On a quizzing journey with Silchar twins Kamanashish and Kapinjal Chowdhury

By barakbulletin On February 27, 2019 - 1:49 am

Silchar never had a Dalhousie Institute, no invitational quiz competitions, no bespectacled man with deep baritone saying “bang on” to every right answer like Neil O’Brien did. Therefore Silchar never had DI “A” team, Motley Crew, Inmaniacs, Tetrad, Magnum and other quizzing stalwarts like Calcutta did.

Back in early and mid 90s, in Silchar, parents wanted their kids to grow up and become either an engineer or a doctor. The extra curricular activities were limited to music, yoga and arts. No point blaming the parents as there was nothing else in the society.

Luckily, monozygotic twins born in the early nineties had different environment at home and took up quizzing as an extracurricular activity. As kids they used to study encyclopedia, general knowledge books, noted down each and every questions asked on Kaun Banega Crorepati and quizzed each other for fun. Twins Kamanashish and Kapinjal Chowdhury took quizzing seriously and over time it became their passion.

The twins represented Assam in national quiz competitions in multiple occasions, traveled all across Assam to participate in several prize money events and eventually co-founded a quizzing startup along with other friends. Kapinjal continues to participate in corporate quiz competitions, Amul Quiz in Hyderabad being the latest which he won. Recently he was also invited by his alma mater Assam Engineering College as a quizmaster where he conducted a quiz on Chemistry. Here is an exclusive chat with them about their quizzing journey.

Edited Excerpts:

How did you both got attracted towards quiz?

When we were studying in Class I, II we remember reading our father’s encyclopedias. We used to love General Knowledge subject that we had in our schools and from there we developed an interest in knowing more. Then we had multiple newspapers both English and Bengali coming to our house and was a major source of information. We need to understand, back in 1996-97 gathering information was far more difficult than what it is now. Today we have apps which pushes information to us, back then it was only ‘pull’ and through mainstream mediums like, books, newspapers, television, magazines and all.

When did you first experience a quiz competition in real life?

Our first exposure to quiz competition was ‘Nestle Maggi Quiz’. We were studying in Class V so we could not participate, but Pranab Sir (a faculty of South Point school) took us to experience the competition as spectators. Class VIII, IX, and X students from various schools were participating in the competition. During the course of this quiz competition, one audiovisual question was asked to the participants, on-screen came a bearded man and he was singing ‘Bulla Ki Jaana Mein Kaun’, the question was – who is the singer. The participants could not answer the question, many in the audience too gave it a shot – but missed. At the end, the microphone was handed over to me (Kamanashish) and he answered Rabbi Shergill, which was correct. That was a special feeling.

How was the experience of participating in a quiz competition and when did you both experience that?

Again, when we were in Class V – VI we used to participate in ‘Jyoti’ merit test, ‘Prerna’ merit test. In one of those Kapinjal was ranked first and Kamanashish secured the third berth. Those were the first times we actively participated in quiz competitions/merit tests. More than learning from active participation, shows like “Indian Science Quiz” with Siddharth Basu, “ESPN quiz with Harsha Bhogle” on TV helped us get more idea about quizzing. Then came ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, we used to write down each and every question asked in KBC and the correct answers. We had notes of all the questions asked in the entire season and our parents were also active participants in this and their presence was a massive encouragement.

Those were merit tests what about formal quiz competitions, sitting on stage and competing with fellow participants?

In 2004-05, there was a quiz competition organised to celebrate the centenary of Albert Einstein. Both of us along with Amartya (Choudhury, a classmate of Kamanashish and Kapinjal from South Point school) went to GC College and took part in it. We ended up becoming the champions and that was our first quizzing victory. In 2004, Barak Utsav was celebrated in Silchar, quiz was a part of it. We remember participating in it and securing the second position. But the biggest quiz competition we participated in was in NIT. For the first time, we had a visiting quizmaster, Pranab Mukherjee, a big name in national quizzing fraternity. We along with Amartya Choudhury participated in it.

How was NIT quiz different from others you had already participated?

This was the first time we witnessed proper quizzing format where there is a preliminary round and then only the top six get to step up to the stage… we had no clue what a preliminary round was, what a cut-off was and other technicalities. We sat for the prelims and we cleared and we were up on the stage. Five other teams were from Silchar Medical College, the hosts National Institute of Technology and Assam University Silchar. Forget schools there were no undergrad teams in the finals. We were appreciated by the quizmaster and we ended fourth, which was a great achievement for us and and exceptional feeling deep inside.

You both eventually moved to Assam Engineering College, how was quizzing scene different in Bramhaputra Valley from Barak Valley?

When we reached Brahmaputra Valley and started getting involved in the quizzing circuit we realised that Guwahati is far advanced and way more aware about quizzing than Silchar. One reason behind it is the exposure, as the frequency of quizzes held in Guwahati and Brahmaputra Valley is far higher than Silchar or Barak Valley. It is not that Guwahati hosts high value prize money quiz competitions every week but the are concepts like quizzing hubs and all. While studying in Assam Engineering College we had professors who used to invite us to their house and ask random questions. No prize money, no ranking just a cup of tea and quiz and that was a weekly affair which gave birth to many national level quizzers, few went on to become IAS and IPS officers from that lot.

Now one of you are staying in Bangaluru while other in Pune, how are the scenes there, and do you all believe that you would have been better quizzers had you grown in those parts of the country?

See, the biggest difference is in exposure. Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore are well established quizzing hubs. You have quizzes at the school level, college level and so on and so forth. You have multiplexes and libraries, you have a wide variety of newspapers, there are discussions and seminars happening everyday. People here are aware about quiz, they make a lot of money by winning competitions as quizzers. Then, they start their own quizzing companies and pitch to MNCs and PSUs where they organise quizzes as quizmasters. Keeping the complains aside, we must acknowledge that NIT Silchar is doing a significant job in improving the quizzing scenario in Barak Valley.

Can quiz be a full time profession and apart from winning prizes, how can it help one in life?

Quiz can be a full time profession and there are a lot of people earning a handsome amount of money through quiz. Apart from that, if you are a quizzard you can be an active part of any and every conversation. We both are working in our respective companies and whenever there is a get together, a discussion – on politics, films, sports or any other topic we can be active participants. This makes you connect to new people, gives you the confidence to stand tall and anywhere you go in the country or around the world, if you are a quizzer you will never feel left out.