Picture this: a mother hurriedly whispers advice to her nervous 9-year-old daughter as they walk past a Class 10 boy memorising words from a piece of paper clutched in trembling hands. Nearby, another boy, not more than 8 years old, anxiously looks around. But within minutes, as the three step onto the stage, the nervousness disappears. Instead, under a bright yellow spotlight, they appear to be well seasoned performers talking about everything from the climate and free speech to the necessity of kindness in society.
On Wednesday, 24 students between the ages of 9 to 17 from across the country — finalists shortlisted from hundreds of entries — performed at the first edition of HT The Next Voice, a storytelling, poetry recital, and spoken word competition, for school students from Classes 3 to 12, at Vasant Vihar’s Modern School.
From 9:30 am, students performed in the three categories on a variety of themes, including “kindness matters”, “the right to learn”, “environmental pollution”, and “road safety”. They were divided up into three groups – Classes 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Each of the categories in each class group had three participants competing for first place.
The youngest group competed only in the storytelling and poetry categories on the theme of kindness. 9-year-old Reyana Agarwal from Springdales School, Delhi, won in the poetry recitation category with her poem titled “Be kind to every kind.”
Talking about her poem — on wanting to pluck a flower and pick up a puppy, but choosing not to do so, knowing the pain it would cause the plant and the dog’s mother — she said, “I wanted people to think about being kind to everyone, and not just humans. I think performing poetry is important so that people can understand this.”
Fourteen-year-old Vedanshi Kartik from Mumbai’s Hiranandani Foundation Schoolswon in the category from the student group of Classes 6-8. She treated the audience to a recital of American poet Carl Sandburg’s “I am the people, the mob.”
Kartik said she had chosen the poem because she felt it had a meaningful and topical lesson. “It is one person calling people to unite, to not forget the injustices they have faced, and to fight for freedom of speech. I thought that it is significant historically and important for today’s times as well.”
From the same group, Sohana Sawhney from Springdales won in the spoken word contest, where all three contestants argued passionately for the right to learn and against denying children education or allowing gender norms to dictate what they learn.
“I thought that it would be a unique topic, but turns out everyone else also thought the same,” laughed Abdija Singha (11), a class 6 student from Dwarka’s Venkateshwar International School, who came in third place. “I didn’t win, but I am still happy. It was a great opportunity to perform on such a big platform, and I feel motivated to participate in more such events.”
The oldest group of students saw many more self-composed pieces. In her turn, 17-year-old Tara Maithili Mishra combined humour with dystopia to build a world where children take a field trip to a “clean air museum” and see rare sights, such as a painting of clear skies and a free oxygen breathing booth.
“I was inspired by the science-fiction genre and my own experiences growing up in Delhi and Gurgaon, where we already have annual pollution breaks from school, and dirty air has become so normalised,” said the Class 12 student from Gurugram’s Heritage International Xperiential School.
The winner from the group’s poetry category, class 10 student Asmi Bhardwaj (15), from Sri Venkateshwar International School, called for a more inclusive society. Her poem “Two sides of a coin” was on the theme right to learn.
“When we go around the city, we see peddlers on the road, with their children next to them. Do these children not have the right to learn, and the right to dream? I was very nervous before I performed, but it was important as through this art form, you can send someone a message, which is good to do,” she said.
After a long day of competitions, the day ended with cash prizes for all 24 finalists, ranging from ₹25,000 for third place to ₹75,000 for first place.“It is actually our wedding anniversary today, but we have been focused only on this,” said Akriti Bansal, a mother. Her daughter, 9-year-old Rukmini Devi Public school student Mannat Bansal, was the winner in the storytelling category from the youngest group. “Many people helped us a lot – her cousins who sent the materials to make the props, and her teacher Manju Yadav, who helped with the story. We feel that our daughter has given us the best anniversary gift possible.”