Toastmaster Speaks

Project 10 Speech - No Mountain So Steep

2012-01-15T19:41:00.000+05:30

[Here is the Project 10 Speech (CC Manual) by Pannaga Prasad a fellow member of my club. This speech has so far been the best Project 10 Speech, I have ever heard in Daffodils Toastmasters Club]

This is a photo of me as a 5 year old, speaking at our school’s Annual Day function in front of 100 students and 200 parents. I stepped down to resounding applause. Little did I realize that the next time I would speak so well was 15 years later.

Good evening Toastmasters and guests.

I was born at the same time 3 of my cousins were born. We spent all our holidays together, eating from the same plate, sleeping in the same big bed and playing only those games which needed 4 players. On one such holiday, my cousin Janu spoke to me in a weird way, pausing and exerting a lot of force to get the first syllable of a word out. So if her pet name was Janu, it was J – j – j - janu. She told me this was the new stylish way of speaking. A five year old’s mind is the softest sponge, absorbing every little thing that falls on it and since this tenet came from a beloved cousin of mine, the deeper I let it sink. Thus began the end of my fluent speech.

I loved school except for the first day of the academic year when the teachers asked us to introduce ourselves. I would be seated somewhere in the middle of the class. As the introductions started from one corner, my nervousness would increase with each student who finished her turn. It would reach a crescendo when the girl sitting next to me stood up, spoke out her name, loud and clear. I stood up, looked at the teacher and started to say my name. P – p – p – p. No. It never came. My eyes shone with humiliation, pleading with my teacher for forgiveness. I couldn’t say my name. Someone else would say my name and I’d sit down, distraught, disconsolate and desolate.

It is said that the key to happiness is good health and a bad memory. Since I was blessed with both, I was generally a happy child, despite being mocked at every time I stood up to read. On these days, I would come back home and read out aloud in front of the mirror, enunciating each word distinctly and with perfect diction. I said to myself, “Pannaga, the class doesn’t know what a fantastic reader you are. Show them”. Toastmasters, I finished my schooling without reading aloud a single paragraph in class.
However, there were strokes of luck; like when I took part in the debate contest in the 9th std. My class teacher guessed that I could speak well. She also guessed I was not going to enter the contest. So she spoke to my mother and I was compelled to participate. I debated with a power I’d never known I had, speaking with gumption and gusto, coming first for all three sections. Everyone was astonished and couldn’t believe their eyes and ears. That day my heart sang with joy.

Flying high, high, I’m a bird in the sky. I’m an eagle that rides on the breeze.
High, high, what a feeling to fly, Over mountains and forests and seas.
And to go anywhere that I please.

But this was only a flash in the pan, Toastmasters. The soaring eagle folded its magnificent wings and was tottering on the ground again. My parents and friends gave me a lot of suggestions which I could never implement. I decided to seek professional help. I first went to a clinical psychologist, then to a special center for people with stuttering and finally turned to hypnotism and Neuro Linguistic Programming. Though these methods helped me to an extent, they did not provide a conducive environment for me to get over my arcane fears. I was surrounded by people who had problems and this unnerved me. So I got out of there and defiantly resigned to my fate. Who said that fluent speech was the be all and end all of the world? So what if I couldn’t speak well? I was a good human and that’s all that mattered. Or so I said to console myself.

Then one day I met a friend of my parents’ who spoke about Toastmasters being a good place to learn public speaking. I, who was still on the lookout for that elusive cure, immediately looked up and found Daffodils. In my first meeting here, as is custom, the President asked the guests to introduce themselves. It was déjà vu for me. Those who were present at that meeting may not remember but it took me an eon to say my name. But I was happy because this was a platform for normal people. Here I was competing with people who not only spoke fluently but also with simplicity and style. My self-esteem went up a mighty notch and I knew this was where I could get back to being normal. If before I was met with sneers and jeers every time I stood up to speak, here I was met only with cheers and more cheers. Daffodils was in many ways, the proverbial teacher who appears when the student is ready. I was raring to go!

