Young winners pan India under the age of 18 and Himachal’s senior writers over the age of 40, eminent writers from Shimla and young students will attend the event. The event will feature readings by young children and reviews by college students. There will be an Interactive Workshop on Creative Writing for School Students and Writers present by Sh Irshad Kamil. Esteemed guest list included Secretary Rakesh Kanwar, Dr Pankaj Lalit, Aarti Gupta, C S Yadav, Sr Additional General Manager, SJVN, Dr Usha Bande, Dr Purnima Chauhan, Prof & Principal Meenakshi Faith Paul, Vidyanidhi Chhabra, Sri Srinivas Joshi and writers and poets from our city. Students from various schools and colleges were present to attend the Workshop held by Irshad Kamil.
The creativity and imagination of our budding writers at such a young age is amazing. The clarity of thought, the expressive flow of ideas and words, and the command over language is highly commendable. The steps leading to the conception and final release of the book titled 51 Scintillating Tales – Short Stories by Children and its successful acceptance in the literary circles was quite encouraging for the young writers and that filled them with a feeling of proud accomplishment.
Following suit, we planned yet another short story competition for children under the age group of eighteen years. This time they were given an open theme, with a word limit of 1,000 to 5,000. The competition was held over a span of four months from April to July, 2022, and each month two winners were selected to be awarded a cash prize along with an assured place in the top 31 list of stories. Our winners for the four months were, Sanskriti Rao and Pritha Doegar in April; Shivangi Sharma and Aanika Gajendragad in May; Ananya Thakur and Charu Sharma in June; and Baani Simar Kaur and Vasundhara Joshi in July.
Our esteemed panel of judges—Dr Vidyanidhi Chhabra, Gunjan Batra, Jael Priscilla, Prantik Bose, Rachna Rohatgi, Astha Chadha, Parveen Bhalla, and Tanaya Ghose Dastidar—had very encouraging words to share about the writers.
Each story title page features a QR Code, that can be scanned with any smartphone to listen to the stories. Thus, we now introduce you to Keekli’s very own Podcast Channel, ‘Keekli – Little Steps Big Strides’. The credit for the book design cover too goes to two of our winners, Atharv Vats and Pritha Doegar.
Young kids read short passages from their story featured in Fiction Treasure Trove — Ms Shivangi Sharma — Spirits of the Heart ; Pritha Doegar — IT Seeks Revenge; Baani Simar Kaur — Into the Oblivion; Rudra Chauhan — देवदार के पेड़; Vasundhra Joshi — The Stranger and Yashita Verma — The Train on Platform Number 10.
College students who reviewed Himachal ke rang were Shruti; Dipti Sood, Rahul Dev Premi & Aanchal Sharma.
इस वर्ष हमने दो लघु कहानी प्रतियोगिताओं की योजना बनाई, एक अठारह वर्ष से कम उम्र के बच्चों के लिए, जिसका शीर्षक फिक्शन ट्रेजर ट्रोव है, और दूसरी हिमाचल प्रदेश के वरिष्ठ लेखकों के लिए थी, जिसका शीर्षक था, हिमाचल के रंग — हिमाचल में आधारित वास्तविक जीवन के अनुभवों पर राज्य के लेखकों द्वारा रचित कहानियाँ। ये कहानियाँ पीढ़ियों से चली आ रही पारंपरिक कहानियों से लेकर पारिवारिक कहानियों तक हो सकती हैं जो राज्य की संस्कृति और परंपरा को उजागर करती हैं।
हमारे जूरी मेंबर्स के लिए सर्वश्रेष्ठ कहानिया चुनना बहुत मुश्किल कार्य था । हमारे सम्मानित पैनल में — डॉ रेखा वशिष्ठ; डॉ पूर्णिमा चौहान (आईएएस सेवानिवृत्त); प्रोफेसर और प्रिंसिपल मीनाक्षी फेथ पॉल और डॉ विद्यानिधि छाबड़ा — रहे, जिन्होंने गुमनाम रूप से न्याय किया ताकि हमारी प्रतियोगिता की प्रामाणिकता और वैधता बनाए रखने के लिए निष्पक्षता से कहानियाो को अंक प्रदान किये जा सके.
कुछ उल्लेखनीय नाम है कुलदीप वर्मा और पृथा डोगर, जिन्होंने समय निकाल कर इन कहानियों को पढ़ा और आवाज प्रदान की। सभी पच्चीस कहानियाँ अब आप सुन भी सकते है कीकली के पॉडकास्ट चैनल पर, जिसका शीर्षक है, ‘Keekli – Little Feet, Big Strides’।
एक लेखक के सबसे महत्वपूर्ण धरोहर उनकी कहानियाँ हैं, उनके शब्द और वे क्या लिखते हैं, इस प्रकार दर्शकों को स्वीकार करके निर्णय लेने देते हैं, उन्हें उनके पहले समालोचक भागीदार के रूप में । हम उनके आभारी हैं, की वह हमें उनकी कहानियों को प्रकाशित करने का सम्मान दे रहे है। कीकली में हम इस अविश्वसनीय संग्रह को पेश करते हुए गर्व महसूस कर रहे हैं।
We would also like to thank our ardent supporters — Department of Information and Public Relations, Himachal Pradesh; SJVN Foundation; Department of Language & Culture, Himachal Pradesh; Nanak Chand Roshni Sood Charitable Trust; and Media Partner HimachalTonite— for understanding the ideas and concept of our event. Though the list is very long, but few names deserve special mention, Sonia Dogra, Manish Purohit, Mrs Pramila Nanda, Sh Jagjit Rai Nanda, Rajesh Sharma, Kuldeep Verma, and Aahr Singh who always give us unconditional support.
Lastly, I wouldn’t say this was all planned, but I would definitely like to add that we share a passion, a vision, which we are glad to move forward with as and when opportunities come knocking at our door.
