Meryick D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jul 27: Dhruv Kiran Shah and Arnav Alva, both 11 years old, have brought laurels to the city by winning 'Verbattle 2014-Beginner', a state-level debate competition organized in Bangalore from July 21 to July 23.

Both are students of Yenepoya CBSE School in the city. Daijiworld caught up with both of them for an exclusive interview.

An elated Dhruv, son of Kiran and Archana Shah, said that participating and winning the competition was a nice experience. "It is something new. Debating helps in improving one's speaking skills," he said.

Asked about his preparations for the event, he said, "Five days before the competition, we got 10 topics for debate for the first round. We had to prepare for all the ten topics in our school, and when we reached there (Bangalore), out of 10, we had to talk about only one topic. When we moved to the next round 9 new topics were given, and this way the process continued. Altogether there were four rounds. It was very tough.

"There were three teams in the final round and each one had a topic. Each team had to debate for and against on its topic. Ours was team A and our topic was 'Schools do not know how to educate children', team B got 'Children are not bothered about their future' and team C got 'Boys are more emotional than girls'. Our team scored 67.5 marks out of 80 and team B scored 65 and team C 67. It was a tough competition," he explained.

He also plans to participate in the higher levels of the competition, which are for senior classes, in future.

In his spare time, Dhruv loves to play football and cricket. "In football, my favourite teams is FC Barcelona and in cricket I support India. I also like reading books," he said.

Asked what he aspires to become in life, he said, "I want to be an architect. My dad is a businessman, and mom is housewife."

Dhruv's father Kiran told Daijiworld, "I went with my son and his partner to Bangalore. I attended the competition and I am really proud of him."

Arnav Alva, studying in 6th standard, is the son of well-known physician Dr Hansraj Alva and Neetha Alva.

Speaking about the competition, Arnav said, "It was fun, but a tough competition. Other two teams gave a tough fight.

"We had two mentors and they gave us sufficient practice. That was more than enough for me and Dhruv to compete and win the competition," he said.

He too plans to take part in the Verbattle nationals in future.

Like his teammate, Arnav too enjoys football and cricket and his favourite team is FC Barcelona in football and Chennai Super Kings in IPL cricket. He also likes reading.

His dream is to become famous as a sportsman when he grows up. In fact, Arnav has been selected for his school football team and he is even taking part in the Independence Cup-2014, the 18th Dakshina Kannada district football tournament starting July 30.

Here's wishing both the boys a bright future.