Young and Promising! An artist at the tender age of 11 ! Bagged 2nd prize at the National Energy Conservation Painting Competition held at Delhi in 2011 and ever since has never looked back.
Ritanjali Hastir, Associate Editor, Apr, Shimla
Proving Stephen R. Covey, a best- seller author’s words correct; “Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change”; Tandrima Chakraborty, a young artist made her parents and school proud but nevertheless even made the entire Himachal proud through exhibiting her paining talent during the National Energy Conservation Painting Competition held at Delhi in 2011 by bagging second prizes at tender age of 11.
Born and brought up in Shimla, Tandrima has not taken up any professional assistance accept for the one provided in school and while sharing her experience she says, “Through my school art teacher I came to know about the competition and it was only through her encouragement along with that of my parents, that I think I have been able to achieve such a big honour. However, before the national level competition, for 2 – 3 days I did visit Him Chatterjee to seek some guidance.”
“Initially when I participated at the school level, I never thought about the end results but now, after having been honoured by Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of India, I do think if there is a next level, that is – if this competition was carried forward on the international level too, then I, would have definitely made a mark with my talent there too and made not only the state but the entire nation proud,” feels Tandrima.
Reflecting back on one of her life’s biggest achievements she informs, “SJVN Limited had organized a state level painting competition “National Awareness Campaign on Energy Conservation – 2011” under the aegis of Ministry of Power, Govt. of India and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Government of India at Raj Bhawan, Shimla on November 14 where I bagged second prize after competing against 70,309 students from 2,495 schools from all over Himachal Pradesh.”
“They were requested to send two best entries. From school level competition 2,880 paintings were received at state level and of these 50 best paintings were selected for competition at the state level. These best 50 participants were invited to participate in state level finals where, I again got the second prize”, she added.
“Sometime when people acknowledge me as an artist it really makes me surprised as well as proud as my views and opinion as artist are respected. Though I have now enrolled in Medical stream at Dayanand Public School, but still I feel that the artist within me will never die and creativity will always finds its way.
Tandrima, apart from painting likes to watch thriller stories. She also has a keen interest in dancing and whenever she gets free time she likes to spend it by making some creative art and craft. She is a frequent visitor to all the art and craft exhibitions organized at Gaiety as she says, “By looking at the work of other artists I learn a lot. Many of the artists even fascinate me and at times I capture their creativity through my camera so that I can keep them for my personal future reference.
Taposi and Jai Dev Chakraborty, parents of Tandrima while celebrating the success of their daughter says, “We are really proud of her as at such a tender age she has achieved a lot though her talent and though we want her to become a doctor but in case she would like to become a professional artist, we will definitely support her but however before that at least her basic qualification should be complete.”
