A memorable day… (Memories-II)

This incident took place on 12th december, 06.

The previous evening I had been for a prize distribution function of the competition conducted by Rotract Club, Kadyali. Two parents sitting in front of me were speaking of the arrangements their children’s school had made for them to go to the competition and that took me back to a small conversation that i had just a few days before when I was informed about the competition.

I was called to the staff room by our art teacher, Aruna kumari  and she informed me that there would be a on-the-spot painting competition, which would be conducted by Nandini milk federation. She told me that it would be held at Manglore and the prizes would be 5,000,  3,000 an 2,000 respectively I believe. She also told there would be a bumper prize of 30,000 for the best painting of the whole lot and our hindi teacher, Jayshree, said if I got that 30k I was to give her a share in it 🙂 😉

Back to the day. Woke up early. Wasnt feeling much. It would be a competition like any other. The competition was to start at 9am and hence I started at 7 in the morning. Myself and Sachin were goin together. We reached our destination at about 8.30(the roads were excellent then, so the journey was beautiful), got our names registered and waited for the topic to be announced. At about 8.45 the topic was announced and it was,”Role of white revolution in the development of rural areas in south kanara”.The first thing I did was call Prasad sir an ask him his idea.His reply was,”madana.. sawlpa danagalannu madu. oorina janarella halu vattu madi koduvahage torisu..matte swalpa nandini avarannu highlight mada…”.And thats precisely what I did.

Here is a brief description of the painting I did as I don’t have a pic of the painting to put up… I picturized a village scene, showing two houses and also a village square where an old man is sitting and smoking a beedi. I depicted his thoughts for the development.

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. When I finished it was about 12pm. They had provided us wid some lunch but i could hardly eat it. I had an apple that mom had given me and filled myself wid it. We din’t know what was where, and we decided to go to adlabs to watch a movie. So we went out an asked a person, how far was adlabs and guess what?? he directed us to an adlabs studio nearby 😀 Then we took an auto and reached Bharat mall… Dhoom II was playin then, and we got tickets for it. When we went in the first song was going on… Enjoyed the movie. It was at four the movie got over an we went back to the place of competition. There was supposed to be a formal function for the prize distribution and there was a very huge crowd. We got to know that about 5000 children had participated in the competition… We were standing outside and that was when we saw a person with a list, of prize winners’ names, in his hands. When we checked out we found that neither of our names was there and hence decided to head back home. I called home and said, I would be returnin home as I hadn’t got a prize. So mom said, “You have waited this much.. why not wait a little more.. Finish the programme and come”.

We went back to the place and again took our former place. It was then, that the first surprise hit me. The man wid the list, was speakin to someone over phone and in the end he mentioned my name!!! I was fully surprised coz I wasnt in the least expecting a prize as it was a state level competition. But I wasn’t sure that I had won something either. By then the function started and after the various usual speeches the prize distribution started. The prizes of the various groups were distributed and then the master of ceremony said, “Now for the most awaited part of this evening. The winner of the bumper prize. The second prize winner is…(It was won by someone from Kundapur) He gets a digital camera, and other things with the total worth of 12k”. By then I was sure that it was due to mistake that my name was mentioned or most likely it wasn’t me at all… but then the mc announced that the bumper prize was won by Manoj Kini:-) I was outside the hall and had to wade through the crowd to get in. By then my school name and place was also announced and the crowd was cheerin so loudly…Yet I still couldn’t believe it was me. The walk upto to the stage seemed never ending:) will never forget it in my life… I went over to the stage an recieved my prize.It was announced that I had won a computer set among various other things. Then they asked me to speak a few words. Here are the words I spoke quoted exactly the way I spoke them.”Nanu helbakadaddu enuilla adre nanu helalu istapaduvdu enendare, istavaregu nanu sadarana yella chitrakala spardegalalli bhagavahisidene adare ondusala kooda intaha prize nanage siglilla. So ivattu yarigella bahumana sigalilla avaru besare padade punaha punaha bhagavahisa beku. Thank you”. The applause I recieved still brings a smile on my face everytime I think of it.

After the ceremony I called home and informed about it an everybody was delighted. The people there asked me how I had come, so I told them I came by bus. Hence they offered to drop me back home. On the way back I got to know that the judges had  liked my work very much and the moment they saw it, they kept it aside on the top. That’s one thing I wont forget for a very long long time…. when I reached back home it was almost 9 in the night..I was fully tired but was really really happy 🙂

I think this ll be among the most cherished moments of my life…