By IANSlife Features
New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANSlife) Quizzing events are fun while being competitive, and if one has a talented in the art they are also entertaining.
Parnab Mukherjee seldom fails at achieving what he sets his mind to. A genius in his own stride, he wears multiple hats as a journalist, activist, writer, analyst as well as a theatre director while contributing to various UN projects as a consultant with the UN. After conducting over 1200 quizzing events all over the world and even publishing a book on quizzing, Parnab is set to perfect his role as an expert, bringing his unique style to ‘Beat The Genius’.
In an interview with IANSlife, he speaks to about the love he has for his work.
Read Excerpts:
Q: You have been an activist, a journalist, a writer, what made you choose quizzing as a career?
A: My journey of quizzing has been running in parallel with my journey of public speaking and theatrics. In the Indian sub-continent, we sometimes put quizzing and debating as two separate brackets. However, both these activities run in tandem with each other. When you are publicly speaking, quizzing gives you the necessary input to give information along with your speaking prowess. At the same time when you are quizzing, you need to also be confident about making a wild guess, which may or may not work out. But there is always sheer joy in getting something right which you have guessed, while you were trying to work out the nuts and bolts of the right answer. So, to be loquacious and take the pronunciation in your stride and still get the answers right, I think is what debating teaches you. I think fairly early in my life, in class 5, my parallel and the journey in between began.
Q: What hacks should one can keep in mind to ace a quiz?
A: Quizzing I would say is more of intuitive process but essentially there needs to be a sense of curiosity in an individual towards current affairs. This can be done in various ways, of course people can read books and magazines, but I think a very handy tool is an increased skill of observation. E.g. All of us went from school to home and vice versa every day in a car, train, bus, rikshaw, tram etc. While traversing through the route, we came across a number of hoardings and once we were back we were able to tell the hoarding, the brand or the company we saw on them in a particular part of the city. Additionally, we live in a city that has roads named after people, yet we don’t know who they are or the logic behind why a road or an area has been named in a certain way. Therefore, a keen sense of observation and constant curiosity is key towards acing a quiz, much more than reading quiz books.
Q: What do you think the future of quizzing is, especially with a shift from physical to digital quizzes?
A: Like theater, the backbone of quizzing has always been live platforms. There is a lot of interesting television, OTT, and app-based quizzing, but a lot have supplemented the live performance on stage. I think what the pandemic has done is that it has opened more avenues and ‘Beat the Genius’ is a testimony of how we must reinvent the format of quizzing. Yes, the quizzing formats are evolving, and you are interacting and participating from the comfort of your house and simultaneously getting a sense of a live competition. It a functional format which is less than 15 minutes and not taxing. I think Flipkart Video and ‘Beat the Genius’ has captured the format beautifully and I am proud of being a part of a very path breaking genre.
Q: Your advice to the young generation for quiz prepping?
A: I think year books with lot of information of the year that went by is an important part of your reading because there is some preparation required. People also read a lot of current affairs for Civil Services and other exams, similarly, they do the same for quiz shows or knowledge-based shows. One is definitely yearbook reading, another is keeping a track of new dictionary words. I am sure 30 years ago our parents did not know the word selfie or dualfie. Sometimes when you know new words and their meaning – its half the battle won.
Q: Would you be able to shed some light on the work you did with the United Nations?
A: I was developing a few advocacy tools at a different point of time for some agencies of the United Nations, both for the Delhi office of United Nations Office of Drug and Crime and UN Women. When I developed the advocacy tool, the UN Women vertical was called UniFem. I had largely worked on developing theatrical tools in highlighting the problem of women who have been illegally trafficked. So, we looked at the entire process of women being trafficked and cross border trafficking that led to ruining many young lives. So, my involvement with these two agencies was to develop independent projects which record the voices of these extremely brave women who fought all odds against the menace called trafficking.
Q: Any upcoming projects or books that you can share details on
A: Largely I have done one quiz book which is called ‘1000 questions in 100 Plus; pages and I have done few books on theater. My next book which I am planning and cooking in my head is essentially – ‘7 sites of India’. The concept is 7 people are lost in 7 sites of India and they get clues to get out of a site. The clues are scattered all over the site and how you join the dots and get out of it is the plot. It’s like a mystery, a jigsaw puzzle and has a quizzing co-ordination as well. This would be my attempt to look at the fiction genre. I would make it fun but at the same time it’ll be challenging.
Q: Tell us about your association with Flipkart Video and details on this new show – Beat The Genius
A: ‘Beat The Genius’ on Flipkart Video is a very unique show in its format and approach. During the pandemic when this whole concept came to fruition, I was intrigued by the concept and that drew me to being a part of it. What fascinated me was how the show was shot with the maximum level of safety, with a very interesting mix of interactivity as well as with a live component. At the same time there was an invisible audience who could play at their own leisure – this part was really intriguing because the format is still niche and there could be many possibilities for such a format, both digitally and in real time. In terms of my participation, I think it’s a new groundbreaking show. 2020 apart from being the year of the pandemic, will also be remembered as a year of innovation and this show is a part of that innovation.
(IANSlife Features can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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