My dear Young friends,

I am indeed delighted to participate in this Award-giving function of Shankar's International Children's Competition. It is fascinating to see that the ceremony is conducted entirely by children and that too with such charm and confidence. Friends, yesterday I was in a remote village called Lekhapani in Assam. It is located in a triangular junction of Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. I participated in the Dehing Patkai Fesitval 2003 at Lekhapani, where the population was mostly young. The land was beautiful, the people were charming, their mind was beautiful. When the mind is beautiful, the young become creative. The creative minds give the best of performance and also can see the beauty of life. From there, a remote place of one of our States - I saw smiles everywhere. Smiles radiated all around. I can fit that smile with you all here. Another message I received yesterday was, there was a King from Thailand who came to Assam about 800 years ago and integrated the people, the tribes and he gave a beautiful Kingdom. He made the place the best of unity, culture and prosperity. The unity of minds, what he planted still continues and flourishes. The people ofAssam cherish him and have built an archway called the 'Sukfa Harmony Arch'. Why I am telling this is, when I see you all and what you have done, whether it is painting or writing, it is a result of creative beautiful minds. My greetings to you. I have always believed that the best and perhaps the only way that a country can progress towards full development is only if and when the younger generation, the youth, are allowed to blossom forth to their full potential. After all the future belongs to them.

I am glad to know that the competition for children in painting and writing announced through Shankar's Weekly in 1949 has grown in stature and size to become an international event with over 1,60,000 entries from over 135 countries. My congratulations to the organizers of this event and I commend the vision Shankar displayed when he started this competition 54 years ago.

Art is a benign expression of the innate beauty in nature. Be it music, dance, literary composition or any other, it elevates the beautiful spirit of life for everyone to see and enjoy. Such spirit silently but eloquently conveys the message of love, affection and peace. Competitions such as this, help in unraveling the hidden talents and exploit the latent potential in the younger generation to bring out the beauty of life in its noblest forms. Life gets on to a higher, better and more civilized plane imparting meaning and depth to human existence and justifying and vindicating the purpose for which life was evolved. What more can you ask for, what more can you look for in a strife-stricken world where eternal human values are being mercilessly trampled upon and the beauty of life lost in relentless materialistic pursuits.

Sitting here today with these young children who have excelled themselves in the filed of arts and who are conducting themselves with such confidence, determination and elegance, I can see the message that is being silently sent across to the entire world to seek peace, beauty, goodwill and happiness.

My hearty congratulations to all who won the prizes and my hearty felicitations to all those who participated in this competition. Let me hop that such ventures will continue, that such initiatives will grow into many in number so that we the elders can sit back with a note of optimism and satisfaction that at least the future generations can look forward to a world where life would sing its smooth music elevating the human soul to magnificent heights, allowing peace and harmony to prevail all over.

Best wishes to all of you.

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