Oxford Bookstore and Reader’s Digest present Inditickles to mark the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence

Media News

Kolkata, June 18

Oxford Bookstore and Reader’s Digest launched an online limerick contest on the occasion of the of the approaching 60th anniversary of Indian Independence. The limerick contest has been jointly organised with Newsmericks, a popular, upcoming blog that presents topical news, events and views in limerick form. Limerick is a light or humorous verse, made up of five lines of which 1,2 & 5 are of three feet (9 syllables) and lines 3 & 4 are of two feet (6 syllables), with a rhyme scheme of aabba. Given the style and form, limericks also lend themselves well to lampooning and satire.

We're celebrating the last 60 years

Of India's independence, my dears,

Thru' a limerick contest,

So please send in your best.

The topic - 'News-makers down the years'!

The contest requires the participants to write a limerick on any incident/event/personality in India that made news or was popular in its time in the past 60 years of independence. The Newsmakers could be people/events from:

Politics

Business

Sports

Environment, Science &Technology

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Health and Lifestyle

People and Society

It could also be any global event that moved India, breakthrough discoveries, areas of human progress such as moon landing, conquest of Everest – any event that is or has been topical through these last 60 years.

The contest which has been launched online at www.oxfordbookstore.com will run till July 15, 2007. Each participant is allowed to send in a maximum of five limericks for the contest. The winners, to be decided by a team of experts, will be announced online at www.oxfordbookstore.com on August 9, 2007.

Participants can send their limericks online to oxfordmail@apeejaygroup.com or SMS the limericks to Oxford Bookstore. They have to type OBSQ – give space – write the limerick and SMS to 6365.

In addition to Oxford Bookstore giving away prizes to the three best entries, Reader’s Digest will select the most creative and delightful limericks and publish the poems in the August issue of the magazine. Newsmericks will give a special award to one of the entries based on their evaluation. The short listed entries will be published as an e-book and available as a free download at www.oxfordbookstore.com.

The contest was preceeded by an introductory Limerick workshop that was organised by Ms Aparna Roy of Newsmericks at Oxford Bookstore Kolkata on June 16, 2007.

Speaking about the launch of the online limerick contest, Mr Rajiv Chowdhry, Chief Executive Officer, Apeejay Oxford Bookstores Private Limited, said, “We at Oxford Bookstore always appreciate and value good literary practices. We believe in making these literary practices enjoyable for one and all. The online limerick contest - first of its kind – is a wonderful way of making this happen. The time could not have been better as we celebrate 60 years of Indian Independence through the online limerick contest.”

Mr Mohan Sivanand, the editor of Reader’s Digest, summed up the initiative, “Reader's Digest is committed to good writing - not just in journalism, but in humour too. And Oxford Bookstore’s online limerick contest is an admirable way to encourage people to write in this genre.”

For further information, please contact:

Mamta Kalra, Perfect Relations

Phone: 033 2283 3650-52

GSM: 91 98301 35916

email: mkalra@perfectrelations.com

Satarupa Ray, Oxford Bookstore

Phone: 033 2229 5455 Ext: 301

Email: sataruparay@apeejaygroup.com