June 9, 2004
Nikhila S Srinivasan
12th standard student, Holy Angels Convent, Chennai
The person who inspired me the most' was the topic for the essay competition conducted by Coca-Cola to determine which students would achieve their dream of becoming Olympic torchbearers.
Nikhila, a 16-year-old 12th standard student from Chennai, immediately sat down and wrote about the person she admires the most: astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
It was not the first time Nikhila was writing about Chawla; her first attempt at poetry was on the late astronaut. It was on poetry.com, a webs ite that encourages amateur poets, that she put in words her admiration for Chawla. The poem was titled ‘A whisper from my heart -- to Kalpana Chawla’. Though she felt her poem was "very amateurish," it was selected for an international open poetry competition and later chosen for an anthology called Eternal Portraits in the United States.
Nikhila was also chosen 'Teen of the Year' by a magazine for teenagers last year. She plans to pursue her studies in engineering, but she will never ‘stop writing.'
"I have always admired Kalpana Chawla; she's one strong woman who tried to reach the skies. Her death was a big shock to me. Two months after her death, for the first time in my life, I burst into poetry and it took me only five minutes to write a poem on her. She was so inspirational that I could only write about her in the essay competition," she said.
While sending the essay, Nikhila also sent a copy of the poem to Coca-Cola. "When I got the news that I was selected and I was the only student from Chennai, I was surprised. To be frank, I wasn't expecting it. But I must also admit that I dreamt of receiving the good news."
Now, Nikhila dreams every day of carrying the torch! But, she says, her school and friends are more excited about the event than she is. Her friends are after her to get the autographs of Rahul Dravid, Irfan Pathan and Virender Sehwag. "They primarily want the autographs of the cricketers apart from Aamir Khan and Vivek Oberoi. But cricketers have more fans than film stars. Some of my friends think Irfan Pathan is the coolest dude on earth!"
Nikhila hopes Dravid will be there in Delhi on the 10th. "I don’t know whether I would be able to say anything if I get to meet him! He is such a legendary person! More than anything else, I am excited about representing my country!"
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