What's Your Deal: Dhruv Gaur

Dhruv Gaur ’21 is a first-year hailing from Gainesville, Georgia. Aside from studying public health and writing for the Brown Political Review, Gaur is also a participant on this year’s Jeopardy College Championship. Blog had the pleasure of catching up with Dhruv after successfully making it through the quarterfinals in the College Championship.(Know someone worthy of What's Your Deal? Nominate them here).Why did you decide to try out for the show?I watched Jeopardy a lot as a kid and I really enjoyed playing along with the TV. And, at some point, I realized I was actually kind of good at it. So I was like, next time the test comes out, I’ll go ahead and take it.What was the application process like?You take an online test, and then based on how well you do, you might receive an email inviting you to a live audition. My live audition was in Boston in November. At the live audition, there were about 20 kids from other schools in the Northeast and they had us take a 50 question test. Then they had us go up and talk about ourselves and practice doing some questions.What were they looking for in a contestant?I still don’t really know what they were looking for. I asked a contestant coordinator once I had gotten on the show what they were looking for and if she could tell me and she was like, "No, I want to keep my job."So I don’t know exactly what they checked, but I do know it’s not just your score on the test.What was it like hearing you had been selected to compete on the show?Yeah, so when the contestant coordinator called me, I wasn't on the phone. She left me a message like, "Oh I’m leaving the office today, but just call me back tomorrow." And I thought, why do they want me to call? Like if I had just gotten onto the show, they would just tell me. So, I thought that I was probably like the one alternate that they picked that gets to go but doesn’t get to play.And I was thinking about that for the next 24 hours. Then I called them back and they just started asking all of this personal information, and halfway through I asked if it meant I was on the show and she was like "Oh yeah, you’re on the show." And, I didn’t believe it at first, and then after a little bit it set in and I got really really excited.How did you prepare for the show?There’s this archive online that has old Jeopardy games so I went through a bunch of those. I did a lot of old College Championship questions because the questions tend to a run a little easier and more academic than normal Jeopardy. There’s not like these weird 70s Pop Culture questions, which is nice. I started doing the New York Times crossword. I don’t really think that helped but it was just something fun to do.Which were your strongest categories? In the actual game, I did mysteriously well on the Owls category. Like I don’t really know where that came from. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t walk in being like if there’s a category on owls, I am gonna run it, but that ended up being mysteriously good. Sadly, I can’t reveal anything about the next game.What were the other contestants like?I feel like the auditions were more intimidating because everyone’s just trying to flex and make themselves look smarter than everyone else. And I was just really confused and didn’t know what was going on. That might’ve worked in my favor because they must have been thinking that this kid seems really laid back, but honestly, I was really just confused.Initially, it was intimating because it was just 15 kids I didn’t really know. And eventually, by the end of it, we all became really good friends. We have a group chat and it's been especially active these last two weeks; we’ve been talking about the show and other things including the weird social media reactions we’re getting.Did you have a good-luck charm or do any superstitious ritual before the show?Yeah, I have a couple pairs of socks that are lucky for me, so I wore those on each day.  Later, someone was like why do you always clap your hands three times before the game starts and I was like I do what now? But I think that’s just a habit from soccer or running where I’ll just clap my hands and I guess it gets me pumped.Is there anything you would have done differently if you could go back in time?Well, I really wished I had smiled more because I watched the episode and I was like wow I look really upset and I was having a great time, but I guess I was also like I wanna win this money.Do you have plans to be on any other game shows?I don’t know. I think my game show career might be over, honestly. I don’t know what I would try out for. I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but I’m not going to go out and actively look for opportunities.What was Alex Trebek like?So they like keep him in the back and we don’t get to see him much. So the first time I actually saw him was when he walked on and you actually see it on the TV show and I was kinda just like "Holy shit, this is real now."He was a fairly easy going kind of guy. He answered questions from the audience during our commercial breaks and made jokes. Yeah, he was generally a pretty ok guy.Since you’ve been on Jeopardy have people been treating you differently?I mean, not really. More on social media than anything else. I feel like more than any of the other contestants, there’s a bunch of people, people I don’t even know, who really hate me or really like me which is strange. There were some funny tweets about me talking too loud. Other than that, a couple of people on the street have been like ‘you were the guy on Jeopardy!’ and I was like yep watch it next week! Other than that, not much has changed.https://twitter.com/_MarkWithAnM/status/983847017096065024Do you think you’re changing Brown's image by representing Brown on Jeopardy?I mean, I would hope so. I don’t know how much I’m changing Brown’s image because Brown obviously has a pretty solid image. But I guess maybe it's changed compared to other Ivy League schools. Like I beat the girl from Columbia in my first game, and I guess if there’s anything it would be that–like how we stack up against the other elite schools. But with Jeopardy, since I’m only one person, I don’t know how representative I am of an entire school. But if me doing well on Jeopardy makes people want to come to Brown, then I’m all for it.What’s your favorite fact?So I don’t know how true this is, but I’ve read somewhere that sloths can’t go to the bathroom unless it’s raining. So, it’s kind of problematic if it doesn’t rain. I think that certain sloths just die if it doesn’t rain for a long time because they can’t go to the bathroom.  ***This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Catch Dhruv in the semi-finals on Wednesday (4/18) at 7:30!There will be a semi-final viewing party starting at 7:00 in the Leung Gallery.Images via, via, and via