Respected judges, elders and dear friends! I am Rahul Patnaik, a student of Class VIII from AAA Public School, Cuttack. It gives me immense pleasure to stand before you and express my views on the most highlighted recent topic “Fast Life: Thrill or Thorn?” It is just a golden opportunity for me and a matter of great pride and glory to justify my view whether fast life is a thrill or thorn. In my opinion fast life is a thrill not a thorn.

Fast life! What is it? Fast life is speed life style or doing things with more paces. Thrill is a feeling of sudden sharp excitement and sensation and thorn is shivering or tingling. The present-day trend is speedy life. The axiom ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has lost much of its relevance. Every one believes that speedy and faster goes ahead. Both individuals and nations hold the view that ‘speed and success’ are synonymous both in content and context. The story of ‘Hare and Tortoise’, in which the tortoise wins the race because of its slow movement with steadiness, has no significance in today’s exceedingly spirited world. The rigorous reality behind it is that we all live in a highly competitive planet in which the rise or decline of individuals is determined by the rapid pace of speed with which they respond to new challenges and constantly changing circumstances. It is most essential to keep pace with the mobility and momentum of fast moving times. Hence, fast life is absolutely a thrill not a thorn at all.

Today there is a never ending rat race of going ahead and achieving immediate success. The cut throat competition is omnipresent in each and every sphere. The very motive of most individuals is to gain name, fame, status and wealth overnight. Fast life is most inevitable to overcome the forces inimical to progress and prosperity. It is of urgent necessity to accelerate the tempo of our concepts and concrete actions. Only by the rapid pace of life, we can win the race against time and unforeseen situations. Not only individuals who have benefited the most from rapid strides, but the world as a whole has achieved unprecedented supremacy. There fore, I would like to say firmly that fast life is completely a thrill, and is unavoidable at the present scenario.

Speed, undoubtedly offers thrill. We are living in the best of times, as also in the worst of times. ‘Sky is the limit’ has become both a motive and a marvel. The need of the hour is to steal a march over others, be they natural phenomena or human hindrances, and register success stories without delay. Passions and pursuits are directed toward tackling many a problem that confronts us. The state of helplessness in the face of colossal upheavals is a thing of the past. Targets and deadlines no longer pose serious challenges, because human beings, with their hearts in ‘proper place’ and minds in ‘meticulous mould’, have learnt to outsmart or outwit them. That is why fast life has become a thrill. What great poet W.H. Davies writes ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare’ is fully a truth.