I have an idea...

First things first, I admit that this idea is in its stage of infancy and may not be practically implementable at all. Nevertheless, this blog is one place where I can open my heart out without worrying too much about the jeers and laughs that the idea might garner in its wake. Okay, so there are the comments...but honestly speaking, the regular commentators on this blog are people whose criticism is valued, too...so here goes...

The seeds of this thing grew much before IIMK came in my perspective, in fact, it was sometime in college that I thought of it for the first time. I have always been itnerested in debating my (well...actually, more of the opponent's) head off and so it was that in college, when I ultimately started officially handling the affairs of our Literary Wing, I decided to make an innovation. I wanted to make the debates more interesting and popular. I had seen Parnab Mukherjee, the quiz master and Reuter journalist, moderate a debate in the previous year. Developing further on those lines, I decided that I will make the debate a team event with various rounds. There was the idea of this one round where both the teams will send one person each to the stage and there will be a one-to-one debate between them on the lines of the Presidential election debates in the USA. To liven up the proceedings (and to ensure that I am not too far off from the limelight), I decided to moderate the event and add in my juicy comments as and where applicable.

Sounds familiar??? I know it would to all those who have seen The Big Fight on NDTV moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai and they will cast doubtful aspersions on the novelty of my idea. Be that as it may, my idea goes one step further. To give the credits where they are due, I must say that this idea came about after our orientation feedback session with Prof Uday Damodaran. While discussing one of the issues raised by the students, he told us about his idea of a club or group that will invite people from other walks of life than management to come and deliver addresses to the IIMK junta....people like Arundhati Roy, Satish Gujral and so on.

For all those who are still trying to find a relation between the two ideas, let me pass on some wisdom!!! I plan to invite these people to IIMK for a big fight with the cream of the Indian youth intellegentia (read IIMK junta). These people are going to come and defend any one of their deeply held philosophies (Narmada mission or America's role in destroying WMD in the case of Arundhati Roy, for example) against one of the IIMK students (chosen based on the debating skills and research done on the particualr topic). There can be questions from the audience as well to either of the two people on the stage. This will not only make the talk more interesting, it will also give a USP to the college which, I am sure will be remembered and talked about across the colleges of India.

I know that it is all castles built in the air but I am sure that it is not impossible either. Prof. Uday has already given positive indications about providing the fundings required for such a group and the basic idea of the big fight has already been implemented (both by me in college and much after that...mark this...by NDTV). So what am I looking for???
Like minded people with the enthusiasm to make this idea turn to reality
Even an iota of support from others who prefer to stay away from this
Support, of course, from the faculty, especially those responsible for the funds
Some time from our 'revered' teachers to carry out the work

I already have some possible names for the event...
Gunning on
Get your arms
The confrontation

Readers of the blog are free to add in their own names or other ideas for the events (these can be held at a monthly or bi-monthly frequency)