Competition Success Review #1 : Force Fest Day 2

After day 1 we all were excited to return to Sheikh Sarai. Uhm, maybe not everyone, considering the return journey is so horrible.

As usual, I turned up at school punctually – fifteen minutes late, which is natural. Saw this kid named Shubham, who went with us for VB programming, going again just for the heck of it. His classmates scared him that they’d tear his certificates and break his award. So he’s like 1955’s original George McFly. I wonder how long it’ll take Darth Vader from Planet Vulcan to meet him.

Darth Vader from Planet Vulcan. Also, Van Halen ftw

Now that we knew that majority of the quiz questions were taken from already-existing archives, we wanted to study. Unfortunately, I was too busy proving f(x)=|sin x| + |cos x| is periodic with π last night, and Saumey was reading from Vidit’s archive (which Arnav later informed me, had been pulled from gyaan.in). But I was more interested in reading from my TCS archives over the past three years. Surprisingly, they were no longer available on MediaFire! Strange.

So anyway, we were just talking about a lot of other stuff (other than the quiz, that is) on the way to Apeejay. As usual, the kids were making a ruckus in the car making the journey even more tedious. Somehow I can’t recall some of the finer details about the journey probably because it was uneventful this time with Jyot Singh having no problem in finding the school today.

We reached at exactly 9.04 AM and the quiz was scheduled to start at 9. Auditorium was really quiet and the first person I saw as soon as I entered was Arnav, listening to his iPod. There really was no Prempal today, so we had a reasonable shot. But we did know, however, that Arnav was a pretty damn good quizzer on any given day, considering that he qualified for TCS once and won the Japan Quiz this time.

The quiz began about ten minutes after we finished with registration. We could choose our places randomly and judging by the huge screen, I chose to sit at the seat farthest from it – team 6.

The quiz began with a dry round with infinite bounce system. Apparently, the quizmaster was dreaming about going back to bed, by forgetting the most basic rule of infinite bounce – the team next to the tem which correctly answered the question gets it.

Round one was pathetic was me and Saumey. We were stuck at zero while others had some points. Arnav was at his usual flamboyant self, of course.

Next round featured negative marking, and we got -10 for getting Camel Case wrong (I confused it with tOGGLE cASE).

It was like that for a while, when the connect round came around. There were five points for identifying each picture and ten for the connect with the scoring being same for all. We managed to scrape together some measly five points in some questions, and boy did it go a long way.

The quizmaster was definitely not paying attention this time as when we answered “This is the first player YouTube used to stream videos” it was not accepted, but when the next team said “This is the first player YouTube used to stream videos online using Flash”, they got it. Another instance was Arnav saying essentially the same thing about some “tables” (something to do with guessing hash keys while guessing) and it was not accepted, while the next team’s answer was, even though it was essentially the same.  Arnav almost looked like he’d found out that Vader was his father.

I think I exaggerated that one a bit. NOT.

Then came the big mega connect for us. We had to connect Nupedia, Jimmy Wales (photo), “quick” and Julian Assange. Of course the connect was Wikipedia and we garnered a lump sum of thirty points. This was crucial to the quiz at it changed everything.

Or so I though. Until the buzzer round spread its wings to cover us all in its mighty wingspan.

Or more appropriately, cover us in its poop.

The main idea of the round was flawed. In buzzer rounds, you’re supposed to see the question and immediately strike the buzzer to answer it. It’s not the vastness of the knowledge that’s being tested here, it’s how quick you can recall it. They didn’t have “quizzing-grade” buzzers installed here; they wouldn’t break circuits. Nor did they use Exun’s strategy of recording it and playing in slow motion. They did have spotters, but that path is never devoid of controversy, you know.

Arnav went totally bonkers here, hitting the buzzer before the question was completed, getting -20, hitting it again for another -20. Even we got a -20, but we covered up with some great answering.

Suddenly at the end of the round, we were with our noses ahead at 80 and others in mid seventies.

My knees started shaking at the prospect of actually winning the first quiz of the season, when the next round showed up. I’d like to call this little tyke “Deux Ex Machina”. Here are the rules

• Plus fifty for the correct answer.
• Minus twenty for the wrong answer.
• Plus thirty for a passed question

See what just happened there? That’s like giving Stoke City a fifty point boost if they score a goal in their last game. This is madness.

So the round started with a tough one (in my opinion) and it got easier later on. Almost all the questions here took up entire slides. Suddenly, we were fourth. The last question of the quiz went to us and it was like requiring four runs of one ball with one wicket remaining.

It was a huge quote about a person “responsible for getting the computer to the masses” speaking about his life-changing experiences with the Homebrew Computer Club.

And guess what. I forgot. I panicked there and knew we had lost it. But Saumey stood there like a white knight in shining armor braces.

“Bhaiya Steve Wozniak bol do. “

“I don’t think that’s right.”

“Arre maine iWoz mein yeh padh rakha hai.”

It was difficult to trust him as he was responsible for that -20 in the buzzer round and another question to which I knew the right answer.

But then, quizzing is all about trusting your partner and we went ahead.

It was right and we WON. Boy was the adrenaline rush massive. Went down the stage feeling like a boss. From -10 to 130 is no mean feat, guys. The win was slightly unconvincing, because of that stupid buzzer round (although it was responsible for saving our skins).

Lots of questions were from Vidit’s book, Saumey and Arnav told me. This was funny as Vidit himself didn’t qualify. BTW, there was one question he could definitely have answered as it was in German and Vidit knows German.

More results started pouring in, and we were quite sure of winning the overall trophy with the first position in the PowerPoint presentation on corruption the kids made, second in LOGO Programming and some other event, and third in some robotics event and VB programming.

