KOLKATA: Tannistha Nandi, a Class X student of Indus Valley World School, has been crowned Unesco Laureate. She had participated in a global short story writing competition floated by the Unesco and the Idris Sah Foundation, and was adjudged one of the best. She is the only one from India and in her age category, the only one from Asia, too. The competition was held in April 2020 and the results were declared this month. Tannistha is thrilled that she has been recognised for something that has been her refuge in these difficult months of the pandemic.
She says despite the fact she would be writing her board exams in the next couple of months and scores around 94-95% marks in school exams, she has no career plans at all and loved to coil up with a pen and paper, writing stories.
In April 2020 she came across the Unesco World Tales competition and took part in the 14-15 year category. Her story was judged the second best, bringing her the silver medal among thousands of global participants. “It was a letter that I wrote to myself from a future self. I called it, Dear young me,” she said.
Tannistha’s parents, Rupanjana De, a company secretary and Paritosh Nandi, an entrepreneur who works with solar energy, are happy. Her school principal, Amita Prasad is very proud. “She consistently pursues her interest in creative writing and had earlier been placed ninth in a national writing competition. She is a unique child who combines academic excellence with her pursuit of the arts,” Prasad said.
