Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 1 - "My Very Own Sky Fall"

Having chosen "The Entertaining Speaker" manual, my first project is called "The Entertaining Speech". The objective is to use vividly descriptive language and entertain the audience with a topic they would be interested in. 

Date: 15^th November 2006

Place: A private airport near Dallas Fortworth

Time: 11 AM CDT

A 90 pound version of me alights from the car shivering in the 11 degree temperature with four other, equally anxious men. A big burly man, who must be in his late fifties, greets us at the entrance, looks at me expectantly and says, “You’re gonna jump?”, I nod and he is visibly elated. He says, “Well, you’re gonna jump with me then!”

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters. You guessed it right, I am talking about the day I did something purely for myself, for the experience, and for the satisfaction of having dared: the day I sky dived.   

The big burly man’s name was Larry, who had an experience of about 4000 tandem skydives. So we entered the hangar, and I, being the youngest and the only female there, was given the privilege of selecting my turn. I thought, well….before I lose my painstakingly accumulated courage and start freaking out, let’s get this over with. And I volunteered to go first. Larry said, “Great! Sign these papers please.” And there was this questionnaire in front of me..do you have any heart related disease, any lung disease, whether you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, blah blah. This was all routine..the real shocker was the undertaking – “I hereby declare that I am doing this activity of my own accord, with complete knowledge of the perils involved. If anything unseemly occurs, I take total responsibility.”

And then it dawned on me. There could be accidents, one can even die – how stupid of me to not consider this before? Suddenly I wanted to run away, but something, maybe pride, made me stay and sign.

What happened afterwards is a flurry of events, which are kind of blurred in my memory. I was asked to put on all the gear - jump suit, goggles, helmet, gloves and the works. I haven’t put on more layers of clothing till date. In a daze, I suited up, stepped into that airplane, with four people, the pilot, Larry (the tandem guy, saver of life and opener of the parachute), John (the photographer), and Keith (an experienced diver).  Larry said, “Ok girl. Off we go, now you cannot back out.” Sometime during the ride, my and Larry’s gear was tethered together for the tandem jump with me in front. I swear to God, I have absolutely no recollection of it. When i came to my senses at 11,000 feet, the door of the plane opened and a mad gush of wind came in that chilled me to the spine. Everyone said, Jump! But I could not…my ears heard their voice, even carried it to my brain, but my body was frozen at the spot. I wanted to scream, but my vocal chords did not obey. A tiny part of me also wanted to jump, but my hands wouldn't leave the door and my legs wouldn't move, and I held on to Larry for dear life. And all this while, my rational mind was shouting like crazy....why did you  do this to yourself??

You must have heard how adrenaline rush makes things move in slow motion, well, I experienced it. Finally, someone tore my hands away from the door and someone gave a push and I was airborne, falling under gravity. With the sky below my feet and the chilly wind in my lungs, I was a bird for 50-60 seconds. John and Keith had also jumped after me…while John clicked pictures, Keith, in a span of second tried to explain to me with gestures how this is so beautiful and how this moment will never come again, and how important it is to cherish and live it. So I let go, attempted to smile even when the high speed winds were as if tearing my skin away, and looked all around the amazing landscape. Then the parachute opened and brought us in a vertical position..Floating like a feather, I distinctly remember having said, “Larry! I am a bird!”. I imagine he must have smiled then.

These three minutes of my life are, needless to say, among my most treasured memories. The day I was pushed into realizing one of my crazy dreams. Isn’t that all we need sometimes, just a gentle push?

This speech took 7:34 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for choice of topic and language. However, more preparation could have been done, and expressions can be improved.

Book Review - Atlas Shrugged

“I swear by my life and the love of it, that I’ll never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

This oath, taken by the protagonist of the book ‘Atlas Shrugged’, beautifully sums up the theory of Objectivism founded by its author Ayn Rand and all that it stands for. The book is not just a work of fiction, but a representation of the virtues of rationality and self esteem that the movers of the world possess. Through its strong characters such as John Galt, Dagny Taggart, Francisco D’Anconia and others, and the interaction between them, the reader is slowly engrossed in not merely the story, but also its striking similarity with the world around us. The ultimate question is, what if the ones who carry the world on their shoulders shirk their responsibility and say that they can no longer be subordinated by the ones who don’t? What happens when all the innovative brilliant minds decide to go on a strike and build their own Atlantis somewhere else?

