Farewell Note

This article was originally intended for the school magazine but I have a feeling it might not end up there.Let us hope for the best!

14 years is no small time. As clichéd as this might sound, this is the first thing that comes to mind when you look back at school. School is one part of life that plays a very decisive role in what a person turns out to be.  SFS has been a roller coaster ride for me. Not always pretty but that’s what life is. I mean there are things in school that you wish you could change. But then one of the greatest lessons SFS taught me was adaptability. To fight for things you really want and to never give up regardless of what others say.

Apart from this, school was fun! Frequent tiffs with the administration, Peter Mermier heartbreaks, doodling around the canteen, staring blankly at cameras wishing they didn’t exist, assignments destined never to be finished, newspaper fights-the list is endless! One thing school gives you is friends. And for this you can’t thank them enough. Then you have some brilliant teachers –right from the primary wing to the seniors-who discipline our wayward souls and lead us to the right path.

On a personal note,I can never thank the school enough for initiating me into Quizzing. For this I must thank Ponammal Mam and Veda Man for honing my skills.

Have fun!

Adios

Memory Lapse

The last month has just flown by with tons of things happening. I had all the time in the world to write a blog post but as usual-I was lazy. But I have 38 minutes till the next download of Castle ends! So why not update the blog!

The most important event to happen was of course-The First Gyaan.in Quiz hosted by me and Prateek at IIT-D. The moderators had been discussing about this for ages now but things never seemed to click. However, out of nowhere we came across a decent guy at IIT who knew the Root and everything just fell in place. To have an IIT as the venue is pretty awesome. Lends credibility to the event.  And that too for free! I was expecting a low turnout since most people weren’t too forthright about their participation. However, an unprecedented 21 teams turned up for the show. Make that an approximate of 80 people! TBH, I was expecting a fourth of that number but hey-everyone like a good surprise once in a while! Anyways,the event  was  a success apart from a few hiccups(Laptop shutting down in the middle of the quiz; score sheet getting lost-nothing major). Nice event overall!

In other news-The World Cup has begun! Hell Yeah! I can watch TV without anyone even asking me to study! You have no idea how weird that feels. Few shocks already. Spain defeated by the Swiss-France on the brink of a first round exit-England playing like dumb cheerleaders-Germany defeated by Serbia-and many more. Argentina look like the team to beat at the moment. Let’s see how it all pans out.

College. Yes. In all probability-I will be at Purdue this August. Got my VISA and just a few financial issues to take care of!

Have been wasting a lot of time on TV Shows. Finished all 3 seasons of Big Bang Theory, Glee and am now hooked to Castle!

JAPAN QUIZ 2009-Entire Brochure

Japan Quiz 2009

Aim

To increase knowledge of Japan – the land, its people, their history and culture – among the youth of India

The Event

An interesting and exciting quiz contest that will test students of Delhi’s premier schools on their knowledge of Japan and encourage them to learn and know more about the country.

Date: 20 November 2009

Venue: Sai International Auditorium, Lodhi Institutional Area, New Delhi

Content

The questions will be presented in a variety of interesting formats and would be drawn from the following subjects, to evoke a comprehensive and informative picture of Japan.

• Physical geography
• History, since times immemorial
• The Japanese people and their culture
• Growth and development of languages and literature
• Artistic endeavour, including visual, performing, and cinematic arts

• Business and economy
• Japanese contribution to science and technology
• Sporting achievements
• Japanese cuisine
• Folk and traditional arts and crafts
• Architecture, from ancient times to modern

Structure of the event

The top schools of North India are being invited to participate in this event. Schools may send in up to 5 teams, each comprising 3 (three) students from Classes IX to XII. A registration form is attached with this detailer; for additional teams, please photocopy this form.

Please make sure that your teams register at least 7 days before the event, that is latest by Friday, 13 November 2009.

All teams that register for the quiz will first participate in a written preliminary test, comprising 25 to 30 questions. On evaluation, the 6 (six) teams with the highest scores will proceed to the on-stage Final Round.

The Final Round will be a 75–80 minute multimedia extravaganza, featuring the main quiz. The quiz will use a diverse array of question-types, to tease and test the participants’ knowledge of various facets of Japan.

