Q for Quizzes

I was a pretty average kid back in school, till I was in class 8. I was not good either in studies, games or debates, or any other thing that acquired a little importance in my school back then. 

Aside from this, my sister was a very geeky student, always amongst the top rankers in exams, and decent enough in sports and debating. As a result, everybody knew her by her name in the entire school. Whereas only a handful of people knew me in the school, and that too not by my name, or deeds but as her brother. She too never left a chance to express how embarrassed she was of me in school, when somebody talked about me with her.

Bad-performing siblings are still manageable but ask my pain to somebody who had an overachieving sibling while in childhood. 

The same story continued till I was in grade 8. But something happened in grade 9th, just at the beginning of the session. One fine day my principal entered the class and asked us to raise our hands if we are interested in representing the school in Zonal Quiz Competition. 

I was the person who was crazy about cricket at that time, every afternoon I had rice, daal, curry, and news. If a newspaper was missing from my meal, I barely ate half the quantity. But as I turned the pages, I managed to overlook another piece of news as well.

With the hope to try my luck and the confidence that my neighbor raised his hands with, I too managed to raise my hands low. The principal wrote the names of the students who raised their hands and went off. The next day all those who raised their hands were called for the school prelims. 

When I enter the prelims room, I see all the big shots of the school sitting for the prelims. Toppers and famous students from all the class occupied the entire seat. I also found an empty seat and silently sat with my low self-esteem.

The test went decently well, I knew the answers to almost all the questions. Even those I gave the wrong answers for, it was just marginally wrong. I was a little optimistic about how I performed and promised myself that next time I would be more serious and get completely involved in it. Seven days passed and there was no news, I imagined that the competition either got canceled or they selected somebody else. 

Then the next day, just before the dismissal my principal came to class to inform me that I along with a big shot buy from class 10th were the two people selected to represent the school. That day, after going back from school I was probably the happiest I ever had been. Not even the thought of representing my class ever crossed my mind, let alone representing the entire school, that too in an inter-school competition in another city. The entire day I was not able to properly land my feet from the air into the ground. I happily announced this at home, with the hope to get my parent's approval for the first time in my entire life. They too seemed fairly pleased. Achievement Unlocked. 

Our school team performed badly in the Zonal quiz prelims, we scored -12 out of 50, yes you read it right negative twelve out of fifty. But I passed my internal test, and the amount of confidence this school representation gave me worked magic. I walked into the entire school with an air of confidence now, even though not all but some people now knew me by my name. The confidence translated into marks and It was the full marks that I was striving for every time, as against the passing marks, I did just a couple of months ago.

Ever since then, I represented my school in all the next interschool quizzes and made it to the final of a few of them. Even in my +2 school, I was a regular feature of my school quizzing team. 

My biggest and proudest career achievement came in college when I was one of the top 5 finalists in the National It Quiz competition. 

Me with my proudest plaque in the closet

Ever since then, I have hosted many intercollege, and interschool quiz competitions.

I have won the reliance national team quiz, and I have been a regular level 2 qualifier in the Tata Crucible corporate quiz, the biggest corporate quiz in India.

Today, my miraculous turnaround in school is still talked about, even after 9 years of passing out from it, how I managed to traverse from the bottom of the rank list to the top. I just have one simple answer to all these questions, "I managed to make myself raise my hands when the opportunity came, in the face of it, even though I was terrified, just to be even noticed by my principal".

I still carry the confidence that being a quizzer game in my life.

Sometimes it's life-changing just to raise your hands even when you are terrified with fear. Just raise your hands when the next opportunity arises in your life, even though your fake ego warns at the top of its voice not. You never know when the half-rise of your hands gives you the biggest boost in your life.

Till we meet the next time,

Write, listen, and love Unconditionally