Chennai Toastmasters Club

I love horror movies

2011-01-16T00:09:00.001+05:30

B G Jett once said “Fear can't hold a candle to unswerving faith, much less muster up the guts to even attempt to blow it out. “Toastmaster of the day, Fellow and future toastmasters and distinguished guests I am going to narrate my experience of how I confronted, fought and overcame my fear which I am sure will inspire you to conquer your own personal fear.

Right from childhood I was never comfortable with the idea of ghost, spirits, the phantoms and invisible. With passage of time , along with development of physical and mental faculties, this fear of the “unknown” also took deep rooted seat in my heart. If there was a horror movie playing on the TV or some kind of spooky serial or even for that matter some kind of mundane discussion centered around spooky characters, I would try to avoid it at all costs.

As a teen I remember How I woke up one night to a clattering sound from the kitchen and stayed up whole night awake because I neither could sum up the courage to go and check out the intruder in the kitchen nor did I want to wake up my family and end up being the laughing point. All through out the night I was wide awake covering myself with a blanket and peeping from its corner and clutching my hockey stick in order to take any evasive action. After spending five sleepless hours on guard I got up early in the morning to check out the intruder in the kitchen was only a cat.

Once during a summer vacation I visited my cousins place in Bangalore. Bowing to peer pressure I decided to watch a horror movie(“Evil dead”) in the night show . Now I feared ghouls and ghosts for sure. But I was not going to allow my cousins the mental satisfaction of knowing that and laughing at me. Mentally I began making strategies and preparing myself for the movie.

On the eventful day we walked in to the theatre and occupied our seats . Being a week day that hall was only partly full. Half an hour into the movie, I was already cursing myself for having taken the challenge. In the last 30 minutes I had kept my eyes open for FULL 120 seconds and I was almost frightened to death at looking at the spooky character on the 70 mm screen . It had pale white teeth with blood oozing from its mouth and a sinister laughter which sent a shiver down my spine. I had never seen such a ghastly face in my life.(a close competition could have been my ex-girlfriend, but she did not have that sinister out of world laughter) I wanted to SCREAM and run for my life but exercised great self control and restraint in staying glued to my seat.

Occasionally I would turn on either side and putting a brave front comment “Excellent screenplay and direction. Only they could have made more frightening but I am thoroughly enjoying it”. Inside of me, I was dead frightened and fervently praying for the ordeal to get over.

During the intermission, I spent a long time at the rest room and mentally prepared to get over the second part of the ordeal by giving self motivating talks. My cousins though seemed to have enjoyed the movie thoroughly (unless they were are also extremely good at acting and putting up a outwardly show.)

The second half of the movie was equally frightening. But I had learnt to adapt myself to my new environment. Slouching on the seat I would rest my chin on the palm of my hand and display a demeanor of extreme interest whereas (on closer observation) I would actually be staring at the headrest of the seat in front of me and would have dug my finger casually into my ear so as to filter out 50% of the frightening noise . I also ran my eyes all around the corner of the screen without actually daring to look inside .This gave an impression to the casual observer that I was fully engrossed in the movie whereas my movie watching was only restricted to watching the corners of the screen

Employing all the above strategies in varying measures , I achieved a personal life milestone of having watched my first(and only) horror movie in a movie hall and coming out ALIVE.

Watching the movie turned out to be turning point in my life. Ever since, I have summed up the courage to watch some more horror movie like Exorcist, The Omen, Psycho et al. The strategy I adopt is simple. Watch the movie on a DVD .Mute the volume. Take a close look at the screen every fifth minute and then read-up the entire movie plot on wikipedia so that you can take part in any horror movie discussion and proudly claim that “I LOVE horror movies”

- Shankar

Musical debacle

2011-01-16T00:04:00.000+05:30

Famous Austrian classical pianist Artur Schnabel ones said “Sunshine can burn you, food can poison you, words can condemn you, pictures can insult you; music cannot punish – only bless.” Toastmaster of the day, Fellow and future toastmasters and distinguished guests, I am sure that Schnabel would be turning in his grave and forced to reconsider his statement had he heard me sing even once in his lifetime!!

It all started when I was in the second year of my engineering college. There was this “girl” in college whom I wanted to impress and realized that If I could adopt one of the three strategies (out-lined below) to have a positive impact upon her.

a) shine in Academics (ruled out considering my perennial aversion to anything remotely linked to knowledge)

b) sports (had always been an ‘outstanding’ sportsman with core competency restricted only to video games)

c) Music (well this was something I could seriously give a try)

After ascertaining that the “girl” was extremely fond of classical music, I summed up the courage to enroll in the local classical music school. My music teacher was octogenarian with long beard, sharp eyes(which luckily remained closed most of the time when he was singing) and his entire wiry frame used to shake during the rendition of a song . Peering through thick glasses he forewarned – “Son, music is a very tough exercise to be adopted with utmost seriousness. Lots of sadhana and riyaaz is required without which pursuing it is a waste of time. “I nodded my head and assured him that I will put my body heart and soul in the pursuit of the girl …oops!!.. music.

On the day following my first music class I started doing riyaaz. After I completed practicing my first music lesson, three of our neighbors started knocking at our door fervently trying to understand whether any calamity had stuck our family. On being apprised that I was only doing my riyaaz, they fervently pleaded that I restrict my music riyaaz to lower volume and consider shifting the timings to evening hours when their noise tolerance levels were much higher. Reluctantly I agreed and pitied them for there inability to appreciate good music.

With passage of time my interests in classical music began to wane. I started attaching as much importance to music lessons as to my school studies. Ignored them both .While I struggled to come to terms with various classical ragas, swara and tal I began to wonder whether there were less painful ways of impressing a girl!! Occasionally the music teacher would enquire whether I am putting required level of sadhana and I confidently nodded my head.

One fateful day, the music teacher conducted a surprise music test. All the music students were suppose to sing few ragas which were already taught in the previous class. Having hardly done any sadhana at home (for the overall well being of my neighbors) I was feeling jittery. I pleaded to my teacher that I may be excused from singing because of a soar throat. In spite of repeated pleas, the teacher insisted that I sing !!!!! (Since light travels faster than sound, I appeared bright to the teacher. My music however was to permanently change his opinion about me)

I started singing “Sa re ga ma “.I got a proof of the quality of my music when the colony dogs also started howling keeping in tune with my song. Feeling proud of owning a sublime voice which could even inspire the canine brethren, I concluded the song and opened my eyes only to see the music teacher’s assistant lying flat on the ground. Looking around I saw my fellow students had dug their fingers firmly inside their ears. (They were obviously lamenting that they could not close their ears with as much ease as they could close their eyes). Taking pity on them for their inability to appreciate good music, I gratefully looked at my music teacher.

Not only had HE reposed confidence on his student by giving him an opportunity to showcase his talent but had also had shown great empathy and consideration by not closing his ears to the flow of sound which was not exactly “music to everybody’s ears”. Tears of gratitude flowed from my eyes on realizing .

But the tears of gratitude stopped midway in their flow when my guru neatly removed couple of cotton buds from both his ears.(Guess years of sadhana has taught him to stay protected from unforeseen unavoidable noise pollution) .On the other hand his assistant who had allowed the “music” to enter his ears for an extended period of time was lying unconscious and was rushed to hospital. The doctors diagnosed acute ear damage and advised her for complete “ear” rest and strictly forbade her from hearing any obnoxious sounds.

Looking back at the incident , I have a hearty laugh at myself. After the music misadventure, I decided to surrender my music career for the greater good of mankind and explore other feasible alternatives to impress the girl. In retrospective I learnt that the best way to impress a girl is to be your natural self without putting up any outward show of sophistication and pretension

- Shankar

History Exam Blues

2011-01-16T00:01:00.003+05:30

Konrad Adenauer once famously quoted that History is a sum total of things that could have been avoided and I could not agree with more than on the day of the mid term History exam

The atmosphere was tense. I could feel butterflies fluttering in my stomach. I was sitting in the thirteenth row of the corner most class room on the third floor of our school and had stared at the question paper 13 times in the last half an hour.(well the number thirteen is a personal favorite ) However history was never a personal favorite and facing the half yearly tests was an ordeal in itself. Looking around I saw my classmates busily filling up their answer scripts. My answer script was as clean as my empty mind.

Staring outside I observed the vast expanse of blue sky and lush green grass covering the ground. Inside the room I heard the sound of the clock ticking every second and a wave of cold spreading through me and sweat passing down the back. Directing my gaze to clean black board I could not help smiling at the sight of my history teacher with ape like face and who seemed to have spent crucial times of his life mugging up history manuals especially when God was distributing brains. I moved my gaze to Anil’s(my exam neighbor) script but the distance between us prevented any form of fruitful knowledge transfer.

Manish the class topper, was busy filling up his answer script as if there were no tomorrow and if my estimates were right he would be asking for an extra paper in the next twenty minutes. I read somewhere that all human being are the same in terms of brain compositions .All have us have about 100 billion nerve cells. But none of my nerve cells had any clue to cracking the history test whereas Manish’s nerve cells were churning out pages after pages of answers in a matter of minutes.

Considering that it took 15 trees to produce the amount of paper that we use to write an single examination, I was mentally cursing Manish for being ecologically unfriendly. I on the other hand was doing my bit to global ecological balance by not even touching the answer script. No wonder somebody has correctly pointed out that school was place where pebbles were polished and diamonds dimmed. That was why I was not feeling too bright myself.

One thing I realized during my school years was that the more studying you did for the exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want and 99% of the examination will be based on the ONE lecture you missed and the ONE book you didn’t read.

Right from childhood I had developed a phobia for History which got accentuated with every new class. The teachers changed, the textbook changed, but the fear found a permanent place in my hearts. I continued to scrape through every year but luck was fast running out. Reading about the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs historical characters made my spirit sag and my soul was tormenting in perpetual pain.

I focused my attention on my question paper for the umpteenth number of time. Two out of four questions were pertaining to the mughal rule in India. Offering a silent prayer to the Almighty(and praying fervently for my history teachers mental health in the aftermath of reading my answer script), I picked up my brand new pen(be it a brain or a pen, I did not believe in regular usage) and in the next one hour I wrote elaborate comments on Mughal rule in India by drawing liberally from the movie “Mughal –e Azaam” and various Amar Chitra Katha books I had read on the lives of Mughal Kings

My answers were expectedly more focused on personal life of Emperor Jahangir and his romantic escapades with Anarkali than on the political/social/economic and cultural aspects of the Mughal rule which was alluded to in the question paper. Well Thinking out of the box had always my forte and I was not going to allow the history exam to curb my creative instincts

Days passed and the history results were announced. To my utter surprise I had managed to scrape through the exam.

Reflecting back on the incident I realized that though I had such a phobia in assimilating a lot of facts/figures (that amount to nothing more, really, than just so many stories) from thick history books but the very same stories when represented in the form of movie or in the form of a comic book help me understand appreciate assimilate and articulate the historical events better and made it look all so easy.

Folks let us remember “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life. The secret to success is to make your vocation your vacation.”

- Shankar

Change

2011-01-15T23:56:00.000+05:30

THREE things in life are inevitable. First is DEATH, second is TAXES. Toastmaster of the day fellow and future toastmasters and distinguished guests I am going to talk about the third and most inevitable thing in life which is CHANGE

Millions of years ago the earth was inhabited by number of big species like the dinosaur, the mammoth, dodo etc. But with passage of time these species could not adapt themselves to the changing environment and gradually became extinct. They failed to come to terms with the changing climatic and ecological conditions. The father of modern evolution Charles Darwin said beautifully “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most RESPONSIVE to CHANGE.”

In every walk of our lives we can observe continuous change taking place, the old paving the way for the new. We are caught up in a perpetual motion of change, swirling all around us, that we will never be able to avoid. Often we fail to perceive change happening in a gradual manner that by time we react it becomes too late.

As a kid I remember a fable about a scientist who put two frogs in two jars .He had filled the first jar with boiling water. When the frog was put inside the jar
it leapt out right away to escape the danger.

The second jar was filled up with cool and pleasant water .The second frog was put inside the jar .The frog was enjoying its stay inside the jar .The scientist then gradually started increase the temperature of the water inside the jar (about a degree every minute) until the water started boiling .The frog was not aware of the change in the temperature until it was too late and it slowly died.
The frog's survival instincts was geared towards detecting sudden changes but failed in adapting against gradual change

About a decade back, the Chennai print media was monopolized by a single newspaper which was the The Hindu.(In fact it had 85% market share ) But over a period of time other papers like Times of India and Deccan Chronicle which constantly reinvented its product offering to the changing tastes of the reader overtook the market. They not only reduced the offer price, but also introduced lots of supplements(page 3 stuff) to the main paper, and have majorly eaten into the market share of The Hindu which sadly did not reinvent itself

One of the major reasons for everlasting success of Amithab Bachchan as an actor has been his ability to keep changing his on screen persona with the need of changing times .If in the seventies and eighties he played roles which embodied rebellion, middle-class anger and anguish in popular Hindi cinema, in recent times he has come with hits like Black and Bhoothnath which is a radical departure from the earlier set of roles played by him but has been in line with the changing needs of modern times. A Parallel may be drawn to Sachin Tendulkar for his seamless ability to transition between Tests , ODI and T20s.

As long as the fear of change is greater than the fear of remaining the same, we will remain the same.In fact we should take a leaf out of the Ekta Kapoor serials .The moment the saas bahu saga takes a dip in the TRP rating , there is a twist in the story.The story takes a twenty year leap with the daughter-in-law playing the role of mother-in-law,mother-in-law donning up the role of grandmother-in-law and grandmother-in-law assuming responsibilities of great grandmother-in-law

Well folks it is one thing to come over here and deliver a speech on change, but it is altogether a different ball game to handle change in real life. Well I am going to draw inspiration from the book “Who moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson .He recommends the following steps to effectively manage change

1) Anticipate change. Since change is a natural part of life, expect things to change fairly often. This prepares you for change and prevents you from getting caught off-guard when it happens.

2) View change as an opportunity for growth. Since growth can't occur without change, look at change as a positive rather than a negative thing. See it as a means of developing personally, improving your circumstances and bettering your life.

3) Be flexible. Make the best of changes you can't prevent, rather than wasting your energy fighting them. Channeling your energy in a positive direction gives you not just a greater sense of empowerment in handling the situation, but also greater control over the final outcome of the change.

Finally I want to conclude by saying that Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

- Shankar

Ice Breaker - Shankar

2011-01-15T23:54:00.001+05:30

When I started preparing the speech, I was under the impression that talking about oneself was the easiest thing to do in the world. However, only when I started penning my thoughts, I realized that my life was so EMPTY J to mention anything. Finally I racked my brains to come up with this content that will go down in my lifetime as the first speech ever made to enlightened group of audience J J

I was born and brought up in the City of Joy - Kolkata and have fond memories of that place.. My dad was working with a private firm and mother was a home maker. I did my schooling and college over there. I miss the laid back way of life that the city offered – be it the taste of rosogollas, the spicy luchi-aloo dum, the sight of Victoria Memorial on a moon lit night, Park street decorated on New years eve.

Albert Einstein once said that two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. There is a personal experience to second this statement.

As a kid, I was instructed by my school teacher that if you want unlimited supply of apples then go and buy an apple, eat the apple but be careful to remove the seeds .Plant them in the ground. Keep sprinkling water in the ground for days together and after a few years you will have a tree which will bear unlimited supply of fruits.

I was not fond of apples but was fond of parrys green wrapper toffee. So I took some 7-8 toffee, carefully removed the wrapper and sowed them in the ground. I kept watering them for days together and was expecting a green sapling to grow .But even after days of diligent watering the sapling refused to sprout out of the ground. I was angry at my school teacher. I was angry at God as well; for being unfair to me.

When I was studying in the fifth standard, I was deeply involved in the chalk piece fighting competition. Once a mishap happened which left an indelible mark in my life. I tried throwing a piece of chalk on school-mate sitting in the first bench. It missed the target and hit the teacher who had his back turned towards us. Unable to determine the source of the chalk piece the angry teacher made the entire class stand on the bench. That day, I realized that if one miss-hit of humble piece of chalk can make forty people stand on a bench for half an hour, then how powerful words coming from brain could alter the course of history of mankind!!!

