Quizzes are usually not so much known for the team names as for their performances. But here was one quiz with a difference. Team names at the Indian Oil Brain Jam Open Quiz 2009 were so wacky that they outshone the team performances. A packed auditorium at the Pragjyoti ITA Centre, Machkhowa, Guwahati witnessed a grand battle to win a trip to Malaysia, but somewhere, behind the actual battle, another battle for the supremacy of names was being fought.

The quiz and the ‘contest for names’ were both won by the team ‘The Usual Suspects’, consisting of Amrit P Chetia and Bidyut B Bailung. The defending champions retained the Ram Gopal Khanna Memorial Trophy and won tickets to Malaysia, besides winning the battle of names. Asked why they took the name ‘The Usual Suspects’, Amrit said, “We are a known name among the quizzing circle for regularly attending quizzes across the region. We had been into a number of finals winning some but not many. With this name we have succeeded in breaking the jinx. Besides, this is also the name of our favourite movie.”

The winner of the second prize too had an unusual name. They called themselves the ‘Q-Factor’. Similarly, there were a number of other teams in the quiz who had names that stood out. All the six teams who made it to the finals, hosted by Barry O’Brien, had out of the world names, sending the seasoned quizmaster into a tizzy. “I could hardly remember names of the teams. They were unique. I loved a number of them. It showed the brilliance of the people in this region. This is the reason why I love quizzing here — the teams have both the brilliance and the wits,” Barry said after the quiz.

But during the quiz, a visibly lost Barry took the liberty to change the names of the finalist teams and the names just got wittier. He changed the names of two teams that were combinations of parents and their wards and called them ‘Ma and Me’ for the mother-daughter and ‘Pa and Me’ for the father-daughter pairs. The doctors’ team calling themselves ‘Fotune Hunters’ also had their names changed to ‘The Smiling Doctors’, since the two medicos could not hide their excitement for making it to the finals.

Meanwhile, a closer look at the list of team names with the organizers, Priya Communication, would just echo the spirit that Barry talked about. Teams with names like, Amnesiacs, Talking Wiccens, Pussan, The Quim and The Ker, Yaak-See-Dent, 23/42, etc. were just few cases in point that mixed entertainment with knowledge.

“All the 400 teams, who registered for the prelims, had unique names. Each year, we get names which are really different. This is one of the USPs of this quiz since its inception in 2005,” said Anoop Khanna of Priya Communication. “We await the event with the same pulsating heart as the quizzers of the region for the fun and challenge involved in it,” he said. Adding to Anoop’s view, Barry said, “I am glad there is such an effort afoot but more such quizzes need to be organized to develop the inquisitiveness of the youth in the region.”

“We have been highlighting one or the other socially relevant theme to make the coming generation aware of the social and environmental problems we face and how they could be reversed or corrected,” Anoop said. This edition of Brain Jam aimed at sensitizing people about global warming. It is a known fact that the climate is undergoing a drastic change. Farmers are crying foul about it, animals are dying, and environmentalists have been left anxious. The people cannot be oblivious to the matter and just sleep over it! Hence the initiative from Brain Jam. A short but heart-rending video, put together by Sashanka Barbaruah of Toon Works, highlighted the problem. One of the sponsors, Rajeev Das said, “it was an honour to be a part of the effort to highlight a cause of such magnitude.”

But the real moment in the evening that had tears in everybody’s eyes was the wonderful tribute to the ‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson. An audio-visual presentation by Sashanka and Shanku, better known as DJ Brahmin, who was also the man behind the musical evening, brought back the memories of the legend. Conceived by Rishiraj Sarmah, the idea to offer a tribute to the legend was immediately put to shape by the creative team.

And could there be a better way for us Guwahatians than the 360 degrees of interrogation that this platform offers to join the fight for a noble cause?

Nabajyoti Sharma