Here is an innovative way of encouraging the younger kids towards loving language and literature. The 22nd of August 2009 was witness to such an event at Bala Vidya Mandir, Adyar
An Interschool Primary literary competition was conducted by the Literary club of Bala Vidya Mandir. The event lasted from 9AM to 12AM and was organized by the students of Classes 9 and 11 and the language teachers of the host school.
Students of Classes 1 to 5 of the many schools, including Shankara Senior Secondary School and DAV Public School, gathered in the Vidya Peet auditorium awaiting the start of the various events like Hindi poetry recitation, Tamil story telling and English poetry reading.
The program began with an invocation to the almighty and the children were escorted to the respective rooms by the volunteers soon after.
The Hindi poetry recitation was held for the students of class 3. The judges were Mrs. Radhika Pal, an IT consultant at Tata Consultancy Services and Mrs. Uma Shukla, who has a Masters degree in Economics. The winner of this event was Ishaan Singh of Arsha Vidya Mandir.
The Class 3 students also participated in the English Poetry Recitation. The judges were Mrs. Mala Bharat, the editor of the online newspaper Chennai Chimes, and Mrs. Mona C Pathak, an ex teacher. Amritha shree of Harsha Vidyalaya won the first prize.
The Tamil storytelling event for Class 5 students was next. The judges were Mrs. Prashita Chander and Mrs. G Seetha and the winner of the competition was Shankaran of Sushil Hari International Residential School.
Then, the English poetry reading for Class 4 students took place. The judges were Mrs. Subbulakshmi Patnaik and Mrs. Rajarajeshwari Vittal. The winner was Akshra of PS Senior Secondary School.
The last competition of the day was English storytelling. Mrs. P Triveni and Mrs. Tamilarasi Krishnaswamy were the judges. The event was won by S Deekshitha of St. Britto Academy.
The entire event was ably compared by Shrija Chavali, Shloka Narayan, Deekshita Ganesh and Krithika S K of Std 11.
One bright spark from the audience exclaimed,” This is so much fun, next time I will do even better”.
At the end of the event, the children left the school grinning from ear to ear.