Competititions

The first week of Art Arattai Aarpattam 2011 has been incredible for all of us. We’ve learnt a lot, had the opportunity to listen to established artists from different fields and watched some of the best movies made for children. Enter week two and it was time to up the ante a bit, we thought. And what better way to add to the excitement than to have a series of competitions that would not only give the children the platform to showcase their talents, but to also tweak that latent (or maybe not so latent, in some instances) competitive spirit in them.

Week 2 at Art Arattai Aarpattam 2011 saw various schools participating in each of the competitions, namely Gram Slam (music), Curtain Call (skit), A Matter of Opinion (debate), Mix it Up (variety entertainment) and Posterize It (poster-making). The participation completely outbeat all our expectations, both in terms of the kind of numbers as well as the very enthusiasm with which children took part. Every child, every team and every school put in tons of effort into the contests and it has indeed been very heartening to watch them perform.

What was also equally exciting was the sheer variety of performances that we saw. The music contest, for example, had some teams singing folk songs while others rendered semi-classical and well-known classical songs. Similarly, the variety entertainment also saw the teams donning on their creative hats, as they put together various interesting pieces that included dance, music, mimicry, mime and theatre. The skit and debate competitions also saw tremendous display of talent. What made the skit contest, which was based on the theme Save, more interesting, were the various interpretations that we saw of the theme. And the debate contest brought to the fore, some incredibly good and confident speakers who argued the finer points of their respective topics. Their passion floored us all. And indeed, brings back fond memories of what it was like when we were one of them.

Needless to say, the entire second week exposed us to an ocean of talent in each of these contests. And what has been important for us is that so many students have so effectively leveraged the platform that we aimed to create for them. Besides this, we are wowed by the number of government schools who have participated throughout the festival, be it in the film screenings, lecture demonstrations, the competitions – whatever the activity. The very aim of Art Arattai Aarpattam is to provide an equal platform to students from all schools, government or private, and it was wonderful to watch them participate with so much josh in all of it. And when the students all got onto the stage to shake a leg as the children of the Government’s Home, Royapuram, put on one of their trademark foot-tapping performances – well, suffice to say that our hearts overflowed with affection for all these children who were having such a good time, and showed us they were having a good time!

We are very thankful to all our judges who took the time to be with us for these events. And we’re certain that they’ve all enjoyed these competitions. It may be a cliché to say that every participant is a winner. But I guess there is a reason why there are clichés in the first place – the very truth contained in them!