Over 3000 children participate in Ramayan Contest
June 5th, 2006
Scanned copy of India West coverage of KBRE results announcement
Ramayan Contest Draws 3,000 Kids, Winners Announced
June 5th, 2006Ramayan Contest Draws 3,000 Kids, Winners Announce— in India Journal
By A STAFF REPORTER
LOS ANGELES, CA - More than 3000 children between ages 5 and 15 years, from 30 states, participated in the “Kaun Banega Ramayan Expert†contest which concluded May 28. The contest was a national effort focused on creating and maintaining awareness in children about Ramayan. The life of Lord Rama, as told in Ramayan, teaches timeless values all-important for the children to understand and internalize. Children of all ages proved that they were up to the challenge of the KRBE contest, a fun and educational experience, but also a nostalgic one for many of the parents and older family members. The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh which held the contest announced the results on May 28:
In the youngest age group (ages 5-6) Aashna Avachat of Cupertino achieved the first place. She is the daughter of Abhay and Archana Avachat and is in first grade. Aashna says “I like how Rama saved Sita from Ravana, I also like how Hanuman carried the whole mountain in his handsâ€. She attends Cupertino branch of HSS Balagokulam. Second place was won by Samhita Gurrala of South Grafton, MA and Mugdha Parulekar of Cedar Grove, NJ got 3rd Place. Fourth place was a tie between Sanjeev Vinodh of Naperville, IL and Navami Manangi of West Minster, CO.
In group 2 (ages 7-9), Aditi Krishnan of Troy, MI took the first place. A second-grader, she is the daughter of Meena and Hariharan Krishnan. Closely following were Taruni Sunder of Cupertino in 2nd place, Tia Basak of Colorado Springs, CO – 3rd and Karuna Kankani of Katy, TX 4th.
Bhavya Chauhan of Natick, MA won the first place in group 3 (ages 10-12). She is in 6th grade and is the daughter of Kamal and Sunaina Chauhan. Adhitya Venkatesh (Rochester Hills, MI,), Pathik Patel (Manassas, VA), Pallavi Thota (Peoria, IL) took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.
In the oldest age group of the competition (13-15), Rajiv Velury of Newark, DE stood first. Rajiv likes the sense of duty portrayed in Ramayana. While preparing for the contest he visited University of Delaware library and found an entire shelf of epics from India. As he put it, “Going through the books on Ramayan, I realized that there is so much about this great epic that I still did not knowâ€. Other winners in this category were Sohan Rao (Cupertino, CA), Smitha Y. Mirajkar (Piscataway, NJ) and Aparna Kailasam (Colorado Springs, CO) who took the 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions respectively.
All national winners will receive trophies highlighting their significant achievements as well as cash awards. Jugal and Raj Malani of Houston are the grand sponsors of the KBRE contest. Other major donors are Hindu Temple of The Woodlands in Texas and Drs. Ramesh and Vinod Gupta of Bakersfield, CA. Due to the overwhelming response to contest and the close competition among the participants, additional trophies to candidates in each of the regions have been awarded. Please visit the contest website www.balgokulam.org/contest for details.
KBRE Results are finally here!
May 20th, 2006Contact Info. for KBRE: Madhusudhana Hebbar, madhuhebbar[at]yahoo.com, 562-453-5264 | Sharad Amin, 713-854-0633
Historic Ramayan Contest builds bridges across the generations
The stunningly successful quiz contest “Kaun Banega Ramayan Expert” (KBRE) is helping to fuel the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’s (HSS), continuing pursuit of excellence in youth leadership, Dharmic education and service to society as it continues along its ever-inclining trajectory as one of USA’s leading Hindu Youth organizations.
The numbers are in and the results of the KBRE contest were announced today. The contest, which began on the occasion of the auspicious Hindu religious festival, Makar Sankranti and ran through May 28th, had participation from more than 3000 children between ages 5 years to 15 years, from 30 states across the country. The contest, which spanned over a period of two and a half months, was a national effort focused on creating and maintaining awareness in children about Ramayan. The Life of Shri Rama, as told in Ramayan, teaches timeless values like brotherly love, devotion, sacrifice, valor and personal integrity which are very relevant in the present times.
Children of ages ranging from five years to fifteen years from across the United States came out to prove that they were
up to the challenge at the KRBE Contest. The KRBE Contest has proven to be not only a fun and educational experience, but also a nostalgic one as well, for many of the parents and older family members.
The contestants were divided in four different age groups while the contest was held in two phases, spanning over a period of two and a half months. HSS is proud to announce the results of the contest as follows:
National Winners
In the youngest age group (ages 5-6) Aashna Avachat of Cupertino, CA has achieved the first place. She is the daughter of Abhay and Archana Avachat and is studying in first grade. Aashna says “I like how Rama saved Sita from Ravana, I also like how Hanuman carried the whole mountain in his hands”. She attends Cupertino branch of HSS Balagokulam. Other winners in this category are Samhita Gurrala of South Grafton, MA (2nd place), Mugdha Parulekar of Cedar Grove, NJ, (3rd Place). Fourth place was shared between Sanjeev Vinodh of Naperville, IL and Navami Manangi of West Minster, CO
In the group 2 (ages 7-8-9), Aditi Krishnan of Troy, MI took the first place. She is in grade 2 and is the daughter of Meena and Hariharan Krishnan. As the proud parents put it, “ Aditii’s grand father first read her the Ramayan story when she was 6 years old. He is visiting us right now and tells us that aditi was always amazed by the powers of Hanuman”. Competition was very intense in this age group. Closely following Aditi Krishnan is Taruni Sunder (Cupertino, CA) – 2nd prize, Tia Basak of Colorado Springs, CO –3rd Place. Karuna Kankani of Katy, TX took the 4th place.
