Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles by Ambi Parameswaran

Author:Ambi Parameswaran
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781509840632
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2016-05-18T18:30:00+00:00

Tan Ki Shakti, Man Ki Shakti

MY FIRST JOB was at a then relatively unknown advertising agency called Rediffusion Advertising, started by Arun Nanda – he topped his batch at IIM-A; the first batch – and Ajit Balakrishnan – IIM-C alumnus who went on to set up India’s first online portal, Rediff.com. I was excited to meet my new colleagues and one of them was Rajiv Agarwal, an IIM-A graduate. He too had chosen the perceivably more risky option of advertising after saying ‘no’ to marketing. During the 1979 Diwali break, my brother, who is quite curious about everything, wanted to know more about my life in advertising. I was the first person in our family to have taken up employment instead of opting for business. The first question he asked was, ‘Who else joined your company from the IIMs?’ I threw in Rajiv’s name and the fact that he was a top-ranking student from IIM-A. My brother was not to give up easily, and continued his probe: ‘Where did he study before IIM-A?’ Fortunately, I had done some homework, so I replied that Rajiv was from Delhi had studied at St. Stephen’s College and had done his schooling at St. Columba’s. When I mentioned St. Columba’s, my brother jumped up: ‘Is he the guy who won the first ever Bournvita Quiz Contest?’ Now, I did not know the answer to that.

But truth be told, Rajiv Agarwal was indeed the first winner of the Bournvita Quiz Contest. He and a classmate of his won the contest the first time it was broadcasted on Vividh Bharati, in 1973!

It would seem rather strange that someone would remember the name of the winner of a radio quiz contest, some seven years later. But that was the power of the radio medium in the ’70s, and of India’s first branded quiz show.

Do remember that the quiz was in English and was broadcast on the government-run Vividh Bharati network of All India Radio. But it had a great following, at least among the big city, English-medium kids across India.

Cadbury India as the sponsor was quite pleased to see the mass following of the programme, but after a decade, they too were not sure if the programme gave any commercial benefits to the brand Bournvita. But since it did have such a large following, they continued it on radio for nearly twenty years, hosted by brothers Hamid Sayani and Ameen Sayani at various points in time. It transitioned into a television programme on Zee TV and ran uninterrupted from 1992 to 2001. Then it had a checkered story on Sony and later Colors television channels. The country also got to meet a new quizmaster when it broke on TV and Derek O’Brien, the star quizmaster was born – he became a West Bengal Trinamool Congress spokesperson in his later avatar and a Member of Parliament; I wonder when he will conduct a quiz programme at the Indian Parliament. Incidentally, his father Neil O’Brien was a great quizmaster

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