Pune girl crowned as Teen of the Year 2009

15-year-old Shruti Caroline Gogia from Pune was adjudged the 14^th TEEN OF THE YEAR for 2009 at a glittering ceremony held on Sunday morning at St. Andrews Auditorium, Bandra. To the question posed by one of the judges, "What two qualities of Indianness do you think we need to work on?" Shruti quick wittedly answered:  "I think firstly we need a lot of patience as many in our country are impatient. Secondly we need to work on our intolerance. We need to work together and be one with those who we work with."  At the grand finale, Bhavna Morwani (Jaipur) and Geet Rathi Naresh (Surat) were crowned 1^st Runner Up and 2^nd Runner Up respectively. The event was judged by Avantika Akerkar, Sophy Sivaraman and Jamshed Mistry.

The event saw five participants from the seventeen youngsters, all attired in Indian traditional wear, display their talents which ranged from a Indian classical music to miming and ragging. Prior to the final event on Sunday, the 17 participants who converged at Mumbai from various parts of the country after several zonal rounds were put through a grueling round of group dynamics, workshop on dance and other activities since they arrived on the morning of 4^th November. These early activities conducted at the zonal and at the finals are an integral part of TEEN OF THE YEAR, wherein qualified and experienced facilitators are brought in to conduct these grooming sessions which then becomes an assessment of each participant where in points are given based on these activities that foster team work and leadership. As part of TEEN OF THE YEAR 2009 participants were asked to submit a community project which would be done during the course of the year by them. The Best Community Project Award was awarded to Puneites Shruti Gogia and Tanya Pinto. Three other awards were also given to the Most Popular Participant which was won by Mumbaiite Siddharth Rawal, Most Talented Participant won by Darshan Vohra from Vapi and the Most Enterprising Participant went to Sagar Gupta of Jaipur.

The grand finale also saw a performance by internationally acclaimed Bharatnatyam dancer Shri Vaibhav Arekar and his troupe who captivated the audience with their smart moves and energetic dancing. Though the theme for this year's event was spelt out loud and clear, 'Preserving Indianness in a Global India',  No Strings Attached an a capella group headed by Ryan D'souza and a talented bunch of youngsters gave an electrifying performance in classic a capella style, to the amazement of the audience and participants who screamed for more. Compere Maheysh A Tamhaney brought his quirky humor in many ways during the event.

Speaking at the event, the Guest of Honour, film director, writer and painter Amol Gupte (of Taare Zameen Par fame) stated: "Such platforms really bring out the hidden talents of youngsters and lets us be proud of our Indianness", while Dr Devdutt Pattanaik, renowned author and mythologist who was the Chief Guest, gave a soul-stirring speech on 'Indianness' using the symbolism of rangoli. He said that "each one's rangoli is different as each of us is unique. Rangoli is a symbol of our life. We should never compare our life with that of another.  No one gains victory over the other by defeating the other, but by conquering one's own self".

All in all, TEEN OF THE YEAR 2009 organized by The Teenager magazine, India's only TeenZine, was an absolutely stunning and unforgettable event that celebrated Indian unity, diversity and music.