This is a common notion of people in India today that lawyers only wear black coats and shout at top of their voices addressing the judges as “Mee LAURD”. They are also alleged to debate on unnecessary things and put theatrics and dramatics in their arguments. Well debating is no different from this. The only difference is-you have to put all this along with a substantial matter which is not at all supposed to be senseless. NLIU and most other colleges now-a-days basically follow the parliamentary form of debating. There a debate has to be won by an entire team but not only an individual and there is a proposition and opposition and not for and against.
One of the leading in this regard is the United Asian Debate Championship. Our contingent was lucky enough to represent our university in this international championship and so were the other contingents of India who represented their colleges in this competition which was held in Bangkok this year. Actually not as lucky as other Asian nations were. Because trust me it’s really tough to understand accent of the chinks and most of the nations there had high pitches and high cheek bones. That actually made us realise that whatever and however Indians try we are still far away from the fight of accents, thus it’s better to leave it for the call centres, debaters shouldn’t even try it.
Our competition started on 2nd may, 2010. The golden day, we all were happy. That was the first day when we experienced the feeling of how it feels to carry the name of your college and nation abroad. Yeah! it sounds philosophical and typical but yes a debater is allowed to be emotional even if he doesn’t seem to be so on the podium. The contingent consisted of chosen debaters who were supposed to fight with other teams. Nearly all countries of Asia had their representing teams. Specially to be mentioned was Pakistan. They had sent their best, both in terms of oratory skills and looks. Yet, not to be confused! Girls from Pakistan were not introvert and trust me they have a great fashion sense. This actually made me feel that they were equivalent to us if not better.
We started our journey from Delhi with Air India and not to forget warm ACs and old Air Hostesses. However, we reached to Suvarnabhumi Airport and we were welcomed with great hospitality. Thailand is dawned by much of Hinduism and Buddhism. That is reflected in their names also. Some girls of airport authority were named Rekha and Madhubala. Imagine chinks having these names. Then we were taken to Chaleena Hotel which was no different from any other hotel in this world except for its smelly and boiled food. For all those who think that Thai food tastes great, just one suggestion Thai food might be good in India but surely not good in Thialand. The first night was spent roaming around for good food actually just food and yes we found some grass for the vegetarians of our contingent because that was the only veg thing in Bangkok.
The sequence of the competition was however great. The very first was the Welcoming Dinner (with Thai food again). We could see many sarees and salwar kameez that day. Also, a much changed version of sarees. We met people from various countries and Assumption University; The Hosts had put up brilliant dance performances. We had four adjudicators in our contingent and all four of them entered the competition as panellists. Then we started with our competitions. I being the adjudicator judged many teams for various countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh etc. Our entire contingent had put up a good show on whole. Debaters had their part of victory.
Not to forget the beautiful Asssumption University which was run by Veticans. It had nearly 6 fountains and 4 lawns in the premises itself. It was full of scenic beauty and was truly a nature’s gift. Also it had a big church in its premise and statues of various dignitaries. Now again such things make you feel jealous of them and remind you that Indians still need sense of aesthetics and also money to buy that sense. Still as an initiative of NLSIU, Banglore we the Indians took an oath in front of the tricolour to strive for the best where ever we go, which was indeed the most sentimental moment of our entire trip.
Our tourism however suffered badly. We were asked not to visit the high tension areas because that was the peek time of the Red Shirt and Yellow shirt Protests in Bangkok. (I wonder what’s there with such a terrible combination). However we decided to visit Mall Bangkapi near by. The place where guys and girls shopped like crazy. Girls because of the amount they spent and guys because of their pathetic choices of clothes. It gave us a rough idea of similarity between clothes in India and Bangkok. However the happiness didn’t last long because while travelling back one of our contingent mates lost his wallet. Yes, he lost his wallet containg few thousand Bahts[1] in it. Allegedly he dropped it in the cab that we took while returning. And then the entire Chaleena hotel was lit on fire. We tried calling every single authority and cab stations and what not. However within an hour the cabby himself came back to return the wallet. That actually gave us the realisatio of the honesty that Suvarnabhumi follows.
However the show was not over yet. After long tiring sequence of debates and parties we had to return back. To have another fantastic memory -another of our batch mates lost his passport along with the laptop bag on the airport. Yes you read correctly, he lost his passport and laptop. Which just coincidentally was confused with other bags. We rushed, shouted, yelled, panicked but luckily we got it back. We not only learned debating, we learned to respect other countries, we learned to feel proud for other countries and on a personal level it a great experience to begin.
And that was the glorious trip back to India.
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