Address at the Award Giving Function of Shankar's International Children's Competition

Creativity is Borderless

I am indeed delighted to participate in the Shankar?s International Children?s Competition awards function for the year 2004. My congratulations to all the children who are getting the awards in the painting, story and poem competitions and also all the participants. My greetings to the organizers, artists, poets, creative writers, art lovers and the distinguished guests. I am happy to note that this competition allows the blossoming of the creative genius in the children, since it does not lay down any constraint in terms of topic or theme, leaves it fully to the imagination and the innovativeness of the children.

Contribution of Shri K. Shankar

I commend the vision of the renowned political cartoonist, Shri. K. Shankar, who had the foresight to see the potential of children in various spheres of creativity. I am indeed very happy that the Shankar international Children?s competition has continued the mission with same passion and sincerity of Shri. Shankar.

Greetings to the young minds

I was going through and was amazed to see the Shankar?s Children?s Art Number ? Volume 55 which depicts the work of children from sixty eight countries. The children have exhibited a great talent in painting, in poems and writing stories and articles. While grown ups start talking about countries and borders, caste and religions, poor and the rich, the work of the children from the 68 countries has been seamless and borderless. The children?s mind is at its purest form and has no divisive tendencies. The youth of the world indeed provides hope for the future of the mankind and I am more convinced that the planet earth will be safe in their hands. While every one of the work of the children that I had the pleasure of going through, will remain fresh in my mind for many years, I wish to recall a few to share with you the joy of going through such young talents. Now I can imagine the plight of the Juries in selecting the very best amongst the best. Every one of the children is a winner and I greet all of them who have participated from 68 countries. I wish you all the very best and I am sure, dear children your creativity and imagination will stay with you throughout your life and make sure you are the dream of enlightened citizen of the future world.

Beautiful minds

I was very happy to see, the German Girl Anthea Neums, bringing out her imagination of how the season of Easter looks like in the rural environment; the bright colors that she has chosen reminded me of my home town on the seashore, where I spent my childhood days. In the same book, 14 year girl Supraja Chakravarthy, from India narrates a story about the homely middle class morality and how the votes are purchased during an election. It is clear that the young mind wants a change.

Aardhra Krishna(13), has worn her thinking cap on and let her imagination fly. She has visualized how the earth will look like around 3000 AD. In her imagination, the citizens are forced to migrate to Mars and have made Mars the home to a flourishing civilization. This advanced civilization, which was man made comes suddenly under threat created by nature in the form of an asteroid of Jupiter. The asteroid from Jupiter was coming towards Mars and Mars was in danger of extinction. The scientists on Mars come up with a very innovative plan of a barrage of nuclear cannons to attack the oncoming asteroid. The bombardment destroys the asteroid and the year 3000 sees a Martian civilization surviving from the fury of the nature by scientific innovation. What a beautiful scientific thinking of Aardhra Krishna?

I was amazed about the poem written by a 12 year old girl Anna Sinyakova from Russia ? ?Never think of illness?. I always believed that there will be some problem or the other while doing important tasks, but problems should not become the master. My advice particularly to the young children is that you should defeat the problem and succeed. The same thoughts are echoed by Anna Sinyakova from Russia. She sends out a very strong message of encouragement and advice through her poem that you must have the courage to face any disease to keep up the human well being.

I liked the painting of Savidhya Kumari Premasundera, a ten year old girl from Sri Lanka. The way she has imagined the scene of the fishing and the fishermen is testimony to the alertness and the observation capability of the young mind. Kenya?s thirteen year old boy recounts his personal experience of his maiden flight which was hijacked. The entire incident had been so deeply engraved in the young mind. The boy has been very eloquent in bringing out his experiences and emotions in his write-up.

Creativity can make impossible possible

Friends, I would like to share with you some events which narrate the experiences on how to subjugate failures and succeed in our mission using the creativity.

