Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

The top ten

Children came up with smart answers and witty one-liners at the Horlicks Wiz Kids 2007 contest, held recently in the city

Photo S. Thanthoni

Wonder kids The finalists in the Chennai leg of the Horlicks Wizkids 2007

Children are more perceptive than we think. When Shruti Kamal Hassan asked Arjun Vignesh (one of the ten finalists in the Chennai leg of the Horlicks Wiz Kids 2007 competition) “What is better – having a girlfriend or a wife? And why?R 21;, the boy blushed but was not out of his depth. All of 11 years, Arjun preferred a wife to a girlfriend. Reason: girlfriend means impermanence, but a wife is forever. He said “A girlfriend can dump you anytime, but a wife won’t” to thunderous applause. Guess who clapped? An auditorium (Kalaivanar Arangam) full of school students. Arjun’s response made Master of Ceremonies Sultan to comment, “I wonder why they grow up. They have such noble thoughts when they are young.” Five of the ten, who were in the Class V to Class VII group, competed in the junior category. Belonging to the Class VIII to Class XII group, the other five were in the fray for the senior category. Juniors or seniors, these children were undaunted by questions that would have had grown-ups clamming up in fright. Their answers were sweet because their innocence shone through them. When Sultan asked C. Santhosh which of the judges he wanted to take a question from and why, the boy (junior category) pointed to Raiz Ahmed (fashion educationist), giving the three female judges (Shruti, Anuradha Ananth from SS Music and Latha from Savvy) the cold shoulder. When Sultan questioned his rationale, Santhosh said, “Because he is a boy!”

Some kids knew the power of flattery. Nithi B. Jain (senior category) gave tips on public speaking. Mid-way, she said, “Sultan would not be Sultan if he had passed up the first opportunity to speak on stage.” The amused MC clarified, “My points don’t count in the finals.” Nithi came up with a humdinger of a line, “Failure is not an end, but an opportunity to try again intelligently.”

Thalish K. Sayeed (a Class XII student from Sindhi Model Senior Secondary School) is a super achiever and has many feathers in his cap, one of them is a chemical formula to create bigger and more colourful bubbles. When Anuradha asked him to draw a parallel between bubbles and life, he said, “You have to enjoy it before it bursts. In life, you meet all kinds of people. And bubbles come in different colours and sizes.”

When Latha asked the boy his mantra for success, he said, “Try to pick up a good habit from every person you meet.” The boy outclassed the others and won the senior category in style. In the talent round, he combined yoga with puppetry to give an unusual performance. He removed his shirt (“Are you going to do a Salman Khan,” a nervous Sultan asked him when he began unbuttoning his shirt), lay on his back and pulled his feet over his head. With his hands, he fixed two black sheets cut to resemble eyes on his lower back. When he placed a notebook and turned the pages, it appeared as if someone was reading a book. He was also scribbling on the book. At the end, he showed what he had written. It read, “The End”.

In the senior section, Anusha Venkataraman gave a brilliant answer to Anuradha’s, “Which do you think is a more effective medium – television or radio?” But she was no match for Thalish. From the introduction to the question round, the diminutive M. Divya (from Chettinad Vidyashram) was confident and kept everything brief. She was adjudged winner in the junior category. The event had an unusual ending. On Sultan’s invitation, teachers spilled on to the stage and walked like models. When their students asked them to dance, they obliged.

PRINCE FREDERICK

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail