The Goa History Quiz Competition
RINALD D’SOUZA SJ
History is often said to be written by the victors. Not necessarily. On 20 August 2011 some 357 students from 30 schools across Goa, along with their teachers and friends, descended at XCHR, Porvorim and made history by taking part in the first edition of the XCHR Inter-School Goa History Quiz Competition. The Quiz was organized as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Goa’s Liberation. And since very little of Goa History is taught in the school syllabus, the XCHR Quiz Competition was meant to encourage the students to take interest in the history of their own state, Goa. However, we must add that we were not disappointed. The Quiz was conducted with the help of the Sunday Evening Quiz Club. The Quizmaster for the day was Mr. Rajiv D’Silva, one of Goa’s ace quizmasters.
While students were required to report here only by 9:00 am, there were quite a number of them who had already queued at our gates as early as 7:30 am. Students braved a rainy day to take part in the Quiz. Well, they were all prepared! Before the Quiz began, one could witness scenes of hectic preparation and consultation. The written preliminaries began at 10:00 am. Later, as the students snacked away to some pastries, the judges seemed to have had a testing time in deciding the finalists. When the results of the preliminaries were announced, there were some heartbreaking scenes as teams missed the finals by a whisker. A wildcard round followed by the semi-finals finally set the stage for the final battle. Two teams from Loyola High School, Margao and one team from St. Britto High School, Mapusa made it to the semi-finals. Meanwhile, in between the quizzing, the audience was kept well entertained with some historical facts and they took away some fabulous audience prizes. After some intense and gruelling quizzing, Mushtifund High School, Panjim emerged winners. Rosary High School, Miramar won the second and third places while Loyola High School, Margao bagged the fourth place. The winners took home the XCHR Rolling Trophy, a cash prize of Rs. 5000, a plaque and certificates. The second and third prizes consisted of cash prizes of Rs. 3000 and Rs. 2000 respectively, a plaque and certificates. Those who reached the semi-finals were awarded a collection of books on Goa for their school libraries. Similarly, all the participants were awarded participation certificates. Students went home satisfied, but not before vowing to show up for a more challenging second edition of the Quiz next year!
The response to the Quiz was certainly overwhelming and unexpected. The XCHR seemed to have been bursting at its seams. Yet, it proved to be a grand success for us. Meticulous planning of the event began in June with Fr. Savio Abreu, Fr. Apollo Cardozo, Fr. Rinald D’Souza, Mr. Frederick Noronha, Mr. Rajiv D’Silva and Mr. Aniruddha Sengupta working out the details. While the XCHR Staff worked overtime for the event, we need to make special mention of the close cooperation we received from the TSKK Staff before and during the Quiz. Volunteers from the SEQC were also here to help us out. Fr. Efraim Gracias provided us with live coverage of the Quiz which was simultaneously screened in the corridor. The XCHR Rolling Trophy was designed and sponsored by Mr. Mahendra Alvares of Big Foot, Loutulim. On a positive note, Mr. Rajiv D’Silva remarked that “this was certainly one of the best organized quizzes that I have conducted, from the logistics point of view”. Further information and photographs are available at our Facebook page at facebook.com/xchr.goa