Monday, October 19, 2009

PAVARAM DEEPAVALI HUNT - AN EN-LIGHT-ENING AFTERNOON

KUALA LUMPUR 18 Oct 2009: Pava probably hit the nail hard on its head when he started off the Q&A presentation by saying something like, "..... I guess not all of you paid attention to the briefing notes, huh!". He must have been referring to us.

We did read albeit briefly the briefing materials that Dato' Ramesh had patiently send out over 6 editions. However, our jumping to the conclusion that the theme "Lights Camera Action, dei" was limited to the Bollywood scene had put paid to our chances that day. We rejected answers like Jimmy Choo and Edison and accepted Sean Connery only because there was no better answer (lol). On hindsight, there were also many applicable hints planted in the briefing materials if one had cared to pay attention.

An interesting hunt indeed, painstakingly designed by Pava and Dato' Ramesh around the entertainment and Deepavali theme. Nice and tough - just the jolt we hunters needed (in time for the coming Grand Slam). The CoCs employed mainly seasoned tricks. However, it still took our team a while before we warmed up to the setters' styles.

The hunt flagged off at 2.30pm from Dato' Ramesh's villa and ended just in time for dinner - a wonderful Deepavali dinner strung together by the gracious hosts, Dato Ramesh and Datin Sharlini. Hunters were allotted 5 hours to tackle 40 questions and 5 treasures including 10 in-car cryptic riddles centred around the theme. Time was sufficient considering the rather short travel distance and 24 questions (yes, TWENTY-FOUR) spread out between the first two sectors at Plaza Damansara.

A novel "Hey! It Rhymes" category made an appearance in this hunt. I didn't think it was intentional. Could have been Dato' Ramesh having difficulty discarding his newly acquired Mat Salleh accent after a month abroad in the States and Great Britain. The end result was definitely a twist to the "Sounds like" category that hunters are normally accustomed to.

Sounds interesting or interesting sounds?

Q2: Spirit whispers beyond national borders.
Ans: Brandt International (sounds like or rhymes with brandy?)

C6: By Jiminy! I heard when New York briefly bombed out, the old woman lived in his'.
Ans: Jimmy Choo (sounds like or rhymes with Jimi Shoe?)

C8: Aiyo maami, told you, camel hasn't acted in Tamil movie about the wife who hesitated passion.
Ans: Kamal Hassan (sounds like camel hasn't?)

I found one of the treasures from this hunt trickily interesting. Most of us are familiar with the tagline for M&M's chocolate candies - melts in your mouth, not in your hands. Read it (the last line in the riddle) once and you just might be tempted into looking for Nestle Smarties. But read it once more and you'll realise that they were actually seeking for the real thing.

T5: Another snack but this one is sweet and chocolaty,
Multicoloured ones which comes in colours of variety,
Bring any of its variety for our offsprings' pleasure,
The ones that softens in the hands points we'll not ensure.
Ans: A packet of M&M's chocolate candies (any variety)



18 Oct - PavaRam Deepavali Hunt
(Maximum possible score: 130 pts)


1st: Sin Yoong Leong, Wong Chiang Chuen, Claire Chin, Julie Tan (100)
2nd: Alexander Hoh, Andre Teh, Rosemawarni Abd Rahman, Mohd Shahrin (97)
3rd: Toh Wei Ming, Selina Yong, Shandra Dass + 1 more (93)
4th: Ruben Enbasegaram, Lie Xio Jin, Eu Yeok Cheng, Lenny Wan (89)
5th: Tan Kok Cheeng, Chan Kah Sing, Kwan Ju Woey, Anwar Jeffrey (87)
6th: Muhammad Razif, Darmataksiah Abai, Gary Guna Sager, Hanna Hamizah (85)
7th: Chong Voon Kiat, Margaret Sha, Woo Ee Wen (82)
8th: Liew Kok Seng, Chong Foo Seong, Lim Kong Yew, Sam Rahman (81)
9th: Adrian Wong, Michael Pang, Lim Soo Khian, Toh Weng Ngai (78)
10th: Lee Ling Fei, Lim Say Chye, Loh Chee Kwan, Tommy Ng (76)

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