The Quiz.

The Quiz§

---

On the 29ᵗʰ of October, in a refreshing change of pace, we had a quiz in our school. The day prior to the quiz, at 10:30 in the night, I received a call from my class teacher. My dad picked up the call.

I thought I was screwed. I thought my class teacher found something that he should not have found and now he was telling my dad about what I did.

The moment the call ended, I rushed to my dad and tried to explain by saying:

It's not what you think it is! I swear I'll never do this again! Please!

My dad just stood there with a puzzled look on his face. A look in his eyes told me that I had said too much. I then shut up.

My dad told me that my teacher had called to let me know that I had to wear the complete school uniform tomorrow because some sort of "Quiz-Master" was coming from Mauritius.

I exhaled a deep sigh of relief and then went back to restoring my old and antique coins.
My dad came up behind me and whispered:

We'll talk about your crimes later...

My heart skipped a beat.
He then proceeded to let out a thunderous laugh and then slapped my back and then waddled his way out of the room like a proud penguin.

I then relaxed and proceeded to continue restoring my coins while having the alertness of a SEAL Team Six operative.

The next day I woke up ready to give the quiz which had already inflicted mental arson on me without asking me a single question.

I walked into school wearing the uniform. For absolutely no explainable reason, I had a pep in my step. I felt like I could win the quiz without encountering any form of problem whatsoever.

Little did I know, within an hour and a half of walking through the school gates, my confidence was about to vanish.

That same day, I had an Olympiad to give and to conduct. I was informed that I was to conduct an Olympiad and give the latter too.
I, unprepared like always, gave the expression that screamed:

COME AT ME! ALL OF YOU!

Deep down, I was yelling:

GO AWAY PLEASE! I BEG YOU!

I then proceeded to go up to the examination hall and conduct the UIEO. During the UIEO, I saw my own question paper and proceeded to exit the hall and sit down in a corner near a kid who was crying.

Rather than comforting the kid, I joined him in crying.
The kid asked me why I was crying.
I showed him the UIEO paper.
He let out a wail and we cried together for a solid 23 seconds before I realized that I had a job to do.

I was the "Director of Olympiads and External Examinations". So, like any good Director, I wiped my tears and walked back into the examination hall with a confident stride.

Now I made up an excuse of not giving the Olympiad at that time. I told the other examiners who were encouraging me to give the Olympiad along with the other attendees that I had the quiz in 30 minutes and the Olympiad was supposed to be taken for an hour so I could not in good conscience give the Olympiad and waste my paid money on a half-circled Scantron sheet.

The underling examiner reluctantly agreed with the Director and let me keep assisting the attendees.

I later became bored and left the exam hall after telling the underling examiner to keep my UIEO question booklet, along with my scantron sheet and hall ticket so that I could attempt it after my quiz was over.

The underling examiner followed my instructions.

I later went down to give the quiz but then quickly realized that there were 2 quizzes.
One for grades 6ᵗʰ - 8ᵗʰ. Grades 9ᵗʰ - 12ᵗʰ were to be quizzed at a later time. I became angry for the lack of specification because I was forced to leave my duty and come down only to be turned back.

I protested and somehow, that made a difference. I was allowed to sit and watch the quiz for the younger grades.

While protesting a teacher dragged me out to welcome the "Quiz-Master" by throwing rose petals on him and the managing director of the school.

I was forced to join this formality but I did not let this inglorious job discourage me. I on the contrary made the best of my role as a petal thrower.

When I saw the "Quiz-Master" exit the car in which he was brought to our school, I was instantly blinded by the glare from his bald head. His head was so shiny that it could be used in place of the light of a lighthouse.

I shot my friend a smirk and he started laughing. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to baseball pitch rose petals at the guys gleaming head.

That is exactly what I did. I hurled those petals faster than they will ever go. While hurling the petals I noticed that after I threw my last handful of petals, the "Quiz-Master" started looking up in the air. I then saw a very tiny red dot on his gleaming bald head that I had not previously seen.

It was a tiny drop of blood. I then came to the conclusion that in my last handful of petals, a small rock must have hit him on the head. The managing director told him that it must have been a bee.

The "Quiz-Master", full of pride, acted as though a very tiny rock travelling at roughly 100 km/h hadn't just hit him on the head.

Whoops...

Anyways, when everything settled down, we were allowed to sit in the hall where the quiz would take place. Our His-Civs and Geo teacher started off with a speech glazing the "Quiz-Master". We later learnt his name.

Raj Shankar Das.

He was the "Quiz-Master" who travelled to various countries taking quizzes of people for a solid 20 years.

He started with the quiz for the younger grade. My confidence instantly faded. It was all Indian heritage and local questions.
This is a topic in which I am well versed with, not in the winning way but the losing way. Me and my friend Naksh, went to Vadodara for the INTACH state level heritage quiz after winning the local level. During that quiz in Vadodara, our mothers were sitting in the audience telling us the answers to the questions because we did not know a single one.

This was the reason why I almost broke down again. To regain my cool, midway through the quiz, I went out of the hall because I was of no use there.

