Look East: TCS Hat Trick At BE Quiz ’08 Kolkata Round

Team Holds Nerve And Lead To Beat ISBMIT’S IN human nature to root for the underdog. And this was amply evident during the concluding moments of the Kolkata round of the Idea Brand Equity Quiz ’08, held on the evening of Wednesday. As favourites TCS prepared to square off against International School of Business & Media (ISB&M) in the final round, quizmaster Derek O’Brien did a spot poll to see which team the 200-strong audience wanted representing Kolkata in the national finals. Popular sentiment clearly lay with professors Gautam Ghosh and Mahuya Maitra — although TCS loyalists were by no means few in number. However, TCS finally triumphed, making it to the national finals for the third year in a row. “No disrespect to TCS who played brilliantly, but my heart was with the professors,” O’Brien admitted.The Kolkata round had 23 teams — including SBI Life from Bhubaneshwar and Tata Motors from Jamshedpur — slugging it out to make it to the dais. The six that made the grade were IMS Learning, ITC, Standard Chartered, ISB&M and two teams from TCS. In fact, at one stage, both the teams from TCS were way ahead of the pack, before ISB&M got its act together and edged into the final showdown. The quiz saw healthy audience participation, helped in no small measure by generous doses of goodies that O’Brien handed out for every right answer from the spectators. Questions ranged from the relatively simple to the really hard. During World War II, what did the British call ‘Tatanagars’ — the armoured vehicles built by the Tatas. What is the ‘Sundown Rule’ that Wal-Mart strives to achieve — dealing with customer requests by the close of business on the day they are received. Every year, what does the Kolkata Municipal Corporation buy 400 tonnes of at a cost of Rs 50 lakh — broomsticks. Whose designation reads managing director, LeftWord Books — CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat. Sanjay Budhia, MD, Patton Group, and Utpal Chatterjee, senior VP, Chirag PCs, gave prizes worth Rs 1.42 lakh to the winning team.The Brand Equity Quiz 2008 is presented by Idea Cellular, and the grand prize sponsor is Mahindra Scorpio Lx. The associate partners are Times Now and Radio Mirchi, and the quiz is powered by economictimes.com. The airline sponsor is Kingfisher Airlines, while the official time partner is Pierre Cardin. National prize sponsors are Star Cruises, Nokia, Spykar, Provogue, Vedic Spa Village, bookmyshow.com, Roncato (Italian travel gear), Digjam, ITZ Cash Cards, Gitanjali Gems, Zenith Computers, Chirag PCs and Quick Heal Anti Virus. The hospitality partner for the Kolkata round was Peerless Inn, while IIAS was the knowledge partner. Local prize sponsors were Seagram’s 100 Pipers, Patton, YES – Your Everyday Stationery, Coffee Pai, VLCC, Inspirations and Nik Nish.