Programme schedule

0900 hrs     Registration of teams at venue

1000 hrs     Introduction to the quiz

1010 hrs     Written preliminary round commences

1040 hrs     Written preliminary round ends

1050 hrs     Screening of short film on Japan

1100 hrs     Quiz final commences

1230 hrs     Prize distribution ceremony

1240 hrs     Refreshments served

For Information on Japan

Japan Information Centre

Embassy of Japan

Plot No.4&5, 50-G Shantipath

Chanakyapuri

New Delhi 110021

Tel: 2412-2970~3

Monday to Friday  9.30am to 5.30pm

Japan Foundation Library

5A Ring Road

Lajpat Nagar IV

Next to Vikram Hotel

New Delhi 110024

Tel: 2644-2967~8

Tuesday to Saturday       11.00am to 6.00pm

Registration Form

Form No
Date of Issue

(Photocopies of this form may be used for multiple entries)

Please write in BLOCK LETTERS

Team Name
Name of School
School Address
Telephone
Email
Contestant No 1
Class
Contact No / email
Contestant No 2
Class / email
Contestant No 3
Class / email

School Stamp / Seal
Signature of Principal
Date

For Official Use only

Received By
Date of receipt
Confirmation sent

The Banyan Tree Quiz 2009 Review

Damned!!…I was just so scared already.October 28 was here and I just wanted to get out of the school ASAP…So that not many people come to know that we are going for a quiz(This is pretty useful when you know you have a pretty good chance of losing).People at SFS don’t how the quiz event..it’s either a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down…haare ya jeete??..FREAKS.

Now I haven’t heard about this school ever before.As usual we did not get the invite and had to pester the organisers for the invite.A poor guy called Mandhir was at the recieving end of my calls,pleas and foolish questions.This was also going to be my first PRANAB quiz.This guy asks questions from memory(read extremely dangerous).Prateek Vijayavargia calls him the Tiny Walking Encyclopedia.I wasnt exactly looking forward to meet him!!

Prateek  anticipated20-25 teams(22 turned up….this guy knows everything).But..he stressed that he was expecting 10-15 good teams(which does not include us btw).

I and Aju were going as usual.Noone else is interested in quizzing anyways.Thats why I like 2 member quizzes.Aju was pretty freaked out after the last debacle.His confidence(read over) took a hit.The guy has a habit of telling me tension mat le all the time.Crap.Even when we are losing.

So we reach the venue.Like the school.Kind of.They make us sit in a hall or something.See prateek straightaway.Enter the hall and see the probables.A bunch of over-confident DPS’s(as usual).Spotted the great team from Columbas(Angad and Pratyush).They kicked our butts at Puffins.Soon Sarthak Batra and Farhan Abrol of Springdales walked in.Great team(4th at Columban).Aju said his great words of fake encouragement.I think he just says it irritate me..

Soon they lead us to the Audi for the Prelims.There I come to know that only 6 teams will qualify.I was under the impression that 8 would qualify.I thought Prateek told me this.I asked him and he shook his head in his usual modest way.Finally Pranab entered.And the prelims started.

First question was about the maker of Mt.Rushmore.I saw the name and before others could even raise their pens ,I scribbled the answers and triumphantly stared at Aju.He just looked at me and said tension mat le(im gonna kill him one day for this).The second question was about some RAF flights(i dint have a clue.Answer was Harrier,Only Springdales knew it.)And as questions progressed I was having a bad feeling about our qualification hopes.Some of the easier ones were like the number of floors in WTC(110),grammy given to Bill Clinton(Best Spoken Word…i think we were among the only ones who knew it).The asked the name of the new Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.My dad had asked me to go through the list in the morning but  I told him that aise faaltu sawaal nahi puchenge!!The audio and visuals were beyond human recognition(Prateek said that Pranab quizzes are like this only.)

Aju muttered his famous lines as we went for refreshments.I spotted Prateek.They had got 10 correct.Damned we were on 8 or sumdin.These guys from RKP walked up to us and said they were on 11.Columbas were on 14!!.Springdales on 9…I wanted to exit the place as fast as possible. No hope at all.I was trying to act uncharacteristically cool but just couldnt.Even Aju was pretty scared now.Walked back trembling to the Audi for the results.

First they wasted a thousand minutes on restarting the events.I really don’t know what exactly was happening.The more time they wasted,the more freaked out I felt.Just tell us that we haven’t qualified and we shall leave without making a noise.So Pranab comes on stage(even he seemed disgusted with the speed of things).It was a close event.The 6 teams that have qualified are-

The team that was the last to qualify is ST.FRANCIS DE SALES.HAAAAAAAAAA….WE MADE IT!!!!….Don’t know how.But still.Followed by Amity,RKP,New Era,Springdales and Columbas.       Man I was just so happy to be there.We were seated between RKP and New Era.

