Kerala   

Gearing up for a battle of wits

Participating in quizzes will help develop an all-round personality.

Quiz has fascinated people of all generations. The excitement for these competitions has not waned. Malabar has a tradition of producing top-notch quizzers. Even now, Kozhikode-based institutions, such as the National Institute of Technology and the Government Medical College, send top quiz teams in the State.

Quizzers have often left their mark in public life. Kozhikode District Collector A. Jayathilak was an avid quizzer in his younger days and had captained the Indian quiz team for an international competition in Islamabad in Pakistan.

"Most of the top-ranking students who get into IIMs [Indian Institutes of Management] from Kerala now are active quizzers," says P. Sarin, Kozhikode co-ordinator of Greycells, a collective of quizzers in the State.

Greycells is organising a quiz for students up to Plus Two and the general public at the medical college on Saturday.

The advantages of quiz are many. "Now, general-knowledge questions comprise nearly 70 per cent of the questions for competitive examinations from last grade to top-most posts in Government, including the Civil Services Examination. So more and more people are turning to quiz, which help them in tackling these questions," says Snehaj S., who runs Dreamz, a Kozhikode-based group of people under a common banner to uphold the spirit of quizzing.

"Now quiz has become more of infotainment, thanks to TV shows. And the challenge for students is how to manage quiz and study together," says Sarin house surgeon at the medical college.

T.V. Sulaiman, lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology of the medical college and quiz master, says, "Most of the TV quiz shows have made it [quiz] a kind of lottery. Serious quizzing does not get enough sponsors as the latter are after TV quiz shows."

He says that after one leaves school and college, there is not much opportunity to participate in quiz. Quizzes in which people of all age groups can participate should be encouraged.

Participating in quizzes will help develop an all-round personality. "Quizzers can normally excel in group discussions and personal interviews," Sarin says. Quizzes can help build friends, not just ordinary ones, but intellectual ones, Sarin says.

J.S. BABLU

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