Funny Desi Showdown Questions to Start a Friendly Argument

The room is fine. The chai is out, the plates are going round, and nobody has said anything interesting in twenty minutes. What is missing is not more food. It is a question everyone already has an opinion about.

The twelve questions below are the ones that reliably split a room. Each comes with the answers people actually give, ranked the way a crowd would rank them, so you can run a round without writing anything first. If you would rather have the questions dealt to you, Desi Showdown does that on screen.

How does the game work?

One person reads a question, and everyone else tries to name the answers the crowd gave, not the answer they personally believe.

That gap is the whole game. The best answer and the most popular answer are rarely the same, and watching someone realize this in front of their family is the point.

Six answers sit behind each question below. Award points for each one a team finds. Three strikes and the other team gets one guess at whatever is left.

Questions about food and family

These are the ones that start fastest, because nobody needs warming up to have an opinion about rice.

1. Biryani or pulao?

• Biryani. The layers, the smell, the hours it took.
• Pulao. Simpler, and it lets the rest of the table do some work.
• Depends on the occasion. Biryani for a wedding, pulao for a Tuesday.
• Neither. Daal chawal.
• Whichever one your mother makes.
• Whichever one comes with the most raita.

2. Which snack can you not share, no matter who asks?

• The last samosa.
• The crispy bits at the bottom of the chaat bowl.
• A pakora that is still too hot to hold.
• The hidden packet of Parle-G.
• The final gulab jamun.
• Anything a sibling reaches for.

3. Who is the favorite cousin, and why is it not you?

• The one who lives abroad and visits once a year.
• The one who became a doctor.
• The youngest, who has never been told off for anything.
• The one who brings gifts for the elders.
• The one who never answers back.
• It is me. Nobody has noticed yet.

4. Which relative gives the worst unsolicited advice?

• The one who asks about your marriage plans before saying hello.
• The one with strong views on where you should put your money.
• The older sibling who has decided they know everything.
• Your mother, whose advice is annoyingly correct.
• The one who comments on how much you are eating.
• The one who comments on what you are wearing.

5. Which dish is the most overrated?

• Kheer. It is sweet rice.
• Jalebi. Too sticky, too sweet.
• Butter chicken, which has been carried by its reputation for years.
• Paneer, which does nothing without a sauce.
• Anything that takes five hours to cook and nine minutes to eat.
• The dish everyone praises at a potluck and nobody finishes.

6. Who is better at haggling, your mother or your father?

• Mother. Patience and a long memory.
• Father. One stern look and a number.
• Neither. They both pay what is on the label.
• Grandmother, who could get a discount on air.
• Whoever brought a small child along to look sad.
• Whoever is willing to walk away and mean it.

Questions about phones, weddings and modern life

These split a room along generational lines rather than family ones, which makes them useful once the easy rounds are done.

7. Is it acceptable to wear shoes inside the house?

• No. Not once, not briefly, not ever.
• Only clean indoor slippers.
• Only if you are stepping in for ten seconds.
• My house, my rules.
• My house yes, somebody else's house no.
• Only if the host insists twice.

8. What is the most annoying habit in a family group chat?

• Good morning images with glitter on them.
• Chain messages promising luck or threatening the opposite.
• Five minute voice notes.
• Unsolicited health advice from someone with no medical training.
• Being added to new groups without being asked.
• The relative who corrects everyone's grammar.

9. Which era of Bollywood music was the best?

• The fifties to seventies.
• The nineties, for the ballads and the dance numbers.
• The two thousands, when fusion arrived.
• Now, for the production.
• Any year with A. R. Rahman in it.
• The era where the lyrics still meant something.

10. Which song gets everyone onto a wedding dance floor?

• Chura Ke Dil Mera.
• Kala Chashma.
• Mehendi Laga Ke Rakhna.
• London Thumakda.
• Nagada Sang Dhol.
• Whichever one the youngest cousin has choreographed.

11. Is it ever acceptable to call an elder by their first name?

• No.
• Only if they ask you to, twice.
• Only outside the family.
• Only at work.
• Only if you are older than forty yourself.
• Only in your head.

12. What is the one thing you must pack for a long drive?

• A steel tiffin box that is heavier than it looks.
• Thepla and pickle.
• A flask of chai.
• The aux cable, and control of it.
• A blanket, regardless of the weather.
• Wet wipes. Always the wet wipes.

How do you run a good round?

Keep the reading fast and the scoring loose. A round that stops to settle a rule stops being funny.

Two teams works better than three. With three, one team is always waiting, and the waiting team starts a separate conversation you will not get them back from.

Let people argue with the ranking. The crowd answers are the scoring mechanism, not a verdict, and half the fun is someone insisting the list is wrong.

If a question lands flat, move on. Some rooms have nothing to say about rice and a great deal to say about group chats.

Frequently asked questions

What is Desi Showdown?

Desi Showdown is a guessing game built around what a crowd answered rather than what is correct. A question goes up, teams call out answers, and points go to the answers that appeared most often in the survey behind it. It plays like the family survey format people already know from television, with questions written for a South Asian room rather than an American one. It works with four people and it works with twenty.

How many people do you need?

Four is the minimum that feels like a game, and twelve is about the point where it starts to drag. Below four there are not enough opinions in the room for a question to split anyone. Above twelve, people stop getting turns and start checking their phones. If you have a larger group, run two teams and let everyone shout, rather than going round the room one person at a time.

Are these questions suitable for all ages?

Yes. Nothing on this list needs an adult room. Younger players tend to do better than expected on the food questions and worse on the wedding songs, which evens out. The questions about favorite cousins and unsolicited advice work best with three generations present, because everyone in the room is simultaneously a suspect and a juror.

Can you play this over a video call?

Yes, and it is one of the few party games that survives the format. Nobody has to move, act or be seen clearly, so the usual problems with lag do not apply. Share your screen with the question, let people unmute and shout, and keep score yourself. The only adjustment worth making is to slow the pace, because two people answering at once is harder to untangle on a call.

How long does a game take?

About forty minutes for twelve questions with two teams. Each question runs three to four minutes once the arguing is included, and the arguing is not optional. If you want something shorter, pick six questions rather than rushing twelve. A game that ends while people still want another round is the one they ask for again.

Start a round

Pick a question from the list, or let the game deal one and keep score while everyone shouts.