The 10th edition of one of the most popular quizzing event for school children in Kuwait, the annual Health Quiz organized by the Indian Doctors Forum of Kuwait was held at the Indian Community School of Kuwait Sr. Branch’s auditorium on 8 November 2019. The event was attended by a large number of students, teachers, IDF members and their families. The preparations for this highly anticipated event started in earnest a couple of months earlier with the selection of teams of two students each from classes 10 to 12 from eleven participating Indian curriculum schools in Kuwait. A preliminary round of written multiple choice question format exam was held on the same day at the ICSK premises for selecting the six teams to compete with each other for the coveted trophy.

The final was inaugurated by Dr. Surendra Nayak, President IDF, informing about the history and rationale of holding the quiz every year. He explained that the main aim was to sensitize, inform, educate, inspire and encourage children to take up medicine as a profession, and impart knowledge about the history and developments in the field of health, biology and medicine. The event was held at the well maintained and brightly decorated auditorium of ICSK in the presence of a very enthusiastic audience that participated in the highly informative and entertaining rounds of same prelims questions and received exciting prizes. The event was conducted with usual flair and aplomb by the quizmasters, Dr. Ananthpriya Vaidya and Dr. Naquib Inamdar supported very ably by a professional team of Dr. Sriram Kannan, Dr. Philip Reji, Dr. Imtiyaz Nawaz, Dr. Preeti Jolly, Dr. Gautam Hebbar and Dr. Satish Tadepalli.

The six teams that reached the finals included Ayesha Zean and Rudra Patel from the Indian Community School Sr. Branch, Salmiya; Ganesh Narayanan and Arjun Biju from Indian Learners’ Own Academy, Joel George Moozhil and Shervinchris Philip Jain from Carmel School, Fahaad Ahmed and Harish Babu Gulf Indian School, Ganesh Karthikeyan and Arun Annamalai from Fahaheel Al Watanieh Indian Private School, and Gopika Anil Kumar and Lidhia Theres Gigi from Indian Public School.

Joel George Moozhil, and Shervinchris Philip Jain from Carmel School brought laurels to their school when they emerged winners after eight closely contested rounds that lasted around 90 minutes. The most exciting and entertaining rounds for the audience were the audio-visual rounds that included gripping questions from popular Hollywood movies and recent events. The team of Fahaad Ahmed and Harish Babu from Gulf Indian School and Ayesha Zean and Rudra Patel of Indian Community School Sr. Branch, Salmiya came runners up and 3rd place winners respectively. The trophy, medals and certificates were awarded by Vice-Presidents of IDF, Dr. Diwakar Chaluviaha and Dr. Madhu Gupta. Dr. Ramesh Pandita, former president of IDF and Dr. Radhakrishna Panicker, himself a former health quizmaster gave the certificates to the finalists. Mr. Huzefa Abbasi, Assistant marketing manager Al-Mullah exchange awarded the gift vouchers (Center Point) to the 2 nd place winners and Dr. Mohan Ram, General Secretary IDF awarded the 3rd place winners. It was a matter of great pride for the winning team from Carmel School, which lifted this prestigious trophy for the first time in the history of IDF Quiz.

This second important segment of this educative event consisted of felicitation of fifteen meritorious children of IDF members who have achieved excellent academic results in their recently concluded 10th and 12th standard board exams. This segment was anchored by Dr. Arun Joshi, Joint General Secretary IDF. The students were honoured for their hard work and perseverance, by founding members and exPresidents of IDF, Dr. Abhay Patwari, Dr. Amir Ahmad, and Dr. P. S. N. Menon (Head of Paediatrics Dept., Army Hospital, Kuwait), a former Professor of Paediatrics and Ex-Dean (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi) and Controller of Examination for the prestigious national all India level entrance examination for MBBS and post graduate courses in India. He shared his experience and views about the difficulties in conducting such a large and sensitive exercise for the reasons of confidentiality, integrity, and objectivity. He commended the similar great work done by the IDF quiz team in preparing and collecting questions and conducting this quiz every year so professionally and efficiently. He applauded the hard work of the children and the support provided by the parents for their children’s successes. The event concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Madhu Gupta followed by a sumptuous dinner.