The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Magic formula opens golden gate to success

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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Magic formula opens golden gate to success

Staff Reporter

PSBB students win the finals of TCS IT Wiz 2008

— Photo: K.Pichumani

Centre stage: The winning team of R. Sai Krishnan and K.Swarun Krishna from PSBB K.K Nagar flanked by the teams from Maharishi Vidya Mandir (left) and Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram (right) in the inter-school quiz competition in Chennai on Thursday.

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Incredulity in the form of a question mark was written all over the audience.

In response, a buzzer glowed. “Cisco,” was the answer given by K.Swarun Krishna and R.Sai Krishnan, the team from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan.

The usually glib quiz master, Giri Balasubramaniam, a.k.a. Pickbrain, looked a little stunned.

That question was the turning point which led PSBB to the winner’s trophy, at the finals of the TCS IT Wiz 2008, held here on Thursday. Both the students were presented with a laptop each along with the trophy.

“Cisco gets its name from San Francisco. We linked it to the cover of the book,” explained Swarun. This was a long-awaited moment for Swarun, a student of XII Standard, “During the last two quizzes, I couldn’t make it to this stage. This time I was determined as it was my last chance.”

Avid interest in IT, frequent visits to the school library and lots of time spent on the internet are the magic formula behind their quizzing success, said Sai.

The team from Vidya Mandir was the runners-up and Maharishi Vidya Mandir and Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram tied for the third place. Former cricketer V.B.Chandrasekhar gave away the prizes, which included portable DVD players and digital cameras.

The Music Academy was packed with over 1,400 students, who participated in the quiz. When the quizmaster asked, “Who is known as the Vulcan in the field of technology?” a lone hand in the front row went up. “Paul Allen was the one answer I knew,” chuckled Ananth Krishnan, CTO of Tata Consultancy Services. An avid quizzer during his engineering days, he felt the scenario had changed considerably in the past 30 years. “The level of knowledge of children has gone up by a factor of 100,” he said, “I was awestruck by the size of the audience. The response has been tremendous.” “A year from now, the quiz will complete its 10th anniversary,” said Mr. Balasubramaniam. The quiz, started in Bangalore, is being conducted in 12 cities. It will be conducted in Coimbatore this year.

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