One thousand three hundred and thirty-four artists, 500 qualify and 20 walk away with prizes; what an afternoon it was at the Thiruchitrambalam Auditorium at Avinashilingam University for Women recently.
The competition, in its 18th year, saw 250 children qualify from the junior (Stds. IV to VII) and senior (Stds. VIII to X) categories respectively. Of those who qualified, 330 contestants from more than 60 schools turned up.
T.D.Karen from Vidhya Niketan Matric H.S. School won in the senior category and K. Monicaa from Venkatlakshmi Matric H.S. School was first among the juniors. Other winners were juniors: M. Keerthika Sree, SBOA Matric H.S. School (second place), I. Bharathwaraj, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (third place) and seniors: P. Santosh, SRKV Matric H.S. School (second place) and R. Saradha Pradiksha, ALG Matric H.S. School (third place). All the winners were from schools in Coimbatore.
Topics
The topics given to juniors were “Pongal celebrations” and “A scene at the circus”. Seniors chose either “A scene at a railway station” or “A park”.
Ms. D. Nirmala from Stanes A-I H.S. School and Mr. C.V. Rajan from Air Force School were the judges. The parameters for evaluation were use of paints of colours, depth, and absence of white spaces, presentation and depiction of the theme.
Children came from Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Nilgiris and Pallakad districts. Nine students from Army School, Wellington, braved the landslide hit highway from the Nilgiris to come and participate. As the time for submission ran out, such was their unity that those who had finished helped those who hadn't by colouring for them.
Seven children of Panchayat Union School, Erode, turned up with their teacher Latha Charles. “Most of their parents are workers in dyeing units and they do not get any support from their families. Yet, 25 students participated and seven qualified,” she said.
The paintings would later be exhibited and sold. The proceeds of which would go to charity. Inspector-General of Police (West Zone) Mr. Pramod Kumar was the chief guest at the prize distribution. Dr. Saroja Prabhakaran, Vice Chancellor of Avinashilingam University was the distinguished guest.
The top three seniors won cash prizes of Rs. 5,000, Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 2,000, while juniors got Rs. 3,000, Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 1,000, respectively.
There were seven consolation prizes of Rs. 500 in each category, in addition to gift hampers from Lotte Caramilk, the title sponsors. Cheetos was the snacks partner and ARC aqua puraa was the water sponsor.
TIRUCHI:12/11/2009: The Hindu Young world Painting competition logo. NICAID:112252926
First in senior category: T.D. Karen, Vidhya Niketan Matric H.S. School Photo:S.Siva Saravanan
First in junior category: K. Monicaa, Venkatlakshmi Matric H.S. School, Coimbatore. Photo:S.Siva Saravanan