JUBAIL: The hall was packed to capacity with parents, teachers and students. The atmosphere was heavy with anticipation and excitement. On the dais were eight finalist teams from the five Indian schools from Eastern and Central provinces of Saudi Arabia. Their young faces were glowing with enthusiasm but some could not hide the anxiety beneath their cool exterior.
State-of-the art electronic gadgets in front of the contestants and officials gave an air of professionalism.
Quizmaster PGR Nair was pacing with thoughtful face and his eyes were panning the contestants one after another. Event manager Izzam Jaffer gave the signal. Camera from different angles started rolling. This was the start to the annual interschool India Quiz competition organized by the Association of Malayalee Professionals in Saudi Arabia (AMPS).
AMPS initiated India Quiz to commemorate bicentenary celebrations of India’s independence. Success of the maiden event ensured continued participation of Indian schools from Eastern and Central provinces. This was held for the fourth consecutive year.
Sureshkumar Kalathil and Luqman Ummer conducted the preliminaries for nearly 300 enthusiastic students. It was a written test with 40 questions and the first highest scores from five schools were selected to form eight teams. International Indian Schools from Jubail and Dammam, Al-Khozama Public School, Alkhobar, Al-Yasmin Public School, Riyadh were represented at the team-based final.
There were seven rounds of questions (Newsreel, Heritage, Grab & Get, Visual, Mixed Masala, Audio, Strange Questions & Rapid Fire) and scores were declared after each round to the roaring applause from the audience. Instant prizes were awarded for teams answering star questions.
After every round PGR Nair turned to the audience with a few very interesting questions. It gave a festive mood to the entire show. Questions were a mix of history, literature, politics, religion, current affairs, music, fashion, print and visual media etc and were all related to India. Children at times surprised the quizmaster and the audience by their instant answers to some very tough questions.
One question was to name the ancient Indian port where ships were in queue to load and off load goods. The answer was Kodungallur in Kerala. PGR went on to explain its two other names Musiriz and Cragannur and the causes, which led to the port’s disappearance giving an insight into the glorious past of India’s southern coast.
Where is India’s Zero Airport located? This was a question no one except the quizmaster could answer. Zero is the name of an airport in Arunachal Pradesh. What is so unique about Bhavanagar Railway station? (exclusively employs women porters), which UNESCO World Heritage site is being used as a railway headquarters? (Victoria Terminus in Mumbai) etc were some other interesting questions.
Though Al-Yasmin Public School was in the running for a place among the winners soon IIS Dammam and IIS Jubail overtook them. Before the decisive Rapid Fire Round IIS Dammam boys were leading the pack but IIS Jubail boys consisting of Shreyas Dighe, Aniruddh Sharma and Soham Gohale clinched the championship with their superb performance during the rapid fire round. IIS Dammam boys (Anand, Vivek Thomas and Karan Punchadar) missed the first place just for two points. IIS Dammam girls Namritha Maniyodath, Dina Fatima Yazdani and Fatima Zeba grabbed the third place.
Program commenced with a tribute to the renowned social activist late Baba Amte by Seju Davis. P.K. Abdul Ghafour of Arab News was the chief guest. He lauded the organizers for launching a knowledge-based program to stimulate intellectual growth adding to our younger generation’s professional competence.
