Awareness activities fun for kids

A child views the artwork by participants of the sit-and- draw contest on Sunday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

On Sunday, West Bengal Pollution Control Board, in association with the NGO Paschimbanga Bigyan Mancha, had organised a sit-and-draw competition and quiz contest for school students at Netaji Indoor Stadium to celebrate World Environment Day (June 6).

Around 1,000 students from various schools took part in the programme that began in the morning and ended in the afternoon. The stadium looked like a festival ground with all the participants and even many in the audience sporting green caps. In the sit-and-draw contest, 20 participants each from the three age groups ? six-10, 11-13 and 14-16 ? were declared winners.

In the quiz, there were 78 teams at the start, each with two members. Every team was asked to solve 50 questions within 30 minutes and the best eight teams were selected for the final.

The participants were asked three rounds of question ? two general and one rapid fire ? in the final. The first two rounds were tough. In the rapid fire round, each team had to answer four questions in one minute.

There were some interesting questions about the first environmental law in country and about the first international environmental conference. Biswadip Ganguly and Subhajit Chakraborty from Tiljala High School won the quiz.

The prizes were distributed by environment minister Mohanta Chatterjee, artist Suvaprasanna, PCB chairman Sudip Banerjee and other dignitaries. There was ample cheering and clapping when each winner received the prize from the guests.

Medha Basu,
Class V, Patha Bhavan

New music mantra

Youth band Insomnia is recording its debut Bengali album, which is scheduled for release in August. Insomnia started out singing in English in 1999, as the South Point School band. After some line-up changes and a new direction in sound ? ?nu-age alternative visionary hard rock? ? the band is back, says manager Rahul Mehra.

The members compose and perform their own music in Bengali and English. They already have a self-produced English album, which was in private circulation. The present line-up of the band is six months old ? Bodhi (guitar), Dodo on vocals and guitar, Ninnai (vocals), Pom (bass), Rohit (drums) and Souvik on vocals and keyboard .

Chess Champion : Mitrabha Guha is all of four years old, but already a competitor at the national level. The youngster who has just been admitted at South Point School has been playing chess for the past few months and training with Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy. On May 30, he participated in the contests at the Calcutta inauguration of the Chess for Youth (under 25) all-India tournament at Netaji Indoor Stadium. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

They are currently recording their album Proloyer Shomoye, ?with feedback from eminent musicians like Neel Mukherjee, Jayanta Dasgupta, Raja Deb, Neel Adhikary and bands like Cactus and Lakkhichhara?. The content is ?youth-centric, covertly political and the sound is something that the Bangla band scene in West Bengal is yet to witness?, feels the band.

Reputed session player Sanjay Gupta and eminent sound engineers are working on the album, being recorded at Dream Digital Studios. The album is slated to mastered by an Australian engineer who has worked for the likes of Deep Purple and Metallica. The songs are protest oriented, often inspired by experiences of the band members, including one about the Sector V BPO boom bane. The intention ? ?jagao shei sangrami ke?, adds Rahul.