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Discovering the quiz magic

Menka Shivdasani

The commissioning editor of BBC World, Narendhra Morar, once pointed out to me that India had a very high level of quizzing.

Viewers of Kaun Banega Crorepati may not necessarily agree with this view - ironically, it is produced by Siddhartha Basu, who introduced these high levels of quizzing to Indian television long before satellite TV came in - but there is no deny ing that quizzes have always been popular in India (Remember the Bournvita Quiz Contest on radio?).

In fact, quizzing is so popular in our country that Discovery Channel has made it a part of its marketing plan for the third quarter. The channel has a variety of education initiatives and has consolidated its entire gamut under one umbrell a - the Discovery Channel Award - School for Fostering Excellence.

The cities in which Discovery's school initiatives are held are being divided into two categories. In category I cities, the Discovery Channel Award will give grants to three schools, entailing a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh each as prize mone y for a yearly scholarship for the most outstanding student of the year in the school. Plus, each school gets a gift hamper of 20 Discovery Channel programme tapes. The grant is awarded to schools based on their participation in D iscovery Channel's direct contact school initiatives - the Word2Word Essay contest, Face2Face debate competition, Discovery Channel Quiz and the India Educator Guide.

Schools in the second category, that are unable to be part of the direct contact programme, will be awarded based on their participation via postal mail/e-mail in these various contests, and three schools will get grants of Rs. 50,000 each t o launch scholarships for students. They will also receive 20 programme tapes from the channel.

With each year, the programme has been getting more ambitious. Last year, the Discovery Channel Quiz was held in 14 cities across the country. With the fourth such quiz being held this year, Discovery Channel goes to 18 cities, reaching out to 29,000 school students and 900 schools across India.

The first of these multi-city audio-visual quizzes, sponsored by Britannia with Hero Cycles as the prize sponsor, kicked off in Bangalore on July 24. The other cities where it will be held are Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Ne w Delhi, Calcutta, Guwahati, Jaipur, Bhopal and Mumbai.

The quiz is open to two age groups - students from Class VIII to Class X in the senior group and Class V to Class VII in the junior group - and it is hosted by Derek O'Brien. Questions relate to the five genres of Discovery Channel's progr amming - science and technology, history, world culture, human adventure and nature.

The winners in each city get a cash prize of Rs. 5,000 per team, a silver plaque and a Hero bicycle each, while the runner- up team gets Rs. 3,000. Winning teams from all 18 cities will angle for a national prize of Rs. 10,000 per team, in both ca tegories. The national runner-up team wins Rs. 7,500 per team and special prizes will be given for audience participation, with correct answers bagging a Discovery Channel T-shirt.

Discovery's Face2Face contest has also been launched, this one sponsored by Maggi Noodles and Atlas Cycles. The debating contest, which runs across nine cities, began on July 13 in Bangalore, and has kids from Class VIII to Class X spe aking on issues ranging from the environment to animal conservation, bio-ethics, foreign affairs and Government. The Face2Face 2000 contest, which takes place in Pune, Lucknow, Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, to name a few cities, has its national finals being held at the Russian Cultural Centre in Chennai on August 18.

Audiences too can air their views in the Maggi 2-Minute Round (nice one that, considering that is the time the noodles are supposed to take to cook!). After every eight speakers, one volunteer gets a chance to speak on a fun topic and win a gift hamper from Maggi.

Meanwhile, on the programming front, the channel has launched its Discovery Health two-hour block (7 p.m. to 9 p.m.) on weekends, and Discovery Travel and Adventure two-hour block (10 p.m. to 12 midnight) on Saturdays. Should be worth watching if you are an armchair traveller or are forced to be one thanks to the stress of making ends meet!

Just as I was signing off this column, I received a letter signed by Abhishek Bachchan. (It was on a Sony MAX letterhead, so it wasn't, alas, exclusively to me!)

"August 18th is a big day for me," it began. "It is the release date of my new film Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa''. Well, it could also be a big day for MAX viewers, as the channel has come up with a few promotional ideas that involve winning gold. The MAX Ka Jadoo contest involves watching MAX every day between August 15 and 24 during prime time, and answering the question of the day.

The correct answer could make you one of the two lucky winners of 100 grams of gold each. The winners will be announced the same day in the same programme (That's one up on Zee, which announces the winners the next day in the Malaamal contest). If y ou think you know the correct answer, all you need to do is call a local number flashing on the screen, from any of the four metros Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Calcutta. One lucky winner from the 10-day contest takes home one kg of gold.

Oh, and in all the excitement of trying to win that gold, don't forget to watch Abhishek Bachchan's film. That's the point of the whole exercise, remember?

The author can be contacted at menkashivdasani@hotmail.com

Pic.: A still from a Discovery show -- On The Inside: Microchip.