The Conjurer

It is definitely not something new. But something much better than what we imagined it to be or what we have seen before. The Conjurer Arun Sharma enthralled the audience from the minute he walked on to the podium. His charismatic attitude in engaging the audience was well received. His way of using the magic slogan “Bambam bazooki…Maruti Suzuki” was the best take away for the audience.

It is really a tough task to grab the attention of the crowd and to make them laugh and giggle within 10 minutes. But Arun not only made them to cherish the 10 minutes but also to leave them awestruck at the surprises. There were aahs and oohs all throughout the 10 minutes and that by itself showcases the elements of the show.

The first event where he pulled out the silk cloth out of his naked hands seems to be a usual gimmick. But the profound fact is that Arun did not use a full sleeve shirt. His hands were literally naked. So the act added more glamour and captivated the audience.

The second act would probably be the highlight of the show. If the first one was a starter, this one was the main course. It was very evident from the premises that Arun set on how the energy can only be transformed from one form to another, that he has magic in his blood. Being the son of the great illusionist Mr. Rajkumar, Arun easily set on to transform the audience’s energy to hold a playing card on the air for a few seconds. The inhale and exhale exercise only fascinated the room with more energy.

The last act was precisely the dessert. There was a lady from the audience who taught Arun a way to shuffle by dropping everything on floor. Arun did not let the volunteer panic. Instead he made the situation very light and that would come only on experience. Arun did a stupendous job in reading the volunteer’s mind and spotting the card correctly.

“I was dumb-struck at this performance” said one of the attendees at the conference. “I have seen many acts like this before. But this one is special because I thought I could figure out but ended up just mesmerized” said another.

These are the true testimonies of the fact that Arun rocked the show with ease and elegance. We are all looking forward to many such magical moments from him.

If you are interested to know more about Arun Sharma, please visit the below link:
http://arunsharmamagic.wix.com/arunsharma and if you want to master the art of impossible, please visit https://www.facebook.com/delhischoolofmagic

The 20 P's of Public speaking

"Public speaking is an art and every speaker is an artist". Having said so, no art form can be mastered without proper efforts. Unlike our engineering examinations, where we prepare in the last minute and still manage to clear the exams, art forms need proper practice and efforts to achieve a step by step success. These are few P's that might be essential to give a good speech. These are the points I have learnt from senior speakers and out of the little experience I have. 

Speech scripting phase

• Passion - Develop passion towards the art of public speaking. As Oprah Winfrey said, "Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focussing on what excites you". Let the art of speaking in front of an audience excite you. Feel elated each time you speak in front of an audience. Your passion will drive you to write great speeches. 
• Purpose - Speech Purpose is a very important element in public speaking. A speech would have a general purpose and a specific purpose. At a high level, the general purpose can be to entertain, enlighten, inspire or persuade the audience. Specific purpose depends on the topic or subject you choose to speak upon.
• Preparation - Prepare a rough outline of what you are going to speak. You may have 100 speech topics running through your mind and you may be confused on which one to choose. Finalize on one topic and have a set of ideas which you can speak about in 5-7 minutes. Normally when I get a subject to speak, I take a piece of paper and have the ideas like a flow chart. Not because am a computer programmer, but because a flow chart helps me to keep the ideas ready so that I can start writing. For example, when I wrote my CC #3 speech about my friend, This is what I initially did. 

• Pen down your ideas in the form of a proper speech. Choose the points that are of high importance and organize them so that you stick to time limits. Remove the points that are of less significance.A convenient idea would be to have roughly 100 words per minute. So if it is a 5-7 mins speech, which again has 30 seconds grace time, you can roughly have 750 words in it. 
• Prioritize your ideas properly as speech organization and development is very important. There are umpteen ways in which the speech can be organized. It can be chronological, cause-effect etc. Make sure you have a striking opening and a bang on conclusion. Your opening has to be attention grabbing. Have an organized body, which keeps the audience hooked to your speech. Conclude in such a way that it leaves a lasting impression in the minds of audience. In DTM Saro's words, "Last words are the lasting words". 
• Personalize your speech according to the target audience. At times we use few jargons and end up in excluding a set of audience. For example when a speaker says, "Life was tough when I was working in night shift. Everyday we used to have compilation issues and the deployment would fail. I had to fix them diligently". In the above statement, words like compilation and deployment may suit only those who are from a Software engineering background. It is ok to use them in corporate clubs where all of them are from the same field. But when you address a mixed crowd, make sure to avoid these. Ensure that everyone in the hall is included and none of them feel excluded from your speech.  
• Proofreading or script review is a very important phase. This is the phase where your speech script would attain a state of completeness. Send your script to your mentor who would review it and give his/her comments. Based on those comments, edit your script and create a final copy that would be delivered on stage. You can even deliver once in front of your mentor before going on stage so that you feel more confident and you learn stage usage and body language for the speech. Make sure to send the script well in advance to your mentor, at least 10 days prior to the day of speech delivery. This gives sufficient time to mentors to review the script as all of them are working professionals in one or the other field. This also gives you enough time to rehearse. 
• Practice makes a man perfect is a well known adage to all of us. Nothing makes you a better speaker than constant practice. You can practice the speech in front of your mentor, family members, or even a mirror or camera. Make sure to time the speech when you practice at home. Be sure that you do not get time disqualified on the day of delivering it in your club. At times there are speakers who deliver a wonderful content, but they get disqualified by time. They could have made things better if they had attempted the speech at home, with a timing device in place. 

• Pronunciation is a key challenge for most of us while speaking. Since we are not native speakers of the English, we end up in pronouncing the words with mother tongue influence. One technique that has really worked for me is "Words in the news" by BBC learning English. It gives you a passage from the current news. Ten words the in passage will be highlighted and their meaning would be given in the bottom segment. There is a listen button which enables you to listen to that passage as read by the BBC news reader. So every day, if you can spend 3 minutes on this, you can learn ten new words, with meaning, usage and pronunciation. Another technique that I learnt from my mentor is to read newspaper or an English book loudly for few minutes everyday. By doing this your tongue gets comfortable in pronouncing English. 

Speech delivery phase

• Punctuality - You might be thinking, "What is public speaking to do with punctuality". I would say that there is connection between them. Arrive early to the club meeting when you are delivering your speech. Or if it is a contest, be there at the venue well in advance. If you come late and see that the meeting has already started, your nervousness will increase. Your heart will start beating faster due to tension. It is very important to make sure that you are in your comfort zone when you are delivering a speech. So go early, say by 15-20 minutes, have casual talk with people around and relax yourself. 
• Positivity - Positive attitude defines your performance on that day. It is necessary to look positive and sound positive. As Toastmaster Rajesh Natarajan told in one of his sessions, "Everyone has fear. It is inevitable. What is important is masking the fear and looking positive and confident on stage". If you want to mask your fear, the only way is to be positive. 
• Pleasant look - Look pleasant with appropriate dressing when you deliver a speech. A pleasant attire does not just mean wearing a suit and tie. The clothing that looks appropriate to the speech content is always welcome. If it is a professional talk, or a seminar, an educational session etc, a suit and a tie would be the perfect choice. Your dressing is the first thing that would catch audience's eye even before you start your delivery. Make a careful choice in this aspect. 
• Pitch, Pace, Pause and Projection - Once again, I learnt these 4 P's from my mentor DTM Saro. These are the major elements of vocal variety. Pitch is nothing but the ups and downs that we bring in to add emotions. Pace is the rate at which we deliver the speech, or the speed of delivering. It should neither be fast, as this may lead to few words being unheard, nor be too slow. The pace has to be in accordance with the script. Pauses play a major role when we speak. The can be used for a lot of purposes. For example, you can pause before you break a suspense in your speech, or you can pause after you deliver a heavily emotional line (both happy and sad emotions) thereby giving the audience some time to absorb those emotions and react to them. Projection of your voice is based on  the size and acoustics of the auditorium. The projection should be such that even the last seated person in the hall is able to hear you. 
• Palpitation is your friendly enemy. You can neither avoid him completely, not let him take over you. It is natural to be nervous, but make sure that it doesn't become obvious. At times when we get nervous on stage, we start clasping our hands, fiddling with our tie, holding our id card, looking up and down etc. Make sure not to do all these as this would portray your nervousness evidently. 
• Performance - At the end of the day, what matters is your performance. Try and give the best shot. Despite the Sergeant's instructions, there might be mobile phones ringing, people walking in and out. Do not get distracted by all these elements. Just focus on the delivery and make sure that it creates an impact. Deliver a speech to express yourself and not just to impress the audience. 
• Power - The power of your speech should be such that it has to leave an imprint in the minds of the audience. The audience should be able to take away something from your speech. It may be a message or it may even be memories, ensure to deliver in such a way that it stays longer in the hearts of audience.
• Pride - Pride is one feeling that has to invade you after your delivery. You may or may not have done well. Whatever be the case, feel proud that you have taken one step forward in your career as a public speaker. 

"Proper planning preparation & practice prevents poor performance"

Those few moments

Image courtesy: Google images

I was one among those few lucky candidates who had the privilege of skipping the aptitude test and attending the personal interview directly. I had already thanked God, because I know that I would have suffered if I had to take up an aptitude test. And I may not have been in TCS if I had faced the aptitude test. “Mathematics” had never been something I was really good at. 

I had missed the regular bus on the day of interview and went in the subsequent one. It was almost 9 AM when I reached our campus. I had carried my shirt in a backpack and thought of wearing it few minutes before the interview begins. I went to the computer science laboratory to staple my resume which I had not done earlier. One of the fellow prisoners in my college came up to me and asked, “Dude, Are you from the Computer science department??”. “Oh yes!”, I replied. “In that case, your interview has already started I believe. I saw a few guys from your department going towards the interview panel room”. I was shocked to hear that and rushed to change my clothes. Finally I went to the panel.

Thank God. Students from Electronics and Communication department were not done with their interview and we guys were asked to wait in the cloak room. Umpteen discussions were taking place among students. I heard so many voices around me “Dude, what is the answer for this question, what should I answer if they shoot this kind of question, what is this, what is that.....” Oh my god !! I heard all terminologies from 4 years of engineering syllabus in those few minutes. All this made me feel even more tensed. I refrained myself from talking to my own friends. Even lending my ears to people around seemed dangerous as it may shoot up my pressure. At last our placement co-ordinator came and announced “Students form the CSE department, kindly gather near the panel”. We were asked to sit in the corridors of the panel area. Finally a fair man from TCS came to us. “15 people can come to the waiting hall now”, he said.

[In the waiting room]

I quickly occupied the very first chair as I desperately wanted to get done with my interview at the earliest. I couldn’t withstand the pressure building within me. I was eagerly waiting to be called for the personal interview. Finally the placement officer called me. He pointed out a panel and asked me to get in there. Eventually the so called interview was about to begin and I was ready to face it (was afraid of course).

[Inside the panel room]

Me : Knock ! knock !

(I saw 2 gentlemen inside. One seemed to be a mid 30s man and the other one was much younger. The young man looked at me and shook his head signalling me to come in. The moment I entered both of them gave a broad smile. I smiled back and greeted them. I do not remember their names. So let their names be x and y. Oh no.. I told you in the beginning of the article that I am bad at mathematics. No more algebra. Let x=Suresh and y=Joseph)

The short man : Very good morning. Am Suresh and he is Joseph. Please take your seat !!

Me: Thank you sir.

Joseph: You are Mr Gautam right ?

Me: Yes Sir!!

Joseph: So just brief about yourself Gautam!!

Me: Hearty welcome to our campus gentlemen. I am Gautam Vaidyalinga Sharma. (I spoke for around 7 minutes. Spoke about everything except my horoscope. I knew those gentlemen won’t be interested in that. Then I concluded my introduction with the following sentence) I love to work a lot and I have the habit of understanding and analyzing things before doing them as it gives me more mental satisfaction.