All this and more is covered in this tome of a book which does not shy away from asking difficult questions. The language is so simple, the characterization so vivid and the dialogues so deeply intense at times that the reader gets the feeling of being an actual part of the saga. While the only put down might be the 1000 odd number of pages the book goes on for, but that didn’t stop me from reading it twice!

This was overdue from long time ago....finally wrote it for a competition. And won.

Toastmasters Clubs in Indore

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of meeting locations. The mission of Toastmasters is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

Keeping these objectives in mind, the first chapter of Toastmasters was opened in Indore at a reputed organization in May 2009 - this was a corporate club open only to the employees of the company. The club members meet every week for 90 minutes for delivering prepared speeches and impromptus. The members also perform various roles like Toastmaster, Table Topics Master, Ah Counter, Timer, Grammarian, Evaluator, etc which helps in developing their communication as well as leadership skills. The club has produced many Competent Communicators (a feat accomplished on completing 10 prepared speech projects) till date and many more are moving closer towards achieving this goal. A lot of members have also completed their Competent Leadership track certification, as well as advanced education awards.

There are two more clubs in the Indore Area of Toastmasters now: BeyondKey Indore Toastmasters (a community club open to all, for details refer to the club's facebook page) and Toastmasters at Planet-I (a corporate club open only for IIM-Indore students).

Three more clubs are in the making, one of which is a community club which needs to add members in order to be able to charter. So if any reader is willing to join Toastmasters, leave a comment on this post and i'll get back to you.

Book Review - The Sense of an Ending

It starts with a group of slightly above average teenagers facing the same odds and ends as any other - that euphoria of having officially said good-bye to childhood and entering the adult phase, the same larger than life philosophical boasts - they talk as if they really understand what they are talking about. Midway, it turns into an existential debate on the morality of life and death, suicide in particular. But the end...its the end that leaves you thinking, or rethinking, about the past: your perceptions of the events that took place in your lifetime with the limited knowledge of the context, is that really what happened? The things you remember now, did they actually happen or are they just manifestations of what you believe happened? Were you so prejudiced about something, or someone, that you could not see what was in front of you all the time? And more such questions. And guilt. And remorse. 

Of course, or in the author's words, it is psychologically self evident that, all this happens to Tony, the protagonist who is also the narrator, but somewhere, we can see some reflections of ourselves in him. The author has beautifully woven a story with characters that seem like everyday people, with Tony candidly describing all that comes to his mind. The plot is gripping, to say the least, and offers a magnificent take on history - both personal and otherwise - and our interpretation of it. The language is rich, yet easy to understand.

But no matter how many questions it raises and attempts to answer, it is after all a  story, a brilliant one at that, which simultaneously mystifies and baffles you. That it makes you think, is an added advantage. Mr. Julian Barnes, you totally deserve that Man Booker you earned for this compelling work of fiction.

My Toastmaster's speech 10 - "A is A"

Its called "Inspire Your Audience" and objective is to inspire the listeners by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement.

I recently overheard a conversation while standing in a queue to check out my grocery. An elderly lady in front of me was talking to her husband – "You know what happened at Mr. Sharma’s yesterday? Poor old fellow, had a huge fight with his son, and now the son has threatened to throw him out of the house! i was so jealous of him before, that his child lives with him, but now I think we are so much better off, even if our kids are abroad!"

It was as if I was shot by a bolt of lightning at that time and I had this epic realization, or epiphany for that matter, that we are all inherently barbarous, and we derive happiness by comparing ourselves to other people’s miseries. Classic example is the very famous story of the beggar who has no shoes. He goes to the temple and asks God, "What kind of a God you are, when so many people have cars and scooters to go from one place to another, all I ask is for a pair of shoes, and you can’t even give me that?" Right at that moment, as if on cue, a legless man arrives there with a pair of crutches, and our beggar immediately apologizes and says, "Thank you God, I got my answer – at least I have feet and I am immensely grateful for that. I swear I will never complain about shoes now." So this beggar was unhappy relative to people owning vehicles, but is happy relative to a cripple. His state of mind depends on what is the recent thing he has seen and compared himself to.

