“Our children have grown up in the group, playing together, sleeping in the spare bed in the host’s apartment or even on mattresses in the middle of the quiz,” says Deepa Mohan, one of the people behind QuizFamilies, a family-and-friends quizzing group in Bengaluru that has continued to thrive for 28 years. Deepa, now a grandmother of two, is talking about how the relaxed and close-knit nature of the get-togethers has been a big factor in keeping the group going. QuizFamilies (QF) is a group of quiz aficionados from diverse backgrounds, ranging from top management executives to writers, photographers to techies, homemakers to journalists who meet for their love for quizzing. The idea is pretty simple: families and friends get together once a month for a fun evening of informal quizzing. Starting from 1991, on an average 23-25 people/families have met every month over the last 28 years. How it all started Recalling how the concept took off, Deepa says, “The quiz group started in 1991, this was the time when Bournvita Quiz Contest had started on the radio, then later came on TV, and quizzing became very popular. I started moderating the group in 1996, when I renamed it QuizFamilies.” The early moderators used post and phone calls to communicate. Later Deepa started an e-group, which Bengaluru-based businessman Subhash Sankhla and entrepreneur and angel investor Srinivasan (affectionately called Socro) continued. Talking about how the group evolved, 61-year-old Subhash says, “In the early days of QF, we met on the first Saturday of every month and the quiz would be conducted post dinner. The group included a diverse set of people. From snail mail to emails to now over WhatsApp, the group continues.” How QF works Over the years, the format of quizzing hasn’t altered much, wherein one person hosts and someone else conducts the quiz. The quizmaster is totally free to choose whatever questions they want. Teams are formed and rebalanced if there are too many seasoned quizzers or too many amateurs in a team. Points are scored for every correct answer, some rounds have negative marking, and the team with the highest score wins. The quiz questions are archived in a shared drive which the group members can access once the quiz is over. Like all social initiatives, QF also has certain unwritten rules, that while not everyone can attend all the quizzes, a reasonable regularity (at least 3 quizzes in a year) is expected. Management professional Shaji Zacharias is currently one of the moderators of the group. Moderators are in charge of getting together a host and a quizmaster each month, which is not an easy job because there may be last minute cancellations. “Moderating quizzes basically involves facilitating and scheduling the quiz calendar. I have been doing it for a couple of years,” Shaji says. The quizmasters on the other hand have their work cut out for themselves. They need to set a diverse set of questions which could range from anything from rats to relativity! Shares Socro, “Each quizmaster has their own style and way of conducting the quiz. For me, it is a tedious and long drawn process where I need at least a two-month start. Questions are added and modified depending on the audience.” Shaji, who has also been a quizmaster, adds, “The way I like to frame questions is by sharing information and a couple of lines about the issue or event, etc and then asking the question. That way you ensure you are sharing extra information and some trivia that quizzers really enjoy and it kind of stays with them.” IT professional and recent joinee to the QF team Ashish Patel says that selecting questions for the quiz is a lot of work. He says, “For a recent quiz, my wife, son and I framed the questions as a family. All three of us started compiling questions based on some trivia that we knew. Next, we took topics of our interest, like law, pop culture, geography, and explored how we could frame questions based on them. From Twitter, newspapers, magazines, Netflix, basically anything interesting we read or watched became potential questions.” Sample one of the questions that Ashish posed at his quiz – photos of actor/TV show host Ellen DeGeneres and a leather-free mridangam were shown side-by-side and contestants were asked to connect the two. The answer – both are vegan! That family feeling The gatherings haven’t changed much save for the timings, where earlier quiz meetings were longer, now the quiz starts at 6 pm with short eats followed by dinner. The idea simply is to ensure that everyone can be back home by 9-9.30 pm. Deepa says, “The informal, fun gathering of friends is the main motivation. I often say that given the noise generated, the group should be called ‘Desi Bell’ (a play on ‘decibel’)! We are now more than just friends who love quizzing.” There is no money involved, apart from the cost of hosting. There is a no-liquor rule that the group has stuck to. People come and go, but QF continues with the core group. “In fact,” says Deepa, “we have one member who has returned to QF after more than a decade, along with his daughters who are all grown up now,” and laughs as she adds, “It’s like the Samsung tagline... everyone’s invited.” From the oldest member in the group, 70-year-old entrepreneur K Mohan to the youngest Kalyan, Mohan’s grandson who is six, the spirit of QuizFamilies has remained the same throughout, which is no mean achievement. As Socro says, “It’s the family-ness, my daughters used to be so happy to accompany me for these quizzes when I joined 17-18 years ago.” Shaji agrees, “A lot of the children within QF are now grown up and remember the quizzes with fondness.” In fact, children who accompanied their parents to QF sessions in the early 1990s are all grown up now and continue to be regular members. Deepa says, “One of the things I found very nice and still find very comfortable is that this is one activity where parents can bring their children along, without having to hunt for friends or family to babysit. We would just drag our children along because we (usually) had nowhere to leave them.” Deepa’s daughter and son-in-law, Anjana and Derek, are regular members now and their children now accompany them to QF sessions. Deepa says, “I think mine is the only example (so far) of the third generation coming to the quizzes.” Over the years, it is the camaraderie that is the success mantra of the group. Here’s hoping that quizzing, and QuizFamilies, stay the course in the years ahead. Varsha Pillai is a development professional based in Bengaluru.
