Writing competition at PAU invites wordsmiths to showcase their creativity

Ludhiana, August 7, 2023: The Directorate of Students’ Welfare, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, conducted a ‘Writing Competition’ here today, calling forth wordsmiths, literary enthusiasts, storytellers and poets to come up with their creative oeuvres. Students spanning all six constituent colleges of PAU, turned up to participate in the same and give wings to their imagination, a flight to their thoughts and a voice to their emotions and sensibilities. More than a hundred students turned up at the Students’ Home and participated in more than one competition. The Creative Writing Competition called for write-ups in the Punjabi, Hindi, English, Science and Sports sections on a multitude of topics where students were free to choose any genre of writing- story, poem, essay, article etc. While the topics in the languages section varied from nature, relations, mental health, girl child, smart phone, hostel life; the Science section invited informative write-ups on topics ranging from AI in agriculture, water conservation, global warming, sustainable farming and recycling. The Sports section called for writings on topics such as role of sports in national and international integration, in personality development, in socialization etc. All in all, the students were provided a veritable feast of topics to choose from, which they enthusiastically lapped up and came forth with a cache of overflowing and powerful emotions, voicing their concerns, feelings and intelligent perspectives.

Another competition on ‘Handwriting’ in Punjabi, Hindi and English was organized on the same day. It was heartwarming to find a huge number of takers in this competition too. At a time when the 'Gen next' is busy typing on laptops and smartphones, it was a relief to see students turning up to write eloquently and beautifully.

Dr Nirmal Jaura, Director, Students’ Welfare, exclaimed that it was incredibly amazing to see students in humongous numbers participating in both the competitions. While the Creative Writing Competition would assess the literary prowess of the students, it would also provide them with an opportunity to publish their articles in the forthcoming PAU Annual Magazine, he added. Dr Jaura further stated that Handwriting is an art which needs to be cherished and promoted, especially in these electronic and digital times.

Dr Deepika Vig, Chief Editor, PAU Magazine, shared her delight in the ‘competitions turning into a celebration of talent’. Visibly impressed by the enthusiastic budding writers, she expressed satisfaction over the conduct of the events and shared that in times when ChatGPT, AI and robotic excellence are devouring the finer skills of writing, an enormous responsibility rests with the academia to promote the literary and artistic sensibilities of the youth, thus endorsing, that man still remains the finest and the wisest creation of God.

The Faculty Editors of PAU Annual Magazine – Dr Ashoo Toor, Dr Jagwinder Jodhan, Dr Rashmi Upreti, Dr Seema Garcha, Dr Preeti Sharma, Dr Sukhbir Singh and Stavir Singh helped conduct the competitions and were entrusted the duty of fair judgement after a profound ‘reading-between-the-lines’ analysis of the creative outpourings of students. The same panel would also judge the art of handwriting. The results will be published soon and the winning compositions will find a way into the forthcoming PAU Annual Magazine.