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The Bangalore Quiz Group
Why did I start the Bangalore Quiz Group?
In one word…“loneliness”
It happened on cold wintry night in Bangalore. It was fairly late at night.
There I was sitting in front of my PC wondering “what next?”. On an impulse
I decided to start an online quiz group. I went over to Yahoo! and created a
group called “The Bangalore Quiz Group”. It took about five minutes to set
up. What next? I needed members. So I went over to Ryze.com and posted
messages to the two groups where I am a member – the Bangalore Balaga and
the Bangalore Business Network. The results were gratifying. Within minutes
members started straggling in and within 48 hours the membership crossed
100. It was the 1st of September, 2004.
But the story actually starts in Dubai. It is a very recent story, only a
few years old.
Sometime in February 2004 my wife, Saroj, decided that she wanted to do some
social work. She had read an article in the Gulf News of an Indian
organization called “Pratham” that sought volunteers in Dubai. She applied
online at its website. She soon received an invitation to attend the next
meeting. She needed a chauffeur. I was “it”. She attended. In the process we
met a nice lady called Geetha Krishnamurthy.
A few days later Geetha called. She told us that she was part of a quiz
group in Dubai. The group, she said, met once a month on Wednesday’s (the
“Friday” or the start of the weekend in the Middle East). It was a social
event – entire families (including children) turned up. The host provided
the “khaana peena” and one couple would conduct the quiz. Would we
like to attend? “Yes, we would be delighted to attend” we told her and
that’s how we (Saroj and I) attended the very first quiz of our lives.
It was a great evening; we made a lot of friends. The quizzing was about
average. The atmosphere was terrific, though. The booze exhilarating. The
kabas delicious.
Maybe Saroj and I showed our appreciation more than one normally would
because we were selected to Quizmaster the next quiz! It came both as a
shock as well as a pleasant surprise and I burned many a liter or midnight
oil preparing for the quiz.
That quiz was hosted by Utpal and Neena Kataky. Utpal is a doctor with
Dubai’s Ministry of Health. Neena is a teacher at a well known Indian
school.
The quiz went off very well. Word of mouth about this terrific quiz soon
spread and people were clamoring to see it. So (a) a name was given to the
group – It was christened “The Dubai Quiz Group” and (b) the quiz was hosted
at a website for all to see.
In April and May no quizzes were scheduled (because of the children’s
impending exams) and there was a lull in the quizzing activities.
In May disaster struck. My wife was diagnosed as having a medical condition
that necessitated immediate surgery. We flashed the medical report worldwide
to friends and well wishers who were also doctors. They all concurred with
the diagnosis. Surgery needed to be immediately done. “How many days do we
have”? I remember asking the doctor. “None” was the reply.
We decided to undertake the surgery in Bangalore and booked the tickets
accordingly. I asked my company permission to go on emergency leave.
Strangely, they refused. (That’s Dubai, for you). I resigned and asked them
to cancel my visa. It was an emergency situation. They did so but we had to
stay an additional nail-biting day in Dubai as they processed the papers.
When we finally left, I had left behind my flat, my furniture, my bank
account. We left with only what we could carry in four suitcases. I didn’t
even know what lay ahead and whether I would go back or not.
Miracles happen. A miracle happened. My wife was rushed to the hospital
straight from the airport. One of Bangalore’s most reputed oncologists (they
suspected a cancerous growth) examined Saroj and was surprised to find
nothing out of the ordinary! An ultrasound scan revealed complete normalcy!
What had raised its hideous head only 72 hours ago in the U.A.E. was gone.
Gone for good, we’d like to think. It had vanished without a trace!
With my visa cancelled, I had no job to go back to. Saroj and I decided that
we would make a new start in Bangalore.
She used to work for a well known International school before she joined me
in Dubai so we wended our way there to meet the Chairman. We went without an
appointment.
He looked at her shrewdly when she told him that we were back in India. “Are
you looking for a job”? was his immediate query. “Yes” she said. “Join
tomorrow” he told her. That was that. She gained a job. I lost a wife
(except for the weekends– she stays full time at the fabulous Jain
International Residential School near Kanakapura).
Two months after having left Dubai, I returned in July 2004, on a tourist
visa. I walked into an empty house; a cold house full of warm memories. I
sold everything and bid my friends goodbye. I would probably never see them
again.
After returning I thought I’d take it easy for a while. It took Gandhiji six
months to re-discover India, I told everyone. I too would be re-discovering
India after a six year absence.
This brings me back to a cold wintry night in Bangalore. It is fairly late
at night. There I am sitting in front of my PC on 1st September 2004
wondering “what next?”. On an impulse I decide to start an online quiz
group. I go over to Yahoo! and create a group called “The Bangalore Quiz
Group”. It takes about five minutes to set up. What next? I need members. So
I go over to Ryze.com and post messages to the two groups where I am a
member. Amazingly within minutes members start straggling in and within 48
hours the membership crosses 100.
