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04-02-2011 The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : … Life & Style » Metroplus ‘Kovakkai, Kongunadu and Quizzing' Nithya Sivashankar The Hindu Members of the Coimbatore Quiz Circle. Photo: K. Ananthan The members of the Coimbatore Quiz Circle see questions all around them. They tell Nithya Sivashankar that nothing gives them a greater high than finding answers to those A curvaceous blue ‘Q' greets you on their blog page, with the legend ‘Kovakkai, Kongunadu and Quizzing' beneath it. ‘Seek, you see' is the tag line - a world play of CQC - the Coimbatore Quiz Circle. Meet the people who “love quizzing as much as they do Annapoorna Sambar.” CQC was formed in August 2008 by 30 members, who had an insatiable appetite for trivia and quizzing. Since then, Senthil Kumar, Govind, M. Rangarajan, Yogesh Pai, Ashok, Sheilen and Priya Bhansali, Krishna Kumar and Arjun Mohan have been supporting quizzing in Coimbatore. YoPai says that most of them have quizzed since their school days. And, the passion continues. He says, “Back in 2008, quizzing in Coimbatore meant posing and answering boring questions such as ‘What is the currency of X?' and so on. Then, a group of us got together and started the club.” Adds Senthil, “We would gather on Sunday evenings at Cha Bar in Oxford Bookstore for quizzing sessions. By the third meeting, more people started turning up.” A question of interest CQC now has nearly 250 people as its members. They include students, entrepreneurs, hoteliers, chartered accountants, corporate representatives, teaching faculty and homemakers. Some of them are winners and finalists of top-notch quizzes held across the country. From 10 year-old ‘Sumo' to a 70 year-old retired professor from GCT, CQC members meet on alternate Sundays, and conduct school quizzes, followed by informal ones. “Earlier, clubs in Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai dominated the quizzing scene in the country. After the inception of CQC, Coimbatore has found its place on the Indian quizzing map. Last year, CQC was instrumental in bringing Mahaquizzer (quizzing championship organised by Karnataka Quiz Association across the country) and World Quizzing Championship (a world-level written quiz) to Coimbatore,” says Govind. Apart from conducting quizzes for members, CQC also organises the annual ‘Chennai Silks CQC Open' in February. It holds special quizzes for rural and Govt. Aided schools. In 2011, they plan to conduct more school tournaments with the help of Samarpan, an NGO and organise B-school quizzes, in association with PSG IM. For the members, CQC is all about friends, fun and funda. It is about exchanging trivia and pulling legs over puffs at bakeries, on Facebook and, sometimes on stage too. “We are a closely knit group. We have made friends of all ages.” Cracking the question gives them the ultimate high. “Quizzing is extreme fun, irrespective of the result,” claims Kartik, a college student, while Ashok says, “Quizzing is like a cricket match. It is never over until the last ball is bowled.” CQC never allows its winning members to go home with the prize money. Vidyuth finds quizzing helpful in his engineering studies. “Quizzers can connect random concepts and create mnemonics, which makes studying simpler," he explains. Sheilen is convinced that quizzing grooms self confidence in thehindu.com/…/article1152872.ece 1/2 04-02-2011 The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : … people. Senthil sums up the quizzing experience thus, "It is processing available information and taking an instant decision based on that information. If you replace ‘quizzing' with ‘management', the sentence will still continue to make sense. Quizzing, in essence, is good management." The quizzers hotly refute the assumption that quizzing is a pastime for nerds. “This is not true. We enjoy great music, watch movies and whistle, whenever Thalaivar comes on screen, just like everybody else does,” says Anjan of Amrita School of Engineering. The school representative of CQC, Atulaa Krishnamurthy, says that CQC aims to dispel the impression that quizzing is too intellectual and dry. There's nothing further from the truth, she states. CQC has members, who operate from Bangalore and even Michigan! Shiva is one such. He is a business analyst in Mu Sigma and he says, “Being a Coimbatorean and having seen CQC grow from a small club to what it is now, I have a deep attachment to it. Even after going to Bangalore for my job, I contribute to CQC. I plan my trips to Coimbatore to coincide with the meetings.” Ambali and Anuradha Pai, the twowomen members, love their quizzing but wish there was more female participation. CQC conducts quizzes on invitation too. For details , visit www.cbequizcircle.blogspot.com or contact: 9363225581. Photos: (Cover & Centrespread) K. Ananthan Keywords: Coimbatore Quiz Circle thehindu.com/…/article1152872.ece 2/2.

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