Infosys Jackpot...a life time experience!!

From the time I spotted the form on the internet to mailing it across to the channel’s administrative office on time, being shortlisted for the selection process and getting selected for the grand finale was all accomplished so smoothly. All of it seemed to have come to us so easily. I always have a feeling that there are no freebies in life. You work for what you got, or you wound up with nothing. A tiny part of myself kept reminding me of this and on a serious thought we were going to face the climax without many efforts from our side which scared me enough to think the final results would not be so favorable. I was determined not to let these blind thoughts ruin my excitement and consciously avoided the contemplation.

August 27, 2009

It was a lovely Saturday, the day after the Varalakshmi Pooja. I was already in Chennai on the Wednesday of the week to join my extended family for the religious celebrations and my partners were going to connect with me directly at the set the same morning. We had literally broadcasted the whole world that we were going to participate in the Jackpot show, very confident about the victory without worrying the consequences a bit if the result was otherwise. Somehow we never considered the flip side of the outcome as though we were born only to win!

We were asked to come prepared for a whole day shoot starting at 8 am. Each of the participants was allowed to bring in 2 guests and I promptly showed up at 7:45 am with V and my sister who cursed me all the way through, for having woken her up early. She had never seen sunrise in a few years then that too on a Saturday - after all she was a college kid...what more can one expect:)

When my team members joined me, the superstitious Meena was fully awake in me. I started explaining my team mates the signs of success that I had got from the Almighty the day before during the Pooja in the form of a flower falling down when I finished my prayer fluttering my eyelids open, the aarthy staying lit till I completed the Pradakshinam and the lamp's longevity throughout the day. V was the first to mock me for these childish beliefs - he always takes a polarized position and stays glued to it when it comes to Gods and beliefs but this time he had a counter and I should admit a more realistic explanation for all of my thesis.

Here goes his breakdown - when you continuously keep showering flowers on the idol mounted on a plethora of goodies which hardly have any balance, the flowers are bound to slide down - not only you, all in the room had noticed the falling down flowers which holds no significance other than one more proof to the theory of gravity. More the camphor’s longer is the life of the aarthy and when one keeps adding oil to the lamp at regular intervals as a way of monitoring it, the lamp is bound to stay illuminated throughout the day. According to him none of them were any signs or messages from the Almighty as I claimed! Though his comments were very disappointing inspite of its sensible meaning I chose to ignore and walked to the open space where I met a few more souls.

I was expecting one more team apart from us. Interestingly I saw a clump of human faces most of them ladies who looked more to me like fellow participants. As always, when I probed I was shocked to find 5 more teams shooting the same day. The organizer clarified that they were recording 3 shows the same day which confused me further. I was still holding on to the New Year farce and inquired only to make a fool of myself. The response I received from one of the technicians who was by then chuckling at my question was "New yearukkellam celebrities dhaan madam koopduvaanga" (They will invite only celebrities for occasions like New Year). I diligently interpreted his chuckle as a snicker - thanks to my female antenna.

It was a complete let down and I was fuming inside. Knowing my temper very well my partners started worrying if I would cancel our participation and pack up. Surprisingly I was not inclined towards any drastic decision and was a good sport about the bitter pill. As it was a team effort, I didn’t want to spoil the others excitement for egoistic reasons and had resolved to stay clam throughout the shoot.

Adding insult to injury, when the coordinator came around asking for every team captain's name, he never bothered to stop by us but I did see him write something. Desiring knowledge, when asked he amazed us saying that he has got the name. Exchanging strange looks we demanded further explanation only to be aggravated further. He pointed in my direction and said I have written her name - though he had it right we were lost as we never mentioned this to anyone.

As though understanding our dilemma he came forward with his vivid interpretation that this was no trade secret and his exact words still ring in my own ears uncomfortably "she speaks so much so we assumed she should be the spokesperson". That was the last straw. They had stretched me too thin for the day. All my earlier resolves were forgotten and I wanted to walk out but the pleading faces of my counterparts held me back.

The next test to my patience was when they announced the shooting slots - not sure how they decided who is going when but we got the third slot. I had to protest to this one too just as a way of taking revenge for all my earlier chagrins. After a lot of noise we got the first slot. By then our team was quite popular (read as notorious) on the sets.

Our opponents were a bunch of college pass-outs from Erode which only doubled our over confidence on the Easy Street. In our own minds we were already the winners. We then walked to the green room where we were greeted by professional hair dressers and make up man to help us look good in front of the cameras. With one final look at the mirror, convinced with my appeal I went to the main arena, ready to get the first sight of the grand sets of Jackpot show.

What I saw there was a complete blow. What looks so elegant, handsome and impressively majestic on the TV was in reality a pale, archaic, lifeless stage erected with huge cardboards displaying the channel’s, show’s and sponsor’s names. It was hard to believe the entire stage set up was constructed in a space not more than the living room of a middle class home. Only then I realized the real heroes of this show are the light and sound technicians who unfortunately get to work only behind the screens.

Worst was the sound proof room they send one of the participants in the final rapid fire round. There is no such thing existing in the set. All they have is a makeshift wooden cabinet no way close to even a reliable cupboard which is the assumed sound proof room. If you sneeze hard the joints would crack - that is the quality of the cabinet and they heartlessly showcase it as a sound proof room.

The participant is made to stand in that space with huge head phones during one of the recess for a quick shot and then sent out of the arena to avoid overhearing of answers - beyond doubt a very complicated way of accomplishing the goal though it appears differently on screen. God only knows why they even give her the head phones when the show is no way ready to resume and you will surprised to see the final output. It would appear as though the sound proof room had kept her from eavesdropping and heights of absurdity is when she is called in for her turn the anchor would question about the music she pretended to enjoy in the sound proof room. Holy Christ!!! How better can they volunteer for their self mockery??

