Theme: Diverging Universe, Converging World

We are inhabitants of a universe whose boundaries are limitless and which is perplexing and enigmatic with its numerous mysteries and ambiguity, juxtaposed to this is the present world which is coming closer each day, breaking all traditional barriers with influx of new ideas and revolutionary thinking. How does the youth make sense of this chaos? How do they find their own belief systems and values to sustain them in this world of the limitless? We are looking forward to some extraordinary sparkling ideas on the above theme.
We aim to keep our talk as multidisciplinary as possible. So we have selected a theme which can have numerous interpretations.Student speakers will be invited to come and speak at our event. The final speakers will be selected after a screening in the second week of April.

Our Own English High School
Muwailih Commercial, School Area, Near Nesto
Sharjah, Ash Shāriqah
United Arab Emirates

Abhinav Shetty

Age-14. School : TMS, Dubai. With every passing minute, competition increases, the more the competitive we become, lesser the time we spend on ourselves and become more apathetic we become. We need to learn to live again! We need to implement the system of human emotions .

Akhil Puligadda

Age: 15 School: Gems Our Own Indian , Dubai Today's youth are tormented by many problems. There is the issue of discrimination and how the violence caused by this creates confusion and then there is the moral issue of which path to follow, either the cultural path or the modern path. Through my talk I would want to provide the solution to these problems.

Amaan Ibrahim

Student

Age:14 School:Our Own English High School,Sharjah Boys' Though we live in a world blessed with the beauty of diversity, we unfortunately seek out uniformity. We huddle together only with people who share the same thoughts, religious and cultural values, and we look at people outside these walls we build with prejudiced eyes. Infinite studies have proven that diversity is the only way to sustain, unity is the only way to enlightenment, to fulfillment. Seek diversity, Stop racist thoughts and Dissolve your prejudices. We have to do these three things, until we recognize that within the most dissimilar frame, lies the soul of a brother."

Annet Davison

Age : 15 School: Our Own English High School, Sharjah I believe that a group can only be as strong as the cause that drives it. I believe in the fact different roads can reach the same goal, but to reach that goal one should have the same cause. My speech highlights the fact that to be united one does not need to be similar to another, but should believe in the spirit of the cause and forge forward. Unity without Uniformity.

Arun Anand

Age: 14 School: The Millenium School , Dubai We, as a Human race , even though, in billions are still only a “Speck of Dust” in this ever - expanding and diverging Cosmos that is the universe .Whereas with the advent of social media and technology , we have also witnessed how close the human race has become to one another. In this contrarian scenario of Divergence on one hand , and the Convergence , on the other . How am I , an individual with my own value systems, stay balanced and at the same time exploit these scenarios to do something constructive.

Disha Bobby

Age: 13 School: The Millennium School, Dubai Socrates, a great philosopher, once said that, ‘I am not Athenian, nor Greek, but, I am a citizen of the world.’ This can be a true definition of Unity in Diversity to some. The Universe is limitless and diverse, which leaves us with the lingering thought on how we can ensure that the Universe remains united in-spite of differences in varied aspects.

Filza Iqbal

Age: 15 Reality. My talk reveals the reality that is brutality that exits in today's world especially towards children.What we should do but fail to do for we are ignorant, it inspires that all hope is not lost, for we can make a change. We can rephrase humanity and we can save innocent children from the sorrows of diversity in its most cruel form.

Jayesh Kaushik

Age 16 Delhi Private School, Dubai Since times immemorial, the human race has been looking for an answer to the ever burning question - "what next?" My talk is about finding an answer to this riddle and on our way, exploring the intricacies of our social institutions and structures.

Karthick Shankar

Age: 17 School: Our Own High School, Al Warqa'a From parallel universes to existential crises, we nothing but fractions of specks of dust universe which will become so big that even the probability of uniqueness becomes zero. If so, what should our aim in life be? Time is something that we consider to be so precious. But in reality, that too is insignificant. 80 odd years of life can pass by in hours thanks to black holes. In the grand scheme of things, do you have your identity?

Nashita Guntaguli

With the growing technologies around us, we believe that we live in a converging world, but could there be a possibility that this could be a meager deception? Are we bridging the gap between us or are we spacing ourselves farther away from each other? In her vibrant talk, Nashita shares remarkable examples that set us thinking about the undeniable fact of today…being Alone Together. As she reminds us to look before we leap, she brings out three simple steps that will help discern this fantasy from reality and raise our hopes of a world with converging ideals!

Pratiksha Rao

Age: 16 School: Delhi Private School Dubai The world that our generation inhabits is vastly different from the world that was inhabited by our parents and grandparents. This speech analyzes the consumer culture that is prevalent nowadays which has reprogrammed our minds which has caused the privileged people of the world to converge on their itch to splurge. The speech attempts to answer the following questions - What causes this itch of ours? Is materialism a natural unavoidable consequence of human evolution? How can we cure it? But first of all, is it necessary to cure this itch? Is it even possible? Or has consumerism dug its claws too deep into the human psyche for us to pry it out? Is there an alternative to materialism?

Rithika Pillai

Age- 16 School- GEMS Our Own English High School, Dubai In a world where humans are under the illusion that they are the power center, we often forget that the key to progression does not lie in the hands of an individual but in the minds of many. Through acceptance of various ideas, respecting the differences, we will find our way through this enigmatic universe and find our purpose which will be our unified idea.

Rohan Krishnan

Age :- 17 School :- Our Own English High School- Boys Branch , Sharjah Teenagers, over time have been stereotyped to always be emotional and the answer to that for the most part has always been hormones. However, Rohan believes that the answer to why teens behave so differently is something entirely different to what conventional society believes.

Soorya Rajesh

Age:15 School: GEMS Our Own Indian School , Dubai. Oneness is not just a mere concept but it's a wonderful experience once we decide to live in it, and since it's all in how YOU look at it, it can change your world, definitely for the better.

Spandita Sahoo

Age 13 School:The Millennium School, Dubai We all know the negative impacts of technology, it's been circulating the internet and the newspapers for years now. But do we truly know the positive side of technology, mainly social media? Technology is more than a time consuming, eye ruining part of the 21st Century. Technology is a celebration of learning and innovation and ideas. The same YouTube that you are currently on watching TED talks, the same YouTube that came from the much persecuted internet. So before launching criticism at technology, look at the tab you're using to launch that criticism and the social media site you're on.

Subhaditya Mukherjee

Age: 16 School:The Millennium School Dubai The world is slowly dissolving into chaos. The Fire is a talk about how to live in a world where every instant threatens to drown you. It shows us how unity will burn away all our apparent "problems" and gives us reasons to never give up on our hopes and dreams and inspire others to do the same.

Swathy Sanjay

Age - 17 School- Our Own English High School,Sharjah-Girls Darwin explained evolution in terms of human physiology. But the concept of evolution are multi-faced - social evolution, cognitive evolution, technological evolution and so on. So here's something that has probably not been thought about before - the emotional aspect of human evolution. That's right, what if we can go further, beyond the basics of emotion? Diverge beyond the convergence of simply feeling joy, sorrow, anger, hatred or love...go on, watch the talk and delve into this compelling take on evolution.

Zaina Awan

Age:14 School:Cambridge international school (Dubai) Could we create a perfect world? Is the possibility of encountering a perfect world possible?

Zainab Ashraf

Nashita, through this talk plans on conveying how she, and how everyone must adapt to this ever changing universe that we live in.