After completing my Civil Engineering, I realized that I can majorly contribute to mankind by not taking up civil engineering as a professionJ J. Here was a lifetime opportunity to save numerous lives by not constructing a building or a bridge which had a decent possibility of falling down just because it was constructed by an engineer who neither understood his subject nor liked his profession!!!

That is why when a software company came down to campus I happily took up the offer and moved over to Mumbai. I settled comfortably in Mumbai and was getting used to Mumbai way of things. I fell in love in Vada-pav, Pav bhaji, Dhokla,lassi etc.

With passage of time, I realized that my actual interest does not lie in coding and testing software. So I did my MBA and shifted over to the Banking industry. At present I am working with a private sector bank as a relationship manager. For the last couple of years I have been enjoying my stint in this sector. Apart from profession I spend reasonable amount of time in the gym to tone-up my body and burn extra calories .I also love reading light Fiction books and enjoy Hindi film Music. My ambition in life is start of a micro credit institution which will make finance available to the poorest of poor, so that (over a period of time) poverty may be eradicated

All along I have spoken about my life. I have a death wish. I want to die the way my Grand-pa died, blissfully in his sleep and not like passengers of the car he was driving who were all shouting and yelling at their death.

- Shankar

Dreadly Devotion

2011-01-15T23:52:00.002+05:30

A star requires great looks, good height, versatile acting, six-pack body. And if one has none of the above he will become superstar Rajini says film maker Ram Gopal Verma. May I request those unfortunate souls who are worshippers of Rajinikanth to raise your hands? I sincerely ask you folks, have you lost your senses? How could you admire somebody who doesn’t match any of the least standards to be called as a “HERO”? What is there in Him for you to venerate him as a God and put him in such a high pedestal ? I need an answer. Right now. (Assuming somebody will answer.... will have a back up statement if somebody does not answer)

A very pleasant good evening to all the toastmasters and guests present here. Look at his face; look at his emotions while answering me. Today I am going to talk exactly about this. Hero worship is a dreadly Devotion to our heroes. I would have reacted in the same way had somebody asked me these questions. I am an ardent fan of Rajinikanth too.

From bus conductor to a super star, the rags to riches story of Rajinikanth is well known. Today from San Francisco to Saidepet, from Melbourne to Mylapore, from North India to South India there are people who crave for Rajinikanth. Robert De Niro or Al Pacino who are Bollywood actors and Academy award winners do not enjoy such a cult status in spite of their numerous achievements. Even our North Indian cousins do not worship the Badshah of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachan as we South Indians worship Rajinikanth. This leads to many questions and debates.

First, do we worship only Rajinikanth? If TamilNadu witnessed Rajinikanth fever since late 1970s, it was M. G. Ramachandran, MGR, who was ‘THE’ hero of Tamilnadu till then. MGR also rose from a life of poverty and later attained a cult status. He dominated not just the silver screens but almost tiny little heart of the people. In Andhra Pradesh it was N.T Ramaroa and later Mega Star Chiranjeevi. In Karnataka it was actor Dr. Rajkumar. All of them did do-gooder movies, smashing villains, helping the poor, fighting against corruption and gave us hope for a utopian society. This shows that we worship different heroes at different times and not just Rajinikanth. This leads to the second question.. do we worship only Cinema heroes?

The crowd that comes to a man’s funeral is the true ovation what he receives for his deeds. When C.N Annadurai, who was fondly called as Arignar Anna, died more than 15 million people attended the funeral. It was even recorded even in the Guiness book of records. Anna was definitely a hero to the masses albeit he was remotely associated to movies. Major Saravanan, the first official to be killed in the Kargil war, is now called the ‘Hero of Batalik’ in his birth place Tiruchirappalli. There is a historical monument now built for the Batalik Hero in his home town. This effectively answers that we not only worship cinema heroes but we do love, respect and worship leadership and valour too.

Now let me come to the third and the most important question. Why is hero worship more prevalent in South India? To understand this, friends, let me tell you that our future is built on the present and our present is built on the past.

Purananuru, a book of Sangam period, among many other things talks about the traditions followed in the land. It talks about worship of hero stones. Hero Stones are memorial stones erected during the ancient days in memory of a hero who martyred his life for noble cause. The men who died while protecting and defending the cattle of a tribe, were honoured by constructing hero stones with the man’s picture carved on it. People worshipped them.

Archaeological surveys have found more than 600 hero stones in South India. This is how people started worshipping another human being.

As days passed, from tribal life people started settling in villages. Now the heroes changed, but the worship continued. If you had got a chance to visit any village in Tamil Nadu you might see a statue with a man and a horse in entrance of the villages. This man is called various names, Ayyanar, Karuppana swamy,madhurai veeran and they are considered guardians of the village.

These men who lived and protected the village and died in the war. It is believed that whenever crime arises, he comes riding in a white horse to save the poor and the needy, and to establish justice. It is also believed that He is a fierce warrior who never forgives those who sinned or those who commit crimes. It is believed that He shoos away all evils and devils from entering the village. Through these songs it was imbued in the minds of the people that he is a man to be worshipped.

Later as time progressed great rulers like Raja Raja Cholan or Rajendran were venerated as Gods. Abaya Kula Sekaran - The one who protects , Cholendra Simhar - (Chola Lion), Sanda Parakiramar - The famous one who performs valiant deeds in the battlefield.

Now put all this information and try to look at it in a same perspective. The hero stones, the Karrapa swamis, the kattabomans, they all were do-gooders fighting against the bad and evil. This is exactly what MGR or Rajini Kanth or any other hero does on the screen. The tradition of worshipping continued from real life heroes to reel life heroes. People love the brave fights, the romance and the dialogues, his good heart to serve the poor and our people identified their protectors with those cine heroes. And so the worship continues.

These are not justifications to the current trend of hero worship but are just reasons as why these heroes are worshipped alike by educated and uneducated, by the rich and the poor, by villagers and NRIs. Will this trend of dreadly devotion subdue in the future with increasing reasoning power and education? Or does this dreadly devotion going to couple with the current marketing muscles and going to reach even more heights? We have no conclusive answer. We have to wait and watch. Till then our heroes will shoot with fingers, kill two birds in one shot and they will divide even by zeroes. Over to Toastmaster.

- TM Sadayappan

My Facial appendage

2011-01-15T23:50:00.000+05:30

Oh there, on our upper lip,

Hairy and prickly, and moves as we speak,

It wiggles to the left,

It wiggles to the right,

Free and uncaring to all worldly things.

Oh there, on our upper lip.

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters of the day and dear guests good evening. This beautiful poem of Teah Abdullah talks about that little appendage on the face of the men, most of the men. Moustache.

Throughout the pages of history you can find one thing in common among the extraordinary individuals and great personalities. All their faces were decorated with the manliest of all marks.. Moustache....

Can you imagine a clean shaven Hitler, a plain faced Einstien? Perhaps not. But if you dare..(I will be showing some pictures)

This is The Fuehrer – Adolf Hitler...this is Hitler

This is Albert Einstein – Scientist..This is Einsten..a clown.

Moustaches are part of men’s identities as much as their names are. I too had one. Friends let me share with you ..My tryst with moustache....

I was 14 when the first signs of masculinity popped out on my face. I was extremely delighted to see in mirror that little hair on my upper lip. It was my pride. I nurtured it with great care. But my velocity of hair growth was a matter of concern. It grew just by nano-meters per month. A wise friend suggested shaving off the moustache so that it will grow faster. It was on Feb 2^nd 1998, for the first time I took the razors in my hand. You might wonder how I remember the date. It was the day when my elder sister got married. Marriages happen on auspicious day and so I thought if I shave off my moustache on an auspicious day, may be my velocity of hair growth would shoot up to some micro meters if not centimetres. And it worked. My moustache started growing.

Years rolled by. It was 2003. I was in my third year in College, in Pilani. And I now sported, what is called a copstash standard moustache. That day was a breezy Sunday in the month of November and winter had just arrived in Pilani. I was enjoying my afternoon siesta when I was woken up by a horrendous noise outside my hostel room. It was my wing-mate practicing his guitar lessons. He was deeply buried into his lessons. I tried my best to explain how awful it sounded, but he wouldn’t listen. I continue my futile argument for 5 more minutes, but he wouldn’t budge. After some more argument we came to an agreement. It was ‘He would play a tune in his Guitar to the first guy who would cross us in the wing and if that guy does not identify the song correctly, my friend said he would stop playing guitar forever and by chance if that guy identifies the song correctly I had to lose my moustache.

I agreed with the hope that it was humanly impossible for anybody to guess my friend’s guitar notes. In a couple of minutes a nerd, a geek crossed our way and we pulled him and made him the judge. To my surprise that oddball guessed the tunes very correctly. I was caught off guards. My guitarist friend now shouted on top of his voice ‘Guys..Saday has lost his bet and we are going to shave off his moustache.’ I don’t know where these guys were till then, but now like a swarm of bees kicked out of a bee hive, ten of them reached the spot, surrounded me, carried to my room and dumped me on my bed and took away not my moustache but half of my moustache. Along with it went my pride, my honour, my love. I stood in front of the mirror like a fallen soldier. I felt naked without my moustache.

The next day, I silently sneaked into my class, with my handkerchief on my nose, pretending to have a bad running nose. Though I tried my best, the cat was out of the bag. Thanks to my wing mates sitting in the class. I thought it was better to rush to the hostel than to sit for the next hour and being mocked at. But before I could leave, a sweet voice behind me whispered into my ears.. ‘Saday..you look better without a mush..’ One more girl nodded in agreement.

What ? I look better ? and that too without a mush..How many monkey tricks I have done to impress these girls and now they say I look better without a moustache. I heartily thanked my guitarist friend now. The event was indeed a blessing in disguise. I now realised that hairs above the lips may give a macho man image but it might not appeal the fairer sex. No more moustaches after that.

But now after all these years, I now think the time has come for me to embrace again the noblest form of facial hair. You know why?

Oh dear Moustache, I kill you everyday..But you visit me the very next day.

Those on the top have eloped with the wind,

Baring my head and leaving me dead...

But you again on my upper lip..

Would make me handsome and chic..

Oh my moustache..

I still in love with you..

Over to Toastmaster of the Day..

-TM Sadayappan

4 3 2 1 GO - Disect

2011-01-15T23:48:00.001+05:30

4 3 2 1 Go…That’s in the Olympic race. Formula One race. That is in our street level races too. But I know a race in which it is only 4 3 and Go. A race in which all of us participated just a few minutes ago and will be participating in another 2 hours from now. Friends, I am talking about our traffic in the roads.
There is a huge variety in our traffic. We have our overloaded buses which are nothing but mobile leaning towers of Pissa. We have our two wheelers defying all laws of Physics and squeezing in between the 4 inches gap they find between two cars. We have our auto rickshaw drivers, who are pioneers in zig-zag traffic. We cut the lanes more faster than a knife would cut a butter. There is never a straight stretch of traffic in India. Traffic meanders. Not to forget about our mode of communication in the traffic ie the horns. Kiing please move..kiing kiing watch out, king.. thank you…kkiiiing get out of my way. Honking is definitely an art in India. But there is something more the traffic could tell us if we wait to listen. Traffics are not just signals and vehicles. It is a place where hundreds of us mingle so easily. There is no other palce where so many people from different walks of life – different ages, castes, religion, gender mingle so freely. It is in fact a microcosm of society itself.
I strongly recommend all our economists to the study the class structure of our society from the roads rather than collecting data from some meaningless surveys. If you find somebody with both the hands on the steering he is from a middle class and the car is his life time possession. If you find somebody with one hand on the steering and one hand with a cigarette, he is well to do man from upper class and he is driving one of his cars. If you find somebody with one hand on the cell phone another hand alternating between the music system and a laptop he is our software engineer. He is nouveau rich. He made quick money in no time and he is just out of middle class and knocking the doors of upper class.
Not just class structure, you can see the religiosity of our people even in the roads. On a Monday morning, in a busy road, a car travelling in front of me suddenly slowed down for no reasons. I thought there was a dog or cow blocking the door or some mechanical problem to the car. But when I glided past by the slow moving car I found the driver was doing…(Praying) and there was a temple on his left side. My fellow citizens, it is unlikely that God will appear in the middle of the road and listen to your prayers amidst the buzzing horns.
Traffic today has become a way of our lives. Nobody can escape from it. But there is no single answer for the question as “Why do we have such a traffic culture in India ?”. Is it because of the huge population? Is it because of the poor quality roads? Or the poor quality of the people who build the roads ? We were subjugated for a long time in the past. Has this chronic disempowerment in the past, leading us to exercise all our freedoms on the road ? If you turn the Chennai city upside down and shake very hard you could find more number of vehicles falling down. Is it because of this increasing number of vehicles causing the traffic? In Newyork there are only 5 modes of transportation cars, trucks, bicycles, pedestrians and motorcycles. But there are 48 modes of transportation in Delhi or Chennai. Is that the reason ? Or is it because of the selfish indiscipline drivers? The answer is complicated.

Somebody asked French Philospher Blassie Pascal a solution for this traffic menace. He gave an impressive two word solution. “Stay Home”.
That might not be possible in this era, what could be the possible solution? Again there is not a single answer.
Increasing the public modes of transportation, having dedicated corridors for busses, widening the roads, having more signals, introducing strict rules are some of the solutions. But none of these solutions is in our hands. As a common man is there anything we can do about the traffic? Yes there is.
“Enjoy the traffic” and “Follow the rules”.
Won’t you enjoy the traffic, if I say, traffic can make you a better person. Traffic makes your job easier at workplace. Traffic can make you good speaker in the toastmasters. And in my case traffic makes me a good mridangam player. The most precious thing which many of us don’t have in today’s busy world is the time. Traffic and traffic signals gives you that time. Time to retrospect ourselves, time to plan for the day’s work, time to rehearse your speech for toastmasters, which I always do. The signals give me enough time to practice for an entire thani avarthanam in my handle bars.
The second. “Follow the rules”. I could hear many saying to yourselves that this is not for me. I always follow the rule. Even I follow the rules rigorously and religiously. But it so happened one day, I was hurrying for a wedding reception in Vadapalani . I located the marriage hall, in the other side of the road. I was looking for a U turn. There came a turn with the symbol. (No u turn). True to the saying "The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out”, I looked if there was a traffic police and when I found none, I made the U turn. I convinced myself that it is ok to violate the traffic once in a while when in we are in hurry. Soon I realised that I was mistaken. Not that I was caught by a police, but I landed in a wrong marriage hall. There were 4 in the same road. Had I not taken the wrong U turn, I would have gone to the correct one. When we are in a hurry or crisis our character falls back upon ourselves.
Friends, let us strive to follow the rules any time and every time. Let us wait for the 1 in our traffic signals. Let us make our roads a better place to travel.

TM Sadayappan

A wee cuppa Tea!

