AECS Manuguru Diaries.P2. The Kings of Summer

As a kid I was never into sports. I played cricket occasionally but it did not interest me much. I was more into watching English movies and reading books. And among movies, adventure genre was my favorite. One of the things from these movies which fascinated me was a tree house. I always wanted to build one. One summer in my Eighth grade I started working on it.

Our school had a vast open land in front of it. It was dry with shrubs and bushes all around, punctuated with some trees here and there.It was something like the grounds in the videos of Serengeti that they show on the Discovery channel. This was a perfect place to build a tree house I thought. At that time I was good friends with a kid called Harsha. He was a strong healthy kid whose one goal in life was to become a soldier or as he called himself 'Army Man'. So everyone else did the same. So one fine day I told army man my plan to build a tree house. He was readily up for it and added in his own ideas.

It was the summer season then and summer is the season when magic happens. Our colony was transformed into a dry and desolate land every summer. The roads wore a deserted look in the afternoons, evenings were spent outdoors, rasna and roohafza were the order of the day and school used to finish early in the afternoon.

One fine summer day we decided to put our plan for a tree house in action. First we did several recces of the area after school time and identified a tree. But try as we may, we could not figure out a way to make a house on top of that tree so, in true kid logic, we decided to make one at the base of the tree itself.  So slowly everyday after school we made our way to the tree and built the house. First the foundation and the skeletal structure, which didn't take much effort.We gathered four stout sticks and rammed them into the ground at four corners. We built a mound of soil around the sticks to reinforce it. Next step was to build the walls. This we did by gathering many slender sticks and holding them in place by cords we got from home. Soon we had the house almost ready.  The roof of the house was also made in the same fashion. We covered all the walls and the roof with branches and leaves. So finally our tree house was ready.

But all of this was not without some hurdles and hiccups. This whole adventure had one of only two instances where I got into a physical fight with another kid. I don't remember how it started and what led to the fight. All I remember is me hitting him in the stomach and he landing a few blows on me. It ended as soon as it began. The funny thing about all of this was that later we became good friends and he even helped me in building our tree house.

Our tree building was interrupted briefly after two of my favorite teachers saw Harsha and me wandering off into the fields after school one day. I still remember the scene. Standing on the footpath which separated the road and the field they shouted our names and called us back. There we got an earful about the dangers of the field and the animals which roamed there. This stopped our visits for sometime but we soon resumed as soon as the matter was forgotten.

After our tree house was finished we spent some time visiting the place and spending some time around the house now and then. Gradually it was forgotten and we moved onto other stuff. Years later the whole place was cleared and there now stands a number of new quarters. Whenever I walk past that road I cant help but recall those carefree days when the top most priority of my life was to build a tree house in a dry field.

AECS Manuguru Diaries. P1. Dictionary saves the day!

Class 6.Subject Social Studies. Our much loved and feared social studies teacher Patnaik sir was explaining a concept in his usual eccentric way. He had a flair for making complex things easy to understand and to the delight of his students he always made the answers of questions in the textbook very brief and to the point. And he expected the students to be diligent and sincere in learning. His punishments were also very unique. For the boys he made them sit in between two girls. Yeah, that was 'punishment' back then. Sometimes when he was very angry he would give a good whack on our outstretched hands with a scale. So we knew that if he gets angry we were in for a bad time.

As he was teaching, suddenly out of the blue he asks the kid in the first bench the meaning of the word 'Republic'. The kid stands up but does not answer. Sir gets angry. He asks the kid next to him. He too doesn't know. Sir gets angrier. He then asks the kid in the second bench of the same row. He stands up and again no answer. By now steam is blowing from his ears. He asks the next kid. I was seated in the 4th bench and I asked my bench mate if he knew what the answer was because I did not. He replied in the negative. Sweat began to form on my forehead.I counted the number of kids in front of me and calculated when my turn would come up. I was 8th in line. I hoped the sequence would stop somewhere but as I was looking it was refusing to stop.Nobody knew the answer and Sir looked like he would have a fit. I was scared. Suddenly an idea stuck me.I always kept a dictionary in my school bag. I quickly took out my dictionary and started searching for the the word 'Republic'. I looked up once to see what number was going on. It was 6th. I had to hurry. Madly I flipped the pages and got to the 'R' section.Then I found my way to 'Republic'. Internally I screamed yes!! I quickly told the definition to my bench mate. No sooner had I told him his turn came up and he gave the answer. Sir was relieved and said 'good'to him and the witch hunt stopped.Before he turned away, he just swept his gaze over my face. I looked at him poker faced.I just hoped he wouldn't notice the tension or the sweat on my face. I think he didn't or maybe he did and chuckled to himself. Ill never know. The rest of the class heaved a sigh of relief. 

