Meet the illustrious quizmasters of Lupin Aptivate Achchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz 2022

The Finale was hosted by three eminent quizmasters of the country, Dr. Navin Jayakumar, Mr. Avinash Mudaliar and Mr. Meghashyam Shirodkar.

The largest food quiz of India concluded with a roaring success.

New Delhi (India), November 14: Several estimates suggest that the rising incidence of unhealthy food habits has triggered an obesity epidemic all over the world. Preference for junk food and other not-so-healthy options among modern-day kids is also a growing concern for parents. There are various smart ways of inculcating healthy eating habits in them, and one of them is making them curious about food. This is exactly what a food quiz can do, very effectively. Keeping this in mind, HT School, along with Slurrp, joined hands with Lupin to conduct India’s largest food quiz: Lupin Aptivate Achchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz 2022. A unique aspect of this quiz was that it allowed both parents and kids to participate as a team. Meant for students of Grades 1 to 6, the quiz took place in two rounds: The Prelims and Finale. The Prelims, which saw 10,000 plus registrations from all over the country, was held asynchronously online on 30th October. The Finale, on the other hand, was conducted via Zoom and hosted by three eminent quizmasters of the country, Dr. Navin Jayakumar, Mr. Avinash Mudaliar and Mr. Meghashyam Shirodkar.  The winners from among the 160 finalists have been announced here.

Dr. Jayakumar, an ophthalmologist by profession and a quizmaster by passion, is the founding member of The Quiz Foundation of India. He has also been the quizmaster for several notable nationwide quizzes, such as the Landmark Quiz, the Murugappa Madras Quotient School Quiz and the Rotary Galaxy Science and Technology Quiz among others. Talking about the latest Lupin Aptivate Acchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz 2022, Dr. Jayakumar said, “The Father of Medicine, Hippocrates said, ‘Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food’. As a doctor and an Indian, I can say that a lot of our food and traditional dishes come from ancient medical knowledge. It has been a pleasure quizzing with a super enthusiastic bunch of families at this quiz. They had their plates full of a feast of mouth-watering questions and they sure made a meal of it!”

Mr. Mudaliar was the quizmaster for the Power of Ideas Print Quiz, Airtel Quiz-o-Mania, Airtel’s techQ, and the NTPC Electron Quiz to name a few. He has also hosted quizzes for major corporates and prestigious institutions. Together, Mr. Mudaliar and Dr. Jayakumar conducted the world’s largest online school quiz, ClassAct 2022, The Hindustan Times Republic Day Quiz in January and Smartacus 2022, The Hindustan Times National Interschool Quiz in August. In his current avatar, Mr. Mudaliar heads HT Labs. In his past roles, he invented the iconic Saregama Carvaan and was the co-founder of Gaana.

Mr. Mudaliar believes that quizzing is not about rote learning or memorising dry facts, it’s a way of life. “For kids, quizzing should not be an academic exercise or a knowledge test, it should serve towards enhancing their curiosity about everything around them, including food. It should teach children to question basic facts. Questions like ‘Why is barfi called barfi?’ prods them to think and derive. The answer? Because it resembles ice, that is baraf. The Lupin Aptivate Achchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz 2022 was designed to encourage such inquisitiveness of children about food and it did exactly that. Every kid is a seeker and quizzing takes them on a quest for knowledge. What really matters is that the children enjoy this journey of fun and knowledge, and not just focus on the destination,” he said.

Mr. Shirodkar, popularly known as Megatron in Indian quizzing circles, has been hosting quizzes and gamified knowledge content professionally for bluechip corporates, IITs-IIMs and NGOs in India through two decades. Once an Air Force Cadet training at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, he has conducted prestigious quizzes such as, HDFC Ergo Insurance Awareness Award Junior Quiz (Asia’s largest school quiz), CBSE Heritage India Quiz and SEBI Annual All-India Employee Quiz among others.

Mr. Shirodkar was delighted at the response garnered by this online food quiz. “Being a foodie myself, this quiz gave me an opportunity to interact with other foodies, young and old. It was thoroughly enjoyable and helped me learn some delicious new food facts as well. When we were children, our parents and elders used to teach us that when it comes to food, we benefit the most by using as many of our senses to experience it as possible–by looking at the beauty of the dish, inhaling its aroma, feeling it with our fingers, and finally tasting it with our palates. After being a part of this quiz, I would like to add one more experience to the list – answering quiz questions about food! To use an apt metaphor, the Lupin Aptivate Achchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz has only whetted my appetite for more such food trivia, and I hope it comes back soon the next year!” he says.

The Finale of the Lupin Aptivate Achchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz 2022, which had 35 questions in multiple choice and type-in formats, covered a wide range of topics including world cuisines, science behind food, different types of diets, food and nutrition, food sources, food facts, food groups, ayurvedic foods, food and health, history of food, and the origin of food. While all the contestants will be awarded with digital participation certificates, the top 40 will receive prizes worth 2.5 lakh in Amazon vouchers.

HT School is a platform designed to build a vibrant community of avid quizzers. It has created a whole new universe for them: Quizverse. In this platform, quizzing enthusiasts have the opportunity to come together, communicate and ace their quizzing skills. The Lupin Aptivate Achchi Bhook School Foodie Quiz 2022, like the other quizzing initiatives of HT School—ClassAct 2022, The Hindustan Times Republic Day Quiz (conducted in January) and Smartacus 2022, The Hindustan Times National Interschool Quiz (conducted on 15th August) —is the right step towards this direction.

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