Barely a year after its launch (in November 2018) Madurai’s first gaming cafe, Gobble Dobble, fell silent thanks to the pandemic and ensuing lockdown. However, there was a sudden burst of activity last weekend when a group of youngsters hosted a three-hour quiz night, adhering to social distancing norms.
The 42-seater gaming cafe was converted into a quizzing cafe, with over two-dozen participants dropping in. “We had to turn down entries after the first 12 teams registered given COVID guidelines to fill only 50% seating capacity,” says Sai Adarsh of Funda Factory, a budding start-up to promote educational activities. Founded by friends Abijeet Shyam, D Sundarnathan, T Suresh, Mothys Vikram, Nivaas Sudhan, Dinu Arvind and Koushik S, quizzing binds them together as they are all the city’s erstwhile champions-turned-quiz masters.
After completing high school a decade ago, they initially started the Madurai Quiz Society (MQS) to keep intouch with each other and keep the essence of quiz shows going in the city. While some of them live in different cities now, the lockdown months egged them on to introduce novel concepts in quizzing.
Happy with the first edition, the team plans to host monthly quiz shows at Gobble Dobble. “Madurai has had a vibrant quizzing culture and we are keen to embed it in new comers and uninitiated too,” says Sundarnathan.
The two major sought-after events in Madurai have been The Hindu ’s Young World Quiz for middle and high school students that has had a successful run for two decades (the 20th edition was held just before the lockdown in February 2020), and the decade-old regional contest for school, college and open categories conducted by MQS, besides several other quiz programmes.
“With COVID-19 disrupting events and changing the ways of learning, we felt a need to reinvent the interactive mind game. Derived from the English pub quizzing culture, our quiz-cafés are a beginning in that direction,” says Sundarnathan
Funda Factory also aims at organising weekly gatherings in other cafés across the city once the idea pans out favourably. Says quizmaster Abijeet, “There is no better way to discuss knowledge, with questions ranging from recent DC and Marvel movies and top bands to the political and COVID situation around the world.”
The entry fee was kept at ₹200 per team and the winner and the runner-up teams walked away with gift coupons and discount vouchers of cafes/eateries and beauty salons in town. “As we progress, we will tweak our format and prizes too,” promises Sundarnathan.
