The Logo+philia Gala Olympiad
The world’s only Etymology on-stage Olympiad. Can a school kid know more than a university student?
T he Logo+philiaβ’ International Gala! is the Big War for Words! The largest, and possibly the only on-stage Etymology Olympiad in the World. This gigantic Logophilia Olympiad looks out for a champion-of-champions from amongst the best Logophiles that we can find in one Logophilia year.
1Β The first edition of the Gala! was organised on April 15th, 2011, when 13 K-12 school teams competed against a team from IIT Delhi!Β Divyanshi Sharma (then a 9th Grader) & Nilotpal Pathak (then an 8th Grader) defeated the College Team!
2Β The second time the Gala was organised on December 10th, 2013, when Β K-12 school teams from 4 cities competed against a team from IIT Delhi!Β Kopal Misra (then a 12th Grader) & Kushal Agrawal (then a 12th Grader) defeated the College Team!
3Β In the Gala 2014, we decided to give IIT Delhi some company. So, we called in 9 college teams and pitted them against 10 school teams, from various corners of India. What ensued was historic. The Gala 2014 went down as the longest duration on-stage word battle on a Logophilia stage, lasting more than 7 hours. It tookΒ about 6 hours to eliminate every other school and college team except the last two – NLU, Delhi and the Jaipuria School, Lucknow.Β It was a breathtakingly vigorous tussle between Ashutosh Sengar, from the National Law University – Delhi and Tathagat Bhatia, from the Seth M.R. Jaipuria School, Lucknow. We should have been able to find a winner from between the two in about 15 questions, but that was not to be. These two monstrous Logophiles made Dhruv ask them 126 questions. Ashutosh, finally, had the last laugh, winning the Logophilia Gala narrowly, while Tathagat (then a 10th grader) won the second prize.
4Β The Logophilia International Gala, 2015 was organised at the Sunbeam Suncity School, Varanasi. There were about 15 universities against 24 schools. There was one team from the GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai, making this a uniquely rarely international on-stage words contest (see, with America & Britain not agreeing on spellings, there cannot be an “international spelling bee”). It was an incredibly phenomenal, high voltage competition. In a first at Logophilia Galas, all school team got eliminated in the penultimate round, making the Grand Challenge round an all-university duel, between Alisha Chhabra, from the Daulat Ram College, Delhi and Yasharth Shekhar, from St. Stephenβs College. St. Stephen’s is considered by many to be the #1 college in India for the Natural Sciences and the Humanities.Β Some could have expected this to be a one-sided contest. However, proving that in the realms of Etymology EducationΒ there are no underdogs, Alisha smashed her way to the top, and won theΒ Logophilia International Gala, 2015!
The Logophilia International Gala 2017 is coming up. Do you think the college teams can defeat the schools again? Or do you have a school team that can reign supreme? Get Logophilia to consider your school for the Gala 2017!
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