Question: Which Organisation’s headquarters are located at 12 Grimmauld Place?
Answer: The Order of The Phoenix.

Question: What do you call a self-proclaimed Potter-fan and Quizzer who has no clue about the answer to the above question?
Answer: A Moron of the First Order?

Close, but not quite.

Anyways, didn’t make it. The cut-off in the prelims was 21, and we made 20, which was the same thing that happened in the Odyssey quiz last January, so things are constant, and it’s ok, I don’t mind.

The good things:
1) Four of us had gone together. Three of us were a team, the fourth guy, Bhargava was supposed to meet Anil and Dhaaji there. Well, Anil got late and Dhaaji being Dhaaji was M.I.A. Leaving Bhargava to search for a team. he found one, and made it to the finals, and won the Third Prize. Cool, eh?

2) Aaaah. The Quiz. Brilliant questions in the finals. Really interesting, no obscure fundae and no chestnuts either. A healthy mixture. ( Or maybe I say so because I knew most of the answers. No, really.)

3) Landmark. The bookshops. “Ooooooooooh” and “Aaaaaaaaaah” are some of the words that come to mind. Man, the comics collection was amazing!!! I found 15 Spawn comics !!! Spawn comics!!! Wheee! Old Spiderman comics, the McFarlane/Larsen ones. Some X-Force, X-Men, Youngblood issues – dating back to those times when free Trading cards and double gatefold covers were “hot” items.

To think, once upon a time, I lusted after those stuff like crazy. Never thought I would get them in India. Especially Spawn. Once I paid a friend 800 rupees to get me 5 copies through his uncle in the States. And now I got 15 issues, including issue#2, 12, 16, 21-30 for twenty rupees each. Am I lucky or what?

Also got the O Brother Where Art Thou OST cd in the same place. And a rarity ( IMHO) called Music For an Arabian Night by Ron Goodwin and his Orchestra. This was one of the earliest examples of “world music” I had heard once upon a time, as a kid, on my uncle’s Gramaphone player, and later, borrowed the cassette from some friend. I remember being awestruck by the music then, it seemed so Oriental, so ethnic and mysterious. Right now, the same appeal isn’t there, but some of the tunes had stuck in my head, and it was nice reliving them, in a way.

4) Bought two ARR cds Keezhaku Cheemaiyile/Karuthamma and Vandicholai Chinrasu. The Aaraaro song from Karuthamma was included in the first cd. Thus, my ARR collection edges closer to completion.

The Bad stuff:
1) Chennai was hot! And I got the runs and a headache and a bad cold immediately after I reached that place. Aargh! Thank God the Music Academy had a nice, clean Men’s Room….
Er, I am pretty sure I didn’t screw up the quiz because of that.
Somebody suggested it might be dehydration. Oh! This is what dehydration is all about, eh?

2) Didn’t meet rulinian or madhuri567. Crowded hall and upset tummy were two contributing factors.

3) Times like this, I feel like I must apply for a credit card. The number of Trade Paperbacks I saw in Landmark was just awesome!!! They had everything from The Dark Knight Returns to all the Elseworlds Graphic novels and even hard to find books like James O’Barr’s The Crow ( the original black and white series), and I ran out of money. Aargh! There was a cool Crime Fiction section in Landmark which had all the Vachss titles. I was floored, really.

All in all, a good trip. Had loads of fun. Couple of more trips to Chennai are definitely on my agenda. I need to buy that luscious Green Arrow:Quiver hardcover I saw. And a couple of hundred more TPBS. :-P