Ahh, so here you are. And your are spot on about Amit Verma, he's from Cricinfo. One of his (ex) colleagues, Chandrahas, blogs at http://middlestage.blogspot.com. A wonderful place to hang out on lazy afternoons, reading about obscure works of literature.

hey Venkat,

Exactly what i did this afternoon. Amit Verma, Sonia Faleiro and a bit of Becker Posner. I'm out of action (read: no debating) for a bit because I'm ill. Oh btw you're right the globalisation debate you saw us in was an implementation of stiglitz's ideas. Have you read his book "globalisation and its discontents"?

Yep, that's what I was talking about! If you are interested, you can take a look at The Economist's Voice, co-editored by Stiglitz. Its a non-technical online journal, which means there's no arcane jargon, but its good stuff.

Whoa, the economist's voice has some heavyweights. Krugman, Stiglitz, Becker, Posner are some of the people i recognise.
Btw, what exactly is the tradition in NTU B and how did it start with you?

well,it started at the australs at NTU. I was initially in the B team, was bumped down because I went home for vacation :).

Later, in the inter-tertiaries, was in B along with Ravi and NMK. We managed to win that and beat LKY's grandson in the finals! Then went to Asian's, Ravi went into the A team, and I was in B with Siok Hwee and NMK. Broke there, had an awesome debate in the octos, but the bloody adjudicator screwed us over royally. Finally (for me at least), at the Australs, that very year, Amod, NMK and Siok Hwee went as the A team, and upon my insistence, Hui Chieh, Ravi and I went as B. Broke 9th there. Finally, at the Worlds, it looked like Ravi and I would go as the A team (I finally attained the dizzying heights of the A team only at the fag end of my debating experience), and somehow, I cdn't make it there.
So there you have it- The complete, sordid tale. Phew.. :)

Hehe, I now understand the legacy of the 'B' team. For a sordid tale it has quite a few great achievements.B has been the highest ranked NTU team I have been in yet. Rk asked us if we wanted to be Team A at Australs because of Asians performance. But we decided to stick with B. Incidentally, we faced Team A in the 5th round of Asians and beat them.
Who did you face in the Octos of the Australs?

Haha! AyeKay, just a well wisher bro! That's all. (I have other things to do as well :-))
Howslife?

Hey Aye Kay

debating is like a disease. You start off thinking yeah, you can keep your distance but then it completely takes you over. Only the extremely resilient can weather its force:D

Just a small correction - Sonia Faleiro writes for Tehelka, not the Indian Express as you've mentioned.

Abha