In over 20 years of its existence, the Platinum Jubliee Memorial Quiz was hosted by qryptiq for the 4th year in a row[review of last year’s edition]. With Unmukt Chand scoring an unbeaten century thousands of miles down under, the mood inside the auditorium of the sister (??) concern of The Scindia School, Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya (who hosted the quiz, since Scindia School’s auditorium was under renovation) was upbeat for more reasons than one. There were a total of 9 geographically diverse teams that participated in the quiz, namely Assam Valley School, Assam Mayo College, Ajmer Mayo College Girls School, Ajmer Welham Boys’, Dehradun Vasant Valley, Delhi Seth Anandram Jaipuria, Kanpur Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior; and The Scindia School, Gwalior 2 Semi Final legs were conducted with 5 and 4 teams to select the 4 finalists to decide the Platinum Quiz champion which has seen 3 different winners in its previous 3 editions. SF 1 was dominated by Scindia who’s time spent on watching London 2012 on the telly helped them on a couple of occasions, while Welham Boys’ who made a steady start initially slingshot themselves in 2nd place with a fine performance on the buzzer. Mayo boys, who were in contention for the 2nd available final spot, did themselves more harm than good when their fingers worked faster than their brains on a couple of occasions. SF 2 initially saw a 100% accuracy from the last year’s runner up Jaipuria who had one participant competing for the 4th time in this quiz!! And as expected, they cruised into the finals even before the last round began. The fight for the last final spot stretched till the final question thanks to a pseudo-private discussion between the MCGS girls- Girl 1- I think its Free Hugs Movement Girl 2 (who probably got confused because I said Sivamani on drums)- No its the Drum Project QM: Ok girls you need to give me one answer. G2 (to G1): Drum Project G1 (to G2): Are you sure? (in a subdued voice)It is Free Hugs something [sic] G2 (to G1): Yes I am. (to the QM) It is Drum Project Unfortunately for MCGS, Vasant Valley was the fourth team to qualify for the finals. But before they left the stage, G2 was treated with a chocolate by the QM on being promised of having it alone 😉 The finals were a treat to watch for everyone present. The first round was dominated by the boys from Dehradun who finished it at 36 while leaving Kanpur behind at 14 and Gwalior and Delhi on single digit each. The Crossword saw Kanpur waking up and cracking all but one [that one was pounced upon by the immensely frustrated at their slow fingers, Welham Boys]. Not much changed in the sleeping..er.. scoring pattern for Delhi and Gwalior. The score before the epic final round of the epic Platinum Quiz finals- Kanpur 46, Dehradun- 42, Gwalior- 8 & Delhi- 3. The usage of the word ‘epic’ twice is intentional. In the final round, Delhi was the first to implement their strategy but even if their choice would have worked it wouldn’t have helped them much. Scindia, who chose a 15 pointer more out of compulsion than choice, cracked Lijjat Papad (pun intended!) brilliantly to keep themselves in needling distance of the top two. Both Dehradun and Kanpur opted for safe and easy 4 pointers, however the former missed it while the latter increased their cushion to 8 points. Score- K: 50, D: 42 and G: 23. The host’s valiant effort paid off when they cracked another 15 pointer and made Dehradun make last minute changes to their strategy. Dehradun instead of opting for an 8 and get closer to Kanpur had to change gears and opt for a 4 to keep Gwalior at bay. Dehradun scored, thus bringing an end to the late surge of the hosts. Kanpur, after being persuaded by the quizmaster, opted for an 8 pointer in an attempt to make Dehradun’s life even more difficult in the last leg of the round. But their cheeky effort did not pay off and lost 4 points in the process to be level on points with Dehradun. Scores- Dehradun and Kanpur at 46 apiece. 
Dehradun opted for 4. The QM, visibly unhappy with the lack of daredevilry asked them if they weren’t too sure of their abilities and as a result are not opting for 15, to which they replied they just wanted to ride on their luck. Dehradun scored. Kanpur, after their previous mistake wasn’t willing to finish it once and for all, opted for a 4 pointer and got it too. Instead of playing the sudden death tie-breaker the QM changed his strategy too and kept on playing with these fantastic young strategists. Dehradun’s safety first approach finally paid off as they scored on their 4 pointer while Kanpur missed their 4 pointer. It was extremely heartening to see the way the Welham Boys’ embraced Jaipuria Boys after the back-and-forth in the last round. Final Scores: Welham Boys’, Dehradun- 54, Jaipuria, Kanpur- 50 and Scindia, Gwalior-38 Some questions from the quiz: 1. Retelling the original story in an Indian setting, this series was created by Sharad Devarajan with the original publisher. Its characters include- Aman Raj- The superhero’s alter ego Meera Jain- His girlfriend Uncle Bhim- His uncle Auntie Maya- His Aunt Which superhero is being talked about? 2. When the Indian Hockey team for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics was announced, the original squad included the name of a future Test Cricketer who later withdrew. Who was he? 3. As a metaphor to mark what world event, the iconic black-and-white cookie brand turned red, with a tagline that said- ‘Now, to perfectly land an Oreo cookie in milk’? 
4. Dragon: Wales & Bhutan Square: Switzerland & Vatican City Two separate pennants: Nepal Cedar tree: Lebanon What am I talking about? 
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