My friend tagged along with me and we saw the underling examiner. I asked her where she kept my Olympiad materials to which she told me the precise location. I then went with my friend to retrieve the goods.

After finding the goods, I had an idea.
An unethical one to say the least.

We went into the school's computer lab and proceeded to search up all the answers of the Olympiad on Google, which was a bit primal but was the only option.

After getting all the answers, I filled up the scantron sheet and turned in my sheet. It was then recess. After hopping like a kvell kangaroo, I ate my lunch and returned to the hall because it was time. Time to partake in the PTSD arousing quiz.

Raj Shankar Das was taken to the city's only Five-Star business hotel to enjoy some fine lunch.

Eventually everyone came and we formed teams by ourselves. My team consisted of many close friends of mine. There was one person who I absolutely detested due to her twisted morals and ethics. I tested these ethics when I knew the answer during the midterms and I asked her the answer to the same question. She gave me the wrong answer. She had written the correct answer which I later found out when we received the grades for the subject. This happened not once, not twice but thrice.

When everyone settled down, I noticed that there were 3 tables which could sit 18 people in total left to be occupied.

Just as I was about to send one of my friends to call a teacher to ask what to do with the vacant seats the kids from SBPS (Silver bells public school, the other school in the ASIS group of schools) came into the hall.

That's when I saw her.

Maheen.

To give some context to why I was so shocked to see her, you have to understand that Maheen comes to the same badminton classes as me. She used to go to sports complex, where I first met her. We first talked when me and my friends at the sports complex were just chatting when she came up and sat beside me and asked us:

Who is the best Squid Game character?

We then gradually started talking more about books, badminton, and random stuff here and there.

I later shifted my focus to another badminton coaching centre. Eight months after relocating there, I was shocked to see her walk into the classes.
After a decent time of not seeing each other, she randomly appeared out of the blue.
I found out from a friend that she had transferred to SBPS which was a fun fact to know.

Now when I saw her, her face lit up. We had talked many times in badminton and been paired as partners in doubles a few times, and as opponents countless times so we knew each other by then.

We always compete with each other to see who wins and all so naturally I mouthed:

You're on.

To which she mouthed back:

Bring it.

This way a friendly quiz turned into Mortal Kombat.

The quiz started off strong with me being tossed a question about my home ground. Cycling.
It was about the Tour de France type of event being hosted in India. Which city is hosting it was the question.

Every single head in the room turned to me. I felt the pressure build up as a hundred pairs of eyes penetrated me.

I gave the immaculate answer of the city I lived in for 2 years. Pune.

The quiz continued with me racking up points for the team while the competition between me and Maheen continued.

I messed up by not trusting my gut. My teammates knew that I told them the correct answer but last moment I messed up the hardest question in the quiz to which no one knew the answer to.

A question came which made me later argue with Maheen during practice. Her team was given 5 chances to answer a question. A simple question showing 2 Google doodles and asking to find the relation between them.

They got the answer to the original question wrong twice .Raj Shankar Das then asked them for the date of National Sports Day in India, which they answered incorrectly. The final alternate question was to name 3 major sporting events of the world which happened or will be happening in 2026. This was their 5ᵗʰ attempt at the most simple question in the entire quiz.

Later they outranked us by coming first. We got second.
We were not given a single chance to re-answer. They were given 5.
Maheen shot me a sharp cocky glance to which I mouthed:

You. Cheated.

She laughed.

When everyone left, I stayed to help and rearrange things and get everything back to its original place. I also saw my His-Civs and Geo teacher talking with Raj Shankar Das. So naturally I approached Raj and shook his hand firmly. He was going for a High-Five. I rejected his High-Five and told him:

Firm. Handshake.

He seemed confused but he gave in and shook my hand. I told him that it was fun though he was biased. He started talking about paintings on the wall. The paintings were about classical dances and all and he said that I should make a journal and start learning them to which I couldn't help but laugh. In the end, I leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear:

Sorry for your head.

Then I walked away as he looked puzzled and started touching his head.
Later when I got on the bus, I saw one of Maheen's teammates, and I approached her and told her:

You guys cheated.

Then I proceeded to list out my reasons as if I was a 19th century lawyer.
She started to argue that it was not and it was actually difficult. I asked the same question to a 2ⁿᵈ grader and he got 2 out of the 3 major sporting events which was the last question that Raj asked Maheen's team.

As she was leaving the bus I yelled:

YOU GUYS CHEATED!! WE ALL KNOW THAT!

Later in the evening I met Maheen again during badminton practice. I looked her dead in the eyes, came close to her and told her:

You. Goddamn. Cheated.

Then I proceeded to list out the same reasons that I had told everyone who asked me what happened during the quiz.

5 questions asked to them whereas we did not even get a single extra chance.
At the end of our argument, we eventually forgot about the rivalry and ended up laughing about the questions, Raj's baldness, and random badminton-related stuff.

But one thing is for sure:
They. Cheated.

-Vihaan Vaghela