When we went on the stage to collect the overall trophy, what we didn’t know was that we had also won a printer! And when we opened it in the Qualis it turned out to be an HP All-in-One which we decided to put in the secondary lab. Now two labs have photocopy machines.

Meena Ma’am didn’t accompany us today and was absolutely astounded at the news about the overall trophy and the printer. We all were.

So a good day for ze Converge Clan. Not a waste of time at all (hope you’re reading this, Dad).

P.S: Anyone has those TCS archives? Please mail: a.crystalunicorn@yahoo.com

Competition Success Review#1: Force Fest Day 1

“Season’s already begun?” asked the crazy beggar, probably as surprised as me. It’s generally Montfort who starts things off by calling all major schools and hosting an awesome event.

Let’s back track a bit. Force Fest was held at Apeejay Sheikh Sarai (I’ve never heard of it before). When the invite first came to school, Meena Ma’am handed it over to His Majesty, the righteous, trustworthy, amazing, perfect and brilliant Shikhar Gautam (who’s also incidentally Head Boy, and many sixth grade kids’ idol “Mein aapki marching se bahut inspired hoon”).

So Shikhar talks with me about this recent development and decides not to go. Which means, we actually had to work hard in the event he isn’t going for (for some context, refer to previous CSR posts and search references to “god”). See, he’s missed lot of school due to VMC’s morning classes. So he figures he can’t afford to miss more.

So anyway, I volunteer to go for the quiz, and Saumey tags along too. I really didn’t expect all the major schools to turn up as well. I did get a hint when Prempal asked Vidit whether they had transport to offer for their school. That was two major quizzers here already.

Eight other kids were accompanying us on Day 1. We were going in our regular good ol’ Qualis.

Getting there was a nightmare. The school seemed light years away from ours and extreme heat only caused that time to expand. Moreover, Jyot Singh had forgotten to service the car air conditioner, which he claims, can chill the entire car within minutes.

Predictably, we got lost and out came everyone’s cell phones with Google Maps. Unfortunately, n00b kids didn’t know having a “maps” icon on your phone doesn’t necessarily mean GPS. An eighth grader got really excited when Google pointed out his location accurate up to five hundred meters. When Vinamra (the only other twelfth grader) were seriously considering to “screw this” and go watch Source Code at PVR nearby in Select Citywalk, we finally found Apeejay… in Saket.

So here’s a question this ignorant author would like an answer to. Which darn school opens two branches within walking distance of each other? (Conditions apply: “walking distance” depends upon one’s physical fitness and may range from a few centimetres to many miles).

Funnily enough, some students were standing near the entrance gate (and we assumed they were welcoming us). What I felt was, presumably, they were actually there to tell others that this was not Apeejay Sheikh Sarai. So after making a phone call to Aditya Kumar of DPS Vasant Kunj (who didn’t have a clue about the directions) we reached the correct school after winding through some really kacha roads.

We were led to the auditorium (which looked really nice). It was a lot like cinema halls in the sense that you sit in the front if you’re the last to come. Since we were behind the chief guest, we were supposed to keep our trap shut. Apparently, the inauguration had already started and the intro video was shown as soon as we entered. No comments on the video (wasn’t really paying attention; was tweeting), but others claim it was “inspired” from ours. (Just a note, Shikhar made the Gateway intro video in one night). The chief guest was someone called Aditya Berlia. Not a spelling error. Or maybe it is, but it’s definitely not Birla. He spoke with an Americanized accent and claimed to be from Stanford. He also spoke a lot about his parties with Facebook’s founder, Orkut’s founder, why the Orkut doesn’t work well anymore (“They’re (founders) are both equally smart. Well Zuckerberg’s a bit smarter actually”). But irrespective of all this, it was the most engaging chief guest speech I’ve ever heard. Aditya asked us about topics ranging from 4chan (/b/ specifically) to cloud computing to Pirates of the Silicon Valley.

Quiz prelims then began, and all major quizzing schools seemed to be there. We were led to some lab with PCs running Windows 2000. I instantly fired up Minesweeper and began, er, sweeping. Papers arrived and we were blown away. Remember my TCS archive (which Shikhar helped in making. Man, he’s everywhere)? There was a question about LinkedIn, and I had included Giri’s quote about it in the question. The question appeared as it is with the quote. I am not kidding. Vidit’s latest book on tech also became the source for some questions (which, thankfully, Saumey had read). Quiz wasn’t that tough; it was made up of questions I was sure I’d read before but couldn’t remember. Like a word involving Monty Python’s Flying Circus (it was “spam”). Once again, Saumey’s tukka of the day did it for us. Apparently, “Elograph” is now known as touch screen. And the boy guessed it. So we totalled up to about thirteen. Then we talked for sometime, and then added more answers (which we later forgot to include in our scores). So thirteen was the official score, according to us. New Era got 18 and Vidit from Manavsthali had 15 with them.

We went back to the audi contemplating the results and watching really boring presentations on corruption in India. (An enthusiastic girl claimed Suresh Kalmadi was recently arrested by the CBSE. Oops CBI.) Results came in, and we qualified along with (apparently) no DPS and no Manavsthali. Montfort, Air Force, Mother’s International, New Era, and some other school got through. Vidit was furious and demanded to know the marks. The quizmaster re checked his paper, and got fifteen. He asked if we were sure with our scores and were okay with disqualification. Of course, I wouldn’t agree to that! Last year of school quizzing here. So he did go and recheck our paper again and informed us we had sixteen. We won fair and square. (High five)! Prempal and Arnav were equally shocked at Vidit’s non-selection (though all of us were secretly happy at getting a good shot at the top prize).

