CHICAGO: Hindu Swaya- msevak Sangh, HSS, USA has launched Kaun Banega Ramayan Expert "KBRE", an online quiz on Hindu New Year Day, April 6, for the American Hindu children.The KBRE contest is aimed at increasing the awareness of Ramayan among children in USA. The stories from Ramayan are a very simple yet effective way of keeping children in USA in touch with our culture and heritage; it is designed for the children and hence kept very simple yet informative.

The KBRE is not only for children but is also an effort to bring the community together through children. KBRE is designed and developed by the volunteers of Balagokulam across the nation, which includes parents as well as children. The syllabus, online quiz and other competitions in the contest increase in complexity to suit the age group.The first group is of 5 to 6 year old children. The second group is for 7 to 9 year olds and the third is for 10 to 12 year olds.

The 13 to 15 year old children are in the Group 4. The contest is divided into two stages "an online quiz and an in-person activity. Each participant gets an attractive prize depending upon the scores but each one will get the certificates.The KBRE Website (http://www.balagokulam.org/contest.) will be open for online registration and practice quiz from April 6 and the participants can take online exam starting from April 13. This website is full of interactive resources and reading material suitable to different age groups.

All regions will have multiple prizes for children in each age group.All regions will have multiple prizes for children in each age group and several local Hindu Temples and community organizations are encouraged to sponsor and promote the event.Primarily focused on making Ramayan an integral part of a child's early learning, KBRE (Hindi for "Who Will become Ramayan Expert") is coming on the heels of a very successful event by the same name held in 2006.

The quiz is sponsored by Balagokulam, a magazine published by HSS, a non-profit, voluntary organization working to preserve, practice and promote Hindu values.