Suresh: Can u give an example of this characteristic of yours. Just tell one instance where you have done something after understanding and analyzing well. It would be nice to hear that as well. 

Me: 110 crore people from our country sing the Indian national anthem. But how many people do you think know the meaning of our national anthem. Once we understand the meaning, we’ll sing from our heart with the pride that we are Indians. So it is always better to understand something before doing it !!

Joseph: Oh!! Even I don’t know the meaning of Indian national anthem. Can u share it with me so that I’ll also sing it with pride?

Me: I would be glad to share it with you. 

You the ruler of our minds our nation
To you our humble salutations
You the custodian of so many
You the guardian of India’s destiny
Through Punjab and sind
Gujarath and Maratha
Dravida utkala and Bengal
Across lofty crests and mellow leas of the vindhyas and Himalayas
Your name awakens one and all
It rests upon the melodies of Yamuna and Ganga in harmony
And swells the waves of the titanic sea
Your blessings we seek
Your praises replicate you
As the protector of India’s fate
Jaya hey jaya hey jaya hey
Victory for ever to you !!
Suresh: Ammmmazing!!! (In the meanwhile Joseph applauded as a symbol of appreciation)

(They turned the pages of my application form. He saw the second page where I had mentioned “Oracle - Java Standard Edition 2 programmer - Certified Professional”.)

Suresh: Oh you are a certified Java professional. That is indeed nice to know. Is java your favourite programming language?

Me: Yes sir. It is my favourite.

Suresh: Very good. I appreciate your extra-curricular and social activities. Now let us have some tech talk about your favourite Java.

“My bad time has started”, I told myself.

The so called “Tech talk” went on for 20 minutes. He asked me all possible interview questions in Java including “How to make java understand inputs from other languages apart from English”. All his questions were answered by me rightly/partially rightly and at the end of every answer I received a “Good” from him. Very kind of him indeed. He made sure that I am motivated always. 

[After the deadly 20 minutes of life in the Java world]

Suresh: Apart from Java which technological learning has fascinated you the most?

Me: I am fascinated towards web application development. Learning J2EE now.

Joseph: Are you by any chance nervous Gautam?

Me: I was initially nervous. But the gentlemen in front of me are so friendly that I am feeling good now :)

(In the meanwhile Joseph walked out. He got a call I believe)
Suresh: So let me ask a few questions from servlets.

Tech again .. ahww no!! :(
(Then he questioned me for some 5-8 minutes from Servlets. Again I answered all of them rightly but for two)
Suresh: It seems that you have presented a paper on cloud computing. Just explain me about cloud computing and it’s benefits.

(I gave him explanations which he asked for... Then I saw a smile in his face. I thought that he would spare me at least now. But he did not!!!)

Suresh: Gautam!! Where do you imagine yourself after 5 years?

Me: I can imagine myself as a responsible employee of TCS in a better designation than now.

Suresh: When there are so many companies. Why TCS??

Me: TCS is the best IT solutions provider in India. TATA is the pride of India. (I spoke about the glories of TCS and the TATAs for about 5 minutes). When all these glories are there. Why NOT TCS... sir????

Suresh: What do you expect from TCS?

Me: I do not have much expectations. I would expect the company to expect something from me and will deliver my best to satisfy those expectations.

Suresh: Do you have any geographic constraints ?? Because TCS has around 147 offices in 42 countries!! Do you have any problem working away from home town and away from family?

Me: TCS is TCS everywhere sir. I am very eager to work in different geographies. Would be glad to!!!

Suresh: U have to sign a bond for 2 years [and he explained so many other procedures]

I just smiled and said “I am fine with anything”
Suresh: Am impressed by your performance Gautam. All the best for a bright career.

Me: Thanks for the wonderful session sir.

(A hand shake.... and it was over)
Phew !!!!!!!!!

Blessed Creation

We THE HUMANS are least equipped when compared to all other living creations existing in this universe.

We cannot run as speed as a tiger, 
We cannot dont have eyes as sharp as an Eagle,
We dont have teeth as efficient as wild cat,
We cant swim as fast as dolphin

Yet all these other creations can only adapt to the environment, 
But we can Create Our own Environment.

Because, of all the 8.7 million species only we are blessed with ABILITY TO DREAM.

If you use it properly YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN ENVIRONMENT,
If you don't YOU WILL ADAPT TO THE EXISTING ENVIRONMENT.

Choice is yours DREAM BIG :)


- A Gist from my old CC.

Vertical fall and Toastmasters

This happened on December 2010. I was planning to visit my brother, he was in Banglore then. At those times it was Banglore and not Bengaluru. I was with my dad and mon. We took a bus from Calicut and reached Bandlore, took rest the same day. Next day we went to wonderla, water theme park.

I was standing in front of a ride- vertical fall. The height of it was almost equal to a six storied building, except in case if a storey has an exceptional height. I was looking at the people, taking a keen observation. I saw a girl, almost my age. She came in front of the entrance with a double mind, stood there for almost five minutes and then she decided to climb up the stairs. I can see the same dilemma in her when she reached the top as well. She was having second thoughts there also. Finally she decided, any ways this won’t kill u. She sat on the ride and she started to skid through a tunnel. It was all fast and she reached the pool in no time. Now I can see her face clearly and she was very happy. She broke the ice. Believe me on this, she went through this same ride almost ten times. This gave me confidence to do the same. All I remember is me breaking the ice, the rest all was a consecutive twelve time ride in vertical fall.

This was the same case for between me and Toastmasters. People asked me to join, the told me that I can do it, they tried to convince me that I am good in it. Guess what I didn’t believe in me. Believe me, two important people, who I care the most, forced me to at least attend a meeting as a guest. Finally I agreed after three months.

I attended a meeting and I saw pros in action. I became afraid, I cant do this. How can we say one thing is not possible unless we don’t even take a first step. So as a first step I joined Toastmasters. I booked a slot for my first speech. Two days before the speech, I have speech ready and I was all set to go. Still I had second thoughts and procrastinate it to next week. What if I do something wrong? Then I reviewed it with y mentor and was in a good shot to go.

“TM Rohith, My first icebreaker, My first icebreaker, TM Rohith ”

My heart was pumping at it double rate, but I started…..

"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti

But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down,

The whole crowd goes so loud

He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out

He's choking how, everybody's joking now

The clock's run out, time's up over, bloah!"

Exactly…… Exactly this is my situation, But, I said “I was in the same situation when I was in college”.

I broke the ice, and to my greatest astonishment, I was the best speaker. See…. you don’t know what you can do unless you attempt to do it. This was just like my first ride in vertical fall. Then my ride in Toastmaster was faster than which I had in vertical fall. In three months of my journey, I gave three speeches with three best speaker awards and completed six projects in CL manual.

Now I quit TCS and I can’t attend the meeting any more. I miss it really hard. If I was there in TCS for another one year, they would be calling me DTM Rohith.

This is for all the would-be Toastmasters:

Unless you take your first ride, you don’t know the thrill of it.

This is for all the Champions Toastmasters:

My envy will be with you all the time, during your dreams as well.

When wonderla closed at 7:30PM, I missed vertical fall. Even I asked the manager whether this ride is for sale.

TM Murali, this one is for you, I am ready to spend a Million on your club and figures are negotiable. Call me if you change your mind.

Table topics - "Sweet dreams" or "Nightmare" ??

Dear Toastmasters 

Many of you might have attended the educational session handled by Toastmaster Arna Chugani on "How to ace table topics". It happened on 7th February 2013. I'm here to add a few more tips out of the little experience I have and also out of the lessons I took from people like Murali and Sushant. Hope it would help members while facing table topics. 

First let us have a recap on what was told at the educational session by TM Arna. 

Table topics can be broadly classified into three types. 

1. Quote based topics. Example: You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
2. Fact based topics. Example: Cost of living in increasing in India. 
3. Scenario based topics. Example: If you are jumping from a helicopter, and your parachute doesn't open. What will you do. (Well I  took this example from Diwakar :-P . He gave this topic in one of the meetings when he was the Table Topics master)

While you are given a topic, you can follow one out of the following technique. With presence of mind, choose one of the following techniques that would do best justice to the topic given. You can also use a combination of these techniques.

