Some fun with fundas

Do you sit with family and watch quiz shows, taking a guess at every answer and exclaiming at contestants who can’t answer even the simplest of them? Well, if you are, it might make you a little warm inside to learn that there is a quizzing circuit in the City waiting for enthusiastic minds just like you.

Having tossed aside their lucrative jobs, expert quizzers Venkatesh Srinivasan, Vivek Karthikeyan and Navin Rajaram — all from the City —founded Nexus in 2012 to help upcoming quizzers in the country.

“We have been quizzing from our school days. We were initially conducting quizzes in Bangalore but later on, we had requests coming in from all over the country,” says Venkatesh. He adds, “The quizzing fraternity has become very diverse today so we decided to quit our jobs to do something we love. We had the entrepreneurial bug biting us and corporate fatigue.” 

The three, who come from different parts of the country, met because of their passion for quizzing. “The main advantage in Bangalore is a flourishing ‘Open Quiz’ circuit, spearheaded by the Karnataka Quiz Association.

Nearly 50-60 quizzes are conducted annually, which require you to form a team – that’s how Vivek and I first got to know each other in 2004, introduced by a common friend. Navin came to Bangalore in 2011, and we realised we all have complementary interests from a quizzing perspective, and that’s how we teamed up,” says Venkatesh. He adds that their team was called Nexus and the trio continued to call their start-up that.

The team travel the country, hosting quizzes and coming up with challenges for the participants. Why do they do it? “Our motto is ‘fun with fundas’ - we take facts and make them fun and quirky. We go to schools, colleges, corporates and discuss topics like art, music, music and other things that aren’t normally taught.” he says.

He adds that they want to improve people’s reading habits and language skills. The self-funded organisation have found ways to do what they love. “As we came on-board full-time, travel was not a problem. The commercial model is usually a bundled price, which includes our travel cost that we manage ourselves, though some customers pay for travel additionally,” says Venkatesh, who studied at IIM-Bangalore. Vivek is from BITS-Pilani and Navin from ISB-Hyderabad, but all three saw common ground in quizzing.

Nexus has decided to branch out from quizzes and has started to host spelling bees and treasure hunts. He says they have already had a televised programme and now have regular quizzes online, through Twitter.

“Our quizzing format is different from the rest because it is interactive. We use videos while doing conducting the quizzes and try to keep the participants as alert and interested as possible,” says Venkatesh. Having already toured the country, the team believes in focusing mainly on two things: content and contest. The three have big plans to spread quizzing throughout the country and make it a popular sport.