Jain Academic Bowl Committee 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!
Here are some key facts about JAB 2021 • • • • • • • •
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
First Virtual JAB Tournament
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!!!
First Global JAB Tournament
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. 21 21