2011-01-15T23:46:00.000+05:30

For the next 7 minutes I am going steal yourself from you and transport you to a faraway land to have a wee cuppa tea with me. Toasmasters… I wish you a pleasant Good Evening and do get ready to join me in my journey!!!
“When the bold branches bid farewell to rainbow leaves – Welcome wool sweaters” penned poet Cybrill. Winter has just arrived in Pilani, a small but very beautiful village in picturesque Rajasthan, where I did my under-graduation. The thought of long nights and short days, extended hours under the thick blankets really thrilled me and my friends. Nevertheless, the thought of the nearing semester exams dampened the spirit. As we were sharing all these thoughts sitting on a parapet wall of our hostel on a breezy evening, a geek among us bounced on his feet and said “Why don’t we kick start the winter with a short one night trek to Khetri fort?” Wow! What an idea? All ten of us quickly agreed in unison, as it was a golden chance to have fun outside the campus before the endless test series starts and also a great opportunity to skip the insipid item that is served in plates called mess food.
We moved in lightning speed to get things arranged. Blankets, torch, water, snacks, some money - arranged in no time. Plans charted, routes confirmed and we all soon reached Khetri in auto rikshaws.
If Rajasthan is itself a colourful open air art gallery, the Shekawati region of Rajasthan in which Khetri and Pilani are located is definitely its masterpiece. Khetri is a panoramic spot located 20 kms from Pilani and it is well known for its fort built by its erstwhile rulers in one of its hills. The abandoned fort on top of the hill was always a favourite hide out for the students.
We started to ascend the hill, at 10 pm in the night. The sky was adorned with crescent shaped moon surrounded by twinkling and twisting stars. The pristine beauty was a feast to our eyes. As we walked in the isolated path leading to the fort, we started our intellectual debate on tangled webs and infinite mysteries. Stories of tangled webs of love going rounds in the college and on infinite mysteries like how that particular professor’svoice could exactly match a lullaby.
An hour passed by and we found ourselves at a crossroad. As it comes in Robert Frost poem “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and of course we could not travel both”. Right or left, this or that..As we were thinking, a Michel Jackson among us, a dancer friend came forward and told us, ‘Hey folks!! I have been to this place with my dance club friends. It is this direction’. Like a pack of canines that follow their alpha male without any question, we followed our Michael Jackson without any objection. We started it all again. A loves B, B loves C, but and A and C have a crush on D. X made a job there and Y made a job here but Y gets more pay than X.
By the time we gave rest to our chatter boxes, the minute hand in our watches had completed a 360 degree turn. It was half past midnight now. But little did we realize that the fort instead of coming nearer to us looked far more far away from us than one hour before. To our surprise we found ourselves amidst an array of huts and farm fields. In our enthusiasm in untangling the webs and unlocking the mysteries we had reached a village instead of Khetri fort. Our Michael Jackson now said ‘Sorry friends. It was actually left…’. For the next two minutes all nine of us became Goundamini and he became Senthil. We kicked him hard.
When the commotion was over and before we could think our next plan of action, we saw a man just 200 meters away from us, standing and staring at us. The man looked like Gandhiji’s shadow. Gandhiji in his 50s. Lean, short, a big turban over his face and he had a stick in his hand. One of my friend, ‘Guys..he looks like the village headman.’ Another said…”No no..he looks like village watchman”. Another frightened soul said that “Whoever he might be he is going to think us a bunch of robbers trying to loot the village and soon we will be surrounded by villagers and they might beat us”. My stomach was in knots.
The tiny figure was soon standing in front of us. But we were totally relieved not by the question he asked but by the way he asked us. He asked us “Who we are and what were we doing at this hour of the night in a village”. There was an element of ‘concern’ in his voice and ‘sympathy’ in his tone. We narrated our story in a half baked hindi. He told us that the fort is 2 more hours from the village. It was almost 1 in the midnight and we were too exhausted to go either to the fort or back to Pilani.
The man understood our predicament and suggested that we spend the night in the village and get back to Pilani the next day. After an exhausting 3 hour walk, we relished the idea.
The man led us to his house. It was 10x10 mud hut with thatched roof top. There was a big empty space in front of the hut. The man quickly cleaned the space and used his wits to prepare bedding for us. He pulled out some sacks made of coir and made a simple but beautiful bed for us. We were overwhelmed by the man’s graciousness. We had the food what we brought with us and went to bed. An unknown peace engulfed me as I closed my eyes. By the time I woke up, the scenes had changed. The magnificent couple of night and the crescent had been replaced with the royal couple of day and electrifying orange. It was time to get back to Pilani.
As we prepared to descend, the man requested that we had tea in his house. A glance at his house could tell anybody that he might not have enough resources for making tea for 10 of us. We hesitated. But he insisted. He quickly milked his goat. His little son collected all the empty water bottles from us and cut them into two pieces and made disposable cups out of it. Soon his wife served us hot tea made of goat’s milk. We had the tea, thanked the man and started descending the hill. There was absolute silence now. Perhaps the tea, mixed with affection and love had put all of us to silence.
That little cup of tea made me question myself.
“When was the last time I enjoyed such hospitality from somebody unknown? When was the last time I was so kind and gentle to a stranger? Did Gandhiji say India lives in its villages or Human beings in India live in villages? Has anonymity become the way of life in our cities? Do we still have the spirit of humanity in us?”
Years have rolled by since I had that cup of tea. But the questions remain only as questions without any answer.
Over to toast master.
- TM Sadayappan

Ice Breaker - Sadayappan

2011-01-15T23:42:00.001+05:30

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and dears guests.Good evening. All of you present here had to come to this club, register yourself, attend the meetings and then earn the title ToastMasters before your name. But I am a born Toast Master. Wonder how? (pause) I am Tirupnandal Murugesan Sadayappan, TM. Sadayappan, presenting my icebreaker speech today.

Once somebody asked me, “What is the meaning of your name?” I told with great enthusiasm, it means somebody who has more hair and it is another name of Lord Shiva. I need not tell you what his reaction could have been. He gave me sarcastic smile. My hair is receding as fast as the glaciers in the Himalayas. There is not an iota of relation between me and my name and this is what they all “Life’s little ironies”

I was born and brought up in Trichirappalli. I had a wonderful childhood along with my two elder sisters. Being the last one in the family definitely makes family nothing but an earlier heaven. I had great teachers in school and made good friends. But won’t you agree with me, if I say challenges are what make life interesting?(pause)

The biggest ever challenge of my life came in the form of college. I got admission from BITS,Pilani Rajasthan. To somebody who had never been even to Chennai, going to a place which is 2500kms away from your hometown was really a herculean task. But then I was very firm in my decision to join BITS.

I landed in Pilani on July 29^th, 2000.First came the cultural shock, in the form of language, dressing sense, food habits, the weather and more. To be amidst all the metropolitan born kids with a fluent language in the tip of their tongue was definitely difficult for me. So, I preferred to be silent during the initial days. Before I could come out of this shock, came the second one in the form of academics. I went to BITS for a science degree hoping to make a dual degree with BE Computer Science, which is allotted based on your first year performance.

But my hopes dwindled when I got marks of my first test series. It was 7/60 in Thermodynamics, 4/60 in Physics. I would better stop here. Other subjects are even worse. I called my mother and told her that I am ruined and I want to get back to Trichy. My mother listened to me very patiently and asked me to maintain my cool. A week later I received a letter again from my mother. It was not one page or two page letter. It was more than 10 pages. She had written about her own life experiences, inspiring stories of great leaders, how to face challenges, how to win friends and more. I read it, re-read the letter many, many times. No looking back after that. I made a dual with BE computer science, finished my college, made a wonderful job and landed in Bangalore. Great job, I liked it and the company liked me. I was well ahead on the target of a 1234 life. 1 wife 2 kids 3 bed room flat and 4 wheeler.

If challenges make life interesting, dreams gives the spirit to your soul and makes life even more interesting. One fine day to everybody’s surprise I resigned my job and went to Delhi pursue my dream of becoming a civil servant.(I guess TM Subadra also has a similar dream). My friends questioned me, colleagues warned me but I was yet again, firm in my decision. My parents and sisters gave me all the support I needed. I tried my best, but I miserably failed in the first three attempts. Then came my last chance. It was ‘Do or Die’ for me. I learned from my mistakes of my previous attempts and then gave my final one with my best preparations. But life is not always like a movie with happy ending. It was an anti-climax in my case. I missed my boat yet again. It was just 4 months ago. I felt numb, weak and depressed. I was able to accept success with alacrity but not failure. I lost my spirits. I was wandering without any clue as what to do next. If I could say so, I was in the crossroads of my life.At this juncture, one day, I saw a roadside hawker selling peanuts and groundnuts. A thought struck like lightening to me. What is the hope that he would sell all his peanuts by the end of the day? And even if he is able to sell all of it, will he be able to make any profit? I now realized every moment shall pass and life moves on hope. I realized that becoming a civil servant was a means to an end and not an end in itself. I can still serve the country by various other means. From then, it was a fresh beginning to me. I made a wonderful job again, joined toastmasters and at this moment I think I have regained my lost spirits. And now looking for a bigger, better and brighter future. Over to toastmaster!!!

-TM Sadayappan

Chicken Tikka Pizza and Shaadi.com

2011-01-15T23:40:00.001+05:30

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and dear guests, good evening.

Chicken Tikka Pizza and Shaadi.com ? JIs that a topic for toastmaster? Has this guy directly jumped out of a lunatic asylum? J

TM--------- Can you please join me on stage? (As she/he comes to the stage)

What are you wearing today? (I will be calling somebody wearing jeans with kurtha)

Thank you TM--------.

Is there any relation with her/his attire and topic? Can somebody guess? ---------Yes Jean is Modern and Kurtha is Indian. So is the topic, Chicken tikka is Indian and Pizza is modern. Shaadi i.e, marriage is our tradition and .com is modern.

Yes friends, I am going to talk about the tussle that happens at every age. The tussle between tradition and modernisation, which happened in the past, which is happening right before us and which will continue in the future.

But what is tradition? And what is modernisation? Tradition is something which is handed over by every generation to the next generation. Modernisation on the other hand is the process of becoming modern. Modern in terms of technology, education, economy and more importantly our thoughts.

Today, are we becoming entirely modern aping the west or are we still clinging to our traditions? The answer is neither. Then what is happening in our society now? I could see two parallel processes emerging out of this tussle between tradition and modernity. First is Indianisation of modernity(Chicken tikka pizza) and the second is Modernisation of Indian tradition(shaadi.com). I would say they are two sides of the same coin.

Let me begin with Indianization of modern tradition.

Indianisation of English is a reality now and it can never be overlooked. A couple of weeks ago one of the leading English newspaper reported in its first page that “ The bandh called by opposition was peaceful in Tamilnadu“ Is -------(eg Bandh) a English word? We have not just introduced new words to English, but haven’t we heard people saying “Are you coming or not?”, ”Isn’t it no?” which are nothing but a literal translation of Indian expressions.

Not just English, we are Indianizing foreign goods and products as well. Gone are the days when any foreign product was seen with awe and reverence. Today for any product to survive in India it has to be Indianized. For instance, the Yum restaurants, which own the famous KFC brand, opened its operations in India mid-90s, immediately after the Indian market was liberalized. But they soon wound their operation. They entered the Indian market with the assumption that any foreign good is easily marketable in India. They learnt their lesson in a hard way. Their tastes were too alien to Indian taste buds. Only in 2004, after reinventing themselves they entered the Indian market again. Now they included a whole lot of Indian items in their menu. A recent ad says ‘Introducing Veg Zinger – Juicy Spicy Crunchy-100% Veg’. Imagine 100% Veg in KF –Chicken ?? J We made it happen.

Let me reason out as why is this Indianization happening. This is because of our spirit of accommodation. If we could accommodate people speaking different languages, of different races and culture why not modernity? “If the English become Indianized, we can accommodate them..” quote-unquote, said Mahatma Gandhi in Hind Swaraj in 1908. Let me extrapolate it to English language or KFC or anything modern. We are Indianizing modernity to accommodate it.

Let met move on to the other side of the story. That is modernisation of Indian tradition. Vint Serf, the father of internet and Johannes Guttenburg the inventor of printing press would be baffled to know that internet and newspapers are now playing the role of traditional match makers. (I will pick up the newspaper and read out a matrimonial column). JWe have not just privileged banking, but privileged matrimony as well. Shaadi.com or Bharat Matrimony provides privileged logins, details of prospective brides and grooms, chat facilities and what not.

In fact, we have invented a new form of marriage i.e neither love marriage nor arranged marriage. It is luv cum arranged marriage. To be love marriage it has to be between two individuals but in India marriage happens not just between two individuals but between two families. JSo our marriages are predominantly either arranged or love cum arranged marriages.

To illustrate the phenomenon of modernisation of our tradition let me give you another example. Joint families are a part of our tradition. Today nuclear family is the norm. But don’t we visit our grandparents frequently? Don’t we consult our elders for any important decision of our lives? Do any important events in our family like marriage or death happen without our extended family members? The traditional joint family has now modernised to joint-ness. We are structurally nuclear but functionally still joint.

But why is this modernisation of tradition happening? Because, tradition is not just thing of the past. It still has its contemporary legitimacy. And moreover, there can never be a linear change from tradition to modernity. It is based on the past we build the future.

Thus tradition and Modernity are neither contradictory nor exclusive. Individually neither of them is adequate to meet the needs of the society. At any given period of history, it is the combination of the two which has really served the society.

So yesterday it was bread pakkoda and marriage brokers,

Today it is chicken tikka pizza and shaadi.com

Tomorrow it might be tinned frozen idli and e-marriages. The tussle will continue…

- TM Sadayappan

Happy Composting

2011-01-15T23:37:00.001+05:30

You can do it in your balcony! You can do it in your garden! You can even do it on your roof-top terrace.

Fellow Toastmasters, it is NOT what you think; neither is it some silly campaign on a social networking site. I am here to talk about humble compost - so humble, in fact, that I had to risk a mysterious title and a risque opening, just to keep you seated until his moment.

Anything that was once alive will, in time, turn into compost. In fact, by definition,compost is decomposed organic matter. Now - I am deeply aware that that sounds really gross - but compost is anything but. It smells like the first rain-shower, takes its colour after dark chocolate, and tastes like the brick walls you licked when you were a toddler.

Decomposition of dead organic matter is inevitable; it is its only destiny. Composting begins the moment you pluck that juicy fruit from the tree, or the moment you uproot that stalk off mint or coriander. You and I, all of us, are going to become compost one day. It is a part of the cycle of life, a phenomenon that breaks down toxic, noxious dead matter into nutritious, aromatic compost that i turn supports and nurtures new life. We cannot stop or reverse this cycle of life - but we CAN and MUST harness it to our, and more importantly, to mother nature’s advantage.

The nice thing is that compost is extremely easy to make at home. Because there are tools, ingredients, preparation and cooking time involved, the wild chef in me is begging to treat the method as a RECIPE - so here we go:

For tools you will need: One square foot of outdoor space, three stacking containers with lids - about the size of a medium sized bucket, and a small garden fork.

For ingredients you will need greens and browns - more on that in a minute. You will mix these two in roughly equal quantities and I promise you your recipe cannot go wrong.

Now on to preparation:

As and when you cook, simply separate vegetable and fruit peels, skins, seeds, cores and other discards, instead of dumping them in your trash bin,simply dump them in your compost bin. Almost all organic waste matter that exits your kitchen comprises the green portion of ingredients. Now we need some browns - these can be dried leaves from around your garden, and if these are not available, shredded paper will also do. Just cover up the greens with the browns - this is all you have to do on a daily basis. Once a week, pay your compost bin a little visit armed with your garden fork and just toss all the contents around for aeration.

Finally, on to cooking time -

It takes about 3 months for the complete decomposition cycle to turn waste into compost. A family of 4 typically takes 3 months to fill up 3 buckets. At the end of three months, the first bucket can be harvested. Just spread the compost around in your garden or in your potted plants.

That’s it! You are done! It really is that simple. You are all now expert composters - all thanks to my fool-proof recipe.

But recipes do not allow opportunities to discuss anything else other than method, so I’d like to take a minute to tell you why you must compost at home. If you really think that I am encouraging you to compost because I want you to have free soil enhancer, then I have COMPLETELY missed my mark.

Consider this - if you start composting today, you will be diverting 60% - I repeat - 60% of your household waste away from landfills. IMAGINE 60% fewer stinky garbage trucks. IMAGINE a 60% smaller Trash Mountain at the landfill.

Composting is the most easiest and effective ways for a community to make a humongous positive impact on the environment. THAT'S why you should start composting. TODAY.

In summary: We now know that composting is free, super-easy and the most effective way to put in your two-cents to save mother earth. I can personally testify that it is NOT the dirty, stinky, pest-infested, labor-intensive chore you imagine it to be. Today, for a few hundred rupees, you can buy good-looking, tall, dark and handsome composting bins that you can proudly display even at your front door. All this leaves you with pretty much no excuses left but to try composting at home today.

Just do the right thing.

Happy composting!

- Deepa Bharatkumar

Ice Breaker - Deepa Bharathkumar

2011-01-15T23:35:00.001+05:30

Why are introductions necessary? What significance do they hold for you? What would it be like, if we all went about our daily lives, making friends, conducting business, even building friendships or relationships without a proper introduction?

Fellow and future Toastmasters, as I prepared for my project 1 speech, I could not help but ponder upon these questions and their answers. I had to keep reminding myself that I am spinning my wheels on the muddy whys of the issue; that, in order to make forward progress on my project, I really need to shift my focus to the HOW of the question. FOCUS on the HOW.

SO - How does one deliver a perfect or proper introduction? What are its components?

Its pretty boring, usual, routine, mundane stuff if you really think about it. It comprises of some background or history, your current situation, family, education, career information, maybe even dreams, ambitions and goals if you are bold and extroverted enough to share them.

