Students performing a folk dance at the 11th State-level Kriya Children’s Festival-2024, in Kakinada on Sunday.
N. Rakesh from the Zilla Parishad High School at Katravulapalli of Jaggampeta mandal in East Godavari district sat quiet, his eyes fixed on the book titled, ‘Yenugu Doctor’.
The task was to read the book and analyse the situations that formed the crux of the story.
Tamil and Malayalam writer Jeyamohan’s work, ‘Yaanai Doctor’, in Telugu was being put to use to test the analytical skills of the young learners.
Rakesh was among the 50-plus students who squatted on the floor with furrowed brows, their pens hovering uncertainly, while a few others flicked through the pages of the book without much clue.
As moments passed, the confusion dissipated, the pens started moving fast, and the children started expressing in a way that seemed more profound than anyone around expected. Rakesh outperformed his peers and walked home with the first prize.
The ‘Story Analysis’ contest was a fraction of the mega children’s festival organised by the Kriya Society, a Kakinada-based not-for-profit outfit working to keep the spark of creativity alive among schoolchildren.
Students performing a mime at the 11th State-level Kriya Children’s Festival-2024, in Kakinada on Sunday.
The sprawling campus of JNTU-Kakinada witnessed a whirlwind of colour, energy and creativity at the 11th State-level Kriya Children’s Festival-2024 on December 28 and 29.
There is art, there are science projects and there are a series of competitions giving an ample platform to the students to showcase their talent.
About 8,500 students, along with parents and teachers, drawn from schools across the State participated in the event. Students competed in as many as 29 categories, divided into seniors, juniors and sub-juniors. The array of contests included play-lets, classical dance, kolatam, poster presentation, debate, science experiments, essay writing, story writing, fancy dress, ‘burra katha’, story-telling, mime and clay modelling.
The festival culminated into an exciting prize-distribution sessions amidst loud cheers by the crowd.
Kriya’s annual event has had a ripple effect, as many schools have started organising similar activities at regular intervals.
“We are happy that we have been instrumental in driving others to take up the cause of not giving up on our children’s bright future. We want to maintain the tempo and grow bigger in the days to come,” said S.S.R. Jagannadha Rao, secretary of Kriya Society.
Addressing the gathering, Lok Satta founder N. Jayaprakash Narayan lauded the efforts of Kriya Society members and said it was heartwarming to see them creating this platform for children to showcase their innate talent in diverse fields.
JNTU-K Vice-Chancellor K.V.S.G. Murali Krishna motivated the students to make the best of platforms like Kriya to hone their talent and showcase them to the world.
Published – December 29, 2024 07:00 pm IST
