BANGALORE: Over 1,200 students from 125 schools participated in the Bangalore city finals of the "Classmate Young Author Contest 2005" organised by ITC Ltd. at the St. Joseph's College auditorium here on Tuesday.

A creative writing workshop conducted by Pavan Padaki, Creative Director, Brand Comm, marked the event. Competitions in story writing in the genres of science fiction, thriller/detective and fantasy were held for students from Class IX to XII.

A panel of judges headed by renowned writer Ruskin Bond will shortlist the best stories from 15 cities for the national finals.

The contest, now in its third year, witnessed participation from 4,000 schools across 15 major cities in the country.

London trip

The winner of the Classmate Young Author 2005 will be taken on a seven-day trip to London for a literary tour covering London, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Edinburgh.

All 15 finalists will win prizes such as computers, camcorders and digital cameras. The best stories will be published by Rupa & Co.

Success

"Classmate Young Author Contest has been a grand success during the past two years. Given its popularity among schools, this year we decided to take it to more cities.

For the city finals, schools were allowed to send eight participants instead of two, which will increase participation, and the competition will be tougher," Chand Das, Chief Executive, ITC Greeting Cards, said.

The Classmate Young Author Contest 2005 is held in three stages: the school level, city finals and the national finals in Mumbai.

15 cities

The contest, in association with Rupa & Co, is being conducted by ITC Ltd. in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Nagpur and Lucknow.

In the contest held the previous year, the national jury comprised Mr. Bond, Gita Hariharan, Subhadra Sengutpa, Meher Marfatia, Reena Puri and Monisha Mukundan.

Last year's winners

Jyoti Iyer of Lucknow was adjudged "The Classmate Young Author 2004" for her story "Post Box No. 99." Bangalore girl Debi Talukdar from National Public School had won the city finals for her story "A Bald Man's Comb."

The story revolved around human emotions of an abandoned cancer patient finding the strength to fight his terminal illness.

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