What is the best thing your teacher ever told you?

You can do it razzaq! I know you can. If only you give it a shot.I am sure you will do good.

This is what my favorite teacher Amulya ma'am told me during my 11th class.

This was when a student was noting down names of students who were interested in taking part in an elocution competition.And I did not give my name though a part of me wanted to.

I was a very shy and quiet person back then and never participated in any extra curricular activities except quizzes. But I was good in English and used to always score the highest in it. Also I used to read a lot of books.We had this competition called 'Best Reader' organised by our Library Dept and I had won the first prize in the last two years. But in spite of all this I was scared of going on the stage to deliver a speech even though I always wanted to. I was not confident. All I needed was a push.

This came in the above words of Amulya Ma'am. She used to (and still does) teach English in our school. Though she never taught me I liked her immensely! She was one of my favourite teachers. I suppose she knew about my lack of confidence and told me to go ahead and participate. She told me exactly what I wanted to hear. That I can do it and do it well.

I went ahead and participated in the competition and eventually won the first prize. This proved to be a huge confidence booster for me. I went on to give a lot of speeches on other occasions in school as well as later in college and job life.

All thanks to Amulya Ma'am!

My Videos.Part 3.Random

Whatever videos have been left out from the previous two posts I have them here.Some are related to school and couple of them are about travel trips I made.

1.This was when we celebrated Teachers Day during our first year of Intermediate.That was back in 2007.

2.Then came the Teachers Day of the year 2008.That was the last year I spent in my Colony.

3.In my second year our school participated in a large national Youth fest comprising of all the branches of AECS schools.I took part in the Quiz event and we even bagged the first Position.Heres the full account of that wonderful trip.Below is the video I made of the pictures that we took there.

4.In 2007 we hosted  a farewell party for our seniors.I still remember the daily meetings we used to hold,the little arguments and the different responsibilities we had.It was all very exciting.

5.In intermediate we used to do all sorts of shenanigans.Like one time when one of our classmates threw small stones at a bee hive just to see how the hive absorbs the stone first and then ejects it.But the inevitable followed and one time the bees flew out in anger and attacked the large number of us standing there to watch the show.Two bees bit me and that stung me for days.Another time when one of our most strict teachers was teaching we took a video of him.It was very successful.He didn't notice.Heres the video I made after many years of the actual video we shot.

 

6.School Days are hard to forget.One day during my engineering days when I was reminiscing about my school days I dug out all the videos I had of those days and made a compilation of them.I realized that during our intermediate we took a lot of videos.Heres the compilation.

 

  7.The following two videos are of the trips I made with friends to Puri in Orissa and then to Mainpat in Chhattsigarh.

   

Though I have made a number of other videos they are not meant for public.They are too cheesy to be shared with the public.So they will remain in the depths of Youtube only for my viewing and cringing.

AECS 10th 2006 Graduates.Part 2-High School (6th,7th and 8th class)

High School days

6th Class

               After my 5th class was completed I was very excited about going to High School.It felt good.It felt like I was a big kid now.Compared to my 5th I remember a lot of things about 6th class.There were a total of 6 sections starting from 6A to 6F. We had to choose between two optional languages Telugu or Sanskrit.I chose Telugu as my parents believed it would be useful in our day to day life.In retrospect I am quite happy with that decision.Section A was for all the students who chose Sanskrit and Section B was a mix of half Sanskrit and half Telugu students.The rest of the sections were all Telugu.I was placed in section B.Early roots of our gang FC grew here in this class.

               I met abhishek,swatchithlal,raviteja and deepanjan in this class.We all were in the same section. Abhishek was the chubby kid who was famous for his cute looks.In fact his pet name was Tin tin and he even resembled the famous fictional character. Swatchithlal was the jolly kid in the class always up for a good laugh.And deepanjan was the hyper excited kid always looking for some fun or the other. P. Raviteja whom we used to and still call just 'p' was a quiet and soft spoken kid who was obsessed about buses.His one passion was buses.He used to draw buses everywhere ,in books,on boards and even on benches. We all knew each other pretty well but got closer only later in 10th class and afterwards.

