Page 32 - EW JULY PDF

Young Achievers

Currently Dozen Spurring Tales (price: Rs.99)
focused on hold- was finally released on April 11, 2019
ing workshops for at Prelude Public School thanks to
underprivileged girl Dr. Gupta. With such an encouraging
children in partner- management, I believe this school
ship with ‘Ami- deserves to be ranked Agra #1 in the
tasha’, a women- EW India School Rankings,” says
centric initiative of Akshar’s father Shabd.
the Amity Group, The Mishras chose to move from
Team Udaan has the maximum city Mumbai in 2008
ambitious plans to Agra’s Dayalbagh Ashram where
for the future. “We “life is all about purity, commitment,
intend to introduce dedication, hard work, honesty &
L-R: Prisha, Anupriya & Vanalika our product in the simplicity”. This enabled Akshar to
market and make devote a lot of time to reading and
it accessible in the writing. When Covid hit India and
TEAM UDAAN remotest corners of the country. the world went online, Akshar hand
Once this is achieved, our prime goal
wrote his second book which was
is to transform our company into edited and proof-read by his senior
eam Udaan comprising Prisha a women-centric innovation hub school English teacher Ranjana
Dubey, Anupriya Nayak and that not only facilitates healthcare Gupta.
TVanalika Konwar — all class through tech, but also raises social To transform into a novelist,
XII students of Amity International awareness around key issues,” says young Akshar practices time man-
School, Saket, New Delhi — was Vanalika. agement. “I make sure I read for two
adjudged winner of the inaugural Wind beneath your wings! hours every day after completing
Corporate Social Responsibility Pro- Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru) my homework. But I also make time
gram of Samsung (India) — Solve for sports and games and I’m in the
for Tomorrow (SFT) 2022 National school football team. The advantage
Innovation Competition, for devel- I have is that I don’t have distrac-
oping an eco-friendly, affordable AKSHAR MISHRA tions like television or digital gizmos.
and washable sanitary pad. At the So I have plenty of time for writing,”
grand finale staged in Andaz Hotel says this disciplined young author.
in New Delhi last November, the class IX student of Prelude Aspiring to study computer
Top 3 teams received a grant of Rs.1 Public School, Agra, Akshar science after completing class XII,
crore and a six-month incubation A Mishra is the latest teen to Akshar wants to become a social
for their project at IIT-Delhi. On join India’s league of young novel- entrepreneur which will provide him
March 30, the team incorporated ists. On April 8, this 14-year-old’s “plenty of material” to continue writ-
Menstrumate Pvt. Ltd. second novel The World of Magic ing on the side.
An initiative of technology Powers (Himanshu Publications) Autar Nehru (Delhi)
conglomerate Samsung (India), was released at Prelude School
SFT 2022 attracted participation of jointly by Dr. Prateep Philip (former
18,000 students in the 16-22 years DGP, Tamil Nadu & author), Salim
age group who showcased their cre- Arif (writer and theatre director) and
ative and innovative skills to solve Girija Shankar (senior journalist-
real-world problems. The Top 10 author). This is the young writer’s
teams qualified for the finals after second novel after Dozen Spurring
six months of rigorous training and Tales (2019) which has thus far sold
mentoring by experts from Sam- 1,500 copies, the proceeds of which
sung and knowledge partner Foun- have gone to a local cancer charity.
dation for Innovation and Technol- Inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry
ogy Transfer (FITT), IIT-Delhi. Potter series, the novels are a pot-
The winning team attributes a pourri of fantasy and sci-fi.
large part of their achievement to “Akshar’s class teacher Pooja
school support. “We are immensely mam identified his writing skills in
grateful to Vice Principal Dr. Alka early age and took on the responsi-
Saxena without whose support bility of editing 12 of his best stories
we would never have been able to for inclusion in his first novel. When
complete the project. We did the the teacher made a mention of Ak-
initial research in the Atal Tinkering shar’s talent during a conversation
Lab of our school, and our teachers with the school’s Director-Principal
helped us develop a preliminary Dr. Sushil Gupta, he read the manu-
business model,” says Team Udaan script and instantly approached
spokesperson Vanalika. a Delhi-based publisher he knew.

32 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2023