1.         His View point – My view point technique : In this technique, you can talk about the topic from the perspective of two people. Yourself and someone else. For example if the topic is “Social networking”, you can say what you think about it and what your friend/mom/dad/someone else thinks about the same.

2.         Past-Present-Future technique: In this technique, you can talk about the topic saying how it was in the past, how it is now and how it will be in future. Say for example the topic is about “Telephone conversations”. You can say how telephone conversations used to be in the past, how they are now with the advent of Smartphones and how they will be in future.

3.       Cause – effect technique: Here you can talk about the cause of an event and the effects of it. For example if you are asked to talk about the Uttarkhand floods, you can talk about what caused it and what were the effects.

4.       Problem – solution technique: In this technique, organize the topic in a problem-solution manner.  If you are asked to talk about human rights for example, you can say what are the problems faced by people today and you can also provide solutions to them.

5.          Random connection – In this technique you can randomly connect the topic to various ideas and finally as a conclusion get back to the crux of the topic.

I know I have missed 1-2 techniques of what Arna had taught us. Long since the educational session happened. Poor memory of mine doesn’t remember everything. If you remember other techniques please post them in comments.

Now apart from all these techniques let me give you some points that I learnt in my Toastmasters journey.

Mistakes that we do in club meetings during table topics session:

1.         Asking the TT Master to repeat the topic: We ask the table topics master to repeat the topic at times. This won’t be allowed in the contest.  It’s better to speak with whatever we understood out of the topic.

2.         Using the topic as a buffer:  We start speaking by repeating the topic once again which gives us a few seconds to think. This can be used as a last option when we don’t have anything else to speak. But it is better to always not start the speech by repeating the topic as it would give an impression that we are using the topic itself as a buffer and thereby taking time to think.  But it is good to repeat the topic in the middle or end of the speech as it would give an impression that we are remembering the topic well.

3.         Delayed start: We often start with “The topic given to me is...”. Or we conclude by saying “I would like to conclude my speech by saying that....”.Or at times we say something that delays the actual start of the speech.  Both of these are not advisable. Remember  CC#3 – “Get to the point”.

4.         Admitting our weakness:  At times we start saying that, “I actually don’t know what to speak on this topic, but let me talk whatever I know”. Or, we start with a sentence like, “I am actually a little nervous. Am not very clear with the topic, but let me try”. Kindly do not admit on stage that you do not know or you did not understand. Just speak whatever you know.

5.         Concluding soon: This is a mistake that I do. The moment I see the green card, I feel glad that I am qualified for voting and I conclude my speech. Most often I receive feedback saying that my speech was too short. So kindly try talking at least till the yellow card and then start concluding.

6.         Explaining the topic: If the topic is “Life is beautiful”. How much ever you try to explain the topic, you will again end up in repeating the same point in different ways. Eventually you will be beating around the same bush. Never do that.

What can we do to give a better table topics speech:

1.         Read short stories and jokes: This will help you to easily say a story and connect it with the topic. Anything can become a matter for you to talk about. Remember, what helped me in winning the club level Table topics contest, was a small story that I received as a forward sms the previous day. Stories, jokes, anecdotes will always help.

2.         Make the topic personal:  This is a very effective technique. Try relating the topic with your life. Try talking about stories or events from your life that fits into the topic. This technique is easy because it helps you to remember things. You won’t struggle to talk because its your life and you know what had happened. You will be comfortable to talk.

3.         Never hesitate to say lies: No one is going to inspect if what you spoke was truth or not. What matters in table topics is your ability to talk about something for 2 minutes. It can be a lie as well. You can always cook up some stories and deliver them as a speech, as long as you are able to connect with the topic. I have seen people cooking up stories and presenting them beautifully. Yet, they are champion table topics speakers !! 

