Sahil ban gaya TV Star

Now comes the other thing which kept me busy. I Was there on a show called ‘STUMPED’ by Endemol India on Star Cricket during the T-20 WC.

1^st episode: Beat kunal who had beaten another hotshot Kunal Malhotra the previous day and who had won 25k the previous day. I got a googly question first up in the last round, Madhav rao Scindia stadium is in which city? The whole world would say Gwalior, I too did the same but it is Rajkot.

2^nd episode: Beat the opponent convincingly inspite the video shown for me not corresponding to the questions being asked. In final round, riding my luck went for the question for 25k but was timed out milliseconds before giving the right answer which was considered invalid.(can’t tell what all went behind the scenes which led to this incident) The winner going to the next episode rule was supposed to be scrapped after this, but was continued on compassionate grounds.

3^rd episode: My opponent ended up on -25 and me on +50. I went uptil 15 k and quit after that.

4^th episode: Had to face another person whom ended on 15 k to face the guy who I had beaten in my very first episode. Won this convincingly and ended up on 15 k in this. The last question I answered correct was pure luck as the anchor Shonali gave me another chance to answer and dunno how but I got the answer right. Had I gone further, 50k would have been in my lap as the end questions were the easiest ( a varying strategy used by the content setter).

5^th episode: Labelled as the finale. There was to be no elimination as in this episode, we both played the last round separately with each helping the other on only 1 question. The rounds before this (merely for academic interest) ended with both of us on equal points. In the last round, we both used up each other as the lifeline correctly on the first question itself. He ended up quitting on 12.5k. I went on strongly till 15k. Had I quit I would have been the winner. But I wanted to play further, to challenge destiny, reach where no one had reached because I did not want to remember this moment as the one when I QUIT. But the producer, inspite of being a gem of a person wasn’t willing to part with his company’s money even on the last episode inspite of raking in lakhs from the show through those Rs.7 per min calls which the people made to answer silly questions and which didn’t end before the third pulse began.

So, the question I was asked was, How many runs did Sri Lanka score against India in some test (don’t quite remember) in the series in 2008? How in hell would any one remember this answer. I bowed out at this.

Kunal’s grin was wide enough by now, though it wasn’t he who had won, I had lost. The story could have been different had I QUIT. Those exclusive snaps with Shonali and the crew could have been mine had I QUIT.

I Had to suffer big hardships for the show. The studio at Gurgaon was far enough to convince me to go back home each day I went there. Had to learn all those stats from Cricinfo including numerical values. Had to endure So many sleepless nights with me on lappy or vice versa. Was very close to quitting the internship for this when Wng Cmdr Sharad sir (project manager) refused leave but timely intervention by Dr. Aggarwal saved me. In total, I made 33k ( I deserved to have 83k). Will loose 33% of it to gift tax.

All I have to add is that I am no quitter, will fight on forever and challenge the limits of human endurance. That is what I aim to prove right now by simultaneously posting 2 big posts after a period of abstinence from doing so for approximately 2 months.