Just recently, a few students from the school went to Whales College in Gulshan-e-Iqbal to take part in theWhaleQuence Oratory Lodge declamation contest. There were two levels: Grades 6-8, and grades 9-11. There were also two categories: English and Urdu. Speech topics in English included serious ones like “Trying is better than crying” and Knowledge is power” and also hilarious topics like “ The art of being annoying”.
When we reached the college, I thought it would be a pretty nice place to go to. There were outdoor benches for students to study outside. We were taken to a lecture room to wait a bit, then we were led up into a relatively small auditorium. Before the contest started, the people on the judging panel introduced themselves. I thought that the most friendly judge was a professor named YasirShahani, the Urdu judge. The contest started with the Urdu category first, then English. I had taken part in the English category, and my topic was Knowledge is Power. I thought I’d prepared my speech well, but I was so nervous I messed up Big-time. Maybe that was a good thing since I only had about 2 minutes to speak. Anyway, the other students from BLA who were from my level were participating in the Urdu category, save for one eighth-grade girl called Amna. The Urdu participants from my level were ArhamDanial from 7A and Omar Ovais from grade 10.
Everyone gave outstanding speeches, but to me, the most memorable one was a girl from Wahaj Hussain Schooling System whose speech topic was The Art of Being Annoying. Why? Because, right in the middle of her speech, she started eating potato chips to illustrate a point. To call the action funny is an understatement. It was absolutely hilarious and earned her a lot of well-deserved applause. After the level 1 contest was over, we went to the cafeteria. I was pretty bored, so I decided to look around the college, and I could not believe my eyes. First I explored the ground floor. Of course, there were boring lecture halls, but my jaw dropped when I saw an actual gaming room and gym. My first thought was “Wait, colleges actually have this sort of stuff? Wow.” The library was pretty great, too. In the non-fiction section, there were a lot of reference books meant solely for students prepping for their SATs (boring), but what I really liked was the fiction section. It had books by all my favorite authors, especially Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series. To top it all, there were a number of student clubs, including the Oratory Lodge, Whales Geek Haven, a science club, a community service club, a literature club, and of course, a writer’s club.
After I had finished exploring the premises, I started reading a list of famous universities by one of the benches (Note: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was ranked top on all the lists). A person passing was confused when they saw me, thinking I was a new admission, but when I showed him my BLA ID card, he again wrongly assumed I was an O-level student. He walked away, leaving me with my mouth hanging open. An A-level girl called Zarnab was watching me and we both laughed at the misunderstanding. We struck up a conversation and I asked her about what subjects she was taking, how life at college was, and if college work was hard. She replied that she was taking math, physics, and computer science and that college life was good, almost like school, but yes, the work was hard. She also gave me some valuable advice. She said that it was better that I figured out what subjects to take in college early, rather than deciding my path late in student life. She also told me that whatever subjects I wanted to take, I had to have a good understanding and a strong base in the subjects I wanted to take. We chatted for a little while longer, and then I went back to the auditorium for the level two speeches.
There were plenty of people giving good speeches, but I thought that Abdullah Amais’s speech, Knowledge is Power, was the best. Why? Well, the other speeches were either too loud or too boring, but Abdullah’s speech was perfectly level and quite interesting. So it was no surprise when he won first place. After the speeches had ended and the prizes had been distributed, we went home. For me, the WhaleQuence declamation was one of the best days of the year!