According to the Laws of Aerodynamics, the shape of the bumble bee is such that it should be impossible for it to fly. But the bee?s determination to fly is strong. The bee keeps fluttering its wings and its life propels the bee. This high frequency vibration creates a vortex which enables it to fly. With determined efforts you can always succeed against established beliefs. That is the power of creativity.

Not only was the bumble bee?s flight, even the human flight considered impossible. In 1890, a well-known scientist, Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London, said that, ?any thing heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown?. Two decades after that, the determination of the Wright Brothers made the impossible possible and proved that man could fly. Their success is a story of how sheer perseverance and creativity could lead to success. This singular achievement has made the transportation revolution and made the world smaller.

The famous rocket designer Von Braun, built the Saturn-V to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality. He once said that ?If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible?, from the dictionary.

All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries. Most achievers in the world, like the young children who have participated in Sankar?s International Chidren?s Competition and also those who have assembled here, should not believe in the word impossible. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate impossibility and then succeed through his innate creativity.

If you want to become a poet, writer or painter, you have to have a dream, and then acquire knowledge, work hard, you achieve the results as the bumble bee, as the Wright Brothers, as the famous Indian scientists Sir CV Raman, as the painters like MF Hussian, Picasso, as a painter and sculptor like Amarnath Sehgal, as a poet like Rabindranath Tagore. My dear children the future is waiting for you to enter your name along with those doyens of arts and science.

Rashtrapati Bhavan experience

I must share with you a creative competition we had in the Mughal Gardens. Around 150 children, mostly underprivileged in the age group of 6 - 16, were invited by us in the month of March 2003 to enjoy the ambience of Mughal Gardens and then paint what impressed them the most. Some of the paintings which were made were amazing and reflected that the creativity of the youth has no bounds. In fact, we could identify some children who had the potential to be good artists one day. I selected 4 such paintings for my personal New Year Greeting Card.

I would like to invite the next year?s winners of the Shankar?s International Children?s Competition to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and to be our guests. They will find a beautiful environment, smiling gardens, bio-diversity centre, herbal garden, spiritual garden and children?s gallery, that will help to bring more innovation and creativity.

Technology in art

With the advancing technology in the form of various IT products, it has become much easier for the budding writers and poets to document their thought processes. Painters and artists can now create creative paintings using the 2D and 3D multimedia tools as quickly as possible. This brings into the fold of arts, many people who would have otherwise not been creators of art. In essence, computer graphics gives them an extended arm to become more creative. There are several software tools that are available today for writing simple stories, poems and also evaluate your writings against well-known writers.

Advancement in nano-technology is also providing preservative qualities to the paintings and sculptures today using nano-powders. The nano-powders can not only give you the unique combination of natural color like that of peacock, but also can be used for preservation and resurrection of very old paintings. The various technological options in creation, preservation and promotion should form part of the art education. All children who have taken part in this competition and have the capability of producing these pieces of art need to be exposed to the technological advancement so as to benefit them in future.

Conclusion: Promoting Creativity

There is no doubt that there is creativity in every mind but it calls for a concerted effort to ensure that it is expressed. Every mind is creative; every mind is inquisitive, when the children ask questions we have to answer the questions. This is the primary responsibility of the teachers and the parents. If this is done in the young age, creativity will be nourished and the children will flourish.

It is through competitions like this that forums can be provided to children and youth to express their creative thought. I feel that schools, colleges, non-governmental organizations and art lovers can take upon themselves the responsibility of promoting creativity in urban as well as in the rural areas. I request Shankar?s Foundation to encourage more number of children from rural areas to participate in their competitions.

Beautiful minds are the source of creativity. Creativity transforms the thoughts in the form of paintings, stories and poems. I would like to share with you the following verses on learning to creativity.

Learning gives creativity 
Creativity leads to thinking 
Thinking provides knowledge 
Knowledge makes you great.

Let me once again congratulate all the young minds for their excellent performance in this creative art and writing. I wish that this quality progresses and flourishes all through their life. My best wishes to the organizers for enhancing the scope of this competition. They have succeeded in the mission of recognizing and developing the creative talent among large number of young minds.

May God bless you.