CHALAKKUDI:
Their love for nature imbibed as tiny tots stood eight-year-old Vismaya Subin and her six-year-old brother Ravisankar in good stead to participate in ‘colour wheel’ competition in full confidence with contestants who are older to them at the district round of India Skills Kerala 2020 here.
The youngest participants in the India Skills Kerala 2020, to the surprise of the onlookers and invigilators, Vismaya and Ravisankar, gave colourful expression to their imagination on the paper much before the senior contestants finished.
Over 16,000 participants are vying for honours in the district rounds of the Indian Skills Kerala 2020 competitions, organized by the Industrial Training Department and Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE), both under the State Labour Department.
The district round of the multi-tier event was inaugurated by State Labour Minister T P Ramakrishnan on Wednesday in Thiruvananthapuram. A total of 10 children competed in the ‘colour wheel’ competition here. According to the invigilators, Subin and Ravisankar had almost finished their work before other contestants started mixing the colours.
The siblings have started showing a keen interest in drawing and sound colour sense at a very young age, says their mother Aparna, herself a painter and a student of interior design and decoration at the Government Women’s ITI at Chalakkudi.
Starting with pencil, Vismaya has gained skill to paint with water colour, while Ravisankar is more inclined towards crayons, their father Subin Ravi said. Both of them have snatched prizes in school-level competitions. Their parents are looking forward to holding an exhibition of the drawings of their children.
Competitions are being held in 42 categories of vocational and non-vocational skills in the district-level rounds, being held across the state till January 20. The district level competitions, will be followed by Zonal events in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode between January 27 and 31. The grand state-level finale is scheduled from February 22 to 24, at Swapna Nagari, Kozhikode.
The winners at the state level competitions will get Rs One lakh each as prize money, and runners up Rs 50,000. All finalists will get Rs 10,000 each. The state level winners will qualify for the national competitions and the prize-winning performers at the national round will get an opportunity to represent the country at World Skills 2021 in Shanghai, China.
