Participants get busy answering questions at the Bishop Middleton Memorial Inter-Alumni Quiz. Picture: Pabitra Das

The St. James’ School Alumni Association recently presented the inaugural edition of Bishop Middleton Memorial Inter-Alumni Quiz, in association with The Telegraph.

Teams represented by the former students of prominent institutions like Calcutta Medical College, Calcutta National Medical College, Don Bosco School, Park Circus, St. Xavier’s College, St. John’s Diocesan School, National Gems Higher Secondary School , St. Joseph’s College, Calcutta Boys School and St. Thomas’ School took part in the quiz along with the hosts, St. James’ School.

The prelims consisted of 30 questions including three on visual clues with connections, and five questions each on separate audio clips and visual stills. The questions, set by quizmaster Biswaroop Dasgupta, a senior physics teacher and quizzing in-charge at St. James’, seemed to be on the tougher side as the highest score was a modest nine out of 30.

The scenario changed once the selected teams went on stage. CMC, National Gems, St. John’s Diocesan, St. James’, St. Xavier’s College and St. Joseph’s College made it to the finals along with two teams from DBPC. After eight rounds of rigorous quizzing, CMC represented by Saikat Sengupta, Minoo Battiwalla and Akash Roy emerged winners. The hosts St. James’ School and Don Bosco (Team B) finished first and second runners-up respectively.

The special guest for the evening was M. Rodrick, the former vice-principal of St. James’ School, who also gave away the prizes. S.K. Mundul, the present vice-principal of the school, gave the vote of thanks.

“The quiz was part of the school’s sesquicentenary celebrations. It elicited an encouraging interest as we are trail-blazers in the school quizzing circle. Biswaroop Dasgupta did a commendable job with a wide variety of very interesting questions. The debut event was quite successful given the turnout,” said Mundul.

 

 

NIFT Calcutta’s Salt Lake campus turned into a carnival corner for the NIFT Fashion Olympiad from November 11 to 13. NFO was a melting pot of activities around fashion and design, with a philosophy of ‘Sanyogam’ — the eternal connectivity among youth. Students competed in a wide range of events from testing their fashion knowledge with the fashion quiz ‘Quick Silver’ to trying their hand at impromptu styling and ramp walk for ‘Fashion and Music’. Selected participants would then compete on a national platform and then in the international arena. Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, Partho Kar, Abhishek Dutta and Kiran Uttam Ghosh were the judges for NFO 2014 .

Here are some of our favourite moments from the Olympiad:

Pather Panchali themed window display

Fashion ’Mbition: For this competition students had to create a window-display using a retro film theme. We loved The Godfather theme – just a hat tilted and balanced on a vertical King of Heart card with the the quote “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse” scrawled in red across a background made of newspaper. But the one that stood out was Pather Panchali — the entire wall was covered with a black-and-white collage of stills from the film, against which stood a mannequin draped in a traditional red-and-white sari.

Black garbage-bag dress

Fashion Wall: This encouraged participants to use textiles to make panels, mixed-technique surfaces, installation and sculptures. We loved Esha Singha’s dream-catcher photo frame and Devansh Pal’s parachute lampshade. “I have braided the yarns around wires for stiffness, and once it’s ready I’ll fix a bulb to get it working,” said 16-year-old Devansh.

Junk Juxtaposed/ Haute Junkyard: The upcycling fashion event for the green soul saw students creating magic out of junk. The installation of ‘Lajja Rakshana’, an ode to women empowerment by NIFT Calcutta, left us awed. We also loved the dress made with black garbage bags by Neha Sarcar and Virajika Todi of Modern High School for Girls.