Children have a great time at a ghat in Calcutta. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

What do you make of ‘ABCD’? Well when Jatau, the endearing writer of the Feluda series calls Feluda by that name, ABCD stands for Asia’s Best Crime Detective. The theme at the 4th Mark Buntain Memorial Quiz, held on the Assembly of God Church premises on Jume 11, was ‘good entertainment educates’ and the quiz lived up to it. Forty-four schools participated in the quiz. Barry O’Brien was the quizmaster.

The top eight schools after the preliminary rounds made it to the final round of the quiz. The first round was general question and answer round where all the schools scored except La Martiniere for Girls.

The next round was called Bong Connection, where the participants had to identify the famous Bengali personalities. Surprisingly, in this round, leading schools of the city did rather poorly, suggesting that GeNext needs to brush on the knowledge of its roots.

In the audio round that followed, tracks were played from different genre of music, much to the delight of the participates and 450-odd students in the audience.

The next round was Do Aur Do Panch, where the participants had to identify famous personalities from visuals on the screen. In the next round, two posters of different films were merged and the teams had to name both films. The kids did well in this round.

The competition ended with the buzzer round. It was divided into ‘Modern Times’, with questions on recent happenings, ‘Diamonds are Forever’, with movie questions and ‘Simply the best’, where questions on movie stars were asked.

South Point High School bagged the first prize (picture by Anindya Shankar Ray) scoring 120 points, while Assembly of God Church School, Park Street, and Calcutta Girls’ High School finished second and third respectively.

Anindya Shankar Ray

Special teaching methods

Chrysallis, a performing arts centre for the mentally and physically challenged, organised a special programme on July 2. The event focussed on ‘inclusive education and integration of the special children’.

Schools like Lighthouse for the Blind, Oral School for the Deaf and Akshar, who work with the special children, participated in the event. The programme identified practical problems faced while teaching an integrated class. It also endeavoured to find measures to combat such difficulties.

Teachers from different schools demonstrated various teaching methods. For example, if algebra is taught in Braille to the blind students it is done in sign language to the deaf and dumb students. A group discussion was held after this session.

Reeti Roy

The Diary

Jazz ghosts

The leopard runs
through the city…
The night reveals some of its claws
My soul remembers a corner
Where gamblers dealt bullets…
And you dance
Like a rebel wife…
In your private chamber
In that dark space
The only light
Comes from your spine…
The leopard gets tired
Clawing at the walls
In vengeance…
Where sleeps the man
Who stole his skin?
Your skin shakes love and moon…
The gambler’s wound
Awakens to your dance
... In a corner of the city
A war breaks
On which way the winds blow…
The leopard leaps in through a window…
And prepares for kill.

Inam Hussain Mullick,
English, Jadavpur University