Gurgaon’s young professionals have found a new evening pastime — quizzing events at pubs

There is a show of hands; he walks up to one of the tables.

They answer in his ear: “All of these find mention in the song ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ by Billy Joel”, and bag 100 points.

“That’s the correct answer!” says the man, after getting the right answer from other tables too, albeit after showing more images from the song and reducing the points given.

The group of youngsters who answered first lets out a cheer and takes a swig of their beer.

The man at the centre of attention is 37-year-old Arvind Nair, the quizmaster for the evening, who takes his hosting duties very seriously. “It takes a couple of days to prepare all the questions; it has become a little harder to frame questions that can stump the regulars,” says Arvind.

Traditionally associated with students or professional players, quizzing culture in Gurgaon is a recent phenomenon, something that has caught on among young professionals who have made the Millennium City their home over the last few years.

Several bars and cafes in Gurgaon now host these quizzes on weekdays. The choice of day is deliberate: Attending a quizzing event gives the participants a chance to hang out with friends on what would be an otherwise eventless work day. For the establishments, it ensures patrons and resultant revenue even on weekdays.

One of the teams is comprised of a bunch of Ashoka University batchmates who work at the same management consultancy firm. For them, these quiz sessions are an extension of their college hangouts. “We used to quiz in college. Now, we come here straight from work. The casual format sans eliminations makes it fun, fair and overall, a good outing,” says Ankit Sharma, 23.

Sharma says even their managers are in on their Wednesday night plans now. “We leave the office a bit earlier,” he tells The Indian Express.

On preparation for the quiz, he says, “We don’t prepare as such, but keep track of scores. It’s a nice competitive rivalry among teams here, and as a group event, it’s quite ideal that it happens on a weekday. We can use the weekends for other stuff.”

Questions asked during the quiz can range from current affairs, movies, to even Amul ads. The participants take special pains to give their teams witty names. The teams playing today, for example, have names like ‘Al Fayda’ and ‘Going Through a Faiz’.

Many participants are regulars; few are newcomers brought along by their friends. The quizmaster patiently explains the rules of the game to this lot.

“A lot of people come just to try it out, but we now have a good mix of professional quizzers and general enthusiasts. They go to other cities (and participate in fests, events like Tata Crucible etc). We get around 60 folks showing up almost regularly now each Wednesday,” says Shashwat Narhatiyar, 28, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus and the co-founder and CEO of Misfits, an early-stage startup that brings people together through a community-led hobby marketplace.

Misfits began looking for pubs last year to host events for its quizzing forum, known as Bheja Fry, and zeroed in on The Beer Café.

The participants don’t usually have to pay anything to play the quiz. In fact, it is the host pubs that pay the quiz organisers for bringing in the much-needed weekday crowd. “It helps them (the venues) with food and beverage revenue that wouldn’t otherwise be there,” says Shashwat.

Mukesh, the manager of the establishment, agrees. “We have had a good experience so far. Sales and footfall have increased, and it has made our venue more popular as a whole.”

Arvind, who works at a tech company, says the venue has the highest repeat rates in the city. “And since they have now switched to a league format, the turnout at the quizzes has been phenomenal,” he adds.

The winning teams usually get rewarded with books and other goodies. Some places, though, take it a notch higher.

Jackson Rajan, 40, who hosts an open-for-all quiz at Sector 15’s Cocktails & Dreams, Speakeasy, says the winners there get pegs of assorted liquor.

Jackson runs an event management firm, and quizzing — both hosting and participating — is his hobby. “It’s a regular Friday night crowd that comes in (for quizzes). None of them were hardcore quizzers but they have gotten better with time. I get a fee from them or the sponsors, usually alcohol brands, costs of which are recovered through the revenue generated from sales,” says Jackson who has been hosting since 2018.

“Ultimately, it’s not just the alcohol that people come for; it’s for some fun on a weekday,” says Jackson, who believes the perception that quiz nights are just for geeks is rapidly changing. “The general crowd has been showing up more and more for these events.”

The event usually starts at 8.30 pm and goes on for an hour and a half — giving enough time for participants to arrive from work, and get a good night’s sleep before the next day’s grind. The participants are mostly from their early 20s to late 30s, though some of them, like Jackson, are older.

Other places which host weekday quiz nights include Social and Bira Taproom at CyberHub, and Quorum and Brew Dog in Golf Course Road — both prime addresses in the city.

Manas Dimri, 29, often hosts such dos. “I began hosting quizzes after attending events organised by Ace of Pubs (a quizzing company) for a while. I had to audition (for quizmaster role) by first hosting a round at a brewery in Delhi,” says Manas, who is an international trade researcher in his day job.

“The prizes are beer coupons or an entire premium whiskey bottle for the winners. Although this is not an incentive for the corporate crowd in Gurgaon, which is highly educated. Their coming helps make the quizzes competitive,” he adds.

Manas says he initially thought only “the South” Delhi crowd is enthusiastic about quizzing. “But the Millennium City is definitely catching up.”

On the business model of the quiz nights, Shashwat of Misfits says, “The revenue earned by the community is split between the leader (quizmaster) and Misfits. Generally, the leader gets a majority share.”

Nishant Kashyap, a 25-year-old who works at an FMCG, is frequently spotted in the city’s quizzing circuit. He says he does not come in with “any real preparation” and usually discovers the events while scrolling through Instagram. For him, the books won as prizes are a major draw.

“What makes these quizzes fun is that even folks who are playing casually can work their way around the answer after a little thinking, unlike legacy TV quizzes that are geared for those well-versed in trivia,” says Nishant.

The quizzing events may have become more ubiquitous in Gurgaon, but many enthusiasts feel more needs to be done to bolster the ecosystem in terms of support and spaces.

Shashank Tyagi, who works in a financial services and insurance company, points to the lack of free or cheap venues in the city for youngsters.

“Most of the members of the Delhi Quiz Club stay in Gurgaon but conduct quizzes in the Capital, because there you can get a college classroom for free. There also aren’t enough open quizzes in the sense that pubs are, in effect, out of bounds for those below the legal drinking age. There are not as many active educational institutions to have regular quizzes hosted by college seniors either,” says the 27-year-old.

Nishant, the FMCG employee, says quizzing nights give him something unique to look forward to on a weekday in Gurgaon. “They certainly help, especially if one wants to put a bad day at work behind them.”