I have been at my PS station for nearly 50 days now and it got me thinking on how I am using my time. It is as if it just got coagulated and is flowing very slowly. Every second was like an hour and all of us just could not wait for it get over. This then lead me to that occasion when time stood still for me. Everything that happened at that moment clearly comes back to me and I can recall nearly everything although it had happened half a decade ago. It was a moment when I realised that the impossible can be made possible, when I learned that hard-work, patience and some amount of luck can bring you success.
I was in my 10th standard and until then, I was there in the quiz team, but was never someone who was good or who could win although I did have couple of podium finishes in my bag at that time. I am talking about the Hindu Young World Quiz, 2003. I would not want to get into the details of how I actually went for the quiz, but I would certainly love to relive the moments from prior to the quizmaster announcing Sadashiv's (my partner in that quiz) and my name upto the moment we all got off stage after the quiz. It was an hour and half of unbelievable existence for as only a year ago, I had envied those who made it on stage and asked myself, will you ever be anywhere near the stage and can you even dream of competing like those on stage.
There was a preliminary round with 25 questions and while they were evaluating the answer sheets of around 350 teams, answers were discussed and we had a score of around 17, but since it was my team who got that score, I never believed we had any chance although we were really happy that we could answer a couple of really good questions like What is the maximum duration for a formula-1 Race, What are the debris left behind in the valley after a glacier has passed through it, the home stadium of Chelsea Football Club and another picture of a fighter craft which Sadashiv quiest easily recognised and left me gasping for my breath. When these answers were given out, it was pride that swelled in me since we could answer some of them, but never did I consider myself having a chance to qualify for the quiz.
The quizmaster, V.V. Ramanan came on to the stage with the names of the qualified teams and said that 5 of the teams were from Bhavan's schools and all from my school (Bhavan's Elamakkara) was sure that it was mostly from Bhavan's Girinagar who had a very strong quiz team. But then, to my utter joy he said, there were 3 teams from Bhavan's Elamakkara and I very nearly screamed out loud as this was really a shock to us as we had always barely made it to the finals of the quiz.
The first to be called on to the stage were Aditya Aravind (who is in IIT-M right now!) and Anil V Anand (my senior now in BPGC) and then it was our teams turn, Sadashiv(someone whom I hero-worshipped while at school!) and myself. I must confess it was the happiest moment of my life. It was joy beyond measure as it was the first real taste of success I had for my efforts in quizzing and it still means a lot to me, even after all these years. The duo of Azmi and Ram Kesav completed the BVM-Elamakkara domination of the quiz that day.
I do not remember much about the actual quiz since it was something that I was beyond my wildest imagination. It was like being in a dream and I did pinch myself a couple of times during the quiz just to make sure it was not a dream. Although I did not win the quiz and Azmi and Ram Kesav did and got a huge pile of prizes and then, went on to win the National Finals of the quiz and got another huge pile of prizes there too, (a fact which made our Quiz Teacher Malini Damodar miss to remark that they had to hire a plane to transport their prizes!), I was just plain happy to have been there and taken part in it. Azmi eventually became a very close friend of mine and we were classmates for two years.
It has been 5 years since the event, but nothing of the same magnitude has ever happened to me. I wrote my board exams, entrance exams, attended a lot of other quizzes, I got admitted to BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus, I am in my 3rd year and there has been nothing to rival that moment when V.V.Ramanan called out my teams name. It has been unrivalled probably because I have not wanted something so desperately until then and even after that, I have not worked for something as much as I did for the quiz that year and that year, I had no hope at all and it was more than a complete shock to me whereas my other succeses and achievements where somewhat expected.
Wherever I may go and whatever I do, the joy and excitement I felt at that moment will never be forgotten. I must thank Aditya, Anil, Azmi, Ram, Rahul Unnikrishnan (my long standing quiz team-mate), Aravind and most importantly Sadashiv, my partner for that quiz. I would like to thank Biju sir who was with us during the quiz and also Malini miss for the great work that she has been doing all these years with the quiz club!
You ever heard the song summer of 69? This quiz and the time I spend with the entire quiz gang at school was my summer of 69. We have all taken different paths and gone on to bigger and better things, but for me, the hours spend in the library preparing for quizzes, sometimes doing it just to give a reason to bunk classes (and also march past practise during sports day), those times when someone would just look at pics from magazines and Azmi would have to snatch it from us and bring us back to the work at hand and all the jokes (the good, the bad, the realllly bad and the ugly!!), these are all my best memories ever. My Summer of 69.
