The Regular routine of College Quizzes

Had gone for a quiz in Sinhagad College of Engineering (SCOE) today. It was part of ‘Pinnacle’ their annual electronics fest. Bunked a whole day of college and went there simply because this was one of the first inter-college quizzes that I (partnering Kunal Thakar) had finished in the top three (second to be precise). Hence even after knowing that the quiz will be made by pretty inexperienced people, (The handful people in SCOE who can be considered to be decent quizzers (Exceptions: Anish Bhat and Hrishikesh Kavade) have passed out of college), we went; you know just to try and repeat our performance of the earlier two years. The trip to SCOE, though a bit tiring because of the traffic and the dust, is pretty good because of the last section of road that leads up to the college. It’s a small ghat, with some parts that are broken tarmac and some that are fully dirt roads. So you can really try out some dirt biking, throwing your bike around turns, deliberately causing the rear wheel to loose grip a bit so that you can try an opposite lock like the crazy speedway riders. Kunal was holding on for dear life behind me.
Anyway, the quiz elims started pretty much on time, and they had an acrostic question before the main questions. The funda was that all the answers to the following questions began with the letters of the answer of the acrostic question taken in order. This is a very stupid way to do it, because anyone who gets the acrostic answer has too much of an advantage over the others. The acrostic question was: What id Ritchie Benaud’s autobiography titled. We didn’t get it. Fortunately none of the other regular teams got it either. We qualified for the finals which began after an excruciatingly long waiting period of almost four and a half hours; during which time we roamed the campus, ate at some of the many different eateries on campus, and chatted a lot (had just read in TOI that like walking about gossiping is good for health).
The finals began and it became obvious that the organizers were very inexperienced at making quizzes. Firstly the quiz had the direct and pass format; and the scoring system was one of the most badly screwed up systems I have seen till date. You get a different number of points for a right answer in every round. Like the first round had 40 points for a right answer on a direct and 20 for a pass. The second had 60 and 30; and the third had 80 and 40. Amazing no? We were debating on the possibility of one of the teams ending up with 4 digit scores eventually. One round also had 100 for directs and 50 for passes. And there was no uniformity whatsoever in the difficulty level of the questions. One team scores 100 points on a sitter and another team (in most cases, our team) got a question like: picture of a blue stuffed cat shown and we were supposed to identify it. The answer was: Bob the builder/repairman’s cat Plichard. I mean what the fuck? The bloody toy is meant for toddlers, and we are supposed to know its name. No one got such questions. Kunal Sawardekar and his partner Puranjay Parchure of Fergusson College won the quiz with 530 points and we placed second with 500. Kunal S is one hugely lucky fellow. He got two of the biggest sitters of the quiz when others were getting screwed on their questions, and was awarded 100 points on both occasions. I am calling him lucky just because he got some extra cash. I have no regrets whatsoever of coming second in a quiz like this one.
Looking back, we ( the VIT quizzers and Kunal S) have done so much of college quizzing in the last two years that I think that we should really think about whether its worth or time to go for such frustrating quizzes any longer. It is an enjoyable quizzing experience that we are looking for, not the incentive to get yet another certificate of yet another college event. But then at the back of my mind I do know that most probably I will end up going for many more such quizzes this year, just in the hope of getting a good quiz, and a taste of Pune college quizzing for what will be my last year in VIT.

Zen and the act of Motorcycle Riding

We used to have something called "moral science" as an extra classroom activity when in school. In that we used to try and meditate for a while, chant Om etc. I found all this very boring and pointless. The teacher used to tell us to empty our minds of all thoughts and then concentrate. Bloody, what the fuck do you concentrate on if you don't have anything in your mind? My mind used to stray away on a lot of things. I fell asleep most of the times or would try and open my eyes and look around to see what the others were doing.
On a motorcycle, its different. You are going, say in a ghat, at pretty high speeds. What is going on in the mind at that time? The next approaching turn; what speed can you take that at? Does it open out enough to allow that kind of entry speed? Is there gravel or water near the turn's apex? Is the turn blind, could there be some vehicle coming from the other side? All this and much more goes through the mind in just about 2 or 3 seconds. The turn arrives in that time. You have to go into it at a certain banking angle, got to have the fingers ready on the brakes just in case, got to be ready to change gear if needed, and ready to take evasive action if at all something or someone is in the middle of the road after the turn. And in a ghat kind of place, this goes one and on, till the ghat gets over. You really have no time to think of anything else, because you know that you cannot afford to think of anything else; a bad accident is so much more likely to happen if one does not pay attention to everything. Now that's real concentration. You automatically forget about people you love or hate, your boring college or work, are you hungry or not, what are you going to tell your dad about having smuggled his bike out for a ride; everything other than that bloody approaching turn. This people, is meditation. You are concentrating so hard that it's a state of bliss; nothing else can trouble the mind. Is this not what the doctor recommended as meditation? Is this not better than any conventional meditation? The feeling you get after such a ride is awesome. It's a mixed feeling of exhilaration and fear. Fear because you suddenly realize that you were doing something pretty dangerous; there is no time for fear in the actual process; it comes later.
All the thoughts flooding back to the mind later on gives the impression that you were detached from your body when riding the bike. It is a real nice; "achieved nirvana"; kind of feeling.
I have just started reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I expect the book has a lot more stuff like the post I have written here. I met many people who said that they could not appreciate the book much. I expect that it would be much more effective on a person like me who has already done a decent amount of motorcycle riding, and hence has made a few observations on the whole motorcycle riding experience for himself.