Kerala - Kochi   

Capturing the magic of night on stamps

COLOURS OF IMAGINATION: A participant at the `Design a Stamp' contest jointly organised by the Department of Posts and The Hindu Young World in Kochi on Tuesday. - Photo: H. Vibhu

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 imagination of school students ran riot. The theme was `magic of night.' The students gave colours and shades to their imagination with crayons, pencils and paint.

Treading different path

Though stars and moon were the common images in a large number of paintings, some treaded different paths.

It was the image of Taj Mahal bathed in moonlight and the reflection of the monument of love in the water body that one girl student created during the allotted time. The influence of fairy tales was also visible in some of the paintings as a few students picturised fairies and angels moving in the moonlit sky with magic wands in their hands.

Some participants got the message wrong, it seemed. As it was `design a stamp' contest, a few of them gave colours to their imagination in square shapes resembling stamps. The logo of the Department of Posts was also seen created in some paintings.

One participant attempted to convey the role played by trees in maintaining the environmental balance. "Do you know? It leaves carbon dioxide at night," wrote a girl on the sheet in which she created a giant tree and some green vegetation as seen on a starry night.

A night sky with heavenly creatures and bats flying by and frogs croaking was the impression the subject created in another participant. A slice of city life with flats filling the skyline, as seen from the window of an apartment, and a mother and child out in the open on a moonlit night were some of the other creative expressions.

A panel of art experts, philatelists and representatives of the Department of Posts will select three winners from the region. The students competed in three categories, based on their classes. The short-listed entries will be submitted for national competition.

Nearly 100 children turned up for the competition that was held at the Samastha Kerala Sahitya Parishad Hall.

It was in 1998 that the stamp design competition for students started. The designs created by students will be used for stamps that are brought out on Children's Day, miniature sheets, First Day Covers, maxim cards and Cancellations. The theme of the last year's competition was `my favourite mythological hero or my favourite fairy tale.'

Last year, the design created by Anu Vijayan of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Vadavathur, Kottayam, had won the first prize in the senior students' category.

The design that she created was used for the miniature sheet.

K.S. Sudhi

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