Aren’t we all like that? Comparing to something or someone all the time? His rating is better than mine, her salary is lesser than me, his bike gives more mileage, my neighbor’s roses are so much more beautiful than the ones in my garden, abc’s child is so quiet and well behaved, why can’t mine be like that, xyz’s house is so small, thank god mine is bigger…and so on. I have seen people compare disability even, I have done it too at times, and now to think of it, it sickens me to the core. As some of you might be aware, my younger brother has cerebral palsy of all four limbs, meaning he cannot sit or stand on his own or use his hands or anything, but his IQ is normal. He used to go to a fitness center for physiotherapy where all kinds of kids with all kinds of disabilities used to come, and all parents used to compare to see how much raw was the deal they got. How can you compare a thing like this? Some kid, paralyzed from the waist below, someone was all ok, but was spastic and had epilepsy, some did not recognize their own parents but could do day-to-day activities on their own, someone was blind or deaf or mute….how do you decide who is better off? More important question is why do you have to think in those terms? If you do, there is no end, in either direction – no matter how bad your situation is, there always will be someone in a worse situation, and no matter how good the circumstances are, there will always be someone who is better off, more so, because it is an illogical as well as subjective comparison.

It’s like that ad on TV – some person is walking on the road wearing all white clothes with a smug expression on his face – look at the whiteness and purity of my attire. And then this packet of detergent goes "whoosh!" and you see the patch it created is somehow – whiter. I don’t get it. White is white, how can your white be whiter than my white? It’s a color for crying out loud.

Can we not be happy or satisfied in the absolute? Can we not build this world within ourselves; where we appreciate and evaluate others, be judgmental and have opinions, even put ourselves in others’ shoes, but not want those shoes? Or not feel the importance of our shoes after trying out theirs?

I say we can, we just need to give it an honest try. Just close your eyes for a few seconds and think, like Shakespeare said, all the world’s a stage and I have been given this role to play. Doesn’t matter if it is better or worse than anyone’s, its mine and I will do complete justice to it…no matter what. Because A is A. It is what it is. I am unique, one of my kind, born after so many evolutionary cycles, and i cannot be compared, whether I reach the depths of despair or heights of achievement.

Now open your eyes and see, the world is already a different place, where you are not taller or shorter or fairer or darker or richer or poorer. You are just you, and like the Rolling Stones once sang, "You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes well you might find, you get what you need."

This speech took 9:05 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for speech content, body language and voice modulation. However, more conviction was required during speech delivery. With this speech, i reached the Competent Communicator stage of Toastmasters. 

My Toastmaster's speech 9 - "The Might of one Vote"

Its called "Persuade with Power" and objective is to persuade the listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or take some action. As for any speech project, lessons from previous projects should be kept in mind. For effective persuasion, i used the whiteboard to write all the percentages and other stats used in this speech.

Good Afternoon Fellow Toastmasters.

How many of you remember having cast your vote for the last Lok Sabha or the general election of 2009?
< counted the numbers> 50%

And the last Vidhan Sabha or State election? Again the same, 50%

And the next obvious question is, how many of you voted for the last Municipal election of your city? Oh, this is lesser than 50%

Pitiable, isn’t it? According to the election commission of India, the all India voter turnout for 2009 general election was 58.19%. Voters turnout in the UP State assembly election 2012 – 59.52%, Uttarakhand – 67.70%, MP 2008 - 69.28 %, For the Municipal Election for Indore in 2009 – 50.03%.

Why? Why this Kolaveri Di?

Sure, we all have our reasons – 1) What difference does one vote make, do I or my vote even matter in this huge scheme of things? 2) But I live here, and my name is there in the voter list of my birthplace. Surely I am not going to travel that long just for casting my vote! 3) The politicians, they all are the same, why should I waste my precious time and energy on useless things?

Really? Let us look at these questions one by one. First, does your vote matter. You tell me. Does your citizenship matter? Can your opinion be only expressed in terms of protests and street marches? If each one of the millions of droplets in an ocean begin to think in the same way, will there be any ocean? Do you know how much the election commission of India spend on elections? Any guesses? According to data available on ECI’s website, it was...let me put the zeroes first, how many should I put? Nine. It was Rs. 1300,00,00,000 - thirteen hundred crore - for 2004 Lok Sabha elections. That was 12.21 Rs. per person in that year. Where do you think all this money comes from?? The taxes you and I, the 2.77% tax paying population in this country, pay.

And this money is only how much the ECI spent. It allows political parties to spend about 2000 crore rupees for election propaganda, well….they actually spend 8000 crore rupees - only to impress voters. Only to impress you. The individual voter. So, my dear friends, even one vote counts.

The second reason that we usually give, of our name not being on the voter list, is actually a myth. If you are a resident citizen of India and have been living in one city for more than six months, you are eligible to vote from that very place. All you have to do is to fill out a voter registration form, give a valid current address proof; an officer will come to your house for address verification and your name will be added to the list. This way you can vote for all three levels – central, state and city elections. For more details please visit the site, http://www.jaagore.com/vote/faq.php.

