Quizzing workshop by Mr. Parnab Mukherjee

DAY 1

Every year, our School invites Mr. Mukherjee to come and share his expertise with students and train them for public speaking. This year is no exception, as we all gear up to host two prestigious events, the Girton College Cambridge Essay Writing Competition and the Dr. Amidas Goradia English Debate.

Benefitting from the several workshops conducted by Mr. Mukherjee over the years, The Indian School boasts of a debating team that has been winning laurels at the national level. Realising the need for the students to excel in quizzing, the school organized a two day workshop conducted by Mr. Parnab Mukherjee in the schools A.V.Room on 15 and 16 July 2017. Students of classes VIII IX, along with the teachers from the English and Social Science departments of School attended the workshop. The students and teachers alike found themselves reveling in the sea of knowledge as Mr. Mukherjee unravelled his expertise in the subject.

On the first day, Mr. Mukherjee shared various tips on how to master the art of quizzing. He gave clear cut instructions on how one must prepare for a quiz competition. The following is the list of pointers unveiled by Mr. Mukherjee that will surely come in handy for the ones among us who are aspiring to become good quizzers: 1. Real names of writers, artists, film makers. 2. Names of 20 Latin, Greek, Hindu and Roman Gods. 3. Names of first Prime Ministers and Presidents of countries. 4. Major battles of World War I and II. 5. Major centenaries. 6. Names of newsmakers appearing in the last 2-3 pages of India Today, Outlook, Week, Time, and Sunday Guardian. 7. Origin of brand names- Sony, Pepsi etc. 8. Names of autobiographies. 9. Names of Nobel laureates in Literature, Physics, Economics and Chemistry. 10. List of the Pulitzer, Booker, Grammy, Oscar, Magsaysay, Golden Globe, Bafta, Emmy (Oscar for TV serials) and Cleo (Oscar for TV ads) winners. 11. Important magazines Scientific American (Science magazine), BBC Knowledge, Down to Earth, Global Times. 12. Internet Movie Database (IMDb)-an online database of information relating to movies, television shows and video games. 13. Important newspapers recommended for the days of the week- Monday-Wednesday- Tribune, Deccan Chronicle, Assam Times Thursday- Midweek, Free Press Journal, Lokmat Times Friday- Hindu, Telegraph Saturday- Indian Express Sunday- The Mint Lounge, The Sunday Guardian 14. Important TV channels- History Channel, BBC World 15. Best quiz books- Quiz Mountain (Partho Basu), Mastermind England (BBC)

A fruitful session thus came to an end, but excitement was evident as we walked out wondering what treasure Mr. Mukherjee would reveal to us the following day.

DAY 2 The next day, Mr. Mukherjee highlighted the importance of a newspaper. Talking of a newspaper, he informed us what the different parts of a newspaper were called: Mast Head- a line on the front page of the newspaper giving the name of the publication. Deck- A small strip on the front page which contains the important stories to read. Every newspaper has 8 columns. Page 1 Anchor- An interesting story at the bottom of the front page. It is not a dated story. Op-ed- short for "opposite the editorial page-It expresses the opinion of a famous author. Mr. Mukherjee then took up the type of questions that are likely to be asked in a quiz. He began with Connections. According to him, connections are to find a connect between 4 - 5 words that may be as different from each other as chalk and cheese, and then deduce the answer by finding a common element in all the connect words. One such example was - Judo, 1912, 1st railways in India, London Metro and the first Asian. Students came up with many answers. But to our surprise, the answer to this connection question was Rabindranath Tagore! Mr. Mukherjee was quick to tell us how he arrived at that answer. We were surprised beyond words! The connection questions had undoubtedly caught our fancy and so we asked for more of those. Subsequently, more such connect words were given to acquaint the students with the said concept. Next, were the What is common to and Find the odd one out questions.With each question, the confidence of the students grew by leaps and bounds.

This activity was followed by a series of questions on current affairs which were very diverse and just enough to put the students knowledge to test. The students participated enthusiastically. Some of the questions were: What are the crosses on the British flag called? Which book begins with the line - It was love at first sight? Which painter was called Jack the Dripper

The workshop soon ended, but not before Mr. Mukherjee encouraged students to participate in more and more competitions, not necessarily to win, but more importantly, to learn.

Mr. Parnab Mukherjee never fails to surprise us with his vast expanse of knowledge and expertise. The energy, enthusiasm and excitement on the students' faces said it all!

Ms. Gandharvi Mukherjee.