Contestants have some fun after abacus at Birla High School on Sunday. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

Armed with the abacus — either in hand or in the mind — 1,500 schoolkids raced against time at the St Xavier’s College auditorium on Sunday, April 20.

They were trying to solve as many of 200 sums as possible, in just eight minutes, at the third West Bengal UC MAS Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Competition.

Under the UC MAS programme, children use the abacus in the first three levels and then are weaned from the actual gadget and use it in their minds. An abacus is a sort of calculator, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. You calculate by shifting the beads. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in countries, including China, Japan and some African states.

“The competition was held at 10 levels of proficiency, each level divided into three age-groups. Thus, there were 30 champions or ‘Bengal Tigers’ who will represent West Bengal in the national championship to be held in Chennai in August. If they do well, they qualify for the international meet in Malaysia in December,” said N. Anand, chief moderator and director, operations, UC MAS.

Suvayan Mitra, who studies in Class IV at The Future Foundation School, finished first at the highest level (J). The nine-year-old, who had come second in the international meet last year, has set his sights on doing one better in 2008. “I am overwhelmed to win this meet with a decent margin. I am looking forward to the international competition. I will try my best to win this time,” Suvayan said.

“Suvayan came first among all age groups as well as at highest proficiency level,” said Anand, adding: “The others who did well at this level were Raghav Gupta, a Class VI student of La Martiniere School for Boys and Anushka Sarogi of Modern High School.”

Rith Basu

Battle of brains

Several children gathered at Birla High School on Sunday where the stage was set for the 11th Regional Brainobrain Abacus Competition. The event was organised by Brainobrain Kids Institute.

The contest saw a turnover of over 400 children, between five and 14 years, competing to solve the maximum number of questions from the given 70 in three minutes. Forty students from different categories were awarded the championship trophies.

Students from various schools including South Point, St Xavier’s, Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan and Gokhale Memorial School participated in this event. Dance academy Padatik gave a rendition of the Guru Vandana through creative dance moves, which was followed by an entertaining magic show by Abhijit Bose and his team.

“I am really happy to become a champion of the Brainobrain contest. I hope abacus is introduced in every school from the kindergarten level, so that we can grasp the number concepts better,” said Kishan Murarka, one of the champions in the senior category.

Tanmoy Das Lala

Ready for action

For students of Mahadevi Birla, school days are a heady cocktail of work and play

A student performs on the balance beam. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

This is one school where sport is not just an extracurricular activity. At Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School, swimming and skating classes are compulsory. And these are just two of the many sports they get to play.

“A child’s physical development is as important as his emotional and intellectual progress.We need to cater to her all-round development,” says Malini Bhagat, principal of the school reputed to have one of the best sports complexes in the city.

The “Krida Kunj”, as it is called, was established in 1988 with facilities for seven sporting activities: badminton, table tennis, skating, swimming, dart, chess and gymnastics. Dart and chess were introduced in 2006. The school bagged the Inter-School Dart Championship organised by West Bengal Dart Association in 2006, defeating three-times champ St Thomas School, Howrah.

Besides, the school won two silver and three bronze medals at the West Bengal School Games Aquatic Championship last year. The school team also won the badminton championship in December 2007. In 2006, the school team won two gold, one silver and a bronze medal in the Inter-School Skating Competition held at MC Kejriwal Vidyapith, Howrah.

The ground floor houses the swimming pool, while the first floor has a sprawling wooden skating rink. The second floor has two badminton courts, table tennis boards and the gymnasium.

The school provides all equipment and classes are held twice a week. There are 10 coaches. Swimming and skating are compulsory. “Those who are afraid at first are made to sit near the pool and encouraged to take a dip. This way their fear subsides,” explains Sushma Bubna, administrator, Krida Kunj.

Besides these two, the students must opt for another sport of their choice. “The younger ones often go for gymnastics, but after Class VII, students prefer to stick to table tennis and badminton,” says Bubna.

“Since there are so many options, there is a tendency to opt for a different sport each year. We try to guide a student toward a sport for which she has an aptitude, she adds. “Initially, students were not regular at the after-school practice. But attendance has improved since we made it chargeable since 2007.”

The students are enthusiastic. “I want to be a badminton champ. I practise for three hours three to four days a week,” says Class IX student Kosha Modi. For Raveena Surana of Class VIII, chess is the first love. “Everybody in my family plays chess. I too want to excel in this game.”

Jhinuk Mazumdar