Monday, June 25, 2012

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. 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

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!)