Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 13 - "Experience At PSK"

This is speech #1 from "Specialty Speeches" manual, called "Impromptu Speaking". Five general topics have to be written on slips of paper with which one is familiar. These are to be given to the speech evaluator before the meeting. He or she will select one at random for the speaker. The objectives are to develop an awareness of situations in which one might be called upon to deliver an impromptu speech, to understand how to prepare for impromptu speaking and to use one or more patterns to approach a topic under discussion; for example, comparing a past, present and future situation or before and after . Time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes.

For this speech, i had selected five general topics:

1. Book review
2. Movie reviews
3. Recent Experience
4. Superwoman Syndrome
5. Any other topic on which the audience would like me to speak

 and the audience chose this one for me -

Passport Renewal Experience 


The speech took 10  minutes fro delivery. I felt i have done much better before...both in prepared as well as impromptus.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 12 - "Big Data"

This is speech #1 from "Speaking to Inform" manual, called "Resources For Informing". The objectives are to analyze your audience regarding your chosen subject, focus your presentation at the audience's level of knowledge, build a supporting case for each major point using information gathered through research, and effectively use at least one visual aid to enhance the audience's understanding. Time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes.

Data. Big Data. Naam toh suna hoga?

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters. Seriously, there would be no one in the world of technology who hasn’t heard this name..unless of course one lives in a cave, in which case, most probably one doesn’t have  anything to do with technology at all. 

Jokes apart, Big Data is something that has baffled many of us at many times. But my friends, nothing could be simpler to understand. Unlike terms such as cloud computing -which has nothing to do with clouds or specifically with weather prediction, big data means exactly what the name suggests – big, huge, large, gigantic, humongous data. 

 

Imagine the amount of data that you yourself deal with everyday…..on your office laptop – work files, mails, archives, knowledge sharing docs..then on your home PC or tablet – pics, videos, music, movies…then the content you access online….or your data on the “cloud” – on social networking sites, content sharing websites, or even your email data or browsing history…..things that the apps on your smartphone remember for you – notes that send you an alarm across devices, ebooks that are in sync on any device you use, and on and on. Look at this image on the left…according to visualnews.com…every minute of the day, this is what users do on an average on the internet.

48 hours of new videos uploaded on you tube, over 204 million email messages, 2 million searches on google, 3600 photos on instagram, 47 thousand app downloads on the Apple Store…and this is just one minute. And there are 1440 minutes in a day. 365 days in an year. Imagine the amount of data.  A Zillion terabytes, isn’t it?

Don’t you think big is a small word to describe it? Now to organize, capture, and analyze all this data is such a Herculean task that our traditional data processing techniques - that I learnt in college ten years ago - fall short. There is a need of multiple high capacity parallel processors that might be running in a distributed environment. To support them, we need to have a new set of exceptional software techniques and technologies; these are also known as Big Data or sometimes Big Data Analytics. Examples of some software being used today are - Hadoop, MapReduce, Cassandra, Storm. MongoDB and many more.

To study big data, you should first understand its nature and attributes. There are various characteristics of Big Data..but the 4 Vs stand out – Volume, Variety, Velocity and Veracity. This infographic from IBM best describes the 4 Vs. 

Volume: Scale of data; we already saw a sample in previous slides. Variety: different forms of data – text, images, audio, video. Velocity: Analysis of Streaming Data – increasing speed with which the data is getting uploaded and has to be analyzed; and Veracity: Uncertainty of Data – whether the data is accurate and how to determine the accuracy.

Image Source: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

Now you all might say…ok…big data..means lots of data…with volume, variety, velocity, veracity. So What?? Well...to understand and decipher all these zillions of bytes of data, to uncover correlations that you didn’t know existed, and then to predict user behavior is what Analytics is all about. This can involve data mining, predictive analytics, forecasting, optimization, artificial intelligence and what not.

Eventually, after applying all these techniques, an answer would emerge as shown in this graph.

Data, when structured and correlated, becomes information; information, when interpreted and sifted for patterns, becomes knowledge; knowledge, with a little bit more understanding and correctedness, transcends to wisdom. With the application of this DIKW pyramid of information science, the future might just become a better, or wise place to live.

Like any scientific discovery, invention or innovation, it is up to us how to use this wisdom when we ultimately get there. Not just doing things right, but doing the right things.  Not just the what, how and why of things, but doing what is best for the greater good.