Vidit was sad, but hey, stuff happens. Sorry, Vidit. I might have got a little too selfish there.

Vinamra couldn’t go through to the next round of gaming (Unreal Tournament). He said he forgot to click to respawn, and eliminated in a tight round. We finally made another tedious journey back to school in the sweltering heat. Now for day 2.

P.S: Prempal told me New Era often refuses to provide transport to them for quizzes. Why? Aren’t they like quizzing superpowers? Don’t they win nearly anywhere they choose to put their feet? Arnav said they take sweet revenge by refusing to hand over the overall trophy to their school.

P.P.S: Before we knew his name, we used to called Arnav Mario. Fact. Don’t mind that, Arnav.

Review: The Hangover

The Hangover

Director: Todd Philips

Producer: Todd Philips

Daniel Goldberg

Cast: Bradley Cooper (Phil)

Ed Helms (Stu)

Zach Galifianakis (Alan)

Justin Bartha (Doug Engelbart)

When you first see the trailer for The Hangover, the first thought which will occur to your current will be “Damn. When will Hollywood learn to make original concepts? This is just another bachelor party gone bad.” And the average Douglas Adams fan will say “Poetry! They deserve poetry!“

But The Hangover stands out as a movie completely different from what you’ve expected. Directed by director Todd Phillips, The Hangover is the story of Doug’s bachelor party in Las Vegas with his friends Stuart, Phil and brother-in-law Alan. Stu had a bossy girlfriend and for her, he’s going to Wine County in Nevada, not to Vegas. Phil is a school teacher.

So off they go to Vegas in Doug’s father-in-law’s Mercedes. They rent a villa in Caesar’s Palace (which, for the record, is $4200 for the night). The script mysteriously cuts to the morning, where the four three wake up – without Doug – only to find the villa in complete mess. Not to mention a baby in the closet, a tiger in the bathroom and a chicken in the house. Stu’s missing a tooth, has a receipt of $800 from the Bellagio, and Phil has evidence that he’s been to a hospital. And they cannot remember the single thing. Now this is a premise many movies have used in the past as well, but what makes The Hangover different is that the trio tries to piece together the events in the reverse order, thus guaranteeing the screenplay writers a definite Oscar nomination.

Without revealing too much, I can safely say that the plot is unpredictable and never bores you for a single minute. There’s spice in every single scene and superb performances by all three leads make it even better. You can imagine the shock on their faces when they receive a police car instead of their Mercedes for the hotel’s car parking. Or Stu’s feelings when he realises that he’s given his to-be-engagement-ring post marriage to a stripper. In the end, they manage to find Doug in the wackiest of twist plots.

More than the plot, it is the movie-going experience you’re going to enjoy so much. The director focuses on the troubles of the actors, and not tryin to capture the tempting night-life which many other directors tend to do more often than not. The trio battle the Chinese mafia, a couple of police officers and have a trip down to a casino. The scene in the casino where Alan plays Blackjack is probably the most hilarious scene in the entire movie. There’s a cameo by boxing champion Mike Tyson as well, who does what he does best – punch out!

Bradley Cooper as the playboy Phil is excellent and so is Ed Helms, who plays a disgruntled Stuart Price. But the real star of the show is Zach Galifianakis who plays immature Alan Garner. His stupid one-liners and crazy acts (including one where he slices off his palm) are hilarious and done with effortless sincerity. The constant bickering and hilarious insults thrown at each other will leave you in splits, and there’s no surprise you’ll end up on the floor, rather than on the chair you’re sitting while watching The Hangover.

To sum it up, I can say that The Hangover is the best comedy film this year, and deserves all the awards it is getting. Sharply written, surprising, exhilarating, unpredictable, hilarious and mind-blowing to leave you flabbergasting (and rolling on the floor), The Hangover is an amazing film. A few explicit scenes puts me off though, but overall, I recommend The Hangover for every (teenage) person . It’ll help forget all your worries and will go down in your memory as the best comedy film. Ever.

Detailed Ratings [Out of 10]

Plot: ∞

Acting: ∞

Screenplay: ∞

Direction: ∞

Feel: ∞

Overall Rating: 5∞/10

Oh, and don’t give me that nonsense about not being able to multiply with infinity and all that. Chuck Norris can do it, Jack Bauer can do it, and so can Todd Philips. Once you’ll The Hangover, you’ll agree with me.

http://totallytop10.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/the-hangover.jpgDi

Review: 3 Idiots

3 Idiots

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Cast: Aamir Khan (Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad)

Madhavan (Farhan Qureshi)

Sharman Joshi (Raju Rastogi)

Boman Irani (Viru Sahastrabuddhe)

Kareena Kapoor (Pia Sahastrabuddhe)

Omi Vaidya (Chatur Ramalingam)

3 Idiots was definitely the most anticipated film of the year. As usual, Aamir Khan went forward with his plans for world domination by publicizing the movie at a huge level, thus raising the expectations of the masses. But most importantly, the Aamir Khan-Raju Hirani partnership was seen as the harbinger of the revival of the Bollywood economy, which had taken a plunge in 2009.

3 Idiots has an ingenious plot which does seem weird at sometimes, but is acceptable, nevertheless. Aamir Khan plays Ranchoddas “Rancho” Shyamaldas Chanchad, who becomes an idol for his friends and roommates Raju (played by S-her-man Joshi) and, especially, Farhan (played by Mad-havan), in the Imperial College of Engineering (based loosely on the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi). All three friends are from different backgrounds and are in the college (which has Boman Irani playing Viru, the dean) for their own reasons – both Raju and Farhan “first aana chahte hain“, and Rancho comes for the sole purpose of becoming a good engineer. Towards the middle of the film, Rancho mysteriously disappears, and is hunted down by Raju and Farhan.

