• In conversation with the most active quiz master in SL

Today, The Daily Morning shifted its attention from traditional sports to a completely opposite yet super competitive art, a mind sport – Quizzing – and we delve deep into the life and times of the most wanted man in town in the circle of quizzing in the island-nation. 

A winner of The Outstanding Young Persons of Sri Lanka (TOYP) award, Shehan Kumar is a senior corporate leader with more than 25 years of global corporate experience in areas such as brand, marketing, communications and management, having served in some of the world’s top multinational organisations.  

Shehan is currently Sri Lanka’s most active quiz master conducting some of Sri Lanka’s most high-profile quiz competitions, including Biz Quiz, Megaminds and Let’s Get Quizzical. He recently hosted a quiz for over 15,000 participants worldwide and has hosted Sri Lanka’s biggest quiz – the Sampath Bank Quiz which draws over 175 teams annually.

He is also a much-sought-after Corporate Trainer for areas such as personal grooming, corporate etiquette, presentation skills and public speaking.

We sat down with ‘SRK’ – Shehan Romesh Kumar for a chat last weekend. 

Following are excerpts from the interview:

How did it all begin? Your love affair with quizzing?

My dad worked long shifts and after a tiring day’s work, he would come home and I used to massage his feet. As an incentive, my dad used to ask me questions on capital cities, countries, currencies etc. I must have been about six or seven years old at the time. This got me really interested and I could say that this was the start of my love affair for quizzing.

I began poring over the World Atlas book each day after school and used to love memorising the details of each national flag printed at the back of the book.

I studied at Wesley College –  a school with an amazing history of quizzing. During the late 90s, Wesley was a formidable force in school quizzing and us winning the oldest continuously run schools quiz The Blue and Gold Quiz organised by Royal College in 1997 was the icing on the cake.

What are you up to these days with your professional life? 

Right now I juggle multiple roles. I serve as the chief growth officer for an organisation dedicated to empower parents, promote correct parenting and lifelong learning.

I am also Sri Lanka’s most active quiz master conducting two quizzes every week on average. I conduct quizzes for almost all the banks in Sri Lanka, many trade associations as well as many corporations.

I am also a corporate trainer specialising in areas such as personal branding, personal grooming and etiquette, public Speaking, as well as presentation skills. In addition to this, I also conduct lectures at many of Sri Lanka’s universities.

When did you realise that quizzing can be a game-changer in a big corporate environment?

I started conducting quizzes professionally in 2013. I wanted to make my quizzes different from all those ‘boring’ and ‘rocket-science’ sort of quizzes we grew up with. I wanted to make quizzing a foundation for people to learn in a fun and engaging manner. So, I made my quizzes fun. I even created quizzes to ensure that the same old veterans don’t win quizzes. This became quite controversial at the time with some of them even threatening me that my quizzes would fail. But I was determined, and we launched Biz Quiz in 2013 for the first time to crown Sri Lanka’s Mercantile Quizzing Champion. We even introduced category winners for the first time in Sri Lanka. This format saw a whole new generation of quizzers coming forward and winning. Today, many other quizzes follow this same formula introduced by me.

But even then, I used to do a maximum of four to five quizzes every year. But then came Covid and my career as a quiz master began to flourish after that. Just before the lockdown, I had discovered this platform called ‘Kahoot’ which could be used for quizzes. But the basic package only allowed a few participants to login in virtually. I took a big risk and invested a significant amount at that time to buy a premium licence for this platform. 

I launched Sri Lanka’s first online quizzing competition ‘Let’s Get Quizzical’ in May 2020. This started as a free competition to keep people engaged during the lockdown. The first competition saw almost 400 registrants and that’s when I knew that this was going to be huge. By episode two, I had already got a sponsor, and then gradually participants in this quiz began to recommend me to their organisations as an option to keep their employees engaged during Covid. This really took off and there was one month where I actually had 16 quizzes scheduled. I was even conducting quizzes for organisations in the Middle East and participants from all over the world were taking part in my quizzes including USA, UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea and even from the African Continent.

What is your most memorable quizzing moment? 

There are quite a few. But I would say number one is when more than 15,000 participants took part in one of my global quizzes. I honestly don’t think any other quiz master in the world has ever done that.

I have to mention the fact that both my kids are quiz masters too. My daughter became a quiz master when she was 10 and then my son hosted his first quiz when he was 8. As a dad, these are priceless memories to cherish.

What’s the next big thing you’re planning? 

I think the time is ripe to take my quizzing to the next level. My biggest dream is to take my quizzing to the mass market through TV. I am also looking at venturing out with a few quizzes internationally.

How can kids balance studies, sports, and quizzing? 

One of the biggest misconceptions about quizzing is that you need to be a ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’ to take part in quizzes. Absolutely not, I’m neither a nerd nor a geek, but I love to learn new things and share my knowledge with others. Quizzing is a mind sport. It will help your mind relax, help you become more organised, and above all, make you disciplined enough to balance other activities.

How’s your overall view on quizzing in Sri Lanka? Do we need more of that culture? And how to gain traction towards it?

Quizzing helps people acquire more knowledge and that is badly needed in Sri Lanka. We need to be more curious about how things work in the world. I’m glad I’m doing my part, but quizzing overall has to improve. Corporate quizzes are plenty, but open quizzes are also required. Which is why you see a loyal community take part especially in pub quizzes regularly.

If you were able to change a policy/something in SL what would that be?

Remove the boring old school syllabuses. Things we learnt in school over 30 years ago are still being taught to our kids. Most kids hate history as a subject. That, I think, is due to teachers who lack imagination and creativity. Some nations have even dedicated periods in school for general knowledge. We need to make general knowledge a mandatory subject at school.

Finally, what is your advice to the future generation? 

Find out what your passion is and work hard at it. In whatever you do, make sure you strive to be the finest. If you told me 10 years ago that I will be doing what I am doing right now, I would have laughed at you. But I found out my passion and worked really hard to get to where I am today. If I can do it, so can you.