Our third most common reason to not vote is about the political class in general. They are all the same, doesn’t matter who wins, it is we who stand to lose. Do you realize what has led to this situation? What is the cause and what is the effect here? It’s a vicious circle – we, the educated masses, don’t vote, so people who should really come to power don’t. Those who do, whichever political party they belong to, analyze and understand who actually votes and run populist schemes based on our age old socio-economic divide for some time to get back in power. And the cycle continues, and will continue until we all decide that enough is enough and that voter turnout goes to 90%. This will make the policymakers take proper decisions, which do well in the long run.

I sincerely believe that if we spread the word, create awareness about the importance and ease of voting, your paramount right as a citizen, and dismantle the myths associated with it, this feat is achievable. Remember, together we can, and should, and will make a difference. After all, every vote counts.

Thank You.

This speech took 8:38 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for effectively using statistics from reliable sources and the speech organization, flow and delivery. Timing was exceeded quite a bit. 

The Real Beauty of Ladakh

You get there and try to take in the snow capped mountains and the pink-blue-green-brown-grey and other technicolor rocks. The wondrous white sand and the crystal clear waters of the sangam of rivers Indus and Zanskar make you want to stay there forever. The mesmerizing monasteries and their fascinating frescos are also one of a kind. The varying shades of blue of the Pangong Lake make you thankful for being alive to witness such a wonder. The zigzag roads seemingly at odds with each other but ultimately reaching the same destination, shake you to the core, making you reach depths of thought you never consciously fathomed. The oasis town of Alchi and the bacterian camels of Nubra Valley are bedazzling. Momos and maggi at the highest motorable road at Khardungla, and the hot green tea at K-Top during snowfall is otherworldly. The pashmina shawls and the exotic jewelry at the Leh market redefine luxury for us city folks.

But, all this, taken together, does not equate the real beauty of Ladakh.

The real and absolutely ravishing beauty of Ladakh is its people. Their unmatched innocence and simplicity. Their kindness of heart. Their zest for life in the hardest of circumstances. Their positivity and optimism. Their Julley – one word meaning hello, good bye and thank you – a unique way by which they mandate expressing gratitude at meetings and partings.

United by cricket, bollywood, music and the national language, these people can blend in with anyone and yet maintain their own characteristic naivety. They own their cars but prefer to work as drivers with the customary Dalai Lama picture above the steering wheel; we ask them incredulously, and they say, “This is a great job! Why would I do anything else?” There are blind turns and dangerous alley-roads but they refuse to honk, when asked they say, “But I did honk, didn’t I?”, and the real reason after probing a bit turns out to be, “That poor guy will get scared.” Again in disbelief we can only stare agape. When an accident does happen, we expect a fight and are somehow sadistically pleased that now we’ll see the human side. But, no sir, they just get down, smile at each other sheepishly; the offending driver admits his mistake and pays for the damages, monks who are hurt put on bandages the tourists provide, and everyone moves on. Unbelievable. There is no need for locks because there is no scope for theft. You lose some belongings in one hotel, they aptly reach you at another one – yes, staff from the very hotel from which you moved do that for you. You can only try to smile and say Julley. Walking down a road looking for some transport, a godsend car would invariably stop and offer you a ride for a hundred bucks. Struggling with lack of oxygen and the bitter cold, you could get hot tea at a monastery in the middle of nowhere. Honesty and integrity really mean something here.

The place also sprinkles some of its magic on people just passing through. From the soldiers of the army to the engineers of Border Roads Organization, everybody is happy to help, or even exchange a few words. Tourists, both foreign and domestic, some in search of spirituality, some adventure, some pure old fun, and some a few good clicks, forget language and cultural barriers and whole heartedly discuss just one thing – Ladakh: with all its glories and all its difficulties.

And the icing on the cake is the locals’ easygoing manner of talking and their willingness to go to lengths to please others. Excerpts:

From an apparel shop at Leh market –

Seller: Madam, why don’t you try our pashmina stole!

Madam: Ok. <Tries to put it on clumsily>

Seller: 1 min madam, let me show you how. <Ties it properly>

Madam: Hmm…looks good this way.

Seller: Yes madam, but you will have to learn to tie different types of knots. Videos are available on you tube.

Madam: <totally stumped>Really?

After river rafting –

Barely out of teens Kayaker: Madam, aapka umr kitna hoga?

Madam: Tum batao kitna hoga?