I started attending meetings and began taking up the grammarian and ah counter roles. Though I was far from fluent, I patted myself on the back because I was mustering up the courage to come back and try again. And every time I fell, my Club laid out a bed of Daffodils to soften the impact. Gradually with the help of my mentor, I gained the confidence to deliver my Ice Breaker. I spoke well Toastmasters, fluently and without a trace of a stutter! I went home, elated, ecstatic and euphoric that I had returned from my self-imposed exile of 15 years. A quote by Albert Camus sums up my story. “In the depths of winter, I finally learned, there was in me an invincible summer”.

Toastmasters, this speech is not about me. It’s not about what happened to me. It is about having a problem and overcoming it. We need to accept the challenges so we may feel the exhilaration of victory. There were days when I would wallow in self-pity, unable to fathom why it was that I couldn’t speak when everyone else could. And when they spoke, I would stare at their faces, marveling at how the words flowed freely from their mouths and feeling immeasurably sad that the same words formed a whirlpool inside mine and refused to come out. But now I can make them go as long as the river Nile, which flows across many a mile, spreading cheer and many a smile.

“As a mountain you cannot grow. But as a human I can.” These were Edmund Hillary’s words to Mt. Everest after he failed to conquer it twice. Toastmasters, fluent speech was my Mt. Everest and today, I stand on top of the world.

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[Objectives of the Speech:

To inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievements.
Appeal to the audience's needs and emotions, using stories, anecdotes and quotes to add drama.
Avoid using notes.

Time: Eight to Ten Minutes

Comments: Touching and inspiring content with excellent delivery.
]

Speaking to Inform Project 5 - Ethics in Public Speaking

2011-06-21T21:55:00.000+05:30

[With this speech I completed all the requirements for getting the Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) Award from the Toastmasters International]

For this speech I have chosen a topic which is very relevant to each and every one of us.

Ethics in Public Speaking.

What is Ethics? It is an abstract concept which raises lots of questions.

Is Ethics something which I feel is right or correct? Suppose I feel it is OK to use my office car for personal work, am I ethical?

Does it mean being a God-fearing person? If I am an atheist does that give me license to be unethical?

If I follow all the laws of my country am I ethical? What if the laws are like the old apartheid law of South Africa?

What then is Ethics?

Ethics is a set of standards or guidelines for behavior. It tells us how we as an individual or as a member of a group or a professional body should act in a given situation.

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University studied the works of many philosophers and ethicists. Based on this study it classifies ethical standards in 5 categories.

The Utilitarian Approach - any action which does more good than harm is ethical. For e.g. bombing the location where terrorists are hiding may cause death, injuries, and destruction of people, but it is for the greater good achieved in ending terrorism.

The Rights Approach - taking actions that best protects and respects the moral rights of people is ethical. For e.g. right to information, right to privacy.

The Fairness or Justice Approach - actions that treat all human beings equal or fairly based on some standard are ethical. For e.g. performance linked salary or bonuses in a company.

The Common Good Approach - actions which ensure common welfare conditions are ethical. For e.g. establishing systems for law and order, safety and health care, education etc.

The Virtue Approach - actions consistent with certain ideal virtues like honesty, compassion, self-control etc. are ethical.

Now let us come to the application of Ethics in Public Speaking.

The book “The Art of Public Speaking” by Stephen E. Lucas gives five guidelines for ethical public speaking.

Guideline # 1: Make sure that your goals are ethically sound. We need to ensure that whatever we trying to achieve through our speech are consistent with the ethical standards I just talked about. When in doubt one should ask himself “Will I be comfortable in truthfully declaring my goals or intention in front of a worldwide audience?” If the answer is NO, then the goals may not be ethical.

Guideline # 2: Be fully informed about the subject you are going to speak about. “A speech is a solemn responsibility” said Jenkins Lloyd Jones. Imagine how badly a listener will be impacted if we unknowingly give wrong information or misleading advice in our speech.

Guideline#3: Be Honest in What You Say. Honesty is the best policy. Public speaking rests on the foundation of the unspoken assumption that “words can be trusted and people will be truthful”. And I as a speaker should ensure that I don’t break the trust of the listeners. In my speech - I should not lie for a personal gain. I should not present a fudged data. I should not plagiarize someone else work. Only then I can be called honest.

