At a time when quiz shows on the perennial favourite television have decreased to abysmal levels, it is heartening to see some enterprising young minds who are nurturing quiz as popular public events in a manner that the young generation as well as working professionals are updated about the world around them.
One such individual is Aniket Mishra, who has focused his creative energies on sports, particularly football, whose popularity perhaps matches the religious fervour of cricket in India. He also sets up a questionnaire on other sporting disciplines as he wants the layman to understand that sports mean a lot to an overwhelming number of Indians in cities as well as mofussil areas.
As founder of the Barefoot Sports Quiz Fest, whose fourth edition was recently conducted at the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University’s South Campus, Aniket is happy that participants are coming from across the country. He conducted the section called “When Pride Still Mattered —The Open Sports Quiz” along with Wasi Manazir, Aniket Mishra, Subhrojit Bhattacharya and Shounak Purkayastha.
Sreshth Shah was declared the best student quizzer, the winners of the Sports Quiz were Kinshuk Biswas, Shouvik Guha and Sudip Ganguly, while the cricket quiz winner was Gulu Ezekiel, who was the only one-man team. The first prize for football quiz was bagged by Suby Bhattacharya.
Interestingly, people from different professional backgrounds surpassed even the students as far as the number of contestants. Of the eight finalists, two slots were reserved for schools and colleges. The rest included one alumnus of IIT and sports scribes.
Sports enthusiasts come here to watch with interest the unfolding of the brain taxing event. It is a serious yet exciting exercise. It provides edge-of-the-seat suspense as winners are at times decided only after answering the last question.
Noting that the event is for those who want to participate in a quiz show with all the seriousness it deserves, Aniket says, “So we are acting as facilitators bringing together people who are passionate about cricket, sports and of course quizzing. For non-quizzers, who are into sports in a big way, this event creates interest about quizzing. So we have made it into a fun kind of event.”
Earlier, quiz shows on TV like the ones conducted by Siddharth Basu and Narottam Puri were extremely popular but such quiz shows on the small screen have declined considerably.
Despite this, the standard of public quiz shows has increased. “The fourth edition of the event was bigger. Every year, it is getting bigger and bigger. And the standard of quizzing is also improving and covers Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata.”
Pointing out that the idea behind the annual event is to initiate people into quizzing, Aniket rues the fact that quizzing is no longer a prominent feature on television. “Thankfully, stage quizzing is a flourishing activity. The level of quizzing has increased by leaps and bounds. I want to initiate people who are interested in sports.”
Organised by Barefoot India, the quiz tested participants’ knowledge in sports with an interesting line-up of quizzes including “Beyond a Boundary — The Open Cricket Quiz” and “When Pride Still Mattered — The Open Sports Quiz”.
In the first edition, the quiz covered cricket, football and Olympics. Since then interest in cricket and other disciplines has increased phenomenally. Even if television doesn’t have the shows of the earlier generation, there are other avenues like educational institutions and events like the recent Indo-Pakistan school quiz at Siri Fort Auditorium.
Sponsorship is desperately needed for survival of such events. For non-Delhiites they have to foot the bill for accommodation. But other expenses are taken care of.
“The prize money and quiz master’s fee are given by the sponsors,” says Aniket.
