The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Maithri '10 off to a grand start

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Sunday, Aug 15, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Maithri '10 off to a grand start

Staff Reporter

Photo: R. Ravindran

In tandem: Students perform at Maithri ‘10 in Chennai on Friday. —

CHENNAI: The corridors and classrooms of Chettinad Vidyashram buzzed with activity as the school is hosting a two-day inter-school cultural event, Maithri '10 – Festival of Friendship from Friday.

From shaking their leg to desi beats to showcasing their versatility in acting to taking a game of quiz, participants and the cheering audience made sure every event created enough excitement.

There was also a competition to test how fast one could text message.Nearly 25 students, separated into batches, sat through to text a long paragraph that was well punctuated with all additional text symbols.

One of the rules was no use of the dictionary.

To make the contest equal and tough, the organisers provided the same model of mobile phone to every participant and played different loud music to distract attention.

“It was one competition where we did not need any preparation,” said Alekya Kastury, class XI student of St. John's School, Besant Nagar, who typed 20 words in two minutes to score 40 points.

A few participants scored above 70 points.

‘At World's End'

‘At World's End' tested how far one's desperation level is.

‘Encyrpted' made teams of three crack the code to find the treasure.

‘Happy feet' received the maximum applause with teams shaking their leg to different beats. Beyond all the excitement and dress rehearsals seen in classrooms, the inter-school meet was a platform to make new friends, learn a lesson or two on organising events and showcase talents.

It is also a welcome break from studies, said students from schools such as Hindu Senior Secondary School and Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya Higher Secondary School, as they exchanged mobile numbers.

Novelty

According to participating students, while quite a number of schools organise inter-school events what makes any cultural event sought-after is the number of schools that attend, novelty in designing events and hospitality rendered.

Actor Sarath Kumar, playback singer Mano, founder of Chettinad Vidyashram Meena Muthiah and Principal S. Amudha Lakshmi participated in the inaugural function. The event was especially pepped up by Mr. Mano who sang a couple of songs .

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