As part of the celebration of universal brotherhood day online Competitions were kept for the school students and also for the adults.
1) All Kerala Elocution competition in Malayalam based on the Chicago speech of Swami Ji was for the classes V to VII; Elocution competition in English was for the High school students from class VIII to X.
2) All India Quiz competition in English was designed for the students of classes X, XI and XII. Topic was based on the videos of Mananeya Lakshmi Kumari Didi on series of her talks on 'Love India as Swami Ji loved Her'
3) All India Essay competition in English, Hindi, or Malayalam for adults from 19 years to 30 years. The topic was similar to the quiz competition.
140 students registered for the elocution competition out of which 63 students sent their videos. 16 students from 5 different schools around Kodungallur were from the junior section and 47were senior students from 13 different schools of Kodungallur, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, and Ernakulam.
267 students registered for the Quiz and 113 only could appear online for the Quiz competition. Among them 250 students were from 21 VKVs of Arunachal Pradesh, 8 were from 3 VKVs of Assam, 2 were fro VKV Kallubalu and the rest were Govt school students of Arunachal Pradesh( 3 students) and other schools of Maharashtra( 4 students)
121 participants registered for the essay competition. Out of them, only 61 submitted their essays. Out of the 55 participants were from the different VKVs of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and the rest from Bihar, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, and Kerala.
On 11th September, Universal Brotherhood Day was celebrated in two sessions one in the morning from 10 a.m to 11.15 am and the second session from 4 pm to 5:50 pm. Both were online sessions through Google Meet.
For the first session Mananeya Balakrishnan Ji, All India President- Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, was the Chief Guest.
Attendance was more than 250, hence many had to watch through the You-tube link. Participants included that of Essay, Quiz, and other local wellwishers. Sushree Radha Didi (Dakshina Prant Sangathak), introduced Mananeya Balakrishnan Ji and Ma. Lakshmi Didi.
Ma. Balakrishnan Ji was very pleased to see many VKV teachers among those who attended the Meet and addressed the audience after Mananeeya Didi's introductory speech. After this, the Winners of the essay competition were declared. All the three winners of the First, Second, and Consolation positions were VKV teachers.
Essay written by Su. Sanchita Roy of VKV Doyan -Nagaland was chosen to be the best among the 61 essays.
As for the online Quiz, it was unanimously decided that a second round of the same would be conducted in the month of November and winners declared on Sadhana Divas. Many of the 267 students who had registered, could not appear for the quiz for various reasons.
For the second session in the evening from 4 pm to 5 pm was arranged for all Kerala participants. Dr T.P.Sasikumar, a Space scientist by profession and a close well-wisher of Vivekananda Kendra, was invited as the Chief Guest. 65 people attended.Ma. Didi and Chief Guest Dr. T.P. Sashikumar was introduced and welcomed to the session by Sushree Radha Didi. After a short address by Ma. Didi and an inspiring talk by Dr. Shashi Kumar, the prize winners of the elocution competitions were declared.
Kum Rithupurna of Class VI from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans Kodungallur from the junior section and Kum. Sanjana of Class VII from Arya Central School, Tvm, from the senior was declared as First prize winners of the elocution competitions. Cash prizes of Rs 1000/- for the first prize winners, Rs 750/- for the second prize winners, and Rs 500/- for the third prize winners, will be received by the winners. A follow session every month with Dr. TP Sasikumar is being thought of for the participating children, which will help them in their jokurney ahead.