AND YET - Every ice-breaker is unique and fascinating at various psychological levels. Is it not?

Well, WELCOME to my version of - “ “ THE ICEBREAKER” “ And make of it what you will - as I know you will.

I am an architect by profession - that is, I design buildings and spaces for a living. My husband and I founded a firm called Architecture By Design back in December 2009. Our office is in Egmore, not far from here. I am very happy to share that our fledgling company is already very busy designing some very exciting projects.

On a more personal note: I am married to a most wonderful man. He is as wonderful as can be - if you know what I mean ;) We are the proud parents of two delightful little boys, seven and three. We live in the Santhome area in the house that my husband grew up in. As a family, though, we have only lived in Chennai for a few short months. Last year, we made a big move here from Seattle, Washington, in the United States, where our children were born and where we had attended university, worked and lived for a decade.

As for the moving experience and re-adjustment to life in Chennai, I decided, was fodder enough for a separate speech project.

I was born and raised in Pune by my parents, along with a younger brother. Together, we enjoyed a blessed childhood full of play, adventure and sibling rivalry. We continue to share a very close bond to this day.

Marathi is, I am very proud to say, my beloved mother tongue. Although I speak the language fluently and probably love it even more, I tend to think, speak and write better in English. I suspect this has got something to do with the smacks I received on my knuckles while at Convent School, every single time a Marathi or Hindi word slipped out of my mouth.

I do not speak Tamil AT ALL. The only people I dare to speak to Tamil are auto drivers and household helpers - in other words, people who are ill-positioned to laugh out loud. Nonetheless, I do detect a subtle change in their facial expressions every single time I attempt Tamil, but I have learnt to continue on bravely - they have probably taught me an important lesson or two in Toastmastering!

In my leisure time, which I lately have little to none of, I love to go hiking, biking, climbing, mountaineering, camping - anything that gets me out of my cell phone’s reception zone, anywhere where there are no walls within sight, real or psychological. I also enjoy wind surfing and horse riding, in fact, I have been an equestrian coach in my yesterlife. In the US, I used to ski in the winter months, but that sport is going to be terribly difficult to pursue here in Chennai. And, I think I have recently found a hobby that will keep me well-fed, busy, fit and most importantly out of peoples’ hair after my retirement - I have recently taken to gardening!

Speaking of retirement brings me to a topic I have been avoiding all along - AGE! I am on the downhill side of my thirties and my age train is hurtling towards the forties, I can feel several Gs in its acceleration. To that train I say - I have never felt younger, or better.

To summarise, I am an architect, a womans entrepreneur, a wife, mother of two, daughter, sister, an adventure loving outdoor enthusiast, and last but not the least - a brand-spanking new TOASTMASTER!

Now that I have broken the proverbial ice, I’d like to welcome you aboard as I embark upon my Toastmastering journey. I look forward to your friendship, encouragement and feeback, and I promise you a generous helping of the same in return.

Coming back to why I think introductions are indispensable: personally, I really enjoy making intricate mental maps of peoples backgrounds, professions, mother tongues, past flames, what have you, and just that, for me, is reason enough for a “proper” introduction.

- Deepa Bharathkumar

Desperate Lives

2011-01-15T23:31:00.003+05:30

She walked into my office one day, bright, confident, eager. Her clothes were immaculate, her high heels the perfect match to her handbag, and her swung in a beautifully-styled cut, marred by a little odd tuft near her forehead. She had cleared the interview with flying colours and as I was wrapping up, I casually asked her what happened to her hair. In a rush of words and broken sobs the sordid story of her marriage came out: her husband was an alcoholic, charming and witty by himself, but transformed to a monster when drunk. In one such fit he had thrown her to the floor and torn her hair out by the roots.

What, you may well ask, does this “trivial” happening have to do with us Toastmasters

Gathered here to have a good time every Sunday? And I ask in return, Toastmaster of the day and fellow Toastmasters, does this not concern us? Why are we not taking cognizance of the spiraling incidence of domestic violence, of physical, sexual or psychological abuse against women, against children and even against geriatric parents? Shouldn’t we be aware of happenings in the society that we are a part of, and shouldn’t we be doing something about it?

Domestic violence is a crime that cuts across caste, class, color and creed, found in every culture and in every community in the world. The incidence of this horrifying, almost invisible, crime is growing in epidemic proportions across the globe.

Women have always been regarded as the inferior sex – ‘under her father’s protection first, then her husband’s, and finally her son’s’. How ironic that women have today to fear this very guise of protection.

A woman goes into her marital home with dreams and stardust in her eyes – it takes very little to keep that stardust shining – and as little to destroy it.

What are the main causes of spouse abuse? Pressure of work is cited as the main reason. Really? Then why not hit the boss? Or your colleagues? Why hit your wife? Because she can’t hit back.

Drug, alchohol or other substance abuse ranks next – and here we have a pattern of addiction that causes irrational behavior, but which can be controlled by medication and counseling.

The worst is the sociopath or the psychopath, who tortures for pleasure. If you think these belong to the movies, my friends, you are wrong. There are women who are beaten, tied to the bed for days on end, and literally tortured. For such women, physical escape & legal action are the only alternative if they are to remain alive.

Why is domestic abuse such an invisible crime? We do not know what goes on in any marriage, and in many cases there is provocation and frustration on both sides –I personally witnessed a neighbor bashing her husband with a rolling pin (she was working and he was an alchoholic stay-at-home), and it is still wrong.

But until society says spouse abuse is not an acceptable part of civilized society, until society takes a stand, this will continue.

Another reason for the invisibility is that the wife will not talk about it – feeling guilty in some obscure way that she is responsible for the man’s behaviour. And the man ensures that the bruises are not visible, or frightens the woman into submission, threatening to harm her natal family or the children if she does report him. Very often, it is the final fear of being murdered, or her children being abused that drives such women over the edge –and I say, let our women not wait till this fatal stage.

Toastmasters, what can you and I do in such situations?

The first step: lend a shoulder, or an ear –simply talking about it can help overcome some of the problems.

Second, recommend a centre for marital counseling, a doctor/psychologist or psychiatrist who can help with professional counseling or even medication.

Third, be aware of police, legal or social work centres where women can escape in an emergency; even the telephone directory actually has numbers for help lines or shelters.

Toastmasters, do you think you can help save somebody’s life this way? Are you willing to extend a helping hand? All those willing to help –raise your hands.

Toastmaster of the Day…

Note: It was gratifying to observe how many Toastmasters were willing and did raise their hands.

An additional point I would like to put in the Chennai blog is a statement of the ‘Human Rights in Close Relationships’ that gives us some guidelines of behaviour:

The right to share equally with your partner all decisions and responsibilities related to your relationship, children, home and finances.
The right to express your opinions and have them given the same respect and consideration as those of your partner.
The right to expect your partner to give at least 50% to resolve difficulties in your relationship.
The right to hold your partner responsible for their behavior rather than assuming that responsibility yourself.
The right NEVER to be physically attacked or psychologically degraded by your mate and the right to terminate the relationship if either occurs.

- DTM Nina John

Is Mobile Phone boon or bane?

2011-01-15T23:22:00.003+05:30

You can see this picture!

In the top you can see the gestures of people using mobile phones.

Pictures you see in the bottom is the result of above!

Don’t answer mobile while you are driving, Mr Emmaa may be calling you!

Good Evening TM & Guest,

Today I am going to talk about usage of Mobile phone is boon or bane?

Three important situations come in my mind!

1. Using mobile phones lead to safety related issues

2. With mobile phones, children are growing in a precocious manner (Children having developed certain abilities earlier than is usual).

3. Absurd usage of mobile phone which disturb others

Bane:

1. First we see about the Safety related accidents

· It’s become acceptable practice to drive vehicle with mobile phone in the shoulder or ride with one hand and holding mobile on other hand.

· Signals offer plenty of opportunity to quickly type an sms

i. In year 2008 India recorded 130,000 deaths because of road accidents, which was 10% of the world’s total fatal accidents.

ii. Nowadays, Safety does not depend upon on how carefully one drives but it depend upon how the others drive.

Boon:

· Same mobile phone helps in communicating to their relatives quickly

· During Emergency situation, getting an ambulance is a call away.

Bane:

2. Second Children are growing in precocious manner

· Olden days children spend time in evening after school, playing with friends, climbing trees, hopping on the play ground, running after butterflies

· But these days school children playing virtual game with phone & sending sms instead of engaging in real world

· Younger generation waste lot of money on endless cell phone conversation which can be avoided

Boon:

· Parents gift mobile phone to their children, to enable them to contact during emergencies.

· Parents get update from school on their safe arrival.

3. Disturbance

Bane:

· People talk loudly about their personal matters in public place with out due respect to fellow people.

· During meeting people use mobile phone with impunity

· Even priests are busy answering phone in midst of the rituals

Boon:

· Incase of theft or robbery, the mobile phone is friend in deed to seek help

· For frequent travelers, phone helps to inform his family of his where abouts.

Conclusion:

· Mobile phone started off as a means to communicate, has many advantages in today’s fast life

· Like the two side of a coin, mobile phones are a boon and a bane.

· Any scientific invention is a boon or bane depending on its use and misuse

There lives a wise man in a valley between two mountains. Wise man help people in the valley about when the rain will come so that they can sow seeds. He could tell them what was wrong with them so they could get over from illnesses.

Some boys in the valley do not like the wise man, plan to play a frank with him. They called the people in the valley and wise man to prove them he is wrong.

Boy with the baby bird in is hands holds them out and asked wise man, what is in my hand? Wise man quickly recognized and said answers is in you hand.

If I say, the bird is alive you crush it, if I say its dead, you will open the hand and bird will be alive.

Usage of mobile phones is boon or bane, answers is in our hands!

- Thothathri

LUCID DREAMING

2011-01-15T23:21:00.000+05:30

In a romantic candle lit restaurant, having dinner with the famous
celebrity. Chatting for a while good bye to the actress. Opening the
door and flying above the clouds like the superman to my house. Having
a sip of Swiss-made chocolate and revising my books. Closing my eyes
and thinking about the dale Carnegie. There he is sitting in the chair
right in front of me. Having conversation of how to improve my project
5 “the body speaks”. He mentioned a few things like “silence is the
most eloquent thing in the speech” and “words and gestures are to be
born, not build”. Suddenly the world tremors with the thundering sound
hits the ground waking up to the sound of the alarm ringing at 6am in
the morning.

Hello fellow and future toastmasters, welcome to the world of lucid
dreaming.(LD)

How many of you dream literally? Yeah everyone dreams. Let me briefly
explain about LD. LD means knowing that you are dreaming. By knowing
this simple fact you can control your dream .for me , it started with
the movie called inception. I was drawn to it and started to Google
about the ways to run the dream I like , and to my surprise it was
present from the past medieval period and was refined to the present
by many modern technologies. Unbelievable isn’t .but it is not a cock
and bull story.

Let us move on to ways to do it. There are many techniques to induce
LD in our sleep. The simplest way is to check for the dream signs
regularly i.e. once an hour in the real life. These signs are like
seeing the watch and seeing away and looking back on it the time
changes randomly in dream. You can also try the same with text. After
making this an habit. You would check your watch in the dream state
and realize “I am dreaming”. It just takes 5 sec an hour and a total
time of 5 min a day. For me it took 3day to become a lucid dreamer .

Then the next step is fun and adventurous part to start experimenting
with dreams. As you are safe inside the dream, there are endless
possibilities. At beginners level one can fly, build architectural
wonders, paint the sky, and see the novels you read recently as a
movie. These are all just a drop in the bucket . Then after practice
one can meet famous people solve hard problems, invent something new.

Ordinary people made extraordinary contributions to the world by using
D. For example, Indian born mathematician genius Ramanujam solved many
difficult problems in his dream. The clothes we wear today stitched by
the sewing machine, it was discovered in a dream.

. I would like to conclude by quoting Henry David "If you have built
castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they
should be. Now put the foundations under them. "

- Bharath Raja

GLOBAL WARMING

2011-01-15T23:16:00.001+05:30

Do you want the future toastmasters club taking place in a desert or
ocean? Hurricanes may knock your doors more often. The idea of "going
out on a nice summer day" would be displeasing.

Hello my dear toastmasters and welcome guests. Global Warming is a
dramatically urgent and serious problem. It is mainly due to the
greenhouse effect. Now think about yourself floating in the space
looking the earth. it looks like a beautiful blue ball. Swirling
feathery clouds surrounds it. Normally when the sunlight strikes our
planet, it absorbs some heat and reflects the rest like a mirror. But
as the greenhouse gases such as co2 increased due to human activities.
The atmosphere behaves like a big magnification glass it concentrates
the all heat on earth .so earth absorbs more heat and retains it than
reflecting it. So the earth is getting hotter and hotter. The polar
caps are melting, polar bears are dying. When all ice melts the sea
level raises by 6m which would get Chennai and all lives under the
sea.

She is getting sick at a faster rate. To cure her fever named "global
warming”. We as an individual should show her warmth. Adopt a more
responsible lifestyle by starting from little, and everyday things.
It's the only reasonable way to save our planet, before it is too
late.

Firstly, plant a tree. This could be easier than it sounds. Trees,
when fully grown, will help keep the planet cooler. A single tree
removes many tones of co2 in its lifetime. Join or help out a local
social service group and ask to plant a tree. While surfing I saw an
interesting thing which is "want a tree? Just SMS”. They provide
saplings for the tree you like to plant. It acts like a silver bullet
on the global warming vampire.

Something as simple as walking instead of taking the car will help
reduce pollution. As well as stopping pollution, you are giving
yourself exercise, something important for our bodies. So the next
time you get into your car, or your motorbike, think - do I have to
make this journey by vehicle or can I walk?

Greenest triad ever created is reducing, reuse and recycle. Only buy
what you need; don’t stock the cupboards with things you may or may
not use. Reuse whatever you can, like containers and paper, and
recycle what you cannot reuse. It really is as simple as that.

Wherever practical, replace regular light bulbs with compact
fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Replacing just one 60-watt incandescent
light bulb with a CFL will save your electric bills over the life of
the bulb. CFLs also last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, use
two-thirds less energy, and give off 70 percent less heat.
If every Indian family replaced one regular light bulb with a CFL, it
would eliminate many billion pounds of greenhouse gases, the same as
taking many million cars off the road.

If possible use solar energy, after all it is free; all you need to
buy is the equipment. You can get much of your hot water from solar
water heater. As in many homes either LPG or the electric heater is
used.

Finally, turning off unused sources of power such as televisions and
heaters will help the environment, as well as save you from electric
bills.

