Gracious Living Foundation Inter School Debate

Modern School, Barakhamba Road in collaboration with The Gracious Living Foundation organised an annual inter school debate on 19thApril 2016. The Gracious Living Foundation is a non-profitable organisation that has been serving the cause of the elderly. It engages with the elderly in several ways including running daycare, sing-along programmes during festivals and other engaging such as cook-offs and competitions at schools.

The topic of the debate was Elders: Heritage or Hindrance and the event witnessed the participation of several schools of Delhi, such as St. Columba's, Army Public School, Tagore International , G.D. Goenka , Amity International, Saket, Modern School, Vasant Vihar, etc.

The principal of the host school, Dr. Vijay Dutta inaugurated the event with a brief address in which he emphasised the importance of public-speaking and discussion. The judges for the event were Dr. Kiran Vaid, Ms. Vinita Suri and Dr. Ashok Pratap Singh among others.

The representatives of the participating schools vigorously articulated their views on the topic, incorporating current issues such as the entry of women into temples, LGBT rights, and the prospect of India becoming a super-power by 2020. The question of elders being a barrier to economic development was raised, while others contemplated their resourcefulness in terms of their wisdom and wealth of experience. Finally a consensus was reached by speakers that while we should labour for progress and modernity, we should never neglect our roots and the wisdom that got us there.

The team from our School comprised of Saumyaa Saxena (XI) ( for the motion), Alisamar Hussain (XII) (against the motion) and Pratishtha Kohli (XII) as interjector. They were accompanied to the event by Ms. Enakshi Rai. The debate was followed by a Ganesh Vandana dance presentation, recitation etc.

At the end of the debate, a EnakshiRai