a tribute to K a i f H i l m a n
absent for two days.
get well, my friend.

S a t u r d a y,

Aiman: Eh, you want to go or not?
Kaif: Nolah.
Aiman: pls, jom ah.If I'm going Ghavi is,and if you're going I'll go.
Kaif: hmm,fine.

in the evening, Cikgu JC called to tell us if we wanted to join the Mighty Minds Challenge held by RHB and THE STAR,we weren't very keen on going but decided to anyways.we didn't know what was ahead of us.

Mind Blowing.

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8.30-reached school

the competition would include general knowledge,so i squeezed in every bit of crappy info i could into my brain.did you know "the Canary Island was named after a DOG?".i bet you didn't.HAH!

got a ride from teacher,sending us straight to Berjaya Times Square.in fact, we even came to conclude that it'll be our first and last time going to times square on a Sunday with uniforms.we weren't exactly sure where it was held, but realized we were at the right place when we witnessed many like us.

in school uniforms.

as usual,most of the shops were closed.except for a bakery.they were getting ready,which made the entire floor smell like fresh dough,out of the oven.

'

centre court

you may not believe it, but myself and EVEN Kaif were intimidated by everyone.exuding smart-ness,there were a heap of nerdy, spectacled,Chinese who easily looked like the next Confucius.thoughts aside, we signed ourselves up(we were in the blue team and Hardesh's team was the Red's) and sat down while the RED went up first.

'

the whole point of this challenge is very easy actually.

1st round- a series of 20 questions, each costing 10 marks.max-200.Only the Top 30 teams(which means 15 from Red's and another half from Blue's)
2nd round-a hands-on challenge where students had to create a specific model as instructed by the,


well,

instructions.

The top 5/30 teams would be chosen to present their model in front of the judges and tell 'em about it.

and, yeah, the winner will walk away with a money prize of RM 3K.oh, that will be very helpful. VERY VERY HELPFUL

we didn't waste anytime, and tried to answer the questions that were given to the other team.Some were very easy actually, but when it came to the Form 5 related questions, Ghavinassh and I would most likely pretend to figure out the answer, secretly hoping Kaif comes out with it.and i kid you not, he got most of it right.yay!

next, it was us to go, and my heart palpitated so heart, it felt like bursting through the walls of my skin.perhaps and exaggeration, but though we came with a "have fun" mindset, we actually wanted to WIN, so badly.

Our 1st round was full of ups and downs,hilarious at moments.a pinch was instantly felt for we got the 1st question wrong.but we got right back up and started getting each of 'em right.at the 7th question, they showed the scoreboard,and though we were quite okay, we were placed 18th because when some teams have the same amount of points, they'll refer to the response time we took for every questions."we have to climb up",i muttered.

our team no. 56
that's the keypad,and after finalizing your answer,you press the button, so on and so forth.

funniest moment

The most exhilarating, hilarious,crazy,angry moment was during the 10th question.it was a fairly simple midpoint question.all of us knew the answer, and before i got the time to check it, Kaif was going"the answer's D,press D!Cepat!"

i believed enough and pressed D.and then we looked at each other and back to the screen.he overlooked!the answer was C.it's freaking C!all of us were so down,partly angry at Kaif, part disappointed as we couldn't manage to lose any more marks(my target was to lose only 50 points).but, here's the thing.and we believed god had something to do with it.



Emcee: for the previous question, can every team send their response again.


for a second, we stopped.we quickly pressed C, and found ourselves going crazy and high.The rest of the way was pretty smooth,except for a few bumps here and there.but the last question, we honestly didn't know.wanna try?here it goes :-

[don't scroll down too quickly,the answer is below,unless you're a cheater,then it doesn't make much of a difference]

where can this building be found?

A. Russia
B.Indonesia
C.Australia
D.India

it's not so easy after all, is it?well, fast forward, the answer is





D



I just found out that it's named "the Lotus Temple" in New Delhi, India.
So much for Ghavi knowing his own country. :)

I(who apparently were the team leader) had to wait whilst Ghavi and Kaif could leave the area.why?because they were announcing the results.slowly, they announced the Top 15 schools moving on, from below.

safe to say, we GOT THROUGH!!


we were 2nd.just below Desa Perdana by a few points.YAY US!!

after being briefed by the facilitator about the hands-on challenge,

we were given time to pray.so, all three of us went to the ,and on the way we planned our time carefully(hands-on challenge would be 1 1/2 hours),and went to pray.except for Ghavi.he took care of all our bags.

Time was so limited even before the hands-on challenge.the briefing took uber long, because there were SO MANY questions from everyone else's team leaders,all so smartlah.So, i also ask. :D

walking towards the center court, i was eating the chicken rice sponsored.From the 8th floor, we had to go down to the concourse level.and when we got into the elevator, the door closed behind us.but, there was a problem.





Ghavi was still on the other side of the elevator door.




Time was of the essence.they were ready to go into the area back for the 2nd challenge.Thank God Ghavi ran.his diet is showing positive signs :D

so, we were instructed to

"construct a manually operating device that can lift or pick up light waste such as paper trash,paper cups, and discarded aluminum cans from a distance or height"

as you would've guess, Kaif and I were dumbfounded.and you can't blame us.the materials in the material bag consisted only of wooden ice-cream sticks,satay sticks, cellophane tape, a cotton bud?, some colored-paper, and a bunch of,apparently, useless stuff.But, Ghavi didn't think so.He came out with an idea so genius, i was about to tell him" you say, we do".

during the hands-on challenge, time was REALLY limited.we took every single second to work on the model,which was exactly a replica of a hand.

Time was up, and all we could do was wait.I felt so distress thinking we didn't do so well, that when the facilitator told me to leave everything behind, i felt like slapping her.wha' ?

our model

waiting time

We hanged out around the centre court,and did i tell you, we saw Ms. LEE and she could actually remember me and Kaif(though i didn't want myself to be remembered how Kaif was).she was still her 'ole joyful self.talked and ranted about many things.One of the mutual thing we had in common was both our principal are "nice" ,"cooperative", and "smart" ladies.

I wonder if Pn. Jamsiah reads blogs?

us and Ms. Lee

the judges were at our table, and they were testing the device.They had three items, a paper cup, a trash, and an empty,crushed Nescafe can.At least ours worked well on both paper-based item.The can was a no-go ):

after one whole round,testing every 30 models there were,the judges went to a few of 'em back, perhaps to consider them as the Top 5 representatives.They came to ours.

a sparkle of hope.

after concluding the top 5 teams, the emcee announced one by one,and we were hoping like mad, that B56 is announced.in the end, it certainly did.and at that very moment, Cikgu Jc and myself started shouting before pausing ourselves,after getting looks from others.but, who cared?we got through, they didn't.HAH!but I've got to say, some had really brilliant ideas, it was the judges who didn't know how to use them.

We started planning about what each of us were going to say,and we gave it our extreme best.

Ghavi testing our model

sad to say, we didn't get a place at the top 3, but you know what, rather than staying at home, i chose to come to this competition, and not regretting any single moment of it.it was truly a Sunday well spent.hey, we beat Victoria Instituion and Aminuddin Baki and another 100 ++ schools?at least that's something, right?

in the end, the disappointment did sinked in a little bit, but i consoled myself with a personal prize to shout out, "a job well done, aiman!

The Mighty Minds :)