 

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DIKW.png

Sources:

http://www.visualnews.com/2012/06/how-much-data-created-every-minute/

http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/analytics/big-data-analytics.html

http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

This speech took 8 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the subject (the audience being an IT crowd), research and the visual aid : PPT.

Women must have it ALL

A speech for Area Level International Speech Contest. 

 

(Opening Scene. Running on a treadmill.Panting.)

2 km. 4 km. I need to do 10 km today. Yesterday I looked so fat in that dress! I should probably start pilates or yoga, join some class…but my gardening would suffer then…maybe I can steal some homework time for this..oh no no no..i can’t do that…it’s about my kid’s future after all…if that smug mrs do-it-all sharma’s son gets better grades, how am I going to face the mirror? Talking of mirrors, the one in the bedroom needs some shining…let me meet the maid today..i’ll show her how cleaning is supposed to be done! For that matter, cooking as well. Oh..what time is it….gosh!

(Stop Panting) Mr. Contest master, fellow toastmasters and whoever has run on the spot without getting anywhere…good morning..rise and shine and glimpse into the world of a superwoman… the all powerful, omnipresent, <speaking very fast> always fresh, always ready, always there for you, never late, never wrong, the best daughter, the best sister, the best friend, the best wife, the best mother, the best employee, the best project manager <stop speaking very fast, deep breath>..….your own fine superwoman…..miss perfect. What? Did you say nobody is perfect?

Well....i am nobody. And everybody. Unique…one and only…just like everyone else! Or, am i? Pause for effect.

Funny how things happen and wake you up when you are least expecting them to…me and my husband went to our friends’ place a few days back. They had the most beautifully kept house..spic and span…the tiles were so clean you could bend over and check if your lipstick’s still good! The bathrooms so spruced up and redolent, you’d almost end up apologizing to the toilet seat after relieving yourself. <pause for audience laughter> Naturally, my competitive instinct told me to look down upon myself and berate me for being a lax homemaker..what kind of a woman was I if my floor tiles were simply clean..and not reflective..or if the bathroom smelled just good, and not aromatic? 

Oh..the shame of it! Like other things of prime importance in my world, I ended up discussing this with my husband. “Did you see the kitchen? The cook top was virginal….as if nothing was ever prepared on it! The lady of the house must have a magic wand.” The answer he gave me was an eye opener, “Oh yeah…the sorcerer! Her amazing housekeeping skills automatically make her the best person that ever existed, isn’t it? And by corollary, it makes you the worst…because you live in a digital world..either 1..or 0.”

Well….even if he was saying this just for me to stop nagging him about his shoes lying here and there, he did have a point. What have we done to ourselves? The double whammy of guilt laden with consumerism has led to ever increasing expectations, and we are now slaves to it. We’ve gone beyond mere obsessive-compulsiveness and landed into the realm of ‘the superwoman complex’. The idea that one can do everything…and why can….one has to do everything. Phrases like just a housewife, just a mother, just a career woman….hurt us….we feel dishonored by them.

With decades and centuries of crusading for women’s rights…right from a suffragette in the 20^th century to the neo-feminists of the day…what is everyone fighting for if the object of the movement – woman - is its worst adversary! What we really need, first and foremost, is freedom from this superwoman cape. This garment of incessant unnecessary burdens that we ourselves have proudly adorned ourselves with. Who said looking fat is disgraceful…do yoga if you feel like..who said gardening is essential…if it is, hire a gardener. Who said the poor mirror will disown you if mrs. Sharma’s son excels in his studies! Take it easy ladies! Lets try being happy with good…or just ok. Sheryl Sandberg says “Lean In!”, Indira Nooyi say “Women can’t have it all”….Melissa Mayer has some radically different ideas. And us ordinary women think we must have it all. Well, if you do want to have it all, let it be A Little Leisure. (make a, L, L symbols with fingers as you say it.)

This ended up being a runner-up speech that day.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 11 - "Let's Rock!"

This is speech #1 from "Speaking to Inform" manual, called "The Speech to Inform". The objectives are to select new and useful information for presentation to the audience; organize the information fro easy understandability and retention, and present the information in such a way that will help motivate the audience to learn. Time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes.

“Lets rock this thing guys..all the best!”

“In my world, chocolate rocks!”

“Rihanna is rocking that dress.”

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters. Can you tell me the common thing in the three disparate statements I just uttered? Yes, ROCK. But in all the sentences, this word has a very vague meaning. We can only assume that it means something good, positive, something full of hope.

