The kick off.

As per Sitharaman's invite, I'd arrived at the school premises around
20 past 9 when the children drawn from various parts of Thrissur
district were going through the registration formalities to take part in
the Quiz Competition, organised by the district's charter of the
PN Panicker Foundation. Since the registration was being allowed
till 10, I made a quick dash to the Panasonic service engineers to
hand over our DVD player for servicing/repairs.

There were 62 participants in the final reckoning. A couple of
hiccups/glitches that were encountered and sorted out were as
follows:- 

    

      - Three students from a particular school had come late
        because of wrong information about the venue. We're into the
        15th question by then and hence, they weren't allowed to join 
        despite pleas from their teacher!

      - A parent had requested that translation for the tough Malayalam
        words must be provided as some of the children were from

        English medium schools and this was acceded to.

The quiz master was an efficient teacher who'd conducted the
proceedings well and occasionally turned to me for helping her with the
English translations for the difficult and not so commonly used
Malayalam words. The participants were as follows:-

       - Both boys and girls, with the girls having a slight edge over
         the boys in numbers.

       - The participants were drawn from classes VII to XII.

       - Most of the students were accompanied by their parents.

A total of 50 questions were asked and since there was a tie for
the first place, another 10 questions were put across to the duo.
They ended up with the same score after the additional set of
questions and hence, declared the joint winners. They'll represent
Thrissur district and participate in the all Kerala quiz being scheduled
on 19 Jun, at Thiruvananthapuram, on the Vaayan Dinam.

Made a quick return home as it was Lekha's birthday on the Malayalam
calendar. The cake was cut soon after arrival and George and Preetha
were the guests.

Tailpiece.

George, my sa'arthi, was incensed that I wasn't offered a chair
during the conduct of the quiz. It took a lot of convincing that the
conduct of the quiz was of paramount importance and I'd
automatically become an organizer, on arrival at the venue and
consequently, wasn't entitled to any special privileges.
My being my grandfather's grandson was only incidental that
did not require to be tom-tommed about!