When one plants a tree, switch off unwanted appliance, uses solar
power. He might feel a little taller, little happier, little warmer.
We must show our warmth globally to stop global warming. Go green.
- Bharath Raja

Goals

2011-01-15T23:14:00.001+05:30

How many of us stepped into this room on a Sunday afternoon with a
goal in mind? How many of us are moving towards the achievement of
the same…
TMOD, Fellow toastmasters and welcome guests… Good evening… the topic
I have chosen for my project 3 is Reaching the Target or goals and how
NLP helps us to achieve our targets.
Goals… there is no person in this world who functions without a goal.
Everyone likes goals ,some like to pen it ,some like to achieve it
.Only 5% of the people truly achieve their goals… and the balance
95%?.... they work towards helping the 5% achieve their goals.
Goals are big and small… it is the small goals like doing a project 3
here today which will help me in achieving the bigger goal of being a
competent communicator. This will ultimately help me in the larger
goal of life, career and family.
How do we achieve these goals… is it really possible… or is it only
good to hear motivational speakers and trainers tell us about it…
Believe me, my friends; it is easy to reach our targets.
Have you been to the marina beach recently? If not join me in this
free trip. Take a stroll toward the sea, cool breeze trickling through
our skin. Hearing the beautiful sounds of the sea birds, ships and the
children are playing. Take a step closer to waves. Ice cold waves
swirling through the legs making the clothes wet. as the waves retreat
the sand beneath our legs collapse and the leg sinks. Relaxing isn’t
it.
NLP is Neuro Linguistic Programming which literally means programming
your mind with senses such as sight sound touch and feeling. The mind
process all the experience into these basic formats. When we run
movies in our mind like the beach trip, we go to the state what we
experience like relaxation. The senses which we note is called as the
sub modalities, for example we may see sight in pictures, slide shows,
movies or panorama views. the bill gates sees his business in the
panoramic view all the files flying around him , finds the important
one and finishes it.
Goals seem very big when we see the final figures that we have to
achieve… in our case here, the ten projects with body language, vocal
variety, impressing, expressing and what not!!!
The final objective is a culmination of many small objectives… so
first divides your goals into smaller practical units. These
practical units are achievable and do not make us scared.
Many of us have a problem setting goals in the first place. What do
we want and where exactly we want to be… we have to eliminate the
confusing factors that prevent us from setting a firm well determined
goal. NLP helps us here… We can elicit the sub modalities of the
confusing factors to an understanding and reach the well determined
goal. This confusion will have sub modalities like black and white,
blurry, out of focus, slide shows. On the contrary, once we eliminate
the confusing factors… the final picture will be crystal clear, high
definition, sharp, colorful, panoramic movie. This will give the goal
a clear purpose, timeline, realistic goal.
REMOVE VAGUE FACTORS FROM THE GOALS AND HAVE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Secondly, a goal can succeed only when we keep visualizing it… any
setback or doubt in our mind, will deter us from reaching our goals.
This is just like a rocket missioner to moon which misses the moon by
nearly thousands of Km even with a slight deviation of 0.1deg. The
path to achieving goals will have hurdles even if we have to slightest
doubt about achieving the same. Again, to keep us on track we must
run a movie with all the positive efforts and the resultant effects,
and with many small but sure steps, move slowly. We have to estimate
the stumbling blocks realistically and take steps to overcome the
same. To make the goal more determinant we must run it eliciting all
the sub modalities of the determinant action one has done recently.
Check out those factors which hinder you, and take the steps to
overcome the same.
Friends, I am sure that all of you must be thinking of NLP as dreaming
about the impossible… No, it is not dreaming about the impossible. It
is dreaming about the possible, and taking concrete steps to achieve
this possible outcome. Realistic goals can definitely be achieved
through NLP… practice it, and feel the results. Visualization is not
a Vijay movie… it is our own true story… let us make it happen!!!
- Bharath Raja

Ice Breaker -Bharath Raja

2011-01-15T22:59:00.001+05:30

Hello my dear toastmasters and welcomed guests.
This is Bharath Raja,
not named after the popular director Bharathiraja but after a king
called Bharatha in Ramayana. I was born on 11th of February. I was
born and raised in Chennai. In the hospital the nurses called me
Gandhi, because I was the most silent baby in the hospital, not crying
like other babies.

I still remember the first day going to the school, crying to go to
school with my father .I used to cry till the school comes then i keep
silent fearing the teachers in the classroom .my cousin brother came
with me to same school but did the opposite thing, he would remain
silent till reaching the school and then starts crying in the
classroom. Then school started to attract me with new friends,
colourfull cartoons on the walls, playgrounds etc.

In the school i was very geeky and won all the science competitions
and also loved physical activities such as sports ,yoga .my favorite
subject was the physics and the most coveted subjects are the math and
chemistry .I was a introvert and very silent in the classroom .

In history class the teacher taught us about the democracy. She asked
the question that "what is democracy?" .I waited for others to answer
as nobody answered I stood up and answered it as "of the people, by
the people and for the people". She praised me for answering and asked
the next question to the class was "who defined democracy?” The class
answered in a coarse "Bharath Raja". I was flustered at that moment.

Years passed without a clue, i finished my 12th and to chase my
passion for the machines, i choose mechanical engineering in college
and right now studying at AIHT (Anand Institute For Higher Technology)
.My collage life is merriest due to my friends .my collage life
started with the seniors ragging the first years to sing and dance
.But they were helpful in studies and other stuffs.

Mechanical department is special not only because of the thing that
you can see what you learn with your eyes such as the gear mechanism
but it’s the dept with no girls .We the boys have an advantage and
disadvantage of this . The advantage is that when the professor or the
lecturer scolds, that won’t hurt your pride because there is no girl’s
.But in the other department the boys would fear not to get scolding
from the lecturer because they feel ashamed in the presence of the
girls.

Now as 2nd year student I have a lot to study, but the enjoyment is
more .kept a pet name "kaka" in the collage because I write stories in
the theory exams and get straight good grade. I am enjoying my collage
life to the fullest of it.
To conclude, thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity of
sharing my life with you over to you TM of the day.

NLP - Bharath Kumar

2010-11-07T23:02:00.001+05:30

How would you feel when you can run your own brain? How would you
feel when you get up early in the morning refreshed to do exercise?
How would you feel when you can stop any compulsive habits such as
smoking? How would you feel when you cured your phobias right from the
childhood within seconds? How would you feel when you can control to
fall out of love from a bad guy? All these can be made in few min if
you listened to my speech for 5-7min.

Hello my dear toastmasters and welcome guests, good afternoon. i am
going to talk about so called NLP abbreviation of Neuro Lingustic
programming. When I tell you not to think of a pink elephant, not to
imagine its pink trunk, not to think of its tail flicking back and
forth, not to think of its big floppy pink ears, you inevitably think
of a pink elephant anyway. So, there in a movie theatre in our mind
runs a movie in full HD, DTS for 24x7. But it runs subconsciously in
your mind. Here comes the NLP into play, it helps us how to direct and run movies
effectively in your own mind.

Instead of talking theoretically about the NLP which renders
everyone to sleep , i am going to share with you three of the most
interesting and at the same time more simple yet powerful techniques i
learned from NLP and used in my life.

First is the anxiety cure. Well, the most common is the "public
speaking anxiety". In this technique you have to close your eyes and
think about the timeline of your life. It’s like future in front and
past behind us or the future in right side and the past the left side.
Consider you are having your speech at toastmasters at 5:20pm. Now you
have prepared everything for the speech. You have to the 7min after
your speech, exactly to the end of the speech. You hear the claps and
other members congratulating you for your awesome speech and you enjoy
the party later and go to home have a sound sleep. After doing this
you will ask what anxiety is. i thought of doing this in the creative
way for the table topic round. Whenever they call me for the TT,
instead of thinking about the unthinkable topic TTM gives, I try to
think the end, that they are calling me to receive my TT awarding
ribbon. It sure works.

Second is called the swish technique. We can use this one to
replace bad habits, compulsive behaviors with good one. For example, i
am laziest, when it comes to getting early for an exercise. I keep
alarm at 4am in the morning before going to sleep, and at the morning
when alarm sounds, I off it and go to sleep. This habit started during
my childhood .but ended with the swish technique. In this tech , I
close my eyes and imagine the 4am situation , the alarm starts , in
the right corner of the big movie , I put what I have to do . In this
case get out of the bedroom. Then you swish the big movie with the
small movie by zoom the small movie and making it the new big movie
and suddenly open your eyes. Well you have to do it faster, and do it
a few times. Next day I just floated out of my bed to do exercise.

Third is the boss humor. Well every stage of our life there are
some people who shouts to us about something. To handle them mentally,
boss humor is a great trick. Close your eyes. Think about the person
who shouted at you recently and you hate him and not talk to him. Now
start the movie of him shouting at you. Keep a clown nose on his face.
And turn his voice into Donald duck, Mickey Mouse or any other voice
you like. Now thinking about him you should feel good even though he
shouts at you. Well, I use it often on my college professors.

Hope you enjoyed the anxiety cure, swish and boss humor. All the
best in using them and be careful. In addition to these there are many
more techniques; you can learn them on the Richard bandler books.

-Bharath Raja

Sunil Baffna - The Art of Breathing

2009-11-03T12:22:00.003+05:30

I request you all to hold your breath… and request the timer to time it…

How long can you be without breathing? ( A Question to one person in the audience)
One minute or less than that!!! We cannot be without breathing for more than a minute or so but do we ever give it a deep thought. Not even once a year rite?

(I did not realize the importance of breathing the proper way till one hot afternoon…. And all of us were in the play ground enjoying a good match… suddenly one of the boys collapsed on the ground… he was rushed to the hospital… and the doctors said that his brain was damaged as he had been breathing in correctly… and the lack of oxygen to the brain had caused the collapse…)

Did you know that more than 87% of the time we breathe incorrectly. Did you know that 7 out 10 people suffering from respiratory diseases are suffering due to their incorrect breathing habits? Or for that matter, did you know that the way you breathe can affect your blood circulation, energy levels, sleep patterns, moods, anxiety levels, your thought processes, indeed your entire existence?

Well, friends I am here to introduce you to a few breathing techniques which would help you during difficult situations.

Let me first introduce you to the ATM of your body, Automatic Temperature Moderator. Your “Nose”. Do you know that you are always carrying your own heater and cooler along with you? Yes, You do. The amazing features of you Nose allow you to do that. If you breathe through your right nostril, your body temperature increases and if you breathe through the left nostril your body temperature decreases. An interesting fact is that all the explorers of Antarctica and Artic circle use this technique to keep their body warm. Well, we chennaiites do know that it can get very hot here on some days, or shall I say on most days (smile). So friends, on those days use this technique at least for 15 to 30 mins to keep your body cool.

Next let us see a technique which allows higher oxygen retention in your body. This technique can be very handy just before you are going to enter into a session of high stress or pressure like an exam or interview or business meeting. In this technique, you take a deep, long breathe at you own comfortable pace and then hold your breathe for 5 to 10 seconds, then release the breathe. As you become more experienced using this technique, you can increase the period to 10 to 20 seconds. This gives your body more than 200% extra oxygen than normal breathing. Hence your concentration level and thought process are enhanced for you to excel at your exam or interview or meeting.

Now, I am going to introduce you to the most amazing technique that I came across to rejuvenate your body. ( Then I Explain the technique). There are numerous advantages of this breathing technique but the most fascinating one is that if u can hold your breathe for 2 mins then you would be as fresh as you would be as fresh as you would be after 2 hours of sound sleep. So people feel refreshed for a fun filled evening after you long day at work or college.

Friends… small things… but these have a major effect on our health… Given the global warming and different levels of pollution, let us breathe whatever good air is left is the atmosphere the right way and live healthy.

“As Prayer is to Soul, Breathing is to Body and Mind”. Learn the Art of Breathing to have a healthy body and a powerful mind.

Ravi Singal - Second Life

2009-10-03T12:53:00.005+05:30

As contest chair announced my topic, I see a smile on some of friend’s faces. No, No it is not second wife.. I can understand your emotions, but for now it is second life..
Contest chair, fellow Toastmasters and distinguished guests, to me ‘second life’ is transition from bachelorhood to married life.

Now, the reason for which I am terming this transition as ‘second life’ is coz on one hand – sweet, bubbly, irresponsible and exciting bachelor life comes to an end, on the other hand we step on supposed to be serious n responsible family life.

Today I am going to present some insights of this transition – some which may confuse, some of you might refuse, yet we will make an attempt to diffuse.

First, interesting insight is – whether it is necessary at all to get married? I can see Abraham immediately bumping up. Plz hold on. You are married. Now, nothing can be done. To me bachelorhood was like enjoying the essence of life i.e. variety. But, marriage looks like a one way road, with no parallels and U turns.

Another point to dwell upon is whether you urslf carry out this transition or let the transition happen to you. In simple words – whether you should opt for love marriage or an arranged.
As per my experience, in quotes “which I have gained from observation” –Talking about love is good for ur health only till the time it remains a theory. As soon as you try to conduct a practical, u will find everything going haywire..

To be on the safe side, I decided to let this transition happen to me.

The process of arrange marriage starts with scouting for an ideal match. I must say as working in finance, this is like merger and acquisition. Both sides look for options where they have maximum synergy benefits.

I was asked what kind of girl I want. I hope all my bachelor friends will agree – ‘when by chance we get a rare opportunity of meeting any girl, do we put any filter as this kind of girl I would like to meet or have friendship with”. General bachelor philosophy is – Incoming is free i.e. let every one come, then we will see.
As like any other bachelor I was confused. I decided to leave this matter to the intelligent beings.

My parents were able to identify some possible acquisition targets. Now was the turn to see the girl. She walked inside the room – scared and nervous, yet trying to be confident (looked like an interviewee). All experienced eyes immediately froze on her trying to dissect the total physical being – across her length and breadth, color, make up, heels etc. As she was asked to take a seat, all interrogators were ready with their arsenal of questions.

This scene immediately reminded me of a project of ACB manual, where as a manager we have to tackle media on any labor issue. I knew only u r a TM, you are able to handle this kind of situation. I immediately developed sympathy for the girl.

Finally, after everyone is thru, I was given an opportunity to talk to her. I felt the same as I stood for my first table topic speech – blank and speechless. Couple of seconds passed, I said to myself – Ravi, you are a TM. You have to break the ice and get to the point.

I mustered full courage despite bubbling butterflies and dry throat, and asked – “Is kavita your name”, then talks followed.

Now, I was asked my opinion. I was again confused. As a bachelor, we always divided girls into two categories – good girl and a very good girl.

I sought the help of my mother, and asked – ‘mom how can I decide about any girl – whom I hv nvr seen, nvr talked, I don’t knw abt her nature, her aspirations, n finally I don’t hav a single clue – if both of us together would go fine or nt’

To this my mom looked at me, smiled n uttered golden words – ‘love happens after marriage’. My eyes were just stuck. It was as if a poor innocent disciple was given a sacred mantra by a great saint. I got married and started my second life.

Finally, one suggestion for my bachelor frnz – never form any opinion based upon your initial meeting. Every girl will sound sweet, simple n cute while u talk initially. U will come to knw the reality only when u start living. This holds true for both the sides.
And one word of caution – Beware!! Marriage is a one way journey.

Despite all this, if at all u happen to embark ur second life, whatever ur experience be – I hope all my married frnz will agree, it not the plz bring your wife along - one this is for sure – sacred mantra holds true - ‘love does happen’.

Ravi Singal - Speaking is Winning

2009-05-26T12:45:00.000+05:30

And the winner is ….
Do you remember the times when U WERE THE WINNER…

The first ride in the cycle without falling down,
the first time u scored the highest marks in a subject,
you got into a college of your choice,
most awaited career, and
being proposed by a girl or boy you always dreamt of
winning a ribbon in Toastmasters …
some examples of the time when u were a winner!!!

Winning makes us happy, excited, boosts our morale and we are on the top of the world…

So what is the background story which makes us winners…?

Toastmaster of the Day, Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests…

Let me narrate to you the story of a boy who worked on the key skills that make a winner…

The story of Persistence, patience and perseverance….

Rajiv – a small town boy, studied in one of the town’s best schools. He was good in acads and was always among the topper in the class. His excellence in academics made him crave for more, and he wanted to be a management professional. With the consent of his parents, he moved to Chennai for preparation for MBA entrance exams.

He was confident that being academically strong, he would definitely beat the crowd.
He worked hard, prepared well and improved his performance in mock CAT sessions And finally the D-day dawned.

With a pounding heart, he knew that he was near his goal, and did his paper to the best of his ability…. He was very nervous about the outcome as CAT had negative marking for wrong answers…

The day of the results dawned bright and sunny. With trembling hands, he entered his hall ticket number in the website. He screamed with joy when he saw the results.

He got 96 percentile, way beyond he had ever imagined. He was a winner. He felt like shouting, crying, jumping, screaming and what not.

And soon calls from the top institutes for admission process started to pour in. Each letter made him dream that he was a part of that particular campus. He dreamed life is going to be on a roller skater…

THEN CAME THE SHOCKERS…

He attended the first GROUP DISCUSSION.

He knew the topics, he had the right answers…. YET COULD NOT UTTER A SINGLE WORD…
He wanted to participate… argue… but nothing effective came out…
He thought this might be because of the first experience in GD… but, when the trend continued in all other institutes….

HIS CONFIDENCE WAS TOTALLY SHAKEN….

He felt his ambition, career plans, and dreams crash like a pack of cards….

He was a person with a positive attitude… he made a checklist of his shortcomings… and started practicing to speak… his perseverance and determination earned him a seat finally…

If you think that life became a bed of roses from then… NO….

Life was not easy… he had the knowledge and intelligence to reach the top in the institute, but when it came to project assignments and presentations, he was not matching his peers… so he had to be happy with just average marks…

The two years in the management institute went by like a whiff of the wind… and then, it was time for placements…

Rajiv had a good number of certificates to prove his academic credentials… he arranged them neatly, and felt that he had the competitive edge…

So… he was again shocked when he was not even short listed in the preliminary rounds… Every organization was looking at candidates who could present themselves well…

Companies came and companies went… all his friends were being placed… again Rajiv worked hard and made a presentation based on other’s feedback on interview questions finally got a decent job….

