Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Capturing magic of night on stamps

FREE REIN OF IMAGINATION: At the `Design a Stamp' contest organised by the Department of Posts and The Hindu-Young World in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. - Photo: S. Mahinsha

Hundreds of schoolchildren participated in `Design a Stamp' contest 2006 organised by the Department of Posts in association with The Hindu-Young World in 23 centres across the State on Tuesday. The response in some of the smaller centres was beyond expectations. More than 670 children participated in the contest in the Ottapalam Postal Division. This is attributed to the contest being organised by Superintendent of Post Offices K.K. Jayasankar in 70-odd schools to enable the children from smaller institutions in remote areas also to participate. Postal officials in the vicinity of the schools coordinated the programme with the help of the school authorities.

The contest theme `magic of night' saw the participants give a free rein to their imagination with shades of black, blue and grey dominating the illustrations of the prospective Children's Day stamps.

In Thiruvananthapuram, as many as 120 students from nearly 50 schools took part in the three-hour contest, which was held in three categories - group I (Classes I to IV), group II (Classes V to VIII) and group III (Classes IX to XII).

The competition will short-list three winners each from Thiruvananthapuram (Southern Region), Ernakulam (Central Region) and Kozhikode (Northern Region). The winners will be given prizes at a function in the respective regions by the end of the month. The best three paintings short-listed from the three regions will be sent for competition at the national level.

The winners at the national level get the rare opportunity to send their work around the globe, as the prize-winning entries will be chosen for designing postage stamp, first day cover, miniature sheet, and the cover of a philately newsletter.

"Simplicity in design and minimum colour will be the key factors in selecting the best painting," said Mervin Alexander, director, Postal Services. "The paintings should also be original and should convey a message. It is also important to avoid any intricate details in the painting as it will be difficult to reproduce the features in the miniature version of a stamp," said Mr. Alexander.

Meanwhile, the Department of Posts on Tuesday released a set of two postage stamps, miniature sheet, and first day cover designed by children during last year's competition. The miniature sheet is based on a painting by Anu Vijayan, a resident of Kottayam.

Sangeeth Kurian

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