For me, hope is what rock is all about. In this context, I mean rock music. It’s a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the 1950s. Rock music drew influences from a number of other genres such as blues and folk, jazz, classical and many more. In the 1960s and later, rock developed into a range of different styles. But the 60s is when it really took shape – hence this is also known as the Golden Age or Classic Rock period. A number of sub genres of rock have emerged over the years - like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, jazz-rock fusion, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, glam rock, heavy metal, punk rock, new wave, alternative rock, indie rock, garage rock……to name a few!

Of all these, psychedelic is my favorite…but before getting to that, lets discuss how to differentiate a rock song from others. Well, there are two elements to any song – the sound and lyrics. Rock lyrics generally address a wide variety of themes, mostly social or political. They can also stress romantic love. On the sound side, there is a heavy use of guitar, usually electric guitar, combined with bass guitar and drums. But what really distinguishes rock is its emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity. For example, you must all have heard the song by A.R. Rahman - “Sadda Haqq” – what makes it a quintessential rock song is the use of guitar and drums…and the lyrics with a social message, an inherent attitude of being right and doing right, not necessarily in accordance with the society’s rule. That it is also depicted as a live performance in the movie is one more factor.

In the 60 odd years of its existence, rock music has served as a vehicle for various cultural and social movements. This has also lead to major sub-cultures such as mods and rockers in the UK, the hippie counterculture in the US, punk culture, goth, etc. Inheriting the folk tradition of the protest song, rock music has been associated with political activism as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex and drug use. Most importantly, rock is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity. “Sadda Haqq, Aithhe Rakh!”

Coming back to my favorite category of rock, psychedelic…this is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It often uses new recording techniques and effects, extended solos and improvisation. The music draws on non-Western sources such as the ragas and drones of Indian music – such as tanpura, ektara, surpeti, and shankh. The lyrics are somewhat surreal and whimsical. They can be literary-inspired as well....like Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” based on Alice in Wonderland. Many musicians have pioneered psychedelic rock…some of them include the Beatles, the Byrds,  Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, the Doors and Pink Floyd.

Well…all these names might not mean a lot of many of you guys, but they have been my companions on many a sleepless night……my partners on long lonely drives through the wilderness….my weapons on busy city streets fighting the woes of everyday traffic. Or merely songs transfixing my world into something altogether different on quiet weekends. So to all of you all who haven’t taken a dip in this turbulent ocean of occasional tranquility, lets rock!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

This speech took 8 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the subject, research and vocal variety. Organization could have been such as to motivate the audience to learn.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 10 - "Sixty Years Young"

This is speech #5 from "The Entertaining Speaker" manual, called "Speaking After Dinner". The objectives are to prepare an entertaining after-dinner talk on a specific theme and to deliver the talk using the skills developed in the preceding projects. Time allotted is 8 to 10 minutes.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Hope you enjoyed the dinner. If any of you is still wondering what this party was all about and why we cut that huge cake, well, let me remind you it’s my father’s 60^th birthday.  I know you all know, but making sure doesn't hurt, right?

You all know him as a devoted brother, a friend in need, a professional par excellence, and a very strict uncle who is somewhat obsessive compulsive and wants things to be done a certain way…”Don’t eat on the bed..at least put the plate on a newspaper!” “Put your shoes at their proper place” etc. But no one but my brother and i here can know him as a father. So I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to him.

Everyone has seen a coconut, right? That green/brown thingy that has to be cracked open? Tough and hard from the outside but all watery inside? Let me explain. You know, my earliest childhood memory is when I was still crawling on fours…I learnt to walk a bit late, so I must be about an year old that time. Papa was sitting cross legged on the floor with an old newspaper and a plate in front of him, knife in hand, and ready to peel apples for all of us to eat. At this sight, I was suddenly very hungry and went up to him crying and asking for a piece even before he had started peeling it. He asked me to wait for two minutes but I kept on shouting and insisting now, now….papa lost his temper and shouted back at me. I was shocked for a moment and then started bawling...mummy ran up to me and took me away. After a while, when I was still hiccuping  papa came to me and offered a piece of apple. I distinctly remember having seen tears in his eyes then. That might have been the day when my sub conscious understood what a coconut he is...the day i fell in love with this man.

He relentlessly did what fathers are ideally supposed to do, slogging for hours to provide us a good life, a good education and secure our future. But what he also did was to inculcate this feeling of responsibility in us, well…by sometimes analyzing the phone bill with money doesn't grow on trees speeches! I remember I used to love counting currency notes, and he always made me do it, all the while sharing tidbits about the importance of savings and spending, that is now rooted deep inside me. Whenever a new gadget was introduced in the market, I know he would want to own it, but kept his own desires secondary to ours.

