My Hour/Day of Glory

It started of as an innocuous phone call on a Saturday sometime in September 2002. On picking the phone, I was able to place the caller and hence could address him by his name. This puzzled the caller as we had not been in touch for so many years. He immediately equated me with “Grandmaster” Pradeep. Since I had no clue as to who this gentleman was, I had to ask for more details. I was told that he conducted a very popular quiz show on a Malayalam channel. The show was called Ashwamedham and was aired at 10p.m on week days. The Grandmaster had a good memory and hence the comparison was meant as a compliment. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided that I must watch this show the following Monday.

In my scheme of things, post dinner is assigned to reading; however I decided to make a shift and switched on the channel to view the show. I realized that the said show was a reverse quiz programme where the quiz master had to guess the name of a celebrity given by the participant. The names were routed through a 3 member jury. The quiz master is allowed 21 questions and the participant replies with a yes or a no. On watching for a week I realized that the success rate of the Grandmaster was almost 90%. A small seed started growing within me; I wanted to be a participant in the show and hoped they would do a recording in Chennai.

Dawned November 1^st 2003, and all roads lead to Malayali Club, Chetpet were the show was being recorded. I had done some research and had come up with a name. I went to the venue along with a couple of friends, who had implicit faith in me and were there to cheer. The first hurdle was to get chosen for the show. Questions were thrown to the audience and those who came with the correct answers were chosen. I happened to know the name of the Railway Technocrat who was none other than Mr. E. Sridharan and thus got chosen.

The first 5 participants were torn to pieces with less than 10 questions and next was my turn. The jury approved of my list. Sitting on the hot seat with the cameras flashing and an intimidating quiz master was no joke. I realized it was all very nice to sit in the comfort of your drawing room and pass comments. Questions started coming with the speed of a piercing arrow and I answered them with a yes or a no. Since he was a purist as far as Malayalam was concerned and me being a Chennai person, he had to translate some of the questions into simpler language. At the end of the 21^st question, the Grandmaster had only deciphered that the personality was a German. Thus he conceded defeat and I became the winner. When I said “Oscar Schindler”, I’m dead sure that the expression on my face was similar to that of Jerry’s because what I could see on the Grandmaster’s face was that of Tom’s. Few more participants took part and it turned out that I was the only winner for the day. I was invited for the All India Mega Finals at Thiruvananthapuram in early 2004. The prize for which was 5kgs of gold or equivalent in cash.

The day surely belonged to me. Everyone termed me a genius as I had beaten the master in his own den. Soon afterwards I started researching for the Mega Finals and came up with a whole new set of names. Being a very positive person and a woman, I also went around all the major stores in Chennai, finding ways in which I could spend the impending booty. The list of names has gathered dust as the Mega Finals did not materialize. May be the organizers got cold feet!!!!!! In the mean time the Grandmaster has moved to greener pastures and looks even more prosperous in his new avatars. As for me, among several other things, I’m also waiting for the next “worthy” innocuous call to come.