First it was juggling study time for quizzes. Tuitions bunked or an early exit route was found out of them. Then it was juggling Pramod-da’s canteen time for quizzes. Classes were anyway forgotten, so were dates with friends and girlfriend.
Now it’s juggling office time for quizzes. Also family time. The wife’s refrain: “Again a quiz on a Sunday?”
It’s tough to remain a quizzer for life. I started quizzing in the early Eighties — my first event was the North Star quiz of 1982 conducted by the venerable Sadhan Banerjee at the Dalhousie Institute, then the mecca of quizzing in India. I was in Class VIII then and obviously didn’t go beyond the preliminary round. But the quizzing bug had struck.
It wasn’t easy to be a quizzer in those days when information wasn’t as easy to access as it is now: One had to rely on books, newspapers, periodicals like TIME magazine….
I quizzed through high school, then college and university. We went to far-flung places like Kalyani, Ranaghat, Ramrajatala for quizzes where cash prizes were on offer — Rs 100 for the winners was a big deal back in the early Nineties.
Cut to working life. Quizzing became difficult, what with a job and family to manage. The only way out, at least for me, was to say goodbye to my favourite past-time. From 1994 till about 2005-06, for a good 10 years or more, I stayed off quizzing, except for the occasional foray into shows like Mastermind India.
The return wasn’t easy in a digital, connected world where information was all over, easy to access, the younger lot making the most of it. I felt like Rip Van Winkle, the world had moved at fast clip.
Quizzing itself had changed. Bangalore and Chennai were challenging Calcutta for quizzing supremacy. Questions were increasingly roundabout, almost as if quizmasters would not rest easy until they had stressed you out. You had infinite bounce, infinite pounce and a myriad other innovations to contend with. Most of them, I submit, for the better.
I have managed to survive some 35 years in quizzing: It’s given me friends, it’s opened up windows to the world, it’s made me take up new challenges.
So, if you want to remain a quizzer for life, follow these simple tips.
1. Read. Record. Recollect.
The famous 3Rs of quizzing as laid down by Neil O’Brien remain as relevant now as they were then. One has to read, whether on the iPad, smartphone or the good old physical thing — newspapers, magazines, books, journals, online articles…. That’s the only way to remain in touch, to know what’s going on, to understand the ever-changing global space.
2. Quiz only when you want to
With a plethora of quizzes happening all over, it’s impossible to be part of one and every. Work, colleagues, family, children, parents, in-laws, friends... everyone needs attention. Quiz, but without any guilt pangs.
3. Pick the quiz you want to go to
Times have changed and so have quizzes. Now there are interest-specific quizzes: Harry Potter, Wrestlemania, health, food & travel.... Pick the one that interests you. I tried reading Harry Potter to keep pace with my son, but gave up. Don’t read just for the sake of a quiz.
4. Pick the quizmaster
There are good quizmasters, and there are some not-so-good ones whose questions run into two slides, making you forget where it began in the first place. For me, a good QM is one whose questions are relevant, who doesn’t show off his or her knowledge with posers that are well-nigh impossible to answer, who verifies and cross-checks information obtained from the Internet and whose questions, even if tough, will have an answer that you will remember. A bad question for me is one whose answer makes me ask: Even if I don’t know this, ki farak painda?
5. Don’t read or know something because it will be asked in a quiz
Most of us are into high-pressure jobs. I quiz to keep my faculties in order and also to relax. Hence I don’t want to stress myself out by doing something I am not really interested in. Like watching WWE or reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Even if that means not getting 10 points in a quiz.
6. Have as teammates like-minded people
It’s great to win, or get a podium finish. But the world won’t end if you don’t. If that’s your philosophy but not that of the others on your team, you have a problem, mate. Be competitive, but don’t let a defeat or a poor performance overpower you. Crucial that your team shares your philosophy.
