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More than a dream

Well…most of the people born under the sign. I was born were all remarkably great writers, but something must have gone wrong in the orbit when I was born, cause I am completely opposite to it. Comparing to writing, I am moderately better speaker and some times my writing sounds like lyric without music. And no wonder my fingers got wired up on the keyboard at the moment.

The story starts like this…
A hot sunny afternoon, one of my debating club members Mehnaz calls me up and tells me IBA is hosting a debating tournament and volunteers from IBA will be here at 2 :30 to give the registration form. “Oh boy, here goes one more…” I said to myself with a bit irritating reaction, as my exams will also take place in the very same week. I did not know that success was peeping at us and smiling over my reaction.

Anyway, I took the forms and called my members to find out who is interested…we filled up the form before one week and the team was ready to take off!! But it took off in another direction; at the very last moment I got to know that one of our team members would be going to Chittagong for some club fair.

Hell broke loose… felt like stamping over the pool of water like a mad chimpanzee right beside me…could not think of anything, and I just told the officials that we are participating. It was definitely one of those days, because my partner Tanvir was also suffering from his indispensable cold.

Circulating my cell phone between my fingers and walking past our library building with a complete blank mind, without knowing what to do, I called one of the volunteers to find out whether we can have a replacement and I got the green signal. It was the biggest tournament… not Inter University but National Championship…so even if we lose we have to lose with honour.

The only person left was our corporate guy Habeeb…or (“Spoken Habeeb”…. sorry pal!!). Prior to telling him I was almost sure that as usual he was going to tell me he was busy with some of his office work. But no…he agreed to it instantly. I was surprised and from that time I started to think that… no, corporate people are not that…. whatever!!.

Day 1
The three musketeers galloped to IBA and almost got the jolt of their lifetime. We screeched for a while at the spectacle ahead. What is going on here? It looked like some sort of carnival and not to mention the sponsorship work…beautifully decorated. We got in and did our final registration, took our ID cards with my name wrongly spelled and a blank space on Habeeb's picture slot. Some start!!

But one thing for sure I should say it that our hosts were fantastically amazing and nicer than our expectation.

Lottery took place and we got to know that it will be a knock out round, one mistake and the tour will be over. This created more pressure among the debaters. Round one and we were up against BRAC University. Tanvir did a good job defining it and so did Habeeb while wrapping up. It was a clear win and we were through.

But one problem stuck in our throat and that was… my exam was next day and it collided face to face. Even with a very tight schedule Khasru sir, the moderator of IBA Debating club delayed the next round just for us, for which I will be very thankful to him forever.

Day 2
Dhaka and its characteristic….yes, I am talking about jam!! Habeeb and me were both late and thought the game was over and we would never forgive us for this. Tanvir started calling after every five minutes, which made us more nervous.

And the round we are facing next was against Islamic University of Technology (IUT), our good old friends and that made it more difficult for us debatably and mentally.

Mabroor Wassey, debater of IUT debating club was giving his famous shiny smile and regretting the fact that we were up against each other. Life is like this and we had to accept it, it was a tough bout where both the sides did lots of mistakes but kept a smiley face all through. The topic was “Student politics has become irrelevant”, the weather was rough and somehow we sailed through.

Now comes the horrifying scene, we are in semifinal against IBA- 2. The whole situation got heated up because now it's the “ Host Vs Guest ”. People stared analyzing who is going to do what, some were with us and most of them were not. We were sitting inside the IBA auditorium and cracking jokes with the volunteers. Despite the fact we will be up against each other we got along well and made new friends. They shared all the funny things happening while organizing it, some of them were mimicking each other showing dance moves while sitting on the chair…that moment was a blast where we forgot the pressure we were into.

Unfortunately they had to go to arrange something and we were left with our rock solid supporters from our debating club… Mhenaz, Rabab, Nafiz, Zakir and Sakib Mobin behind the screen. (Thanks a ton guys!!).

In the middle of the first semifinal, IBA-1 Vs DMC, we were called by the volunteers and the topic was given “ Media is the tool for exploitation”. Ring!! And it started… both the sides were going head to head for finals…just waiting for one mistake from the opponents. The oral adjudication took us nowhere and we were still confused as to who was the survivor. After long 10 minutes the result was announced….and next day it's the grand finale… IBA-1 Vs IUB. That's it!!! Enough to make the crowd roar….and sarcastic eye contacts among the competitors.

It was unbelievable! We are in finals!! People started congratulating us and some of them started giving their verdict about the finals after seeing the round. And at that time our rock solid members were looking at as with glowing eyes and happy faces and the message was clear “We are proud of you”.

Expectations…that's the toughest thing to live up to. Our supporters are the next generation and we were afraid what sort of impression we would be giving them. The question was; Can we carry on with the legacy and pass it to our juniors which our seniors left to us?

Day 3
The auditorium was not the same as before. It was completely having a new look. Everybody was in their best look, nothing was out of place, the audience, critics, supporters and definitely the guests. What's going to happen now? That was the Zillion-dollar question in every mind. The finalist were talking least to perhaps conserve the energy for the last battle. Surviving till the final in a competition as big as is this was enough. But at the end of the day we are all humans…the thirst is never ending. Then…out of nowhere our moderator Mr Shaiful Islam got inside the auditorium with a huge league of supporters behind him. And definitely that was a good boost for us!!

The topic was given “Conservatism shall have triumph over liberalization”, and the fight began head to head…and one should have seen the zombie looks given by both the teams to each other.

This is the time where one could not let his nervous system take over the mind. The battle of words went on, the adjudicator and the jury placed their thought about the whole round, but the result was kept on hold to be announced next day in Radisson Water Garden.

This is the evening we will never forget in our lifetime. Besides the volunteers, participants

The winners with the Vice Chancellor of IUB

and judges, the Vice Chancellors of the universities also attended, which really showed how important the tournament was.

The show began with a presentation and right after this the speed of blood flow increased and so the heart beat, felt like as if this is the most important thing to live for. Habeeb was staring at the speaker, Tanvir was staring at his water glass and Shaiful sir was giving us hope that “it will be fine, relax boys” but I know he himself was nervous (can't show his emotion in front of his students).

The whole auditorium went numb and while staring at the white tablecloth I heard “The winner is IUB!!” I could not believe my ears. We went nuts….all of us started hugging each other and had no idea what to do next. Felt like shouting out loud “some body wake me up”. All through the years I was hoping to get at least one Inter university Debating championship for the third time…but God gifted us with a “National Tag”

This is a dream which I was dreaming for almost last three years, and God knows what I did. I became a part of something which is more than my dream.

Azim Ahmed
Member, IUB Debating Team

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