Clash of wits at quiz contest

NEW DELHI: Parthiv Patel may be busy cementing his place in the Indian cricket team; but do you know who Pi Patel is and why he has been in the news recently? Well, this young boy is the protagonist from Yann Martal’s Booker winning novel, The Life of Pie.
Which country has its national parliament located on a street named after Jawaharlal Nehru? Cyprus is the answer.The participants and audience at the national finals of the Discovery Kids Quiz were exposed to more such interesting information, as quiz master Derek O Brien anchored the event in his inimitable style.
Following the preliminary zonal rounds held in 18 cities across the country and involving over 15 lakh students from 3,500 schools, the national finals were hosted in the Capital on Wednesday. The atmosphere was electric and the tension palpable as six teams each in the senior and junior categories got together to battle it out for the top slot.
During the rigmarole of 10 rounds designed to test general knowledge as well as skills of observation and application of the participants, the contest witnessed several ups and downs with each of the rounds throwing different leaders.
Eventually, in a closely contested event, Arnab Basu and Arghabrata Mandal of Calcutta Boys School (CBS), Kolkata emerged as the junior winners followed by Delhi Public School (DPS), Bhopal in the second position. The senior event witnessed a closer finish with Shreyas Rangan and Aritra Gupta of DPS R K Puram, Delhi, overtaking Harsha A and Nitish Krishna of Chettinad School, Chennai, in the final round to clinch the trophy.
‘‘Expect the worst and hope for the best,’’ was all that a jubilant Shreyas could say. Showing true sportsman spirit, the duo from Chettinad said, ‘‘A second position in a national event is not a bad achievement. We missed a couple of questions in the decider and DPS R K Puram performed better.’’
Queried about the preparation, Arnab Basu of CBS remarked, ‘‘You don’t win a quiz by preparing for it. You just have to keep yourself aware about the world. Watch TV, read newspapers and make winning a habit.’’ Wise words from the little champion. Chief guest Nafisa Ali and director of Discovery Networks India, Raj Baruah distributed the prizes. Tanya Dhawan of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, was declared the national online winner.