4.         No matter what.. Talk !! – At times, you may be a given a  topic that makes no sense. Or you may not have understood the topic at all. But, keep talking with whatever you understood out of it. Say you get a topic  “Heart has its own reasons which reasons know nothing of”. I know the topic is horrible. But there are topics masters who give such topics. In this case, rather than trembling with fear on stage just talk something. From this topic we can clearly understand two keywords – “Heart, reasons”. Talk about these two elements and conclude.

5.         You still have time to think: Every topics master repeats the topic twice, slowly. So if you have listened to the topic carefully for the first time, you can start framing a speech before he reads it for the second time. In that way, you still get a few seconds to think.

6.         It is yet another speech: Remember that Table topics speech is yet another speech and organization is important. Try delivering a speech with proper opening body and conclusion. 

Be relaxed, don’t panic, Speak from heart !!!!!

Miss you champions.

"Toastmasters.... Toastmasters....." Mathew kept yelling.

"If you are not going to stop speaking about Toastmasters, you will soon be a dead piece of meat", I replied

He kept on taking about this for a really long time, say six months. I was least bothered. He has gone mad with Toastmasters.

What is the outcome of toastmasters? Nothing, you will be able to speak well in public. It was a piece of cake for me.

I was not that bad in English, I have been only to English medium schools. So I can speak well. This is what my mind said. Finally to get Mathew out of my veins, I decided to attend one meeting. There was some competition on that day. I saw three people speaking, I was jaw dropped. I can never speak in front of public like that!!!!

By the end of the meeting I came to realize that I can deliver a speech like that. The first step to do that is to join. The very same day I was officially a Toastmaster.

My first step in toastmaster was to be a part of a demo meeting. There I volunteered to become a table topic speaker.

The topic was "Do you think pink colour is for girls?" I managed to speak for two minutes. TMOD said, "This is how a Toastmaster speaks." I was overwhelmed. That was my first time and I have not even done anything in Toastmasters, still he said I am a Toastmaster. The energy that I had, or the confidence that I gained for speaking two minutes is all because my mind kept on whispering "You are a Toastmaster".

From that day I was a part of the Champions family, I hardly missed any of the meeting or even demo meetings until I left TCS. After delivering my first speech, I got an opportunity to announce the 50th meeting of champions Toastmaster in ChennaiOne building. I was literally shivering and tensed. Suddenly an HR came and asked, "Who is going to announce? I will listen from the cabin and will give my feedback." I replied "That would be me." This made scared me more. After making an announcement I went back to her. She said, "No wonder, because you are a Toastmaster". I was overwhelmed again. The energy that I had, or the confidence that I gained for announcing is all because my mind kept on whispering "You are a Toastmaster".

I have delivered three speeches and all through the speeches, I felt my improvement. I guess its not a matter of becoming a DTM or delivering 100 speeches that matters. Its all about the courage that you gain when you call yourself a Toastmaster. The very moment I start to converse in English, my mind whispers "You are a Toastmaster".

"Toastmasters.... Toastmasters....." I kept yelling.

"If you are not going to stop speaking about Toastmasters, you will soon be a dead piece of meat", all my friends now reply this.

Now sitting in Melbourne at a temperature of 5 degree Celsius, I can’t sleep. I thought it was because of jetlag or the cold weather, but my mind kept on whispering "You are a Toastmaster, but now you miss champions and now you don’t have a club". I then realized that I will not be able to sleep until I become a part of Toastmasters. Anyways, I will not transfer my membership to any other club. It will be always in area G5, District 82, TCS Maitree Champions Toastmasters Club.

Miss you champions.........

Foot Volley

Foot volley: Proud invention of the 2000 Batch of BITS,Pilani.

The nature of the game is quite simple.

It is similar to volley ball, but played on a tennis court.
A minimum of 3 players and a maximum of 7 players on one side of the court.
The player who serves the ball serves right out of the baseline and serves to the opposite court (inside the half line).
The opponents should return the ball in less than 3 passes.
Between passes within the team one bounce is allowed.
Except hands any part of the body can be used while playing.

