London calling

Updated on: Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Six high school students from Delhi Public School (DPS) Megacity, Kolkata are all set to visit London and participate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2010, a two-day event of high-level, thought-provoking debate organized by the Institute of Ideas and hosted by the Royal College of Art, London on October 30-31.

Having competed with 360 schools that had registered for the competition’s (Debating Matters India) second edition, they were declared the India champions from a total of eight schools at the National Finals in New Delhi earlier this year. Abhisek Ghosh, Devvart Poddar, Sounak Sasmal, Akash Goenka, Rohit Mukerji and Kushagra Agarwal are among the ones who will be battling it out with the Debating Matters UK champions over an exhibition debate at the festival.

In a brief interaction with the media at the British Council on July 15, the students along with their parents and school principal spoke about the highs and lows of the journey so far.

Debanjan Chakrabarti, Head Inter-Cultural Dialogue Project (India) expressed his happiness about the finalists being from Kolkata, “This is the place that saw the genesis of the Argumentative Indian (referring to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen).

He added, “Debating Matters India is unlike any other form of debating. An extremely attritional form of debate, here the participants are required to engage with the opposition. It is not just about glib public speaking.”

Lauding the spirit of the boys, he revealed, “Not once did they come up for issues like exams or classes.”

Indrani Sanyal, principal, DPS Megacity, appearing visibly pleased, responded, “I think we are able to do that because we truly believe in holistic education” The contestants, four of them debating for the first time ever, and you thought, they must be a bundle of nerves, far from it.

Here is what they had to say.

Abhishek Ghosh, answering a question on how to keep the cool in the face of strong opposition, said, “We started out with a loss. That was precisely because of our stern attitude. The loss of that round helped us realize that the louder you get, the lesser are the chances of your win. You have to give the opponents a chance to express themselves.”

His friend Sounak chipped in, “And the best part about Debating Matters is that your competitors become your best friends.”

Asked on who were their toughest competitors, one of them said, “Don Bosco Liluah came a close second. Symbiosis had tremendous personality. During the last leg, one of the participants fell ill and with 15 minutes to go, a substitute was roped in and she was the better speaker of the two. I think that explains their calibre.”

Asked if they felt burdened by the fact that the last year winners bagged the international award in UK, Abhishek said, “We started with a loss. And here we are, the India champions. That has boosted our confidence (and after a pregnant pause) there is no pressure at all.

So while these boys gear up for the finale, we hope that this year’s show is a repeat of last year.

London calling

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