Sathguru Cerebral Attack

After demonstrating digital dexterity in the carroms tournament and sharp reflexes and stylish footwork in the badminton tourney, it was now time for the Sathguru squad to reveal what their grey cells were capable of. Preparations for the great event began well before the great day. Even as the teams were announced there was an influx of promotional mailers with various teams publicising their abilities and skills.

The big day dawned and most of the participants for the competitions had gathered at the Keshav Memorial Highschool by 9:30. Mrs. Hemalatha flagged off the competitions by first welcoming the judges Mrs. Madhumeeta Sinha and Mr. Vijayakumar and the participants.

Product Launch

The first competition of the day was Product launch. Each team was given a particular product for which they were to provide a brand name and create a campaign. The contesting teams let their imaginations run riot as they came up with clever (Zippoo Zip Fasteners), funny (Choos Diapers) and sometimes even bizarre (Kiss-You lip gloss) names for their products. While there was a great deal of levity when the contestants discussed the features of their products, there was not doubt that they were redrawing the borders of their imagination and thinking way outside the box. A lot of good hearted ribbing occurred when the audience questioned the contestants on their products, but it wasn’t all in fun. Hidden beneath the jokes and joshing, the questions required many teams to rethink their products and the selling strategies they employed.

In the end Titanes Athenes, comprising Akshat, Renuka and Prasad Babu, won the event with their concept of a combination tongue-cleaner and headband. The Brainiacs, with Susheel, R. Chandra Sekhar and Mouleeswar, were declared runners-up with their versatile, aesthetically enhanced cleaning solution “Sweep Master 2020.”

Special mention should be made of the audience based team Audi comprising Suresh, Sheba and Rajyalakshmi, whose innovative rat poison called CAT, stole the show with a well designed strategy that covered television commercial and sales strategy. The team received the maximum score of the round and it must be said that members of regular teams were heaving sighs of relief that they were not part of the actual contest.

See and Speak

The next event See and Speak emphasized team effort as all members of each team were required to contribute. This meant that each member of the team was required to say something that would reinforce or enhance what was said by their team mates. A mix of graphic and photographic images provided much food for thought.

Vishaal, Jeevan and Parvathi as Kamikaze Minds won the round as they developed on the concept of team work from a picture of ants devouring an apple. Sunday Spoilers held forth on the image of a chess piece strewn with blood also used it to emphasize the importance of good leadership.

However, it was again team Audi who stole the show with a remarkable performance that elaborated on the concept of communication that went beyond senses. The poetic image of a woman lying on green grass holding the hand of a shadow received a treatment laden with metaphor. The deafening applause for the performance managed to suppress the sigh of relief at the fact that Audi was not part of the regular competition.

The Wiz Hunt

After lunch everyone returned to their seats with great enthusiasm for the main event of the day. Twelve teams sat through the first two rounds of the quiz competition. And at the end of each subsequent round, teams were eliminated. While there was a certain amount of disappointment, the evictees realized the advantages of being in the audience. The final rounds were hard fought by Supra (Prabhu Ram and Srujana), Born To Win (Manish, Anil, Sunil), Zenith (Ashok, Surya and Sathish), Tenali Ramans (Pradeep, Praveen and Mukherji), Kamikaze Minds and Champs (Prabir, Srilaxmi and Senthil).

Many of the teams were riding neck and neck at various times. However, Supra, with just two members,in a sterling performance in the final rapid fire round landed the title for themselves with a remarkable eight correct answers which put them in the lead with a score of 148. Born To Win came in a close second with a score of 141.

With the end of the quiz competition, the day wound down. The day ended with a distribution of gifts. Apart from prizes for various events special prizes were awarded to Supra and Born to Win for best Team Performance of the Day. Mrs Hemalatha then thanked all who attended the event. Special mention must be made of the Human Assets Management team of Munindar, D. Praveen and M. Praveen for the efforts they put into preparing the questions. D. Praveen's stint as Quiz Master was flawless as was M. Praveen at the scoreboard. A special mention should also be made of the efforts of Jayendran, Veera Babu, Thirupathi and Madhav without whose support the event would not have been possible. Last but not the least special mention should be made of the motive force behind the event, Mrs. Hemalatha. Her infectious enthusiasm inspired us to reach for the stars...and beyond.

Despite the fact that if there are winners, there would inevitably be losers, on this particular day there really weren’t any. Everyone who came had a good time and there was not dearth of expressions of honest appreciation for the performance of rival teams. Nobody lost, but everyone played the game very well.