Perhaps the best thing about growing up with him, yes I said growing up with him – everyone grows up every day, do they not? He certainly does, and I don’t mean in age. Anyway, I was saying that he did not differentiate between my brother and me anytime – in the sense of my being a girl and his a boy. I was asked to learn to make tea as easily as to screw on a light bulb. So if there are some different set of activities that being a girl vs. a boy involves, I was not aware of them..till a long time…till I started realizing my friends in school who were girls, had not ever held a screwdriver in hand. Well..he made sure I played with dolls too…but that’s another thing.

Always open to debate, and willing to listen to a rational argument, we kids were never told not to talk about things we didn't understand, never reprimanded for speaking our minds. I have since understood that this is pretty rare. I cannot express in words what a world of difference this simple act makes and what strength of character it needs to let your children argue with you..even at times be at loggerheads with you. Then leave them to make their own decisions, acting only as a channel if they are not able to find a direction. That’s my coconut father for you.

Perhaps I have never told you before, but papa, I am proud of you. I hope you are as proud of me as well. Thank you for being the person you are, because that makes me the person I am. Happy birthday.

Ladies and gentlemen, hope I did not bore you with this somewhat emotional harangue. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Over and out.

This speech took 10:05 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for holding the audience's attention till the end.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 9 - "Ahilya Bai Holkar"

This is speech #5 from "Storytelling" manual, called "Bringing history to Life". The objectives are to understand the purpose of stories about historical events or people and to tell such a story using skills developed in the preceding projects. Time allotted is 7 to 9 minutes.

In the simmering heat of the month of April in the eighteenth century, hundreds of people had gathered in and around Rajwada in Indore.  All the surrounding roads laced with dust and dung had been barricaded with ropes. With sweat trickling down their bodies and faces it was difficult to see, even breathe in the dusty loo that was blowing, but everyone stood beyond the fencing, awaiting the royal elephant to emerge out of the gates. After all, it’s not every day that one gets the opportunity to witness an execution.

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters.

This was the year 1767. The era of Ahilya Bai Holkar. An iron lady, known for her wisdom and sense of justice.  Ahilya Bai was born in a middle class family in 1725 in a small village in the Aurangabad district. The great Holkar warrior, Malhar Rao, was on his way to Pune when he stopped at this very village for a while and saw this eight year old girl at a temple. He at once recognized her to be levelheaded and intelligent and decided to have her as a bride for his only son Khande Rao. In 1737 she was married to Khandoji and thus came to Indore. Years passed in marital bliss and they were also blessed with a baby boy, Maloji. But suddenly, like a bolt of lightening, disaster struck and Khande Rao died during the siege of Kumbher in 1754. Ahilya Bai was inconsolable, this young female even considered going Sati but her father-in-law convinced her of the futility of such an act and she gave up the idea. To quote her biographer, Malhar Rao thus "gave to the world what otherwise would have remained a Sealed Book – a splendid example of Aryan Rule under an Aryan Lady."

Till his own death twelve years later, Malhar Rao Holkar trained Ahilya Bai in matters of State and governance. He kept her informed about the political developments, such as his dealings with Najib–ud–daula and how Awadh was seeking his help, and about his own movements. In the battle of Panipat, Ahilya Bai also participated as a warrior, under her father–in–law's paternal but strict training. She captured a fort in Gwalior and then stayed there for a while to oversee the manufacturing of armaments. After Malhar Rao’s death, Ahilya Bai became the de facto ruler.

Among Ahilyabai's accomplishments was the development of Indore from a small village to a prosperous and beautiful city; her own capital, however, was in nearby Maheshwar, a town on the banks of the Narmada river. She also built forts and roads in Malwa, sponsored festivals and gave donations for regular worship in many Hindu temples. Outside Malwa, she built dozens of temples, ghats, wells, tanks and rest-houses across an area stretching from the Himalayas to pilgrimage centres in South India. There are many stories of her care for her people. She helped widows retain their husbands’ wealth. She made sure that a widow was allowed to adopt a son; in fact, in one instance, when her minister refused to allow the adoption unless he was suitably bribed, she is said to have sponsored the child herself, and given him clothes and jewels as part of the ritual.

She launched a campaign to rid her kingdom of Thugs who sought to plunder the kingdom, personally leading her army into battle. Her war time exploits became legendary. Ahilyadevi earned a reputation for administering justice fairly during her rule without partiality.

