Daijiworld Quiz Contest - AJ Institute Wins Battle of Wits
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (AF)
Mangalore, Sep 5: After nine scintillating rounds of questions and answers that had even the audience racking their brains, the team from AJ Institute of Medical Sciences emerged winner in the Daijiworld Quiz contest held at St Agnes College auditorium here on September 5.
Midhun Mukundan and A Arun that made up the winning team walked away with the honours that comprised a cash prize of Rs 20,000 and a trophy. They beat the runners-up, Hemanth Kumar and K Rohit Shankar of Kasturba Medical College (KMC) by nine points. The KMC team was awarded cash prize of Rs 10,000 and a trophy. The team from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) came third, and was presented with a cash prize of Rs 5,000 along with a trophy.
Seemanth Kumar Singh, IPS, commissioner of police, Mangalore city was the chief guest of the concluding ceremony. Addressing the gathering, he complimented Daijiworld and co-organiser St Agnes College for hosting the event. He said that the event reminded him of the days when he was preparing for competitive exams. "I was a very ardent quizzer. While preparing for my civil service exams I even did a kind of research in general knowledge," he said.
He advised the students who plan to take up competitive exams to be extremely focussed. "Read any one good newspaper, and whenever you do so just jot down the date of the news. This way at the end of the year or whenever the exams approach you will have an entire database of general knowledge in front of you. Knowledge cannot be digested at once - its assimilation has to be a gradual process," he said.
He also recalled his college days when he used to eagerly wait for Siddharth Basu's quiz programme on television. "Today's quiz master Mahesh Nayak reminded me of Siddharth Basu, who revolutionised quizzing in India. My friends and I used to note down questions from Basu's programme. It was an excercise in knowledge building which helped us in answering our competitive exams," he said.
He also spoke on the necessity of being aware of traffic rules and mentioned a quiz that was held on this topic in Bangalore. He threw a question to the audience, "What is the difference between white lines and yellow lines on the roads?" When no one answered, he said, "The white line is a kind of boundary but you can park or move your vehicle on either side of it. But a yellow line is strict no, you are not allowed to cross it." He also appreciated St Agnes College and said that it was doing wonderful work in the field of education.
St Agnes College principal Sr Prem D'Souza in her address said that she too was a keen quizzer and like Seemanth Kumar Singh, was reminded of Siddharth Basu. She applauded Mahesh Nayak for conducting the quiz in a professional manner and said that each question was well-formed and that he put the participants at ease whenever they seemed anxious.
She also observed that only the human race is able to enjoy quizzing. "Quizzing is special and specific only to humans. It engages our whole mind and it is a challenge not only to the teams but also to the audience." She thanked Daijiworld for organising the event and expressed her hope that such an event would be organised by Daijiworld again in the future.
NRI entreprenuer Felix Lobo too congratulated Daijiworld for being actively involved in the media and socio-cultural activities for a decade. "Being an NRI, my day is incomplete without reading daijiworld.com. It has provided a platform for youth and brought around cultural awakening among them," he said. He also congratulated St Agnes College and its students for supporting a meaningful cause. "St Agnes has been well-known for its quality education and value based teaching methods," he said.
The teams were fittingly named Top Stories, Headlines, Cartoons, Recipes, Achievers and Red Chillies, after the different columns in daijiworld.com. Apart from the nine rounds, quiz master Mahesh Nayak also kept the audience engaged with questions and rewarded them with cash prizes for answering correctly.
The other finalists, St Aloysius College, St Agnes College and Nitte Engineering College, were given consolation prizes.
The concluding ceremony was compered by Leslie Rego. Walter Nandalike, editor-in-chief, welcomed the gathering. Tina D'Souza, president of St Agnes students' council proposed the vote of thanks.