SPEECH COMPETITION

Written by Hamza Varvani, member, Youth Journalism Club

 

On Saturday April 19, 2008 NMJ had a wonderful function. It was a Speech Competition. The function was supposed to start at 6:00 pm, but unfortunately it was delayed a little. Instead of wasting time we prayed Asr salaah and then munched on some Papadums

 

The function started at 6.55 pm with an opening Du'a by Sister Taibah Hathiyani. After that the M.C. reminded everyone why we were there. Then he explained that the children from Grades 1 to 8 will participate in an Impromptu Speech Competition where they select a topic, then get 5 minutes to prepare and then come on stage to speak about the topic for 2 minutes. For Grades 9 to University, the topics had previously been given to them for them to present a prepared speech.

 

After the introduction, the participants were called. The first category was Grades 1 to 3. The participants and their topics were:

Sister Safia Bagha                     My summer plans.

Sister Zulfa Varvani                    My teacher.

 

From the second category of Grades 4 to 8 the participants and their topics were:

Sister Shaira Bagha                   My best holidays

Sister Madiha Hathiyani              Explain the benefits of milk.

Sister Fatima Bagha                  My favorite food.

Sister Nahla Varvani                   My favorite relative.

Sister Hawa Noorani                   My favorite pet.

Sister Taibah Hathiyani               What would I do if I was invisible for one day.

Sister Amara Kadernani              The best day of my life.

Sister Shafreen Bagha                Explain the rules of your favorite game.

Sister Atiya Bagha                     My best dream ever.

Sister Zainab Yakub                   Describe your worst experience.

Brother Hamza Varvani (myself)  My favourite book.

Brother Yasin Admani                If you were an animal what would you be?

 

For the Speech Competition, there were two categories and their topics were as follows:

Grade 9 to 12                            Canada’s Involvement in Curbing Global Warming

University/College                      Justification of War on Terror

 

Brother Nabil Hathiyani spoke about Canada’s Involvement in Curbing Global Warming and Brother Shah-e-Noor Yakub spoke about Justification of War on Terror.

 

All these interesting topics made everyone hungry. Since it was time for Maghrib, we prayed first. After that we all ate a delicious potluck dinner of chicken tikka and pilao.

 

After dinner there was an Impromptu Speech Competition for the adults and Brother Shafi Yakub was the only participant. His topic was: You are on a vacation and you meet a colleague and she says she misses you at work. What would you do?

 

After that, the judges announced the winners as follows:

Grades 1 to 8                            Sisters Taibah Hathiyani and Atiya Bagha

Grades 9 to University                Brother Nabil Hathiyani

Adults                                       Brother Shafi Yakub

 

The winners were presented with trophies and gifts donated by Abdulkader Yakub and Family.

 

The President of NMJ Canada came up and congratulated every participant. He said that they did a great job talking about their topics. He also said how hard it is to talk in front of everyone. While hearing the President every one ate dessert. Then it was time to wrap up the function so the closing du'aa was read. Then everyone helped clean up and we all went home, exhausted but happy to be together.

Alhamdulilah the function was a complete success, and we pray that next time it would start on time Inshallah.