Gurukul, Chandragarh
"So, you want us to be your army, is it? Are you worthy?" Nirbhay teased Mriga as she sat down on the ground in the reception area of the currently deserted Admin department.
Ever since they had come back on campus, they hadn't met either Prithvi or Saraswati. Since Ramanujam was still supposedly in the Eastern zilla and Shaurya presumably in the North, they were the lords and masters of the Admin building, at least for now!
The weather had turned nicely cold and sitting on the floor made them all realise that. Bringing the thick overcoat around her shoulders, Mriga made eye contact with the other four and started speaking earnestly.
"I don't think that I have reached the place where I deserve all your sincerity and effort yet, but I intend to make sure that I become that person in the near future. I can't promise the outcome or any sort of success but I will give it my absolute best and then some more. I will give my everything into this competition and will try not to disappoint the faith which the people around me, have placed in me. It doesn't matter whether I clear the first round or make it to the finals, as long as I have been honest towards it. But one thing is sure, I will need all the help that I can get and there is no one better than the four of you to give it to me. You know my strengths and weaknesses like no other. I leave myself in your care!" with that, she bowed her head.
"Oh! Look at this drama queen. The plan is to become Queen in training, not an actress in a play. I almost thought that I was in the wrong place," Vandit rolled his eyes and ribbed her.
"I have zero interest in backing someone if that person isn't reaching the top. So, don't make me waste my time. Understood?" Chiranjeev's lazy voice floated towards her.
"If all of you have done wasting time in passing irrelevant comments, can we get down to the business? Mriga, take us through the details," Abhirath spoke up impatiently.
Mriga had gotten used to Abhirath's behavior since some time, now. She knew that his scowl was mostly a way to show his concern or agitation. He was actually quite a softie inside with a prickly exterior.
She smiled and said, "Ok, so first of all, the big change since the announcement was first made about the competition is this – the competition will span over fifteen days instead of a month, as had been declared earlier. Rest of the rules are as follows. Oh! By the way, I heard some people say that few things have been altered from the previously held queen competitions. The biggest one was, of course, expansion of the age group from only 16 years old girls to now the age bracket of 15-16 years old who could participate in the biggest competition of the country."
She cleared her throat and brought out a piece of parchment and started reading from there -
· The decision to join the competition is solely of the participant, without any coercion.
· If the participant has filled in her nomination, she will not be able to withdraw it unless there is a compelling reason for the same. Withdrawal of the name otherwise would invite the penalty of her family being disqualified for the next hundred years from participating in this contest.
· There will be three broad stages to the contest – physical, knowledge, panel evaluation
A) Physical – It would be a twofold evaluation and would include –
1) Show of talent or expertise
2) Group activity which could be like a relay or a treasure hunt. There could be more than one of these activities, possibly a dual task and a multi-people task. There could be a face-off event amongst participants, as well.
After this stage, half of the participants would be disqualified and only the remaining half would move to the next round.
B) Knowledge – There would be three components to this –
1) A written paper quizzing the participants regarding the in-depth knowledge of the country which would carry 40% weightage.
2) An open-ended question related to the country's policies, with the same weightage.
3) A combined rating from various teachers regarding their conduct and performance in their studies. This would be worth the remaining 20% marks.
Top ten qualifiers of this round would move to the final stage.
C) Panel Evaluation – This round would again have two stages but unlike the previous rounds, the first stage here would act as the qualifier for the second.
1) In stage 1, all ten of them will have to try and secure endorsements from their respective zilla chiefs, using whatever means and influence. Each zilla head can endorse only one girl and as a result, no more than four girls will reach the last round.
2) Not much detail has been provided about this last round but it would involve simulation exercises, discussion with ministers, either foreign or domestic or both and maybe a direct interaction with the Queen herself.
Mriga finished telling them the whole process and finally looked up from the parchment which she was holding. The boys had a glazed look in their eyes. It was clearly taking them some time to digest the fairly comprehensive process. They had known that it was not going to be easy preparing for something like this but suddenly, it seemed that they had too much to do with no time on their hands. So many levels of elimination, it will need only one for her to be thrown out!
Abhirath was the first to recover.
"If Prithvi guruji had been here, he would have asked us to start from the start, right? So, what do we need to begin?" he looked around.
"A solid action plan," said Nirbhay.
Vandit nodded his head vigorously and reached out to Saraswati's table and pulled a long parchment out.
Picking up the quill kept next to it, he wrote something quickly on it - 'Mrignayani's quest to the queendom.'