The players need a mixture aggression, smartness, team spirit, good attitude, natural flair and loads of talent, to succeed in this game. No other game can be as demanding and at the same time, as fun providing as this one.

Honesty - Wow what a policy !!!

I was a second year under-graduation student then. One day, after a delicious dinner at the Dominos pizza, I was on my way back home. Those were the days when I was using my Dad's 11 year old Bajaj Boxer bike. The speedometer of the bike doesn't know, how numbers beyond 40 kmph looked like. At a point in time, I realized that I had managed to fill my stomach with varieties of pizzas, whereas I failed to notice that my bike was hungry for fuel too !! I knew that there was a fuel station few metres ahead. And to my happiness, my purse was left with a single 50 rupees note even after the delicious dinner. Well, those were the days when we used to get petrol for Rs 20, Rs 30 etc. I was happily driving towards the fuel station, when a traffic sergeant stopped me. His thoughts, words and deeds signified, that he was hungry for money too !!!! 

Though I have not had attitude problem with anyone so far, I have always had altitude problems with many human beings and he was no exception of course. A short man (at least to me), with the major contributor to his body weight being his belly. 

He asked for the usual set of items.

     1.   License

     2.   Registration certificate.

     3.   Insurance

     4.   Pollution certificate. 

     5.   My whereabouts. 

    6.   My Dad's occupation and whereabouts (as the                 Registration certificate portrayed my dad as the                   bike's owner)

Finally he found that I had all documents to escape from him. I knew what he wanted from me was a very important document which he couldn't ask directly. 

Finally he looked at me and said... "Hmmm !!! Over speeding !!!!"

I wondered how could a 11 year old bike which had never crossed 40kmph in life could be accused for overspeeding. And then we entered a conversation.

Sergeant : Rs 300 fine for overspeeding.

What a hefty amount it is for a college student. Isn't it?

Myself : Sir !! I dont have such a huge amount.

Sergeant : You dad works in a bank and you say 300 is huge. Ok, you are a student, I can reduce the fine for you. Rs 200.

Myself : 200 is something huge for me again. Please understand sir !!

The auction came down to 100, 75, and finally he said.....

Sergeant : Ok pa, you look like a decent student. I can give you concession. A small fine of Rs 50 would do. "Ayya kitta kuduthuttu kelambu" (which is the tamil equivalent for "Give it to sir and leave").

I knew I was left with one Rs 50 currency note, and if I give it to this guy, I can't reach home, as there was no fuel in my bike. But  I also knew that this guy is not going to leave me unless I contribute something to his pocket money. Let me try to manage somehow, I thought.

Myself : Sir !! Frankly speaking I don't even have the small amout that you are asking for !!

He seemed totally annoyed. His face turned red and he yelled back...

Sergeant : What else do you have in your purse. Open it !!!

He forced me to open my purse and after a great struggle, I showed him my wallet. He saw that it had Rs 50 in it

Sergeant : So you have Rs 50 and you lied that you don't have anything!!

Myself : Sir !! There is no fuel in my bike. If I give this 50 to you, I have to walk back home and also drag my bike instead of driving it.

Sergeant : Are you going to pay this small fine or shall I take a legal action.

I had no other option rather than donating him Rs 50. I did that. After that I didn't move an inch from that place.  I was standing there for sometime till the sergeant attended his other customers and came back to me once again

Sergeant : You have paid the fine. You may leave and why are you standing here still?

Myself : I told you earlier Sir !! I have only Rs 50 left and there is no fuel in my bike. How do you expect me to leave with no fuel in my bike.

The sergeant thought for a while. And exhibited his heights of honesty !!!

Sergeant : Ok thambi (which is the tamil equivalent for brother). Let me be "honest" with you. Let us share this amount. You take Rs 25 and I shall keep Rs 25. (Well I told eatrlier.. Those were the days when fuel was available for minimum cost as well)

And in his typical Indian accent he said "Tek the tonty paive rubees".

Well.... I didn't mind giving him the money. But I was terribly shocked when he used the word "honesty". People say that honesty is the best policy. I too agree. He made me say "Honesty - Wow !! what a policy" !!!!!