Three single parents children have been selected to go to Oman and they did it all on their own merit. The three winners comprise all the elements of 1Malaysia – Sujatha Sahadevan, 19, Suri Juliana, 16, and Robin Lee, 15 years old.
The three winners beat 13 other contenders in the essay writing and art competition centred on the topic of “Why I want to go to Oman” which was held last month.
Most of the competitors chose the easy route, preferring drawing over essay writing except for one Chinese girl who wrote her entire essay in Bahasa Malaysia and flawlessly too. The only snag was, the essay itself lacked the oomp says the two penultimate judges – Kathleen, the Oman Air sales & marketing manager and Jennifer Ann Nelson the PR for Oman Air.
According to the duo, Robin’s essay won over that of the one written in BM because of his creative style of writing and the unique focus of his essay – food. Funnily enough, Robin who isn’t anywhere near fat waxes lyrical about the kind of foods to be found in Oman and expresses an intense desire to taste all the different flavours to be found in Oman.
Suri Julianna, the second winner, impressed the judges with her manga style of drawing and her attention to detail. At her mother’s urging Juliana surfed the Internet to see what Oman had to offer and then proceeded to depict them faithfully – manga style. Compared to the entries from the other kids, hers was a class above, definitely. She was shrewd enough to also include Oman Air logo and in Jawi too!
As for Sujatha, she wrote a commendable piece on Oman’s touristy sights with a special interest on the visiting of markets also known as ‘souks’ while Mary Anne Letricia was an equally strong contender in the Indian category with her penetrative yet hugely bombastic use of words to describe Oman in general. Both were shortlisted for an interview where Kathleen would be able to finally decide on who among the two would be picked to go.
In the end, Sujatha won purely by default because Letricia did not want to make an effort to turn up for the meeting which was held at the Oman Air offices, smack in the centre of KL. The trio were asked by Kathleen to talk at length about what they’ve learnt about Oman while in the process of surfing the Internet and all three spoke confidently which made the interview very interesting.
Kathleen then informed the three that the actual flight to Oman would be postponed to January next year because the Omanis are in the process of winding down what with Hari Raya Haji, the King’s Birthday and the recently concluded Asian Games.
To all three winners, you’re de best and you’re the first of many more future pool of Oman air ambassadors that will be formed in the near future. Once again ‘Congrats’ to all winners and to those kids who did not succeed, there’s always next year to try again!
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