Richard the
Lionhearted to Makarand Deshpande.
A form of music
called ‘chutney’, to the friendship of Nagraj with Spiderman and Superman, to
ancient legends of golden mermaids.
Our world really
is full to the brim with climaxes and extremes, isn’t it? With crests tall as
mountains and troughs deep as valleys on the ocean floor! Imagine opening a
window that looked out upon the things men think, do, fashion out of their
insane minds. All that would whoosh in and out of that window would have us
buckling, falling backwards with its sheer intensity!
The quizmaster is
the one opening that window. He’s the one who flips down the latch and throws
the window wide, wide open. So wide, infact, at NQC’s Quizfest, that those
looking out ended up zooming through space and time.
As participants,
we hopped from a valiant women’s battalion in Russia to spooky histories behind
English nursery rhymes. From football matches in the middle of wars, to the
truck driver who became a music legend. From Van Gogh’s eccentricity to Dan
Brown singing! The quiz had the grey cells jumping around actors behind beloved
characters and the characters of actors.
There was a lot in
the Quizfest about the things people achieved. A lot about the times people
famously lost their heads. And a lot of both combined! Infact, doesn’t this
combination pretty much define how our enormous, snug little world turns?
It turns in
clicking gears, and musical notes cascading down like fountains. In feet
swirling on dance floors and crystal chandeliers in aristocratic halls. And the
list can go on and on.
The quizzes left
me pondering over the fact that our history, our very psyche as human beings,
is full of colour. And full of sound, as hundreds cheer at the sports field, as
thousands cry out in political uproar. And that’s precisely, as I gathered, the
job of the quizmaster. To bring out that colour and sound.
Because that’s
what a great quiz is!
An ode to the
human spirit.
- Khatija Ferhy
