SINGAPORE: Splashing colour on the walls fostered Anjali Chandrashekar’s love for art. Watching art students at a temple strive to sketch the intricate curves of deities, strengthened her ambition — she was going to be an artist.
A Class IX student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, Anjali has won a State-level award instituted by Air India for students. The Race for Awareness and Knowledge (RANK) award recognises excellence outside academics.
Short, wearing braces and with her hair tied in a long silky ponytail, Anjali was the last of the 89 students selected from Tamil Nadu to go in for the interview.
One of her paintings was for the Wyland Foundation, an organisation dedicated to preserving marine life.
The painting was of a shark dangling from a hook. Its fins had bowls of soup in them and ornaments and cosmetics were within its body. She stood third internationally, the only Indian to have participated.
The RANK award form all participants had to fill included a question on the student’s vision of a hypothetical country — ‘The Republic of Consideration.’ Anjali’s included no child labour, no violence against women and a motto for every citizen — “It is my country and I have to take care of it.” The trip to Singapore, she says, was an amazing learning experience. The cleanliness, the Singaporeans’ civic sense and the importance they gave to the habitat of wildlife stand out in her mind.
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