Best Desi Showdown Questions: Our Top 20

Most party games fail in the first round, because the first round asks somebody to stand up. This one asks them to shout an opinion they already hold, which is the one thing every room is willing to do.

Twenty questions below, each with the seven answers a crowd gives, ordered from the ones that warm a room up to the ones that divide it. Read them off the page, or let the game run itself and keep your hands free for scoring.

How does the scoring work?

Teams guess the answers a crowd gave, not the answer they think is right, and score points for every one they find on the list.

The top answer is worth the most. Three wrong guesses hands the question to the other team for one steal. That is the entire rule set, and adding to it makes the game slower rather than better.

Warm-up questions about family and food

Start here. Nobody needs persuading to have a view on snacks, and a room that has laughed once will play anything afterwards.

1. Name something every parent says.

• Log kya kahenge.
• When are you getting married.
• Eat more, you have gone thin.
• Why are you not a doctor.
• In my time.
• Do not tell your father.
• Did you turn the fan off.

2. What is the most common argument at a wedding?

• Who sits at the top table.
• The food, either the amount or the temperature.
• What the DJ is playing.
• Who paid for what.
• Everything running an hour late.
• Parking.
• Who was seated next to whom, and why.

3. Besides cricket, which game does everyone actually play?

• Carrom.
• Ludo.
• Teen Patti.
• Badminton.
• Kabaddi.
• Kho Kho.
• Chess.

4. Name a snack nobody can turn down.

• Samosa.
• Pani puri.
• Pakora.
• Jalebi.
• Vada pav.
• Dhokla.
• A bowl of bhujia that was meant for guests.

5. What happens in the first five minutes after guests arrive?

• Chai is offered before anyone has sat down.
• Biscuits appear on a plate nobody uses otherwise.
• Somebody asks about the traffic.
• They are told to eat something proper, twice.
• Somebody comments on how well they look.
• The children are asked what they are studying.
• The television goes on and nobody watches it.

6. Name something every kitchen has.

• A pressure cooker older than the marriage.
• A masala dabba.
• Steel dabbas in descending sizes.
• One brand of tea and no other.
• Agarbatti.
• A bag of bags.
• The good towel that guests are not allowed to use.

7. What is the standard fix for a small problem?

• Put some Vicks on it.
• Put some haldi on it.
• Phone an elder and describe it badly.
• It is just gas.
• Tape.
• Adjust kar lo.
• Blame the weather.

Questions about phones, travel and modern life

These land differently depending on who is in the room, which is what makes them useful once the easy rounds are done.

8. Name a video that keeps appearing on your feed.

• A dance challenge to a film song.
• Somebody acting out a brown parent.
• A recipe filmed from directly above.
• An outfit reveal in slow motion.
• Guess the song in one second.
• A recreated film scene shot in a living room.
• A screenshot of a family group chat.

9. What do people in their twenties and thirties complain about most?

• Explaining a career nobody at home recognizes.
• Being asked about marriage at every event.
• Dating apps, and who is allowed to know about them.
• Finding someone two sets of parents agree on.
• The family group chat.
• Being compared to a cousin who bought a house.
• Explaining why they want to live alone.

10. Name something that always goes in the suitcase.

• A jar of pickle wrapped in three bags.
• Tea bags, despite tea existing everywhere.
• Medicine for nine conditions nobody has.
• Mathri or chakli in a tin.
• One good outfit, just in case.
• A pressure cooker, if the trip is long enough.
• Gifts for people who did not know you were coming.

11. What do people get wrong about South Asian families?

• That everyone is vegetarian.
• That all the food is hot.
• That an arranged marriage means a forced one.
• That everyone speaks the same language.
• That it is one culture rather than dozens.
• That everyone is good at maths.
• That Bollywood is the only film industry.

12. Name a film everyone claims to dislike and rewatches anyway.

• Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
• Student of the Year.
• Main Hoon Na.
• Om Shanti Om.
• Dhoom 3.
• Race 3.
• Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, quietly.

13. What do people call someone who is too modern or too traditional?

• Too westernized.
• Coconut.
• ABCD.
• FOB.
• Old school.
• Modern khayal.
• Puraani soch.

