Students participate at a dance and (top) cooking competition of Horlicks Wizkids at the Xavier Institute of Management in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 29: Nearly 1,800 students from 38 schools of the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack unleashed their creativity at the eighth edition of the Horlicks Wizkids inter-school fiesta held at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) today.

Considered the largest inter-school fiesta of South Asia, this annual event runs across India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the objective of which is to make kids academically strong and focus on all-round development.

This year, the theme was “Generation, Taller, Stronger, Sharper”.

Today, a flurry of activities, including main stage, mentor minute to fame creative zone, fun zone, melodious band, Hindi Antakshari, official language story, versatile personality contest, mehendi art, mascot design, painting, dance icons, little chef took place. Enthusiastic students from Classes III to XII took part in the junior and senior categories.

The XIMB auditorium was packed with groups of children from each of the participating school, who constantly cheered their friends on stage with pom-poms and whistles. “Some members of our troupe couldn’t make it here so we had to opt out of the dance icons competition at the last minute. But I am enjoying myself here,” said Varsha Katela, a Class XI student of Mothers’ Public School, Bhubaneswar.

“I have a sweet tooth and I learnt how to make desserts from my mother at a very young age. I am here to show my culinary skills,” said Subhashree Priyadarshini, a Class X student of BJEM School here, while displaying chocolate chip cookies and a bowl of vanilla-flavoured custard garnished with dry fruits, ice cream and cherries. The main draw of the event was the quiz competition, in which hundreds of students put on their thinking caps.

Two participants from the capital, Kajol Mohapatra from BJEM School and Rituparna Padhy from Mothers’ Public School, were declared the city’s best.

The duo will represent the city at the four-day international round to be held in Bangalore in November. Apart from two finalists each from 60 cities in India, winners of the city rounds from the three other countries would also battle it out in the international quiz round. Of them, four winners will be awarded scholarships worth Rs 4 lakh along with a trip to Geneva.

This is the second time that the event was conducted in the capital, said Sakshi Mathur, one of the organisers.

Meanwhile, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is all set to conduct the Bhubaneswar edition of TCS IT Wiz, an inter-school IT quiz contest on September 6 at Pal Heights, Bhubaneswar.

The event is open to school students studying in class VIII to XII, including junior college students. There is no entry fee and each institution is allowed to send multiples teams of two-members each to participate.