Rajiv was hoping that his official career would have the type of kick start that he wanted… but again, it was not to be…

Rajiv sat back… and introspected the way his academic career and official career was ever since he got through the CAT exams…
He realized that the mediocre ones in academics – when compared to his levels, were doing much better due to their presentation and leadership skills…

His colleagues in office who were successful were the ones who had good communication and leadership skills… he realized that his education was not complete and he would never be a winner unless…. He could speak and communicate….

He realized that knowledge was useless unless it could be effectively shared and communicated to the world… speaking the right thing at a right time makes us winners…

Friends, how many of us are Rajivs in this forum… we have all the qualifications, subject knowledge and the characteristics that is needed to be a winner… but without crucial skills like listening, persuading, negotiating, impressing, and inspiring people… there is no way that we can be winners in this competitive world… the edge is in good communication…

Any area of life – relationship with teachers and fellow students in school; parents, siblings, spouse and children at home; colleagues and superiors at work place; customers, friends in the social environment – winning rests on how we interact with them.

How do we develop good speaking skills… to learn swimming, jump into the water… to survive start swimming… same way… be part of forums that encourage you to speak, know your shortcomings, work on the same… and emerge as winners.

How does one come to know about the shortcomings… feedback… may not always be constructive, but take it and work on it….
In real world, everyone around us will try make us feel good. They won’t tell us where we are wrong. To counter that, join forums where you can get feedback. True feedback is what enables us to take lessons, improve and move forward.

Toastmaster is one of those forums. It enables us to get feedback – both positive and areas we need to improve upon. There are no negatives here – only improvement points. Soon, you consciously work on those areas and began to sharpen your speaking skills as well as take up leadership skills day by day. These are the very skills that enable us to be winner in the real world.

Rajiv made a few changes in his life… spent time on weekends and Sundays, worked on CC projects, took up different roles … and then… after about six months, he saw a dramatic change in his overall approach and attitude… and emerged a winner!!! Rajiv has reached the heights that he aimed for, and found that Speaking is winning!!!

Do you think I gave you a fictitious story to convey my message… this is my story with some changes…

I realized the importance of developing good communication skills, and I learnt that to win in this competitive world, the edge that I need is communication…

I found the right place… Toastmasters… and today I am a winner… I can present my view point clearly to colleagues, friends, relatives, superiors, or strangers…

Friends, don’t you all want to be winners…

Join Toastmasters… where “Speaking is winning”

Sunil Baffna - SWEET MEMORIES ETCHED FOREVER

2009-05-17T21:15:00.004+05:30

Blue beaches of Goa. Skiing in Canada. A stroll through the beautiful avenues of France. Scuba-diving and bungee jumping in Australia. The list goes on and on. Holidays are tagged with a bundle of sweet memories that are etched forever in our minds.

Toastmaster of the day and my dear friends.

It’s the 21^st of December, 2007. A group as large as the no of cricket fans in US, that’s right 22, reached the Egmore railway station at 2:30 pm to board Jodhpur Express. My sister, my brother-in-law and I were gung-ho as every other member of this group.

At 3 pm, an announcement goes “Train no 2244, Jodhpur Express is running late by one hour”. The next one hour passed like a whistle as we chatted and interacted with other members. At 4 pm, another announcement said the train is late by another hour. At 5, the train is late by another hour. At 6, the train is late by another hour (dejected look). At 7, with faces as long as our footsteps, we walked to the station master asking if they had mistaken it for April fools day. And just then, the train arrived.

We reached Jodhpur 36 hours later.

Our first destination: Siriyari, a sanctum-sanctorum. Being an off-season, it wore a deserted look. The surroundings were clean and spotless, with very little pollution and greenery all around the air was as pure as ever, the peaceful ambience was as soothing as your favorite music. Meditating there I felt as though I was flying as free as a bird. Ah, if only time could stop. A great start to our trip, of course not considering the otherwise wonderful start that we had at the railway station.

Our next destination: Osiyanji. More than 200 years old and spread over 10 acres, the temple looked majestic. After the prayer, we hurried downstairs as we were dying of hunger. Luckily we found a pani-puri shop nearby. About 10 of us stormed into the shop and before we could realize, we had already eaten 25 plates of pani-puri. The vendor asked “do u have enough money”? Of course I said, what are credit cards for?

After an exciting day, we could only look forward to a comparatively dull evening in the middle of a desert. Little did we know about the surprise that was awaiting us at our next destination: karnimatha.

Once we reached there a guide warned us to be careful and not to step on to a rat. My sister asked Rats….? I teased her by saying “come on didi u don’t have to be afraid, rats don’t even come near an elephant”. Can u believe it? Thousands of rats were milling around the entire temple. Every step u take there are 10’s of rats running towards you, they stop inches from u and turn around. Your reaction is like “STEP,STOP,STARE and RELIEVED”(action showing it).A guide announced, if u see a white rat u are lucky. All I wanted was to disappear from there so I shouted “wow, I just saw a white rat and I ran out of the temple”.

After spending the next day at our Acharyashreeji’s place, we head to Delhi.

What was in store for us could easily be regarded as once-in-a-life-time kind of an experience. One of our group members got us the permission to visit the Rastrapathi Bhavan.

We reached there by 11 am. Our experience of the next two hours more was fantastic. We saw the gallery of antiques where we witnessed history unfold itself, the letters written by some of the world’s most powerful persons, the conference halls where the world leaders met and discussed issues that would impact u and me, the dining hall which could serve anything that u name, the all-powerful front office and the beautiful mughal garden.

We then had a sumptuous lunch which was finger-licking good. As we had visited all the other sight-seeing spots, we returned to our hotel rooms. Lying on my bed, I realized what a learning curve this trip had been. At times u wait, at times u adjust, sometimes u even bare with others. The great times when u share with others, care for others and play, like a child, completely detached from the tensions of your regular life. We then boarded the train to return to Chennai with these sweet memories etched forever.

Over to the TMOD.

Aravind - Ice Breaker

2009-02-03T09:58:00.002+05:30

From a “tinkle digest” kid to a “management book” man

Fellow toastmasters and future toastmasters, I’m here to tell you how I transformed from a tinkle-digest kid to a management-book man…..28 years ago….is anybody wondering why I’m circling my hands like this. This is a tortoise coil and, as you can recall from our traditional Tamil movies, this has been the hallmark way of starting a flashback sequence….

Now friends, we are in 1981…the year in which I was born to a lovely couple in Salem…As a cry baby, I gave a lot of trouble to my parents but still they showered my life with all the luxuries I could possibly dream of. Recollecting the nostalgic memories of my childhood and school days, I can correlate the first phase of my life, i.e., from the time I first saw light till the age of 14… I can correlate this phase to the essence of a tinkle digest story book. As you all are aware, this book is studded with stories of young kids who are playful, naughty, and bright. Similarly, the first stage of my life was full of fun and frolic.

Let me share one incident highlighting my playful facet. One day when I was in my 4th grade, I decided to have some fun when my teacher was in the classroom. I went under the bench and tied the shoe laces of two students sitting in front of me… You can imagine your right shoe lace tied together with the left shoe lace of your neighbour… Having completed my sly act, I was waiting for the school bell to ring. When the bell rang and the students got up….bang….the two guys in front of me fell down. The teacher noticed that the laces were tied together and stared at me... I looked back at her with full of innocence but what to do…soon the cat was out of the bag… my teacher was blasting me left and right and after some strong warnings, I came back to class…. Please don’t look at your shoe laces now. I really won’t do it again!

Well, as I was mentioning earlier, the first phase of my life was a tinkle digest period. Now, I’m going to portray the next 14 years i.e., from the age of 15 till now. This phase depicts the management-book man in me.

When I was 15 years old, my father had established our cement business in Trichy and so my family had to shift from Salem to Trichy. As I started to engross into business, my naughty tail started to vanish and my little brain started to grow. I started reading management books and I slowly became more responsible and matured.

I aced my high school exams and joined one of India’s most prestigious colleges, REC, Trichy now NIT, Trichy and did my Computer Science engineering. Talking about college life, I had all the fun in the world from partying with friends to playing football and studying in groups – I repeat studying in groups.

After college, I worked in the IT industry for Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services. From a professional perspective, I gained the necessary IT skill set. From a personal standpoint, I had an excellent work life balance. Weekends were dedicated to my family and friends and it was party time always!

After my stint in the IT industry, I moved into my family business. We run a consulting firm offering services to the cement industry. I felt that improving my public speaking skills will help me expand my business and hence I joined toastmasters. The tortoise coil is back J and here I am in 2009… standing in front of you and delivering my first speech about my special journey called life….

I’d like to conclude by reiterating the fact that while I changed from a naughty tinkle-digest kid to a responsible management-book man, I always ensured that I balanced my professional life and my personal life. Friends, imagine life as a game in which you are juggling two balls – professional & personal. The professional ball is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the personal ball is a glass ball. If you drop it, it will be shattered. Dear friends, always strive to maintain a healthy balance between professional life and personal life.

Toastmasters Contest Season

2009-01-29T20:54:00.004+05:30

It is contest time again!!!

The contests are very special and coveted because the winner of the International Speech Contest from our Division will represent the Division in the District contests - OVATIONS 2009 to be held in Colombo, Srilanka in May....

And that is not all.... for the first time the winner of the District 82 will go on to the International Speech Contest at Connecticut, USA...

The first two winners of the club contest will represent the club in the area contest, which will be held in Chennai and the first two winners of the Area (G2) will represent the area in the Division contest to be held in Chennai in the last week of March 2009. One winner from the Division will represent the Division at the District contest in Colombo.

To give you an idea about the competition at the AREA level., the clubs in our area are:

Chennai Toastmasters Club
Wordsmiths
HCL Expressions
Caterpillar
Chakde Satyam Toastmasters Club

So who can contest:

INTERNATIONAL SPEECH CONTEST:

1. Should have completed Project 6 from the CC manual.

2. Should have paid all club dues in terms of membership, and be a member of good standing.

TABLE TOPICS CONTEST

Should have paid all club dues in terms of membership and be a member of good standing.

There is a limit of nine members who can contest in both these contests individually. And the contestants will be given preference on FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis provided they fulfill the basic requirements.

The last date for giving your names is February 10, 2009.

Hurry Up!!! And send in your names to me to avoid disappointment....remember... u have to complete six projects before the contest to be eligible to contest for the International Speech Contest. There is no restriction in terms of the Table Topics Contest with respect to Project completion...

Start preparing and let us make sure that the member to represent District 82 at Connecticut is from CHENNAI TOASTMASTERS.

Please feel free to approach Lalitha (lalgir@gmail.com) for any clarifications.

Nina John - The global connection

2009-01-19T20:14:00.004+05:30

Do you have an Internet connection that keeps you abreast of the latest happenings from Alaska to Australia? Do you have an iPod that can download music from Switzerland to Swaziland? Do you have a mobile with GPS that can track you whether you are climbing Mt. Everest or scuba diving in the Marianna Trench?

Contest Master, esteemed judges, fellow Toastmasters and distinguished guests – welcome to this evening. Welcome to a contest, which will be judged a continent away! – Welcome to a world ruled by gadgets, gizmos and geeks! And if you're not connected to some, if not all these gadgets, you're out of touch with this 24x7 wired world.

But as we get connected across continents and countries, are we getting more and more out of touch with humans? Take banks for example – banking is today very customer-friendly with reference to the process itself –there are ATM's that let you access your money whenever you want, debit and credit cards that let you shop wherever in the world you are, loans available for every conceivable (and sometimes inconceivable) need, even on-line banking –all carefully designed to keep the customer away from the branch. Try calling up and what do you get? A disembodied voice that welcomes you as a customer, keeps you on hold for an eternity, and usually plays their ad jingle five times before the voice returns to say "Press 1 for Credit, Press 2 for Loans, Press 3----" –by this time you're so frustrated, you've banged the phone down. And they call this a relationship?

It's easy to talk about companies – but are we guilty of the same crimes? Who are you really connecting to? As families, we are so caught up in the soap operas on TV, our own families take a back seat. I saw a beautiful ad the other day in a magazine. There were two quiz questions –1) Name two of the characters in "Friends"; 2) Name two of your son's friends in the Maths class. Keep track of your family first, said the tag line. It's funny, it's amusing -it's only too true. The Neighbours in the serials are more interesting than the drab housewife next door, who's not a patch on the glamorous lot in Desperate Housewives.

Isn't it ironic that the more connected we are to the wired world, the less connected we are to each other? It happens even to those supposedly 'close' to us: there is this apocryphal story about the couple that went visiting and the hostess poured some tea for them. "How much sugar?" she enquired, as any gracious hostess would. "None," replied the husband. His wife glared at him. "Honey, I've been putting two spoons of sugar in your tea for the last twenty years!" she declared. "I know, darling," he replied, "but for the last twenty years, I haven't stirred the tea."

What is also happening is that we are afraid of making contact with others, of letting people into our lives and our vulnerabilities and, only too often, waiting for a crisis before we reach out, whether for help or to help others. Let me give you an example.

I was in the waiting room of the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital where my mother had been admitted. Wrapped up in my own fog of apprehension, I barely noticed the other lady in the room. A man walked in –his wife was in the ICU, and he had come to check on her. One look at this lady and he walked straight upto her, put his hand on hers and said, " I can see you are in great pain –can I help you?" To my astonishment, the woman did not brush him aside – she simply broke down and cried. Her only daughter had gone out on her twenty-first birthday, had an accident on the way back and now lay in the hospital with a fractured skull. Together the two strangers, of two different faiths, prayed for her daughter. For almost a week after that, till the girl actually died of total brain failure, that man would come every day to the hospital, no longer a stranger but a part of the family, praying for this girl he did not know, as sincerely as he prayed for his own wife in the ICU.

What was it that got through to the woman on that day? The words, the touch, the compassion, the sincerity? Whatever, it was, I marvel at this person, able to understand another's grief and sorrow, not letting the conventional barriers of gender, faith or even language, stop him from reaching out. I felt such a fool –I had been in the same room, and done nothing except silently sympathise – he had connected.

I think my problem is the same as many others in this world – we are wired and connected to machines, not to each other; we can talk across the world, but have less and less to say to each other; we are sending more jokes and forwards to "recipients unknown" or into the anonymity of cyberspace, rather than meaningful messages to each other. We continue in our cocooned, sanitized, computerised world, insulated from the realities of life around us, obsessed with ourselves, our careers, our own lives. Until we are jolted by some event of extraordinary magnitude. Like an earthquake or a tsunami.

The tsunami in fact showed how technology could be harnessed to make the kind of human contact we never bother to make otherwise. Blogs were set up across countries that helped families to track their missing members, and satellites helped map the disaster areas; television beamed the horrific images into billions of homes. Millions of ordinary people did their bit, sending clothes and other material to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. We saw the same shining examples of the human spirit after every disaster, natural or man-made, whether in New York or Kashmir. In Mumbai, during the floods, total strangers opened up their houses and set up kitchens and beds for hundreds of stranded commuters, with no question of caste, community or religion.

I wonder - how many of the people caught in the floods of Mumbai or Hurricane Kathrina worried about their PowerPoint presentations or their Performance Appraisals? You're right- absolutely none! Normally, we spend 80% of our lives in the office and the other 20% thinking about the office again.

When your perspective shifts, so do your priorities. And so I suggest, get connected – to your family, to your friends and colleagues, to your community. Being a Toastmaster gives you a head start – communication by word is the basic foundation stone of all connections and relationships. Use your training at Toastmasters to better your relationships at work and at home, and leverage your resources at home and at work to help the community.

You can choose to be like the miller in the old nursery rhyme who said, "I care for nobody, no, not I – and nobody cares for me!" Or you can listen to John Donne who said, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for thee."

So use the Internet to connect with friends and family from Alaska to Australia. Use the Toastmaster network to build up a community of friends from Switzerland to Swaziland, Fiji to Finland. It was Kahlil Gibran who said, "let there be spaces in your togetherness" - I say let there be togetherness in your spaces – get connected today and reach out to others in this global village called Earth.

Over to you Contest Master.

