Report: Greycells Open, Jyothi Engineering College

The following is a report on the greycells open at Jyothi Engineering College, Thrissur.
Contributed by Ravi Ananthan :)

Cheruthuruthy is one of those places of which everyone has heard a lot about, but have never been able to visit. Atleast this author thinks the case to be so, with every soul he has talked with being on the know of the famed Kalamandalam and Vallathol Narayana Menon, but not been able to visit the place. July 21st had Cheruthuruthy, Jyoti Engg. College to be specific, playing host to the 3rd Greycells Open Quiz. Quizzing, an ‘art’ (here Vallathol possibly turns in his grave) formulated to/for/by those grey matters that the perpetrators possess. The perpetrators in Question: Praveen VR, who took time out from his corporate responsibilities that he does not have in Bangalore.Sarin, likewise, albeit in his case, the house-surgeon’s allotted duty for that day.

Hrishi, who along with Arun and Vijaynath has been hugely instrumental to the successful rendering of the ground logistics of the organizing et al.And, of course the lowly scum-of-the-earths, us, the participating quizzers ever enthused for their next cup of Quizzing Java. (ok, now this author’s getting real corny. Apologies.) And so, we all visited Cheruthuruthy.The quiz saw a decent turn-out, with possibly the school teams outnumbering the Open teams. The whatever alluded tension levels that ever exist at the outset of a quiz, was quickly checked by an inadvertent blooper from the QM VR’s side. He wished to express his gratitude to Manjith and his ex-team mates who have been with him for innumerable quizzes and had fairly contributed to the Questions as well, but had not been able to make it for this Greycells edition. And when it came to Manjith, who is pursuing higher studies in the US, he remarked, “Sadly, he is no longer with us.” Quite an ice-breaker, that was.

After a quick prelims of 40 questions, the teams 6 short listed for the finals were :(in no particular order and of the form -‘Open Team/ School Team’ combo)

*Anil Raghavan: Ravi Ananthan/ Mohammed Nadin: Rizvan M (BVB, Tcr.)
*Sujith E: Vishwas Vishwam/ Alok VR: Abhijith Balakrishnan (Harishree Vidya Nidhi, Tcr.) *Arun Warrier: Hrishikesh Varma/ Anjali Vishwanathan: Aparna S Nambiar (BVB, Tcr)*Harikrishnan Menon: Toneesh/ Sreejith Mohan: Krishna Mohan (BVB, Tcr.)
*Rajasekhar: Arun AS/ Jayakrishnan: Akhil Vijay (Chinmaya, Tcr)
*Ajay Parasuram: Anand Shankar / Sujith G: Aravind V (BVB Tcr)

For number –crunchers: The Quiz saw a total of 25 teams participate.The top-score (open team) for the Elims was 23 (Hari/Toneesh).The top-score (school) for the Elims was 9 (Alok/Abhijith). The Cut-off score was 12.

The finals were a closely fought contest, with particularly nothing to differentiate between the teams. In fact the author remembers a score-card which read: 67, 67.5, 62, 53, 37, 70; at one point of time towards the end rounds of the quiz. Anil Raghavan/Ravi & Co sneaked in (very cheekily) towards winning it, eventually. Sujith / Vishwas & Co finished 2nd. Hari/ Toneesh & Co, third.

A quizzing analyst, if ever there was one, would summarize thus: In the finals: Hari/Ton (this is called a Synedoche, as was asked in the same Quiz. England=Eng, India= Ind, Toneesh= Ton.. Savvy?) went off to a flying start, Suj/Vish dominated in the middle, Anil/Ravi (they have an advantage of having short first names), were just about minding their own business, but thought that it would be a good idea to score some points somewhere, and bucked up eventually, scoring here and there to top the podium.

School enthu levels are as refreshing as ever albeit not many schools could be informed about the Quiz. Open Quizzers, of course, are incorrigible. Looking forward to the next Quiz (hopefully better marketed and hyped). Till then, Happy Quizzing!

p.s: Cheruthuruthy is indubitably a picturesque place and Jyoti Engg. College has that advantage, location-wise per se. Do travel around the place and the Kalamandalam for all its worth (the author has already kicked himself in the butt for not doing so and currently cant sit down ‘coz of a sore rear).
P.p.s: The author strongly suggests that Greycells be abbreviated, to Grels, perhaps, for the name is ubiquitous in Quiz Reports like these and the sheer effort of typing it in full being very tiring.
P.p.p.s: Due apologies for this piece of banality passing off as a Quiz report. :)