The last few weeks, in fact months of my life have been extremely busy. Not that I was strained out or under tremendous pressure, but just plain occupied. On the 2nd of October, we had a program in church called Sword Warriors 08. And in the weeks preceding this day, most of my time was spent in preparation (thankfully not last-minute as always).
If you have been a part of this program, you would know what I am talking about. If you haven't, let me introduce you to Sword Warriors.
Sword Warriors is a Youth Event, in which the primary focus is on intellect and the knowledge of the word of God. In SW 07, the event had teams working on presentation on the Theme: Science and the Bible. Teams were given topics like 'Age of the Earth', 'Creation v/s Evolution', 'Archeology and the Bible' etc. They had to make presentations on their topics, and also submit some documentation that supported or had a detail study on the topic they would present. The teams submitted the documentation a couple of weeks before the event and were studied by the judges and marked accordingly. Then on the day of the event, the teams presented their topics with the aid of PowerPoint slides. The event was largely successful, and everybody liked this innovative format of Sword Warriors. UBMC Chembur was the winner of Sword Warriors 07.
After the success of SW07, we decided to have SW08. It was but natural that we thought of having the program in the same format as we had the previous year. But there was a hitch here. The topics in 2007, being about the Science & the Bible, were extremely interesting. How could we find topics for SW08 that would match up to the previous year? Most of the topics that we could come up with in our brainstorming sessions would be perceived as boring by a young audience. We could not organize a program that would come out as outright boring to the youth.
Thus we thought of changing the format of Sword Warriors 08 this year. This year, Sword Warriors would be a quiz competition instead of an Information search & presentation competition.
Every body approved of having the game in such a format. But now, we had to think about how we could bring in variety to the game. After some brainstorming sessions, and contributions of ideas from some guys, we had a few games in front of us. We divided the games amongst ourselves, and started developing and working on them. There were some classic general knowledge & GK rounds that we planned for. Three of the games were visual games, and one was a surprise game called Shapeshifters.
But there was one game that I had in mind, and wanted to have in SW08. The game did not have a name then, but it was based somewhat on Klueless3, a game developed by IIM Indore. This game eventually was named 20 chambers, (we even thought of naming it Swords & Secrets, Cloak & Dagger or The Quest). 20 Chambers is a game that has 20 levels. Each level has a puzzle/riddle that a team must solve in order to get to the next level. Along with each level puzzle, the team gets 3 bonus questions that they can solve to gain some extra points. There were numerous rules, power cards, and other bonuses that teams could play around with, to maximize their scoring. We started working on the rules of this game, and once we were done with it, the result was very satisfying. Evey body who read the rules, appreciated the game.
We were overjoyed that God was continually leading us through all the conception and event definition phase so wonderfully. We were sure that he would take us through the event in the same way, though we weren't praying as much as we should have been. But we always saw him in control of everything and anything related with SW08.
I had to work vehemently on 20 Chambers, as making the level riddles, and collecting the bonus questions was a brobdingnagian task in itself. After weeks of toiling, we saw most of the riddles being completed much before time. I don't know if it was a mistake, but we took a dangerous decision of increasing the number of levels for the game to 30 chambers from the initial 20 Chambers. The last 10 chambers were more difficult to make and demanded more questions. The bonus questions had to be tougher. Our total work for 20 Chambers increased by more than 50%. The cost of 20 Chambers increased by 50%. And the best part was on the day of the event, the maximum no. of levels/chambers that the teams crossed, was just 15. The other 15 chambers went untouched. The effort used for the last 10 chambers could have been used to work and develop the other games/sections for the event. But we believed that things were happening as per Gods plan, and the 30 chambers attempt also was allowed by God. Probably so that we aren't too confident of ourselves and our strength, and depend on him more.
The final 4 days before the event was a complete slog. We were around 4 to 6 people who were working consistently over a period of 2 months. But now we needed every person at our disposal. It always has been the YES story, that at the end, when the pressure has reached mounting heights, everybody rushes in to help. This is just what happened even this time. Everybody rushed in to bail us out. The weekend before the event, we were up all night always. Organizing and making quiz questions, browsing the internet, designing stuff etc. It was tough and challenging, but extremely exciting.
Also, we had to make electrical buzzer systems for 2 playing arenas. The 3rd one would be the arena for 20 Chambers. Ivan uncle bailed us out here. In spite of his busy schedule, and the delay in giving him the raw materials/hardware, he made the buzzer by sitting up late into the night one day before.
