Participants from La Martiniere for Boys pose with their trophy at the LN Birla Memorial debate on Friday. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

It was a pitched battle as 16 students locked horns over the topic ‘The women’s reservation bill is a threat to male dominance’, at the eastern zonal finals of the ninth inter- institutional L N Birla Memorial debate, held on July 11 at the Vidya Mandir auditorium.

A preliminary round was held the previous day and seven schools, from the participating 20, reached the finals.

With topics ranging from senile social adaptation to pan-national governance, students blended anecdotes with statistics to prove their stand.

The contest started with Ranjan Mitter of IIM Calcutta speaking about today’s youth culture, and how GeNext can participate in nation building.

Anushka Sen of Modern High School, speaking for the motion, used an analogy from Gone with the Wind. She explained how Scarlet O’Hara improved business returns after her husband failed to do so in his entrepreneurial ventures. She also spoke about the lack of opportunities given to women in a male-dominated society.

Sahana Srinivasan from the same school retorted with the example of Adam and Eve, painting a picture of equality and justice between both sexes since time immemorial. The girls from Birla High School mentioned politicians like Indira Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalitha who overcame hurdles in a male-dominated world to hold fort.

The proposed 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament was a hot topic of contention among students. Arpit Banerjee of Birla High School for Boys began with a self-composed ditty, “Kyunki beti hamari MP banegi,” going on to suggest that a pro -women’s bill politician would prioritise issues like dowry and foeticide.

Avilash Patil from La Martiniere School for Boys bagged the runners-up position while Wamika Mimani from Ashok Hall emerged the best speaker. Both the speakers have qualified for the national final, to be held towards the end of the year.

“The competition has been very tough, and as the last speaker I had doubted whether I would make an impact. I am happy that the judges liked what I had to say,” said Wamika.

La Martiniere for Boys was adjudged the best speakers.

Tanmoy Das Lala

happenings here ‘n’ there

Elocution meet

Apeejay School, Salt Lake held its annual inter-house elocution competition on July 4. The four houses, Nehru, Radhakrishnan, Gandhi and Tagore competed in the senior, intermediate and junior categories in Hindi, English and Bengali. The judges for the English elocution were Mary Ann Dasgupta, Katy Lai Roy, and Conrad Mathews.

The day began with Shovana Jana’s rendition of Lewis Carroll’s Father William. The pieces chosen by participants ranged from a Barack Obama campaign speech by Nakshatra Pyne to an extract from a Holocaust narrative by Soham Bhaduri.

The Bengali meet included poems like the hilarious Aam and Amar Akash about a poor woman. The prize for best elocutionist was won by Arken Mukherjee of Radhakrishnan with his humourous impression of an interview. Radhakrishnan house came first.

Anwesha Chattopadhyay, Milinda Sengupta,
Apeejay School

Inter-unit contest

St Augustine’s Day School, Ripon Street organised an inter-unit elocution, debate and spin-a-yarn competition at the end of June along with its Shyamnagar and Barrackpore branches. Participants were given three minutes to recite a piece of their choice in English, Hindi or Bengali. In spin-a-yarn, the students were given a topic on the spot on which they had to speak. For the debate, the subject for the senior section was “Greed is the cause of unhappiness in one’s life “ while the junior team got “Cyber cafes and cell phones are ruining young boys and girls”.

The Barrackpore branch was declared overall champions.

Ankit Kumar Baranwal
Class XII, St Augustine’s Day School

Art for nature’s sake

Participants at the Eastern India Science Drama Competition. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

Yuksum is a five and half hour journey from Gangtok. The government senior school of Yuksum doesn’t have an auditorium. The only kind of theatre youngsters get to see are street plays. Yet the students were at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum on July 10, staging their play Resurrection of a Mummy, written and directed by their biology teacher Sanjay Acharya.

Along with seven schools from Tripura, Nagaland, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa and Calcutta, they had assembled for the Eastern India Science Drama Competition, competing for a berth at the National Science Drama Festival to be held at the Nehru Science Centre in Delhi on September 16.

Resurrection of a Mummy fast forwards into a not so distant future when a mummified citizen from the year 2008 is revived by scientists. But instead of being happy at being brought to life, the mummy grieves for his complicity in harming the environment. As a result, Yuksum had lost its greenery and wildlife.

Wishing she could return to 2008 in time to safeguard the environment, the mummy climbs off the stage and into the acid rain. As she is physically with the audience, her agenda of saving the planet is transferred to the audience. The play was selected for the award for best script. The topics selected this year were science for society, climate changes and life and works of scientists.

Climatic changes and environmental disasters comprised the theme of Bipanna Bishwa from Tripura, selected as the best play. Video projections enhanced the presentations, all original productions. Papri Medhi of the O-Ho-Ho Mohoho team won the best actress award while young Anuj Kumar Meher of Chichaiguda High School in Kalahandi, Orissa won the best actor’s award for his role in Barsha Asuchi.

Theatre personality Ashok Mukhopadhyay who gave away the prizes spoke of how theatre inculcates the spirit of teamwork, and how science drama can be an instruments of spreading scientific awareness.

Sebanti Sarkar

Whatsup

Bhawanipur fest

Annual cultural show of The Bhawanipur Education Society College Enigma’08 at Kalamandir on June 17 and 18 from 6pm. The theme this year is “Techniques: Masters at work”