Guideline# 4: Avoid Name-Calling and other forms of Abusive Language. It demeans the dignity of an individual or a group and risks their right to be fairly heard.

Guideline#5 – The Last Guideline: Put Ethical Principles into Practice. I should always practice what I preach. Otherwise my speech will have no credibility. I will be a hypocrite.

The goal of public speaking is to inform, convince and persuade the audience. But definitely not by compromising on ethics!

A good public speaking skill is a power, which comes with heavy ethical responsibilities.

Plato said “All the public speakers should be truthful and devoted to the good of the society”.

Yet so many excellent public speakers have often abused their skills. Hitler a powerful orator instigated Nazis to exterminate the Jews!

And that’s the ultimate reason why the power of spoken word should be kept in check by a strong sense of ethics.

I would like to conclude with a beautiful quote by Albert Schweitzer

“I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.”

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[Date delivered: June 18 2011

Objectives:

Research and analyze an abstract concept, theory, historical force or social/ political issue.
Present the ideas in a clear, interesting manner.

Time: Six to Eight minutes

Comments:
My strong belief in ethics made me overcome my usual hesitation of delivering message-oriented speeches. However I took care to minimize using the word "you" to avoid sounding like a preacher on the pulpit.
The speech was largely based on material available from the following sources :
1. Markkula Center for AppliedEthics, Santa Clara University
2. The Art of Public Speaking, Stephen E. Lucas

Download the Handout prepared for the speech.
]

Story Telling Project 5 - Struggles of a Genius

2011-05-23T16:35:00.000+05:30

Chennai, 1912.

Srinivasan, a student of Madras Christian College makes his way through the bye lanes of Triplicane. He is handsome, athletic youth with well developed muscles. Hence his friends call him “Sandow” after a very famous body-builder of those days.

Sandow stops by a dilapidated house and knocks at the door. A short, uncouth, unshaved, young man with bright and shining intelligent eyes opens the door. His eyes lights up in recognition and he warmly welcomes Sandow into his house.

“Addey Sandow va? Va Va! [Hello is it Sandow? Come, Come!]. Welcome to my humble abode!”

Sandow: “How are you Ramanju? Not seen you since you left Kumbakonam . I came to know you live here. So I thought I would drop in. What you have been doing all these days?

Ramanujan: Well Sandow it is a long story. I joined Pachaiyappa’s college. I excelled in Mathematics but failed miserably in all other subjects. This happened twice and so had to leave the college without getting my Intermediate degree. Since then I have been pursuing independent research in Mathematics.

Sandow: No wonder they all call you a genius!

Ramanujan: Me a genius! Look at my elbow, it will tell you the story.

Sandow: What is all this, Ramanju? Why is it so rough and black?

Ramanujan: Dear Sandow, my elbow has become rough and black in making a genius out of me! Night and day I do my calculations on slate. I wipe the slate every few minutes with my elbow.

Sandow: Why don’t you use paper to do your calculations?

Ramanujan: When food itself is a problem, how can I find money for paper? I may require four reams of paper every month.

Sandow: Tell me honestly, what do you do for your food? How are you surviving?

Ramanujan: After I left the college I lived in extreme poverty and was often on the brink of starvation. Then my Professor introduced me to Mr. Ramachandra Rao. He is the Collector of Nellore and also the Secretary of Indian Mathematical Society. I showed him my research work to him. Initially Mr. Rao had a doubt whether it was really my own work. He grilled me for a long time on elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, and my own theory of divergent series. Finally he was convinced about my genuineness. He then asked me, “What do you want?” I said, “Sir, all I need is some job to take care of my basic need of some simple food so that I could pursue my research without worries”. From that day onwards that great man has been providing me with money every month.

Sandow: Then why do you worry?

Ramanujan: How long I can depend on others? I feel a deep sense of humiliation. Therefore I did not take the money from Mr. Rao last month.

Sandow: What a rash thing to do! What are you going to do now?

Ramanujan: Last month I applied for a clerk’s position in Madras Port Trust Office. In my application I mentioned that I could not pursue further studies after Matriculation and since then been devoting all my time to Mathematics and developing the subject. But I also said that I was quite confident that I could do justice to the job and requested them to hire me. And I attached a recommendation from a mathematics professor, who wrote that “Ramanujan is a young man of quite exceptional capacity in Mathematics".

Sandow: So did you hear from them?

Ramanujan: Well I have good news. I got this letter from them. I have been appointed as a Class III, Grade IV accounting clerk. Pay is Rs. 30/- per month.

Sandow: Congratulations Ramanju! I feel so happy for you. Wish you all the Best! Well it is getting late, I should leave now.

Ramanujan: Thank you Sandow. So nice of you to come and see me. We will meet again.

March 1^st 1912. That was the day when Ramanujan came to know that he had got the job. It was the turning point in his life. Things changed for better after that.

Ramanujan joined Madras Port Trust Office. At his office, Ramanujam could easily and quickly complete the tasks he was given, so he spent his spare time doing research. His boss and colleagues encouraged him in his mathematical pursuits.

Next year he sent his work to Prof. Hardy of Cambridge University. Greatly impressed by Ramanujan’s work Prof. Hardy invited him to England to pursue research. And the rest is history.

Within a couple of years Ramanujan was recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians of modern times. Unfortunately he died young at the age of 33 in 1920 after his return to India.

What happened to Sandow? This intimate friend of the genius Ramanujan went on to become a very successful lawyer in Dindigul. Not many people know about this. But I am sure about it because… I am Sandow Srinivasan’s grand nephew!

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[Date Delivered: May 21 2011

Objectives:

To understand the purpose of stories about historical events or people
To use the storytelling skills developed in the preceding projects to tell a story about a historical event or person

Time: Seven to Nine Minutes

Comments:

I had always wondered whether my Grand Uncle "Sandow" Srinivasan knew Ramanujan the mathematics genius, since both of them were contemporaries and belonged to the same small town Kumbakonam. Last year my cousin (Sandow's grandson) drew my attention to a short conversation between Ramanujan and Sandow Srinivasan described in the book "Ramanujan - The Man & The Mathematician". The author of the book Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, himself a mathematican and also a pioneer in library science was Sandow's classmate in Madras Christian College. This conversation is also available on the net:

For this project , I adapted the original conversation by making it more detailed. I added a couple of narratives by Ramanujan (Source: Wikipedia) about his struggle for survival after he had to discontinue the education, his meeting with Mr. Ramachandra Rao and his application for a position in Madras Port Trust Office. There were discrepancies regarding the dates and numbers in the original conversation which I corrected based on the information available in Wikipedia.]

Speaking to Inform Project 4 - Slow Progress on the Competent Communicator (CC) Track :Facts and Figures

2011-04-04T21:07:00.000+05:30

[Disclaimer: Speech based on the responses received during an online survey conducted during February 2011. Scenario might have changed and hence the facts and figures may not represent the real situation when you read this post]

What is Life without Challenges? Challenges lurk around every nook and corner. Our Club is no exception.As per the President and the VP-Ed the biggest challenge in our club is – the Members not giving speeches often enough and not progressing along the CC track.

I chose to do investigate this issue.

Lord Kelvin has said, ‘When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind’. Hence I conducted an online survey to get real hard facts and figures behind this problem. I sincerely thank everyone who responded to the survey and provided valuable inputs for this talk.

I received 30 responses. It is a fairly representative sample in terms of membership tenure and the number of speeches given.

So here are the facts and figures:

Speech Progress Rate is about 1 speech in every 4-5 months. CC Manual recommends at least 1 speech in 2 months. But only 4 members in their CC Journey are maintaining this rate. Why this is a major issue? Unless one gives enough speeches, one can’t be in a position to evaluate and mentor the speeches of new members. With very few evaluators and mentors encouraging and ramping up the new members and ensuring good quality speeches has become a daunting task.
Where do the priorities of the members lie? Only about 50 % of the members say that they can’t achieve their career and personal goals without good speaking skills. So giving speeches regularly is not really an absolute must for the remaining 50 %. Only about 60-70% of the members have indicated Toastmasters and Speaking Roles as their topmost interest apart from their work or personal life.
For the members who really want to give speeches regularly is Daffodils providing a conducive and friendly environment? 73 % of the responses said that they were likely to recommend Daffodils on a scale of 9 or above. 37 % said that Daffodils had excellent mentors. These figures are good but needs to be better if we want to have a continuous flow of speeches by the members.
Now if the environment is not an issue what delays a member’s next speech? The top 3 roadblocks which account for about 60 % of all the reasons cited in the survey are:

