CUDDALORE:
The hall of the E.I.D.Parry's Recreation Club at Nellikuppam in Cuddalore district reverberated with the recitation of verses from “Thiruppavai, Thiruvembavai and Thiruppalliyezhuchi” for the whole day.
Not less than 700 students in the age group of 9-10, drawn from 30 schools, were queuing up to participate in the recitation competition held recently under the aegis of the Pavai Vizha Committee, and were patiently but eagerly waiting for their turn to prove their mettle. A majority of them happened to be girls while the boys formed about 10 per cent of the turnout, mostly hailing from rural background. All the participants had memorised a total of 69 verses in these sacred works authored by Andal and Manickavasagar.
A panel of judges evaluated their performance, primarily on two criteria: flawless recitation ability and the robust memory power to pick the verses at random on the direction of the panel members. Some of the students exhibited extraordinary talent in this aspect by proving their thorough knowledge of the verses. Sri Sarada Vidyalaya at Vanpakkam achieved the coveted honour of bagging the rolling trophy and its Class V student Sowmya getting the first prize.
Chandru, a Class IV student of the Viswanathapuram Municipal School, came second, and Geetha, a Class V student of the Thorapadi Panchayat Union School attained the third place. Ashiba, a Class V student of Melpattampakkam Balavihar Primary and Nursery School, got the consolation prize. Committee president K.S.Krishnagopal told The Hindu that the competition was the 47th annual event and every passing year it was witnessing increased participation. It had its genesis in 1960 when Lalitha, a resident of Janakiram Nagar at Nellikuppam, started teaching the local students the verses along with the Bhagvad Gita and formed them part of the bhajans.
Later, on the suggestion of Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal of Kanchi Mutt it was broad-based to include the students studying Class IV and V in the local schools. Now, the event had acquired almost the district-level dimension. Dr. Krishnagopal said that the objective was to impart value education, inculcate sense of harmonious living and to improve memory power of the students so as to enable them to emerge as productive citizens. He appreciated the cooperation of the headmasters and teachers in this endeavour.
Ever since 2000, Dr Krishnagopal and K.Srikanth are rendering free health care services to the participants. SBI Chief Manager (Puducherry) Narayanan delivered the presidential address and K.Thirumalai read out the annual report. Besides trophies and cups for the winners certificates and educational aids were given away to all the participants.
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