Painting competition for a noble cause

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When the youth Sabeer Thirumala set out to start his own charity organisation, he had made up his mind to organise a painting competition for school children, whom he considers the only hope that society can bank on. Thus was organised an all-Kerala painting competition on Museum compound here.The competition was organised as a launching event for ‘Sindhuram’, an NGO formed to emancipate the downtrodden, with key emphasis on children. More than 200 school children from across the State participated in the event. On the basis of age, the competition was held in four categories.Sabeer Thirumala, the chairman of the Trust, said: ”We have decided to impart a lot of attention to children. Those who missed out on education, those who don’t own a house, those who are deprived of basic infrastructure - those sort of children are our target. Through their emancipation alone can we ensure a better future for the country.”The candidates in the LP section were given the theme ‘Our toys,’ which gave the little ones a chance to sketch their horizon of imaginations on canvas. The highlight of the event was the theme, ‘Helping the aged couple to cross the road’, which was allotted to the candidates in the HSS section.The imagination of the students blended judiciously with their social responsibilities and ignited a fire in them to do well.Thus were born hundreds of canvasses with varied imaginations on a single theme. The protagonists in their canvasses varied from policemen in uniform to school children who religiously performed their social responsibilities.Muhammed Roshan, a high school student from Chullimanoor, had a glow in his eyes when asked about his feelings after competing in the event. “I was a little astonished at the topic of the event. They gave us the theme ‘The girl who waters the garden.’ I thought that the topic would be something serious in nature like the Mullaperiyar dam issue,” he said.But the organisers said that such a response was what they expected from the student community.