Difficulty in Topic Selection
Getting the Right Content
Writing the Speech

So what does club needs to do to motivate and encourage members to give speeches? Nearly a one-third of the members felt that the club was already doing enough and the ball was in the individuals’ court to take initiative of giving speeches regularly. About 30 % were looking forward for more persuasion and encouragement to speak. The rest suggested more mentoring and educational sessions. The three noteworthy suggestions I received apart from the above mentioned areas are:

Table Topics Master should give chance to new members or members who rarely speak.
In every meeting at least one Committee member should be a Speaker, thus leading by example.
A website or blog to post all the speeches delivered by its existing speakers

To conclude here are my recommendations:

1) Accept the fact that for nearly half of our member public speaking is NOT a MUST HAVE

Skill. They have other priorities. Identify and Focus on the individuals who really need and seek help.

2) Take more proactive efforts to create a sense of belonging among new members

3) Focus Mentoring & Educational Sessions on areas like Topic Selection, Finding Content and Writing Speeches

Hopefully implementing these recommendations will encourage more speeches among CC aspirants.

Silence is NOT Golden in a Toastmasters Club!

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[Date Delivered: March 26 2011

Objectives:

* Prepare a report on a situation, event, or problem of interest to the audience.

* Deliver sufficient factual information in your report so the audience can make valid conclusions or a sound decision

* Answer questions from the audience

Time: Five to Seven Minutes for the speech, and two to three minutes for the question-and-answer period.

Comments:

As mentioned in the beginning I had conducted an online survey among our club members which formed the basis of the speech. Some of the key questions asked during the survey were:

1) What delays the delivery of your next project speech ?

2) How helpful has been your mentor's guidance ?

3) What the club can do to motivate/encourage you to give more project speeches?

4) How interested are you in Toastmasters in comparison to your other interests and hobbies?

5) To achieve your career and personal goals and aspirations, how important it is for you to acquire good speaking skills?

6) In a scale of 1 to 10 how likely you are to recommend our club to your friends.

I delivered the speech using power-point slides showing graphs as visual aids. The speech was well received and there were several questions which I handled well ]

2 Years of Toastmaster Speaks

2011-03-05T00:01:00.000+05:30

It is now exactly 2 years since I started tracking the performance of this blog through Google Analytics.

Here is how this blog performed over the last year (Mar 1 2010 - Feb 28 2011):

Unique Visitors: 3462 i.e. 9 -10 visitors per day [Last Year : 2386 (6-7 visitors per day).]
Visitors came from 83 countries [Last Year: 72]
Page Views : 7961 [Last Year : 6205]
Top 5 page views were for the following speeches:

Ragging - A Learning Experience (934 Page views): This was my CC Project 5 Speech, where I spoke about how I was ragged as a first year engineering student at NITK, Surathkal (then KREC, Surathkal).
The Blog Home Page : 727 Page views.
Mobile Phones - Early Days: (527 page views) This was my CC Project 2 speech. At that time I was working for Freescale and our business unit was developing wireless software for mobile phones. So I had enough background to speak on the story of how mobile phones evolved.
Cherished Childhood Moments: (486 Page views) This was my Icebreaker Speech from the CC Manual, where I relived my good old carefree childhood days.
Project 10 Speech - The Three Essential Qualities of a Toastmaster: (441 Page Views): I spoke about how I prepared and delivered all the 10 speeches from the CC manual and what qualities a Toastmaster needs to have to achieve this feat.

Top 4 in the above list also featured in last years Top 5 Views in the same order (except No.3 & No. 4 which got switched over).

No.5 is the new entrant, replacing last year.s No. 5 Wisdom, Wisdom Everywhere: ( my CC Project 8 speech based on some soul-stirring stories and articles from the book "Like the Flowing River " by Paulo Coelho. I have posted my review of this book in "Bookworm Reads", the other blog I write.)

