The Curious Case Of... Chandrakant Nair
(All of us are born curious. Some of us actively practice it, irrespective of age. Our Curious Cases series give you a glimpse into the minds of such curious folk. May they rub off you the right way!)
A retired (and young) Indian Army Officer, Major (retd.) Nair is more popularly known as Captain (!) in Indian quizzing circles. This doctor sets some of the best quizzes in the country and is known for his innovative rounds. But there are several other sides to him such as a yen for travel and mountaineering and an undying passion for Manchester United.
Name
Chandrakant Nair
Location
Calicut
What I do
Doctor/Soldier/Quizzer/Roadie
On the Curiosity scale, I am...
Off The Scale Curious
What I prefer to consume (in descending order of preference):
Books > Audio > Newspapers > Social Media > Movies > TV Shows
Number of books and movies I get through in a year
Books - 35-40, Movies - 100+
One book I’d recommend to a friend / colleague:
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
My best source for book / movie / website recommendations:
One movie / show I’ve loved that hardly anyone else has watched
I am currently reading:
Hang Time by Bob Greene
One place on Earth that I am very curious about:
Russia, especially the Trans-Siberian Railway
Website(s) that I get a lot of useful info from:
The Guardian, The New York Times, The Hindu, Twitter
One topic I am super-opinionated about:
Football
People come to me to find out what I think about these topics:
Football (Sports in General, actually), The Indian Armed Forces, Quizzing
What I prefer to use (in descending order of preference)
Twitter > Facebook > Quora
The strangest food item I have eaten
Snakes!
If I could spend a day in the mind, body, and shoes of a person, it would be...
One interesting / fun fact I recently learnt:
The Avermectin drug trials that led to the 2015 Nobel Prize took place in Kerala!
I stay up-to-date by doing this...
Keeping Twitter running 24x7
One interesting/fun fact about myself
While I was in Class VI, I once went off to play a cricket match after school, without informing my parents. By the time I got home late in the evening, I had already become a 'missing person' with the police looking for me! :D
I express my curiosity by doing these things:
1. By attending quizzes whenever/wherever I can
2. By basing most of the questions I ask (in quizzes) on HOW? or WHY?, rather than WHAT/WHO? There are different types of curiosity as well, I guess :)
3. By reading up about stuff I come across on a daily basis
The one thing I am very interested in
The Indian Armed Forces
A habit or skill I’d love to acquire:
Learn to play drums
A movie or TV show that taught me something new
If there was one mystery I’d like to solve, it would be
What was really inside the suitcase in Pulp Fiction?
I would love to do this at least once
Climb Mount Everest! Seriously!
People I would like to ask all these same questions to:
Hrishikesh Varma, Praveen VR, Jithin Jacob, Arun Hiregange, Kiran Vijayakumar
Curiosity is important to my work because...
I find a lot of useless information that makes me immensely happy!
Someone I know who asks a lot of questions
Hrishikesh Varma
My curiosity tip
Always keep your eyes and ears open, make a note of the things that you don't understand, and try and find answers to these the same day