I am sure you have watched the popular TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati and many times tried to answer the questions that appear on screen. Like KBC, there is a TV show called Kannadada Kotyadhipati which is also famous in Karnataka. Watching people play, many of us would be wanting to sit on the hot seat. But very few get to sit there and win money. Tejas K N from Hassan is one of those lucky boys to have qualified via a written and oral test to make it to the show.
This class X student who won Rs 6.4 lakh explains us about the tests he wrote.Tejas comes from a humble family. While his mother is a cook at the government school, his father is a daily wager. Heartwarmingly, when he won Rs 6.4 lakh, he decided not to keep the money for himself but to donate it to his school to build a compound wall. Every year, when they plant the saplings during Vanamahotsava, the cattle would come and destroy them. As a result, all the plants would die. Hence, the compound wall would act as a barricade to protect plants and trees.
S Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education minister who got to know about this boy's initiative yesterday directed the Zilla Panchayat officials in Hassan and the Deputy Director of Public Instruction to build a compound wall for the government school under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NAREGA). When we asked Tejas about it, he confirmed and said, "Yes, the education department officials came to our school to take the exact measurements to build a compound wall. They also suggested that I save the money for my future studies."
Explaining how he got on the show, he says, "Around 150 people from different parts of Karnataka participated in the written test. The test is only for 20 marks with General Knowledge questions from all the fields. Only six people were able to pass this written test. Later, they tested us to see if we can speak well. We were given a particular topic and were told to speak continuously for 20 minutes."
Tejas further adds that he did not know whether or not he had made the cut, he explains "I was not sure if I qualified the second round also. After 15 days, I got a call from the Kannadada Kotyadhipati team who told me to be at a studio in Nagarbhavi. Then, the shooting began and rest is what you see on television."
Winning Rs 6.4 lakh is not an easy task. One needs to be updated about current affairs as well as history. Therefore, Tejas took the task of prepping for the show very seriously. Apart from reading newspapers every day, he would read only quiz related books after school. Even his teachers would advice him on the important topics. He says, "Though the questions did not seem tough, anyone will be nervous sitting on the hot seat infront of a huge audience. There are chances that in this pressure, we might forget answers. The production team puts all the efforts to calm us and suggest us not to be nervous."