As you can see, I didn’t mention Kareena Kapoor anywhere in the plot. Why? Because it’s not important. That’s why. If her character had been ripped apart from the film completely, 3 Idiots would have been considerably shorter by at least twenty minutes, and thus, more enjoyable. In fact, Kareena Kapoor exists because there’s an unwritten rule in Bollywood.

A Bollywood film cannot be a commercial success unless it stars a female lead who plays the male lead’s love interest.

Rajkumar Hirani uses that trademark feel-good-film style direction which we were acquainted with in his successful Munnabhai series. The plot swiftly alternates between light and heavy moments, without boring you one bit. Most of the jokes are clichéd, but the sheer performance given by the film’s cast pulls off even cheap and amateurish jokes superbly, leaving you in splits. Boman Irani is in fine form as the typical college dean, complete with a lifp and high-waist trousers. The fine actor he is, Aamir Khan pulls off the easy-going, happy-go-lucky Rancho’s character effortlessly, without letting you have the impression that he is forty, and is playing a character of nearly half his age. Madhavan and and Sharman Joshi deliver good performances too, as does Kareena Kapoor, although she has a small role to play).

He's so obsessed with Math, that he's mastered a parabolic smile

But 3 Idiots suffers from some weird WTF (pardon my French) moments. Rancho’s “All Iz Well” [sic] mantra appears to be a nice little way to calm your heart and deal with situations, but it is taken a tad

Very Inconspicuous

too far, where the mere utterance of the word causes a baby to kick in its mother’s tummy. There’s a scene involving a paralyzed man being driven on a scooter to hospital without considering the fact that some infection will lead to certain death. Not only that, but the scooter rams straight into Fortis Hospital, into the patients’ ward, brushing security as if it were trivial to concentrate on such matters. As even the Father of the Internet pointed out, it showcases how “important” security is for Fortis. There are shots where the camera deliberately hangs over a Fortis sign, or an AirTel USB Internet modem (twice). But the most unbelievable bit of all was the delivery of a table using a vacuum cleaner running on car batteries on a ping-pong table. Yes. You heard it. A ping-pong table, which, incidentally, also fell apart during one of the scenes in the film. Rancho’s character is far too perfect for the real world. He goes on to become the most successful of them all, despite his happy-go-lucky attitude. He tops the class, wins everybody’s hearts, makes parents happy, forces Farhan to change his entire career, becomes a super-successful scientist and still gets the girl? I don’t think so.

Most of the story is told in a flashback form, with Farhan reciting the story and skipping over to reality at regular intervals. The suspense of what happens next keeps you hooked on.

But you know what really saves 3 Idiots? You know what? Not only the light-hearted moments, but the real star and revelation Omi Vaidya, who plays Chatur Ramalingam, and is the butt of most jokes. An NRI whose knowledge of Hindi language is negligible, Chatur is the serious guy in the class, always studying and aiming to become the champion. In addition to his arresting performance, 3 Idiots works because it makes an emotional connection with the audience, and wittily stressing at pointed jabs towards our grading system. The message it ultimately delivers is true, and something that we need to think about. Which is why, friends, 3 Idiots is a movie you simply have to watch for the sheer entertainment it offers. Rajkumar Hirani has made better films, and I have seen better films.

Watch the 3 Idiots Theatrical Trailer

Detailed Ratings [Out of 10]

Plot: 7

Acting: 10

Screenplay: 8

Direction: 8

Feel: 9

Overall Rating: 8.4/10 (Very Good)

And, by the way, 3 Idiots has become so famous, BoingBoing has a post about it, urging readers to go and see it, even if they don’t speak English.

International Movie Database : 8.1/10

Times of India (Nikhat Kazmi) : 5/5

Hindustan Times (Mayank Shekhar) : 3.5/5

BollywoodHungama (Taran Adarsh) : 4.5/5

CNN-IBN (Rajeev Masand) : 3/5

Review: Avatar

Avatar Release Poster

Director: James Cameron

Producer: James Cameron

Jon Landau

Writer: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington as Jake Sully

Zoe Saldana as Neytri

Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch

Review

When was the last time you saw a film which had you awed, and you thought about it even days later? When was the last time you saw something so divine, and saw flawless, that you felt like applauding? Probably, the last time that happened for me was when I saw Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Never. Ever. Before. Has a movie been made like Avatar, which combines an extremely high budget ($230 million plus $150 million for promotion), great acting and a fairly good plot along with a message to make a thundering impact on the souls of all viewers? I doubt it.

Avatar has taken India by storm. Tickets had been booked a day in advance, and watching the current show in 3D is out of question, unless you plan it a day in advance. I saw Avatar at PVR Plaza in Rajiv Chowk, and the cinema hall was jam-packed.

The main character, Jake Sully, is a crippled US Marine who signs up for an Avatar programme which involves mining this mineral called Unobtanium, so that an energy crisis gripping the earth can be solved. (For those who don’t know, Unobtanium is a name given to any material which is “un-obtainable” to run anything. For example, an unobtanium-made-pulley may be frictionless, which is pretty impossible). This wicked stuff is available on a moon (Pandora) which orbits a planet which further orbits Alpha Centauri. This stone can be obtained only with the cooperation of the Na ‘vi, tall, blue-skinned inhabitants of Pandora. They’re primitive as compared to the humans, but more physically capable. They also have these USB ports in their hair, which they can plug into trees and horses. Badass, this.

