SINMQ 2015

Quick! Name three things you know about Sweden! From my top-of-the-mind spring forth Abba, Alfred Nobel, ummm… Bjorn Borg?

Reality check: did you know that Celsius, Ace of Base, Linnaeus (binomial naming of species?), Roxette, Norse mythology (think Thor, Freya, Odin…) H&M Fashions and smorgasbord are all Swedish too? And a gazillion other things, people and places, many of which will make you go: What the …! Or a plain and simple: Wow!

Ok. How about Nobel Prize winners? How many can you name in a minute? Mother Teresa, Kailash Satyarthi, Marie Curie, Rabindranath Tagore, Orhan Pamuk, Amartya Sen, … that list is 115 years old!

The Sweden India Nobel Memorial Quiz is an event that has captured the imagination of college students across the country like no other. The journey began quietly and tentatively nine years ago in Delhi, and has swelled to fully ten cities in the past two years, spanning the length and breadth of India, with the left-out cities clamouring to be included in the next edition.

The series was flagged off at Indore, followed by Pune and Mumbai. Kunal was a bit unsure about participation, as pre-registration had been lukewarm and the latter two cities have repeatedly displayed a penchant for the unpredictable, but he needn’t have been. All three cities evidently had more Sweden-Nobel enthusiasts than expected, and between our fantastic outreach team and the huge success of SINMQ 2014, the milling crowds put paid to our apprehensions.

If these three cities buoyed us with their attendance, the southern trio of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai blew our minds with their numbers, enthusiasm and performance standards, with extremely keenly fought contests, superb audience involvement and institutional support.

The next three were Kolkata, Guwahati and Ahmedabad, which not only gave us reason to cheer in terms of numbers and quality but also drew participants from nearby (and not-so-nearby) towns and cities, all vying for a slice of the Nobel week.

2015 has in effect seen a phenomenal peak in participation, with record-breaking numbers in every single city. As this post goes to (word)press, Delhi is set to up the ante in style, with over 700 registered participants, and counting…

Meanwhile the various City Winners are packing their bags for Delhi and burning the candle at both ends picking up every bit of information on Sweden and the Nobel Prizes. We expect to see a fantastic fight to the finish. Last year it came right down to the wire, with the winning team doing almost a photo-finish, inching ahead of the second prize winners on the lastest question.

To set an even wider playing field, there are all kinds of allied events this year: twitter contests, photography and selfie contests, even a dress code!

The next Twitter contest is this weekend – watch out for more details. All other contests will culminate on 16 October at the IP College for Women.

The SINMQ Juggernaut rolls on, and you are all invited…

Be there!