Glory of the geeks

``AYODHYA IS in Andhra Pradesh'', ``Mr. Kishan Kant is not the Vice President of India'', ``Jumma Masjid is in Hyderabad'', ``Michaelangelo painted the Mona Lisa''. ``Ustad Amjad Ali Khan plays the saxophone''.

That's the collective intelligence for you! Of a hall full of college-goers in Chennai. But that's if you look at the IQ level. Look at the fun quotient and Chennai has not had so much fun in a looooong while!

But then, as the guys at Studentconcepts.com, an event management team said, it was not for nerds! The NIIT Brain Busters show on Monday was more about `freaking out than thinking out'. ``Intentionally done,'' says NIIT. ``We did not mean it to be a serious quiz'', says Mr. S. Sashikanth, CEO and founder of Studentconcepts.com.

The invite said ``Make sure you like world music, coffee and look good in jeans'', ``brush your teeth and don't apply make up''.

Let us move on. With MTV VJ, Nafisa Joseph as the quiz master, the crowd went mad. Hooting, catcalling and booing. Thank God, Nafisa has attitude and apparently the wherewithal to handle a nearly riotous crowd. Which she did very well. Along with radio jockey, Morpheus. Yeah, Morpheus.

For a debut show, it was very well organised indeed. Obviously the event managers know just what makes the youth tick! ``Nafisaaaa!'' , for one. The bumper of prizes for another. Ear shattering music too. Apart from the computer and World Space receivers for the three one-must-say- lucky winners, there were watches, free internet hours, cellular connections and t-shirts. The sponsors ranged from HP, HCL, Qwickys, Indigo Nation to Helvetica, and Wings Cellular.

Sudharshan from Loyola College went home with the top prize, a computer, while Sushma from Stella Maris and Kirthivasan from Tiruchi won World Space receivers. The Loyola guys took home a huge trophy. Considering the winners made it from an audience of more than 1000 odd college goers, it was quite an achievement. And to give the devil its due, the finals had some really tough questions, that the finalists had to tackle in the first of the Brain Busters. There is more to come, NIIT assures. So, until next time then.

By Ramya Kannan

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