Basically, the main character, Jake Sully, is on Pandora to control an “avatar” of himself, and become a Na ‘vi mentally, when physically wired up in a bunker. He’s got to convince the Na ‘vi to give him the Unobtanium, but finally realises that the humans are wrong. And he fights (in the end; this was inevitable) for the Na ‘vi against the humans.

You’ll notice that the plot is simple, and even predictable in some parts. But it’s not the plot you’re basically concentrating on here. It’s the visual effects. Of course, there are movies in the past which have made exactly the same blunder, thus compromising on other aspects and some who focus more on the plot, and not just visual effects. But Cameron does both, and makes a surprisingly good balance between both. The fact that Avatar is so visually pleasing, makes you forget the plot and think more about how Cameron made the environment? Remember: it’s a whole new world, and all new creatures, so it has to be made from scratch. Hundreds of people cannot by physically dyed blue, so that had to be CGI as well. What James Cameron has created and visualised is not mere scenery – it’s an entire universe, like the Middle Earth in LOTR, and unlike it as well, as Avatar cannot simply be shot in New Zealand. Cameron attached probes to all of his actors and used revolutionary new motion capture technology.

Everything you see here, is computer generated.

The acting is also great, although there is not much scope of acting. The emotions do come out well, especially in those scenes when the Na ‘vi’s homes are felled cruelly by the army. Their cries will echo even after a long, long time. Its that brief period of emotional connections that probably sets the pace for the next hour of the movie.

Something else is the totally believable universe Avatar is set in. I mean, the technology is not something which can make you go “Come on!”. Its something humans are close to achieving. In the end, it also gives an important message about saving the environment, and not getting into energy crises (which is not very far). But all this is unimportant; where Avatar really trumps is the overall experience of it. Of how everything seems to be there in the movie. Love, action, drama, emotion, jealousy, power, and so on. It may not be the best film ever, but it’s certainly one of the most complete and entertaining film. Do watch it, and do so in 3D, as that is how Cameron would like you to experience it. Looks like the huge $230 million dollar gamble, like Titanic, paid off.

Here’s the theatrical trailer for Avatar. Do watch it in full screen HD.

Detailed Ratings (out of 10)

Plot: 8

Acting: 9

Visual+Sound Effects: 10

Direction: 10

Feel: 10

Overall Rating: 9.4/10 [Fantastic]

Competition Success Review #2: TCS IT Wiz 2009

At long last, TCS IT Wiz finally arrived at Delhi. It felt like the most awaited event of the century. Everyone was waiting for it. And it brought back horrific memories of previous year. I really didn’t want this to happen again. But fate had other ideas.

With the noticeable absence of Mridul, our quizzing team had become relatively weaker. Saumey (my current quizzing partner) is only in ninth-class (which was the same class I was in last year), and he is still raw. But he does have a remarkably wide knowledge field.

Gyaan.in had threads on TCS IT Wiz, and questions on how to prepare about it even before you could say “Giri”. I felt really amused at all this. Because you really cannot “prepare” for this competition. Its that knowledge of all previous years and current affairs snowballed into a large one.

Just the day before TCS (30th October) was Dad’s birthday, so I was up quite late. Next morning, I reached school all excited and jumpy. Meena Ma’am informed me that TCS guys had requested us to send thirty teams. That is not a typo. Thirty teams! Too much. We were sending six. Under no circumstances am I going to list them here. Before leaving, I took Sir Alex Ferguson’s aashirwad. It really helped, though the potency was a little low (he has other important matters at hand as well).

Shikhar and his brother turned up late. He claims he was late and his driver did Burnout-style driving to get him there.

Puts Paul Walker to shame

School arranged only a Qualis for us. They obviously thought twelve people would sit comfortably in a eight-seater. With a driver.

Pictured: Comfort

This was the second-last image. I promise. Second-last.

So we stole Jaikishan’s Civic and Vedant’s Verna, and accommodated people into the Verna (the Civic was for return). It took a lotta time, and we finally reached the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

There was hardly any crowd. My guess was only four-hundred teams. After registration (and a quick chat with New Era guys), we made it to Dogra Hall, and grabbed seats. There was that usual survey and stuff, which could be exchanged for refreshments.

I looked around, and saw that the hall was full. But no people sitting on the floor like last time. Less people, better chances.

Giri made his trademark entry, and announced:

Due to overwhelming response, for the first time in the history of TCS IT Wiz, we are holding two prelims.

My heart sank. So there were a large number of people outside as well! Phew. My estimate was so wrong…

The prelims began, and it was easier than last time. We screwed up on that “decision engine” question, and wrote WolframAlpha, which was a common mistake many made. It was Bing. Saumey was excellent – contributing more than expected. He gave four out of twenty, which is quite good for a ninth class guy. He answered crucial questions like MNP and LinkedIn, which few knew. Kudos, kid.

Then we left for refreshments, and recession was visible. Pathetic food. Miserable sandwich, passable pattice, and, most importantly, Oyes wafers. Yes. OYES! The USP of Oyes was free points on cards, and ten would fetch us another Oyes! We immediately began collecting them, and accumulated eleven! Woot!

The second prelims were underway, and we waited forever. We were looking at the institute (where practically all of us wanted to be). Some kids had reached to the top of a building.

After a really, really long time, it was time to enter Dogra Hall once again. There was lot of pushing, and the entire stairway was jam-packed. TCS volunteers failed to control the crowd, which soon turned into a mob. Now, according to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, a crowd becomes a mob if it breaks something. Naturally, the crowd broke a glass pane, much to the anger of TCS guys.

Meanwhile, Shubham and Arvind did something great. They entered through another gate (which was closed for us, dunno why), pretending to have lost a water bottle.