The event was on a Thursday, a public holiday (Gandhi jayanti). The final onslaught began on tuesday evening. Many others and myself had decided to take the day off on Wednesday. We
knew that there would be a lot of stuff to do a day before. We started out with shopping on Tuesday evening. Looking out for large boxes for 20 chambers. We wanted boxes that would look like old medieval chests. We were planning to settle for puny shoe boxes, as we had no idea about how we could get boxes that looked like treasure chests. And we needed 9 such boxes. From where in the world could we get 9 such boxes? But God is great! Annette and Bonny ventured into shoe shops, but were unsuccessful in getting shoe boxes. While trudging back defeated to base (church), they thought of asking the guy at Kiran Printers (just below our church hall) whether he had any spare boxes. He pulled out large boxes for A4 paper (which if decorated aptly would surely look like miniature medieval chests). We couldn't believe that we actually got such boxes. And later on the girls did a brilliant job of decorating the boxes. Painted them black with black blackboard paint, (which gives a matte finish). And then they gave it a metallic finish with brazen bronze powder mixed into this paint. The effect was so awesome that there were people fighting over the boxes even after the event was over. The adjoining picture shows the piled up boxes. Trust me, they look much better in real life.
My house the night before was filled with members of the YES team, all working on various tasks. Every inch of the house was occupied. The kitchen floor, the bedroom, living room, balcony etc. Only the toilet was spared. Following are some pics of the preparation in full flow one night before:
If you have been a part of this program, you would know what I am talking about. If you haven't, let me introduce you to Sword Warriors.
Sword Warriors is a Youth Event, in which the primary focus is on intellect and the knowledge of the word of God. In SW 07, the event had teams working on presentation on the Theme: Science and the Bible. Teams were given topics like 'Age of the Earth', 'Creation v/s Evolution', 'Archeology and the Bible' etc. They had to make presentations on their topics, and also submit some documentation that supported or had a detail study on the topic they would present. The teams submitted the documentation a couple of weeks before the event and were studied by the judges and marked accordingly. Then on the day of the event, the teams presented their topics with the aid of PowerPoint slides. The event was largely successful, and everybody liked this innovative format of Sword Warriors. UBMC Chembur was the winner of Sword Warriors 07.
After the success of SW07, we decided to have SW08. It was but natural that we thought of having the program in the same format as we had the previous year. But there was a hitch here. The topics in 2007, being about the Science & the Bible, were extremely interesting. How could we find topics for SW08 that would match up to the previous year? Most of the topics that we could come up with in our brainstorming sessions would be perceived as boring by a young audience. We could not organize a program that would come out as outright boring to the youth.
Thus we thought of changing the format of Sword Warriors 08 this year. This year, Sword Warriors would be a quiz competition instead of an Information search & presentation competition.
Every body approved of having the game in such a format. But now, we had to think about how we could bring in variety to the game. After some brainstorming sessions, and contributions of ideas from some guys, we had a few games in front of us. We divided the games amongst ourselves, and started developing and working on them. There were some classic general knowledge & GK rounds that we planned for. Three of the games were visual games, and one was a surprise game called Shapeshifters.
But there was one game that I had in mind, and wanted to have in SW08. The game did not have a name then, but it was based somewhat on Klueless3, a game developed by IIM Indore. This game eventually was named 20 chambers, (we even thought of naming it Swords & Secrets, Cloak & Dagger or The Quest). 20 Chambers is a game that has 20 levels. Each level has a puzzle/riddle that a team must solve in order to get to the next level. Along with each level puzzle, the team gets 3 bonus questions that they can solve to gain some extra points. There were numerous rules, power cards, and other bonuses that teams could play around with, to maximize their scoring. We started working on the rules of this game, and once we were done with it, the result was very satisfying. Evey body who read the rules, appreciated the game.
We were overjoyed that God was continually leading us through all the conception and event definition phase so wonderfully. We were sure that he would take us through the event in the same way, though we weren't praying as much as we should have been. But we always saw him in control of everything and anything related with SW08.
I had to work vehemently on 20 Chambers, as making the level riddles, and collecting the bonus questions was a brobdingnagian task in itself. After weeks of toiling, we saw most of the riddles being completed much before time. I don't know if it was a mistake, but we took a dangerous decision of increasing the number of levels for the game to 30 chambers from the initial 20 Chambers. The last 10 chambers were more difficult to make and demanded more questions. The bonus questions had to be tougher. Our total work for 20 Chambers increased by more than 50%. The cost of 20 Chambers increased by 50%. And the best part was on the day of the event, the maximum no. of levels/chambers that the teams crossed, was just 15. The other 15 chambers went untouched. The effort used for the last 10 chambers could have been used to work and develop the other games/sections for the event. But we believed that things were happening as per Gods plan, and the 30 chambers attempt also was allowed by God. Probably so that we aren't too confident of ourselves and our strength, and depend on him more.
