The Evolution of a Casual Trivia Enthusiast

I still vividly remember that warm summer afternoon 18 years ago. The Games Room was the venue of the annual GK Quiz contest between the students of VI A and VI B - the two divisions of sixth grade in my school. I was an indifferent member of an audience of 120 students, with 6 chosen students being selected to represent the class for the event. Sure I cheered my class team on every point they earned but truth to tell, at that juncture I don't think I regarded it as anything more interesting than a 'Get out of regular classes pass' for the rest of the afternoon. I often found my attention wandering through the windows out into the open for want of something better to do. Suddenly something the Quiz Master said caught my fleeting attention. "Where would you find the Brandenburg Gate?" Both teams passed the question. The audience had the floor. There was murmurs but no answer. Without realizing it my hand was up in the air, and I had blurted out "Is it Berlin?" The stern faced QM gave me a penetrating gaze and said witheringly "Are you asking or is that your final answer?" Somewhat ruffled, I stuck to my guns and said more assertively "Berlin it is". The QM's face cracked a smile. "You've got it Miss Bhattacharya". The audience erupted with applause; I even caught an acknowledgement from my classmates on the team. That was a powerful moment. To hold in your hands the answer to a question that 120 people or more are clueless about can be very intoxicating. Looking back that was the day that initiated me into the world of Quizzing or Trivia as I know it today.

Over the next years I graduated from being an audience member to a class team member, representing my school in a few quizzes. I started following the Bournvita Quiz contest, Siddharta Basu's Quiz Time and India Quiz more avidly. I never took it seriously though - to me it was like a fling , a fad that would fade with time and that was exactly what happened. The academic years intervened, priorities changed and before I knew it I had moved from Pune to Pittsburgh to Seattle. 

Circa 2007 , a new city, a new job beckoned and I found myself getting over my graduate school friendships and attempting to adjust to the new lifestyle and society in Seattle
On the 15th Aug, AID Seattle had organized an India Quiz. This event which got a fairly positive response had given a fellow Microsoftian, Mihir an idea to bring together individuals who enjoyed the act of Quizzing and see if something came out of it. One fine day in Septermber I found myself duly staring at his mail for a long time contemplating whether to go or not to go. Truthfully speaking I had never been part of the real quizzing scene which is huge in Pune, Karnataka, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, so I was pretty sure that the folks who showed up would be serious quizzers. What would an amateur do in the midst of such heavyweights. I checked with a few of my friends. Their responses echoed my innermost thoughts. "I don't really know anything" "People might laugh if I don't get any answers"  "Its really not my thing." Nevertheless I steeled myself with the consolation that I didn't know any of these people so if I did make a fool of myself, no one would ever find out, and I was really keen to be part of an activity on my own accord (not what everyone else including my friends wanted to do).

So I walked into the room full of about 12 people and that was the day Seattle Area Quizzers (erstwhile Microsoft Redmond Quiz club) was formed. The first couple of years were tricky. It took me a while to get over my inner demons and the fear of being laughed at and being given scornful glances by people if I did not get the right answers. Additionally we followed an individual elimination round followed by a final format in the first two years. For me that meant being in the audience a lot(trust me not the best boost to ones self confidence specially when the audience is really small :)). Many days I didn't feel motivated enough to make it to the biweekly quizzes, so I dropped out for a protracted period. Another thing that bothered me was that the quizzes felt more like formal meetings and I found that people would come attend and leave, just like that and we had very few normal conversations.

Luckily a friend from the quiz club, Harish motivated me to get back to it and give it another shot.  Also around the same time we changed the format of the quizzes to be team based, so that everyone could participate, That was a turning point for both me and the history of  Seattle Area Quizzers. I did make my first club final shortly after that and I think that was one of the things that stopped me from dropping out permanently (so much so for ego boost). That was just the beginning and while I still didn't know a great deal that was being bandied about for most of the time, the team format meant that I at least had a fighting chance of knowing answers to questions which no one else would and it would count for something.

The next step was actually participating in the Seattle wide India Quiz- Chakraview that  AID and Seattle Area Quizzer's jointly organized. 2009 was the first year I seriously considered doing that. I still had self doubts and was hesitant approaching anyone from the Quiz club to be my partner. Luckily Samarth was looking and I offered to partner him. Even on D-Day I was stressed that I would not be able to pull my weight and would somehow fail my partner. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case and we did succeed in getting a fairly competitive preliminary score missing out qualifying by a couple of points. It is quite amazing how much of a confidence boost that can do to ones morale. Suddenly being in a final from among 70/80 teams seemed like an achievable possibility and not an impossible dream and that's exactly what happened.
2010 was a dream year at the Quizzes. Bollywood and Harry Potter have both been my areas of special interest. So contesting those quizzes was a no-brainer. Qualifying for the finals was much tougher but with Jayani and Adarsh as my respective partners we breezed through to the finals, which proved to be much tougher but Adarsh and I managed to win the Harry Potter Finals. But the icing on the cake had to be Chakraview 2010. Adarsh and I partnered again and weathered tough competition to qualify. Finals were nerve wrecking and we lost the initial advantage to the eventual winners right at the outset but fought hard to secure the second place. I don't really care if I can never repeat this; it will remain my most treasured win.

I still am not a serious quizzer and I am brazenly unaware of a bunch of topics but that doesn't bother me much, I have gotten better with time, I have carved my niche. I have felt the same heady rush that I felt 18 years ago in the school gym room, time and time again and know why I keep going back to the biweekly quizzes. Along the way I also forged friendships that I will treasure and learnt about strange and interesting trivia. Suddenly Quizzing had gone from a side activity to a prime one that I eagerly look forward to.