One of the visitor to this blog , liked it well enough to invite me to write a guest post in his blog.
Read More about it.

Story Telling Project 4 - A Pair of Tongs

2011-01-19T20:48:00.003+05:30

[This is my own adaptation of Munshi Premchand's original Hindi short story - Idgaah ]

It is festival of Id today. Everyone in the village is very excited about it. They will be going to the mosque in the nearby town. There they will offer prayers and then have a gala time in the town fair.

Mahmood is a portly boy from a well-to-do family. His pocket is bulging with coins, competing with his protruding belly. He is joyfully jingling them. He has twelve pice. He will able to buy lots of toys and sweets today with this money since we are talking about 1920s not 2010 !

Hamid is a four year old, poorly dressed, thin and famished-looking boy. Just 3 pice in his pocket! His father and mother died last year. He lives with his Granny Ameena who tells him “Beta, your father has gone to earn money and will return with sack loads of silver. Your mother has gone to Allah to get lovely gifts for you”. This makes Hamid very happy and hopeful. It is great to live on hope; for a child in these circumstances there is nothing else than hope.

However Ameena is sad. Mahmood is going with his father. How can she let Hamid go to the town fair all by himself? It is three miles from the village. What if he gets lost in the crowd? If she goes with him, who will go out to arrange for money? She wants to cook a decent meal for Hamid at least today on this festive occasion. If there is no money how can this be possible?
Hamid says, "Dadi Ma, don’t worry. I will take care of myself. ".

Hamid joins the party of the villagers going to the mosque. After offering prayers in the mosque everyone embraces each other and then rush to visit the fair.

At the entrance there is a merry-go-round strung with wooden elephants, horses and camels! “Enjoy Twenty-five rounds for just one pice !” cries out the merry-go-round man. Mahmood inspite of his huge bulk manages to rush and take a ride. Hamid watches him from a distance. All he has are three pice. He couldn't afford to part with a third of his treasure for a few miserable rounds.

Then there is a row of toy-stalls with all kinds of toys; Splendid display! How lifelike!. They are priced at 2 pice each. Mahmood buys a few toys. All Hamid has are three pice; how can he afford to buy such expensive toys?

Then come sweet shops. Mahmood buys halwa and gulabjammuns and gobbles them. And as if that is not enough he gulps down a tall glass of white, thick and creamy lassi. He then smacks his lips with relish. Hamid, the luckless boy has at least three pice; why doesn't he also buy something to eat? He looks with hungry eyes at Mahmood. Mahmood does not pay any attention.

Next to the sweet-shops there is a hardware store. There is nothing here to attract the Mahmood’s attention. He goes ahead. But Hamid stops. He sees a pile of iron tongs.
Hamid asks the shopkeeper, “How much for this pair of tongs?" "Six pice”, says the shopkeeper. Hamid's heart sinks. He steels his heart and says, "Will you give it to me for three?" and walks away lest the shopkeeper screams at him. But the shopkeeper does not scream. He calls Hamid back and says, “Ok Beta, for you only 3 pice” and gives him the pair of tongs.

Hamid rests it on his shoulder walks proudly.
Mahmood sees him and laughs, "Are you crazy? What will you do with the tongs? Is it some kind of toy? "."Why not?" retorts Hamid. "See I am carrying it like a gun; If I clang them it becomes a musical instrument”. He then flings the tongs on the ground and says, "Now throw your toys on the ground. It will be smashed to bits. If a drop of water fell on them, the paint would run. What will I do with toys like this? It’s of no use to me. Toys are a waste of money. You can have some fun with them but only for a very short time. Then they are gone. But my iron tongs are everlasting". Mahmood is speechless. He realizes that Hamid is right.

As soon Hamid returns home Ameena hugs him. She notices the tongs in his hand. "Where did you find them?" "I bought them for three pice”, says Hamid.
Ameena scolds him “You stupid child!! Couldn't you find anything better than this pair of tongs? At least you could have bought something to eat or drink.” Hamid replies in injured tones, "Dadi Ma, every time you make rotis, you burn your fingers while taking them out of the fire. So I bought this for you. If you use it to take out the rotis, your fingers will never burn again. I thought you will be happy but you are getting angry.”

