Keekli Reporter, 20th June, 2015, Shimla
Youth Enlightening the Society — YES, a Shimla based NGO, organized the 8th Annual Interschool Competition in collaboration with the Language, Art and Culture Department, Shimla here today at the Gaiety Theatre, Shimla. The C3 – ‘Competition of Creativity and Capability’ was based on the theme “Acche Din Starts With Us” in which various city schools participated in different events including debate, skit, dance, photography, collage making, cloth making, recycle art and poetry. District Commissioner, Dinesh Malhotra inaugurated the event by lightening the lamp in the presence of all the guests, judges, students and YES President Raman Nagpal and other members. He also launched the organizations annual souvenir titled ‘Salad Days 2015’.
Speaking during the occasion DC Malhotra said, “Indian cultural has its roots in history and to move forward in life we should always look back and be inspired from our past. We should be able to express ourselves with full freedom and confidence and be true to our actions and deeds. Through such events children are given a chance to perform on a bigger platform as they showcase their immense talent”. He also congratulated the YES organizers for energizing the youth and enlightening them about today’s problems and making them think of solutions too. As an encouragement towards their activities, Malhotra donated Rs 20,000/- towards the organization to support their cause.
This year eight schools participated in the event and keeping the theme in mind each school was allotted a code namely — Freedom was St Edwards; Lokpal was RVK, Kasumpti; Expression was St Thomas, Justice was Auckland House Girls; Truth was Lalpani School; Democracy was JCB; Transparency was Monal Public School and Knowledge was Himalaya International School. Each school was given a set of guidelines and rules that were to be followed for each event.
The morning began with the first event for the day, Debate. The topic given to the students was ‘Over Population’ on which each school team spoke for and against the motion. After each speech the floor was open to discussion and a question and answer session from the participants as well as the audience. Few very thought provoking and strong ideas were put forth by the students which were well received by the audience.
After the Debate, the next set of events began simultaneously. For English and Hindi poetry competition the topic was ‘Journey’ and ‘Sihai Ka Khel’ respectively. The students were given an hour to compose their poems and they were judged on its theme, composition and content. In the next set of competitions the students worked in pairs to create their artwork. To make the competition challenging and bring out creativity and innovativeness of the students, the topics were given on the spot. For collage making it was ‘Million People Million Hearts’, where the students were given a magazine and two newspapers. Only glue and scissors were brought by the student’s as rest all other items were provided by the organizers.
For cloth painting the topic was ‘India of My Dreams’ and all the material including paints and brushes were given at that time. Even for creating art from recycle material all the waste material was given to the students to create something innovative and beautiful as the topic ‘Imaging In’. For photography competition too quality as well as the composition of the image was adjudged.
While the stage was set on fire with some spectacular skit performances the students on the theme ‘Acche Din Starts With Us”. It was a two rounds talent contest, one based on the theme already provided before hand and second was based on the spot topics as children were asked to perform for three to four minutes.
The judges for various competitions were KK Gandhi, Shafi Chaman, Manish Malhotra, Salman, Akshita Sharma, Ripunkash Naggal, Ms Prajul among others who judges the students on various parameters as laid out by the organizers. While talking to the students Manish Malhotra, a theatre personality, gave few important pointers for stage performances. He said, “It is very important to understand the theme of the skit that is being performed. Emphasis should be laid on dialouge delivery and an actor should never turn his back towards the audience”. He further analyzed each and every skit performed during the day and gave individual feedback to each team and said that the students should take this stage as a step towards the bigger arena. On the other hand, K K Gandhi, a noted painter too shared his views on the paintings made by the students. He said, “Students should give a serious thought towards painting and they have the potential to do well and draw some amazing art work”.
The event concluded with some great themed based energetic dance performances by the students. A special performance by UDAAN children and a solo by Shanu Sood was loved by all present and received a huge round of applause. Col Deepak Prashar accompanied with Sarabjeet Singh Bobby gave away the awards to the prize winners. Col Prashar praised the efforts of the organizers and lauded their efforts in putting up a great show. He also appreciated the efforts of the students for putting up few brilliant performances and congratulated all for being part of this great event.
The Proud Winners
Debate: Best Speaker was Yogendra from Lalpani School; Most Promising Speaker was Anand Kuthiala from St Ewards School Best Integrator was Ayushi from Auckland House School.
Painting: 1st Ayushi and Yamini from Auckland House School; 2nd Himani and Muskaan from St Thomas School; 3rd Karan from RVK School, Kasumpti.
Collage: 1st Abhiuday and Chirag from St Edwards; 2nd Vidushi and Anjali from St Thomas School; 3rd Tanisha and Sadika from JCB School.
Photography: 1st Rahul and Vaibhav from St Edwards; 2nd Mohit and Avinash from Monal School; 3rd Sohan and Himanshu from RKV Kasumpti.
Dance: 1st St Thomas School; 2nd Monal School.
Skit: 1st Monal School; 2nd Himalayan International School.
Poetry English: 1st Kotish Grover from St Ewards; 2nd Tarika from Monal; 3rd Mannat from St Thomas School.
Poetry Hindi: 1st Simran from JCB; 2nd Vihan from St Edwards; 3rd Sinuta from RKV Kasumpti.
Recycle Art: 1st Ayush and Jariti from RKV Kasumpti; 2nd Devina and Shreya; 3rd Saurabh and Aryan from St Edwards.
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