Shikha Sivaraman of St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Pattom, and Lekshmi Dayal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, won the top honours in the seniors and juniors sections respectively at the Thiruvananthapuram finals of the 22 edition of The Hindu-Young World painting contest held at the Nirmala Bhavan School here on Sunday. They were chosen for the honour from among 400 participants.
In the seniors’ category (Class VII to X), the second and third prizes were won by Dyna Jayakumar from The School of the Good Shepherd, Akkulam, and A. Abhishek of the GHS, Anchalumoodu. In the juniors’ category (Class IV to VI), the second and third prizes were won by Shivaprasad of Le Cole Chempaka and R. Dhanusya of Carmel School.
Kerala State Police Chief K.S. Balasubramanian was the chief guest at the valedictory function.
He gave away the prizes to the winners. Mr. Balasubramanian said he valued the balanced coverage of The Hindu , as a regular reader for the past 46 years.
“A majority of you might not go on to become painters in real life. But the moment you scribble something on paper, it works as a great stress reliever,” Mr. Balasubranian told the students.
Students from four districts, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kanyakumari, participated in the competition.
In the preliminary round, 1,350 applications were received, of which 520 were selected for the regional-level finals.
In addition to the three main prizes, seven consolation prizes were given in each category. Artist B.D. Dethan judged the competition.
MIOT International, a multi-specialty hospital, was the presenting sponsor of the event. QRS Essentials and Dianbyworld were the gift sponsors.