Confluence In Action! (16-10-2011)
Confluence 2011 organized and held at Singapore International School, Mumbai was an unique amalgamation of competitive and exhibition events based on the concept of knowledge challenge. The events took place between October 15 – 16, 2011 at the school auditorium. Apart from the host school, Ecole Mondiale World School, Cathedral Vidya School, Indus International School, Pune, Don Bosco School, Mumbai and St. Michael School’s Siliguri participated in Confluence 2011.
This four event format included the Singapore International School – Simulated Economic Forum which was the first of it’s kind, organized to commemorate the 40th anniversary of World Economic Forum. The Forum had a number of concurrently held sessions and the topic of the discussions ranged from carbon credit to low cost housing, from attempting to map the economics of terror to privatization of water. After a few heated sessions, Cathedral Vidya School emerged as the fore-runner with Ecole Mondiale World School being close at its heel.
In quizzing the questions were never a priority, the paths taken to the questions were! The focus was about not just knowing the right answer but the process that lead to the answer. The classical format of quizzing was followed. The inter-school quiz was the most keenly contested event with St. Michael School’s, Siliguri leading over the rest. Bittu Mohammed of St. Michael, Siliguri was declared as a best Quizzard.
The third event was inter-school debates. The schools debated about the state of democracy, freedom of speech through an unusual format – first in extempore and then the turn coat debate. Two teams were shortlisted for the finals – Cathedral Vidya School, Lonavala and Ecole Mondiale World School. After a grueling session which included interjections from the floor of the house, Cathedral Vidya School emerged the winners for both the debates and the overall championship Trophy while Ecole Mondiale World School was the runner-up.
Siddhant Ramakrishnan of the Cathedral Vidya won the rare honor of the best interjector in the debates and also for providing the best audience answer.
The highlight of the event was a unique school verses the college exhibition debate. The best debaters of Singapore International School chose to be good hosts by not taking part in the competition but rather being a part of the exhibition debate in a hope to highlight the standards of good debating. The students need to be complimented for their grand gesture. The SIS debaters – Aryaman Jalota (last year’s Confluence winner), Hrishikesh Bhaskaran and Shankhini Saha were pitted against two seasoned college debaters - Anshuman Mitra of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Shashank Shah from the Jadhavpur University. Both the teams debated about whether it is in the nature of the industry to give farmers a raw deal. This debate saw a lot of cross fire from the audience in terms of questions and interjections. This debate showcased a lot of good debating skills and highlighted the importance of the Power of spoken word and the art of gentle persuasion and convection.
Overall the event was a resounding success and underscored the value of endeavoring to expand the knowledge of students. Confluence was not just about inter-school competition but also had the workshop elements provided by Pranab Mukherjee who was the grandmaster of this event.