A Toast

There is a young man in the NTU debating squad, who is one of the most affable of them all, if debaters can be called that. He's quiet, and rarely speaks unless he has something to say, also a rare thing in a debater. He went into this tournament with his world (literally, for in that respect he is no different from normal debaters) turned upside down: in a major team rehaul, he went from being first speaker to third, just one day before the tournament.

And yet this young man has come a long way this Australs. An almost-rookie, with just a year's debating experience and one Asians tournament under his belt, he has outperformed some of the best speakers we know - including NMK, Jes Lopez and the MMU bunch.

I toast to Anirudh Baliga, Best ESL speaker at the UTS Australs 2004.