Nina John - The Power of Praise

2009-01-19T20:11:00.002+05:30

The doorbell rang one morning _ I opened it and was startled to find one of my old students on my doorstep. It seems I had rated her MBA entrepreneurship project as the best in the class – the first time anyone had done so. She kept that report with her even when she got married and went to her marital home, a treasured possession among her certificates and papers. She had used it to set up an enterprise in Delhi and now was in Chennai, wanting me to help guide her brother to do the same. Determined to meet me, she had literally tracked me down through staff members of her college, like a bloodhound on the trail.

That, Madam Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and Guests, is the power of Praise – the power to inspire a person long after the words are spoken or the writing erased. As a teacher, I have found that the best part about teaching is the learning –whether about the subject or about human life. One student complained, "You always tell us what is wrong with our work , never what's right!" and I found that such a profound statement that I have incorporated it into my regular teaching routine – point out what has been done well and then what needs to be corrected. Both of course, need the right words, and words can sometimes change our whole perspective or "take" of a particular situation.

Let me give you two personal examples, both of which engendered rather mixed reactions from me. In the first instance I was introducing my daughter to a "friend" of mine. "That's your daughter?" she exclaimed, and then continued in a rather bewildered voice –"but she's so beautiful!" Now you can understand why I said mixed reactions: on the one hand I was happy on behalf of my daughter, on the other, not so happy on my own!

In the second instance, a colleague of my mine very belatedly introduced me to her husband, exclaiming that she just hadn't realised that we (her husband and I), had not met although we had worked together for years. Her husband had a very tongue-in-cheek comment: "Shanthi always forgets to introduce other beautiful women to me." I thought that was a masterpiece in tact since he complimented me so gracefully without in any way demeaning his wife.

I think that is such a crucial factor in complimenting or appreciating people: to do so without bringing somebody else down. Treat the event or action or person on its own merits and appreciation will also automatically flow. In a school where I was teaching summer camp – with students ranging from standard five to twelve, all bundled together in one higgledy-piggledy mess, I was at my wit's end, trying to make sure each got individual attention, and thinking I was failing miserably. Until one little girl, a of fifth standard piped up and told me what a wonderful teacher I was. Because I was always so fair. In an atmosphere where rampant favoritism ruled the roost, that child was able to understand the difference. Her remark made my day and I was able to teach with renewed confidence.

The incident also demonstrates how anybody can appreciate another's effort, even if the other person is in a so-called superior position , as in the teacher-student relationship. Some people are afraid to appreciate openly or are grudging in their praise, handing out compliments as if they are rationed, black-market commodities. Others are too liberal – strewing their praises far and wide, careless of where they reach or what effect if any, they have. The gushers, as I call them, find anything and everything wonderful and everything so wonderful, so cute, so nice, so pretty, so smart, so … you get the picture? The trouble with gushers is that nobody takes their compliments seriously, and their compliments slide off the recipient like water off a duck's back.

The miser, on the other hand, is afraid that, if he praises somebody, the other person might "get a swollen head", or take over my position as boss, or whatever. The cardinal principle to remember here is the old Chinese saying about how 'putting out the other man's light does not make the light of your candle shine more brightly or travel any farther'.

Many of these are principles we learn, practise and demonstrate in Toastmasters –evaluating constructively and appreciating the effort behind a project as much as the actual delivery. These are all benefits that spill over into our personal and professional lives and enrich us as much as those we praise.

And remember, praise is something everybody thirsts for, no matter how "experienced" they are. At Ovation 2004, Bangalore, Haleem Ghose, DTM and TM of many decades' standing conducted a workshop on "Fear of Communicating." It was a virtuoso performance, sparkling in wit and dazzling in execution. At the end of it, he received a standing ovation, a tribute from the crowd of TM"s, all of whom could appreciate the skill in every word and gesture. Mr. Ghose was so moved, he repeated over and over again how he got four rounds of applause –"four rounds!" That is the power of praise – that it can fire up a veteran and spur him on even as it does to a novice, setting him on the track forever.
Indeed, it can be said of the power of praise that, like the "quality of mercy is not strained, it blesses him that gives and him that takes". I invite you therefore to learn what a powerful weapon of motivation praise can be, for you and for others….. Madam Toastmaster.

Nina John - Flexible reading / Reading for pleasure or for profit/ Changing your reading habits.

2009-01-19T20:00:00.004+05:30

Intro

Can you read? It's a question that might even offend a lot of you in this august gathering. But, Toastmaster of the evening, fellow Toastmasters and guests, how many of us read for pleasure, and how many of us read simply because we have to? As students and graduates and professionals, all of us probably complain about the amount of reading we have to do, whether we like it or not My topic today is therefore about reading, reading at different speeds and for specific objectives, varying the sped and tempo of reading to extract the maximum mileage out of any material and yet being able to savour the simple, profound pleasures of a tale well-told, of enjoying a book for its style as much for its substance, to re-discover the joys of reading that too many of us have lost.

Body

Our world today has been named the Age of Information, and all of us are deluged with the mountains of data facing us everyday – letters and e-mails, articles and professional material, as well as the additional material we would ourselves like to read, exploring new avenues of thought or traveling into different pathways of knowledge.

Speed reading allows us a flexible tool that helps us navigate these mountainous terrains with some degree of felicity. All of us do this already, looking at the headlines or the outline of a magazine article, for instance, then deciding whether or not to read it, leafing through a book at the railway station before deciding to buy it for the journey, even skimming through the portions just before the exams and deciding we know everything!

Skimming is, in fact, the first line of defence, or rather attack in this war of words. A quick once-over of the day's mail, discarding the junk, deciding which needs a careful perusal and which requires in-depth study before action –all of these take up hardly half-an-hour of one's time. Skimming through an article is like sending a flat stone across the surface of water – if well aimed, it skims across, touching the surface in a series of hops and skips before finally sinking without a ripple.

A second technique is scanning: use your eyes like the bar-code scanner at the cash counter in the supermarket to get a quick feel of the subject and where the author is headed. Check out the headings and sub-headings given in bold type, or thoughtfully provided in boxes by magazines for this very purpose. Once you have a basic idea of the gist of the article or material, make the fateful decision – Go or No. This is the decision that will help you cut out half the reading time and actually make time for you elsewhere. Decide whether it is essential to read the article, either because it is relevant to what you are doing or for any other reason. Otherwise, just dump it. Turn the page, move on without a single backward glance.

In-depth reading is the third technique that is of immense benefit to a reader. Do this with technical, professional and critically useful material. While scanning, get an overall idea of the material without worrying about individual words or their meanings; in-depth reading requires these to be seriously addressed. Every word needs to be read, for context meaning and implications, to be understood and to be remembered.

In analytical and critical reading, you have again to read each word with care, not only to understand what is being said, but also to understand the thread of the argument being put forth as well as the comparisons to other writers or ideas. Needless to add, such a critic must be a very well read person.

All the techniques I have outlined are designed to increase your reading speed. But I am sure many of you will wonder whether you can go back to reading slowly again, and whether you will lose the pleasures of curling up with a good whodunit or even revisit some of your old favourites when you get the time. My point is that you definitely will: after all, you never forget how to walk because you learnt driving, did you? The aim is, as in driving, to let your objective decide your speed: if you want to reach the office in a hurry, go ahead and put on speed; but if you are going on a family picnic, stop and smell the roses. An additional bonus lies in the fact that you actually have more time to read a wider variety of material and improve your skill with words.

It was Roger Bacon who suggested that some books are to be chewed and some to be digested, a few to be savored

Ravi Singal - Home Clean Home

2009-01-18T21:03:00.000+05:30

I am a proud Indian. I am proud of my country. Where else in the world you will find so much diversity – land area of 3 lac sq kms, coastline measuring 7500 kms, holding mighty Himalayas as Taj, deserts of Rajasthan, plains, plateaus, wilderness. People speaking more than 29 languages pursuing 4 different major religions, different cultures, food and still all of our heart sing a single song i.e. India. And of late, the capabilities that we have shown to the world – best of infotech, medicine, space. We are the ones who have made a mark throughout the world in any sphere.

And it is natural, when we are so proud to invite others to see our home. Don’t we invite our friends, near and dear ones to come and visit our home especially when we are proud or satisfied with what we have. And so did I. I have been working with my client, Harry, based in London for past more than a year. We have been working on a number of assignments over the period. And over time we developed repo with each other. Many a times we shared about our countries, culture and people.

I invited him to visit India – the country which I respect and am proud of. He agreed to make a week long visit to India. While he was in India, I took him for a movie. Luxury symbol of theatre in Chennai is Sathyam. In intermission, we got some snacks. As customary, after having snacks, I threw the packages below my seat. After the movie, I found Harry collecting his empty packages and rushing for dustbin outside. I felt uneasy and embarrassed to see – all the people had left their packages, cold drink cups, water bottles scattered throughout and we have to make our way from them.

I took him to Marina. I felt bad for it being dirty, but that is the way it is. There we had my favourite beach hangout snack – corn. We had that, and then as I did every time, I mustered full strength and threw the left over stem in the sea. It made a splash and started to float. I looked at Harry with a competitive spirit. Harry instead went back to vendor and threw the stem in dustbin. He didn’t speak anything. But I think actions speak louder than words. I got a reason why Marina is so dirty.

I invited Harry to my home for dinner. We had ordered for some sweets and snacks. After having dinner, we were chatting on my balcony, then we saw my servant heading out to throw the waste. He had piled it in a polythene bag and threw it at the corner of road. At this Harry said – Isn’t that your home too?

These are simple things we all carry and we have accepted them as customary. We put so much effort to keep our home clean, but what happens when we are in our big home outside. I request all of you – Toastmasters and responsible Indians – let our India shine in this aspect. Take simple measures. Be a leader, others will definitely follow. If only we make a beginning, it will spread.

· In Cinema halls, while travelling, going on a picnic – throw things in dustbin or carry a big to collect.
· After having packed foods, locate a dustbin. If it is not there, ask the shopkeeper to put a one.
· Throw your home waste in dustbin. Ask municipality to put a one if it is not there.
· Do not spit, throw your chewing gum.

Are these things difficult? We don’t need to do extraordinary things. Only we need to be aware and take care of waste generated by us. It is like a spark, once set ablaze; it will illuminate life of all around.

Executive Committee Members

2009-01-05T23:01:00.005+05:30

Current term - January – June 2009

President Sastha Ram

VP Education Lalitha Girdhar

VP Membership Karthik J

VP Public Relation Ravi Singal

Secretary Athira Raj

Treasurer C T Thomas

Sgt@Arms Sunil Baffna

Imm. Past President Aditya Maheshwaran

Immediate Past term - July – December 2008

President Aditya Maheshwaran

VP Education Shinto Manuel

VP Membership Tarulatha

VP Public Relation Alka Kumari

Secretary Karthik J

Treasurer C T Thomas

Sgt@Arms Josby Shinto

Imm. Past President Ravi Bhaskaran

Reverberations 2008 - Unforgettable Memories

2008-12-04T18:59:00.012+05:30

Dear Toastmasters,

Reverberations 2008, the semi-annual conference of District 82, is now behind us. It was an amazing conference which demonstrated to us the indomitable spirit of Toastmasters. Despite the outrageous terror attack in Mumbai and the havoc caused by 'Nisha' in Chennai, about 200 Toastmasters made this event momentous for me!

Deeptha's elegant dance performance set the tone of the day. From the scrupulously honest keynote speech by N. Vittal to informative and motivating education workshops by Paul Holmes, Kadri Pethi, Jayan Narayanan and Bhathiya Hettiarachachi, the first half of 29th November was devoted to building knowledge skills, both in communication and leadership. The two contests - Evaluations and Humorous Speech proved to me that Toastmasters of District 82 have come of age. The evaluations of the test speech delivered by Harikumar of The Wordsmiths Toastmasters were focused, analytical and articulate. The humorous speeches had us laughing until we cried (at least I had tears in my eyes)! The Judges, I'm certain had a tough time in identifying the winners.

The winners of the two contests were:

Evaluations Contest:

Winner: Punita Singh (Division C - Toastmasters Club of New Delhi)
First Runner-up: Pranay Juyal (Division B - Infosys Toastmasters Club, Bangalore)
Second Runner-up: Lalitha Giridhar (Division G - Chennai Toastmasters Club)

Humorous Speech Contest:

Winner: Adnan Nakhoda (Division B - Smedley Speakers Society, Bangalore)
First Runner-up: Ramesh Schaffter (Division A - CIMA Sri Lanka Toastmasters Club, Colombo)
Second Runner-up: Rachit Kaul (Division C - JPKU Toastmasters, New Delhi)

All the winners richly deserve all the accolades they received for their brilliant performance.

After 'spirited' partying and jiving till late at night at Green Meadows on the beach, we were all back next morning for Ian Faria's workshop to help us with our speaking skills. Ian, who continuously inspires, as Chairman of the Speakers' Pool has pledged to improve the speaking standards across District 82. The highly charged workshop imparted enough energy to the participants to continue the rest of the day with zest through the District Committee and Council Meetings which were conducted by DG Balraj in a very professional manner.

District 82 attained President's Distinguished District status for 2007-2008 and was the best district in the world with the highest number of points amongst all the other districts. This was possible only because every single Toastmaster of District 82 helped the District in achieving this coveted goal. However, there were some individuals who played a vital role in our achievement. The persons, who were honoured during Reverberations and entered the District 82 Hall of Fame for their dedication, commitment and service to Toastmasters, included:

1. IPDG M. Venkat, who as District Governor 2007-2008, gave direction and led from the front so that we could get to the number one spot.
2. DG Balraj, who as LGET 2007-2008, ensured that we got our educational goals without which we would not even have been distinguished, let alone number one.
3. The Division Governor of the Year 2007-2008 which was bagged by Division A Governor Darshana Welikala for all round performance in all segments.
4. The Area Governor of the Year 2007-2008 award which went to Area 16 Governor (and now Division I Governor) Vinay Jain for the phenomenal growth in his Area and his dedicated and unswerving involvement in ensuring that every goal was met.
5. The best Club of the Year 2007-2008 won by Bangalore Toastmasters Club, which was among the nine clubs of the District which attained all 10 DCP goals and in addition scored points on education awards and the highest net member growth.
6. Ten individual Toastmaster achievers who earned three or more education awards during the year, 2007-2008. These were:

a) Ritu Arora (Division C, JPKU Toastmasters, New Delhi) with 12 awards including DTM
b) Poonam Jain - presently Division C Governor (Division C, Noida Toastmasters) with 4 awards
c) Vinay Jain - presently Division I Governor (Division C, JPKU Toastmasters) with 4 awards
d) Thusith C. Gunawarnasuriya - presently Area H4 Governor (Division A, Holcim Colombo Toastmasters) with 3 awards
e) Dev Timothy Wijetunge (Division A, The Millennium Toastmasters Club) with 3 awards including DTM
f) Deepak Justin - presently LGM (Division B, Deejays Club) with 3 awards including DTM
g) K. Srikanth - presently Area B2 Governor (Division B, Bangalore Toastmasters) with 3 awards
h) Nina John - presently Division G Governor (Division E, Chennai Toastmasters) with 3 awards
i) Samina Nayak (Division E, Winners Club, Mangalore) with 3 awards including DTM
j) Pradeep Raghunathan (Division E, TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club, Hyderabad) with 3 awards

Fellow Toastmasters, hail these heroes of District 82. We must learn to emulate their feats if we want to retain our position in the Toastmasters world.

However, the super-heroes of District 82 were indeed Conference Chair Indira Jayaraj, Co-Chair Sastha, Contest Chair Nina John and their entire team of dedicated Toastmasters from Chennai whose meticulous planning gave Reverberations 2008 the winning edge! Well done Toastmasters of Chennai! I'm sure the Toastmasters of Division F who have put in their bid to host the semi-annual Conference in November 2009 in Hyderabad, will have a tough time keeping up with the benchmark set in Chennai. I must also commend our team of Judges drawn from all the Divisions with the Timers, Tally Counters, SAAs and led by Chief Judges K.S. Manian and Abraham Zachariah for helping us pick the winners. Well done all of you without whom there would have been no Conference!

We still have seven months of the year left. Let's have the courage to conquer! Let's tighten our belts and work towards achieving our goals and targets so that when we meet again in May 2009 for Ovation 2009 in Colombo, we will indeed be dancing on the rainbow!

Best regards,
Deepak

Dear Toastmasters,

My eyes are filled with tears of joy and gratitude.

