Septugenrian Sundararajan lives with his wife Lalitha in Coimbatore. Their residence is full of books on various subjects. "I had a quest for information from my childhood days. This attracted me to quizzing. However it was my father N.V.Narayanaswamy who began this process by making us know about countries and their capital cities. I did my schooling at Children Garden School in Chennai. My father got transferred to Bihar. Therefore I stayed with my great grandmother Subbulakshmi and her mother Gauri Paatti until the year 1955. My great grandmother used to read Dinamani everyday and it was interesting to see her getting updated by the day. This atmosphere furthered my quest. Subsequently we moved over to Race Course and I began to stay with my uncle N.V.Krishnaswamy who happened to be a leading lawyer. He was subscribing to a number of papers and periodicals. Nowadays I buy several of them and read through the day. Education was at St.Micheals School and my PUC was from Loyola College. Thereafter the B.Sc in Physics was from PSG College of Arts and Science. This was followed by a degree in law from the Madras Law College. The first year was known as FL (Fellow of Law) and the second year was known as BL (Bachelor of Law). I was an avid quizzer those years."
Septugenrian Sundararajan lives with his wife Lalitha in Coimbatore. Their residence is full of books on various subjects. "I had a quest for information from my childhood days. This attracted me to quizzing. However it was my father N.V.Narayanaswamy who began this process by making us know about countries and their capital cities. I did my schooling at Children Garden School in Chennai. My father got transferred to Bihar. Therefore I stayed with my great grandmother Subbulakshmi and her mother Gauri Paatti until the year 1955. My great grandmother used to read Dinamani everyday and it was interesting to see her getting updated by the day. This atmosphere furthered my quest. Subsequently we moved over to Race Course and I began to stay with my uncle N.V.Krishnaswamy who happened to be a leading lawyer. He was subscribing to a number of papers and periodicals. Nowadays I buy several of them and read through the day. Education was at St.Micheals School and my PUC was from Loyola College. Thereafter the B.Sc in Physics was from PSG College of Arts and Science. This was followed by a degree in law from the Madras Law College. The first year was known as FL (Fellow of Law) and the second year was known as BL (Bachelor of Law). I was an avid quizzer those years."
Sundararajan had done his early education in Chennai for his father while was serving g in the electricity department. He moved over to Coimbatore in his third form which was equivalent to the current eighth standard. "We used to have five classes and six forms until we completed the S.S.L.C then. Sarala Panchapakesan of Tattvaloka (Sringeri Mutt Magazine) was my classmate in this old school which had been founded by Dr Sharma and his wife was Ellen Sharma, a German lady.She used to take classes for the students. Their daughter Shakuntala Sharma became the Director later on. The Children Garden School was located in a lane adjacent to ' Girija ', the residence of Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.
The law student had stayed in the Madras University Students Club and the bill used to come to about Rs.90 plus per month. Sundararajan had been following up with cricket and moved over to quizzing in the law college. The college had a quizz team and it was chosen by Dr. Johnson of the Pachaiyappas. He used to conduct a quizz for the interested students and the winners would be made to represent the law college. "I still remember answering the questions. My first answer was for the question, Who wrote Alice in Wonderland ? and my answer was Lewis Caroll. We had a Tamil and an English Quizz team. The debating team was also chosen and I still have our group photo with our Director of Legal Studies, S. Rangarajan and G.Masilamani President of the Students Assocaition. The Director was a capable person and went on to become a High Court Judge. All of us got books in order to prepare for quizz contests and my first year room mate K. Sampath who became a High Court Judge used to have a number of books meant for upgrading our general knowledge. His father Krishnaswamy Iyengar had a roaring legal practice in Cuddalore. The second year room mate R.Natesan was the Secretary of the Law College Students Association. However my quizzmate was one P.B.Krishnamurthy. His father was P.V. Balakrishna Iyer an ICS Bar at Law who happened to be a High Court Judge. Krishnamurthy and myself participated in a number of quizz programmes and brought laurels to our institution. The general knowledge books were from Delhi and newspapers were helpful too. Year books were not available then. We did not have buzzer or visual rounds for technology was quite simple those days. The hostel had quizz contests for the inmates and I was part of it. I finished my college and then came over to Coimbatore in order to join work under the eminent advocate C.P. Meenakshisundaram Sastriar."
Sundararajan's quest continued in Coimbatore also. He used to answer all questions in the TV shows connected with Quizzing regularly. He remembers the programmes of Derek O Brien, Siddhartha Basu etc. Vandana Mohan used to be part of a number of quizz events as the supporting anchor on television. Sundararajan and his wife Lalitha lead a retired life these days. Their quest for knowledge had enabled their three sons Nagasubramanian, Lakshmikanth and Bharathram to take to quizzing. "We were very particular to ensure that there was multi faceted development. Our sons won a number of events and we have a huge number of certificates, medals and trophies at home now. It was the year 1989 and our son Nagasubramanian participated in the Jawaharlal Centenary Quizz and he reached the semi finals nationally. The Rotary Club recognized his achievement and awarded him with "Best Young Citizen of the Year". The boys used to participate in a number of quizz contests outside school and college to. We used to get them the Manorama Year Book regularly . Our sons took to learning more and more from their childhood days and this helped them to win recognitions. We used to discuss quizzing as a family," recalls Lalitha Sundararajan.
The quizz enthusiast used to send answers by post to the audience questions and has retained one designer watch which was won by him while responding to the Budget Quizz Contest some years ago. Sundararajan had also participated in the first ever Coimbatore Quizz conducted by Siruthuli about 10 years prior. This quizz had been part of the Coimbatore Day celebrations and was the first one of it's kind. Avid quizzer and founder of PRICOL D. Vijaymohan was the Chief Guest for this event. The knowledge seeking couple finish their work in order to sit down and watch events like Bizquiz. The Bournvita Quizz was another of their favourites. Sundararajan remembers a number of questions from the Kaun Banega Crorepati programmes. "Nowadays, we just enjoy watching and answering questions which come up on television. Quizzing is a lot of fun and we learn a lot in the process," smiled N. Sundararajan. The cosy home is full of books and curios.
Coimbatore has been fortunate to be blessed with families of quizzers. Chandramohan founded the Coimbatore Quizz Foundation and industrialist Joseph Nejedley of Praga was an early quizz pioneer. The evolution of quizzing in Coimbatore needs a full story. Meanwhile let us cherish the moment by looking into the quizzing quest of N. Sundararajan, the gentleman who is ever eager to answer.