The Association of Malayalee Professionals in Saudi Arabia (AMPS) recently organized a quiz contest for students of the international schools in the region.
More than 300 Grade 8 to 12 students from International Indian School-Dammam, International Indian School-Jubail, Al-Khozama International Indian School-Dammam and Al-Yasmeen International School-Riyadh participated in the annual contest called the Brain Hunt World Quiz.
“We at AMPS have always been at the forefront when it comes to organizing events fostering innate talent and creativity of children in the Kingdom,” said V.C.S. Nair, president of AMPS.
The AMPS quiz competition has since 2004 become an annual event for the students, teachers and quiz enthusiasts in the Eastern Province. Its organizers — all top Indian professionals working at leading multinational companies and Saudi corporations — have won accolades for the event’s emphasis on education.
The quizmaster of the popular show was P.G.R. Nair who has been dubbed by the Indian community as the Derek O’Brien of Saudi Arabia. He is a distinguished Toastmaster and staff process engineer at SAFCO.
“I think Nair surpassed all known quizmasters,” said Jubail school principal Syed Hameed. “I was one of the admirers of my own student from K.V. IIT Madras, Siddharth Basu, who made quiz contests popular on Indian television in the 1980s. Now he is no longer on my mind. It is Nair’s inimitable style and endless endurance in handling the students that has pleased me.”
The quiz comprised eight rounds and was a good mix of all things under the universe such as sports, science, current affairs, history and literature. The unanswered questions were passed on to the audience with attractive spot prizes for correct answers.
The “Face the Fire” rapid fire round, adeptly conducted by the assistant quizmaster Krishna Kumar Raghupathy, created many ripples in the winning team from Al-Yasmin School (Riyadh) comprising Mohammed Ameen Arimbra, Micah Wilson George and Jinu Jose who had consolidated their position by the sixth round.
The runner-up team represented by Mohammed Aazim Khan, Sushil Vanka and Musaiyab Ali Mirza of IIS-Jubail bounced back with vengeance after losing some points in buzzer round while the lone girl's team comprising Sheetal Reddy Kauluri, Amrita Mohanty and Nandini Singh from IISJ came third.
Earlier in the day, about 70 teams took part in the preliminary written round conducted by Ajith Kumar during which he posed 40 objective questions to short-list eight finalists.
Sridevi Menon, director of Al-Khozama Schools, addressed the afternoon gathering and distributed winners of 2012 Green Initiatives contests organized as part of World Environmental Day.
She also released the house magazine, AMPS Insight. Pascal Grante, general manager of MASA, was the chief guest. He lauded AMPS for its profound professionalism exhibited during the entire event.
A highly structured stage set-up and state-of-the-art quiz devices were arranged by Krishna Das, V.C. Nair, Murali Krishnan, Syam Shankar, Satish Chandra Kurup and Babu Sebastian.
A unique quiz template designed by Kamaruddin with an attractive brain-hunt logo looked riveting on the screen. Registration Coordinator Satheesan K.R. and AMPS Vice-President Sakkir Hussain and his team managed the registration of more than 300 students and community members.
Jalaja Menon and Reena Sudheer anchored the event with panache. The secretary, Prince Varghese, proposed a vote of thanks.