                I had two bench mates in this class.One was N. Rakesh. We had one major thing in common.It was our height.We were short in height and that is how we both got to to share a bench in the first row.Then the other person with whom I shared a bench was Yamini. She was very talkative and I was a very quiet kid but I got along with her fine.Our class leader was Pratyusha Karnati.For most of us the word 'leader' is synonymous with Pratyusha even now.Other people I met in this class are KrishnaVeni,Bharath,S.Sowmya,Sachin Giri (Sachin was the one who introduced to me the game of 'Half Life'.It was one of the best games I have ever played.We both, along with our respective elder brothers used to share a lot of stuff related to computers and games)Himaja,Deepti,Meghana,Sindhu,Sheena Patel,Swetha,Nitin,Raghuvamsi,Pramod,Ravi chaitanya,Lavanya,Ravi Teja,Alisha.

                Our English teacher was Mrs Hema Malini ma'am.She was everything I looked in a teacher back then.She was,kind and understanding.And she taught very well.She is one of my favorites teachers ever.Best thing about her teaching was that she never really confined her teaching to just the school stuff.She used to give us general advice and used to solve our problems.Some incidents that she told us from her personal life spring to mind whenever something similar happens to me.Even after 8 years of leaving school I still sometimes get dreams wherein I am sitting in a class and Hema ma'am is explaining a lesson.She was one of the earliest persons in my life who made a lasting impression.There were other teachers.Some were good like Vasu sir and Joshi sir,Some were quite the opposite.Not going to mention the names here.

                 My Reading habit also started from this class.I started reading tinkle comics given by my dad and later in large numbers by my aunt.My reading was confided to comics in 6th.The school library was very good.And the Librarian Mr Azagappan sir was a nice person.I later formed a good bond with him.

                I used to go to AK Das sir's tuition during this period.Here along with me there was Himaja and Chimayee Jena.Myself along with K.Vinay used to go out and pluck mangoes from the trees nearby and bring them back to the tuition.Aunty with assistance from Himaja  used to cut those mangoes and sprinkled with pepper and salt, used to distribute in the whole class.Those were all wonderful days.

                   
7th class
               7th class was also a good year for me.Initially there were to be six sections and I was placed in the sixth but soon because of less number of students in the sixth section,all the students of the sixth section were distributed and accommodated in the other sections.I was then shifted to C section.Here I met Mujahid who warned me that I came to the wrong class.On asking why he replied that C section had one teacher who was not popular among the students.I came to know about her later but I personally didn't have any problems with her.It was here in this class that I formed one of my earliest 'gang'.It comprised of three boys- K.Vinay,(whom I met in 6th class) BK Chaitanya aka kittu and myself. Vinay was the soft spoken handsome boy in the class. Kittu was excellent in sports and was a big fan of Telugu movies.We three were inseparable back then.We used to hang out together and play together.It was during this time that I first got the feeling of being in a group and someone having your back in case something unpleasant happened. I used to go to Vinay's house a lot.The other person whom I met was Shoaib Rashid.He was a tall and lanky kid who mostly kept to himself.We got acquainted but weren't much of friends.Of all the members of FC I have the most in common with shoaib.
            I remember one time we had a combined class with 7D( I was in 7C).Here I first listened Amulya ma'am's class.Since it was a combined class , Ma'am chose to tell a horror story to entertain the kids.She narrated the story in such a manner that students talked about it years later.The fact that I still remember that episode is testimony to the kind of effect it had on the students.As an aside a strange coincidence happened that time.When Amulya ma'am first narrated the story in that combined class a girl started crying at the end.The next time she narrated the story to another set of combined class,another girl cried.Eerily both the girls were similar in many aspects.Both had specs.Both's seating position in the class was the same.And both started crying at the very same point in the story.Call it childhood imaginations but this incident was fodder for gossip for a long time to come.Though Amulya ma'am never taught me full time she became one of my favorite teachers later.I still try to visit her whenever I am in colony.

8th class
                    This period was a very forgettable one for me.Again I remember much from this period except the fact that my grades dropped dramatically during this period.From 80% in 7th class it dropped to 60% in eight.But apart from that I remember one incident very vividly.It is the only thing that comes to mind when I think of 8th class.Mr Tiwari was our Hindi teacher and I hated him.He was uncivilized,rough and very harsh with the students.One time he was checking the books of all the students.When he came to my bench I showed him my book and it was incomplete.I was absent for a few days before and so my book had a number of blank pages showing my incomplete work.He asked me 'kaha hai work'?
I replied with 'incomplete hai sir'
And out came his strong sturdy palm on my cheek. He slapped me with so much force that my cheek turned red.I sat down and muttered my first expletive in front of anyone.It did that in front of none other than akram. I carried the imprint of Mr Tiwary's five fingers on my cheek for the rest of the day.It caused many curious glances at me when i walked the corridors and went to the water cooler to drink.Thankfully by the time I went home those marks disappeared.