14. Name something in the fridge that needs explaining.

• A tub of ginger garlic paste.
• Takeaway containers holding something else entirely.
• More dahi than one family can eat.
• Four kinds of achar.
• A bag of lemons with no plan.
• Rose water.
• An entire shelf that is only spices.

Questions that start an argument

Save these for last. They are the reason people ask for another round, and they are also the reason a round can run twenty minutes over.

15. Arranged marriage or love marriage?

• Love marriage, for the obvious reason.
• Arranged, for the support that comes with it.
• A blend of both, which is what most people actually mean.
• Arranged, but with a veto.
• It depends entirely on the two people.
• Whichever one your parents did not have.
• Neither. Stay single and keep the money.

16. Which festival is the most overrated?

• Diwali, for the cleaning.
• Holi, for the two days of washing afterwards.
• Raksha Bandhan, which has become a receipt.
• Karwa Chauth.
• Janmashtami, for the crowds.
• Navratri, by about night six.
• None of them. Refuse to answer.

17. Which food is always better at home than from a shop?

• Chai.
• Biryani.
• Samosa.
• Achar.
• Paratha.
• Dahi.
• Gulab jamun, though nobody agrees on this one.

18. Which superstition do you still quietly follow?

• No nail cutting after dark.
• No sweeping after dark.
• Dahi shakar before anything important.
• Nimbu mirchi on the door.
• Never turn shoes upside down.
• Do not call someone back once they have left.
• Black cat, different route.

19. Which Bollywood trope has been used one time too many?

• The run through the airport.
• The father who disapproves until the last four minutes.
• The song that has nothing to do with the plot.
• The separated twin.
• The hospital corridor and the slow walk.
• The returning cousin who fixes an entire village.
• The dance that everyone at the wedding somehow knows.

20. What is the most annoying part of a wedding?

• The number of ceremonies.
• Being pulled onto the dance floor.
• Personal questions from people you last met in 2009.
• Food arriving late or running out.
• Parking.
• The guest list, which nobody can explain.
• Music loud enough to end conversation entirely.

How do you run the night?

Run the warm-up questions first and the arguments last, and stop while people still want one more.

Two teams beats three. A third team spends most of the game waiting, and a waiting team starts its own conversation that you will not get back.

Let the ranking be argued with. Nobody has ever accepted that their answer was seventh, and the complaint is more entertaining than the point.

Ten questions is usually enough for an evening. Twenty is a long night, and the last five get half the attention of the first five.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from the television version?

The format is the same and the questions are not. The survey format everyone knows was written for an American living room, so half of its questions land flat in a room where nobody grew up with the references. These questions assume the room already knows what a masala dabba is, which means no time is lost explaining the question before anyone can answer it. The scoring, the strikes and the steal all work the way you expect.

How many players do you need?

Six to twelve is the sweet spot. Below six there are not enough competing opinions for a question to split the room, and the game turns into a quiz. Above twelve, individual turns disappear and the quieter half stops playing. If your group is bigger, run two large teams and let people shout over each other rather than taking orderly turns, because the shouting is most of the entertainment.

Which questions should you avoid with family present?

Question fifteen, if anyone at the table is currently arguing about it in real life. The rest are safe in any room. The ones about parents and weddings work best with three generations present, because each generation thinks the question is about the other one. If a question starts a real argument rather than a played one, move to the next question rather than trying to referee it.

Can you add your own questions?

Yes, and family-specific ones tend to outperform anything on this list. Name something that always goes missing in this house. Name something only one person in this family eats. The trick is that a good question has at least four defensible answers. If everyone gives the same answer, it is trivia rather than a round, and the game only works when the room disagrees.

How long does twenty questions take?

About seventy minutes with two teams, once the arguing is counted, and the arguing is not optional. Ten questions runs about thirty five. If you are fitting this around food, pick ten and keep the rest for the next time, because a game that ends early gets requested again and a game that overruns does not.

Start a round

Read one off the list, or open the game and let it pick while you keep score.