Diaphonia 2024

The Debating Society of Loreto College, Kolkata organised Diaphonia, an online intra-college inter-departmental debate competition, on May 28, 2024. Six departments participated enthusiastically to defend their stance on the motion: “This house believes that remote work leads to increased social isolation.” The two esteemed judges of Diaphonia 2024 were Dr. Somrita Ganguly, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, and Mr. Rohan Sengupta, Assistant Teacher, Birla High School for Boys, Kolkata. The debate was moderated by Meghna Bhattacharya, President of the Debating Society.

As the debate commenced, topics such as the psychological impact of isolation, technology, and work-life balance were discussed in depth. Each speaker was given 2+1 minutes to present their stance, followed by a minute for rebuttal, where they skilfully and thoroughly answered the various questions put forth by their fellow opponents. At the end of the debate, the judges shared their meticulous analysis of the speeches on the basis of content, presentation, rebuttal, and language and announced the names of the winners.

Anindita Chatterjee (Department of Political Science, Semester VI) won the award of Best Speaker FOR the Motion, while Chandraboli Majumdar (Department of Psychology, Semester IV) won the award of Best Speaker AGAINST the Motion. The Best Team award was bagged by the Psychology Department, represented by Ishanee Sengupta (Semester II) and Chandraboli Majumdar (Semester IV). The History Department team, represented by Tanisha Adhikari (Semester VI) and Soumili Das (Semester VI), secured the runners-up position. The event ended with words of encouragement and support from the judges for the participants and the audience.