Sarala Birla Gyan Jyoti hosted Speaking Gandhi, a two-day inter-school debating festival on the 19th and 20th of November, 2015. The theme of the festival revolved around Gandhi and his principles, and how they find relevance in the world that we live in today. His ideals may be taught to us and we may be carrying forward his legacy, but how many of us have given a deeper thought to all that he stood for? That was what Speaking Gandhi aimed to achieve and instill in impressionable minds.
Thirteen schools from the city participated in the event which meant fifteen total teams (including two teams from the host school – SBGJ a and SBGJ ß). The first day brought with it the Preliminary Round in which teams were pitted against each other in a knockout format. Each team that won, qualified into the Quarter Finals which were hosted the next day along with the Semi Finals and Finals.
Esteemed names from the city were invited to grace the occasion as the judges and speaker. Mrs. Rashmi Narzary, Mr. Thomax Alex and Mrs. Mitali Goswami were the honorable judges of the day while Dr. Shyam Bhatra Medhi very kindly agreed to be the Speaker for the Semi Finals and Finals. SBGJ ß and DPS Guwahati debated their way into the Grand Finals for which the motion was, “This house believes that Civil Disobedience is a moral weapon in the fight for justice.†The debaters from both teams refused to budge from their stance and argued their points fervently. In the end, Dikshit Sharma from DPS Guwahati and Subham Krishna Borah from Sarala Birla Gyan Jyoti were adjudged the best and second best speaker of the festival respectively. Team SBGJ ß emerged as the winners of the festival, bagging the Best Team award, while DPS Guwahati secured the Runners Up Award.
But more than winning or losing, it was the essence of the festival that left a lasting impact on the minds of all those who were a part of it. Speaking Gandhi did what it had set out to achieve – it gave young debaters of the city a platform to voice their opinion and a chance to speak what they believed in. For in the words of Gandhi, “A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.â€
