The Tale of Thamizh Quiz

Who doesn’t love a Quiz? It is engaging, thought provoking, competitive and above all, it is pure unadulterated fun. So, when I was planning on conducting an event for the annual Pongal Celebrations Vasantham, an idea struck me. We have had Movie Quiz, Mythology Quiz, B-Quiz, SpEnt Quiz conducted on Campus, but never a Thamizh Quiz. What’s a Thamizh Quiz? Technically, it is the same old Quizzing wine served on a new Bottle titled Thamizh. It involves framing questions that sound alien on first reading, but has breadcrumbs enough to find the trail to an answer, the answer having a Thamizh connect- literature, movies, history, people, et al. The event became an instant hit that I followed it up for Vasantham 2015 too. This is the tale of the Thamizh Quiz, a solemn voice of Thamizh sung in English.

Consider this Question.”X means ‘self-speak’ or one’s own speech. X is one of the few Tamizh words which have all forms of phonemes-The nasal, The Hard vowel and the Medium vowel. X was first mentioned in Tholkaapiyam, but surprisingly, the word is never mentioned in Thirukkural. What is X?” The question sounds tedious and is encoded with a lot of trivia, but the answer is easily decodable. Infact the answer is specified in the Question itself! The word is Thamizh, which has Vallinam ‘Tha’, Mellinam ‘Ma’ and Idaiyinam ‘Zha’ in it. In a surprisingly curious manner we have also learnt that the word Thamizh is never mentioned in Thirukural, truly making it a Universal Literary Work. Sounds Fun?

Being  QuizMaster :) !

The best quiz questions are the ones which have a story to it, which combines beauty, breadth and balance, all in a well-framed question. “The giant swing in Bangkok hosts one of the 12 Royal Ceremonies of Thailand where holy verses from literary works Tri-Bave and Tri-Yampavai are recited. These works are Thai translations of original Thamizh works X and Y.” Needless to say, X is Thirupaavai and Y is Thiruvempaavai, holy verses on Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Here’s another. “Connect these. Antiquity, Harmony, Clarity, Independent, Serenity, Idealism Universality, Reason, Order, Humanism.” All these qualities are the criteria for a classical language status. Thamizh is one of the 6 recognized classical languages, and the more profound fact is that it is the only one which is still in wide usage amongst common speakers. That is not an easy question to crack.

One reason for conducting this Quiz was to bridge the gap between what we want to know and what we should know. We know a lot more about a Foreign Football Club than our own mother tongue. We are very much disconnected with our roots, because fundamentally we don’t take pride in our cultural and linguistic backgrounds. We have to wonder why we keep distance from our identities and pretend to be someone who we are not, trapping ourselves in places where we don’t belong.

One of the Connect Questions displayed pictures of Anaconda, Cheetah, Cash, Mango and Ginger, asking for a specific connect between them. A lot of connections are possible, and that is one of the positives of Quizzes, because it encourages possibilities involving a lot of educated guesses. The answer that I intended was that all these English words are of Thamizh origin: Anaconda from ‘Yaanai Kondran’ (Elephant Killer), Cheetah from ‘Siruthai’, Cash from ‘Kaasu’, Mango from ‘Maangaai’ and Ginger from ‘Inji’. Another Etymology question was “X is a richly flavored soup of Anglo-Indian origin, spiced with curry powder and served with a dollop of tangy sour cream. X translated literally from Tamizh means pepper water”. The soup is Mulligatawny, from the Thamizh ‘Milagu Thanneer’. Amazing how English borrows a lot from our language!

We are at the brink of facing a ‘never-before’ challenge of losing relevance due to an overwhelming influence of English. Not more than 10% of today’s existing languages are expected to survive the century. Thamizh, which has an unbroken chain of literary tradition, is facing a crisis today because a significant percentage of Thamizh people do not know to read or write in Thamizh. Tales of Chola and Pandya kings, Austere Avvaiyar’s classical literature, Our Architectural marvels, Supreme achievements in arts and culture are read more by foreigners in printed coffee table books than in fast forward Tamil homes. This has to Change. We have to take pride in our roots and represent our identities.

Interacting with the Participants

I took the liberty of introducing innovative rounds in the Quiz finals. One such round is ‘Minimalist Lyrics’ where the first line of a Thamizh Film song is represented in an image. The task is to find out the lyrics from its minimalist representation. Another round is, ‘Titular Books’ where the literary inspiration for prominent movie titles has to be found out. For example ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ is taken from the famous lines in Bharathiyar’s Panchali Sabatham. It was also fun naming the popular “pick your poison” quizzing round in Thamizh as ‘வேண்டப்பட்ட விரோதி!’

Quiz questions should give ‘Eureka Moments’ when the answers are revealed. “X is a Thamizh word for the ethnic group Yadava. Similar to Yadava, X also means both king and herdsmen. Ilangovadigal gave special mention to X in Silapathikaaram as they provided accommodation for Kannagi.” A word which means both king and herdsmen? ‘Kon’ is King, and ‘Ko’ means cow, hence, herdsmen are called Konaar! All Thamizh students have an acquaintance with the famous ‘Konaar Guide’.

Thamizh Book Shops have become glorified stationers where people queue up to buy “Tamil Guide Books” to pass an exam. No other Thamizh book sells as much. If a Thamizh Book sells a meager 5000 copies, it is considered a bestseller whereas the benchmark for other ‘light-read, skim through’ English ‘novels’ is in the million copies range. This is no rivalry, because, truly Thamizh has no enemies. One has to be living under a rock to be saying Thamizh isn’t universal and accommodating. Bharathiyaar asked to translate literary works of other languages into Thamizh alongside creating immortal Thamizh works.  “Every town is my town. Everyone is my kin. Good and bad don’t come from others” says an ancient Puranaanooru Poem. Relief comes from within. Thamizh is Innovating. One Quiz Question example would suffice.

“KaReFo is a non profit educational research organization founded by lyricist Madhan Karky. Their focus is on Tamil Computing and language growth. One of their beta products includes Agaraadhi.com, which introduces new foreign words into Thamizh. One example of the word is Thaami(தாமி) which roughly means ‘something one does to oneself’, the English original of which was an Internet Sensation in 2013.” Thaami is the Thamizh word for Selfie!

There is no denying the fact that it is important to learn foreign languages to be connected to the world. But to be connected to ourselves, we have to protect our voice amidst external qualms. We owe a debt to the forthcoming generations to preserve the unbroken literary tradition. That is the message of the quiz, to keep learning, to reach for the sky while also staying deep rooted in our identities. Say Welcome to English and Thamizh will reply back in kind as ‘Vanakkam’!