“Yes, Manu, that’s
very good. Go ahead,” she said and waited for the children to
leave. But Manu had more to say.
“Ma’am, we have a
library period in the second half tomorrow, but that won’t be
enough. We (and he looked around to make sure that they all were
with him in it) were thinking that maybe you would allow us to skip
a few classes and study in the library. It’s only for three
days.”
The principal
never liked students skipping classes, unless it was for something
close to her heart. She leaned back in her chair and thought for a
while before speaking. If she didn’t allow them, they would do
badly in the selection round, but she couldn’t very well allow them
to have a ball for three days. She was sure it would be a ball,
because 12-year-olds can’t focus on anything for very long, and six
of them together would be a nuisance. Besides, the library was
across the corridor from her office and she couldn’t stand any
nuisance in her zone.
“I will tell you
what,” she said, “I can’t allow you to spend all day in the
library. You won’t be learning much that way. When do you have your
maths and English classes?”
“In the mornings,
ma’am,” Manu replied.
“And science?”
“Also in the first
half, ma’am,” said Anisha.
“All right then, I
will tell your teachers to let you spend the second half in the
library. But remember, one complaint against you and you will be
packed off to your classes.”
“Yes, ma’am”.
“You will not pull
out any storybooks. Only reference titles.”
“Yes, ma’am”.
“And you will not
trouble the librarians and the classes that come and go for their
library periods?”
“Yes, ma’am”.
“OK. Send library
ma’am to me as you are going out.”
They turned around
to leave, and she added one more caveat: “I don’t want any
complaints against you. Make sure you leave the books in the
shelves where you found them.”
There was another
chorus of “yes, ma’ams” and after conveying the principal’s message
to the senior librarian they disappeared up the stairs into their
classrooms.
***
As soon as the
tiffin break got over, the six lined up at the library door, and
the head librarian allowed them in with a hundred reservations writ
large on her face. She asked them what books they needed, but
getting only blank looks in reply she told them where the reference
books were and handed over the keys to those cupboards. The head
librarian was very fat and wore equally fat glasses. She moved very
slowly, and truth be told she did not like to leave her seat at
all. Nobody remembered seeing her smile although her daughter, who
studied in class 8 at Sunrays, was a pleasant enough girl.
The students
reserved a corner table at the back by asking Sana and Rohit to
take seats there. The others wandered around looking through the
glass windows of the bookcases. The hardbound volumes of
Encyclopaedia Britannica and a hundred other titles like Tell Me
Why beckoned to them. There were also other interesting books like
the Guinness Book of World Records and sundry Indian titles on
general knowledge. The minutes passed but the students could not
make up their minds about which books to take. Manu wanted to read
the thickest ones, although he knew it was an impossible task, but
he just had to show off in front of the girls. He tried pulling out
a volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica with two fingers, the way he
pulled out Hardy Boys books, but realized it was too heavy to be
treated so lightly. He then pulled out four of them with due
respect and piled them on the table near Neha’s seat. Seeing him
pick out heavyweight books, Samar also went for the thickest
ones.
The two teams sat
across the table from each other and slowly pored over the pages.
Nothing made sense. At least there was nothing in them to arm them
quickly for the quiz ahead. But whoever out of Manu and Samar put
aside those books first would look a fool in front of the others.
The bell rang and one period out of the four they had that day was
wasted. Manu told Sana to continue with the encyclopaedia while he
dug out a tiny GK handbook for himself. It was better to look the
fool now than finish second on Saturday. Because the runner up
wouldn’t go anywhere.
The second book
was much better. It had little chapters about countries that gave
the names of their capitals and currencies and their prime
ministers and presidents. There were chapters on brands, and on
mountains, rivers and oceans, and on battles and important dates.
Everything was ready served and all that was needed was a head to
memorize the information.
With the new book,
Manu’s team spent the next three periods very fruitfully while
Samar’s team thought it had the upper hand with all the heavy
armament at its disposal. In fact, as soon as Manu’s team
surrendered its encyclopaedias, the other side grabbed them. Their
end of the table was cluttered with thick books into which Anisha,
Samar and Rohit were peeping very impressively with pen and
notepads at their side.
When the last bell
of the day rang, the students reluctantly pushed the books back
into their shelves, and locking the cupboards handed over the keys
to the head librarian who was impatiently waiting for them as her
bus left in a few minutes. Samar, Anisha, Rohit and Sana also had
to go home by bus, so they ran for the gate across the ground with
their schoolbags swinging wildly from side to side.
Left alone with
Neha, and so feeling immeasurably happy, Manu shared his strategy
with her in his best grown-up voice. “We should buy these books,
Neha,” he said, “it’s not enough to read them for a few hours in
the library when we can learn them by rote at home also. We now
have only two days left for the quiz”.
Neha agreed with
him wholly on this, and since she and Sana had telephones at home,
she promised to tell Sana about the plan as soon as she reached
home.
“But,” he said,
“it won’t do if all of us cram the whole book. It will be such a
waste of time. Instead, why don’t we split the chapters and focus
on a few each?”
“That’s a good
idea,” said Neha, who knew well she couldn’t cram an entire book in
three days even though she was a brilliant student. They sat down
on the steps in the big porch and divided each one’s share
according to their interests. Manu agreed to do the inventions and
discoveries, countries, capitals and currencies. Neha took books
and authors, prime ministers and presidents, geographical features
and a few more chapters, and everything else was left to Sana.
Manu bought his
books as soon as he reached home and spent the whole afternoon and
evening memorising the information. It wasn’t easy. He kept mixing
up capitals and currencies, especially currencies because dollars
and pounds and dinars are used in so many places, and then there
are the not-so-common names like lira. Had the European Union and
the Euro come into existence a few years earlier, his task would
have been much easier.