The old woman's temper suddenly changes to love. She thinks “What a selfless child! What concern for others! What a big heart! How he must have suffered seeing Mahmood buying toys and gobbling sweets! How was he able to suppress his own feelings! Even at the fair he thought of his old grandmother.”

Ameena is choked with emotions. She breaks down. Big tears fall from her eyes. She prays “O Merciful Allah! Please Bless this Child”. How can Hamid understand what is going on inside her! After all he is just a 4-year old kid!

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[Date Delivered: January 8 2011

Objectives:

To understand the techniques available to arouse emotion.
To become skilled in arousing emotions while telling a story.

Time: Six to Eight Minutes

Comments:

When I read the guidelines for this project from the Advanced Communication Manual on Story Telling, immediately it struck me that Munshi Premchand's story "Eidgah" which had I read many years ago in my school textbook would perfectly fit the bill.
I then hunted out from the internet an excellent translation of this story by Khushwant Singh.
This served as a good starting point and I went about editing , adapting and adding my own literary embellishments.
The speech was well received and I won the Speaker of the Day award. My evaluator wrote in his evaluation that it almost brought tears to his eyes.
My adaptation certainly does not do justice to the original or even its translated version.
I had to edit out many excellent pieces in the story in order to confirm to the time limits, else the story telling session would have lasted at least for half-an-hour !
This is one of the most touching story which I have ever come across. At the same time it has ample doses of humor, satire and irony in it. Also an excellent study in child psychology.
So if you liked my adaptation, I would strongly recommend reading the original story in Hindi at
http://www.4to40.com/Story/index.asp?p=Idgaah&k=Hamid.
If you can't read/understand Hindi, please read Kushwanth Singh's translation at
http://www.4to40.com/Story/index.asp?p=Festival_of_Eid&k=Eidgah_mosque ]

You can also listen to the complete story being read aloud (by someone else; not me !) English in Google Videos
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4424382591453458176#

Trivia: The Havells Cables TV commercial is inspired by this story, though context is somewhat different. Watch it in You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI5v4Bc2D-o

Speaking to Inform Project 3 - Rock, Paper, Scissors

2010-11-26T01:19:00.000+05:30

[Started by showing 3 gestures - a fist, an open palm and a V-sign]

Can anyone guess what my talk is going to be about?
It is about a very simple age-old game which originated from China and then became very popular in Japan. It is called Rock, Paper, and Scissors. I first came to know about this game during my schooldays when I read Ian Fleming’s book “You Only Live Twice”. In that book James Bond & Tiger Tanaka, the chief of Japanese secret service play this game.
Since then over the years I taught this game to my kid cousins, my niece and many small children. I got a very enthusiastic response from them. So if you want to keep young kids from getting into too much of mischief or want wean them away from computer games and TV serials which they have got addicted to, teach them this game. It will keep them occupied for a long time.
So without much ado let us start understanding the rules of this game.

This stands for Rock [showed a fist]; this stands for Paper [showed a palm]. Paper can cover the Rock [covered the fist with the palm], so it is stronger.
This stands for Scissors [made a V-sign]. A Rock can blunt the scissors. So Rock is stronger.
A Scissor can cut the Paper, so it is stronger than the Paper.

Let us play a demonstration game now. Can I have a volunteer please who will play with me ? [One person volunteered; incidentally she happened to be the Club President ! ]

At the count of three both of us will simultaneously show one of the three - Rock or Paper or Scissors. The winner of the show will be decided based on the rules just explained

[Played three shows. Incidentally I won the game 2-1]

Now you know how this game is played. But mind you, it is more than a child’s game.
You may think that the results of this game is random like a tossing a coin. But it is not so, since human beings are in control of what they will choose, there is quite a bit of psychology and strategy involved in this game. You can get to know about these strategies in the internet. One good website to go to is www.worldrps.com

Many Rock Paper Scissors competitions are held world over. Last year a film called “The Flying Scissors” was also made about this game.

A few years back this game was used to settle a long drawn out a legal battle between two parties in a Florida court.

Once two famous auctioneers Christie’s and Sotheby’s were asked by a Japanese industrialist to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who will get the contract to auction the paintings which he had in his possession. Christie’s won the commission by choosing “Scissors”, since Sotheby’s chose “Paper”.