Her only concern was her only son Maloji, who had no interest in the matters of state, and was in fact showing signs of insanity. He spent his days just roaming around and playing pranks. She often warned him and employed various ways to bring him to see the right side – brought in tutors, sought medicinal help, even divine intervention, but all to no avail. She ignored many of his misbehaviors and mischief, but one day, he did something that the just ruler within her could not stand. Maloji had put poisonous scorpions in a few of her courtiers’ shoes which resulted into deaths – and murder was a capital offense.

The royal gates opened, and out came the disgraced prince screaming and shouting for mercy. The elephant followed and brutally squashed Maloji under its feet. Ahilya Bai, in her prayer room was informed that her only son had been brought to justice, just as she had instructed.

Now there is another version of how Maloji actually died…that one says he died of natural reasons owing to his health..but then, that version would not have made such a good story, would it?

Source: http://hssthistory.blogspot.in/2011/05/ahilyabai-holkar-ugc-history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahilyabai_Holkar

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ahilyabai_Holkar

This speech took 8:45 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for topic selection. 

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 8 - "Roshni’s Deliverance"

This is speech #4 from "Storytelling" manual, called "The Touching Story". The objectives are to understand the techniques available to arouse emotion and to become skilled in arousing emotions while telling a story. Time allotted is 6 to 8 minutes.

On a dull, damp morning of July, Roshni woke up to her mother’s frantic shakes, “Roshni! Get up! You don’t want to be late on your first day in your new school, do you?”. But Roshni wanted exactly that. In fact, she did not want to go to this new school at all. She had gone there earlier for the admission interview. It was so big and sophisticated, with everyone talking in English, she hadn't understood quite a lot and had felt like a misfit.

She had spent days haggling with her mother to not send her to this alien place. “I promise I will be a good kid now, I will listen to everything you say. I will sleep in the afternoon and not bother you or ask you to play with me. Please, I don’t want to go to this school”. But Mother was firm in her decision, “It is for your future Roshni. You will thank me later.”

And finally the day had come. Roshni put on her brand new uniform, shiny shoes, bag and water bottle and set out for the dreaded place in the school rickshaw. At the school, everyone was gathered in the assembly hall and she was asked to join the line of students of her class, the third standard. It was a painful experience for the shy and reticent Roshni. She did not even know the prayer they were singing! Or that she was not supposed to carry her bag and bottle into the assembly area! She thought everyone was looking at her as if she had committed some heinous crime.

In the classroom, she quietly went and sat on the last bench alone, out of the line of sight of the teacher. All children around her were bubbling with excitement and were enthusiastically chatting away about their summer holidays, “You know I went on a trip to Shimla! Oh it is sooo beautiful!” , “ I went to a summer camp and learnt skating! It is so  much fun, you should try it!” “My cousins from America visited us! They are so cool!” and so on..

Roshni wished someone would ask her about her holidays. Or how she was. Or maybe just what her name was. No one did. However, the teacher was kind and introduced her to the class. “Students, this is Roshni. It is her first day in our school and she’ll be studying with you all now. Let’s welcome her!” Everyone clapped and that was that. She again went back to her bench and sat alone.

Then came lunch time. It was then that Roshni discovered that there were separate groups of 4-5 students each within the class, who ate in their designated areas. She wanted to be a part of a group of girls who seemed likable.  But how could she go and ask? Wouldn't it be sort of an intrusion? What if they bluntly refused to accommodate her? She was the one eating alone…couldn’t people see that? Was she so unwanted here?

All such thoughts ran through Roshni’s mind and her eyes welled up. She spent the rest of the day counting down to the last period, crying silently, with no one to console her. No one even took notice. For them, it was an exciting beginning of another school year, of getting back with old friends - they did not have time to spare for this unexceptional new comer. 

Roshni went home, barely managing to hold her tears back. At the sight of her mother she could no longer hold her emotions -  she ran to her and clutching her arms started wailing at the top of her lungs. Mother was alarmed, and asked, “Roshni what happened beta? Are you hurt? Did someone say something to you?”. Between sobs, she told her about the day. Mother just smiled and said, “That’s it? And you are taking the roof down for this small thing? Honey they don’t know you yet, do they? Once they get to know and understand you, you will be friends! For that, you will have to take the first step, go and talk to them.”

