Siddhartha Basu and actress June at last year?s Bengal Club Quiz. A Telegraph picture

What earlier used to be an annual occurrence has now become almost an every-weekend affair. Quiz contests, thanks to eager sponsors and equally excited participants, have become a regular ritual, from campus to corporate offices.

It?s just that you don?t have a Siddhartha Basu coming down every week to ask the questions.

And that?s what is set to happen on March 25 at the Reynolds Room in Bengal Club when ?Babu?, as Basu is popularly known, flies in to conduct the Second Annual Bengal Club Quiz presented by Hutch in association with The Telegraph.

The quiz, open to people from all walks of life, will be a typical Siddhartha Basu affair with all the usual audio-visual razzmatazz and, of course, loads of interactive computer-generated rounds.

?We had the first edition of the quiz last year and it was a great success. So, we want to make it an annual event,? reveals Ram Ray, one of the chief organisers of the quiz. ?Bengal Club is one of the oldest in the world and has always aspired to pursue excellence in the two areas of body and mind. For the body, we do have some great food and drink and for the mind, we want to conduct cerebral celebrations like a quiz.?

Both institutions and individuals can participate in the quiz in teams of two members each. The entry fee for institutional teams is Rs 3,000 while that for individuals is Rs 1,000.

The written preliminary round will decide which teams make it to the final and fight it out for the prestigious rolling champion?s trophy of the Annual Bengal Club Quiz. Other top prizes include everything from TV sets to CD players.

For Hutch, which has been associated with theatre events in town, backing a quiz is a first. Says Sridhar Rao, CEO of Hutchison Telecom East: ?This Calcutta event is really big for us. We are all for creative events that call for intellectual stimulation. We plan to be associated with the quiz every year and it is one of our long-term cultural projects.?

Pratim D. Gupta

Turn the page to prove a literary point

The book cover

Yet another publisher has joined the ranks of those translating the best of Bengali literature into English. Gautam Das of the newly-launched Wordhouse Publication explained why at the Crossword bookstore on Friday: ?Many people I met abroad expressed curiosity about our regional literature and wished that these works were available in English. So I decided to start translating some of our masterpieces.?

The first Wordhouse presentation is Samares Mazumdar?s Leaves of Blood, a translation of his Bengali novel of 2003, Utsharitho Alo. Releasing the book at Crossword, scholar Shibnarayan Roy stressed the difficulty of finding good translations.

The book translated by Sanchayita Chatterjee looks back at the colonial era when it was easy for the white tea planters of the Dooars to trick simple villagers into slavery with promises of plenty.

?Salman Rushdie had said there was nothing great about regional writing in India and we want to prove him wrong. For now we are concentrating on novels that have universal appeal,? said Wordhouse editorial board head Barnali Roy.

Leaves of Blood will be followed by more translations in paperback. Working on Prafulla Roy?s Krantikaal (Critical Encounter) is Australia-based translator John Hood. Samares Mazumdar?s Garbhadharini is also being translated by Sanchayita Chatterjee. A total of eight books are being planned by Wordhouse for 2006, including the works of Sunil Gangopadhyay.

Sebanti Sarkar