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Here’s my report on a monthly quiz group that I joined in 1992, and which is still going strong….

Hi Everyone!

I must say, the one word that is most misused in QuizFamilies (after the word “Basically”, which we use while we grope for answers that may, by some random chance, be correct) is…“sitter”.

When any quizmaster, mistress, King, Queen or Knave tells you, “This is a sitter” …whether he or she is talking about the question or the quiz….DO NOT believe the words. It takes quite a while for the real lollipops to start appearing, and then, ofkose, they always go to Other Teams And Not Your Own.

A great case in point was Socro's initial announcement, that he'd put together the quiz in the last 12 hours, so it would consist of "sitters and supersitters"...so many of his koschins went unanswered by everyone, that he had to "re-run" them, so much so that I hereby dub the December quiz the "Rerun Quiz". I am including the koschins here, so you can judge either the toughness of the quiz (or the Ignorance Quotient of our group) for yourselves. (I will be sending the audio round, which was actually a crossword, separately.) Let me just fill you in on the stuff apart from the koschins. The teams were named "Happy", "Sneezy", "Grumpy", and "Sleepy", and much hilarity ensued as we tried not to look happy or grumpy or sleepy, according to which team we were sitting in! Little Ameya had a great explanation for the connect on the team names: "It's various ways of holding our face"....great answer, Ameya! Our witty repartees are coming from younger and younger people! Our wit (if one of you cracks a good joke, and I am in the room, I am entitled to say"we" are witty!) is renowned...just after the "What is the second full moon in one month called?" (Blue Moon) question, someone objected to "What is the name of an area of Venice, which is now used generically for such settlements?" question (Ghetto). Raghu quipped, "What's your problem? We get an easy question once in a blue moon!" The quiz start was delayed for a bit while Ganu went to get bondas...and these then figured very largely in the whole quiz, with some of us saying, "So many questions have been re-run, we want a re-run of the bondas also!" Socro started the quiz, and the minute he projected his desktop on to GV (I'll explain what this was, a bit later), Raghu queried, "Why do you have so many icons on your desktop?" In fact, Socro started feeling, with our queries, that the quizmaster was being quizzed himself :) GV...this stands for "Ganu's Veshti". The hosts not having a proper white surface to use as a screen, this article of Ganu's wardrobe was pressed into use, hung like a Gobelin tapestry for Socro's Famous Projector. We carefully abstained from witticisms on the veshti, but it put me in mind of the khadi cloth that was used in some rural Gujrati cinema hall..someone had the brilliant idea of dubbing the khadi, "Gandhiji ki Dhoti". Alas, after advertisements such as "Gandhiji ki Dhoti mein Ek Phool Do Maali" and "Gandhiji ki Dhoti mein Ek Tha Tiger", the name had to be changed.... Break was a great time, too. Ganu of DAB (Delicious Alu Bonda) fame, Hema and Janani, had provided a solid dinner for us. Sevige baath, curd rice, dahi vada, sarkkarai pongal, and hot-hot masala chai and filterkaapi....I was looking, and feeling, like a python when break was over. Socro's "audio crossword" was a very innovative and interesting round.but the quality of the sound had Jayakumar riposting, when asked, "What is the next word?"..."We can't even understand the preceding words, how are we to give the next word!" I have attached a photo of the crossword...but Socro, you can't have a two-letter word sort of hanging in outer space, like that! (Especially because I got it wrong.) Socro threw chocolates to those who gave correct answers, but I do seem to remember some auctioning of leftover chocolates at the end.....! Thank you, Socro, I had my chocolates as a lovely dessert when I came home! I don't normally buy these as I have no children at home...so the enjoyment was even more pronounced! Oh....I must mention the Dumb Charades round. We had to find the author of the book that inspired the movie...and here's the list: Sleepy: Ganu: Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice); 2nd round (Hindi films), Satyajit Ray (Shatranj Ke Khiladi); Sneezy: Deepa: J R R Tolkien (The Hobbit); 2nd round, , Amrita Pritam (Pinjar...inspired work by my team mates!) Grumpy: Sravana: Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code); 2nd round, Jyothi, Ruskin Bond (Junoon...the only one that no one could get!) Happy: Janani, Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby...I must say, all the rest of the teams got what Janani was conveying much ahead of her team!); 2nd round, Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake) Janani also did Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) for fun, and she did a great job! Our DC rounds are great entertainers, and are surely responsible for our ending the evening with gales of laughter! I've added a couple of photos from the evening, too...please, all you QF members, add yourself to the QF group that Sharmila has created. We can exchange even more jokkus (and insults and info) over that! Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/408207439247509/?ref=ts&fref=ts (I've posted Sunday's photos there, too.)

Enjoy the lovely cold weather with adhrak-chai, hot soup, toasty bhuttas, menchina bajji, and anything else….here’s wishing you all the best for the festive times (or at least, the holidays!) ahead, and looking forward to meeting you all in the New Year!

Cheers, Deepa.