BENGALURU: Over 5,000 school children from across the state penned quirky, realistic as well as imaginary responses to the post office on steps needed to make roads across the world safer for children. It was a moment of joy for parents and teachers when those who penned the best three letters were awarded by Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot along with the award winners of Karnapex 2024.
The four-day festival of stamps concluded on a successful note on Monday with over a lakh footfalls witnessed.
The theme of the annual letter-writing competition for 2023 was `Imagine you are a superhero and your mission is to make all the roads safer for children’ with the winners awarded on Monday.
Class X student of St Joseph’s Central School at Vijayanagar in Mysuru, Asfiya Samreen, won an international award for her letter as well as the first prize at the state level which carried a cash prize of Rs 25,000. Her schoolmate A Kushi won the third prize at the state level, while KR Ankitha KR from Vidya Niketan Public School at Ullal in Bengaluru bagged the second prize. All the awards are instituted by the Universal Postal Union in partnership with the UN Road Safety Fund. A special prize was awarded to Jaagruthi Nithin Adka, a 2nd PUC student of St Aloysius PU College in Mangaluru, who designed the logo of Karnapex.
Afsiya told TNIE, “Our English teacher Poornesh goaded many of us to take part in the competition. I never dreamt I would win it. I wrote that all children must be conscious they are on the road and stay safe. I am a voracious reader and love mystery books.”
Ankita said, “I addressed my letter to a forest witch. The public need to drink potions of a tonic which is a mixture of many elements which would make them safe on the roads.”
Karnapex 2024 winners are: Champion Class Winner -- Saket Bajaj, eight philatelists who bagged gold awards were Manjunath Sadanand, M Ramachandran, Lokeswara Rao Madiraju, Pradeep Rangappa, Jayprakash Sards, Sushil Mehra, Maheswari Ramachandran and Gauresh Mehra. Earlier, the Governor in his address hailed India Post as the world’s biggest postal network and congratulated all postal staff for the success of Karnapex 2024.
ONE LAKH VISITED KARNAPEX: CPMG
Chief Postmaster General, Karnataka Circle, S Rajendra Kumar, said, “It (Karnapex) was a successful event with over one lakh visitors. The two postal stalls dealing with all items related to philately had a business of Rs 12 lakh.” The ‘Pop-up’ post office (temporary one resembling an actual PO) was a delight among children with many writing letters either to themselves or to their friends, he said. “We sorted the letters and will deliver them to the given addresses,” he added. The expo had 719 frames with 16 exhibits in each frame. The topics covered included FIFA World Cups, yoga, culture, prominent personalities and the Himalayas.