When we finally reached Dogra Hall, they had reserved an entire row for us. Giri returned, and announced the results.

For the first time,  we have had nine-hundred-and-nine papers to check! I don’t think any quizmaster has had so many papers to check before. First, the answers.

Saumey and I had pretended to have got only eight or nine correct. At the end of the answers, we had got fourteen. Not enough, I thought. Fifteen weren’t enough last time.

Before I announce the qualifiers, I would like to recognize the top ten teams. The team which finished tenth is…

The entire hall is quiet. Nobody even breathes.

… Aditya and Saumey Jain of Montfort School.

NO!

We went on to the stage to collect a t-shirt, a book and a Rubik’s cube.

Which class are you in?

I’m in tenth and he’s in ninth.

To the audience : I just found out that the level of quizzing improves so rapidly in Delhi. These quizzers are from ninth and tenth. Give them a round of applause!

I don’t remember the other teams, but Sopandev from DPS Dwarka finished seventh. What was really agonizing was that he had exactly the same marks as that of the sixth qualifier, but lost out on starred questions.

New Era qualified, but not Prateek’s team! Young Arnav and Apratim had. DPS Noida, who finished second last year, were also on stage. DPS R K Puram qualified yet again, with quizzers from ninth and eighth. That was something. Even Vivek Nair and Karthik qualified; they finished eighth last year.

The finals were really easy. We got seventy percent of the questions right. Especially in the connect round.

DPS Noida won the finals. It was a great experience for all of us.

On the return journey, Shubham disfigured my Rubik’s cube.

Review: 2012

2012 Release Poster

Director:  Roland Emmerich

Producers:  Roland Emmerich
Mark Gordon
Harald Kloser
Larry J. Franco
Ute Emmerich

Cast:

CGI as Awesomeness (in the lead role)

Supporting Cast

John Cusack as Jackson Curtis

Amanda Peet as Kate Curtis

Thandie Newton as Laura Wilson

Zlatko Buric as Yuri Karpov

Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser

Jimi Mistry as Dr. Satnam Tsurutani

My past reviews have been pretty long and boring, so I’ll cut this one short.

Review: Is there anyone in this world, who has not escaped the clutches of Roland Emmerich? Ever heard of Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC? Definitely. So here comes another one, 2012, which is also based on Roland’s favourite theme: destruction. Now there are several apocalypse theories ranging from a huge asteroid hitting the ocean to Jeremy laughing on Candace, but Roland chooses the Mayan prophecy of solar fires which happens once every 600,000 years.  Incidentally, that is also the time Kolkata Night Riders will take to win the Indian Premier League. Once.

John Cusack plays Jackson Curtis, who is a failed novel writer and a divorcee as well. He now works as a limo driver to earn money, and that must be the reason Kate Curtis left him in the first place. Now Jackson meets a maniac in Yellowstone, who tells him why the world is ending, and also that the US Government has arranged ships (or arks) for their survival in the ocean, via a splendid amateur Flash animation. But what is not clear is, that why the government is keeping all this secret.

And Indian (Jimi Hendrix) informs a White House executive about the end of the world, by calling him to boiling Calcutta. It is also that same Indian who saves the world in the end, telling the same White House executive that a huge tsunami was coming over.

Towards the end you’ll realise that the Earth’s geography has changed dramatically. The African continent is now extremely fertile, and the south pole is stuck in the middle of the United States.

Like all of his previous movies (such as Independence Day, which is widely regarded as the worst movies ever to become a hit),  2012 is a big pile of noise and action, with absolutely no proper story or screenplay. It’s a ridiculous film. A pathetic one. A failure. And nothing extraordinary at all. The acting is poor, which is probably because there is no scope of acting here. The dialogue is ridiculous, and so are the facts. Dr. Satnam speaks in the way Americans would speak Hindi, not the way a native Calcutta guy would. In fact, he should not even speak Hindi, but Bengali, as he’s living in Calcutta! Another one: In a particular scene, Jackson’s plane takes off with family and Russian boss Yuri with a huge ash cloud behind them. So much ash in the air would definitely cause an airplane’s engines to go kaput. However, special effects are flawless, nothing like you’ve ever seen before. But Roland, you must realise (along with Michael Bay), that gone are the days when the audience could be won only on special effects! We need a solid plot, screenplay and acting to go with it, something which District 9 achieved successfully.

You must have realised by now, that 2012 is a bad film. It has been panned by critics all over the globe. But you know what? Once you finish watching the movie you actually feel its good, completely knowing the fact that you really shouldn’t have liked it. Is the dialogue silly? Yes. But does it make you laugh? Oh yes. Is it stupid? Of course. But do you really care? NO!

There are memorable moments in the movie, especially the one in which Jackson is driving the limo with his family at a high-speed, when the road is cracking beneath the car. Buildings are falling down, and the limo jumps right through them. Oh, how can you forget the scene were Gordon takes off in a plane, when the runway is crumbling behind? And that scene, where Yuri and the others are sitting in a sports car (was it a Porsche?), and after Jackson’s failed efforts to start it, he says

Eeengine. Staaart.

at which it promptly revs up.

When it ends (rather too stereotypically, with the hero getting lost and resurfacing when presumed dead), you feel happy. It’s global cooperation that saved the day. Which will save the day any day, even today.

2012 is a flawed, worthless and too long at two hours and forty minutes, it is an becomes edge-of-the-seat thriller with some brilliant moments, which makes it one of the must-see movies of the year.

