‘We are the champions - my friends

We are the champions -

We are the champions

No time for losers

'Cause we are the champions - of the world –‘

– Queen

The stage was set for the tussle of the most avid quizzers in Kuwait in the 16th KITCO Inter-School Quiz Competition conducted by the Bengali Cultural Society, Kuwait on the 21st September 2012. The Kitco Interschool Quiz Contest is the Kuwait version of the Bournvita Quiz contest, more famous as BQC, one of the most famous contests of its kind. The mastermind behind the contest is none other than Derek O’ Brien, India’s most sought after Quiz Masters and currently an honourable Member of Parliament.

The Grand Finale was nothing short of a cliffhanger, a suspense thriller that left our hearts racing even long after the show was over. Themed to the exhilarating world of Superheroes, we had the students from the various teams battle it out, exhibiting immense valour and heroism. They tried to combat the questions that were extremely smart and calculative, with the help of their shield of knowledge and determination, quite similar to the way Captain America fought Red Skull’s sinister schemes. Quiz Master Andrew Scolt, with his charismatic approach, had captured the audience’s attention in the web of mind-boggling questions and the students untangled the complex web of questions by unfurling their capes of concentration and logic, thus leaving the audience in awe of their quizzing capabilities.

In the end, the team from FAIPS DPS, Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, Class VIII and Adithya Ashok, Class VII, emerged triumphant and rose to claim their victory like the Dark Knight… One should not underestimate the really stiff challenge posed by Elrich Miranda and Reuel D’Souza from IEAS who were eventually the first runners up, and Sanjay Samuel and Mathew Aleena Mary Santosh from Gulf Indian School, the second runners up.

Prior to the final battle of wits, was the challenging preliminary round, covering an array of subjects, that resulted in the selection of the top six teams that moved on to the finals out of 12 schools with 2 teams each that had participated.

The final showdown on the 21st comprised of 6 rounds. Each one posing questions more challenging than the previous, urging the students to delve deeper into the recesses of their mind to unlock the answers to these tough questions. Rounds ranged from general rounds to image rounds to audio/video rounds and the much coveted buzzer round. Questions ranged from ‘Which is the second most consumed beverage in the world?’(-Tea) to ‘The MIT students calculated my speed to be about 3000 times the speed of light. The total load weight involved in my transfer is 321000 tonnes. 214000 living organisms of the same species are involved in my transfer. I have 918 million destinations to reach in 31 hours across 24 time zones visiting 822.6 destinations per second. Who or what am I?’( – Santa Claus)

The competition was quite neck to neck with each team giving the fight their all…But the deciding round turned out to be the final buzzer round that was the ultimate test of wit, courage and fortitude. The scores differed with a very slight margin until FAIPS decided to attempt almost all the questions in the buzzer round, playing it on their guts, because as Wolverine would say, ‘‘Without guts all the power an’ trainin’ in the world don’t mean nothing!”. They kept toggling between a right and a wrong answer, forcing the audience to the edge of their seats… But it finally came down to the deciding question, ’Vindaloo, the Goan dish gets its name from the potato that is in it. Serious or Joking.’ The Faips Team hit the buzzer in a flash and answered Joking… Suspense crackled through the air as the quizmaster Andrew Scolt, had all of the audience thinking that FAIPS had lost it in the end, saying ‘aloo’ means potato. However, just like Iron Man would say, “Sometimes you have to run before you walk’’, playing it on pure resilience turned out be the right choice for DPS as they emerged victorious in the final Clash of the Titans.

Now, Let us unmask these quizzing superheroes, Dwaipayan and Adithya and gain an insight on what has made them the valiant heroes they are today…

First of all, Congratulations on winning the 16th edition of the Kitco Interschool Quiz!

1.To start things off, Dwaipayan and Adithya, For the benefit or our esteemed readers, do tell us about yourselves…

Dwaipayan -Hi, I am Dwaipayan Bhattacharya and I study in Class- VIII, Fahaheel Al Watanieh Indian Private School (FAIPS), Ahmadi, Kuwait. We are from Kolkata, India. My father is an architect and my mother is a teacher at FAIPS.

Adithya - I am a student of Fahaheel Al Watanieh Indian Private School (FAIPS), Ahmadi, Kuwait and am studying in Grade 7. I’m from Kerala, India. My father Ashok Mukundan is working in OSSCO as an engineer, my mother Vidya Ashok is a housewife and my elder brother Anirudh Ashok is a first year engineering student at NIT Calicut, India.

2.When did you start quizzing? What is it that first sparked your desire to indulge in the fine art of quizzing?

Dwaipayan - I do not recollect when I was introduced to this world of quizzing by my father as well as by our little big family in Kuwait, the Bengali Cultural Society (BCS), Kuwait who have been organising this quiz show. You would be fascinated to know that in 2004, I performed on the same stage as “Spiderman” as Mr. Derek O’Brien used live props for one of his rounds.

Adithya - I started quizzing for fun since the age of ten. I always loved watching quizzing and participating. There were a few people who made me think quizzing is really fun. My elder brother was one of them.

3.‘Quizzers are not born, they are made…’ So, what do you think has made you a quizzer?

Dwaipayan - Certainly, I owe it to a very quiz friendly environment at home and school; which helped me to explore the fairy tale world of strange facts through books, news, stories (eg Feluda stories by Satyajit Ray are great information mines). Also I loved thinking laterally on the knowledge that we had. I seriously regret not cracking the Santa Claus question this time.

Adithya - I love reading, and books have made me who I am. Well, literally- Books and the internet made quizzing interesting for me. I go to a lot of quizzing websites and test my knowledge.

4.How were the months leading up to the final battle of wits?(emotions and feelings leading up to the final day only)

Dwaipayan - I have been working on it since the last two years as getting into our school team is one of the greatest challenges. I read a lot of books, besides participating regularly in quizzing sessions in school with classmates, under the guidance of our mentors including the ever helpful Ranjini Ma’am. This helped so much though it did create a bit of pressure as we had to live up to the rich traditions and expectations of our school.

Adithya - The last month was very hectic for me. My mentors helped us a lot. I practiced for many hours daily.

5.The preliminary rounds tend to be harder than the actual on-stage quiz, many a time. Tell us about your experience at the preliminary round. How did you feel qualifying for the finals?

Dwaipayan - For the preliminaries, I must thank Mr. Andrew Scolt as his comforting manner and easy nature of asking questions