Winners should not make fun of losers — this simple yet profound rule was penned by Ahaan Anoop, an eight-year-old third grader from a Kerala school.
His thoughtful answer during an Onam exam has gone viral, earning him a special meeting with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Assembly Speaker A.N. Shamsheer in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
The question posed by Ahaan’s Malayalam teacher at Thalassery O Chandu Menon Valiyamadavil Government UP School, Beena Sadu, asked students to write detailed rules for a lemon-and-spoon race. Initially, Ahaan listed three basic rules: five students can compete at a time, the spoon should be held in the mouth, and the lemon should be balanced on the spoon. But when his teacher urged him to think deeper, Ahaan came up with four additional rules that stood out, including his million-dollar rule — winners should not make fun of losers.
The other three rules were: contestants should walk only through the marked line, if the lemon falls, the contestant should take it and keep it on the spoon and resume walking, if the contestant enters the next line, she/he would be disqualified.
Ahaan said he was not prepared for such a question. “Usually, what we see happening in games is winners making fun of the losers. That should not happen in any game. More than winning a medal, it’s contesting in the game which is of paramount importance,” said Ahaan, who wants to become an IPS officer.
The answer was shared by Ahaan’s journalist mother, Nimya Narayanan, on Facebook. The post was soon noticed and shared by Kerala’s general education minister V. Sivankutty, leading to widespread attention. Ahaan lives in Thalassery, the constituency of Speaker A.N. Shamseer, who invited the young boy to the state capital. Ahaan also met Vijayan, following a request made by his school.