Best speaker Magazine Issue 2 - December 2017 | Seite 64

Let us meet
on the same stage...
by Bilaal Hassan
“And the Intra University Best Speaker 2014 is none other
than Bilaal Hassan”, were the exact words the emcee
of the evening used and even today I get goosebumps
reminiscing that moment. The 9 th of October 2014 will be
a day that I will cherish for a lifetime.
It all began back in 2013, when I first
took part in the Inter University Best
Speaker contest. Let me rephrase, it all
began when I was forced into the inter-
university contest. Being a person who
was carrying bucket loads of stage fright,
64 BEST SPEAKER MAGAZINE 2017
the first reaction when I was told to
apply was, “Whaaat? Have you lost your
mind?” Well, I couldn’t really say it out
loud because it was one of my lecturers
who asked me to. Gradually that ‘asking’
transformed into ‘forcing’ and I had to do
something that I have never done before.
Thank you my beloved lecturer, Mrs.
Gamithri Karunasena.
I managed to put up a decent effort
with my prepared speech and if I could
recall it right, I enacted “how not to do
a speech” in front of the judges at the
impromptu session. Having done my job
to please my lecturer by taking part at the
contest, I went home feeling happy and
accomplished until disaster struck later
that evening. I was informed that I was
selected to the Semifinal round!!!
Somehow or the other I survived