A member of the Baldwin Academy team tries to make a point during a debate at Shikhar, the inter-school competition organised by The Telegraph, in Patna on Monday. Their counterparts from St Michael’s High School look on. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Students continued to fly and reach new heights on Monday, thanks to their way with words and creativity.

Udaan and Shikhar — the two inter-school competitions organised by The Telegraph — were into the third day. Contestants from around the city sat through debate and sit-and-draw competitions.

If crisp words flew in the debate, creativity was also unleashed. The participants had a riot with crayons, watercolours and poster colours.

Class VII student of Patna Central School, Vaishnavi, was one of the Udaan contestants. Participating in the sit-and-draw competition, she worked on the topic Mother Earth. She said: “I drew a child holding the Indian National Flag in hand and standing on Earth. It means I want every child of India to be educated and conquer the globe. Painting on a theme gives us many creative ideas and leads to a fair competition.”

There was no limit on the number of participants at the sit-and-draw contest and at least 100 students worked on paintings in Udaan and Shikhar.

Those participating in Udaan were given the topics Mother Earth and Indian population, while the senior students part of Shikhar had to work on “Save energy — save life” and Patna monuments.

Around 20 schools of Patna, including Notre Dame Academy and Don Bosco Academy, are participating in the five-day extravaganza. The participants have been divided into two groups — Udaan (students of classes VI-VIII) and Shikhar (students of classes IX-XII).

DAV BSEB principal Ramanuj Prasad, happy with the range of events, said: “I am glad that The Telegraph took the initiative to organise such an event. It is quite important for the students to know which field, apart from academics, they are good at.”

Tanushree of St Michael’s High School is also happy.

The smart Class X student, who worked on “Save energy, save life”, said: “Competitions improve your skill. I have learnt new skills and shading tricks from the other participants next to me.”

If creativity was the catchword for sit-and-draw, the other “C” word showed up for the debate round. Confidence.

On Monday, the preliminaries and semi-finals for both Udaan and Shikhar were conducted. Crisp points and neat conclusions made for a keenly contested verbal duel.

At Udaan’s preliminary on “English is an important language for personality development”, St Dominic Savio’s High School students Anushka and Aanchal summed up for the motion well. “English is Internet, it connects people; English is window, you can see the whole world before you.”

The semi-final topic was MS Dhoni is the best Indian cricket team captain ever. Litera Valley School, DAV Khagaul, St Michael’s High School and St Karen’s Secondary School made it through to the final on Wednesday. They would get five minutes to speak on “Students should be allowed to use smartphone in school”.

In Shikhar, speakers had “Social media is a boon for young minds of India” and “Media plays a productive role in Indian politics” as the preliminary and semi-final topics, respectively.

St Karen’s, St Michael’s High School, Baldwin Academy and International School CBSE made it through to the finals. They would have to speak on “People from the film industry and sports should not join politics”.

Priyanshu Raj, a student of St Michael’s School and an Udaan debate participant, said: “This event was not just a congregation of students, it was a congregation of minds. I really appreciate The Telegraph for bringing together the finest brains of the city under a single roof.”