Bhavya Chauhan of Natick, MA wins the first place in group 3 (ages 10-11-12). She is in 6th Grade and is the daughter of Kamal and Sunaina Chauhan. As Sunaina ji put it, “We participated in the contest after coming to know of it through one of the websites. Bhavya is always fond of Ramayan story and she knows the dialogues by heart”. Adhitya Venkatesh (of Rochester Hills, MI,), Pathik Patel (Manassas, VA), Pallavi Thota (Peoria, IL) took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.
In the oldest age group of the competition (13-14-15), Rajiv Velury of Newark, DE stood first among his peers. Rajiv likes the sense of duty portrayed in Ramayana and while preparing for the contest he visited University of Delaware library and found an entire shelf dedicated to epics from India (Ramayan and Mahabharat). As he put it, “Going through the books on Ramayan, I realized that there is so much about this great epic that I still did not know”. Other winners in this category are Sohan Rao (Cupertino, CA), Smitha Y Mirajkar (Piscataway, NJ) and Aparna Kailasam (Colorado Springs, CO) and they took the 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions respectively.
The first prize winner in each category will get a cash prize of more than $1100 in cash. Prizes for the second prize would $826, third prize $551 and $275 for the fourth prize respectively. All the national winners will also receive a Trophy highlighting their significant achievement.
Sri Jugal and Smt Raj Malani of Houston, Texas have donated $10,000 towards the grand prize. Other major donors are Hindu Temple of Woodlands in Texas and Drs. Ramesh and Vinod Gupta of Bakersfield, CA.
Shri Mahesh Raghunandan (MN) and Shri Chinnian Jawahar (CO) were responsible for preparing the quiz for online and in-person contest respectively. As Mahesh put it “the performance of the children in both phases of the contest has been nothing short of remarkable. Almost every participant who took the on line quiz not only scored high and many of them obtained the highest grade ‘GURU’”. Shri Jawahar added, “.Performance of the children in the in-person contest has been outstanding and in every category there was very close competition”.
Due to the overwhelming response to contest and also recognizing the close competition amongst the participants, KBRE national team has decided to award additional trophies to candidates in each of the regions. Please visit the contest website www.balgokulam.org/contest to see the profiles of all the national and regional winners.
Feed back from Community and parents
According to the spokesperson, Shri Sharad Amin, the competition received an overwhelming response from the community across the USA. The hindu community across United States has generously participated in the contest by sponsoring additional local prizes. Another major achievement of the competition according to the organizers was the bonding it created between the children in the US and their grand parents in India. There were many occasions when the volunteers of KBRE team were told about the midnight phone calls from USA to India by children wanting to discuss the Ramayan story with their grand parents! It is clear that one generation is to avoid dropping the religious and cultural treasure passed down to them, then they have to build bridges across the span of years and across the geographical boundaries and this case many grandparents helped build such bridges.
KBRE team has expressed satisfaction that through this competition, it was able to generate interest in the epics of India in the younger generation of Indian American parents and children. The KBRE team solicited feedback from the volunteers and parents through out the competition. Most interesting of the feedback was that in many cases it was the children who pushed their parents to register for the contest. Mugdha’s parents mentioned “she would get up early in the morning to study Ramayan by herself”. Like many other parents, major motivation for the parents was that, the contest is an opportunity to introduce the culture and history of Hindu Dharma through Ramayana to the children. In the process many parents realized other benefits, as Sandhya and Sunil Alankar of Milpitas CA, mentioned “our daughter started talking with her grandparent more about the Ramayan story and thereby strengthening the bond between them”.
The KBRE team hopes to keep the interest in Ramayan and other epics through contests like this and other innovative programs. Already many parents have asked the KBRE team to have the Ramayan contest every year. As Krishnamurthy (CO) put it, “when we started out some time last year, we had hopes that this would be successful. After going through the contest now, it seems that we should have had higher expectations and worked for it”. Girish Pambhar (IL), who was looking after the KBRE related matters in the mid-west, said, “We have been able to reach so many towns and cities in the Midwest where there is significant Hindu population, but no organized activity for children to teach about Hindu Dharma and Culture. These parents have welcomed the KBRE team and appreciated the contest ”.
This unique program that has brought many of American-Hindu families together and taught our epics to them was organized by Balagokulam, a project of HSS, a non-profit cultural organization whose nearly 100 branches throughout the country strives to promote Hindu Dharma. The competition was conducted by Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (“HSS”) on the occasion of birth centenary of Shri Guruji (M.S. Golwalkar).
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who kept it real by submitting entries and making this contest a great success! “The real heroes of this extremely successful contest were all the volunteers, community residents, organizations and businesses who helped with their time, effort and support to help make this contest and terrific success!
For more information about HSS, visit www.hssus.org or call Khanderao Kand at 408-737-7930. For information about the Balagokulam magazine, please visit www.balagokulam.org