"The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything....is 42", said Deep Thought with infinite majesty and calm after thinking for seven and a half million years. ~The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
While this cult dialogue is still quoted by thousands of Douglas Adams' fans, the essence of that answer lies in a fascinating journey through Life, the Universe and Everything. 42 is not just a number, it's everything. I think it was same essence that Quiz Master Anup Manchalwar felt when he had 42 questions ready with him for teams of fantastic quizzers who knew about Life, the Universe, and everything.
Now, the best part of being in a quiz, a cricket match, a basketball game or an Australian opera is that you all know that it's not over till the fat lady (ok, plus size lady?) sings. 42 - a general quiz was one such match of titans. Questions which went flying across each team and, believe me, not one team was ready to give up for they all had answers which flew faster. Teams full of young kids who stood shoulder to shoulder with veterans of quizzing is something every veteran of quizzing yearns to see and 42 in that sense was a spectacle. We had the largest participation NQC had ever seen, with participants across all ages. I feel proud to be a part of this movement (although I am not proud to have missed out this quiz).
Coming back to the quiz, or maybe I should call it a race (no, not that Saif Ali Khan dud), it was a fiesta of knowledge as almost each question was pounced and answered by teams eagerly trying to outrun their opponent. Does anyone want to guess who was winning? If I try writing the team names and the combinations of teams which were leading I might just write a complicated math formula : AB + BC + AC + BD + AE and so on. But the outcome, the end of it all, the winner of Anup Machalwar's 42 - a general quiz is something even Deep Thought won't have guessed in another seven and a half million years. It was a mind blowing, unbelievable, three way tie. Three. Way. Tie. Yes. Three Way. Yes. Tie.
After I came to know of the result, in the middle of all the overwhelming excitement (and regret for missing out), I could somehow see in front of my eyes, three teams walking to the stage and getting wonderful deserving gold medals. Three teams full of young kids and veterans. Three teams who'd fought hard to win it on their own and yet reached the finishing line at the same moment. Three teams who were the answer to 42. Three teams I'd call: Life, The Universe...and Everything.
The scores:
Winner : Team A : 250 points - Vishwaroop Khanorkar, Sushant Somkuwar, Rumana Badar, Bageshree Kherdekar, Nihal Chugh, Prem Mulchandani and Padmanabhan Pillai
Winner : Team B : 250 points - Tanmay Chindalia, Vikrant Sawalkar, Jose Benny, Akhilesh Mehadia, Vaibhav Chinchmalkar and Vibhav Pande
Winner : Team D : 250 points - Tejas S, Kaushik Biswas, Milind Patil, LV Morarkar, Mokshit Kothari, Jhanvi Mulchandani, Kusum Mulchandani and Prakhar Rajpalli
Runners Up: Team E : 230 points - Mohit Chandak, Aditya Mittala, Naivedya Bhati, Anuriddha Morarka and Shiju Samuel.
2nd Runners Up: Team F : 200 points - Krishnendu Roy, Ajinkya Shahane, Nikita Umre, Nikunj Jakotia, Varun Aggarwal and LS Bhati.
3rd Runners Up: Team C : 90 points - Ankur Jaiswal, Advik Bhatia, Devansh Kothari, Amit Dekate, Sukhada Choudhary and Arnav Paul.
- by Vishnu "the minus sized" Pillai