But Roshni had other ideas. With her sense of extreme self respect - that people often mistook for ego - she decided that she would not be the one approaching people or asking for their attention. After all, action speaks louder than words! So instead, she devoted all her energy and concentration into studies; went to her teachers to get clarity for things she did not understand due to the new language; and of course took her mother’s help, who was always there for her.

Six months passed away in this fashion and the day came when the class teacher walked in with the results of the half yearly exams. Customarily, she announced, the third ranking student is….Abhishek…the second ranker is Dolly..and the first rank this time has been bagged by…Roshni. Roshni stood up and walked to her teacher to collect the report card. With her head still meekly down, she took the card and went back to her seat, ears ringing with her classmates’ applause, and sat there alone.

That was the last day she sat alone.

This speech took 9:15 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for story development, dialogue and the climax. The characters could have been described better.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 7 - "Live In The Moment"

This is speech #3 from  "Storytelling" manual, called "The Moral of the Story". The objectives are: to understand that a story can be entertaining yet display moral values, to create a new story that offers a lesson or moral, and to tell the story, using the skills developed in the previous two projects. Time allotted is 4 to 6 minutes.

Has any of you present here ever been stuck in a traffic jam? On the top of a flyover?

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters.

For those of you who are not from Indore, let me tell you there exists a world on the other side of Rajwada as well, and believe it or not, it is part of this city. Till about ten months ago, I used to be a resident of that world (and soon going to be, again..back to where I came from!). Now, driving from across that part, to the office, is no piece of cake. With people constantly celebrating festivals of religions you did not even know or recognize, organizing protests and human chains, bringing out wedding processions and what not on the already clogged roads, traffic jams are a common occurrence. Add to this our city folks’ amazing sense of driving, and you can get a jam for no apparent reason at all. Because, it seems there are only two rules of driving here, one – there are no rules; and two – but nobody really wants to get involved in an accident.

So imagine my surprise when one fine day I took my car and started from my home to the office, and the roads were clear! People were actually stopping at red signals and starting only when they turned green! If they had to turn right, they were in the right lane, not in the middle one! All bicycle, thela walahs, auto rickshaws were giving me space to pass through. I could not believe my luck and had just begun to thank the stars when halfway through the journey, from the top of the Shastri bridge - you know the one where we have a Mahatma Gandhi statue - far in the distance, I saw, horror of horrors, a traffic jam. Since I was at a height, I could see way too far in the distance; all vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace, a straight one way road had become a jigsaw puzzle.

My jubilant mood at once turned morose and instead of praising the stars, I started…well...cursing them.  Honestly, you cannot drive in this city without that. While descending the flyover, all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind…this is going to take me forever..will I ever reach the other side? There will be so much blaring of horns and heated up emotions, what if someone accidentally scratched my car? Why cant people simply move one after the other in a civilized way and get rid of this nuisance. This is too much…there is no hope for this place…my day is ruined.

Going through such thoughts, I did not realize that I had come down the bridge and was in the middle of what seemed to be a nightmare from the top. The snails I had seen moving from far beyond, weren’t actually snails…it was a decent enough speed at which they were running. Sure, it could be better, but it wasn’t that bad either. The street wasn’t even so much clogged as it had appeared to me before. My favorite rock CD was playing on the music system and I was actually enjoying the sluggish ride. In fact, now I was calculating how many songs would play before I reached my destination and deep in my heart hoping that the drive took more time.

Friends, what I really want to tell you via this story is that, when we look way too far ahead in the future, sometimes things looked clogged up, nightmarish even, because we are seeing through a bird-eye view. But when we are actually living the moment, we discover that it’s not too bad (especially if good old rock music is playing in the background). So why not avoid looking at things we don’t understand, things that have not taken shape yet, and things that ruin your present and make you worry unnecessarily? Why not live in the moment?

This speech took 6:40 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for variations in pitch and volume while narrating and that the moral of the story came out from simple day to day activities. There could have been more surprise elements in the story.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 6 - "Innocence aka Thapa"

This is speech #2 from  "Storytelling" manual, called "Let's Get Personal". The objective is to learn the elements of a good story and to create and tell an original story based on a personal experience. Time allotted is 6 to 8 minutes.

Have you met innocence before? I have. He is 24 years old and divides his time driving people around in Leh and hibernating in Zanskar. His name is Thapa.

Good Afternoon fellow toastmasters.

