Quiz competitions are an evergreen memory for me. I was fortunate to participate in several programs while in school thanks to the encouragement of my teachers at Thiruvananthapuram's St. Joseph's school. I represented the school to a quiz program each at AIR and Doordarshan. My junior friend Gopan and I spent an entire day at the Doordarshan Kendram in Kodappanakkunnu. This was for a half an hour long quiz program on the topic of Indian freedom struggle, to be telecast on the eve of Indian Independence Day in 1985. We got the studio intended for the recording of the official message of Chief Minister K. Karunakaran as he had to fly urgently to Delhi and it got canceled. Therefore I was part of the first-ever 'colour' quiz in Thiruvananthapuram Doordarshan. Apart from my school St. Joseph's there was St. Mary's, Cotton Hill and two other schools. Among the contestants, I remember Nisha Varghese from St. Mary's (niece of the Headmistress. Now a doctor in the US) and Aparna Nair from Cotton Hill. We ended up second. There was no prize. The Quiz Master was Prof. C. P. Aravindakshan who five years later taught me Applied Chemistry during my first year at College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET).
APM Muhammed Hanish who was two years senior to me in school and Hari Kadappa, two years junior had teamed with me and attended a quiz at the YMCA. Hanish who was senior in CET as well (he was College Union Chairman) joined IAS in Kerala. Hari is a technocrat in the US. Two avid quizzers from my school were the twins Rajesh and Radhesh. Rajesh went to IIT and Radhesh for MBBS at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. I was mesmerized to see him (and partner) walk away with the 'Engineers' Trophy' held at my college. Later he became the first doctor to study at IIM Ahmedabad. They are both entrepreneurs now. Rajesh appeared in Quiz Time on national television too during those days.
During Pre Degree period I attended a quiz by the ENT surgeon Dr. Narottam Puri (who was accompanied by wife Madhu, also a doctor). He was the most prominent face of sports quiz and commentary in the country, be it cricket, hockey, snooker, anything. During the second year went to a quiz at Women's College led by my former English teacher at Arts College, P. Vijayakumar. In the years to come, sir became one of the leading QMs in the city along with his writer wife Khyrunnisa.
Quizzes on TV continued to hold my interest. It all started with Siddhartha Basu's Quiz Time. I remember today's media mogul Rajdeep Sardesai as a student of St. Xavier's Bombay attending one episode. My neighbor Ranjan Sreedharan who later moved to Thrissur teamed with his St. Thomas College mate and emerged champions in one of the editions. Newscaster Bhaskar Bhattacharjee who died early ran a Sunday quiz on TV called Alpha Plus. This called for brains and physical stamina. Schoolmate Peter Thomas made it to some advanced rounds there. The local heroes among Quizmasters were the nutritionist Dr. C. R. Soman, the environmentalist-technologist Dr. R. V. G. Menon (who after being sacked by the left government from the post of ANERT - Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology - Director, went back to teaching Mechanical Engineering at CET. He was the author of our Humanities textbook) and the Mar Ivanous college English professor Abraham Joseph.
Reality quiz shows modeled after the US's 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' are the rage for at least two decades now. People keenly participate/ watch these quizzes not so much out of a thirst for knowledge as excitement at the prospect of making big money in a short time. Amitabh Bachchan-anchored Kaun Banega Karotpathi, for instance, started off with the jackpot prize of Rs 1 crore. Its regional editions, anchored by handsome movie stars pulled audiences too, evening after evening. An offshoot of these shows was a spurt in sales of informational books like the Manorama Year Book. If there was 'Bourvita Quiz Book' in the 80s, now there were several imitators among books, most of them mediocre.
