The tenth edition of The Hindu Young World Quiz came to a thrilling finish on Friday, with Marygiri Senior Secondary School from Sreekandapuram in Kannur district, Kerala, clinching the top spot.
They were followed by local favourites Vidhya Niketan School, and St. Paul’s Higher Secondary School from Huzurnagar in Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh. The quiz held at the Gedee Auditorium here saw a turnout of 1000 students, parents and teachers.
The quiz, initially planned for six rounds, had a round added just to keep the boisterous audience indoors, as a ministerial convoy was passing by. But that made no difference to the boys from Marygiri, sitting pretty with a 30-point lead over their nearest rivals, Tharunya and Arnav from Vidhya Niketan.
Vidhya Niketan had a promising start as it stormed into the finals, topping the regionals and the semi-finals with élan. It lost steam, however, as quizmaster V.V. Ramanan led the blitzkrieg of innovative rounds with multimedia clips and images.
Close to the profession of journalism was the Headlines Round. Participants were given a dateline and had to guess what the headline of that day was. Correct answers saw Mr. Ramanan’s trademark yelling “brilliant” in sync with the electric atmosphere.
Much awaited were the questions for the audience. School children crowded around volunteers, jumping in excitement for the microphone, even if they didn’t know the answers.
The most popular round, as has been before, was the ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’ round, which had questions about India. Mr. Ramanan shot questions like: “Why was January 26, 1950, chosen to be Republic Day?” Pat came the correct answer from Siddharth and Franklin of Mahatma Montessori Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Madurai: the Congress passed its Poorna Swaraj Resolution on January 26, 1930.
The last word
Champions Bebato Bobby and Jerin Philip had the last word as they pressed the buzzer to answer that the last word in the New Testament is Amen.
The national champions received their trophies and a total cash prize of Rs.16,000 from chief guest Ravi Sam, Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry-Coimbatore Zone. V. Ravi, Assistant Vice President (Circulation) of The Hindu, proposed a vote of thanks.
The national sponsors were S&M Kids Wear, Kalasalingam University, Black Thunder, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Gold Winner, Hatsun Agro, Vizag Steel, Lotte Caramilk, Crocs Shoes, Firefox Bicycles, Brittanica Encyclopedia, Penguin Books, Cherry Blossom, Reynolds and Dabur Real. iAds and Events were the event managers as well as national sponsors.
