Jain Academic Bowl Committee By Shweta Daftary

By Shweta Daftary

Shweta Daftary has been with the JAB Committee since 2017 and was appointed as its chairperson in 2019. She has been a long time resident of Dallas, TX where she taught Pathshala classes at the Jain Society of North Texas for 12 years followed by taking the position of the Pathshala coordinator. Along with actively volunteering for JAB, she maintains her full time dental practice in Dallas.

Jain Academic Bowl (JAB) Committee Members: Shweta Daftary, (Chair) Dallas, TX, Pravin Shah, Raleigh NC Megha Doshi, Ashburn VA, Harsh Shroff, Chicago, IL, Raj Salecha, Los Angeles, CA, Siddharth Shah, Houston, TX, Sunil Vakharia, NJ (Global JAB)

The 14th Jain Academic Bowl was held at the 21st JAINA Convention from July 2nd to July 6th. For the very first time, this JAB tournament turned out to be unique and exciting due to three main reasons. It was a completely Virtual Event, with a Global and a Beginner Category!

• Four categories: National Beginner, National Junior, National Senior and Global (Junior & Senior)

• Countries represented: United Kingdom, Canada, Kenya, India, the USA

• A total of 220 participants from the Pathshala centers of North America, UK, Kenya and India took part in this tournament.

• Approximately 40 Coaches helped in preparing the participants. • Total team count by category: Beginner 11, Junior 6, Senior 6, Global 12 (Junior-6; Senior6)

• Total number of Games played: 68

• Total approximate Game hours played: 105

• Total Moderators helping with the games: 12

Due to the pandemic situation, the 21st JAINA Convention was planned to be a completely virtual event. This decision had led the JAB Admin team to be doubtful about the possibility of a JAB tournament. However, we were not ready to give up easily in spite of the challenges of a virtual game set up. It took approximately 15 virtual trial games to overcome the many hurdles of a physical JAB tournament such as, conferring during round 1, using of a buzzer for rounds 2 and 3, displaying of the scores for the game and the ability to do a team huddle between the rounds. With continuous support from the JAINA convention technology team, mainly from Harsh Shah, and the hard work of JAB Admin members, the virtual games turned to be a reality with the same, or at times even greater, amount of excitement. All the games were played with each participant, coach, moderators and viewers being at a remote location. We had a record 700+ number of viewers during the finals for Junior and Senior matches of the tournament. A big ‘Thanks’ to the JAINA Technology team!!!

With the announcement of JAINA Convention being virtual, convener Haresh Shah approached the JAB team suggesting we include other Jain centers worldwide in the upcoming JAB tournament. This task seemed near impossible given the challenges of a virtual tournament, the shortage of time for international centers in preparing for this tournament and the difference in time zones to hold such games. The encouragement from JAINA Convention team and the determination of the JAB team to give this a try, made Global JAB a reality. Special thanks to Sunil Vakharia of New Jersey for helping with Global JAB rules, trial games and matches. For the first time in the history of JAB, international Jain centers such as Veerayatan UK, Veerayatan Kenya, Mumbai University, CSM Kolkata and Jain Society of Toronto took active part by registering one or more teams in Junior and Senior categories combined. These centers had less than five months to prepare for the tournament between registration and their first match. A total of 18 Global matches with 8 game hours were played before the actual convention. The team with highest points in each category advanced to compete with a national team in the Global finals.

A Beginner category was introduced during this tournament to encourage participation of Pathshala centers that were new to JAB, so they could have an equally competitive field. We received an overwhelming response with four Pathshala centers registering for the first time in JAB. Being virtual, a consideration was made to also include teams from those centers who had competed in JAB before, but with its participants competing in the tournament for the first time. A total of 11 teams registered in the Beginner category. It was a joy to watch these young participants display their knowledge of Jainism, while having a lot of fun competing in the matches.

JAB Admin Team conducted five meetings for the coaches between the Beginner, National and Global teams. Harsh Shroff explained the rules and guidelines to the Coaches, and along with Megha Doshi and Siddharth Shah, clarified any questions that they had regarding the matches to better prepare their teams for the tournament. Raj Salecha supported the technical setup.

The JAB tournament usually kicks off with a ‘Meet & Greet’ event prior to the games. Even though this was a virtual tournament, we continued with the same concept. One by one, the coaches proudly introduced their team and each of their participants. The JAB Admin team introduced themselves along with the moderators during our virtual ‘Meet & Greet’ session. We ended this ‘gathering’ with a fun-filled game of Kahoot, before moving on to start the first game of the tournament.

The Awards ceremony is always an event that is looked upon by everyone to conclude the JAB tournament. Though we were unable to physically hand out the trophies this year, we had a grand awards celebration event virtually. This was blessed by guest speakers such as Mahesh Wadher, Haresh Shah, Prem Jain, Dilip Shah and Pravin Shah. We also heard from coaches and participants of Global teams such as Dr. Bipin Doshi of Mumbai, Devanshi Dagli of Mumbai Junior team, and Khilna Shah of Veerayatan Kenya Senior team. Although each participant is considered a winner when they enter the JAB tournament and study the vast curriculum of Jainism, the teams that were the winner and runner up of Global, Senior and Junior categories were announced during this Awards ceremony. Here are names of the winning teams:

National Senior Winner: Jain Center of New Jersey, Caldwell, NJ Team Name: Purusharth

National Senior Runner-up: Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago Team Name: Om

National Junior Winner: Jain Society of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Team Name: Dharma Chakras

National Junior Runner-up Jain Center of New Jersey, Caldwell Team Name: Niyati

Global Senior Winners: Veerayatan Kenya Seniors 3 and Jain Center of Northern California Team Name: Anekant

Global Junior Winner: Mumbai Juniors 1

Global Junior Runner-up Jain Center of New Jersey Team Name: Arihant

Please visit the link below to see the list of the semifinalists, as well as the other participating teams of Global, Senior, Junior and Beginner categories.

https://www.jaina.org/page/AcademicBowl

JAB 2021 was a monumental task being virtual, along with twice the number of teams compared to prior JAB tournaments as well as the addition of Global participation. We were highly inspired to take up this challenge due to the enthusiasm of the participating team coaches and its participants. We wanted to make this tournament happen for the young participants who learn so much about Jainism through its 400+ pages JAB Manual. Continuous support of the JAINA convention team and help from the young moderators, boosted our willingness to accept this challenge. Most importantly, the encouragement from each JAB admin member, their dedication and hard work made this event a reality.

Our sincere and heartfelt ‘Thanks’ to each and every one of them.