Detailed Ratings (out of 10)

Plot: 7

Acting: 5

Visual+Sound Effects: 10

Direction: 4

Screenplay: 4

Rating: 6/10 (Good)

Download The TCS IT Wiz 2009 Quiz Finals

I’ve given you the prelims, Now eat the finals. The prelims were compiled by Shikhar, and hosted by me. The finals are compiled and written by Shreyans, and hosted by me. You can now see how I love to take credit for others’ work and boost my blog views.

Download The TCS IT Wiz 2009 Quiz Finals

A small note here. This quiz archive is EPIC. It’s simply awesome! Download it for sure. At. Any. Cost. Shreyans has compiled a truly magnificent archive. Never before have a seen something like this. If possible, print it on photo paper and frame it.

Download The TCS IT Wiz 2009 Quiz Prelims

TCS IT Wiz 2009 was held on 31st October 2009, and 909 teams turned up. I managed to finish tenth out of them (along with Saumey). DPS Noida won this year’s edition of TCS IT Wiz. You can download the quiz prelims here. Quiz finals are being prepared. More later.

Please give Shikhar complete credit for this work. It may have been hosted at my blog and typed by me, he made it a point to write them all down during the quiz (you can improve your handwriting, Shikhar).

Download the TCS IT Wiz 2009 Prelims

Competition Failure Review #1: Dynamix 2009

Thank you for the title, Shikhar.

After what seemed like eternity, Dynamix 2009 came at Ramjas, RK Puram. It was my first quiz of the year, let alone tech symposium, as H1N1 messed up my plans for others. Naturally, I was really excited.

We started out quite late. I had brought my entire collection of Digit magazines with me to pass the time.

Saumey-”Bhaiya, aapne Alienware laptop ka review padha?”

Me-”Nahi. Which month?”

Saumey-”October”

I opened it up to see a shiney ahuja Best Performer award. Because of a 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, and two GeForce 285 GTX cards running in SLI with a gig of RAM each. Blew my head off!

Reached at about 9.20. Registered and ran for the quiz. Stopped in mid-way. Told to go to Audi. Stopped in midway. Told to go for quiz. Stopped in midway. Finally went to Audi.

As noticeable, Ramjas always has organisation problems. They’re well known for organising the most disorganised fest in the entire universe. They’re known for that in the Andromeda Galaxy as well. (Okay, that went too far). So when we (Saumey and me) eventually reached the quiz destination, it was already on. Problem was, Crossword and Quiz were on the same time. And I was taking part in both. Ashmeet, my Crossword partner, was already in the library. I had to hurry.

Unfortunately, the organisers weren’t too happy with all this.

Houston, we have a problem.

I begged and convinced them to let me participate in both.

“But you have to submit your quiz paper. Only then can you leave.”
But can’t my partner sit here and do the paper?”

“No”

“Why?”

“No”

(audible sigh)”Alright”

“But if you qualify in both, what will you go for?”

“Fat chance”

“But still…”

“I’ll choose at that time”

And so, the quiz began. The written prelim was tough. Not so tough, but tough. Negative marking wasn’t helping. First question was about some NewHoo. Dunno what it was. Lots of MCQs were also there.  Some were copied questions, like the MIME acronym. Remember seeing that in some quiz… There were two questions on MAC addresses.

And there were these to logos to conclude the prelims.

In addition to these being super easy (you’re FAIL if you don’t know these. What are you doing on a tech blog anyway?), we discussed the former one on our way to Ramjas! Nice, eh?

Having no time for pleasant surprises, I left for the Library, when Saumey went to swat flies in the Audi.

The Library is awesome. There are six (no less) split air conditioners there (though none were switched on). Way better than the Montfort library. Ashmeet was coolly doing the paper. He had managed two on twenty. When I was through, I had about eighteen on twenty.

Crossword Prelims was a joke. Just too easy. Repeat questions as well. Remember the clue “Michael went to see ET” at Exun? This one had “Michael, ET, Dell”. So simple. So stupid, being unable to think of another question, as it was there in the quiz prelims.

There was a question about the son of Zeus (four-letter). I’ve never played God of War, so I had absolutely no idea. Wrote “aero” (it fits). Turns out, it was “ares” (thank you, Wikipedia). This question is of little significance here, but look out for quiz finals.

There was another crossword clue which said something like Heroes of the movie 300 and enemies in Halo. Now, I’ve never seen 300. But I’ve played Halo. So I thought it must be the Covenant. They are the enemies in Halo. But didn’t fit. A spoof movie on 300 was Meet The Spartans, so the answer must be Spartans! Good clue, but wait. Spartans may be the heroes of 300, but they were NOT enemies in  Halo! This is a serious error! In fact, they helped defeat the enemies, the Covenant, in Halo Wars. Shikhar confirmed. He’s a big fan of Halo.

Easy prelims felt great, and it put me in another crazy situation. Damn. I’m qualifying for both. Now what?

And the inevitable happened. When Shikhar, Vinamra, Saumey, Ashmeet and me were discussing about an exoskeleton while munching on the world’s most deserving candidate for Shitty Patty of the World, it was announced that we had, indeed, qualified. For both. And both were to start at 11.30.

I requested the authorities with a similar conversation, that I can give the crossword in seven minutes flat, and then go for the quiz. They accepted, on the condition that no one would wait for me at the quiz, and I had to hand over the crossword paper.

Crossword finals were damn tough. Seemed tougher when we did it in seven minutes. Easiest question was “Main Protagonist of GTA4″. Didn’t get simple ones like “First commercial OS”. Also had good clues like “Wolverine was a hacker in this movie” (which was Swordfish were Hugh “Sexy” Jackman was a hacker; courtesy New Era, where Prateek the Great has infused his Wikipedia-sized knowledge).

