Circa June 2008
The fact that MECCA was the most prestegious Club in GIM did not matter...
The fact that every self proclaimed marketing bond dreamt of making it to what was considered the coolest club to be in didnt matter either...
For a minute, I was tempted to give up my shot at occupying what was the most coveted Core Committee positions in GIM...
As per policy, a MECCA JCC could not dream of representing GIM at WIZBIZ.
Organised every year by the Marketing Club of GIM, MECCA, WIZBIZ is one of the finest corporate Quizzes in India, which combined with the charm of being conducted in one of the world's most exotic tropicaL paradise, attracts quiz aficionados frm far and wide.
Finally, under the erroneous belief that being in the finest club will help you score the finest chicks, I enlisted for the selection process.
As luck would have it, I got through and with the privilege of being a MECCA Core Committee Member, went out of the Window my glorious dream of walking into the Wizbiz Areana pitting myself against the very best...
It was of little consolation that my Quiz partner Ms Pooja Kamath made it to the GIM team by beating a field of 30 quizzers in the internal GIM trials in 2010.
But as Iron Maiden declares in the "Wicker Man"....your time will come...I waited for mine to come...
I could never participate in Wizbiz as a student because Mecca rules barred me from doing it, so I vowed to pay my way into the participant list when I became a corporate myself...
These were stormy times to be in a B School ....when economic blizzards were blowing across the world and corporations were tumbling like ninepins...
Sometimes there were serious doubts on even landing a job in those times...
Not landing a job would have had serious repurcussions...like neither being eligible to find hot chicks (which I anyway could not find despite being in Mecca
) nor participate in WIZBIZ !!
Luckily enough, I did land up a job selling soap and even before my first paycheque, I dreamt of being at WIZBIZ !!
But fate had other plans, my first Wizbiz as a corporate was spent in a dinghy hotel room in Nashik, Maharashtra as I struggled to sort out market coverage issues in khandeish region...
Undeterred, I continued to dream on...
next time, I am gonna make it. And make it I did !!
Dreams too have a guilty conscience. U dream a dream long enough, and it is emabarrassed into becomeing a reality.
The date was fixed for 25th Feb and I had to be on travel in Gujarat till 24th Feb. But such was the junoon that i did not hesitate in paying a huge chunk of my monthly income to be strapped to fiery metallic bird that streaks thorugh the sky at more than 2/3 the speed of sound, TWICE...to reach Goa!!!
My partner in crime was Ashwin Kak, who had himself cooped up in a metal canister on wheels which tore the tar of NH 17 at breakneck space below !
Once in Goa after two planes, 3 airports and a Cab ride later, we focussed our attention on doing well in Wizbiz...
Never had a I faced any pressure in any Quiz. So much that the night before TATA CRUCIBLE I was going around Panjim eating Pizza at 3 am in the night...
But WIZBIZ was different...and our only goal was NOT to come LAST among the prelims participants.
A lot of interesting things happened in the prelude to the Quiz, the most memorable one being asked by Ashwin to find someone's name and relationship status...
And being a good quizzer I enquired for the info from the most reliable source....a guy who happened to be her boyfriend !!!
bringing Ashwin, a master quiz setter, to a quiz of this stature, was bringing an ace Gunsmith to a gunbattle...but all my apprehensions were gone when he bulldozed through multiple bouncers in the prelims with considerable elan...
The Master swordmaker was a Ninja himself !!!
Anyway, our team, named Bhains Ki Ankh, which actually stands for The Buffallo's eye, did pretty well and there was very less chance of coming last !!
But Buffalo's eyes had hit the bullseye when it was announced as one of the top 6 teams to have made it to the final round !!
To walk on the stage, amid loud applause for what was considered the GIM home team now...was one of the most surreal moments of my life.
Ashwin claims that for him it will feature in the music video on your life which plays in front of your eyes right before u pop off !!
I will refrain from giving u our standing in the finals because that will furthur diminish my chances of finding the hot chicks whom I have been searching since 2008, but I can assure you that we gave some "REALLY GOOD ANSWERS" :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Ashwin has declared this to be a phase 1 of his 5 year plan to win wizbiz which means that he will come 4th next year and then third the next...and finally win the grand prize !
Post the quiz the night was dedicated to Bakar under the starlit sky with our Mecca buddies and understanding the effects of the bottle of wine won at the Quiz on human nervous system by experimenting on our in house sommelier Mr Shreye Mehtani, who once happened to be somewhere near a wine club so he is now an authority.
Shreye Mehntani is also an authority on Automobile repair and Black magic because he can cool an overheated engine with the help of chilled beer !! but thats a story I will save for ome other time !!
A day later we were back strapped to our wheeled tin cans, to be thorwn back into the infernos of our jobs....but the dream will live on and we shall be back...
Long live Wizbiz
Long LiVe MECCA !!
VIVA GIM !!!!
