Thank You Danny Meyer



 This little blogpost is inspired by Danny Meyer's Setting the Table. Thus, thank you Danny Meyer.
I found a very interesting paragraph in which I find a lot of similarities. So I'll go sentence by sentence to convey what I wish to. Here goes-



You may think, as I once did, that I'm primarily in the business of serving good food. actually though, food is secondary to something that matters even more.


Similarly in quizzing- I once thought that the institution of quizzing is about knowledge. But according to what I've experienced (in terms of what I've been through) knowledge is secondary to something that matters even more.

In the end, what's most meaningful is creating positive, uplifting outcomes for human experiences and human relationships. Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple and it's that hard.

That something is the experience- of the audience, of the paricipants and of the quizmaster. What's most meaningful is creating positive and uplifting outcomes and human relationships.

• Positive outcomes- That you take a lot of learnings back home with you




• Uplifting outcomes- Gives you a reason to remain enthusiastic about this institution




• Human relationships- Build a lifelong relationship with quizzing that you keep going back to it again and again. What I mean here is propagating quizzing in your community/institution not as a GK test(like mahaquizzer and world quizzing championships- precisely the reason why I was there for only one season, I'm sorry if you endorse it but WQC and Mahaquizzer are not quizzes) but as a meaningful experience which does all the above three.

And this goes for the QM also. Because at the end of the day it's the QM's responsibility with his flawless presentation(conduct+content+presentation format) to hold the audience and the participants' attention whilst giving them a reason to continue their association with this institution. It's that simple and it's that hard.

Puppetry Workshop

I attended a puppetry workshop last week with Abhiram at the Katkatha trust. From 5th to 12th June. An 8 day 10 hours a day intensive program. Well there were 9 adults from varied fields. 3 school teachers from Coimbatore, a film-maker, a theater professional, an NGO employee, a fresh graduate and 2 quizmasters (ya, that's us). Well our main trainer Anurupa Mem (that's what we fondly called her) was an Internationally acclaimed in India puppeteer (an internal puppet community joke)

Quizzing, from my side of the table, (quizmastering??) is an interesting way of presenting content. Similarly, puppetry is another interesting way to present content. While the former is a presentation of stories after stories (question after question) knit beautifully the latter is one class act. Now why am I talking about the two in one sentence, that's because I want to integrate the two. Seamlessly. How will I do it? I do have a vague idea but let's see if it actually clicks. But one thing I am quite sure of is that my first puppetry+quiz show will not happen before 2012, that's the amount of practice you need to do. (unless of course I leave everything else- quizzing, new media and football- to pursue puppetry only)

Now coming back to the workshop. We were initially taught the nuances(movement, anatomy etc.) of the Bunraku, the importance of which I realized over time. We then moved on to making puppets. Some chose Shadow puppets while the others chose Mouth puppets, we chose the latter (not because we are bad at drawing but because we suck at it). Making a mouth puppet took close to 5 days #firsttimers. And in the middle of all of this were adjusted a few puppet exercises, but its all about practice, practice and more practice. We, Abhiram and I, were also invited to attend puppetry jam sessions. Will give us a great platform to test ourselves.

PS: The only regret- the puppet didn't quite turn out to be that impressive, thanks to my stitching and visualising skills :(