I had a long break from following quizzing events as work took me outside the country. After joining IT firm Infosys in Thiruvananthapuram I was lucky to captain a team from that Development Center to the annual organization-wide cultural jamboree Samavesh in Mysore in Jan '05. The team of my partner Kishore Krishnan Kumar and I won second prize at the quiz event, thereby earning a lone success for the DC in its first outing. The other quiz experiences have been when I took my son to school level events in the city like The Hindu Young World Quiz and World Wildlife Fund Quiz. I have saved my best for the last.
While I was in St. Joseph's school, the founder of Amar Chitra Katha, Anant Pai and his wife Lalitha came down to the city to conduct an 'Amar Chitra Katha Quiz' for the students of the schools here. Around 250 students from all the major schools participated in an afternoon event. We were accompanied by our Headmaster Fr. George Murickan. The format was like this. The students had to stand in line to be asked a question by Anant Pai. If one answered wrongly, was elimination time, along with the gift of Amar Chitra Katha comics. If you are answering wrong in the second round, it means you win two comics and troop out, etc. I preserved myself intact for six rounds and became the grand first prize winner, taking home not comics but Rs 100 and a gift set. I remember two questions, both from mythology. Who was Parasurama's mother and What was Bhima's role during ajnatha vasa. Out of the gifts of a T-shirt with Piloo the tiger on it, a velvet smooth pencil case, a Children's Book Trust book in Malayalam called Kaduvakkathakal and a toy of Kapish the monkey with the magical tail, only the latter stays with me till date! Anyway, Fr. Murickan's joy knew no bounds as the second prize winner was also from school, Shankara Mahesh, a year junior to me and now an ophthalmologist in Washington D.C. Rs 100 was a lot in those days and as a classmate quipped, one could see 50 movies at Sree Visakh theatre from the front rows with it.
Cities like Bangalore have strong quizzing communities today. Thiruvananthapuram has a lot of catching up to do. I still long for good quizzes, quality ones that provided wholesome information and entertainment to the audience than the reality shows where you sit through an hour-long episode of rubbish talk by self-absorbed actors and commercials to take away maybe 15 questions, most of them of a ridiculous, dumb nature.
(2017)
APM Muhammed Hanish who was two years senior to me in school and Hari Kadappa, two years junior had teamed with me and attended a quiz at the YMCA. Hanish who was senior in CET as well (he was College Union Chairman) joined IAS in Kerala. Hari is a technocrat in the US. Two avid quizzers from my school were the twins Rajesh and Radhesh. Rajesh went to IIT and Radhesh for MBBS at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. I was mesmerized to see him (and partner) walk away with the 'Engineers' Trophy' held at my college. Later he became the first doctor to study at IIM Ahmedabad. They are both entrepreneurs now. Rajesh appeared in Quiz Time on national television too during those days.
During Pre Degree period I attended a quiz by the ENT surgeon Dr. Narottam Puri (who was accompanied by wife Madhu, also a doctor). He was the most prominent face of sports quiz and commentary in the country, be it cricket, hockey, snooker, anything. During the second year went to a quiz at Women's College led by my former English teacher at Arts College, P. Vijayakumar. In the years to come, sir became one of the leading QMs in the city along with his writer wife Khyrunnisa.
I had a long break from following quizzing events as work took me outside the country. After joining IT firm Infosys in Thiruvananthapuram I was lucky to captain a team from that Development Center to the annual organization-wide cultural jamboree Samavesh in Mysore in Jan '05. The team of my partner Kishore Krishnan Kumar and I won second prize at the quiz event, thereby earning a lone success for the DC in its first outing. The other quiz experiences have been when I took my son to school level events in the city like The Hindu Young World Quiz and World Wildlife Fund Quiz. I have saved my best for the last.
Cities like Bangalore have strong quizzing communities today. Thiruvananthapuram has a lot of catching up to do. I still long for good quizzes, quality ones that provided wholesome information and entertainment to the audience than the reality shows where you sit through an hour-long episode of rubbish talk by self-absorbed actors and commercials to take away maybe 15 questions, most of them of a ridiculous, dumb nature.
(2017)
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