Calcutta: Twelve children from Calcutta's pavements danced in their manifold costumes and lip-synced, reflecting the theme of India's togetherness amid diversity at the Science City auditorium on Saturday, while others portrayed a courageous country with their tales of determination against odds.

Some were young, like Mousumi Khatoon who still helps her mother roll beedis when she is not studying for her medical degree, and the wheelchair-bound Class III student Debosmita Ghosh, who loves maths and telling stories.

Some were older, like former forest guard Prafulla Nayek who has been running a school for hapless villagers in Simlipal since retirement, and physics teacher Subhash Chandra Kundu, whose violent Naxalite past taught him "what was not right" but ignited his fighting spirit.

The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence 2018, presented by IIHM and powered by Sister Nivedita University, celebrated courage - but in a different India that convener Barry O'Brien described as "a judging India, a bullying India and intolerant India".

"In recent years, one has been experiencing another India, a judging India, a bullying India and intolerant India. An unforgiving India; an indecent India," O'Brien said.

"An India that wants to dominate and dictate what people should and should not do in their lives and how they should lead their lives."

What followed on stage was a depiction, by children from Calcutta Rescue, of an "amazing India" that O'Brien described as "the India they want... the India they deserve".

"My name is Shamsher, I'm from Ajmer, I speak Urdu, but I'm just like you.... My name is Arundhati, I'm from Guwahati, I speak Assamese, but I am just like you," went some of the lines from the performance, underscoring how national integration today was more important than ever.

There was not one chief guest but "chief guests in uniform" across the packed auditorium who cheered for their friends, applauded strangers and left with their heads full of examples of little people standing up to stiff challenges.

Over three hours, the auditorium witnessed an "India that fights poverty and intolerance" but is also "determined and full of courage".

Courageous India was represented by the likes of Mousumi, 19, who scored 82.6 per cent in her higher secondary exam while helping her mother roll beedis to add to the family income. She received the Dr Amiya Kumar Bose Memorial Award.

The Murshidabad girl, now a first-year student at the Calcutta National Medical College, rolls beedis even now when she goes home.

"My mother works hard to earn Rs 4,000 a month, not for herself but to ensure that we (she has a sister) can study. The least I can do is help her increase the family income," she said.

Somnath Rauth would skip classes not for fun but to toil in the fields under the 100-day work scheme to add to the Rs 700 that his grandmother draws as pension.

"Some days I worked before school but on some other days I had to miss classes," said the 16-year-old who has scored 91.29 per cent in the Madhyamik and received the Dr Ashin Dasgupta Memorial Scholarship.

O'Brien was perhaps talking of these children when he said: "Then there is a struggling India, a fighting India that suffers silently or faces life's challenges boldly with courage and conviction."

The "caring and compassionate and giving India" spoke through those like Kundu, the former Naxalite, who teaches hundreds of students free of charge. He has set up a science laboratory at his home in Basirhat where his students can take practical classes without spending a paisa.

"Recognition motivates you to keep at what you are doing," said Kundu, one of the recipients of the Dr Mrs N.B. O'Brien Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of his students - now university teachers or scholars - posed for groupfies as their "Sir" received the award.

"Giving India" was represented by people like Calcutta police constable Arup Mukherjee, who has set up a primary school for children from the tribal Shabar community in Purulia.

Mukherjee's salary - and whatever he can collect from well-wishers - pays for the food, shelter and education that Puncha Nabadisha Model School provides its pupils with.

Mukherjee received an honour from The Telegraph Education Foundation and handed over the Surrendra Paul Memorial Award for Courage to several students. O'Brien saluted the police constable and the audience gave him a standing ovation.

A new award, for brave girls up to the age of 27, was instituted this year in memory of model-actor Sonika Singh Chauhan, who died in a car crash last year at the age of 27.

During the vote of thanks, the chairman of The Telegraph Education Foundation set the tone for next year's edition, which will be the 24th. "We look forward to have you back with us on the last Saturday of August," said Amitabha Datta.