Budding authors vie for top honours

The junior section (Std V to VII) had to write a short story from five topics, such as ‘Where’s papa going with that axe’, ‘The scene at home is chaotic, after they think that you have run away,’ ‘My trouble with a pestering monkey’ among others.

The senior category (Std VIII to X), had to select from topics like ‘That day I realised what fear was’ and  ‘Suddenly, the key turned in the lock.’  Both the students and parents said that the topics given were challenging and interesting to write on.

“I had a tough time in selecting a topic as all of them were interesting,” said Sreelakshmi, a grade 8 student of BGS Public School. “This is a big platform for us to showcase our talent,” she added.  “Competitions such as these help us to improve English vocabulary and creative writing," said Pranav Chinmay,  standard VII student of Navkis Education Center.

He wants to be ‘a novelist like Jeffrey Archer’. Such short story competitions “trigger the imagination and creativity of the student,” said Padmaja K Raj, an English teacher in Oxford English School. The current trend of using SMS language in day-to-day life by students was a matter of concern for many parents who had gathered there. “The use of SMS language has taken away the nuances from the language. Even the teachers are not giving much importance to the languages,” said Pranav’s mother Swaroopa T K. “By participating here the children will know how to use language,” she said.