Indian-American student wins top original orator contest in US

An Indian-American student in the US has won this year's National Speech and Debate Tournament, considered to be the most prestigious high school competition in the country. J J Kapur, a Sikh, composed his own persuasive speech titled 'Let's Dance' addressing a social issue. His speech, which won the competition in the category of original oratory, started out with a lively Bollywood dance and focused on his experiences as a Sikh-American youth.

He earned top rankings in the semifinal and final rounds of the tournament of champions before earning the championship trophy, the West Des Moines community schools reported. "I found that the story of Bollywood was just that, a story....And this disconnect between story and reality extends far beyond India's borders. We are a story-telling society.

We each seek to provide our scattered and confusing experiences with a sense of coherence, by arranging the episodes of our lives into stories. The problem arises when our complex realities does not match the narrative," Kapur said in his speech. Kapur, who is a Valley High School junior in West Des Moines, Iowa, shared his experience to highlight the stereotyping of Sikh and Muslim identities post-9/11 attacks.