Burhaan Rasheed Zargar and Raghav Khajuria — class X students of the CBSE-affiliated Jodhamal Public School, Jammu — were recently crowned champions of News Wiz Quiz 2019. 

In the national finals staged last December in Delhi, the winning duo exhibiting calm demeanour and high level of preparedness, outsmarted teams from Bishop School, Pune and The Aryan International School, Varanasi to bag the title. 

Started in 2016 as an annual quiz contest which tests the general and current affairs knowledge of senior secondary (class IX-XII) students countrywide, New Wiz Quiz is an initiative of the TV Today network and Tree of Knowledge Digital Pvt. Ltd, a Delhi-based edutainment company, promoted by popular quizzing pioneer Siddharth Basu.

Following three testing rounds of online and live Skype elimination quizzing which began last August, the Jodhamal team bested 500,000 students from 750 schools countrywide in the 4th edition of the only news quiz show broadcast on national television by the TV Today network (India Today, Aaj Tak) to bag a humongous trophy and national recognition.

“We attribute our success to school and parental support. In particular we owe immense gratitude to our physics teacher Sanjay Pandey for investing considerable time and patience in mentoring us and believing in our capabilities,” says Rasheed.

Raghav, Rasheed’s quizzing partner since middle school, adds that winning News Wiz Quiz 2019 was a huge challenge because Jammu & Kashmir has been deprived of basic mobile Internet services following abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution which transformed J&K into a Union territory with effect from October 31, 2019.

Fearing widespread civil strife and unrest the Central government has blocked Internet for over five months. “This development was a big blow to us given the mine of information on the Internet. Instead we increased our dependence on the print media and national television. Fortunately because of broadband Internet service provided by our school, we came well-prepared for the national finals in Delhi,” says Raghav.

True grit.

Avtar Nehru (Delhi)

Also read: Harsimran Kaur