        I changed tutions from Das sir to Mahapatra sir.Here I formed a close friendship with Harsha Vardhan who used to call himself Army man because he had only one goal in his life back then ,to become an army man.We used to go to tuition together and come back together.In my whole childhood two persons gave me lifts on their cycle more than anyone else.One was bhanu during my primary school days and Harsha during my 8th class.I will always be indebted to them for this.

9th and 10th Class in my next post.
Previous post on Primary Class.Part 1- Click here

AECS 10th 2006 Graduates.Part 1-Primary School

Primary School
Pic was taken in 2009 by my brother.

Every person looks back at his/her school with fondness.My case is no different.I love my school.Loved it back when I was studying in it.I love it now.I have so many wonderful memories associated with it.This post is about our batch which graduated 10th class in 2006.And when I say this is about our batch I mean it is about our batch from MY point of view.

The Buddies

              Let me first talk about my group or as some like to call it,gang.There were eight of us back then.Abhishek,Deepanjan,Bhanu,Swatchitlal,Ravi Teja,Akram,Shoaib and myself.(We are nine now with the addition of Kiran later and still a very close knit gang)We use to call ourselves TT back then.I am not going to reveal its full form now as it sounds a bit silly.Later we changed our name to 'Falcons Club' which still sounds a wee little bit silly but  doesn't matter.I met my FC friends at various points of my schooling and I will mention their names as I move from class to class.

Primary School (1st to 5th Class)
            There were separate buildings for students from 1st to 5th class and students from 6th to 12th class.Class 1 to 5 was called the primary school.I don't remember much from this age except a few incidents.I was, maybe in 3rd class and a boy from 2nd class asked me if there 4 balls in an over or 6 balls.I had no idea what he was talking about and sheepishly just told him there were 4.Later I came to know there were talking about the game of cricket which I later started playing.
       
             One of my earliest friends was Akram.We met in 2nd class.In 5th class during the start of the year seating arrangement was being decided.By luck akram and myself got the same bench.We were delighted.But then the teacher asked the class leader,Priyanka Patil to point out any bench where any friends got together.She looked around and pointed us out.That was it,we were separated.We laugh about it even now.
       
             I first met Bhanu when I was in third class.He was the tall boy sitting in the corner row in the penultimate bench.We weren't friends back then.In my 4th or 5 th class I started going to Reddy Sir's tuition. Bhanu was in the same tuition and we hit it off immediately.I have some of my best memories of my primary school days with Bhanu.We use to pluck some kind of wild fruits from the trees behind our school, play cricket together and we used to bring colored sounf to tuition and eat together.
       
              During my 4th and 5th class I used to play a type of Frisbee game with the lids of our tiffin boxes.It was the first time I was playing in a large group.I think I can only remember Sudheer Vasireddy among the those whom I later met. Sudheer was a good friend.We used to play together a lot during our lunch breaks and PT(Physical training) classes.

            One teacher I fondly remember from this period is Mr Raja Reddy sir.He was My favorite in Primary school.As I mentioned before I used to go to his tuition too.Other teachers I remember are Shankar Sir,Prema Jyoti ma'am,Shahela ma'am,Vani ma'am,S.L.Prasad Sir,Prabhakar Sir.
         
            I changed many tuitions during this period.Major among them was Srinu sir's and Raja Reddy sir's.Others are S.L.Prasad sir's and Shankar sir's.My dad was against the idea of tuition corporal punishment so I never went to any tuition where the teacher beat the students.A very calm person and one who never beat any of his students,Shankar sir once,in a fit of anger,slapped me.I did not turn up from the next day.Another time I was looking for a new tuition and somebody suggested Johnny Sir's name.I liked Johnny sir and thought it would be a good idea to go to his tuition.So off I went one fine day to his home.There to my surprise I saw his wife teaching the kids and not johnny sir.During the class she took out a long sturdy stick and hit me with it.I stopped going from the next day.And like that I changed many tuitions. During this time I used to carry a satchel made lovingly by my mom to the tuitions.It was made up of a short towel and two large fiber rings.It was the trend in that sleepy colony of ours.I had it with me for a long time.And in my time every little kid used to wear paragon slippers for intra colony movement.Nowadays it is hard to find any kid with paragon slippers.

