The Quiz Foundation of India (Chennai Chapter), affectionately known as the QFI Chennai, and not-so-affectionately known as ‘that motley bunch of losers’, is the largest, and oldest, official quizzing related organization in the city of Chennai. It has a number of regular members who come together for fortnightly meetings. At these meetings, one or two of the members conduct a quiz and the others heckle them, make loud, unfunny remarks and generally make fools of themselves.

If you still want to learn more about the organization and how to get involved with it, you can find all you need to know in the following F.A.Q. (we hope):

How did the QFI begin?

The first meeting of the QFI was convened sometime in 1987 by C.P.Ramesh at C-2, Parkland Apartments, Harrington Road in Chetpet. It was attended by four others – Sujatha, Gopal Kidao, Diwakar Pingle and Navin Jayakumar and they reportedly had tea and samosas while answering a few quiz questions. This makes the group approximately 21 years old. Currently, the QFI is headed by Mrs. Saranya Jayakumar (President) and Mr. Rajen Prabhu (Secretary).

How and where do the meetings happen?

The meetings happen every alternate Sunday at 10 a.m. As the QFI is a non-profit organization, it needs to find kind and charitable people/organizations to grant it the use of a largish hall with plenty of chairs and dependable power supply without asking for any rent. The QFI has also learnt, from painful experience, that however kind these people are, they quickly get irritated by the uncouth behaviour exhibited by its members and so, the venues for the meetings change very often. Over the years, the venues have included the LLA Building near the British Council, JDP Hall, the top floor of the Raju Nursing Home, the United India Insurance Training centre in Nungambakkam, AOTS Dosokai Japanese Cultural Centre, IIT-Madras, and the VETA training centre in T. Nagar.

Currently, the QFI meets inside the campus of the famous P.S. Senior Secondary School, situated at No. 33, Alarmelmangapuram, Mylapore, Chennai 600004.

How do I become a member?

You will need to first download our online application form from this website and submit it, with all 58 pages duly filled in, with well-written, insightful essay answers to the questions “Why Quizzing?” and “How do you feel about long visual connect questions, and why?” You will also need to provide, along with the form, three separate letters of recommendation and four passport size photographs. We will then inform you, within six weeks, if we would like to meet you for the personal interview: a unique, gruelling 27-day process.

No, we’re just kidding. He He He. You can just turn up at one of the meetings. You can get information about upcoming meetings by joining the official QFI Chennai mailing list at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/qfi/.

What kind of people can I expect to see at these meetings?

Most kinds, actually. We really are a very diverse bunch. Journalists, bankers, slaves of the IT industry, engineering students, pesky school kids, housewives, b-school students, dictators, serial killers, escaped convicts and several species of small, furry rodents. It’s all one big happy family.

What else does the QFI do?

Apart from the usual fortnightly meetings, there are two major annual events on the QFI calendar – the QFI Grandmaster Quiz and the QFI Open Quiz. Members of the QFI also frequently organize and conduct quizzes for a number of schools, colleges and companies based in and around the city.

What exactly is the QFI Grandmaster Quiz?

The QFI Grandmaster Quiz, held once a year, is for individuals (as opposed to teams) and aims to identify the best quizzer for that year. This event was first held in the year 2002. The winner for each year usually conducts the next year’s edition of the quiz. The list of Grandmasters so far is as follows:

2002 – Samanth Subramanian

2003 – Rajiv Rai

2004 – Vinod Ganesh

2005 – Samanth Subramanian

2006 – Jayakanthan

2007 – Swaminathan Ganesh

2008 – Samanth Subramanian

2009 – Kiran Vijayakumar

Tell us a bit more about the QFI Open Quiz.

The QFI Open Quiz is a general quiz open to both members and non-members. It was first held in June 2005 and witnessed a turnout of around 125 teams of three members each. Since then, three more highly successful editions have been conducted. The quizmaster team for the first four editions has comprised Vinod Ganesh, Krishnamurti Ganesh and Vikram Rajan. The winning teams so far:

2005 – ‘Know Brainers’ (Gopal Kidao, Rajiv Rai and Rajen Prabhu)

2006 – ‘Memory Banks’ (Saranya Jayakumar, Sivakumar and Avinash Mudaliar)

2007 – ‘QED’ (Samanth Subramanian, Swaminathan Ganesh and Gopal Kidao)

2008 – ‘Tequila Mockingbird’ (Rajiv Rai, Rajen Prabhu and Jayakanthan)

2009 – ‘QED’ (Samanth Subramanian, Swaminathan Ganesh and Jayakanthan)

Is there any membership fee involved to be part of the QFI?

There is no membership fee required to attend the meetings but a nominal amount of Rs.150 is collected every year to enable access to a private mailing list in which the questions asked during the meetings are circulated.

If you still have any questions about the QFI that you need answered, please leave them in the comments section. We’ll try and answer them as soon as possible.