‘General Knowledge’, better known as GK and later christened as ‘General Awareness’ (because knowledge is all bookish?), was every young student’s favourite subject once upon a time – more so because all could have a decent shot at it, guessing was very much on and there were no urgency to post spectacular results with marks not in the reckoning ! I recall that it was the best of times, when we in school, knew by heart the names of all the Cabinet Ministers, the CMs, Governors and capitals of all the Indian states and had on our finger-tips all about our country and rest of the world. However, GK was then the plain vanilla type which one could reasonably well prepare for (remember ‘Manorama’ !). The brightest ones were given a place in the school team to pit their wits against the best in the business !
Today with the great success of quiz shows first popularized by the incomparable Siddharta Basu as a champion quiz-master and then as the producer of the phenomenal KBC under the tutelage of the Big B, quizzing at highest levels has become a professional’s paradise with huge amounts at stake. The quiz-masters now delve into every conceivable subject under the sun- art, literature, music, entertainment, sports, science, history, finance, current events and newsworthy items like how many mo-bikes does Dhoni possess or how much did Salman’s latest potboiler rake in ! However, it’s now increasingly difficult to ask questions about those in power and political arenas – before ink has dried on the GK paper, the person might have got dumped or changed his party! This seems to be a worldwide phenomena too.
What’s it about a quiz that makes the adrenaline flow – the challenge of pitting your reflexes in a split second of quick thinking, aura of suspense at a close draw and the strategising needed to nail the one going down to the wire ! It’s also a fascinating mind-game (like chess) that is not age-specific. I recently participated in a quiz contest as part of the audience and believe me, could manage to answer a few posers by the quiz-master with a kind of elation that was felt at scoring the winning run in a cricket match in school !
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