Quiz master Phanindra Ivatury from the Netherlands, shares his thoughts on how he became a quiz master and how a good quiz master can create ‘hysteria’ and ‘mass appeal’ like a matinee idol.
UTRECHT, (The Netherlands), Jan 14 (Bernama) -- “How did you become a Quiz Master?” A probing poser put to me innumerable times over the years by people, pals, peers and participants from my quizzing events.
I always had a standard reply to give - “Way back in 2002, I wrote a quiz on my spouse’s insistence to be hosted at an annual day event of her workplace. That’s how my global quizzing journey started”.
On the hindsight, when I look back, my journey into the inquisitive world of quizzing started much earlier than 2002. Ever since my late teens, I remember being hooked on the television show “Quiz Time” hosted by Siddhartha Basu, a man often referred to as the ‘Father of Indian Television Quizzing’.
The seeds of trivia wisdom and knowledge nitty-gritty got firmly sown in me through shows like “Quiz Time”, episodes of Dr. Narottam Puri’s popular 80s sports quizzes on “Doordarshan” (India’s national TV channel), and later through the “Bournvita Quiz Contest” hosted on Zee TV India by another celebrated Indian Quiz Master and Parliamentarian Derek O’ Brien.
In fact, many quiz enthusiasts from India who have watched me host quiz contests have likened my style of quizzing to that of Derek’s which is a hugely inspiring and humbling compliment to receive.
A Potent Mix of Education with Entertainment:
“Quizzing” is a potent knowledge medium which magically mixes education with entertainment lending such credibility to the term ‘edutainment’.
As a Quiz Master specialized in the forte of ‘theme based quizzing’, I have handled a variety of complex quiz themes. To quote an instant example, one of the most challenging quiz theme written and hosted by me was on the ‘Indian Freedom Movement’.
The scope offered by this topic was so vast that I had to prepare over two full months to come up with a compact set of ninety questions spread into a written preliminary round and six finale rounds. Apart from the well-known architects of Indian freedom like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru to name a few, the quiz covered many unsung heroes of the Indian freedom fight and also some unfamiliar yet significant incidents related to the movement.
From a participant’s point of view, remembrance and recollection of such plethora of facts or trivia on a wide-ranging topic can be exhausting, especially to an already overloaded human mind.
Having said that, I am often amazed to see participants coming up with right answers to some of the toughest posers I ask on such themes (the reasons for which are explored in the latter half of this article). Even in the eventuality, where a participant answers a tough quiz question wrong, once the right answer is learnt, it most often gets etched in one’s memory forever. Call it the dynamism of quizzing.
Wider outreach:
Years in quizzing made me realise that a live quiz, well planned and publicised in advance, arouses a pronounced element of interest among stakeholders. The mega success of world famous television quiz game shows like “Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire? (WWTBAM)” provides ample proof that quizzing has an undeniable global outreach. “Kaun Banega Crorepati”, the Indian Hindi counterpart of ‘WWTBAM’ is into its fifteenth season as of 2023 with more than a thousand telecast episodes.
An impactful instrument:
The efficacy of quizzing most often creates a sturdy impact on knowledge assimilation. It can be a forceful tool that can be adopted for putting across any kind of knowledge, even topics which sound dry and confusing to stakeholders.
I distinctly remember a Malaysian media article post a quiz theme of mine “Prominent Indian Men and Women” which I happened to host for NSCBICC/Tech Mahindra, Kuala Lumpur in 2016. I dug up the article to quote an extract from it. The reviewer writes “If there is anything that I have learnt from Phanindra’s quizzes is that it is the easiest way to learn or brush up one’s knowledge in world history. Since attending the first quiz on Indian Independence History, I have been telling my fellow colleagues and students who say history is a boring subject that a good quiz master will be more helpful in learning the Malaysian history than just reading the history texts”.
An intelligible and cleverly conceived quiz theme can facilitate an easy learning route to composite curriculums.
Can also be an adjunctive addition to syllabi:
Quizzing can be adopted to impart techniques either fully or partially. As a guest faculty for in-house training workshops at my former workplaces, I used to handle core topics like ‘Communication’ and ‘Leadership’ for senior officers.
As a part of my lecturing strategy, there used to be an ingenious insertion of quizzes as a part of team building activity with some token prizes to be won. This methodology always found success as it kept the participants alert, competing and interested instead of them getting lethargic or dozing off all through the powerpoint presentation from a post-lunch session.
A teacher can also gather frequently asked questions (FAQs) on topics by students, compile apt answers to each of the FAQs and thereby design an engaging quiz for the students to ace the topic. A quiz compilation of that nature would always serve as a handy reference or a guidebook on topics for the future.
Even for someone attempting a three-hour-long conventional paper-to-pen exam, the key pointers on a topic learnt through a quiz format earlier would help in elaborating the answer into a text paragraph.
A productive leisure pastime
Quizzing needn’t always cater for a pedagogical or professional level. It can provide stimulating entertainment for people from almost all walks of life and can also be a wonderful leisure pastime, even while travelling. Once on an international flight, much to the delight of my daughter and me, the onboard entertainment had GK quiz sets to be solved. Even during holiday travels with family groups on trains and coaches, I have often noticed that young adults surround me, pushing me into manufacturing impromptu live Quizzes for them all through the journey. A good quiz master can create what a matinee idol tries to generate with each new release. ‘Hysteria’ and ‘mass appeal’.
‘The Dangling Carrot’
The other alluring factor of quiz competitions is the ‘dangling carrot’ that brings out the fighting spirit among participant groups. The ‘dangling carrot’ can be in the form of recognition, awards, appreciation or the bounty at stake. For most quiz contestants, what keeps them on their toes to do their homework correctly is the ever-ringing subconscious reminder in their minds that with the slightest slip, they may lag on points while other participants may inch ahead and hold centre stage. I have commonly heard participants from my quiz contests tell me that the prize money at stake doesn’t matter so much to them than the recognition and appreciation they receive post winning.
The ‘dangling carrot’ needn’t be materialistic always. It can be a pure sense of achievement, a personal victory or a confidence booster for the future.
-- BERNAMA
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