Some time during the turn of the century, a bet was laid between one Mr. James Daly and another person (whose name has disappeared with the passage of time) in a Dublin pub. The clause being that Mr. Jim Daly would invent and popularize a word by the next day. He went about the town painting it red with the word he had invented -QUIZ. The next day the word was the talk of the town. The die was cast.

As years rolled by this word attained many meanings, one of which was associated with the art of questioning. Quizzing as a mindgame became extremely popular with the emergence of quizzes like BBC Mastermind and names of quizzes like The $64,000 question becoming phrases in the English language.

An endeavour of a smaller magnitude to bring this art of questioning and reasoning into the lives of the students was brought about in the R.V. College of Engineering when a tiny seed of an idea was sown in the minds of Avinash H. Mudaliar and Gopal Srinivasan. They initially set up a quiz club called R.V.C.E., their expansion of the acronym being "R V Curious Enough?". The seed was nurtured into a dense foliage of intellect when their club evolved into The Quiz Corp. in 1995. Encouraged by the principal Prof. M. R. Holla and by the signs of interest shown amidst the students, quizzing in R.V.C.E emerged to be more than a hobby - it became a culture.

Avinash, (affectionately referred to as Anna by the members), the co-founder of The Quiz Corp. got hooked to quizzing by absolute fluke. There was a vital inter-school quiz competition when he was in school. Unfortunately, one of the team members was down with typhoid and Avinash was asked to substitute. That first quiz snowballed into a career for this engineering graduate. Being a voracious reader who reads anything he can get his hands (and eyes) on, he has managed to carve a niche for himself in the quizzing world. Gopal Srinivasan, the other co-founder of The Quiz Corp. is no less a quizzer. This soft-spoken, muscular, six footer (affectionately referred to as GG- Gentle Giant) can be very formidable when he is doling out fundae on varied topics. Together, he and Avinash have given many a quizmaster a tough time. Their quizzes have proved to be challenges even to many experienced quizzers.

The primary objectives of setting up The Quiz Corp. were to:

The Quiz Corp. also believes in decentralising its resources and encourages an informal attitude of working. This is what probably explains why its meetings are mainly held in the R.V. Canteen or on the rocks near Bal Bhavan in Cubbon Park. But informal does not mean unprofessional- the standards of The Quiz Corp.’s quizzes and the levels of professionalism shown by its members are very high.

The Quiz Corp. disproves the misconception that one has to be a born quizzer to be a member of a quiz club. Avinash stands as an example as to how a person, who was never into quizzing initially, can rise to great heights in the quizzing world.

Ever since, quizzers and quizmasters from The Quiz Corp. have displayed their talent at every level. Over the years quizzers from The Quiz Corp. have won quizzes at many fests like Saarang(IIT,Madras), Oasis(BITS,Pilani), Mood Indigo(IIT,Bombay), Legala(NLSIU), Incident(KREC,Suratkal).In the academic year of 1999–2000 alone, its members could boast of winning quizzes at National Law School(Legala) ,Christ College, St. Joseph’s college of Arts and Science, PESIT, IIM Bangalore and even at IIT Madras. Quizmasters from The Quiz Corp. have been invited to conduct quizzes at the state level, for companies like Infosys and MICO, for institutions like the Institution of Engineers, (India)and even by Channel V for a telecast programme.

The Quiz Corp is now at the zenith of collegiate quizdom, and continues in its tradition of providing quality quizzes on any topic.

What is the colour of a leopard’s spots?

If that seemed obvious to you, try this one : How did the word obvious enter the language?

Some questions have straight forward answers, like the one you just dismissed as obvious, others hold a hidden meaning. The word obvious comes from Latin for ‘middle of the road’ because every one could see what was in the middle of the road. At The Quiz Corp., we do not believe in looking at the middle of the road all the time, we hunt for the hidden essence. Unlike Newton, we do not wait for the apple to fall on our heads, and the answer to reveal itself, we look for the answer. We deal in questions and answers, in knowledge.

The Quiz Corp. has always believed that Curiosity is the key to knowledge. To keep that insatiable thirst for knowledge going, The Quiz Corp. organises quizzes in R.V.C.E. every fortnight. The themes for the fortnightly on campus quizzes have been versatile. They range from popular subjects such as Literature and Sports to highly specific topics such as Rock Music and Chemical Engineering. These quizzes may be conducted by any student with a yen for quizzing.

Apart from these quizzes conducted in college, members of The Quiz Corp. meet every Saturday afternoon in Cubbon Park and a quiz is conducted. The meetings have an attendance of about 40 to 50 students. These meetings are held on the massive rocks near Bal Bhavan and hence these meetings are fondly recollected as ‘On the Rocks’. Each member conducts a quiz each week and this, apart from being enlightening, has also turned out to be a very enjoyable experience for all of the members. We hope to continue this tradition of meeting up in the weekends and hope for a larger participation in the same in the days to come.

Besides these regular quizzes, an annual event called ‘Funda-Mental’ is held to determine the best team in college. The winning team conducts the quiz in the subsequent year and hands over the mantle of being the top team in college.

The Quiz Corp. also holds an annual National level Inter-collegiate Quiz festival called Under the Peepal Tree’which in its inaugural year in 1999 attracted over fifty teams from institutions such as IIT(Mumbai), BITS(Pilani) and KREC( Suratkal). Held over three days, the fest comprised of five quizzes which brought out the best not only from the competing teams but also from the question setters. This year we hope to double the participation while retaining the high standards set last year.

With every year marking the entry of fresh, eager minds waiting to take over from where their seniors leave, The Quiz Corp.’s aim in establishing a quizzing tradition in R.V.C.E. has come true.