|
Emergence of a new champion is always exciting and this was what happened at the Kellogg’s 17th Indian Women’s Association (IWA) Inter-School Quiz Competition yesterday when Doha Modern Indian School (DMIS) came from behind to pull off its maiden triumph in one of the most keenly-awaited contests among the country’s expatriate schools. |
At the end of the competition held at Birla Public School (BPS), anchor Mohan Kapur had enough reasons to be proud of, having conducted a show where a number of participants showed their quizzing calibre. He complimented their efforts, in particular those of the six finalists. Kapur praised his researcher and supporting host Deb Kumar Mitra, described as the “brain behind the whole exercise”.
Kapur, hosting the show in Doha for the first time, struck an instant chord with the gathering, thanks to his witty observations throughout the nearly 100-minute contest. Though the competition went well beyond the usual 70-75 minute period, the anchor compensated it with a number of direct questions to the audience which helped many in the gathering return home with gifts and vouchers.
The contest turned out to a keenly battled three-way race right from the start and the three teams, DMIS, defending champions Birla Public School (BPS) and strong contenders DPS-Modern Indian School, were clearly ahead of the other three finalists at the end of the 24-question first “Explore” round.
While DMIS trio of Anugraha Arun, Advait Puthenpura and Uday Krishna Kuroor finished the race with an unassailable score of 135 points, a tie-breaker had to be resorted to decide the runners-up slot between BPS and DPS-MIS after they won 120 points each in the “Excel round”: DPS-MIS waon the second place. BPS, which came third, was the champion school for the last two years.
The other three teams, Al Khor International School (Indian Stream), Philippine School of Doha and Ideal Indian School, were good in patches, especially in the second session but by then it was too late for them to catch up with the other three.
The “Explore” and “Experience” rounds held before the “Excel” featured a total of 48 questions, most of which were correctly answered by the participants.
Surprisingly, one of the visuals that all the finalists and the entire audience failed to get it right was that of Noor Hussain al-Malki, a Qatari woman participant at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Earlier, Indian ambassador Sanjiv Arora, who was the chief guest, demonstrated his quizzing abilities while inaugurating the event. Some of his questions were answered rightly by the audience. Only when the envoy asked for the name of the chairman of India’s National Human Rights Commission that the audience realised that Justice K G Balakrishnan was in Doha earlier in the day.
Congratulating the finalists, Arora also praised the efforts of the 448 children from 23 schools who participated in the competition’s written preliminaries on Thursday.
In her address, IWA president Ushus Andrews recalled the forum’s efforts in popularising quizzing among the country’s school children. She remembered the support extended to the event all along since its start 16 years ago by Doha-based Indian entrepreneur Ganesh Srinivasan who died last month. She specifically remembered that Ganesh had given sponsorship to this year’s event as well.
IWA general secretary Jyotsna Dey also spoke at the function.
Gulf Times was the official newspaper.
Members of the winning teams: DMIS - 135 points (Anugraha Arun, Advait Puthenpura, Uday Krishna Kuroor), DPS-MIS - 120 points (A Ganesh Kumar, Neil Noronha and Ratin Gore) and Birla Public School - 120 points (Sai Prajwal Shandilya, Aaron Aagi Kollanoor, and Bharadwaj Swaminathan).
Down:
1. Children of DMIS, DPS-MIS and Birla Public School, which clinched the top three places in the Kellogg’s IWA Inter-Schools Quiz Competition with anchor Mohan Kapur.
2. A view of the audience. PICTURES: Najeer Feroke