Ask any old-timer in Chennai about the connection between Independence Day and quizzing. Many hands will rise in haste to answer it. It is the Landmark Quiz. This annual quizzing extravaganza has almost 850 teams participating in the nearly five-hour session.

Making its debut in Delhi in its 21st year, the quiz, a Tata property, has found many takers. Ask Navin Jayakumar, an opthalmologist by profession and quiz-master by choice, who has been conducting the quiz for the last 20 years. “We have to look at quizzing as an information based sport. It involves the mind. Largely confined to the metros, quizzing is generating enough interest even in these times of internet and other distractions.”

The Landmark Quiz which has been part of the quizzing culture of India for the past 20 years has travelled long distances. It has been in Bangalore for seven years, Pune – five years, Mumbai – three years, and one year in Hyderabad.

“We are in Delhi for the first time. So far, 150 teams have registered,” he says pointing out that unlike Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore which are the heavy quizzing centres, Delhi is still very low on the quizzing map.

Interestingly, Jayakumar's family also hold the title of first family of quizzing. The title is closely contested by O'Brien's – Derek, Neil, Andy and Barry. Quizzing in India has developed over the years when Neil O'Brien conducted the first well-organised, formal quiz in 1967 at Christ the King Church Parish Hall in Calcutta.

“Bournvita Quiz Contest was the first quiz show to be broadcast on television. The credit in developing the game should undisputedly go to quiz master Siddhartha Basu, frequently hailed as the ‘grandfather of the quiz game in India.' He made quizzing a household name. In 2000, the Kaun Banega Crorepati quiz, modelled after Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, reignited nationwide interest in quizzing, becoming one of the most popular quiz shows of all time,” he adds.

Jayakumar says that many quizzing pockets are emerging. These include Hyderabad, Pune, Kerala and some places in the North-East. “However, I am yet to hear of quizzing centres in say Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh or even Chhattisgarh,” he rues..

So is quizzing as an activity should be reserved for the brainy and the geeky? “No, says Jayakumar emphatically. “It is for anyone who has a healthy curiosity. Though a memory-based sport, quiz need not be always for the intelligent but for the well-informed. You arrive at answer through a series of deductions and logics. So there is a bit of Sherlock Holmes in every participant. And it is this application of logics that gives you an added edge.”

The beauty of Landmark Quiz unlike many other quizzes is that it is an open quiz. “You can team up with two friends and participate. You have to make it interesting and there will be many takers,” says Jayakumar, just as he readies himself to play a quiz-master for the Capital's audience.

>bindu.menon@thehindu.co.in

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