            Summer days used to be so interesting back then.Either my family used to go to Hyderabad or we used to stay in colony itself.Long days of staying back in home and watching cartoons on TV.More than anything else I remember the stillness of the colony in the afternoons of a summer day.The deserted roads,the dry plants,the warm wind blowing,the hot sun overhead .These are the things I remember.

            One tragedy to strike early in our batch was the death of a batchmate.I think in 3rd class,Khaja babbar died in a car accident.We were sad and confused at the same time.I had only talked with him once or twice.
           
           Coming to marks the one thing I remember was I got 20/20 in social studies in all the five Unit Tests that were conducted in my 5th class.And then in half yearly exam I got 50/50 and again in annual exam I got 50/50.Overall I maintained a 100 percent record in social studies.My love for social studies started early.One common feature in the school was that a bench was shared between a boy and a girl.My bench mates used to change with every class.One of the best bench mates I had was Harika.She was a polite girl and was a good person.I still remember her earrings which were very beautiful.Her friendship with Divyasri, another one of my bench mates was very famous back then.          
         
             Primary school days ended with the end of 5th class.I was happy and a bit apprehensive at the same time.In 5th we were the seniors of the school.And we enjoyed it.But now in 6th class we were going to become the juniors once again.

People I remember having met during my primary school days-
Bhanu,Akram,Sudheer,Priyanka Patil,Viju,Vicky,Vinod,Vijay,Randeep,Immanuel Raju,Harika,Divyasri

The next part will be about High School.That stage of our life which shaped us for the future.
I urge any readers from the batch to share their incidents in the comments section.

A few more clicks of primary school here

Quiz win at the Mumbai Youth Festival 2007

Representing one's school in a competition is one of the best feelings one can have.I got my chance to represent my school when I was selected to be in our school's(Atomic Energy Central School,Manuguru) Quiz Team for a youth fest that was going to be held in Mumbai.It was one of the best things to have happened in my life.I was part of a large group of students selected for the fest.It was something like Olympics.Only difference that you are representing your school rather than nation.At that age school was our identity.And AECS,our school,was something of which we were very proud of.
       My quizzing journey started back in my 9th class.I got third position in a written quiz conducted by the Library Dept of our school.And there was a big Quiz contest coming organised by 'The Hindu' in Hyderabad. I was hoping to attend the selection trials for that and was upbeat about my chances.But to my dismay I found out that our school had already selected a student and was sending him without conducting proper trials.I moved on and in my 10th there was a intra school Quiz Competition.Our house was conducting selection trials and I attented them.There were four people to be selected to form a team,Many students attended and soon the first three positions got filled up.The fourth was left.I beat many others and finally it was between me and another boy.The selector asked us the tie breaker question.We both couldnt answer.She asked another.Now we both knew the answer.She asked another and this time I answered and was in the team.I was delighted and finally my dream to be on a quiz team finally came true.The day of the tournament came and our house won the first prize with me playing a significant role in our win.After this win I constantly participated in other quiz contests and won a number of them.
       In my Intermediate days I heard about the upcoming Mumbai Youth Fest where a number of competitions would be organised.It was a four day extravaganza and when I heard that quiz was going to be a part of it I was very excited.Soon the expected call up came and I was one of the first team members to selected for Quiz.I was also selected for Debate for which I declined saying I was much better performer in quiz than in Debate.I was given responsibility of the Quiz team being the senior most member and was given a say in the selection of other members.I selected some but due to their participation in other events They couldn't make it in my team.Finally after a lot of deliberations a four member team was formed comprising of Netrav Gupta,Sreenidhi,Venella and myself.All three of my teammates were excellent in studies.I was good at academics but nowhere near to my three teammates but in terms of General Knowledge we all four made a good team.Now with the team in place we were told to practice which we did but in our own way.We never really sat together and practice.All three of them were busy with their other commitments and all I could think was about going to Mumbai.Finally the day of departure came and we were off to Mumbai.My favorites teachers Amulya Ma'am and Hemamalini Ma'am were also accompanying us.It only made my the trip more enjoyable.There were only two members from Intermediate second year.Ananjay and myself.So we had a bit of responsibility on our shoulders.
        Before the events started there was going to be a big display of tableaus from the various participating
schools.Our school was also making one.We had a skit to be performed on the truck.I was given the role of a British Officer.Two funny incidents happend regarding my role.One when I was walking by on the roads of the colony from the hostel where I got my costume on towards the venue of the tableu,many people mocked me and playfully hurled abuses at me.Someone shouted 'angrez ki aulad bharat chhod' someone else shouted 'simon go back' someone even threw some stones at me.I had a good laugh at this.Another thing to happen was to change into my costume my teacher called me to the girls hostel.I changed into my costume and forgot my T-Shirt there.The next day I casually mentioned in front my friends that I forgot my T-shirt at the girls hostel.They were like 'Dude how did your shirt end up in the girls hostel' and I had to start from the
beginning and stop their overworking brains to jump to conclusions.
           By the Second day Our school had participated in almost
all of the events and were still to open our account of wins.Our event was on the second day.First there was a preliminary round.I was expecting the boring written round but to my delight I found out that it was to be a stage round.We were discussing amongst ourselves of clearing the prelims nevermind winning the whole contest.We were in the sixth round of eliminators.In it the first question asked to us was about the origin of names of months of a calendar and collectively we answered it easily.Soon other questions followed and we answered with ease.In this preliminary round my contribution was bit less compared with others.We qualified easily in this round.Having cleared the prelims we were in a relaxed state of mind.There was still time for the main round to start.

