Sincere Confession

by LACHHEMI RANA

FROM ISSUE # 136 (April 2007) | IN THIS ISSUE
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I wanted to write to WAVE five years ago but kept putting it off until today. I need to confess and thank you ever since for having played an important role in something I won.

When I was studying in India, I used to participate in debate competitions a lot. Sometimes the competitions would be organised by international colleges and universities like RMIT, Australia. And we would debate for prize money amounting 1000 dollars. In one of the occasions, I was sent by my school to participate in All India Debate Competition, one of the toughest and most coveted competitions in India.

That day is still vivid in my mind when all the participants and the teachers waited eagerly for the announcement of the title. The participants were given one hour to write impromptu speech about the topic and then go through gruelling rounds of debate.  This time the topic was 'Euthanasia'. Majority of the participants looked blank after the title was read. Fortunately, I had read about it in WAVE and the concept was as if engraved in my bonnet. From the pandemonium created by the title I could see that I was the only one who was so relaxed, as I was well versed with it.

As most of the participants seemed to panic, my teacher tried to reconfirm if I knew about it. Normally, the teacher-student sharing was not allowed but since the topic was difficult, the teachers tried to help us. You know what I told my teacher when she asked me if I could do it. "Rita maam, don't worry, we have WAVE magazine in our country," and I headed to the library without asking or sharing any thoughts with her as I didn't want to break any rules like other participants. I wrote whatever I had understood from WAVE and finished writing my speech in about 30 minutes, also helping a friend.

Nevertheless, there were a lot of intellectual participants and I was familiar with their mettle from previous encounters when we rebutted on titles like Nuclear Ban Treaty.

So, I didn't think of winning and was truly surprised when it was announced that I had actually won. I was surprised because neither was I as talented as the others nor was I an Indian.

Winning the title was the happiest moment of my life and I got a chance to compete further and stood third. Though late, I take an opportunity to thank WAVE as I wouldn't have won without its help. Whatever I knew from reading WAVE was enough to make me the winner. So even after all these years, I dedicate the title to WAVE. I hope you'd forever continue to impart knowledge to many young minds.