Young World Quiz
Chief guest S.A.C. Vasanth with winners of the quiz competition, D. Tharunya (Standard VIII) and C. Arnav (Standard VII), of Vidhya Niketan School. Quiz master V.V. Ramanan shooting out posers to the finalists. An enthused audience of school students react to a poser during the competition in Coimbatore on Sunday. “Of which U.S. State is John Mc Cain a senator? Arizona, California or Illinois?” Several hands shot up from the audience and the answer was out in a jiffy. Arizona! Even for those who have been closely following the U.S. Presidential elections, the answer would not have been so spontaneous. Some of the best brains in the region were put to test at The Hindu Young World Quiz Contest 2008 held at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology here on Sunday. Nearly 600 children from Standards VI to IX from 109 schools in Coimbatore, Erode and the Nilgiris districts took part. racking the written preliminary round was the main challenge for the children. Though it contained only 25 questions which could be answered as a team of two, many found it hard to answer all of them. They also had to come up with interesting names for their team. The questions in the preliminary round were gleaned from mythology, the history of Coimbatore, the animal kingdom, the film and sports worlds, literature and scientific experiments.
This time, the quiz was not just for the nerdy. Magician S.A.C.Vasanth of the Kalaignar TV “Logic illa Magic” fame took the crowd into his hands just with his presence. The incessant cheering stopped only when he promised the children a lot of tricks at the end of the quiz. He solved the Rubik’s Cube in two minutes and 25 seconds. The six teams that qualified for the final were from Vidya Niketan, Coimbatore; Raja Rajeshwari School, Erode; Carmel Garden Matriculation Higher Secondary School; Chinmaya Residential School; G.D.Matriculation Higher Secondary School; and Srinivasa Vidyalaya. The finals had plain question and answer sessions, framing questions round, audio and visual questions, buzzer rounds and India-specific questions.
As quiz master V.V.Ramanan cajoled the teams into giving the right answer, the teams gave a tough competition to one another. The audience got a few minutes of fame too. “Charanjit Singh Atwal is the present one to hold this post in the Government of India. Name the post.” None of the teams had the answer and the audience came up with the right answer (deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha) after several funny attempts such as “Vice-President of India, Member of Parliament and Prime Minister who didn’t assume office.”
After an interesting session, D.Tharunya and C. Arnav from Vidhya Niketan Matriculation Higher Secondary School emerged winners with 45 points. Harsh Jayesh Shah and Utkarsh Venkatkrishnan of Chinmaya Residential School, came second with 18 points, P.Tony Nirmal and M.Hari Hara Ganesh of Srinivasa Vidyalaya came third with 15 points and S.Navin and K.S.Rajshri Bharath of Carmel Garden Matriculation Higher Secondary School came fourth with 10 points.
N.Nandakishore and C.R.Vidya Prasad of G.D. Matriculation Higher Secondary School and K.G.Vidhiya Lakshmi and E.Aravintha Kumar of Sri Rajarajeshwari Matriculation Higher Secondary School got into a tie. After the tie breaker, G.D. scored a point over Sri Rajarajeshwari School. R.N.Vimal Kumar, T.Sarath Kumar of Carmel Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Erode, won the first prize for the best team name (Kelvikku Bathila Sollu Parisha Allu, Quizla vellu), Karthik Narayan and P.Ajay of Air Force School, Coimbatore, won the second (Jab We Quiz) and K.A.Suruthika and S.Adhithyan of GKD Matriculation Higher Secondary School won the third (Pirates of Young World Quiz ’08).
The award for the best outstation teams went to P.A.Sakthi Sneha and P.K.Uthara from Sri Lathangi Vidhya Mandir Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Pollachi, and N.M. Revannth and Arjun Menon of Satchidananda Jothi Nikethan, Mettupalayam. The snakes and ladders (that was played alongside the main quiz) winners were Vidya Nikethan School and Chinmaya International Residential School. The winners of ‘Amaze’ round were Sri Rajarajeshwari Matriculation Higher Secondary School. The title sponsor for this year’s quiz was Extramarks.com.
The associate sponsors were DC Books Mango, Vizag Steel Plant, Pepsico Cheetos and Kissan Amaze Brainfood. The national sponsors were State Bank of Travancore, Firefox Bikes, Lotte Caramilk, G.M. Pens Reynolds, Penguin, Cycle Pure Agarbathies and Encyclopedia Britannica. The beverage sponsor is Dabur Real Fruit Juice. The event is managed by Quizwalahs. Eastman Exports were the regional prime sponsor. The other regional sponsors were ARC Aqua Pura Water, Banaanaa Slice, Big Bazaar, CBR’s Masala, Ideal Stores, Kondaa’s Automation, Milka Wonder Cake, Savithri Photo House, Sri Krishna Sweets, Vaamaa Virgin Coconut Oil, Venus Chemicals, and Zimson Watch World.
