To celebrate our sacred symbols and incredible linguistic diversity, Hindu Parenting conducted the International Bindi and Tilak Contest in October 2024 as part of International Bindi and Tilak Day celebrated on 15th October every year. We received entries in 11 languages from children, women and men of all ages on the theme “My Bindi, My Pride” and “My Tilak, My Pride”. The entries were evaluated and prizes declared on 15th October. We then sourced authentic Kumkum and Chandan to send to all the prizewinners along with exquisite traditional lamps from Veena Murali Decors. We made sure that the contest winners received the lamps (along with pure Chandan and kumkum packets) by Deepavali! We also asked the prizewinners to record their poems in their own voice, which we then made into little videos with music. This was the first contest with prizes from Hindu Parenting and it took a staggering amount of effort for our small team of two, to get everything done meticulously and perfectly. Here are some pictures shared by the delighted prizewinners. We received many lovely entries in Sanskrit, but the best one was by Sreevidhya Chillara. Here are pictures and an audio of the poem recited by the winner herself, which we set to music with visuals. Listen to the divine verse in Sanskrit, the mother of all languages!
 The beautiful language of Dogri got its prizewinning entry from Neha Sharma!
Neha recited her poem and also made this little video. Listen and see how Dogri sounds!  Here is the prizewinning entry in Malayalam, and the winner Shiji Maroli not only composed and set her poem to music but also sang it in her sweet voice. We put in the visuals and made the video. Listen and enjoy!
 Hindi had many entries, and here is the winner, Ankita Priyadarshini, reciting the poem. Thank you Ankita, for placing the lamps in your beautiful puja space on Deepavali!
We put her recitation together with music and visuals to make a short video!  From Mayurbhanj, Odisha, an enthusiastic young college student gets the first prize! Listen to the recording of her Odiya poem in her own voice.
 Don’t miss the fire in the Marathi entry and voice by Shrikrishna Umrikar who won the first prize in the Marathi category!  Moving on to the first prize winner in the Tamil category, here is Mahalakshmi Radhakrishnan, whose voice you can hear in this little gem of a recording, set to visuals by us!
 From Karnataka, we have Sai Rama - first prize in the Kannada category!
 Conducting the Bindi Tilak Contest was a superhuman effort but it was very satisfying to see the impact it had and the happy smiles of the winners & participants. The English category had many entries. There were entries in Sanskrit, Hindi and English from 10 - 15 year old children too. Any other languages (like Telugu) missing in this post will be featured on our social media pages (Instagram, X, Facebook and Telegram) as soon as we hear back from the winners. Sending a note of appreciation for the prizewinners who shared pictures and sent us verse readings in their voices. Our gratitude to the sponsor (who wishes to remain anonymous) for taking care of the expense of sourcing, buying and shipping the prizes. Thank you, Veena Murali for the gorgeous lamps and thanks to everyone for the enthusiastic response. We hope to do more dharma-based contests in future! Note: Please follow us on Twitter (X), Instagram or any social media platform of your choice. Our podcasts (The Hindu Parenting Podcast) can be heard on Spotify, YouTube, Apple and Google Podcasts too. Please support us by signing up for our newsletters on Substack and if possible, upgrading to a paid subscription. You're currently a free subscriber to Hindu Parenting. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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