If the sound proof room was bizarre, the backstage from where we had to emerge out waving our hands at the audience looking more like politicians was a nightmare. There was hardly any stage at the back. It was a narrow strip of a wooden plank where we were asked to stand most of the time praying and genuinely hoping that we wouldn’t fall off the plank or worse push the backdrop down. With so much of inconvenience hiding behind the curtains, our choice of costumes only adding to the awkwardness, we were expected to wear the plastic smile in measured steps and take our honorable positions to play the game. Not sure how I managed to climb down those so-called steps without tripping even once. It was definitely a miracle!

We had already spent enough time back home deciding our order on the stage - it had a lot to do with who amongst us was going to play which round. When we were trying our positions on the stage, fixing the mikes and testing them, endlessly waiting for the anchor to get prepared, the technicians altered our positions. They spared my spot as I was the head honcho but all others physical place was shuffled. We couldn't win the battle this time as the positioning had to deal with our heights and their camera positions. We gave in grudgingly and continued to wait for the hostess.

It was only a moment later when all of us had taken to maintain pin drop silence, did I catch a glimpse of a lady behind the assemblage of supervisors. It was the merest hint, the quickest impression and then suddenly I saw her standing there, the woman whom I had admired from my school days for her beauty originally, acting later and compeering recently. Her face was glowing, her attire was exquisite, her accessories were meticulous and she had the smile which would make any men's knees melt in a minute. Just being near her made one feel very nice. There was definitely something about her that made you want to stare at her in fascination. She had a startling dignity about her and for me it was my dream come true.

She greeted us gracefully and started her speech on women empowerment. It seemed like a decade when she was finally done with her extempore. I couldn’t really gather what she was trying to get across with so many retakes and interruptions. We had to break as the hostess had already exhausted herself rendering the half a page, 5 minute herculean message. When we resumed, as a custom she took us through the rules of the game, needless to mention with a lot of cuts and retakes, and then it was finally happening.

I was called to the podium for the first round. I was incredibly distracted by her that it took quite a long time for us to get the correct answer other than our names. We opened our account only in the 4th round which was all about loans. Our being in the professional world proved its worth over those college kids on the opposite side for the first time in the day. We were extremely thorough on all the loans when they were completely ignorant on the same:)

The round which was the deciding factor for the Jackpot was a General Knowledge round. We were given the questions in advance and most of it seemed simple. We had to challenge each other bidding for the number of questions we would answer. As the captain I had the responsibility to decide the number at which we could choose to get challenged or challenge the opponents. For a minute I forgot the numbers represented the number of questions to which we knew the correct answers or at least thought so.

I was just going on increasing the bid until the other captain took the smart move and challenged us. I had opted for 9 on 13. My team mates had already started cursing me for such a pathetic decision. A few of our well-wishers from the audience even thought I was out of my mind! I think it was the elation at being there, the adrenaline that had spurred me on which had begun to fade by then and the non-readiness soon after the dance performance all added up to the ambivalence.

We did considerably well, given the high number I had bid. Some of the obvious questions we missed and the question we were very hopeful that we had the right answer was improperly handled by the administrators which no one (especially the viewers) except for those who witnessed the live drama would ever know - thanks to their skilled editors.

The in-or-out question was "Budha engu parinirvanam adaindhar".
As handicapped as I am with pure Tamil, I requested an English translation and the bright hostess translated this to "Where did Buddha attain enlightment".

Clearly the answer to the English version of the question is Bodh Gaya. Unfortunately the Tamil version doesn't share the same answer as parinirvanam has nothing to do with enlightment - it is death. This was a multiple choice question and I chose Bodh Gaya very positively which only turned to be a disaster. It was the key that opened the door to our exit. I argued on the spot but it was worthless. And in the final output they had carefully edited the English version of the question and the following discussions:( We walked out upset but rejoiced when the other team did not win the Jackpot! Does it sound too sadistic..afterall we are ordinary humans:)!

Our favorite organizer who had arm-twisted enough came to express his condolence and told us the program would be aired on January 22nd the following year. As the results were not what we had hoped for, I hardly registered the date of telecast. I was more bothered about facing the crowd to whom we had advertised enormously. All our enthusiasm which was seen in the beginning of the day was lost and we walked out with our eyes cast down. I was not ready to make peace with an incorrect answer throwing me out of the game. But we were not heard and had to go with the majority.

With my work demanding my geographical relocation I had to leave the country soon after the shoot and this event completely slipped out of my mind. I hardly told anyone about the telecast. My own folks missed to watch it from lack of information. But much to my astonishment many of my friends and family had treated themselves to my show. I never knew this program had so many regular eyes until I got my performance's feedback from all over my "known" circles without even me asking for it:)

This show also played a vital role in the reunion of thyself with a couple of my beloved lost childhood friends. I was absolutely convinced by then that these friends’ episodes in my life were a dropped chapter and a re-entry was never possible. All my assiduous efforts including the major social networking sites to track them down did not give the desired results. What cyber technology couldn't do media made it happen:) Is that why they say media is any day powerful!!

It was a great experience though phenomenally tiresome and one that I would cherish forever!!

The videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0uJD15r9gw 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRO-Q5KtyBM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LDBgYtMjHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GKVqB4P48o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MhoVRmKvV8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scP5jqLuyW4