Staying Grounded

Every once in a while something happens to you that makes you feel really really happy that you are what you are. It can be a secret admirer, a great song you composed which everyone loved, the thought that someone cannot get enough of your blog or as it happens to be in my case, a couple of quizzes you totally owned.

Well it doesn't always happen that the person in question immediately starts walking three feet in the air and gets that superior smirk on his face, but sometimes it does. The trick is to remember that no matter what you do, there is always someone out there who can do what you did with so much more ease.

So in spite of the fact that I know my quizzing quotient is pretty average as compared to some, I like to get that fact drummed into me, which is one of the reasons why I try to attend every quiz organized by the Bombay Quiz Club. Now these guys are everything I would love to be- professionals from every sphere who make sure that they take time out for their passion and always make an effort to attend every quiz on the planet. And organize some too.

The Bombay Quiz Club meets once every 2 Sundays with one of the members organizing the quiz for the day. They follow a league system with the members scoring a certain number of points according to their team's position in that quiz. Slowly the leaders emerge and the top 8 become seeded players and from then onwards they have a clever randomizer software which makes sure that there are no two seeded players in each team and whoever has the maximum points at the end of the season wins the league.
In Chinmay's words, there are usually a hundred questions asked out of which you recognize 7, mumble out something related for about 3 can guess the answer to 2 and out of that one answer turns out to be correct and that's the thought that keeps you happy throughout the day.

I went for the quiz for the first time in August 2008 and got lucky the first three times. Because of strong partners I ended up finishing first in the first 2 quizzes and second in my third quiz. I was really happy because I felt I had it in me to join the elite league of "Super-quizzers" when the fourth quiz came along. Well many of the seeded players did not turn up and to my horror, I was made a seed.

No points for guessing what followed in the toughest quiz of my life as we were utterly humiliated and stood so far back in the points tally that suicide seemed to be the only honourable way out of our collective shame. But I remain grateful because the quiz made me realize with painful obviousness that far from being a great quizzer, I just get lucky a lot of times and sometimes the luck just runs out. I took back a valuable lesson that day and if after that I ever felt the need to show off, I remember that fateful day and sober down pretty fast.

Its important to be proud of your achievements but it is even more important to realize your limitations and work towards improving yourself. So anyone out there with the same problem could do with a session at Bombay Quiz Club.