Even if it has been almost a year now that I have been to Ladakh, the name still brings up a flood of memories. It was in May last year that I went to this eastern valley in the State of Jammu and Kashmir with a group of friends. We spent about a week there, struggling to breathe in sub zero temperatures, where the lowest altitude was 11,000 feet above sea level - the height from which a normal sky dive occurs. The very first day we reached there, our tour organizer allocated different cars and drivers to various groups. It was then that we first saw this 5-feet tall, young Sherpa kind of guy with his rugged jeans, careless sweatshirt and tousled hair, squatting atop the bumper of his car, picking teeth with his nails. Our first thought was, “Seriously? This guy? Cant we get someone else?”

But that was not to be. The five of us were stuck with him for the next five days, and he with us, and thus started the process of discovering this gem. Along with being a driver, Thapa could also function as a tour guide, albeit a poor one, but guide nonetheless. A worshipper of Dalai Lama, he would always turn the car encircling a shrine on the shoulder of the road. Incredulously, we would ask, “Why Thapa, there is this 6 feet wide road in front of you and you are playing such stunts?” and his ready reply would be, “For good luck madam. This is mountain road, but no accident will happen, you will see.”

But of course, an accident does happen. Apparently, encircling a shrine does not guarantee any benefit against refraining from honking on blind turns. I think Thapa did not know that there existed a horn in his car, he never used it! After prodding a bit, he sheepishly accepted that he did not honk because the poor driver coming in from the other side of the turn will get scared with such a loud noise. All we could do at this point is to request him with folded hands to also worry about poor us.

What we did not know then is that Thapa need not be told to worry about us or his fellow drivers or anyone else; he did that on his own. If anyone felt sick due to long drives on the zigzag curvy roads, he would be the first to get down helping, consoling, offering water without saying a word. If you merely mentioned you were bored with the same songs playing again and again, he would get a new USB with the latest songs, God knows from where. If you were singing along and he had to stop the car and get down in between, he would still keep the engine running so that the music doesn’t stop. If you pleaded with him to let you drive for a bit, he would get teary eyed and say, “Please..I will lose my job”, but a while later move away from the group and let you drive when his boss was out of sight.

The younger of two brothers, Thapa lived with his family in a village near Zanskar during winters and came to Leh to work as a driver in summers. As per the military tradition in his village, his older brother was the star of the family with a job in the Army, the most respectable job a man can get, and our protagonist was the ugly duckling who failed to get entry due to his physique. Nonetheless, in his girlfriend’s and his own view, Thapa turned out pretty well earning “six thousand rupees per month” as a driver. His dream was to buy the car he was currently driving and continue the same profession. Ladies and gentlemen, he wanted to be the proud owner of a vehicle, not to employ someone else and reap the benefit.…but just own the car and keep driving tourists around!

After spending five days in the company of this Kurkure-loving, god-fearing, bashful, sensitive person with a twinkle in his eye, we could not help but become his fans. On the last day, on our very last drive, we tell him about the importance of savings, opening a bank account, and how he can take a loan and fulfill his dream of buying a car and marrying his girlfriend.

At the airport, we say our goodbyes and take a last look at this guy with his rugged jeans, careless sweatshirt and tousled hair, squatting atop the bumper of his car, with tears in his eyes, and think Thapa, you are innocence personified.

This speech took 7:20 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for characterization and dialogue  The presentation could have been more dramatic.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 5 - "Cinderella's Story"

This is speech #4 from  "The Entertaining Speaker" manual, called "A Dramatic Talk". The objective is to develop an entertaining dramatic talk about an experience or incident including vivid imagery, characters and dialogue. Time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes.

Once again, this blog came to my rescue and i narrated this story written three years ago - 

Cinderella's Story

This speech took 6:40 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for characterization and climax. A couple of sentence formations could have been done in a better way.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 4 - "A Software Engineer's Worst Nightmare"

This is speech #3 from  "The Entertaining Speaker" manual, called "Make Them Laugh". The objective is to prepare a humorous speech drawn from your own experience and deliver it in a way that makes the humor effective. Time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes.

I had attempted to write a humorous article a while back and used the same for this speech - 

A Software Engineer's Worst Nightmare

This speech took 6:30 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the humor's relevance to the target audience. Voice modulation could have been better.

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 3 - "Saat Purya Bhaji"

This is speech #1 from  "Storytelling" manual, called "The Folk Tale". The objective is to tell a folk tale that is entertaining and enjoyable for a specific age group; and to use vivid imagery and voice to enhance the tale. Time allotted is 7 to 9 minutes.

