Spot Light 2008

Nov 14th, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's (Independent India's First Prime Minister) birthday, is celebrated as Children's Day in India to commemorate his love for children. All over Chennai there have been festivals, competitions, and other special events. At Jessie Moses school there was a week long celebration with special competitions to showcase the students talents. During the Spot Light 2008 Ashwin and Priya took part in various contests.

Ashwin came in 3rd in the poetry contest for his recitation of The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. Priya qualified for the finals but didn't finish in the top three in either Poetry or in the "fancy dress" category. The recited a poem by Ogden Nash and for the fancy dress contest played shoemaker's wife from 'The Shoemaker and the Elves'. Parents could attend either the preliminary or final rounds of competition - so Prabhu went for the prelims and Leann for the finals. "Fancy dress" (in which the children had to dress up as a story book character and then tell a little about them) was especially entertaining with a full complement of princesses, cap sellers, hunters(one with two live birds!), little pigs and a tortoise!

There was also a Children' s Day service at church and during this special service, Ashwin sang with the children's choir.

Happy Children's Day 2008.