Monday, November 21, 2011

BANG! Literary Challenge - Diwali, 2011



The competition as it was.......................

As a surprise Diwali gift, Zealot Readers announced the launch of BANG, a literary challenge with a difference.

Contest 1:
Poetry Writing

Here the participants were supposed to compose a short poem of 4-8 lines, based on any one or both the pictures mentioned.

PIC-P1





or


PIC-P2








Contest 2:


Prose Writing

In this the participants were required to write a short description/ few lines based on any one of the pictures mentioned below.

PIC-E1







or



PIC-E2




T&C:
1. All entries must be less than 150 words and in ENGLISH language. Entries exceeding the word limit shall not be considered for evaluation.
2. All entries must be accompanied with the code of the picture (given below each picture) they describe, the participant's age and his/her postal address.
3. The write-ups must be original and should NOT have any obscene content.
4. Participants must send their entries to readers.zealot@gmail.com, on or before 5 November, 2011.
5. The results will be announced before the Christmas Edition of BANG!
6. The best 2 entries in each category shall be published on the blog Zealot Readers.
7. One lucky winner will get a chance to send us a book review, which shall also be published on the blog.
8. The decision of the judges will be final and binding.



FOR ANY QUERIES email us : Vaishali Sethi or Vibha Sharma



Mr. Ashok Rajagopalan had kindly consented to grace us by being in the the panel of judges for our competition...

Ashok Rajagopalan is an illustrator, a graphic designer, an animator and also a writer of children's books. He has illustrated more than 500 books for children in the last twenty years, for publishers like Tulika, Scholastic, Macmillan, Oxford University P...
ress and Orient Longman.

In 2007, he made his mark as a published writer as well and since then he has written three books - retellings of the Odyssey and Iliad for children and Ajit the Archer, a novel for children.

His illustrations, be it simple pictures in Thumb Thumb books ('Mirror', 'Flower', 'Where is Thangi' and 'Up Up') or soft pencil sketches in 'Andamans boy' - have been mesmerising children and adults alike since last two decades.


Mrs. Leela Gour Broome had also been kind enough to take out some precious time from her schedule to be on our panel of judges....
Leela Gour Broome, an author, best known for her book 'Flute In The Forest', enjoys playing with words–painting her puns into cartoons or cooking up real and imaginary yarns for children and anyone else who is willing to listen. In 1990 she moved to her farm near Pune... and opened nature and environment education camps for 7-12 yr olds, the first residential camps for this age group in India, at the time. Since 2006, she has been writing fiction, publishing her work in local papers for children.

In one of her interviewes, while mentioning about her passion for writing, "a lifelong dream has been achieved, it was my ambition to write since I was barely 15 years old.."



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Zealot Readers proudly announces the results of the first edition of BANG! The Literary Challenge..

The winners will duly be rewarded with these awards sponsored by ZR team.













Here are the names of our winners, their entries and comments of judges on each of the entries.

Children's category
Prose: Medha Sharma (7 yrs)

(PIC E2)

Once there lived a yellow clock which was very naughty. It used to sleep for two hours at night which means it slowed by two hours every night. The children used to get up late and miss school because of that. Every thing was going wrong. One day they all decided to make one person stay awake and watch the clock but he slept and the clock got a chance to sleep in that time. Then they made two persons sit and stay awake during the night and tell stories to each other, but both of them got busy in telling stories, they forgot to watch the clock. The next night they tried again and then they could catch the clock sleeping. They went to the electronic shop and told the shopkeeper to fix the clock so that it does not sleep at night. Poor clock missed its two hours sleep.


Ashok Rajagopalan : The poor clock! Very funny story, Medha! And original, too! Suggestion: See if you can give names to the children, and maybe one for the poor clock!

Leela Gour : Crisp, interesting. Storyline intact. ***


Poetry: Nikita (10 yrs)


(PIC E1)

Let me grow
Let me grow
Like the way you grow
Let me be an adult like you
To provide you with shade and food
Don't cut me down as I am your lifeline.

Ashok Rajagopalan : Great message there, Nikita! Trees are our lifeline! With a little rewriting of that last line, this could be sung as a song!

Leela Gour : Clean, pure,appealing. ***


Adult's Category

Poetry: Soumya Mohil (18 yrs)

(PIC P2)

To feel the sand beneath my feet,
The warm sun on my skin,
Spray of water on my face
Means I am alive.
To squint at the bright sun above,
To see the expanse of blueness all around,
To see sand castles crumble down
Means I am alive.
To hear the child squeal on getting soaked,
Sound of waves crashing against the rocks,
To hear hollow of a conch-shell
Means I am alive.
Oh, to smell that distinct smell,
To taste of sand & water in my mouth during a swim,
To run towards the approaching wave,
Means I am alive.
Going to the beach,
Is a feast for my senses,
It's a break from the mundaneness
It makes me come alive.

Ashok Rajagopalan : Soumya, this is a brilliant piece of poetry. It has sounds, smells, taste and sights. It’s almost like we are there with you on the beach. Sharing with real feeling!

I don’t think the last stanza is necessary, though. You have said the same things more subtly and powerfully in the previous stanzas.

Leela Gour : (Exuberant, full of images, positive, and spirited! ) ****


Prose: Riddhi Dayal (18 yrs)

(PIC E2)
The Musings

With forty minutes to go for midnight, Jamie felt exhausted. Every year, her family would meet up on New Year’s Eve and celebrate together. On this one particular occasion, however, she herself had decided not to go. Now, as she sat watching some trashy programme on T.V, her mind wandered to the reason of the rift. False accusations by her sister-in-law after her mother’s death, about her wanting to ‘usurp the property,’ had really stung. Hurt, she had cut all contact with her siblings. But, as she watched the ‘happy families’ on T.V, she realised how much she missed her family. In her heart, she really hoped that things would work out. Lost in musings, she didn’t realize when the clock struck twelve. Suddenly, the phone rang. “Happy New New Year,” an all too familiar voice said. “Right back at you brother,” she said & smiled. All was well.

Ashok Rajagopalan : A good story amazingly condensed into a few lines. Why don’t you try writing more ‘flash fiction’, Riddhi? A couple of paragraph breaks could improve the looks of the story and make better reading.

Leela Gour : Crisp, clean story, positive ending. ***


Team ZR wishes all the winners the very best for all their future literary endeavors.... ♥


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