        The time for the main round finally came.There were many round each dealing with different fields.There were many tough questions but my reading habit came to my rescue many times.I knew many answers from the novels that I had read.We were competing well.The audience was comprised of two sections of people.One section was supporting the home school,Mumbai.The other was supporting all the teams other than Mumbai.The mumbai crowd was bigger and was much more vocal of their support.Every correct answer was greeted by loud cheers,whistles and claps.Round after round we answered well and slowly we were inching to the top of the points table.Soon the last round came and We were trailing the home team by 2.5 points and the contest was heating up.There was one question left to be asked to the Mumbai team and were hoping that they not answer it and the question get passed to the other teams.In that way if we could answer it we still had a chance to win.Finally the quiz master asked the final question.As soon as I heard the question my heart rate increased cause I knew the answer.I also knew the question was a tough one and the answer was something that couldn't be guessed.What we hoped,happened.Mumbai couldn't answer it and one by one the question got passed by the other teams and was approaching us.With each 'pass' my expectations increased and I was already thinking of our win.After what seemed like an eternity our turn came.I took the mike in my trembling hands and with a shaky voice I answered.I knew the answer was correct and with the QuizMaster's confirmation my heart beat just shot up further.It was over.We won.All the teams supporting us started whistling and clapping.There were handshakes all around.Pats on the back and shouts of congratulations.I was feeling like a hero of a movie.It was a joyous moment for us.Here we were,tagged as no hopers we comprehensively beat all the so called big teams.As I came down the stairs of the stage a strange feeling came over me,I became calm and just a smile appeared on my face.No shouting,no dancing.Perhaps it was the shock of winning an India Level event.Later one of our teacher's told me that I should have been a bit more expressive while the event was going on.Well,I thought I was here to try and win and not put up a show for the audience.But anyway the joy of leading your school to victory comes once in a lifetime and I was truly proud and haapy that I had the fortune of doing it.
       While I was going out of the venue, more good news came.One of our school mates and friend Trisha came hopping around and informed me that her team had also won the first prize in Debate.We high fived and congratulated each other.The campaign of Manuguru was well and truly off.We won a lot of prizes in other events too.After a memorable last dinner party we returned to Manuguru with the trophies in hand.While coming back my school mates started pestering me for a treat celebrating my win.I gave a small treat hoping to give them a big one later.But I couldn't and thats one regret I still have even to this day.Off all the compliments I received I remember Amulya madam's.She said 'you guys smashed them' I was filled with pride and happiness on hearing these words.This win in Mumbai was one of my life's best moments.It changed me in many ways.I made new friends,discovered aspects of myself that I didnt know existed in me and got a lot of confidence.

(Moazzam,Bhuvan,Trisha,Nikhil,Hemant,Yashwant,Ananjay,Sumedha,Niharika,Anjali,Vidhi,Abhijeet,Shahsank,Abhuday,Abhay Prabhu,Abhijeet,Vineet,and my quiz team mates all made this trip memorable for me.Thank you guys!)

Our Team- Team Orange

Watch a short video of the trip here-