School students turn poets, storytellers for social change

Picture this: a mother hurriedly whispers advice to her nervous 9-year-old daughter as they walk pasta boy memorising words from a piece of paper clutched in his hands.

- Aaditya Khatwani

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 are 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 India —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 students from classes 3 to 12, at Vasant Vihar’s Modern School.

From 9.30am, students performed 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.

The youngest group competed only in the storytelling and poetry categories on the theme of kindness. Nine-year-old Reyana Agarwal from Springdales School, Delhi, won in the poetry recitation category with her poem titled “Be kind to every kind.”