Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
Quintessentially quizzical
|
Scores of energetic kids kept on popping up from their seats as questions were posed to them too, says Mubin Sultan
|
ENTIRE WORLD is a laboratory to the inquisitive mind. Making the most of all available resources -from books to Internet, almost 2000 students zestfully entered the huge auditorium of Andhra Loyola College to test their IQ and their luck.
Many schools from various towns covered by the Vijayawada edition of The Hindu participated in the regional round of The Hindu Young World Quiz - 2004 on Friday. The colossal auditorium was filled with young builders of modern India in their school uniforms making the place a serious academic milieu.
Sai Teja of Vignan Public School Guntur, who secured fifth position at Tagore Study Forum, a national-level quiz competition was all geared up for the preliminary round, along with his friend Pradeep, to compete against 1,070 teams. "Our preparation has been pretty decent, thanks to our social studies master. We can only hope for the best to be among the six finalists," they said.
Cool kitty
Descending from their school buses, most kids were too happy to receive goody bags from sponsors. "It is like we are being congratulated for participating in the event," said Ankit Sarkar from KCP Siddartha School, Kanur. The event managers, Quizwalahs, the light and sound systems brought in from Bangalore and Chennai impressed the children. "We will go back to our school and tell our friends that we had a gala time besides learning many things," said Sri Ramya from Bhimavaram.
Easy questions & hard nuts
Students from Kennedy High School were initially perplexed. "We aren't sure if it really is a quiz competition. We have never seen anything this big," said Rajasekhar and Tarun who had prepared for the competition for one week, but soon realized that it wasn't enough. The preliminary round comprised interesting questions like `the glamorous Telugu speaking MP elected from UP,' `the name of the camels with double hump' and `what does T stand for in N.T.Rama Rao' etc. and also questions which seemed unconventional for many students like `the character played by Willem Dafoe in the movie Spiderman,' `the English Premier League side that plays its home matches at Anfield stadium,' etc.
Dazzling dais
The sizzling dais caught up heat as the finalists for the events were announced the Quizmaster V.V.Ramanan. He became an instant favourite with the kids adding fun to the event by administering repartee on himself.
"It is not your quizmaster in disguise," he said looking at a visual of an iguana. Wild guesses from students sent peals of laughter across the auditorium occasionally.
No regrets
Raghavendra, who was a finalist last year and his teammate K. Sasank were disappointed, as they couldn't make it to the finals. But the blanket of gloom slowly drew away from them as they received a consolation prize for performing well in the preliminary round.
For the students of Nirmala High School, who called themselves `Reflections of Perfection,' the lights, sound effects and the huge assembly of students was fearsome.
The team managed their confidence levels to the optimal as they made their way to secure the second position from a tiebreaker.
Enthusiastic students rushed to the Chief Guest and Vijayawada MP, Lagadapati Rajagopal. While most of them wanted his autograph, some donned reporters firing their salvos at him. "Why did you join politics? Why Congress party?" were among a few queries the MP had to field. He too didn't fumble.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
|