I cannot forget your words of appreciation for the R8 organizing team.
The credit goes to my entire team who gave their heart and soul to R8 for which they deserve all the accolades.

I thank all the District officers, members and delegates from Srilanka and India who recognized me as a Leader.

The 175 delegates who fought the rain, floods and the terror to attend Reverberations 08, in fact contributed equally to the success of the Semi-Annual Conference.

I feel overwhelmed and thank each one of you for the respect and regard you all have for me, my team and Toastmasters of Chennai.
I am deeply touched by the show of strength, cohesion and camaraderie by Toastmasters of District 82 in spite of the terror factor and adverse weather conditions.

Reverberations 08 will remain the most memorable event of Toastmasters in Chennai for years to come.

Thank you Toastmasters, let us continue to
Discover – Learn – Act

Dance on the Rainbow.
With best regards
Indira Jayaraj

Dear Toastmasters,

A very very big thank you........... I am deeply indebted to each one of you for contributing your personal time, family time and professional time with all enthusiasm and energy and above all for the constant support in making R8 the most talked about event in District 82.

Jayan, Jayakar and Sastha got us the Silver Sponsors.

Abraham Zachariah did his best for comfortable accommodation of the delegates at the most competitive rates.

J. Karthik literally waded through flood waters to organize things on the 27th & 28th.

Ravi Singhal, Ram Ganesh, J. Karthik and Nina John organised /picked up delegates from the Airport and Railway station in pouring rain.

Shinto took care of all the photocopying of required material for the Contests, running errands at the venue and took charge of Trophies and Mementos.

At a moment of total apprehension, with rains lashing and power cut Saravanan of Medley delivered 200 copies of the later acclaimed R8 Souvenir in pouring rain.

Mayurnath, so very meticulous in taking care of registrations. He had to inadvertently bear the brunt of a journalist because of a mess up by the Media Consultant. Sorry Mayur.

Jayakar rescued us by organizing the Key Note speaker Mr. N. Vittal at the eleventh hour. Mr. Vittal in turn set the tone for a humourous speech contest.

Santhi Swaminathan and Ram Ganesh (Medley) did an excellent job as MC for R8.

Savithri helped in handling the lighting of the lamp.

Alka and Josby helped us in Registrations.

Vandhana helped a great deal by being the Conf secretary.

C T Thomas, our Conf Treasurer, a senior citizen was amazing. He was with us since 6..00 in the morning to 12 mignight on the 29th.

Aditya Maheswaran pitched in at the last moment by offering to pick up the Key Note Speaker Mr. N. Vittal.

Lalitha lightened the tense moments of R8 team with her humour and lively demeanour.

Nina got us the sponsorship of Hari Ratan.

Ramprasad took care of Tea / food being served on time at the conf. venue.

J. Karthik and Sastha did not get a wink of sleep nor did they have a proper meal since 25th Nov. They worked and worked and worked without uttering a single word of retort..

Dear friend,s the trust i have in each one of you has skyrocketed.

I am extremely grateful to each one you for making R8 a great event. You all helped Toastmasters of chennai carve a niche for themselves in the toastmasters fraternity of District 82.

I am sorry for the delay in writing to you all, as i had a family wedding, which i had to skip on 29-30 for the sake of R8. However i compensated my absence by spending some quality time with all my relatives including my dad and brother who had come from Delhi on the 1st and 2nd December.

I would be too happy to help you all if you need my help at any point of time.
Thank you.

Regards
Indira Jayaraj.

Mayhem in Mumbai ...
Drama in Delhi ...

Cheers in Chennai!

A weekend sandwiched between terrible trauma and political drama. A weekend deluged by flash floods, encumbered by eroded roads. But our intrepid organizers were un-weekend. Undaunted. Unstoppable. Reverberations lived up to the name and vibed on.

As Saturday morning dawned and we converged at Hotel SAVERA, it became evident why Toastmasters is such an important and integral part of our lives. Toastmasters makes us happy!

At least for me, this simple truth was reaffirmed as faces broke into smiles, arms reached out in warm embrace and the ‘mutually supportive and positive learning environment’ of Toastmasters offered comfort and shelter from the disquiet outside.

The inspiring addresses at the opening ceremony, the soothing dose of culture, the edifying educational sessions, the delectable lunch, value-adding evaluations, side-splitting humorous speeches, recognition and acknowledgement of our leaders --- the day was laden with gifts.

How blessed we are to be a part of the ‘number one District in the world’. How privileged to be part of an organization that literally ‘walks the talk’ and validates its members in multiple ways --- k’chhing!

And if the k’chhing sound has become synonymous at TM with validation, as used by the 2006 World Champion of Public Speaking - Lance Miller, the ‘voice and noise’ of Chennai Toastmaster Sastha Ram will definitely be remembered for injecting the energy that was needed at Reverberation to uplift and cheer.

With Nina at the helm and Indira at the stern, and a brilliant crew to navigate and assist, the conference cruised surfside for the ‘fun nite’. The party started on the bus with the spirited singing of the Sri Lankan gang and carried on to the dance floor of the Green Meadows Resort and on to the beach. It was a fun knight indeed, sir dance-a-lot.

After a toast and jam session with the gracious host at the resort, we headed back to rest and get in gear for the early Sunday morning Speakers Workshop at the opulent Marina Towers.

Conducted by Ian in his inimical, captivating style, everyone got charged up about Toastmasters and its transformational powers. Testimonials and moving stories were shared and attendees resolved to spread the word and help in raising standards by conducting satellite workshops to help speakers improve and benefit from multiple levels of feedback.

The semi-annual conference in Chennai was a great success. It epitomized everything Toastmasters stands for. And sits for and sings for and dances for!

THANKS FOR HOSTING SUCH A LOVELY EVENT CHENNAI.

Punita

Hi Everyone,

R08.... a success story...

Indira Jayaraj, Neena John... Abraham Zachariah, Sastha, and the other committed Toastmasters of Chennai.. . . You have given us a truly memorable Semi Annual Conference, and I thank you for your determination to pull off the conference, in spite of Cycolne Nisha... the Taj Hotel Abomination... and the financial meltdown.... that the world is currently facing. For two days.... we were in encapsulated in a world of learning, fun and camaraderie.

It is amazing that one can get carried away in the spirit of the moment....

I was very....

1. impressed with the improvement of standards for the Evaluation Contest
2. thrilled with the standard of the Humourous Speaking Contest .... Adnan (OUTSTANDING.... and my eyes are roving a lot more... after your speech) Ramesh... (your humour never ceases to break shackles and lift hearts) and Rachit (you have enthu that needs to be replicated... loved your masti.... ) The others who participated... you need to be complimented on your ability to use a very difficult skill to employ in public speaking. Keep it up.

Overall, I must thank the organizers... they would have sweated, toiled and lost many hours of sleep putting together a conference across three locations... but they pulled it off admirably, and I feel we all owe them a warm and well deserved THANK YOU! Keep it up Chennai, this conference has established your presence in the District and we salute you for your endeavour.

District Officers, i also appreciate your warmth and commitment to the movement...

Bala, Yousuf, Kapila and the other stalwarts from SL... thank you for your motivation and sincerity..... and we look forward to another fabulous outing to SL for Ova9. (Ovation 09). We should storm Colombo and I assure you all it will be a tremendous experience. The warmth and the camaraderie of the Emerald Isle... has to be experienced to be understood.

Deepak (M), Deepak (J), Kumi, Venky... and the other big guns of Dist 82... your undying spirit to help the movement grow and flourish... deeply appreciated... ThanQ.

Participants... in the contests, and the others who came to learn... hope you all had an experience that will be taken back and shared with your respective clubs...

For the workshop on Sunday, 30th... I thank all those who participated... and shared and ... made the workshop something that I will remember for long... particularly Dr. Anupam... you are an inspiration to all of us who take our capabilities and our talents for granted. I look forward to the time when you win a contest... your superior intelligence and your effervescent spirit will reach out and your current impediment is already dissipating... your courage and your ability to reach out and touch hearts... WOW!!!!

Now about a venture that will help us take Toastmasters in Dist 82 to a new level....

All those who are interested in taking part in the SPEAKERS WORKSHOP for EXCELLENCE which will be conducted in every major centre/city of Dist 82...by playing a role of :

1. Mentor (TMs who have completed CTM/CC and ideally who have participated in at least one contest at the Area+ level)
2. Coordinator (in addition to the criteria in point 1. above... should have won at least one contest at the Area+ level)
3. Participant/s (ideally should have completed 6 manual projects and be willing to do 6 more projects in 6 months)
Do pls respond to my personal id ian1tm@yahoo.com

If you have ANY doubts, or need any clarifications, do pls contact me... on the above id.

Ian Faria, DTM.

Ravi Singal - The theory of Freedom

2008-10-20T21:08:00.003+05:30

I want freedom. I want freedom. Do you want the same?

Freedom from what? Day to day worries.. tensions.. there are number of ways to pronounce it.

Where does these worries/tensions crop up? Worries are the direct product of our bad emotional state, which in turn is a result of dissatisfaction. There are various areas in our life where we tend to be dissatisfied:

1. Financial - I am not able to give the kind of life style I wish to give to my family. I dont have money.

2. Time - I dont have time for my family, friends and most important for me. I am too busy.

These two together can be termed as basic necessities.

Beyond it there is an another cause of dissatisfaction. This is feeling to create something, to give back to the world. This if not met we feel dissatisfied.

Today I am going to give my perspective on how to tackle these worries and be free. The theory of freedom.

Refer to the figure below, each of us has a starting point in our life. May be in 20s. Suppose we start our life at 25. We have high dreams about how our life is going to be: in terms of money, time, our objective of life. But what we do in real life. We take a step that is the easiest and average.

For example - I have a dream that I will have a bungalow in Anna Nagar, a Mercedes car and my children will go to best world school. But what I do in reality. I go and join any corporate. Obviously it takes me in a direction. But is that in the direction of my dream? The answer is big NO.

We keep on moving on that path and time flies. We are in 60s and still struggling for finance and time and our dream remained an illusion. There is an another mean which we can use to achieve our freedom. This is create your own way. Obviously in beginning there is nothing you can bank on. You struggle through wilderness, but soon you find a field, then a kutcha road, then a concrete road and finally you find a super express highway which leads you towards your dream.

To illustrate, think you have a super car. This car can run at a speed of 1000 km/hr. But would you be able to run it at this speed. It depends upon two things:

1. Road on which you are travelling

2. Traffic conditions

Taking the job route is like travelling of a Mount Road. 3 by 3 highway, well lit, good road. But problem is everybody moves on it. And you cant run your car at more that 50-60 km/hr. Your speed will be determined by not you but by others (traffic). Frequently you will have promotions in form of flyovers and hiccups in the form of speed breakers but overall you will live an average life.

Lets see the other way. You start your car and take it to the mid of jungle; afterall you have to create your way. What is the first thing bound to happen? Puncture and car will get scratches. The good thing about this super car is: more it get puncturered and more it get scratches, it gets more resistant. Your car intially moves at 2km/hr, but soon it finds a way where it moves at 20, then 100, then 500 and finally find its super highway where it runs at 1000. This is an exclusive highway that you have made for yourself and you have all the luxury to move.

In our life, all of us have this super car. Guess!! Its our mind. Now it depends upon us which road we want our mind to travel. To move on second road only thing we require is to keep our eyes and ear open. Accept mistakes, take lessons and move forward.

How can we start? Its a small process:

1. Introspect - What is that you want out of your life? Find your place.

2. Visualize - Visualize your end state. In terms of finance, life style, spending time etc.

3. Commit - Take all actions that take you towards your dream.

Now you know how to achieve freedom. So all of us are ready to take the first step to achieve our dream. Remember we have to take a free fall.

Fear!!! Let me assure you friends: Have faith in yourselves. You wont die of hunger. It's like a pain that a mother experience at the time of delivery. But at the end you will have a wonderful product - future in you hands that only you have created.

Don't go where the path may lead, go where there is no path and leave a trail.

Area Contest Winners

2008-10-19T21:33:00.005+05:30

Proud moment for Chennai Toastmasters.

After the club contest, we had an area contest organized at Caterpillar's office. And guess!!! It is Chennai Toastmasters which set its flag wave in the contest. TM Lalitha and TM Aditya won the first and runners up prize for both Evaluation and Humourous speech contest respectively.

Free cheers to both of them!!!

Alka - TV: Could You Be Without It?

2008-09-24T10:52:00.001+05:30

When John Logie Baird came up with the first TV set in the early 1900s, little would he have known that his brain child would end up as the next biggest addiction in history, at least the in thing of the 20th century. Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and distinguish guests. The television without a doubt unfolds the world right there in front of you in the comfort of the living room (or bedroom, kitchen.. even bathroom) as the level of affluence or craziness maybe.

Some people even call it the 'Idiot Box', which I’m sure, proponents of the visual media would definitely disagree with. But in this Information explosion age, do we see this commodity as yet another appliance crowding the living room space, a box that makes you a couch potato or is it a treasure box that is giving you a wealth of information and visual pleasure of sorts? This surely calls for some discussion, i suppose.

The TV as i know of today comes with a truckload of channels catering to the needs of every individual, i should say. Take India for instance: one is just spoilt for choice at the umpteen numbers of channels that are telecast. The one thing that struck me about these channels is the number of them tailored for the sole purpose of splashing up to the minute news. News bulletins carrying only local news, and especially world happenings are telecast almost at alternative time slots. Never has the information age been so much explosive than now. News is readily available and 'hot from the oven' served even in my office cafeteria on a wide screen plasma TV. That place really feeds the mind and body.

The thirst and hunger for live action, live news and everything live has really burgeoned in society that only the TV can satisfy. There is no appeal in watching news that is a day old in newspapers the following morning. We want news as and when it happens or at least a few minutes after it happens. That is essentially information explosion. In that sense we could never do without the TV.

Apart from serving the information appetite, the TV is really food for the senses. It is undeniably the best entertainment medium man can ever come up with. The human mind always is easily attracted to that which is more attractive and appealing to the eyes. The TV, other than being a channel carrier can be used with other equipment such as DVD players to play tons and tons of - you know what I’m talking about-movies.

I think that Bollywood, Hollywood or Kollywood wouldn’t survive if not for these media movers. Theatergoers are only a handful. It is the TV that brings the movies to the masses. Nowadays, in Indian villages, TV has taken center stage in the majority of the houses (or huts). After a busy days work, whether as a farmer ploughing the fields or an system programmer designing cutting edge software, both come back to the apartment or hut stretch out in front of their visual companion forgetting their worries and hassles in the batting of an eyelid. It’s just so magical and all of us are living examples of that spell on us everyday, aren’t we? Oh, my, entertainment is just synonymous to the TV- they just coexist and we just have to be part of that coexistence.

But as always, there are 2 sides to a coin. In many instances the cons almost outweigh the pros. And this is no exception. As subjects of the Information age, we are just literally engulfed with an enormous set of media, electronic and non-electronic the former more dominant and sought after than the latter. Among the various electronic media, the TV is just one among the many. The Internet can be sighted as one of the principal forms of media that many would sacrifice anything to get the fastest and reliable connection. The

Internet has created such a prolific revolution that Information access has never been so
readily and vastly available ever before. Sitting in the office (that’s what most of us do 80 percent of the month), its not possible to gain access at the desk. But every PC comes fitted with that magical tool, the Internet. Its not just something to relax with but an efficient tool with which anyone can fulfill their immediate needs: making a train or flight reservation, carrying out a funds transfer, applying for an educational institution, purchase, sale and auctioning and the list goes on almost infinite. I can watch movies and clips too, much of which I can't on TV. When i think about this overwhelming phenomenon, it makes me wonder- the TV dwarfed so much in front of the Infinitely Interesting Internet. Do I really need the TV now? Maybe not.

I want to reiterate the fact that the TV is just one of the many forms of media. Even though the viewers maybe wooed by the various TV stations with a plethora of entertainment, they have to cut a line and prioritize what they do. The fact that TV has transitioned from being a luxury once to a necessity now is not only because of the increased buying power and other economical factors; it is more due to the enormous information discharge taking place every second and we trying to keep pace with that discharge and also our dependency on it. Scanning at the various media around us, we are many times, spoilt for choice. I think, we can live without the TV but there is one thing we can never live without- that is the media- so subtle, yet so powerful.