The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : ‘Ad Club - Business Line Quiz’ proves to be a cliffhanger

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

‘Ad Club - Business Line Quiz’ proves to be a cliffhanger

Staff Reporter

Teams from Sun Microsystems and Questa Software adjudged winners

— PHOTO: Bijoy Ghosh

QUESTION HOUR: Quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam with the finalists at the ‘Ad Club - Business Line Quiz 2007’ in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: When the fourth tie-breaker question was once again answered correctly by both top-scoring teams, there was a collective sigh from the audience. They wanted a winner.

Unfortunately, both teams seemed equally brilliant. From the history of the sewing machine to the more contemporary names of IT companies, they knew it all.

It was an edge-of-the-seat, nail-biting finish at the ‘Ad Club-Business Line Quiz 2007’ held here on Saturday, as the teams comprising Mitesh Agarwal and Vishwajeeth Narvekar of Sun Microsystems, and Manish Tandon and Amit Pandeya of Questa Software competed for the top spot.

A tie

Instead of going in for a fifth question though, both teams were declared joint winners of the competition much to the relief of both the audience and the quizzers. Even quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam of Greycaps India declared that it seemed the best option even though he had around 40 questions prepared for tie-breakers. The perspiring competitors smiled.

The prizes, they said, would be shared by both teams.

Closely fought by the six finalists, the quiz tested not so much the recollecting ability of the participants, as their presence of mind and ability to apply their knowledge, Mr. Balasubramaniam said.

Clues included video clippings, logos of companies and tracks from popular Hindi films.

The audience, which included some of the teams that had been eliminated at the preliminary round, was more than enthusiastic, answering several questions posed to them and breaking into loud applause each time a difficult question was answered.

More than 40 teams from across the country participated in the preliminary round, and six were selected for the final.

Of the four other teams that made it to the final, Vizag Steel, came quite close but the penultimate round, where the teams had to press the buzzer if they had the right answer, saw some answers from unexpected quarters, changing the scores and the dynamics of the quiz.

Prizes

Prizes, including shirts, wall clocks and cash, were given to the other teams.

The winners received among other things, LCD television sets, books on management, leather bags, shirts, wall clocks and dinner coupons.

K. Venugopal, Joint Editor, The Hindu and Business Line, said the quiz was being held for the last 13 years. “It is a humbling experience here to see the wealth of knowledge not just among the quizzers but in the audience, too,” he added.

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