Department of International Studies, Political Science and History.

Lyceum

Postgraduation Students’ Association

Battle of Brains 2021

Battle of Brains for the year 2021 was a breath of fresh air for the students in these trying times. Organized by the Post Graduate Students’ Association, Lyceum, the Department of International Studies, Political Science, and History had an exciting, fun, and rather enlightening day full of activities planned for its students. The Battle of Brains this time had four different sets of events: Conspiracy, Just a Minute (JAM), Event X and Enigma.

Conspiracy:

Time: 9:00 am to 10:30 am

Conspiracy was moderated by Judith Blessy from 2 MAIS and was conceptualized and executed by Niharika Singh Rana (2MAIS) and Siddharth Tiwari (2MAIS).

As the name suggests, the event prima facie dealt with various conspiracy theories; thus, leading to a rich intermixing of the point where historical fact and fiction merge. For the first-round participants (in teams of two) were expected to justify the conspiracy theory allotted to them at random, the theories were immensely diverse ranging from Lady Diana’s accident being a possible assassination to the musings of Flat Earth Society. The varied nature of the theories and the arguments advanced by their respective proponents ensured that the event did not gain a monotonous character as it carried forward.

By the process of elimination, five selected teams went forth for the second round which involved integrating two prompts into the theory allotted. Here, the teams essentially deployed their rational and creative thinking skills to integrate the prompts into sensible narratives. Some of the prompts were zany such as Osama Bin laden found in a Broadway play (this was for the conspiracy theory regarding 9/11 being an insider job), while some prompts involved more contrapuntal history-making such as the raid on Area 51 being successful and CIA claiming responsibility for Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death.

Three teams advanced for the third and final round involved ‘dealing with the consequences’ which essentially involved teams been given a narrative with real-life consequences (for ex. Lal Bahadur Shastri was a member of the Illuminati who had come very close to decoding CIA’s activities and hence was assassinated in return), here the team members itself were split into two opposing camps amongst themselves, with one member supporting the conspiracy and other speaking from the side of the establishment. Thus, in this segment we see the participants moving away slightly away from the theoretical side of things and dealing more with real-world application. Overall, the event with its integration of conspiracy into our present scenario was an extremely rewarding event to watch, and at a more holistic level it brought about the ‘What-if’ scenarios one often deals in life and how to power through them.

The winners of the event:

1. First place- Anagha Lakshmi and Somrag G from 4 MAIS

2. Second place- Aishwarya Annie Santosh and Anjali Shekhawat from 3 MAIS

3. Third place- Ipshita Chatterjee and Jogita Rajbongshi from 4 MAIS

Just A Minute (JAM):

Time: 10:30 am to 12:00 pm

This event was organised by Hanspreet Kaur and Vineeth Daniel Roy, and the rules of the event for the jammers were, to speak for one minute without any violation of these rules: No Repetition, No Hesitation and No Deviation. The jammers who do not violate these rules and speak for one complete minute on the topics assigned would be awarded 60 points. The JAM event all together had three rounds. A total of 15 participants took part in the first round and in this round, only the judges could create any interruptions and point out any violations of the rules. All the participants were assigned each topic and had to speak for a complete minute without any violation of the rules. In the second round, the top five participants from the first round moved on to the second round. In this round, both the participants and the judges could point out violations committed by the participants. The top 3 participants: Maryam Rehaan from 2 MAIS, Tanishka K from 4 MAIS and Soorya Srinivasan from 4 MAIS qualified for the next round who fairly secured 60 points without any violation of the rules. In the final round, Soorya from 2 MAIS, was flagged for violation of "No Repetition" by Tanishka. The last two finalists, Maryam and Tanishka were given the topic 'White Nationalism' and 'Cybersecurity' respectively.

The last two finalists performed excellently and spoke for a complete minute on their given topics without any violation of the rules. All the participants from the JAM event received positive feedback from the judges and it was overall a unique and exciting event. The judges were: Nishta Sinha and Gautham Rajesh.

The winners of the event:

1. First place- Tanishka K from 4 MAIS

2. Second place- Maryam Rehan Masood from 2 MAIS

3. Third place- Soorya Srinivasan from 2 MAIS.

Special Commendation- Anushua Banerjee

Event X:

Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm

As the name suggested, Event – X was a mystery event. Without a doubt, it was a thrilling opportunity for all the adventurous participants to test themselves and compete against each other. A catch in this event that made it stand out from the rest of the events was that even the rules here were a mystery! Hence, the guidelines for the event were not announced till the day of the event. This further fueled the curiosity of the participants as well as the audience.

Comprising of two rounds and nine teams, the event began with its first round of “Two Truths One Lie,” wherein the participants were challenged with questions ranging from politics to entertainment. The second round of ‘Guess the Personality’ had the audience in addition to the participants on the edge of their seats. The participants displayed their vibrancy and excitement with each building question and kept the event going with utmost enthusiasm. The moderators for the event, Granth Vanaik and Khushi Mandowara, students from 2MAIS and Nishit Jogi as the timekeeper, student of 4MAIS, did a splendid job facilitating the event effortlessly and managed the technical difficulties with ease to not let it impact the event in any way.

With applaudable performances from each of the participants, the event concluded with the announcement of the three winners.

The winners of the event:

1. First place- Oishee Majumdar and Manisha Halder from 4 MAIS

2. Second place- Akshath K and Vaishnavi Iyer from 4 MAIS

3. Third place- (Tie between) Vaidehi/Jero, and Nireekshan from 2 MAIS

Enigma:

Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

‘Enigma’ was the last event of Lyceum’s ‘Battle of Brains’ held on February 27, 2021. Enigma was a treasure-hunt event where the participants had to find clues from the information provided. The event began at 12:30 pm with the participants being briefed on the rules and procedure of the event. A total of 19 teams participated with teams consisting of 2 members each. The event was presided by Mr Alan Homes and Mr Sandeep Ghoshal of 2MAIS.

The participants were sent PDFs containing information, on their WhatsApp, from which they were required to find the clues. The first clue was to be used as a password to open the second PDF and so on. The participants were asked to coordinate with the volunteers for acquiring the latter PDFs. The host, Alan, and the volunteers provided clues as and when requested by the participants. The participants could also object to hints. The participants had to guess a total of nine clues and send these clues to the designated volunteer on WhatsApp.

The participants were asked to fill in a form with all the clues they had found by 2:10 pm. The event ended at 2:10 pm with the closure of the form. The results were based on the number of clues the teams were able to find.

The winners of the event:

1. First place- Aman Pandey and Deeksha Pandey from 2MAIS

2. Second place- Hayat e Fatima and Gaurang Salkar from 2MAIS

3. Third place- Catherine Ann Jeethu and Vincy Varghese from 2MAIS.

All the events were conducted successfully and the results of the events were announced by Dr Madhumati Deshpande, HOD, Department of International Studies, Political Science and History. Judith Blessy from 2 MAIS delivered the Vote of Thanks, thus, bringing an end to an exciting and thrilling program.