PSBB KKN Wins for the Fourth Consecutive Year at the Inter-PSBB Debate Finale

PSBB KKN wins for the Fourth Consecutive Year at the Inter-PSBB Debate Finale

Close Encounters of the Eloquent Kind 2014-15

Launched in the PSBB schools as a Golden Jubilee initiative, the Debating Society has been a platform for budding debaters from classes IX - XI to showcase and hone their debating skills.

On 12th February 2015, ‘Close Encounters of the Eloquent Kind’ - the Grand Finals of the debating society for the academic year 2014-2015took place at Vani Mahal.The debate was a natural culmination of the year-long debating that took place among the 140 odd members of the debating society at the Nungambakkam and KK Nagar schools.

The motion on the floor was, “Has the Path to Economic Progress led to an Erosion of Our Indian Culture?Yes/No.

The team fromPSBB NGM passionately supported the topic and defined cultureand its core values. They declared that in our path to economic progress, we tend to be more materialistic and corrupt, thereby leading to an erosion of our culture. They explored the features of globalization and other aspects of economic progress which has led to the erosion of our culture.

On the other side of the House, PSBB KK Nagar illustratedhow culture is dynamic by nature and how the evolution of culture has materialized on the edifice of economic progress.They emphatically substantiated that because of economic progress, negatives in our culture havebeen abolished and this has led to the refinement of culture. They also stressedthat changes in cultureareimperative in an inclusive society.

The debate witnessed an exchange of different ideas, wealth of information, rebuttals and other counter arguments. After the main speeches, the debaters gave a round of substantive rebuttals which were very thoughtfully and effectively crafted, showing their capability to think on their feet. The questioning round, a new feature in the format, proved to be very effective as the judges and participants engaged in a thought provoking round of questions and answers.

The seventh edition of the Inter-PSBB Debate at Vani Mahal guaranteed a lot of entertainment for the audience who were very engaging, and also proved the evolution in the standards of debating through the years.

The Judges for the grand finals were Dr. ChithraMadhavan, Historian, Mr.SharadAgarwal, President of PSBB Millenium Schools and Mr. Karthik Kumar, theatre entrepreneur. The judges commended the debaters for their debating skills and also appreciatedthe maturity in the thinking process of the younger generation. The Dean and Director of the school complimented the students and the teachers on the excellent quality of content and language the students spoke, observed that more than being a war or words or battle of the eloquent kind, the purpose of the debate is to stimulate the thought process in the young audience.

The winners of the grand edition werean elated PSBB KKN. Arjun Rau, (Class X) from PSBB NGM was adjudged the best speaker. AbhinoveNagarajan S (Class XI), from PSBB KKN was the second best speaker and the third position was won by RaghavAnand(Class XI) from PSBB NGM. The grand trophy went to the team consisting of AashikaAshoka, AkshayaRanganathan, C.K. Sashankh, ShivaniChander and AbhinoveNagarajan. S from PSBB KK Nagar for the fourthconsecutive year! PSBB NGM was represented by NivedithaBharathy, Dhananjay Ashok, Arjun U Rau, SudarshanSrikanth and RaghavAnand.

On the whole, the debate was an elegant war of words with constructive arguments, logic, subtle humour, critical thinking, that spoke volumes about the exposure that the students have gained through the year-long debating at PSBB.