Game for some mind sport?
MADHUMITHA SRINIVASAN
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It’s the 10th edition of the Young World quiz, and isn’t that reason to celebrate? Started in 2000, the quiz has become a much-awaited annual affair.
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PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN
THE YW QUIZ '09 : Bebato Bobby and Jerin Philip with the chief guest.
Question 1 : An idea born in 2000; it grew from four metros to cover 13 cities and became so popular that it is a much looked forward to event of the year.
Answer : The Young World quiz.
This year sees the tenth edition of the YW quiz and we take you on a quick tour of its history.
Photo : S.. Siva Saravanan.
At the tenth edition of the quiz : Six teams vying for the top slot.
Ten years ago, there came an event that took live quizzing to a whole new level not only in Chenna but other parts of the country too. In 2000, in keeping with the impending 10th anniversary of the Young World, an idea for a quiz competition among schools was suggested. With quizzing excitement already in the air, quite literally, thanks to shows like KBC and Bournvita Quiz, the suggestion was immediately lapped up. And since then, the Young World Quiz has only become bigger, better and more competitive every year with thousands of teams in each of the 13 cities it is conducted in, vying to put their brains to test on stage with quiz master Mr. V.V. Ramanan, an avid quizzer himself.
Photo : Mohammed Yousuf, Sampath Kumar G. P., M. Moorthy.
Over the years : Moments to remember.
In its first edition in 2000, the quiz was conducted in four cities only — Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Delhi, with cricketer K. Srikanth as the special guest for the national finals that took place in Chennai. The quiz was open to students from Std IX to XII and saw a participation of 1500 teams (three members in a team) in the first year itself.
Evolving – a process
In 2002, we had racer Narain Karthikeyan as the chief guest for the All India finals. The next year saw four more cities being added and subsequently in the last three years, another five more.
“I knew it would be a big hit because there was no live quiz event of good standard for school children to participate. By the second year itself, it had become a big brand,” says Mr. Ramanan, who first mooted the idea of the YW Quiz. When asked to share some interesting memories of the quiz so far, he says, “Of course, there have been things like close finishes, moments where I have embarrassed myself on stage and even times when the audience stumped me with a question!” recalls the quiz master. “It’s all part of the experience.”
The quiz, that was until last year organised by Quiz Wallahs, focuses on students of Std VII to IX and has evolved to include multimedia rounds, headlines round, crossword type questions and more.
As tentative plans for the future, Mr. Ramanan hopes for the inclusion of famous quizzing cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, which haven’t been participating for the last four years. He also wishes to see more use of technology by way of computers for the use of participants when on stage and a web cast.
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