And then began the Pranab Show.Asking questions from memory.God.How does he do it.First question to RKP.Something about a guy called Ben Ali becoming president again.Identify the country.They stared blankly back at him.Now I had red the day befoore on Wiki of Tunisia getting a new President.So I just muttered it when it passed to us.He said Tunisia?5 points to them.And I stared brightly at him.I think the next three rounds went with the teams pretty close on 10 or 20 points only.Then came the rapid fire(BTW RKP were still on zero..) .It is in this round that  the winners wee decided.Some people(especially RKP )argued that Springdales were given the easiest possible questions.I agree to an extent but in quizzing,you need luck at times.But hell,in Visual round..everyone else were given pics more suitable for Martians while RKP got the pic of a Komodo Dragon(Didn’t here them complaining then.)

Final round was my favourite.Choose any topic and the quizmaster will ask questions on it himself.Ruddy brilliant.We chose Manchester United  smugly.Once again only Springdales got their answers right(They chose IT.Prateek says their question was wrong..I’m not too sure).Pranab walked up to me and asked me to identify a players name and gave me a series of connect which seemed,frankly,un-humanish to me.It was Dennis Law.Aju said agar Arsenal choose kia hota to mein bol deta!!Prateek saved me by telling him that the question would have been worse!!

Finally we ended 6th.Springdales won(10,000 bugs each).Amity 2nd(5000 bugs each).The remaining 4 got T-sirts,500 rupee vouchers and a weird DVD of some weird bureaucrat.Means there was really no difference in being 3rd or 6th!!(You have to find ways to keep yourselves happy!!)

Not exactly a bad event .Nice refreshments.

I’l give it a 8.5/10.

You can find the archives of the prelims here

Layout of the keyboard

Never knew this about the keyboard.Read it on Yahoo Answers.The reason why i keyboard is layed out like this.

The story of the keyboard’s layout may seem like the dullest topic in the world, but it’s actually pretty interesting. Commonly referred to as the “QWERTY” keyboard, this landmark creation was first used in 1875 by Christopher Sholes.

One might think that the keys are arranged in this way to make typing as efficient as possible. I was always told that the letters you use the most are the ones nearest to the center. But I was misinformed. It turns out this layout was used because it is actually quite inefficient.

Back in 1875, people used typewriters with keyboards laid out in ABC order. Because folks typed so quickly, jamming was a common problem. Mr. Sholes couldn’t improve the mechanical aspects of the typewriter, so he would have to do the next best thing–get people to slow down. His solution was to arrange the letters in such a way so that the type bars wouldn’t get crossed up. Amazingly, it worked.

According to Idea Finder, the change reduced typewriter jamming drastically. Over time, the QWERTY became the standard. Inventors have since introduced alternatives, but nothing has caught on with the mainstream. One of the best known is the Dvorak Layout. HowStuffWorks breaks down the pros and cons.

 

GOOD READ…SO MUCH STUFF WE DONT KNOW ABOUT OR JUST DONT CARE TO KNOW…

Weird Wiki Links

Wikipedia is every quizzers playground.You find everything you want there instead of running around the the net as madmen.And sometimes you do come across weird stuff.Stuff you never knew existed or never thought was available!!Here are a few links I found.You can link your own discoveries in the comment column.Will update the post whenever find more.

1)A book called-Do Androids dream of electric sheep?..click here

2)The entire list of harry potter spells…click here

3)the weird number..click here

Mind Sport 2009

Registration Time: 08:30 am

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Mind Sport will be held across multiple venues, with the Gurgaon and the Faridabad Chapter being held through the First two days with the winners of the respective chapters contesting in the Finals to be held in Delhi.

The details of the date, time and venue is mentioned hereunder:

GURGAON CHAPTER

Date: 17/11/2009

Venue: EPICENTER, Apparel House, Sector – 44, Gurgaon

Registration Time: 08:30 am

The Gurgaon chapter will be open to participants from Gurgaon and neighbouring areas.

FARIDABAD CHAPTER

Date: 18/11/2009

Venue: RJS School, Eros Garden, Suraj Kund Road, Faridabad

Registration Time: 08:30 am

The Chapter to be held at RJS School, Faridabad will be open to participants from Faridabad and neighboring areas.

DELHI CHAPTER

Date: 19/11/2009

Venue: Shri Satya Sai Auditorium, 8, Pragati Vihar
Lodhi Road H.O.

The Delhi chapter will be open to participants from Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.

