Just Another Incredible Day

 It was the 12^th of August 2007. It was raining like never before and maybe that was an indication that something unusual was going to happen. I reached school dripping with rainwater, having yet again ignored the idea of carrying an umbrella with me, the idea which was courtesy of my mother. A figure approached me and for a moment, I was appalled by the neat looks of Arijit Sir while and I and others were soaked.

“Times NIE Quiz today. You and Debkalpa. 6^th period, parking area.”

Seemed like some military command to me, but all I couldn’t help but follow.

“The day was a rather boring one, don’t you think?” I asked GT (Guru of Tech – Debkalpa’s alias) as we made our way to the Kalamandir auditorium in the yellow cab.

“Oh well, you know. The same old. School doesn’t change in a day now does it?” he chuckled. I flashed a grin and looked outside. The whole journey took 45 minutes which was pretty quick considering the fact that Kolkata had been waged war upon by a monster called ‘rain’.

AS we entered the auditorium, it dawned upon us that the winners of this quiz would represent the Eastern Zone in the All – India Finals. Though this fleeting realization didn’t help, instead it made us more nervous (than usual of course!) We took out seats and waited for the quiz to begin.

Technical stuff : A quiz generally has a preliminary round to help choose the best 6 teams who would then play out a 6 round stage finale.

The quizmaster to our delight was none other than Mr. Barry O’ Brien who was (and still is) an MLA and a terrific person. His presence itself was enough to electrify the atmosphere.

After a short opening ceremony, the prelims started. It took a mere 20 minutes and at the end of it, we were sure that we had atleast 16 correct out of a possible 20. Expecting a 3^rd or 4^th position, we were surprised when we were actually the last team to qualify.

As we took out seats on the far right corner of the stage, our hopes weren’t too high and a 3^rd place finish would have been satisfactory. We were particularly wary of Don Bosco and St. James who were, the top quizzing teams in Kolkata.

The first round was a simple, dry set of questions’ round and we picked up 10 for our direct  and pounced on a bonus 5 from Modern High. We were In the lead with both D.B. and St.James tied second with 10.

The next round, ‘Who Am I” was a visual round, requiring us to identify the person in the photograph. We unfortunately missed our direct but nevertheless grabbed a bonus and went on to 15. D.B took over the lead thanks to a bonus from St. Thomas and were ahead at 25. In between these rounds, there were loads of questions for the audience with great prizes ranging from headphones to books and all, which actually was a trademark at any of Barry Sir’s quiz.

The audio round was no better as we missed our direct again, and since there were no bonuses in this round, were stuck on 20. D.B. had raced off to 35 and was closely followed by St. James on 30. The next two rounds were were the favourite of GT’s, as it required quick thinking, good brain and hand co-ordination and hitting a switch on the table. In short, it was the buzzer round. He didn’t disappoint and got 3 good answers got us right back on track and trailing D.B. by 5 and level with St. James.

The next and final round, the rapid fire was my forte.  We answered our set of questions and got a 45/50. St. James couldn’t keep up and ended up getting just 25/50. And it was almost near.. D.B. had answered all their questions so far and were trailing by 5. They had one question in hand that could get them a 10 and the winner’s trophy.

“What is the full form of USB?”

Tick tock.. tick tock.. time was passing. “Am afraid I can’t give you that much time. “The answer is..”, but before Barry Sir could say it, Debkalpa shouted, “It’s Universal Serial Bus. “

Man, that guy knew a lot.

And then we realized. “Yes, we got it.”An exchange of hi-fives with the whole audience cheering. We stepped up and received our prizes from the Chief Guest, Sourav Ganguly.

“Isn’t this so cool! We are going to actually represent East Zone, yeah!” GT said with a wink. I was actually not listening to him. Maybe some 12 hours ago, I was reluctant to go to school because I had not done my Physics homework. Wow, what a mistake that would have been. But anyways, as they say, all’s well that ends well. I so realized it’s meaning as I tightly gripped the the Eastern Zone Champions Trophy in my hand. What a day it was, and what a memory!

Edward C. Fraser once said, “Life isn’t about breathing through moments, it’s about the moments that take your breath away.”

He was so right!

Reviews

[Adelia Alighieri]

OMG!!
This was such an AWESOME story!!!
I loved the message in it; the hope, the surprise...Everything was simply perfect!
I'm glad, I'm first to review.. =D
Bravo.