Online classes are in full swing in most of the colleges and universities while the rest are struggling with bad network connections. But what about the extra-curricular activities? It is now a proven fact that books and lectures alone are not enough for a student. Given the present circumstances, it is not easy to organise co-curricular activities but the Students' Federation of India's (SFI) Pondicherry University unit is organising events for the students amid the lockdown through online platforms. The latest being a bottle art contest. If you are a student of Pondicherry University (PU) and you are interested in bottle art, all you need to do is paint the bottle take a well-lit picture of the bottle and send it to the coordinator with your university details.
The series of contests started with a photography competition with the theme Framed in Quarantine. "This is a time of grave crisis. It's been almost a month since most of us have come home. We thought why not try and keep the students engaged at a time like this. We plan to keep this up till the lockdown ends. We also have online live sessions which happen every day. But these events keep the students busy and lets them explore their creative abilities," said Parichay Yadav, President of the PU Student Council. Parichay is now at home in Delhi and is an integral part of the online competitions.
The photography contest was followed by a poetry fest where people had to compose a poem on Lockdown. "We have not taken it upon ourselves to just judge, we asked experts for help. For the poetry contest, we had a young poet and a veteran professor as judges," added Parichay. That's not it. They have prizes for the winners too. "The winner of the photography contest won Rs 500, the runner-up Rs 300 and the third prize was for Rs 200. Similarly, for poetry it was Rs 400, Rs 200 and Rs 100 respectively. the bottle art contest, which is still on, will see the winner take away Rs 300," said Parichay.
