Winning Aussie hearts

A CHENNAI schoolgirl has won Aussie hearts with a sweet-jelly of an essay on Australia - the ``cute island-continent''. Sweta Sriram, a class 11 student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, Nungambakkam, and essay-enthusiast won the national essay competition organised by the Australian High Commission.

Her essay on `My vision of Australia: 2001 and Beyond' reads like a cross between a wish list, an anti-America dartboard and an Australian travel brochure. ``The greatness of America is being trumpeted around the world... Australia is not being advertised.''

Sweta received her winner's prize from Rob Laurie, Australian High Commissioner, in New Delhi on April 27, and got a sponsored stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel there.

Back to her paper, there's a truism to her praise: ``In terms of industrialisation, standard of living, modernisation and good employment opportunities, Australia is much ahead of many others.

It is also a nice destination of ``extraordinary wildlife, something one would kill for.''

Sweta said she researched for the essay on the web and got inputs from relatives in Australia. ``I have also read a lot about the country.''

Sweta is not new to essay competitions. Apart from inter-school competitions, she won the Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition last year when in class 10.

She's been to Africa and hopes to go to Australia sometime, so she will have much more to say about the place.

The competition was held in February to mark Australia's Centenary of Federation.

By Feroze Ahmed

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Cotton carnival
Next     : Talk of the town