Ms. Mallika Gupta of class XI-I, Delhi Public School, R.K.Puram, won the grand first prize at the ‘Max Life Insurance, I-genius young authors hunt’ conducted between the months of March and September, 2013. The competition consisted of three rounds, with 55,000 applicants participating from all over the country. The jury consisted of acclaimed authors Ruskin Bond, Chetan Bhagat and publishers from Red Turtle, Rupa publications. The judgement was announced on 14 November and the prize distribution was held on 17 December at the Taj Mansingh with a large media and celebrity attendance.
Her story is one of the 50 to be published into a book titled “A twist in the tale” published by Rupa publications and she was presented a “KINDLE E-book reader”. This book has an online version, audio version and a Braille version. It was also be printed in segments in the ‘Times of India’ for the next 52 weeks and read out by acclaimed radio jockeys on 92.7 BIG F.M. over the next 10 weeks. Animated teasers of the stories were uploaded onto popular channel YouTube to garner attention. All royalties of the book will be given to charities by Max Life Insurance.