Anyway, I rushed to quiz, where Saumey was sitting. I made a dramatic entry, skidded to a halt near my table, and sat down. The projection-on-wall displayed “Where are the NVIDIA headquarters situated?”

“Who’s direct?”

“Ours”

“Oh shit…”

“Answer, please?”

“California”

“That’s right. Its Santa Clara, California”

As usual, DPS RK Puram fought.

“Dude, California is like, a state. A huge state”

“But he gave  the answer”

“Dude! Everything is in California!”

“Fine. No points”

Which left me disappointed and breathless (as I had just run a floor downstairs).

The quiz continued, and it made me realise the WTFness of it. None of the questions were transferrable. And, in my breathlessness and disorientation, I forgot what Ray Tomlinson invented. D@mn it.

At the end of the first dry round, RKP was first, we were second, MSM was third, and the other school was fourth.

Next round, connect round. The craziest round of all. There are four images in each question, and answering one gives twenty points EACH. And getting all gives an additional ten points. That’s like ninety for each question, and only ten for first dry round ones. We and RKP were stunned. But it started anyway.

Both RKP and we didn’t get ours. I don’t remember their questions, but I certainly do ours. There was this sun sign, galaxy, and a picture of computers connected across the world. Answer was Ares. Couldn’t think of anything else, Dynafix? As Ares was already there in the crossword?

Next school had some easy question. Seventy points. MSM had the easiest of all. Chrome, Firefox and Tux, and this.

Okay, that was easy. This picture is Freedom Toaster. It’s essentialy for those who a) don’t have unlimited downloads b)who’re too lazy to download and c)both. I’m speaking about Linux distros of course! You take your own blank CD, and Freedom Toaster writes any distro for you. It’s a Mark Shuttleworth initiative, who, for the record, is the guy behind Ubuntu, and has also been to space for a vacation. Gives you the idea he that kind of guy who can afford stuff like this.

Now I knew this one, and offered to answer for no points. There was this guy sitting behind me with a heavily tattooed Dell laptop, and looked like he had made the quiz (not sure).

“That’s Freedom Toaster. You can get distros at that.”

“Correct. But no points”

“I’m not complaining. There’s only one in India. Trivandrum”

At which, that Dell guy shouts

“No. Bangalore”

“Trivandrum”

“Bangalore”

“Trivandrum”

“Bangalore”

“Really? Maybe”

Apart from noticing that both of us used the wrong names for Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, I had my strong doubts. When I came home, I checked up Freedom Toaster’s site and opted to find a toaster. It produced unsurprising results.

What did I say?

So, kids, listen to the unicorn.

This round changed stuff. Now, MSM was first, the other school was second, RKP was third and we were fourth. Naturally, RKP couldn’t stand themselves losing, so they fought. I support them completely. This was ridiculous. With their pestering (and ours), Ramjas relented. The next round, the audio-visual round, which was to be a hundred points each, would now be only fifty. But no change in previous round. Unfair, I thought, but kept quiet.

In the final round, there was a video with another audio combined together. I really liked this round. The idea was really nice. I don’t care if this was ripped off from somewhere.

RKP got the first chance, and they had that Intel ad music (the USB one) and this awesome speech (in video. The text in the video, not the original video itself)

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world
Are the ones who do

It was a really easy one, and they garnered fifty points. It was Apples Think Different campaign. Of course, I’m not whining that they always get easy ones (it wasn’t really easy. I just chanced to know about this).

Next was our turn. We had some heavy metal soundtrack playing and a war game in the video.

“Wait. I’ve heard this! Yes! It was in the G@teway intro video. Er, no. It wasn’t. Ah! Now I know! Its the soundtrack for Need For Speed Most Wanted“

“Correct. Name the song”

“Er, I’m sorry?”

“Name the song”

“Are you kidding me? There must be fifteen songs in that game, and you exepct me to memorise all the names?

“Alright, I’ll give it to you. And the video”

“Er, I dunno. Call of Duty?”

“No. Army of Two“

So we got fifty points.

I can’t remember what the next school got, but I do remember what MSM got. I think they got The Matrix soundtrack, and a game trailer which said From the 2007 Game of the Year.

“Er, Crysis“

“Alright”

DPS-”Wrong! They said Crysis. Its Crysis Warhead“

“Yes it is. No points”

At which RKP was jubliant. They had won, and that is why they wanted MSM to get it wrong. MSM were second, and we were fourth. We fought against that stupid points system, and signed our own death warrant. Sob.

Shikhar, Vinamra and Karan couldn’t get anything at S.Y.N.C.E.D, although they did have a cheesy concept. They ran out of time. Also, I was told, Ramjas had a trial version of Fruity Loops. How diabetic.

According to unofficial results, we came third in the crossword. New Era was second, and RKP was first. There were other events the next day, including the answer to this PJ.

Q: Woh kya hai jo Ravan akele kar sakta hai, par Ram nahi?

A: Group discussion.

Didn’t get anything in that as well. And others. In the end, Montfort returned empty handed from Ramjas, as they did not have a third prize, which is bad. I always get third in every Ramjas event.

Now I found out why I go to Dynamix. Apart from criticizing poor management, they do have a great quiz and crossword. Trust me. Quiz was actually very good and so was crossword, apart from the obession with certain stuff like gaming. But poor management let such a great event down. I just hope it gets better next year. Congrats to DPS RK Puram, though. Although they did fight at the quiz, they answered superbly. They deserved to win it, and the overall trophy as well.

Dynamix guys promised they’d upload answers on their website. I don’t think they’ve kept their promise.

If you’re still reading this uber-long post, thank you for having the patience. Happy belated Diwali, guys.