A game of wit and knowledge commenced at BL Park on Dashami as residents gathered to take part in Chaturanga, the 36th edition of their annual quiz.

“Chaturanga has become a legacy of BL Block now. Our seniors used to host it, and now it gets passed down to next generations,” said one of the quizmasters Anaranya Majumder, who has been hosting the event for almost a decade. “We start our homework a few months in advance, to ensure the execution goes as planned, and so the competition is not just fun but also full of passion and rivalry. We see participation from a wide range of age groups, and each team has its own speciality, be it audio, video, or dumb charades.”

This year, nine teams signed up. There were tiny contestants like three-year-old Adrija Das Tripathi, to contestants deep in their 40s. There were 10 rounds (two kao rounds of googly questions), two audio-visual rounds, two dry quiz rounds, two ‘who am I’ rounds, one for dumb charades, and one round of connection, with cash prizes at stake.

As the event kicked off, Team OGs, took the stage by storm, securing a comfortable lead.

The googly round, as always, was the star of the show with its tricky questions that never fail to bamboozle the participants (see box). And the game also had a few questions marked as “Bumper”. The participants who answered these correctly not only got their deserved points, but also a bottle of cold drink!

The hosts, Anaranya, Angan Chakraborty, Abhyutthan Sinha, and Basab Bijoy Sarkar also had a few questions for the audience and rewarded those who got them right with chocolates.

Soon it was neck-to-neck between Team OGs and Gungun’s Army but the OGs (Sayan Kundu, Arindam Mitra, Syamantak Chandra, Shameek Dey Sannamath, Kunal Biswas, and Abhishek Ghosh) secured the first position with 104 points while Gungun’s Army fell four points short and settled for the runners up place.

Sayan, a member of the winning team and a former host of Chaturanga, shared his joy in being a part of the event and winning it with his friends. “It feels great to be part of this living legacy,” he said. “I have been a part of Chaturanga since 1994, as an 11-year-old kid, full of curiosity and excitement.”