Cognitio - A General Quiz

NQC - Cognitio
by Aniruddha Morarka
15-Jan-17

You know you've missed out on a really wonderful quiz when you hear things like, "One of the best made quizzes I've been a part of" being said just minutes after the quiz.  You know you've missed out on a really wonderful quiz when you hear that the quiz had the highest turnout the club had ever witnessed. You know you've missed out on a really wonderful quiz when you hear that the quiz master was a Morarka. The Fear of missing out is a feeling no quizzer desires. It is something totally not worth remembering for it painfully reminds you of all such instances in your life. Today, fellow quizzers, that feeling is running all over my mind and wrecking havoc in my brain for today is the day I missed out on Aniruddha Morarka's Cognitio.

Cognition, they say, is the action or the process a mind follows for acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought and experience. It is, they say, the only thing your mind uses when it faces hurdles. But for quizzers, you know, Cognition is your only defence. It is the only thing that you resort to when you're out there facing a quiz master. It was not going to be easy, especially when you know that the quiz master in question is one of the most cognitive minds of the country. While I was one of those unlucky ones to have missed out, we had 6 teams full of powerful quizzers who were ready to face Aniruddha's Cognitio (let's call them Team A to F).

For a total of 30 questions in 2 dry rounds, with an extra 2 written rounds, Cognitio was all set to test out our 6 teams. With such a beautiful set of questions covering such a wide vista of topics, the 19 year old quiz master had in a way brought every quizzer's opium. They knew they were close to the answer, they knew they had heard it somewhere recently, they knew that they knew a lot about the answer except the damn answer! That is what makes Cognitio a real test of not just your cognition, but also of the entire team put together. Aniruddha had in a way proved that he's a true master of a quizzer's mind.

 Team F, however, was on a different level altogether. They were on fire. By the time the first dry round and the first written round was over, they already had a 35 point lead and had already crossed 100 points. It was quite certain that Team F would just run away with the Gold. But just like the way the story turns after the interval, just like the way Joe Frazier fought back Mohammed Ali, there was this team of quizzers who relentlessly chased down Team F, went past all the others, reached 200 pts and with that took the Gold Medal. Fellow quizzers, one big round of applause for the winners of Cognitio, a team full of the Virat Kohli's of NQC...Team B!

 I feel terrible to say that I missed out on this close fight which I heard went down to the wire. If you too feel the same let me evoke that fear of missing out in you, here, have a look at the final scores:

1st place: Team B: 200 pts - Karman Rai, Pakhi Mor, Prateek Nayak, Shirin Badar, Arpit Aggarwal and Nikhil Mehadia.

2nd place: Team D : 175 pts - Tanmay Chindalia, Yogesh Khadke, Pritam Shete, Mahika Mor, Prakhar Rajpalli and Padmanabhan Pillai.

3rd place: Team F : 165 pts - Aadvik Bhatia, Vishwaroop Khanorkar, Anagha Wankhede, Mrinmay Meshram, Kartik Jha and Rishi Vijj.

4th place: Team A : 150 pts - Devansh Kothari, Jatin Kaila, Akhil Badwaik, Shiju Samuel and Devendra Prabhune.

5th place: Team C : 130 pts - Mokshit Kothari, Saee Ghule, Jose Thomas, Ayush Vijj,  Anul Manchalwar and Vandana Chitnavis.

6th place: Team E: 120 pts - Isna Khan, Vikrant Sawalkar, Rabiya Shabbir, Aman Mishra, Dr Prasad Siwal and Wg Cmdr Samir Gangakhedkar.

- by Vishnu "The Missing" Pillai