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 Deepika wins Wiz Kids nationals
 Deepika Easwaran, who went to Bangalore to participate in the
Horlicks Wiz Kids
National Finals, returned triumphantly to Chennai.
There were 50 contestants from 25 cities and she was among the youngest as the participants were selected from class-5 to class-12. Deepika competed in the class-5 to class-8 category.
The contestants were put through rigorous testing for four days comprising many rounds such as testing personality, behaviour, sportiveness, eagnerness to participate in sports & lead teams, cleanliness, psychometric test, quiz round, two talent rounds, speaking round, project presentation round, cultural introduction round and finally the judges' question-answer round.
"She was an island after we reached Bangalore and we were denied access to her. So Deepika was on her own from them on," narrates her father Easwaran Ram.
Deepika held out in all the rounds and won the prestigious trophy. She is now part of a four-member Horlicks Wiz Team 2006 that would represent India in a week-long cultural exchange programme in Philippines in January 2007.
A student of Chettinad Vidyashram, Deepika had to work on a project before entering the final round. The project involved promoting awareness about traffic regulations like sticking black spots on headlights of vehicles.
"Deepika was involved in the project till she boarded the train to Bangalore. We even made a short film of the project to go with the project report," says a proud
Easwaran.
The awareness and exposure the project and the trip to Bangalore generated cannot be quantified, he says. For example, Deepika was interviewed by the media after she won the finals as to what her thoughts were on curbing child labour. The young girl trotted out points over the phone, to the amazement of her parents.
When asked how she was able to hold forth on child labour, of which she must have had only vague ideas, Deepika promptly said a contestant had presented a project on child labour at the finals and that she had picked up the points from there! "The whole exercise is already paying dividends," exults
Easwaran.
Deepika's confidence and awareness levels have zoomed in the last few months due to her participation in the Wiz Kids competition, opine her parents who worked equally hard to take her to the heights she has reached.
R Chitra
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