian McEwan
4 The History of the Kings of Britain-Goeffrey Monmouth
5 The Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin
6 The No.1 Ladies' Detective agency - Alexander McCall Smith
7 Encounters with Animals - Gerald Durrell
8 Thereby hangs a tale - Funk
9 Heavens to Betsy - Funk
10 Nine Stories - J D Salinger
11 Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
12 Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen
13 The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Edward Fitzgerald
14 After The Fall - Arthur Miller
15 Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
16 The Crucible - Arthur Miller
17 Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

The last 15 books came for about Rs.900 (roughly $20) – thanks to a sale by BEST Books. They really are worth their name. Not a single pirated edition in the above 15. All old books and in decent shape. Forget a bookshelf. We don’t even have a teapoy here in Hyd!

Forgot to mention earlier that the previous blog in addition to being the 200th also marked completion of 2 years of our blogging. happy 2nd budday beta. next yr se school jaana padega...