In yet another attempt to promote excellence in learning, The Indian School, New Delhi with Girton College, University of Cambridge sponsored an essay competition for schools of Delhi. It met with overwhelming response in the first year with 34 schools sending two students each to participate in the contest. A special feature of the contest was that 15 short listed essays are judged in Cambridge.
The themes for the essays for the initial competition were:
• Is English an Indian language?
• No nation is an island
• India a role model of multi cultural democracy?
• India and Britain : united by history, divided by politics
• “There is enough for everybody’s needs but not for everybody’s greed” – M K Gandhi
• The Last tiger.
This mission was to encourage analytical and passionate thinking alongwith creative writing and to offer a breath of freedom from rote learning. Who better than Cambridge to help in this exercise? Ranked among the top 
three Universities of the world, Cambridge traces its history back to 1209. Three of India’s prime ministers studied there – Pandit Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh apart from countless men and women who are makers of modern India.They include Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan, Dr. Swaminathan of the Green revolution. Poetess Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India, significantly was at Girton College.
Three years ago, a 17 member team of Girton College alumni had visited our school. They included distinguished educationists, lawyers, scientists and progeny of Sir Charles Darwin! The idea of sponsoring an essay competition generated from the visit. It may be pertinent to mention here that four members of the governing body of The Indian School are alumni of Cambridge University.
