Your time starts now. The sentence alone is enough to take us back to memories of watching a quiz show, inducing anticipation for the viewer and of course, stress for participants. And Siddhartha Basu is no stranger to that statement. He has been associated with a long list of competitions — beginning with hosting Quiz Time that first aired on Doodarshan in 1985, and, in 2000, success followed with Kaun Banega Crorepati where Basu turned producer. In an event hosted by Crossword Bookstores in Mumbai this Saturday, the quizmaster is all set to release his new book, Indian Century (DK Books). Edited excerpts from an interview.

What are the key elements that make for an engaging quiz? How much of that has been translated into this book?
The key is to whet curiosity and intrigue interest, sometimes underlining facts or far better, leading into facts which are lesser known or not known at all, which sheds new light on our understanding. That's the guiding line of Indian Century, which is an illustrated, elegantly presented quizipedia curated on a formative period of independent India, full of nuggets on the making and makers of modern India, meant to be read and savoured with interest. It's not a collection of questions and answers at all.