Ajay Augustine, a 12th standard student of St. John’s school, Besant nagar, Chennai was declared the best speaker in the ‘Talk Your Way’ contest at the students book fair held in the city recently. Ajay studied in CBSE school at Bahrain where his father was working. His family has recently relocated to India. We spoke to Ajay on his achievement and the training that he had to make this possible:

Q) Winning your way in this contest, as we know, should have been the result of your regular participation in such events and your gift of the gab:

I have been participating in oratorical, essay writing competitions, and dramatics, and other interschool cultural events. That has given me the courage to face any competition with confidence.

Q) Can you say more about the present contest ‘Talk your way to London’…

There were preliminaries, semi finals and lastly finals. In the preliminaries 40 students from 40 schools participated. It narrowed down to 20 students in the semi finals. For the the finals only 10 students were selected.

Q) How much time was given to you for preparation?

For the preliminaries and semi finals seven days time was given for preparation, on specific topics. But for the finals only 30 minutes was given for preparation, just before the contest.

Q) What were the topics for prelims and semi finals?

For the prelims the subject was WATER and the semi finals it was LIFE, and for the finals it was ‘CAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND MATERIAL PROGRESS GO HAND IN HAND?’

Q) For the prelims and semi finals though the titles are very short, the subjects are very vast. Could you pl say what did you deal with in the topic on LIFE?

Life at a micro level it is a science - pure anatomy and biological cells. But at macro level it is an art. So Life is the art of living- facing the realities of life both happiness and sorrows, and handling them. So life is both a science and art.

Q) Building of big factories for material progress has environmental problems and this has always been a hot topic for debate. How did you handle this?

In countries like Japan, Norway, Sweden etc., with technological inventions and researches these problems have been taken care of. The fumes/gases that are emitted are converted into raw materials for other products, avoiding the pollution constructively. With initiatives and research both can go hand in hand. The three 'R's - Reuse, Re-fusion, Recycle would provide a solution for reconciling environmental sustainability and material progress.

Q) No surprise, the judges were impressed by your points of view. Please tell me how the other students performed in the contest?

All of them did exceedingly well. It should have been a tough job for the judges.

Q) What are your other hobbies and interests?

I love to read lots of books on literature. Though books are my friends I feel that mere reading of books alone will not suffice. We will have to understand and assimilate. Also apart from reading, in order to develop the skills on oratory, it is necessary to listen to good speeches and improve our style. Both the content and style have to be developed.

Q) What will you say to - or share with - your fellow students?

The current way of thinking is MARKS ONLY MATTERS. All the efforts are restricted to getting very high marks. No doubt, getting marks are very important, in the context of competition but it is necessary to develop other life skills like communication, interpersonal skills etc. Getting marks may be an immediate goal, but to be a success on long term these traits have to be improved. I have seen some of my friends with very high marks and excellent proficiency in the subjects fail in the campus interviews and presenting their projects because of lack of communication skills.

Yes , Ajay, we are really very happy spending sometime with you. We wish you very best and we are confident that you are going to make your parents and the nation proud of you.