School Days Memories: Part 4 : Congratulations, you have won a prize

 

What a thrill that used to be.. reading that a competition I entered had won a prize.. Trying to recall the very first competion sometime back in year '87 or so. I remembered the folder of magazine clippings that I have here, and checked.

However, I could not trace that particular first clipping.. maybe it's in some other file..it was in the magazine 'The Weekly Sun', one of my absolute favourites(I wish they would restart publication)... it was a pic of Rekha from the song'In Aankhon ki masti mein'...we had to guess the song and the movie (Umraao Jaan).

That delight on winning the prize in a draw of lots - for the first time - it's unimaginable .. a real mood-booster it was. And, then, there was no looking back.. Sun used to have a number of such competitions . One was 'Spot The Ball'... a pic from a cricket field scene, and, we had to guess where the (hidden) ball was. The most accurate guess would win.

The next one, as per my list was an article for 'Crosscurrents'.. this was a monthly feature on Radio Japan, and, each winner they picked, would get a mini solar powered casio calculator. What a thrill that was - a product that was not available otherwise in India in those days, not even at 'custom notified shops'.. what a thrill that was.. when it arrived, it was an object of pride to display in school, and to family and friends. Subsequently, this prize was won six more times.. the last one, the customs people became suspicious and refused to send it, stating that I was importing them for commercial purposes. ahahaha.

The other big prize was two dynavox Zippo mono cassette players.. both from an audio magazine called 'Playback and Fast Forward' (went off the stands after a couple of years, due to competition).. both used to invite Letters To Editors, based on their monthly magazine issues.

Besides this, there were prizes of loads of audio cassettes, video cassettes, books, cheques, posters, cash (i.e. cheques in the mail).,... and so on.. another super prize was from Upbeat magazine- a Mural on tiles.. I remember it was a lovely light blue background one . Sending these in Mom's name(Bless her soul), also won quite a few prizes. Or, I would write my name once, and Amit Kumar, the next month, since I felt that mags don't award prizes in consecutive months to the same person. (But, Filmfare proved me wrong- post on that later)

Over the years most of these prizes withered away, the cassettes became outdated when CDs and DVDs came in.

But, just the thought of seeing my letter getting selected for a prize, or, a contest entry winning, would be a real thrill.. the prize itself was like an added bonus.

A blessed life, indeed, right from the beginning.