Competition

Showcasing Young Talents

Salman Rob

On November 29, the finals of the talent hunt at the State University of Bangladesh were held. The hunt consisted of only BBA students. A prize giving ceremony was also conducted on the same day for an inter- batch debate tournament, which was also for the students of the BBA department. The programme had begun with the speeches of guests, such as, Proffessor A Y M Ekramud Daula, member secretary, Proffessor S.M.A Faiz, member of the governor board, Professor Iftekhar Ghoni Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor, followed by Mukit, actor and board director of Unitrend and Sunbeam a singer and performer.

Ekramud Daula began his speech by applauding the participants and wishing them the best of luck for the last round of the competition. The talent he had expected to see was definitely shown by the students with a great show. S.M.A Faiz said, "If I can recall in my days, we didn't have much talent, but you students have the chance to express your talents," and wished all of them good luck. Iftekhar Ghoni Chowdhury mentioned how glad he was about the whole event being held and thought the students were moving on in a very positive direction. He also distributed crests to all the guests who were present. Showbiz idols- Mukit and Sunbim both wished all the performers good luck and told them to prove not to be good students only, but great performers as well.

The show was organised by a few students of the BBA department along with the help of Professor Farzana Hoque Rozen, Department of Business Studies. It also had sponsors from 'Signal' and computerjogot.com, who helped them webcast the whole show on both www.sub.edu.bd and computerjogot.com

Jaami Abdullah Farooq, a student of Human Resource at the State University of Bangladesh was one of the main organisers of the whole event. He had come up with the idea of the talent search after being inspired by television shows like America's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent and many more. According to Jaami the main objective was to start having more extracurricular activities at the university and letting the students have opportunities to express their ideas. According to Jaami, around sixty students had registered for the competition on November 6, whereupon ten were selected to perform in the finals. The auditions were held at the university by four professors from the BBA department as judges. “This is my last semester,” says Jaami.

“I hope that the university will hold such competitions every year to encourage the young people to speak out and express themselves.” Jaami dreams of eventually setting up a pltform for inter-university talent search competitions in the near future.

The show had begun with a skit on sexual harassment of women on the streets, popularly known as 'eve-teasing'. The play sent out a very powerful message to the young people in the audience. The programme included a variety of performances, starting from singing and dancing to recitation, acting, jokes sessions and flute playing. Students even showcased skills in modern and folk music and dances along with some semi-classical compositions.

The audience included students belonging to the university. It was heart-warming to see them responding to their friends performing on stage.

The judges were stunned with the intense performances of the ten students. They had a very tough time on deciding the first, second and third positions. Eventually, the winner was, Md. Fazlal Rabbi Bhuiyan. With his amazing flute playing skills, not only did he blow the minds of the judges, he made the crowd just as enthusiastic about his performance. Second position was secured by Sanam Binte Siraji for her folk dance. The third prize was given to Jhumur Chakma who danced to an indigenous song. The most incredible part of her dance was how she balanced a glass bottle on her head during the performance. It was nothing less than an eye-catching performance and a treat for the audience as they went wild once again. All the other performances were really good as Umma and Mehdi did a small skit to show their acting abilities. Sultan cracked everyone up with his jokes. A recitation was done by Tanvir. Siddiky and Priyanka put on a very nice duet song, as did Kristy and Fazle. Last but not least was a very well choreographed dance by Zobaida. The winners were also presented with crests and certificates from the university. All these ten students were chosen from a list of sixty participants to show off their skills and talents and they did just that. All of them might not have won a position, but they all proved their worthiness of winning.

At the prize giving ceremony, the winning debate team showcased their star speaker Ashab, who won the best speaker award. The team members included Sifat E Manzur, Jahirul Islam. The runners-up team included Pias, Anowara and Marilyn. The topic of the debate was, "Money is the biggest motivator for people at work place." The winning team was presented with a crest from the university.

Professor Rozen, a person who had played a huge part in this whole event, was very delighted about the response she got from her students. She had hopes regarding all her students and promised them that this programme would be organised every year.