He even brought
the book to school and kept at it during lessons by keeping it in
the shelf of his class desk. The more he learned the more confident
he became of winning, and he waited for the second half to see
whether Samar’s team would persist in wasting time over the
encyclopaedias or come around to the simpler books.
Again they went to
the library, and this time the chief librarian handed them the keys
without any questions. A class came for its library period and the
six had some difficulty in finding chairs to sit together.
Eventually, they sat team-wise at different tables. Manu noted that
Samar had again dived into the encyclopaedias, so he also brought
one volume, to make the rivals believe that they were not doing
anything different. He opened the encyclopaedia in the middle and
let its pages flutter under the ceiling fan, but to Sana and Neha,
he handed a copy of the Guinness Book and himself sat down to make
notes from another GK book that was much thicker than the one he
had bought the previous afternoon.
Saturday came, and
the students arrived excited about the quiz. Manu knew a lot of
things by heart now, but he still brought his GK book along and
kept at it till they were called for the quiz in the seventh
period. Their seventh and eight periods on Saturdays were reserved
for CCA—co-curricular activities, and all three sections of class
6, and both sections of class 7 shuffled downstairs to the big hall
where the two quizzing teams were already waiting in benches
arranged along the longer walls and opposite each other. There were
mics for both teams and a third for the quizmaster. The five
sections entered the hall after removing their shoes outside and
settled down, cross-legged on the hard green durries that impressed
their mesh of warp and weft on legs.
The quizmaster was
not one of their teachers, and the students felt alarmed at this.
Now there was no telling what questions he might ask, but he was
jolly and after cracking a few jokes that made the hall ring with
laughter, he started the rounds. Samar’s team got an easy one: the
height of Mt Everest, and so did Manu’s: the year in which a famous
battle was fought at Plassey. Both teams answered correctly, and
felt more confident thereafter. After the first round, the
blackboard on which scores were being kept showed 10 points for
both teams.
Then came more
questions on expected lines. President of this country, currency of
that. What’s an estuary, which ancient city was buried in a famous
volcanic explosion? Which is the biggest mammal, which animal or
insect kills the maximum number of humans in a year, and so on. The
questions continued apace, and the teams continued level. When a
team faltered, the question went to the audience, and a chocolate
flew through the air to whoever answered it correctly. But there
were few questions that the teams couldn’t answer, and at the end
of 45 minutes, the last round came to a close with the teams drawn
level.
A tie-breaker of
rapid-fire questions followed. There were five questions open to
both teams. At the third question—who invented the diesel
engine—Samar hastily raised his hand and gave the wrong answer:
Karl Benz. Manu, who was already something of an automobile buff,
grabbed the chance and replied: Rudolf Diesel. His team had finally
broken ahead. Nervous and excited, Samar again shot his hand in the
air at the fourth question: which queen was beheaded during the
French Revolution? But then he fumbled for the answer. Manu let the
question pass to the audience, and Uma Ma’am, who taught history,
got a chocolate to big applause. The last question was easy—who was
the first man to land on the moon—but embarrassed by its two
mistakes, Samar’s team didn’t attempt it, and Manu took the points.
His team won by 20 points.
That victory felt
so sweet. There were prizes, of course: books and sachets of
Bournvita, but more importantly, Manu, Neha and Sana had qualified
for their first inter-school competition. They felt bigger than
ever. Many hands congratulated them. The principal patted their
heads, and later she called the three of them to her office to
remind them that the inter-school round was just two weeks away.
They promised to work even harder, and attacked their GK books with
a feverish intensity.
***
The library was
theirs now to use at will, and Manu resided in it practically all
day with Neha at his side. Sana was there too, no doubt, but he
never noticed her. They memorised all the old facts and figures
over and over again, but also picked up new details like GDPs and
populations of nations. For once, Manu crammed history dates
without a complaint. Battles and coronations, this freedom movement
and that, he learnt them all by heart. The three of them continued
with the division of subjects like before, but Manu never passed
over any interesting fact that he felt could be turned into a
question. He read both English newspapers—The Tribune and The
Indian Express—diligently in school for current affairs, and
although he did not say this to anyone, he believed that victory
was his in the next round also.
The day for the
inter-school quiz arrived. It rained that morning like Manu had
never seen before. The road leading to his school was knee-deep in
water. He wore rubber slippers and brought his shoes to school in a
bag. Nothing in the uniform could be out of place on such an
important day. The school had an old white Matador van of the type
that hospitals used as ambulances long ago. It wasn’t very reliable
but since only a small group was going with just two teachers, the
school decided to send it instead of a bus.
The van reversed
till the school porch, the group hopped in from behind, and it made
its way uneventfully towards Tagore Theatre in Sector 18. Arriving
at the theatre, the three participants from Sunrays gasped when
they saw the number of teams waiting to go inside. There must have
been a dozen at least.
They were all
packed together on the theatre’s small stage and when Manu looked
down at the seats he could not see his school’s teachers and
students in the dim light. All three felt very lonely then, but the
feeling passed as soon as the questions started.
The questions this
time were tougher than the ones they had faced in the preliminary
round at school. And a team got a direct question after a long
time. After each wrong answer, a question passed around the
horseshoe till someone nailed it, otherwise it went to the
audience. Altogether it was a slow quiz and Manu, Neha and Sana had
enough time to collect their nerves. They were slow off the block,
because they did not answer passed questions in the beginning, but
they got their direct questions right and so didn’t lose any of
their own points.