Words matter.
And, a Jamshedpur schoolboy from Bihar-Jharkhand region, who stood a national third at an ICSE competition, proved they do by quoting Barack Obama's speech.
US President Obama's now-famous speech, "Don't tell me words don't matter..." had been delivered when he was a young senator. Shubham Swaraj from Jamshedpur won the second runner up title by repeating them.
The 19th national declamation competition of ICSE schools in senior category, held at Bishop Westcott Girls' Schools in Namkum, Ranchi, on Friday, saw the enactment of many more speeches.
Opportunity is a capriciously lady, who knocks once and moves on quickly if the door doesn't open quickly.
So said legend Helen Keller at the Lions Club International Convention in Ohio, US, in 1925.
On Friday, 90 years later, another student repeated her immortal words. "Dear Lions and Ladies, I suppose you have heard the legend that represents opportunity as a capricious lady, who knocks at every door but once, and if the door isn't opened quickly, she passes on, never to return..."
Ayushi Agarwal from Andhra Pradesh-Telangana region won the best speaker award at the event.
Riya Sharma from Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra-Goa region became the first runner up with British actress Emma Watson's speech on gender equality at the UN in 2014. Watson, as the UN women goodwill ambassador had said at a special event for the "HeForShe" campaign, "Gender equality is your issue too..."
Declamation competition is all about performing a speech that has previously been delivered in public with an introduction by the contestants.
Eleven higher secondary students from as many regions of the country vied for the best speaker's title at the declamation competition organised by Ranchi zone of Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate (ASISC).
Martin Luther King Jr, Malala Yousafzai, General Douglas MacArthur, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Hillary Clinton were other favourites among the children.
The national declamation competition in junior category, open for Class VI-X, was also held simultaneously at the adjacent Bishop Westcott Boys' School.