EVENT FORMAT

The quiz will be general in nature with multiple rounds on Sports.

The Quiz across the Gurgaon and the Faridabad chapter will be conducted in the following manner:

-       A written elimination round followed by a 12 team semi final and subsequently the Top 6 teams qualify for the finals.

-       The Top 2 teams directly qualify for the regional semi finals to be held in Delhi.

-       The Semi Finals and the Finals will be the On Stage rounds.

The Delhi Chapter of the Quiz will be conducted in the following manner

-       A written elimination round whereby the top 8 teams are identified.

-       The identified 8 teams along with the 4 winners from the Gurgaon and   the Faridabad chapter  to compete in the Regional Semi Finals

-       The Top 6 teams to qualify for the Finals.

-       The Regional Semi Finals and the Regional Finals will be an On Stage Round.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

• An Institution can send unlimited number of entries.
• A maximum of four members per team are allowed.
• There is no registration fee.
• The entries can be mailed to mindsport@cradlesports.com or posted to Cradle Sports, M – 18, Sector – 11, Noida 201301.
• Entries can also be sent by FAX on 0120 2520803.
• Last date of Registration is 10^th November 2009.
• For further details, contact: Arindam Bhattacharya at 9312600283 or Nishant Kaul at 9958580155.

The Banyan Tree Quiz 2009

I am going for this quiz for the first time.Here are the details for anyone interested.

THE BANYAN TREE SCHOOL

Inter School quiz 2009

Programme Schedule

Event                                           :   Quizzme 2009

Participation Eligibility               :   Classes XI – XII

Confirmation for Participation   :    By 24^th October’09(through Entry Form)

Date of the Event                        :    Wednesday, 28^th October,2009

Programme schedule:

S.no	Round	Venue	Time
1.	Registration	Reception area	8:30a.m-9:30a.m
2.	Preliminary Written round	School Auditorium	9:30a.m-10:00a.m
3.	Refreshment Break	Forum	10:00a.m-10:40a.m
4.	Assemble at	School Auditorium	10:45a.m
5.	Final round	School auditorium	11:00a.m-1:00p.m
6.	Prize distribution	School auditorium	1:00p.m-1:30p.m

Rules and Regulations:

1. There will be one participating team from each school comprising of two students from classes XI-XII.
2. Preliminary round will be conducted on the same day and six teams will finalize for the final round.
3. Only one teacher may accompany the students.
4. Decision of the Quiz Master will be final and binding

For further queries, Please contact Ms Nazira Khan -30934390, 30934396

(between 9:00a.m-2:00p.m)

Times Fundamental Quiz 2009

Now I was really waiting for this event. Big time. Swine flu had robbed us of a lot of quizzing time and this being my last year; I really wanted to go out with a bang. The amount of General Quizzes in the school circuit is pretty limited at about 6-7 events maximum per year. So I was really looking forward to this event. But the first battle was to secure the invite for this event. The problem began when we were not automatically invited to the event as our school had discontinued subscribing the newspaper a year ago due to some disciplinary problem.(Instead of reading the paper, people were throwing them on each other.)So I   had to beg the NIE officials for a week. I literally told them tales about my life and my passion for quizzing!!(It’s good the person to whom I talked was a lady; any guy would have just asked me to shut the crap. )So we finally secured the invites and were really happy. We had just 4 days to prepare but I think nowadays, the amount of preparation doesn’t matter. You just need to know the normal General stuff.

Now we have been on a good run lately. For 4 consecutive years now, there has not been a single quiz where we have not qualified into the final round. And the last time we went for a quiz, we ended up 4^th in Delhi after topping the Prelims. So expectations were high. But the thing about quizzes conducted by a certain lunatic called Derek Obrien is unpredictability. There is no way you know what kind of weird questions the guy will add to his quizzes.

So we reached the venue (SiriFort as usual) all pumped up. Prior to this event, I have never lost at this venue. And so the prelims began with a few sitters in the beginning plus a few weirdoes thanks to Derek. Things were fine till question 14 .Then suddenly we missed three in a row..again 2 correct…then three more wrong!!..Quizzes like the fundamental have high cut-offs and you really can’t get so many wrong. Things got a bit steady later on but we missed another 4 in the process. We ended up with 20 out of 30 and I was pretty sure we had missed the bus. And I was right.

I must say we have no one but ourselves to blame. But I think we had a respectable score. The stage round was good and a good friend of mine went on to win the quiz.

I rate this quiz at 6.5/10.

Anyone seeking past archive of this quiz mat click here