Thread by @tintin1107

A #quiz memory

30 years ago this week, the first NorthStar quiz was held in the Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai. Either on September 30 or October 1. Not sure about the date, but that was my first trip to Chennai. 1/n

The elder brother of one of our guys had just moved to Madras for work. We got an authorization letter on the letterhead of a local club and caught a train. 2/n

There had been a big advertisement in Hindu about the quiz. The quiz master was one Derek O'Brien who we had never heard about.

One of our guys suggested that, since the Bata HQ at that point was in Canada, @derekobrienmp may be a Canadian 3/n

@derekobrienmp Derek O'Brien turned out to be a young Indian with a nicely trimmed beard.

There was a 30 question prelims. It was our first experience with *that* sort of questions. We scored 2 or 3.

4/n

@derekobrienmp Quiz Foundation of India topped the prelims with 23 points. The next best was 16.

@quizfoundation was represented by Mrs. Saranya Jayakumar and (probably) Navin Jayakumar. One of the other two could have been Gautam Padmanabhan.

5/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation The first question of the quiz was typical DO'B.

Q : What is the most common name in the Chennai telephone directory ?

A : Subramaniam, followed closely by Srinivas(an) 6/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation There was question to id the voice of Kesarbai Kerkar. QFI was the only team to get it. I do remember a few other questions.

Q : What is known in Poland as "Stany Zjednoczone", and by some other names in a few other countries ?

A : US of A

7/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation Q : What book starts with the line "Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump ... "

A : Winnie the Pooh. Ok, TIL

We didn't know any of these but we did get the only sports question.

8/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation In 1989, after a WI tour, the Indian team played an exhibition match in USA and the players were banned for 6 months. 4 players escaped the ban. 3 were named,who was the 4th ? Srikkanth was one, he returned early after his hand was fractured by Ian Bishop

A : Saba Karim

9/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation Another question was how Forsyth P Jones was better known. FPJ is Jughead in Archie.

I feel very ashamed to write that we wrote Frederick Forsyth, who was the only Forsyth that we knew.

FF was the presenter of a series that appeared in Doordarshan at that time.

10/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation QFI won the final comfortably but I can remember very little. But the most memorable question and answer of the evening was this :

11/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation Q : When did Winston Churchill say 'dead birds do not fall out of their nests' ?

Mrs J answered quite casually.

When Churchill was an old man, at a party, somebody pointed out that the fly buttons of his trousers were open. This was Churchill's reply.

12/n

@derekobrienmp @quizfoundation That is all. Wonder if anyone who was present there remembers that quiz.

n/n