Day before yesterday I took part in the Tata Crucible Quiz at Pune. The event was held at the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel. The event was scheduled to be started at 3 PM, unfortunately it started raining at around that time, so they had to delay the start by around 45 minutes. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. I was taking part in a quiz like this after around 10-11 years…and it was great !
Jawed @ Tata Crucible Quiz 2009 Pune
Originally I had planned to participate with Yatin Suvarna(a colleague of mine). Just when we were about to leave office for the venue, it started raining. As he was not feeling well he did not come..I was very keen to participate so I thought I would take a chance and request them to allow me to take part individually. But that was not allowed, so I requested Prashant Brahmbhatt, our SAP Abaper to be my replacement partner. He promptly agreed and I was able to participate.
In the preliminary round, there were a total of 25 questions. Based on the score, 6 teams were to be selected to compete on stage. The questions were very well balanced and the quiz master ensured that there were enough clues for the participants to think out the correct answers even if you don’t know. That is the hallmark of a good quiz master. The qualifying cutoff was 19 and we could get only 14 correct out of 25.
Some of the interesting questions were like …
We three used to participate in the quiz competitions together. Vasant was the all rounder, he used to be equally good in sports, extra curricular activities and studies. Soumya was the dedicated quizzard. And I was the bits & pieces person…
I, along with Babu had gone to Ambagan to visit Sony. Sony had his own readymade clothes shop there. In the afternoon we went to quench our thirsts with Lassi. Shops like this spring up all over Orissa in Summer. Lassi is made from curd, water and dry fruits and essence are added to make a refreshing drink.
badedilwale-piano
This is how I looked like in 2003. This photograph has been clicked by Debu in his room at Avkar Apartments.
When the first term of 8th sem ended, we had gone to Hotel Shanti in Angul for dinner. Along with me are Rajesh, Prasanta, Ranjan and Ashok Shukla
Winner's Certificate Jawed Ahmed
I have won the 2nd prize in the 2nd edition of the GreyGambit Quiz. Of course the questions were sitters…looking at the target participants. But it was fun. I regret missing the first edition. GreyGambit has been organised specifically for Senior IT professionals and participation is by invitation only.
We left New Delhi at 3 in the morning and reached Beijing at around one in the afternoon but the flight was of only 6 and half hours…so effectively we had lost around 2 and half hours of time. We went around in a stupor for the first day as the body gradually adjusted to the missing time…by 2nd day everything was normal.
Had been hearing about Jet Lag and I experienced it for the first time..
While at Beijing, I came across this fake iphone. They were selling it at throwaway price of 50 USD each. And they were open in clarifying that this isn’t the real thing. I could not stop myself from purchasing this. Its not a really good device but it has everything that you can think of..G sensor, 3 inch touch screen, stylus, touch flo, FM, camera, Java, Music player, Video player, browser etc…
The build quality is dubious and the interface is sluggish…but it makes a good device to flaunt…as long as no one notices !
Jawed participating in 10th Annual CTO Forum at Beijing, China
I participated in the 10th Annual CTO Forum at Beijing. I was one of 50 IT Leaders participating in this event. It was held over four days(August 23-26). The entire time was packed with so many sessions on all the contemporary topics. The sessions included Cloud Computing, Security, Social Networking, Business Leadership etc. We stayed at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel and the entire experience was great. Will be writing more about in subsequent blogs….
What is limesurvey? A few days ago, Googling on the net I came to know about Limesurvey. Its an automated tool for administering surveys. All you have to do is create the questions and then input the list of email ids whom you want to administer this survey. Rest is done automatically. It sends invitation to take part, once its completed, it sends a thank you mail, if you don’t take part then it also sends reminders. Once its complete then you get nicely formatted reports and statistics for your survey. It could not have been easier. If you use it then you will understand that its a mature product and has evolved over a period of time, incorporating user’s requirements and suggestions. Now it has reached a stage where it satisfies the most commonly asked for features. Its such a wonderful tool that I have decided to write atleast two more articles on it. One on installing it and the other on using it for purposes other than surveying.
