Should the section ‘our proud kid’ on this website be rewritten as ‘our proud kids’ as this article is about a team? No, because, there is only one proud kid and it is none other than India, as she has been represented by five of our friends from Chennai for the World Schools Debate 08 in Washington.D.C.
The team of five headed by Sithara Rasheed were Rajalakshmi Natrajan, Prana Kumar, Amrithavarshini and Shreya Murali.
Sitara and Rajalakshmi are from Sri Sankara Sr. Sec. School, Adyar, Amritha and Shreya are from PSBB, Nungambakkam and Pranav is from PSBB, K. K. Nagar. Together, these five make quite the team, coached by Andrew Fitch and Eve Hibbert-Keene a renowned debater from the English Speaking Union, UK and managed by Ms. Padmini, Principal, Arsha Vidya Mandir.
Pic.courtesy: http://wsdc2008.blogspot.com
Sitara is calm and sure about herself, Rajalakshmi is confident, Amritha is the poised girl-next-door, Shreya is the bubbly sporty type and Pranav is the one who usually makes the team laugh out loud.
So, how did they feel representing the country? “We felt really proud” says Sitara. “Yes,” adds Rajalakshmi ” The whole event was amazing and we learnt a lot from it.” It must have been exciting debating against such experienced orators – ” I was really nervous” says Amritha, “But it was such a lot of fun” chirps Shreya. They all made great friends.
Chennai based IT company Ramco Systems conducted a training session on debating and selected five kids to represent India at the World Schools Debating Championship. They also proudly sponsored this event. A team from India attended WSDC for the first time.
How were the topics?
“The topics were framed in such a way, it was aimed to make a better future citizen out of us” says Rajalakshmi. “They made us think so much” says Sitara whereas Pranav feels the were picked and tossed in randomly!
“Though Pak and India seem to be fighting constantly, we really hit it off well with them” says Sitara. ” We made a lot of friends outside the country” agrees Shreya.” Its Welsh for me!”replies Amritha.
Just not the event, the venue too excited the team. Washington was “Brilliant! ” says Sitara, “Awesome” says Amritha, ” It was nice, but I’ll go desi anyday!” replies Rajalakshmi. ” I learnt so much from this experience!” sighs Rajalakshmi.”
“Not to mention how much we benefitted from it ! We got international exposure and learnt how much we still needed to work” says Sitara.” Well. I got a free trip to the USA and 10 days off school!” Typical Pranav!
Even though team India had won two major debates, all of them feel there is a lot they have to work on, as other countries have got a major headstart, but with bright kids like them all over Chennai and an experienced coach like Andrew, Team India is sure to go places in future.