Quizzing

I love quizzes and quizzing. There is something about knowing some obscure piece of trivia that others might not know that gives me a mental rush. Took part in a quiz about my alma mater just over a month ago that got me thinking about it.  

In school we had a subject called general knowledge or G.K shortened . Quite a few of the teachers we had till the 6th would give us random facts and expect us to remember them and then test us on those facts. I hated it. Around 1986 dad got me a copy of the Guinness book of world records; the avid reader in me started to leaf through and some facts stuck in my head. Like the man with the longest finger nails (he was from my hometown) or the wettest place on earth (used to be Cherrapunji in India).

By the time I was preparing for the ICSE there was enough random trivia stored in my memory banks and it helped me make the GK team for my school house. In that years Sr GK quiz we lost (despite having a quartet of kids with the best trivia knowledge collectively) because I forgot the name of a band when asked to identify a song. I won’t forget the song or the band now - nothings gonna stop us now by starship 

How does one remember stuff ? I am always in awe of folks that memorise things by rote - I could never do that; have tried recently for a technical exam and was miserable while doing it. Went back to my method and was happier and it showed when I took the exam (got a high score) 

Anyway back to quizzing - loved a show called quiz time on Doordarshan and then a quiz game called “contact” again on Doordarshan. I believe both of them were the best formats I have seen for the different age groups. (Quiz time was for college kids and Contact for school kids).  Did not like the Cadbury quiz or the BBC show mastermind - both were centered around showcasing your ability to recall information that one would have memorised by rote. 

There are a few quizzes that have to do with language which I have enjoyed - what’s the good word on Doordarshan and wheel of fortune a US based show or countdown on Uk television both of which I stream from various sources including YouTube . Then there is a show which is absolutely nuts - Family fortunes or it’s syndicated version which ran in India for some time. 

Other shows I like include who wants to be a millionaire (the Indian syndicated version) are you smarter than a 6th grader ( this is surprisingly tough) and Shazam (based on the popular music app) 

The one quiz show that has me hooked is a BBC show called QI. The format is fantastic and appealing to me because of the absolutely random pieces of information that you will learn. Love watching reruns on YouTube with Stephan Fry as the moderator. 

I like quizzes and quizzing because of the engagement with my thoughts and because they are fun. The random pieces of trivia help organise information in my brain into tiny stories which are easier to recall and of course it’s fun when a friend or family doesn’t know the answer 

C