7. Be curious. Ask questions. Probe further if it interests you
Embrace change. Not everything new is bad. True for quizzing as it’s for anything in life. In a technology-driven world, those of us in the forties or fifties or sixties will be handicapped than our younger quiz mates. Remember, there’s no shame in asking: be it at your work, in meetings or in quizzing. If you read, see or hear something that strikes a chord within you, follow the trail.
8. Have faith in yourself
If you have survived three decades in quizzing, chances are you are probably a decent quizzer. And most likely, your basic fundas are in place. That’s crucial. There will be the odd momentary loss of reason and memory, but don’t let that bog you down. A good quizzer will find some way of coming up with the right answer or take an educated guess.
9. Encourage young talent
There are some seriously good young quizzers. Encourage them. You may not be interested in all that they do or read or watch, but don’t behave like a middle-aged bully. Earn their respect. You deserve it.
10. Have fun!
Finally, the most important thing. Quiz to have fun. Most of us quiz for the love of it, hoping to win or do well, and, most important, to have fun, a break from the otherwise routine grind of life. Be competitive, but look at the lighter side of quizzing as well. And if it’s at DI, don’t forget to quiz with your chilli beef and beer. For quiz nerds, it’s the closest thing to nirvana.
TRULY A HIGH - AAKASH ROY
My first tryst with quizzing was in the seventh standard, at the annual inter-house quiz of Nava Nalanda. Four teams, each of four members, seated on stage, a barrage of questions being hurled at them, 10 points for a direct, five for a bonus — little did I know then that this somewhat “bookish” hobby would turn into an obsession in the years to come.
My school was never a quizzing powerhouse in Calcutta and I got the taste of proper quizzing in my first year of college. Be it the concept of teams jostling for a spot in the finals, the near misses or the last minute hara-kiri, the intuitive work out or the emphatic answering from a teammate, I fell in love with every bit of this mind(less?) sport, the agony and the ecstasy surrounding it.
Quizzing in college socials was — and still is perhaps — the most neglected of events, devoid of the razzmatazz of other on-stage events. A bunch of nerds, with unkempt hair and pockmarked faces, can be seen engaged in a fierce discussion on album covers of Pink Floyd or hat-trick victims of Harbhajan Singh, with equal enthusiasm as they decimate other mortals (the “non-regulars”) on their way to the podium. The same group, quiz after quiz, never tired of answering the proverbial “next question”.
Do quizzers specialise in mugging up bits of meaningless information just for the sake of it (and 10 points)? The answer to this question is not necessarily blowing in the wind.
Quizzing is an acquired taste, the more you attend, the more you appreciate the little nuances intricately woven into the activity. On a personal note, I have attended 10 times more quizzes in my final year of MBBS than in my first year. One can attribute this to the frivolities of my character or a certain carefree attitude that medical school imparts in you, but I, for one, would graciously admit that the quizzing bug caught up. And contrary to the popular belief that it hinders academics, it facilitates it.
Being a medical graduate, I consider myself lucky that I know a thing or two about Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and I owe this to quizzes I have been attending for the last 10 years. The films you see, the music you listen to, the books you chance upon, the places you travel to — all of it together prepares you for taking part in a quiz. The yearbooks and quiz books up for sale are seldom read by a true-blue quizzer.
Calcutta has a vibrant open quizzing scene, with plenty of quizzes being organised every weekend. There can be very few better ways to spend a couple of hours enriching yourself, figuring out hidden clues that might lead us to the most jaw-dropping answer ever imagined. The rush of adrenaline and euphoria of high-fives that follow truly gives me a high.
I vividly remember the May afternoon when I qualified for the first time in the finals of the prestigious DI Open Quiz hosted by Mr Neil O’Brien and the unmistakable baritone of a frail old man across the lawn confirming that we have made it through, with my friend nearly breaking a glass on our table as we fist-pumped in glory. Looking back, those memories remain, as I look forward to the next question.
Aakash Roy is a 25-year-old quizzer,
an avid reader, and a film, music and sports enthusiast
