Chapter 3 - A for Apple

Mr.A was thought that he was fair in his assessment of himself, not too smart and not too intelligent, just about average.

However he had the vague hope that he had the potential to cross the thin line that separated average from above average and like a man of average smarts, he had around him a thin envelope of the illusion of smartness.

At 10 (then only called A) he discovered his mothers collection of Readers Digest, painstakingly preserved since 1966. He attacked, like a jackal plunging head first into the remains of what was once something lower on the food chain. The only thing he did devour were small bits of that was once important. Quite like the Jackal.

Suddenly he made the transition to being quasi smart. He knew all kinds of vague bits of information. Though which did not reflect in his school grades but did made him a member of the school quiz team.

Grades apart he loved quizzing. He and his friend Shanghai Chan made a pretty decent duo. Though his real name was Shankar Channi, you have to admit Shanghai Chan is a lot more like out of a George Lucas Movie. A was the better quizzer of the two.

In his fantasy world he was as a Superman in Glasses. But though Superman always came out winner the best A and Chan managed was runners up.

The true Superman was Pranav Saikia, the Assamese boy from St.Raphael's High school, subsequently Delhi College of Applied Sciences and later on International Business Management School. From school to college to Business school Pranav won every quiz. The undisputed heavyweight champion of quizzing. Undisputed for 15 years.

A was now a Vice President with a Bank. Made good money but not enough. Pranav had retired and was running an Applied Bio Science Lab.

The Underground Quiz was a year long affair with the finals conducted live with contestants aboard the Underground Trains of the 4 global metros of Bangalore, Dubai, Shanghai and London. No prize money. Only individual glory.

Pranav and A were tied for the first spot. Shanghai Chan, now actually a land baron in Shanghai was 10 points behind.

Sachin Tendulkar, legendary Indian cricketer now turned Quiz Master spoke slowly, “Last question. All three contenders can pull this off. Remember 10 points for the right answer and minus 10 for the wrong. I will give you a set of clues you will have to tell me the connection. And the question for the championship is

Establish a relationship between - Apple computers, CIA, The British Royalty and Jennifer Lopez".