Once upon a time, long long ago, in a faraway land, there lived a king with his young daughter and two little sons. The princess was a rare beauty and the apple of the king’s eye. He wanted to marry her off to a really special person and hence put up the most difficult challenge that he could conceive of for her Swayamwar. There was a huge pond in his kingdom, in the middle of which the king got a long smooth oily pillar erected. Whoever could reach the top without using any tool would be the winner of the contest and consequently, his daughter’s hand.

The word spread far and wide and princes from all over the country started pouring in to try their luck at the pillar but no one could climb it - even halfway. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, months to years but the challenge remained unfulfilled. So much so that the king and the princess became the laughing stock of the country, as far as remote villages and dense forests.

In one such forest, there lived a fiercely huge monster – green colored with bloodshot eyes, stinky teeth, dread-locked hair and sharp pointed nails. When he heard of the challenge, and its reward, he came rushing to the kingdom - and lo and behold – climbed the pillar in no time at all! The honorable king, with a very heavy heart, organized the wedding and sent his precious daughter off in the jungle.

Years passed and there was no news of the princess, now the monster-wife, from the forest. The king’s sons, who were then too little to understand what had happened to their sister, were now young men, restless and eager to meet their sibling. They asked their father where she went and he told them the story. The two brothers, specially the younger one, were aghast by this tale and decided to embark on a journey to bring their sister back.

They packed two lunch boxes with seven poories and cooked vegetables each and started off in the direction on the forest in a bullock cart. They crossed a few miles and the elder one became hungry. The younger said, go ahead and eat your lunch. He ate. Then a few miles later, he became hungry once again. The younger said, go ahead and eat my seven poories too. The elder ate and was finally satiated.

They resumed their journey on the bullock cart and a few miles later, the younger spotted a pot of curd lying in the way. He said to his brother, “Lets take this and keep it in our cart!”. The brother was afraid to do so and said, “We don’t know who this belongs to. That person might come after us and threaten us!”. The younger then said, “Give me my seven poories back or let me take this pot”. The elder had no choice but to relent.

After some time, they came across a rope. Again the younger wanted to keep it, the elder didn’t. So he said, “Give me my seven poories back or let me take this rope.” This way, the bullock cart was stocked with a rope as well. Sometime later, they found a broom lying on the road, the elder said, "It might belong to a sweeper, he will come to us and demand it back.” The younger relied with his standard retort, “Give me my seven poories back or let me take this broom." Then at the edge of the forest, they found a donkey, and with a “Give me my seven poories back or let me take this donkey”, the younger one loaded the cart with a donkey as well.

In this fashion, the two brothers, with their bullock cart and supplies went to see their sister. When they arrived at her home, the monster had gone hunting. The princess was pleased beyond words to see someone from her own clan after so many years..and that too her brothers..now so grown up and gallant! The younger brother immediately said, “We have come to take you away!”.  The poor princess, afraid for her life and now her brothers’ too…asked them to unload their cart on the cellar and put the oxen far away, out of sight of the monster, since he would be back soon. The brothers agreed, took the pot of curd, rope, broom and donkey and the lunch their sister gave them on the cellar.

Soon, the monster came home and said to his wife, “I can smell humans!” She said, “That must be me! There is no one else here!” The monster still surveyed the house but could not find anything and sat down for his own lunch. Exactly at the spot at which the monster was sitting, there was a hole in the cellar at the top, where the brothers were sitting. Suddenly, the younger brother had the urge to relieve himself. The elder said, “Go and take a leak in that hole!”. The younger one obliged for once and urinated directly in the monster’s lunch!

The monster immediately cried out, “Who’s above?”. The young prince, recognizing an opportunity in this encounter replied with all his strength, “Who’s below?”. Monster shouted, “I am a monster”; the brother boomed, “I am a mega monster”. The monster did not believe him and screamed, “Really? Show me your tail!”. The prince took the long rope and started pushing it down the hole, this alarmed the monster a bit and he said, “Show me your puke!”. The younger brother took the pot of curd and poured it down the hole. The monster was seriously scared now, but still managed to ask one more question, “Show me your loudest shout!”, as an answer, the young prince took the broom and started hitting the donkey with it with all his might. The donkey brayed like there was no tomorrow and the terrified monster ran for his life. The brothers then took their sister back with them to the kingdom, her rightful place, and the king welcomed them with open arms. And they lived happily ever after!

The moral of the story is, no matter how ferocious the adversary is, if you decide, you can beat it. Where there is a will, there is a way!

This speech took 10:36 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for vocal variety.