The final 4 days before the event was a complete slog. We were around 4 to 6 people who were working consistently over a period of 2 months. But now we needed every person at our disposal. It always has been the YES story, that at the end, when the pressure has reached mounting heights, everybody rushes in to help. This is just what happened even this time. Everybody rushed in to bail us out. The weekend before the event, we were up all night always. Organizing and making quiz questions, browsing the internet, designing stuff etc. It was tough and challenging, but extremely exciting.
Also, we had to make electrical buzzer systems for 2 playing arenas. The 3rd one would be the arena for 20 Chambers. Ivan uncle bailed us out here. In spite of his busy schedule, and the delay in giving him the raw materials/hardware, he made the buzzer by sitting up late into the night one day before.
The event was on a Thursday, a public holiday (Gandhi jayanti). The final onslaught began on tuesday evening. Many others and myself had decided to take the day off on Wednesday. We
knew that there would be a lot of stuff to do a day before. We started out with shopping on Tuesday evening. Looking out for large boxes for 20 chambers. We wanted boxes that would look like old medieval chests. We were planning to settle for puny shoe boxes, as we had no idea about how we could get boxes that looked like treasure chests. And we needed 9 such boxes. From where in the world could we get 9 such boxes? But God is great! Annette and Bonny ventured into shoe shops, but were unsuccessful in getting shoe boxes. While trudging back defeated to base (church), they thought of asking the guy at Kiran Printers (just below our church hall) whether he had any spare boxes. He pulled out large boxes for A4 paper (which if decorated aptly would surely look like miniature medieval chests). We couldn't believe that we actually got such boxes. And later on the girls did a brilliant job of decorating the boxes. Painted them black with black blackboard paint, (which gives a matte finish). And then they gave it a metallic finish with brazen bronze powder mixed into this paint. The effect was so awesome that there were people fighting over the boxes even after the event was over. The adjoining picture shows the piled up boxes. Trust me, they look much better in real life.My house the night before was filled with members of the YES team, all working on various tasks. Every inch of the house was occupied. The kitchen floor, the bedroom, living room, balcony etc. Only the toilet was spared. Following are some pics of the preparation in full flow one night before:
Ann & Shimona working on the Quiz questions in the bedroom. They were really under a lot of pressure to get this done ASAP.
Serena and Sarojini sorting out 'bonus question sheets', with complete concentration and focus.
Me working on the bonus questions for the last levels. The last burst...
Suraj came in late, after a long day at college, but worked like hell to get shape shifters done with his excellent talent with shapes and dimensions. He uses the only floorspace left, the balcony floor.
Elroy looks sloshed after working on GK questions all night, and now on shape shifters. He had to rush to the venue at 6:00 am the next day to set up the buzzer system with Bonz.
John entertains and provides food, before he sat down to slog on level sorting
Chrislyn and My mom use the kitchen floor, as they break their backs on the tough job of segregating level clues.
Sairith, Edi and Myself (L-R) discuss Reveal it, before Sairith & Edi took offOther than the boxes, there were a million other things to be done, like getting prints for 30 chambers, cutting out the extra clues, printing the cards, sorting stuff into envelopes, finalizing the bonus questions. One would be able to grasp the magnitude of 30 chambers only if he/she was actually present when we were preparing for the game. There were around 2000 cards, that had to be sorted out for each team. There were around 25 different card classes. More than 10 different variety of cards, Hundreds of Level puzzles and hundreds of extra clues, all in high color laser prints. And then there was the great scorekeeping excel sheet. Filled with a bevy of formulae, this excel was completely automated, to enable the score keeper to keep extremely complex scores, built on a complex set of rules without entering a single number. Making this score sheet was a gargantuan task in itself. The sheet was 50 mb in size without the entry of scores. I have in my professional life, never ever seen an excel that is 50 mb! Getting all this done truly needed extreme forms of perseverance by the whole YES team. By the time it was the morning of the event, my body was burning with the lack of sleep. In the past 3 days, I had just slept for a total of 8 hours, averaging around 2.5 hours of sleep a day. And we had a whole day in front of us, where we had to execute all we had prepared. We hadn't even visited the venue the previous day as planned. The buzzer systems would be wired at 6:00 am. Our team was low on sleep and high on stress, as well as high on excitement and faith. The days of working hard for so long, would now be tested, would now be tried. Our efforts and prayers would pass through fire.
How would we come out? How would the event come out? What happened on the all important day? Was SW08 a success? Would 20 Chambers be criticized, or would it be loved? How would people react to reveal it? So many questions... Read all about it on the post ' The day, SW08', coming soon.
How would we come out? How would the event come out? What happened on the all important day? Was SW08 a success? Would 20 Chambers be criticized, or would it be loved? How would people react to reveal it? So many questions... Read all about it on the post ' The day, SW08', coming soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment