Students brush away pollution from planet

It was a scene straight out of Taare Zameen Par, only the setting was not New Era High School in Panchgani but the lawns of Nehru Memorial and Library on Teen Murti Marg.

It was a scene straight out of Taare Zameen Par, only the setting was not New Era High School in Panchgani but the lawns of Nehru Memorial and Library on Teen Murti Marg. And the 2,000 students painting on environmental themes in the lush grounds represented 500 schools from the Capital and the NCR.

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The students were participating in the annual on-the-spot painting competition, Kaleidoscope, organised by Partnerships for Action in Education (PACE), Hindustan Times’ Newspaper in Education programme, on Thursday.

While the students gave colour to their imaginations and sketched their thoughts on the themes ‘Make Earth a Paradise’ and ‘See Green See Life’ (for the younger group), and the ‘Impact of Climate Change’ and ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ (for the seniors), the judges — renowned artists Nupur Kundu and Sanjay Bhattacharya — watched the creations with great passion, love and earnestness.

“It is a nice experience to be in the company of children. The paintings give an impression that the feelings of children have come out direct from their heart. To consume an idea and then execute it in a limited time shows the tremendous talent of children. They have an amazing sense of colour composition. It was a very difficult task to choose a few paintings,” said Bhattacharya.

Kundu said, “I always enjoy watching children’s works. Today Picasso’s famous saying that “every child is an artist” holds very true as the competition is also a learning experience for us.”

“It is a very nice experience to participate in such a grand competition,” said Akanksha, a student of Class VIII at Yuva Shakti Model School. Diksha, from DPS, Palwal, seemed to be at a loss for words to express her joy till she said that, “we are privileged to be here.”

Ruchika of Bal Bharati, Rohini, bagged the winner’s trophy in the junior category, and Ujwala of Uttam School of Girls, Ghaziabad, was the winner in the senior category.

Deepak of Delhi Police Public School, Safdarjung Enclave and Kamakshi Bansal of Bal Bharati, Rohini, won the first and the second runners-up prizes, respectively, among the juniors.

The first runner-up in the senior category was Karan Sachdeva of VV DAV Public School, Vikaspuri, and the second runner-up was Aman Kanojia of Mata Gujri School, GK-I, in the same category.