Aqua Regia –
The Science Quiz – 2007 – The National Finals
The proceedings at Harihara Kalabhavan started at 09:30 am in
the morning of Monday, December 3, 2007 with the Hyderabad City Finals. The
students had started reporting much earlier. Still when it was time for the
National Finals of Aqua Regia – The Science Quiz (2007), the Biggest
Inter-School Science Quiz in India. But when it was time to start the National
Finals at 03:00 pm, the auditorium was still bursting at its seams.
The legions of parents and teachers who were watching the events
live from big screens outside the auditorium in the lobby , would have none of
it anymore as they wanted to really watch the clash of the titans. Extra chairs
were immediately provided for and more seating was provided inside the main
auditorium. Those who could not find seating place preferred to stand along the
aisles rather than watch the events on the screen.
When the Quiz Master Mr. Ajay Antony invited the National
Finalists on stage, they were received with a standing ovation by the
competition-hungry audience. They knew that these six teams – the top 12
students from more than 2,40,000 who competed from 25 cities across India –
would kill each other for every single point.
Among the teams, was an all girls team from TVS
Matriculation School, Madurai, the first all girls team
to win an Aqua Regia Event. They had won the Chennai Regional Finals
based on their response to the very last question in the Rapid Fire Round.
The team from Bangalore St. Joseph's High School had
won the inaugural event of Aqua Regia – 2007 conducted on 1st September 2007 in
a very convincing fashion. The Cochin Region, represented by Bhavans Varuna
Vidyalaya had been beaten in the City Finals to second
position, came into the Regional Finals as a wild card entrant and then beat
everybody else on stage to ensure their participation in the National Finals.
New Greenfield Saket, New Delhi was the runners up in the
city finals in Delhi last year. They came back with a vengeance, won the Delhi
City Finals and the Delhi Regional Finals. And finally the team from SSS
Singhania from Mumbai had convincingly beaten everybody
onstage in the Mumbai City Finals and the Regional Finals. The fight between
these six teams was one not to be missed by any quiz enthusiast.
And indeed, what a competition did it turn out to be !!! The
scoring in the first round Blast Off was moderate. The Quiz Master urged the
teams not to forget the basic character which brought the teams into the
National Finals - aggressively search for a solution with a mix of knowledge,
common sense and application. The relative slow take off in the Blast Off Round
could be attributed to "nerves". These were all
champion teams who had clawed their way through the first three levels of the
Biggest Inter-School Science Quiz in India. Still the National Finals was a
special occasion. The teams recovered fast and from then on, the competition
was fought with unadulterated "winner take all" spirit.
The more than 1800-strong audience was indeed taken aback
when SSS Singhania bid for 8 points and gave "Pitching, Rolling and Yawing" as
the answer to a visual based on the maneuvers of a fighter plane. This was a
highly technical question, but the students from Singhania dispatched it with
disdain.
In another instant – in the Rapid Fire round, the Quiz Master
started off with "As a precursor to the Analytical Engine...." Little Flower
had already pressed the buzzer. 99% of the students, parents and teachers
inside the auditorium had no clue – most thought that Little Flower had hit the
buzzer by accident. But they gave the answer as "Difference Engine". The
audience – mostly supporting the team from the host city, are unnerved as they
think that this might give Little Flower a penalty of minus 5 points.
The Quiz Master reads the question again for the benefit of the
audience "As a precursor the Analytical Engine, what did Charles Babbage design
and partly build in 1822 to calculate mathematical functions?" – The answer is
indeed "Difference Engine". Such was the level of participation of the
contestants that the audience encouraged every team – Little Flower cornering a
larger than average share, obviously because of the home-team advantage.
The final position after the National Finals was …
Winners:- SSS Singhania, Thane, Mumbai
Pranav Shetty
Sourabh Subramaniam
1st Runners Up:- New Greenfield, Saket, New Delhi
Dhruv Sharma
Sandeep Nambiar
2nd Runners Up:- Little Flower, Hyderabad
C. Deepank,
Syed Mustafa Hashmi
4th Position:- St. Joseph's Bangalore
Sonal Len Saldhana
Akshay Krishna
5th Position:- Bhavans Varuna Vidyalaya, Cochin
Aditya Venkat
Sarath Krishna S
6th Position:- TVS Matric, Madurai.
P Madhumitha, K Keerthana
The Chief Guest for the day, Mr. SPK Naidu, Special Chief
Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh gave away the prizes and captured
the spirit of the entire national circuit of Aqua Regia – The Science Quiz when
he remarked in his speech that "the future of India is in safe hands".
The Winning Team won a Laptop
each, while the First Runners Up won a Desktop Each.
The second Runners Up won Video iPods and all the
teams from position 4 to position 6 won mobile phones.
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