Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu:

Talent and creativity can abundantly be found in amongst children belonging to Generation X these days. Be it in academics or extra-curricular activities, students have become smarter. To enhance and encourage the hidden talent of such students, Terapanth Yuvak Parishad - a non-profit and community service organisation - organised a Quiz Competition for students belonging to classes between IX and XII. The Himalayan Times was the official media for the event. Ravin Lama, MD of The Himalayan Times, was chief guest and many prominent personalities of the likes of Hulaschand Golchha, Sanjay Verma, Tularam Dugar and Pravin Mehta graced the occasion with their presence. Avinash Dugar, Chairperson, Personality Development Committee, also the Quiz Master of the competition, said, “Parents only pay attention to the academic excellence of their children and ignore the fact that they also require encouragement in other fields and this is the reason why we have organised this competition.” The pre-selection round was held on April 23 where 45 students had participated out of which the final 10 were selected. The participants were from Modern Indian School, Kendriya Vidhyalaya, DAV Sushil Kedia, Rai School, Rato Bangla, Galaxy School, Jain College, to name some.

The programme started with a prayer recited by Hulaschand Golchha making the atmosphere pious and calm. There were a total of five teams comprising two members each namely Mahavir, Bhikshu, Tulsi, Mahapragya and Mahashrawan. The quiz had a total of six rounds intended to grill the participants in every possible way. The first round was based on questions on science, geography, sports and entertainment followed by the second round on mathematics. The third round consisted of rapid-fire questions and crosswords, the fourth being based on their IQ. The fifth round, which was especially formulated by Gochha, was particularly based on Jainism and the final round was a visual round. The team Mahashrawan comprising Basant Bafna and Jitesh Dugar bagged the first place with their nearest rival being the team Bhikshu comprising Avinash and Ayush. The second runners-up were Abhishek and Preksha from Tulsi team. Prizes worth Rs 28,000, Rs 21,000 and Rs 18,000 respectively were given away by the chief guest and other special guests to the winners and the runners-up. Kamal Jain, president, Terapanth Yuvak Parishad, handed over mementos and certificates to all the participants, including those of the preliminary rounds. Dugar, also focussed on the fact that reading newspapers and watching news channels has helped increase the knowledge

of these children to a great extent and encouraged the parents to inculcate reading habits in their children.