Bangalore, Nov 18 (IANS): It is neither fiction nor a textbook. But a book that breaks myths about the jargonised world of IT is going into re-print in less than a fortnight!

"Know IT better," the 500 questions quiz book brought out by Macmillan, strips the myth that IT is nothing but computer science.

Not for nothing has the book's author, Giri Balasubramaniam, acquired the name "Pickbrain" and become India's first IT quizmaster with a record 28 shows in a dozen cities across the country in 18 months.

"It was just a gut feeling that we decided on publishing this book. And, the response has been really overwhelming. We are going for a re-print of 40,000. Our next effort is to see that it is prescribed as a non-academic book for schoolchildren," Raghu Ramakrishnan, vice president, Macmillan, Kolkata, told IANS.

A growing sense of awareness about IT was the only basis for that gut feeling of Ramakrishnan, whose publishing house is focused completely on textbooks for all sections of students.

It was the response of not just students, but parents and teachers as well, to quiz shows -- mainly sponsored by India's largest software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) -- that made this marketing professional-turned-quizmaster consider putting down 500 questions in black and white.

"We have tried to remove the myth that IT means computer science. Companies today expect the student to know jargons in the world of IT and its products. The student needs to have industry awareness. IT is a wide and larger canvas. That's what the questions are all about," says Balasubramaniam, 30.

"The teacher-parent involvement is much higher for quiz shows. Parents don't stop children from going to quiz shows anymore," says Balasubramaniam, who heads the independent centre www.quizbrain.com of the portal indiainfo.com.

The success of the Rural IT quiz for the BangaloreIT.com 2000 left the quizmaster, shell-shocked as it did the sponsor, T. Ramadorai, CEO, TCS.

That's when Ramadorai decided to take his company's quiz programmes from two or three urban centres to the national level and covering the rural sector as well.

"Pickbrain will be the quiz master because after this show, one can never be sure where talent can be found, urban or rural," he had told IANS. "And this year's rural quiz also made me realize that the divide between rural and urban children is only in respect of language and confidence levels," says Balasubramaniam.

The over 3,000-strong question bank is prepared by Balasubramaniam's 11-member team at quizbrain.com, six of whom are techies. What started as a hobby for him has turned into a good business opportunity.

"Quiz is a product and I am its product manager," says Balasubramaniam, who got into quizzing "because there was an empty space."

Last year the turnover of quizbrain.com was Rs.1.6 million after 50 quiz shows. From March 2000 until now, quizbrain.com has hosted 114 quiz shows, including 28 purely IT-related ones.

"We should cross Rs.2.5 million this year and the future looks bright," adds Balasubramaniam. His confidence emanates from the fact that more and more fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) are focusing on the buying power of children.

So what is it that has made 15,000 copies of "Know IT better" sell in a fortnight? "IT itself is giving the impetus and television quiz shows have only helped that," says Ramakrishnan.

Imran Qureshi

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