Students at the math quiz. (Anindya Shankar Roy)

A host of city students got an opportunity to test their mathematics quotient at Monginis Mathemazic, the inter-school mathematics contest in association with The Telegraph in Schools on October 2 and 3.

More than 1,800 students from 140 schools from Calcutta and south Bengal participated in the two-day maths quiz on the Hare School premises.

“We wanted to find out what students are most unhappy about and the objective was to cure it. Mathematics is something that can be celebrated,” said Mohan Krishna Moitra, the general manager of Monginis.

Each school nominated three students per class from classes V to IX. There were 25 multiple-choice questions to be cracked in 40 minutes. The first 20 rank-holders of Round I qualified for Round II.

“Multiple choice questions do not mean that they are objective questions. Students are being provided with work sheets to work the answers out,” explained Anjan Banerjee, the CEO of Mayurakshi, which organised the programme. “Over the past 15-20 days, we have been flooded with queries by individuals who wanted to take the test but we have asked schools to send us students to ensure quality,” Banerjee added.

Some of the participating schools were Calcutta Girls, Calcutta Boys, St James, Delhi Public School, Mega City, Jadavpur Vidyapeeth, Howrah Zilla School and Hindu School.

A research team of five teachers set up individual question papers for each class and one from them was selected. Every correct answer fetched five points, a wrong answer minus five and no marks for not attempting a question.

Eight students were chosen from each class to qualify for the semi-finals, slated for November-end or early December.

However, the students found the questions hard to crack.“The questions were difficult and required a lot of effort to solve in 40 minutes,” said Class VIII student Indira Dhar.

— Jhinuk Mazumdar

Stars in their eyes

“Are you sure you want me to sign your book?” asked Tollywood star Prosenjit to student Rohit Mukherjee as he handed over his copy of Macbeth for an autograph. “I had no other book, so I gave him that… it doesn’t matter,” smiled the Class XII student of Delhi Public School Mega City. Prosenjit was chief guest at the regional finals of Debating Matters India 2010-11, held last Monday at the Science City auditorium. Organised by the British Council and Institute of Ideas, UK, the regional finals saw 12 schools put their best word forward. Kendriya Vidyalaya Cossipore emerged winners after taking on DAV Model School, IIT Kharagpur, in the final round. Picture by Aranya Sen

Footwork to cut footprint

The green brigade launch their walk to spread awareness. Picture by Shayoni Mehta

The green brigade launch their walk to spread awareness. Picture by Shayoni Mehta

Not all made a change in their Sunday morning pre-Puja plans to cut down on the carbon content in the atmosphere. But a section of young Calcutta did, either by walking or cycling, to spread awareness and reduce the carbon footprint to a manageable limit.

About 40-odd individuals — students of La Martiniere for Boys and Girls, Modern High School for Girls and members of Calcutta Cycling Club, participated in the global environment action day to reclaim the future.

“The measure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now is 390ppm. We need to scale it down to 350ppm. About 7,000 organisations are working on it across the world and this is our call of action,” said Pujarini Sen, climate change activist. She is partly networking on her own for 350.org, an international campaign that’s building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis.

The journey was flagged off at Victoria Memorial at 10am. The three-kilometre, 40-minute walk, via Queensway and Jawaharlal Nehru Road, culminated at Esplanade.

“Cycling is healthy and sustainable. It is annoying to see no-cycling zones on many main roads in Calcutta. This is an alternative mode of transport and it should be promoted,” said Vinay Jaju, of the Calcutta Cycling Club, who came with six friends to join the rally.

Pragya Bajoria of Modern High emphasised: “Awareness is the first step, implementation will take time.”

The group distributed pamphlets on steps to reduce carbon footprint, like using energy-saving bulbs to bicycles, less use of water to non-use of air-conditioners. The indifference of passersby, however, does not matter to this young brigade.

“There were people who did not even glance at the pamphlets we gave them, some sneered... but that did not deter us. The climactic conditions are getting from bad to worse and we need urgent action,” said Adisha Jain of La Martiniere for Girls.

Joining the young brigade was 57-year-old Surendranath Dutta, a mechanical draftsman of Jadavpur University. “I read about the walk in Metro and thought I should join. The traffic at the seven-point crossing in Park Circus is a menace,” said Dutta, who cycles to the university from Park Circus every day.

— Jhinuk Mazumdar