CHENNAI: Thangaraj from Srivilliputhur loves to tell stories. He modulates his voice, makes dramatic pauses, and introduces interesting twists to his tales.

No wonder the 10-year-old had a great time at the two-day `children's knowledge festival' organised at Queen Mary's College in the city by Aid India.

A total of 180 children from different villages in Tamil Nadu gathered for the State-level meet which began on Saturday. As Thangaraj narrated his prize-winning story on the sun and moon his friends listened to him in rapt attention.

Most of them have humble backgrounds. Thangaraj's father is a mason, while his mother works in a cracker factory.

When Aid India, a non-governmental organisation working in the areas of education, health and village development, mooted the story writing competition they did not quite expect the kind of response they got. They were overwhelmed when 15,000 children submitted their entries. "Each child came up with a creative idea and developed it into a nice little story. We selected 4,000 children for the block-level contest from which 1,500 progressed to the district-level competition," said Balaji Sampath of Aid India. He noted that thousands of children benefited from the mobile library project initiated by them in several villages.

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