Kayaker: 22-23

Madam: <pleased beyond words>Thanks! Khush kar diya tumne aaj!

Kayakar: Why?

Madam: Arey, young samjha tumne mujhe, isliye.

Kayakar: Oh. Achha. Boyfriend hai?

Madam: !

(And now you know why I really wrote this post..ha!)

My Toastmaster's speech 8 - "Maharashtrian Thali"

Its called "Get Comfortable With Visual Aids" and focus is on supporting your points with visual aids and handling them with ease and confidence. Also, lessons from previous projects should be kept in mind. The visual aids i used were - a thali and a single slide ppt. Plus, i was dressed in a maharashtrian style sari.

Namaskar Fellow Toastmasters.

Our country, India is an amalgamation of cultures and habits so diverse that it is said “kos kos par pani badle teen kos par bani”, meaning mile after mile even water changes and every three miles you get to hear a different language, or at least a new dialect. And every region or culture has its own traditions and rites and rituals and sometimes they are so different from each other that we could literally get cultural shocks going from, lets say Gujarat to Rajasthan or Poushchimbanga to Orissa.

The topic of my speech today is one such tradition from the Maharshtrian way of life which has baffled many a people not born into it, and that is the typical meal and its arrangement around the plate, or thali. Yes, you heard it right, I said the arrangement of the meal around the thali. Surprised? Well, we don’t do this as a regular practice, but only on special occasions, which are usually festive ones, like Navaratri, or Holi – the days differ from family to family and are actually passed on via generations as a legacy. In my family, such a meal as I am going to describe is prepared thrice a year.

On such a day, the plates are set on the ground in a line or square formation and are surrounded by a rangoli. The meal is eaten sitting cross legged and is prepared and served by the ladies of the household. This is a sample plate which is normally used, <at this point i brought out the plate> though there is no formal guideline about the shape but usually circular is preferred. A bowl or katori is placed at the center and at the top so as to divide the plate into two sections. The glass of water is placed at the left side outside the plate.

Let me tell you now about the various food items and their order. The very first item on the left is salt, but since it is considered inauspicious to serve salt in an empty thali, we start with serving a slice of lemon, and then place salt in between the lemon and the katori. Next comes the chutney, and pickles can also be included at this spot. After that any sort of salad can be served, this can be anything from a sprouted one to mashed grains or daal; followed by a cucumber or banana based raita. At the right side, there can be any number of cooked vegetables in line one after the other. Then comes something called 'pattalbhaji' in Marathi, which is essentially a leafy vegetable cooked as to form a semi solid dish to be eaten with the chapatti.

Coming to the center, the katori is filled with hot kadhi, and below it can be bhajiye and papad, etc. Then you have the sweet dish, which is often laddu, along with sweet chapatti called pooran poli. Rice is served just below this in a neat mound and is topped by yellow daal and ghee.

This is what a sample thali looks like after the first serving. <at this point the ppt with the below picture was shown> 

People are then invited to sit and as soon as everybody gets seated, the second round of serving starts and this goes on till the meal is over.

To someone who is coming across this method for the first time, it seems too much work to do, but believe me, once you get the hang of it, it’s not such a big deal. If you look at the ergonomic aspect of this arrangement, its almost perfect for a right handed person, and we Indians as a rule, eat using our right hands. Hence the placement of the glass of water on the left side so that it is more approachable and doesn’t get spoiled. The left part contains all the raw uncooked items usually eaten in lesser quantities. The right is for cooked portions served hot and the middle is for items eaten in major quantities and are more reachable. This also benefits the one who is serving since she knows beforehand which dish is to be served where.

But for me, this is not the real brilliance of this tradition or any other tradition from any other region for that matter. That there is a scientific explanation for everything or that our ancestors were so intelligent as to bring in such ingenious ideas in seemingly simple things – that too is not the real brilliance of it. The real brilliance, my dear friends, is the fact that there is no documentation of rituals like these. There are no scriptures, no guide, no rulebook where you can find this written. It is passed on by word of mouth from generations since centuries and it is has stood the test of time, and that is because there is something deeply rooted within each of us which keeps stuff like this alive.

Being an agnostic, I have always believed in putting a question mark to things, rules specially, written or otherwise, but I cannot for the life of me, put that salt on the right side or that laddu way below, because, that something inside me, which is also a little obsessive compulsive, cannot think up of a better way to accomplish this.

Thank You.

This speech took 8:17 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the visuals used, however, the thali could have been used in a better way, and choice of words could have brought out more culinary feelings about the described dishes.