“Will I be able to recreate the warmth and the friendship that I found at
the ‘Dubai Quiz Group?’” I wonder. “No” I conclude. The Bangalore Quiz Group
will just be an academic, online group to stimulate my intellectual fancies
I decide. I will soon be proved wrong. (Please visit our
Offliner Blog
to see how wrong I was! Just reading about it is an amazing experience).
On the 1st September 2004, the membership clocked 34 members. On the 10th of
September we touched the 200 member mark. There was no looking back.
Left to myself I may have been content to rule the online roost and not take the
group to great heights. I have not factored in Avinash Mudaliar. He gave the
group great impetus. He gave it recognition. He gave it a great website! (It
was his company 3xus that
designed the beautiful The Bangalore Quiz Group website for free!)
One of Bangalore’s (and India’s) well known Quizzers and Quizmasters, he was
just an unknown name to me at that time. It was at his insistence that we
had our first offline meet. It was held on September 24th, a Friday. Here’s
what I wrote about that meet:
The quiz was great fun. 8 of us were present:
Anuradha Goyal
Anurag Jain
Avinash
Goldie S
Phanindra
Prakash
Sudheendra
Varghese Samuel
Three teams were made - Teams A (Avinash, Varghese and Goldie), Team B (Dr.Phanindra
and Anurag Jain) and Team C (Anuradha Goyal and Sudheendra).
Quiz Master was Prakash and had prepared 50 questions for the occasion.
Team A won the quiz.
The rest is history. We crossed the 500 member mark in January. I was
hoping that we would cross the 600 member mark also in January but it was
not to be. We were 7 members short. (Talking about numbers.......we soon
abandoned the numbers game and the quest for new members as silly. In 2008
we actually cut down the number of members from around 2000 to around
1300 odd, thereby weeding out the lurkers. We also installed an ID check as
a pre-requisite to membership so that we get the right quality of
members. The strategy is working well.)
What sets the group apart is its innovativeness and the very high
participation by its members.
Some landmarks that the group has seen:
1. The fastest growth in the country in the online quizzing segment
2. Witnessed an amazingly professional quiz administered by a 17 year old
12th student (Raghav). Imagine software professionals et al submitting to a
quiz by a student! It was really impressive.
3. Has a blind person actively participating in our online as well as
offline activities! This amazing personality, L. Subramani, a journalist
with The Deccan Herald astounded everyone at a visual quiz by being able to
crack the visual questions after hearing a description of the
images from team mates.
4. This is perhaps the only quiz group where answers to quizzes come in
instantly at any time of day or night. Once, a quiz posted at 1.30 am
attracted several responses by 1.32 am!
5. The Bangalore Quiz Group conducted the first ever Yahoo!Messenger quiz by
any Indian online group. The quiz was conducted by another 17 year old
student, Ganapathi Subbaiah, from Coorg. Twenty people from all over the
world participated.
6. We have members from as diverse locations as California to Kuwait.
7. We have CEOs in our midst – there is no one to equal the wit of Anand Rao
He has submitted several high quality quizzes on various subjects to the
Bangalore Quiz Group.
What next?
It is a very heady experience handling India’s fastest growing
online quizzing group.
I have made a lot of friends. Some of them have become very close to my
heart. I expect that I will make many more friends in future.
I have made tremendous business contacts in a very short period of time. I
would probably not have been able to achieve this in such a short time span.
What do I expect in future?
I expect the Bangalore Quiz Group to start making a strong impact in schools
to start with.
There is a crying need for education on current affairs (for example). In
many of the “international schools”, which have a lot of children from
abroad, many children do even not know who Pandit Nehru is!
There is a crying need to educate our children in our religion. Call it
Hindutva, call it Christian reawakening, call it an Islamic influence if you
like. With Indian society metamorphosing, with grandparents being relegated
to old age homes, with both parents working, the Indian child of today is
lonely. There is no grand parent on whose knee he or she can listen to a
story………whether it be on the Ramayana or the Mahabharata or the Koran or
hear the tales of Hindu / Muslim / Christian / Sikh folklore.
I think that information about our current affairs and heritage needs to go
into schools and this could be a great niche market that BQG could
profitably dominate
I also think that quizzing needs to emphasize that a fact is a fact and
cannot be twisted to suit the “shock-value” needs of quiz masters. (I
personally feel that many of the questions asked by the so called stalwarts
of quizzing won’t stand scrutiny. The Bangalore Quiz Group, on the other
hand, uses only the most highly reputable sources for its information and
thereby delivers almost 100% correct content. That is why it says that it is
at six sigma quizzing quality levels). To become a member, please visit the
Bangalore Quiz Group
Yahoo Group.
Summary:
The Bangalore Quiz Group has covered an incredible distance in the few years
of its existence. I cannot believe that I could achieve all this on my own.
I attribute it to divine interference – to the “Hand Of God”, if you like.