CHENNAI: It happened first in 1988, spearheaded by the collaboration of X and Y. After a five-year hiatus, it returned in 1994 and has been here to stay. Even amid the pandemic that has rendered any sense of routine obsolete, it’s found a way to adapt and move to the online space. But not before marking Independence Day with a slice of nostalgia and plenty of trivia.
What am I talking about? If you have ‘The Landmark Quiz’ as the answer, I bet you can almost hear Dr Navin Jayakumar validating that with an “absolutely right”. “The year 1988 happened to be the first anniversary of The Landmark store (X). Our quiz group in Chennai — Quiz Foundation of India (Y) — was also having its first anniversary in the same year. Both parties wanted to do a quiz to mark the anniversary, the two things were merged and that’s how we did the very first Landmark Quiz.
And in those days, it was completely revolutionary to do a quiz that was completely audio- visual. We had 180 teams participating, which is amazing for 1988,” recounts the quizmaster. The iconic quiz has defined Independence Day afternoons for two generations of contestants and audience. This year, with little else in the world being the same, this staple too has chosen to tread a slightly different path. Keeping the tradition on August 15, Navin is all set to host The Best of Landmark Quiz.
After having fielded enquiries about the questions of quizzes past, Navin and team decided that this could be the ideal time to present the 30 best from their collective history. “Having got to that point, I said why don’t we get people who were involved in the quiz to share their though and reminiscences. After all, this is one of India’s longest-running opening quizzes. We decided to not make it like just another quiz but more like we sat around and talked about it between questions,” he explains.
And there’s plenty in store. Navin will be interacting with a guest after every five questions; it could be a participant, an organiser or someone from the audience. There is no dearth of interesting stories, it seems. “There is one of a young fellow who has taken part in the quiz as a schoolboy, then as a college student, and while working. Finally, he ended up conducting the Chennai leg of the Landmark Quiz,” he shares. There will be video clips from the past quizzes too.
While the Landmark Quiz has become a brand in itself — and Navin credits the quiz’s accessibility and Landmark’s consistency with making it happen year after year for this success — he’s quite confident that it will live past the temporary hurdles in its way. “Quizzing is quite a chameleon that way and is extremely adaptable. In nature, anything that evolves and adapts will survive,” he suggests. True to this theory, this year’s Landmark Quiz will happen online.
It’ll have the same three-member team format. Given the virtual reality of it, participants will now get the freedom to collaborate with anyone in the world. While the details are yet to be set in digital space, the Landmark Quiz will register its presence this year — come what may, concludes Navin. Well, happy quizzing coming soon.