Nipun Jain and Mohit Mamoria met on Twitter five years ago. They both enjoyed quizzing and trivia, and it was only natural that before long they wanted to share their interest with the world. Their YouTube channel, Arey Pata Hai, was launched in 2023 and since then, they have created nearly 900 video quizzes and have amassed more than 9 lakh subscribers.
The aim of the channel is to “make curiosity cool again”, whose power, the duo believes, we begin to underestimate as we grow older.
In a conversation with Scroll, Jain and Mamoria talked about why they wanted to write a quiz book, the quizzing culture in India, and why analogue hobbies are here to stay.
Nipun and Mohit, tell us about your quizzing and trivia journey. How did you get interested in it? Do you recall the first time you quizzed together?
We didn’t even know it was called something when we started doing it. We started Arey Pata Hai to share random trivia from around the world.
By experimenting with the content format, we once flipped our script – to not tell you trivia plainly, but to also hide the subject of the trivia and made each other guess based on the rest of the clues. This format clicked with the audience as they enjoyed guessing themselves. And before we knew it, there were lakhs of people watching us make guesses and fail miserably. Only eventually, we learned that this particular activity is called “quizzing.”
To us, quizzing meant the hardcore school competitions. Little did we know it can be such an enjoyable activity too!
And how did the two of you become a team?
We met on Twitter (or whatever it is called now) in 2021. We got married exactly 365 days later. When we decided to create content, it became an obvious choice to do it together.
The content we create now (quizzing, puzzling and trivia sharing) is what we have been doing regularly since 2021, when we started dating. It is our love language.
Even on those days when one of us is a little pissed off at the other, sharing a puzzle with each other becomes our ice breaker. We are partners in everything – life, work, and everything in between.
“Make curiosity cool again.” This is your motto. What do you think is killing our curiosity? What are some of the ways that one can remain curious about their immediate surroundings
This one phrase we heard often while growing up has damaged our curiosity the most – ye aise hi hota hai (it’s like that only).
Every time a child’s curious question is answered with the above phrase, a little bit of curiosity dies. And eventually the child grows to believe that the world around them is built and shaped by people who are better than them or smarter than them.
We have started believing that the world around us is like “this only.” However, the fact is that the world is a very malleable thing – anyone can change it and leave their mark on it forever – only if they remember to be curious.
One easy way to reignite curiosity (besides watching our videos or reading our book) is to “question everything.” No matter how small a thing is, no question is trivial. For example, “Why are flamingos pink?” or “Why is Mona Lisa so famous?” or “How did Romans write zero?” or “Why is the symbol for lead in the periodic table Pb?” or (as I type this answer) “Why is our computer keyboard QWERTY and not ABCDE?”
Questioning everything and not taking “just like that only” as the answer is how to reignite and grow one’s curiosity.
You are massively popular on YouTube. Why did you want to venture into publishing a book?
When we were starting out, we wanted to learn a lot of trivia so that we could make content consistently. We searched for books too, but couldn’t quite find anything similar to what we were looking for. The books were either for kids or for aspirants. There was nothing for “casually curious” people like us.
In 2023, Nipun made a note that one day we would write a book that we want to exist in the world.
The same is true for our video content too. We create content that we want to watch on the internet but nobody is doing.
Our plan to publish a book was not too hasty. It was planned to be done “someday” but fate had other plans for us. We met our publishers at a pub quiz in Gurgaon, and they were regular viewers of our content on YouTube. When they offered a book deal, we didn’t hesitate to say yes.
During the pandemic, we saw a rise in analogue hobbies. Many people have continued with it even though the pandemic, thankfully, is behind us. Would you say What the What?! is also encouraging adults to stick to these analogue modes of fun?
Absolutely. The book is written in a way that is as engaging as a YouTube video but without a screen. There’s no wall of text.
What The What?! only happens to come in the shape of a book, but we think of it as a game. It has puzzles, quizzes, mind-blowing trivia, and all of it handcrafted. A LOT of readers have told us that they have finished the book in a single sitting because they could not put it down.
But what we consider our biggest win is the emails we are getting from first-time readers. They have never read a book before. They believed they could never read a book. That they don’t have enough attention span. Not only have they read What The What?!, they have finished it, and also got their hands on another book. Creating new readers is what we consider to be our win.
Were there any quiz books that you referred to while writing your own? I know how popular the Milo, Manorama, and Derek O’Brien’s quiz books are…
We have stopped referring to any books or videos for the last few years. For videos and for the book – both.
You may ask why? It is because you don’t know when information seeps into your subconscious and you start creating inspired work. We made sure to NOT read or even look at any quiz book – because we didn’t want to make just another book like those. They already exist. Very few people buy quiz books.
In fact, in our book, the word “quiz” is not even used. The very first chapter, “The Most Curious Mark” in the book redefines what quizzing is and what this book is about through our lens.
How popular is quizzing as a hobby in India? Nipun, why do you think it remains a male-dominated field and how do we get more women interested in it?
Quizzing is veryyyyyyy young in India. We went to London in the summer this year, and what we witnessed there blew our socks off! (sorry for the British slang, ha ha!)
There was quizzing happening at every corner. There was a quiz section in each bookstore. There was a quiz event every single day in our neighbourhood. There were people reading quiz and puzzle books on the trains. There are so many quiz game shows on TV. It was insane!
India is just beginning. We believe it is as young as stand-up comedy was 15 years ago.
This year, it was easily possible to fill a room of 40-60 people. One day, it will be easy to do a show to an audience of 600 people, perhaps. Long way to go!
From a woman’s POV, quizzing to me always felt like a gatekept activity – not only to me as a woman, but to me as a casually curious person. I always thought you need to be an absolute geek, an absolute thick-glass-wearing, coder nerd to be a part of quizzing. It always felt as if I gave an incorrect answer, I would fail. But once I realised that this is an enjoyable activity, where you don’t lose, you only learn, where my everyday curiosity was just enough, there was no stopping.
One of the ways of getting more women interested in it is by including them in the content. We keep a diverse balance across genders while framing our questions. In fact, one of the most popular phrases in our community is “Stay Curies,” which is a word play where we celebrate the legendary Marie Curie and how far her curiosity led her. If you include women in the content, you make quizzing feel accessible for them.
Who are the intended readers of the book? It looks like a book suitable for young readers because of the illustrations, etc., but the quizzes are difficult to crack! So would you slot it as beginner-, intermediate-, or advanced-level friendly?
Honestly, the only “audience persona” that we could define for this book was “any curious person”. Irrespective of age, profession, or reading habits. The book is for all ages. We wrote what we would like to read. We are 29 and 34 ourselves.
The illustrations cut away the overwhelming feeling of staring at a wall of text. With that said, the quizzes are intermediate level; thus, you will spend a minute or two on each page to solve them, but they are not unsolvable.
The book is the perfect first book or the first quiz book for someone. It is definitely not for professional quizzers or advanced quizzers. They might find it dismissible and trivial (just like our videos). However, when you start reading it, you’ll realise that the book talks to you, instead of making you feel that you cannot solve everything. The book feels like sitting with a curious friend and spending an evening talking about the world. A friend who leaves us with so many “oh wow, I didn’t know that!” moments without making us feel bad for not knowing them.
What the What?!: Curious Questions, Curious Answers, Nipun Jain and Mohit Mamoria, Hachette India.
