As part of Literary Week, the
English Department organised various activities, including the Middle School
Elocution Competition and the Senior School Parliamentary Debate, both of which
were Inter-House events.
The Elocution Competition was a
great experience.
What wonderful speeches, prose
extracts and poems, with expressions and voice modulations to match!
Everybody had chosen their own
topics and each one of them had made an intelligent choice. Every piece dealt
with a social issue, ranging from freedom to racism to discrimination.
Being on stage is not everybody’s
cup of tea, is it? So there was a bit of restlessness and nervousness in the
air as well. All the pieces were very appealing but only the best could win.
The best speaker was Mehak; not
because she had been declared the best speaker by the judges, but because most
of us felt that there was that feeling in her eyes and that tone in her voice
which could change the audience’s view.
While the results were being
tabulated, one of the judges, Mr. Mowry gave us useful tips on the skills required
for a performance of this kind.
And then finally, after what to
us seemed an age, the results were announced - Air House had emerged the
winners!
The Parliamentary Debate was the other spoken
word activity of the Literary Week.
While we do keep having debates as inter-house events quite frequently,
the Parliamentary form of debate was held as an inter-house event for the first
time.
Parliamentary Debate is a form of
debate that we are used to seeing on TV, especially when the Parliament
sessions are on, or in political gatherings. However, the one we had in school
was a much more civilized version. Two topics were debated on – both very
relevant in the Indian context today.
‘Hindi, rather than English
should be the language of instruction in schools’ and ‘Word Processors should
be allowed in all school examinations’ were the two motions. Fire and Water
debated on the first motion and Earth and Air debated on the second.
The ‘Government’ proposed and
defended the motion whereas the ‘Opposition’ refuted and negated the motion.
With both topics having equal amounts of pros and cons, the debate, as a whole,
was extremely intense with strong rebuttals and confident speaking.
Air house were the winners of
this event, too. The decision to declare Air House the winner was absolutely
spot-on, as they had very strong rebuttals for their topic. The standout
speakers were Tavishi and Advitya as they were the ones most confident about
their topic.
We are looking forward to another
round of these activities – SOON!