We Toastmasters always expect a message in a speech so here it goes - Be strong (Rock gesture) ! Be Calm (Palm gesture) ! Victory (V-sign) will be yours.

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[Date Delivered: November 20 2010

Objectives:

Prepare a demonstration speech to clearly explain a process, product or activity.
Conduct the demonstration as part of a speech delivered without notes.

Time: Five to Seven Minutes

Comments:

For this project, I had made up my mind not to do a Powerpoint presentation, since the facility for the same is not guaranteed in our club . But it so happened on this day two other speeches were Project 8 speeches (Visual aid) from Competent Communicator Manual and the speakers had organized for LCD projection system to make Powerpoint presentations ! If I had known about this in advance, probably I also could have joined them !

Anyway my initial intention was to demonstrate any scientific principle through some common objects, but somehow I could not think of anything which would keep the audience interested.

And then one day it suddenly struck me to do a demo of Rock, Paper, Scissors Game. And when I surfed internet, I could find quite a few interesting facts about this game. So the topic problem was solved !

After this it was pretty much smooth sailing. My speech did not require any rewrites (normally I rewrite 4 to 5 times ) and I hardly rehearsed. Yet, I think this was one speech in which I was completely my natural self while delivering it in a very interactive manner.

I try to avoid giving a message as far as possible in my speech (unless of course it is a requirement of the project). I don't like to preach unless I can practice what I preach.

But the audience (at least in my club) expects a message in every speech. I don't see any reason why this should be the case.

The original intended ending of the speech was

""Do you know what message this game conveys? Why do you look for a message in every speech? There is no message. Just go and enjoy the game!""

But later I thought it would be better to introduce an element of self-deprecating humor at the Toastmasters by concocting a message out of blue when actually there was none. So I ended it as

"We Toastmasters always expect a message in a speech so here it goes - Be strong (Rock gesture) ! Be Calm (Palm gesture) ! Victory (V-sign) will be yours"

And to my astonishment it was taken very seriously and I received appreciation for this concocted and retrofitted message by some members !

But I guess my disinterest in giving a message was very apparent since I got an evaluation which said that while the speech was good , I had hurried up the message part. It should have been delivered with more impact after a weighty pause !

Fellow Toastmasters, give me a break ! Why can't we have just some simple fun without preaching or being preached !

]

Story Telling Project 3 - Adam, Aman and Acharya

2010-10-13T23:29:00.000+05:30

“Aman, where are you my child?”

Adam came back home from work, and called out for his son as usual.

No response! What happened? Aman always used to come running, “Here I am Papa!”

Aman was Adam's son on whom he showered all his affections.

He called out again, “Aman!” . Deafening silence! Adam got worried.

He called out once again, “AMAN”.

This time his neighbor barged in angrily and said, “Why are you shouting at top of your voice and disturbing me? Aman is not at home, go out and find him!”

Adam went to Aman’s school and met the Headmaster and said “Sir, Aman has not come back from school.” The Headmaster said, “I think I saw him leaving the school with his friend Balu”.

Adam then hurried to Balu’s house. Balu said “Uncle, he did not come here. He said he will be going to the library.”

Adam then rushed to the library and found it closed. He was now really worried.

He ran hither and thither like a mad man and asked every one he knew in the town, “Have you seen Aman?” Everywhere he would get the same response, “Sorry, we did not see him”. He then asked every stranger, and they all looked blank. “Who is Aman?” they asked him instead.

Now Adam was distraught and feared the worst. He barged into the police station. Inspector Acharya was on duty. Adam started wailing “I have lost my son. I searched him everywhere and can’t find him. Someone has kidnapped him. What I am going to do?”

Inspector Acharya gave him a patient hearing and asked,”Adam, have you searched him in your own house?”

Adam suddenly realized, “Oh No! I did not!” He then hurried home. There he found Aman sleeping peacefully in his room.

What is the moral of this story?
There are three characters in this story - Adam, Aman and Acharya.
Adam represents mankind. Aman means happiness and peace. Acharya means a teacher or guru.

Everybody desires happiness and peace of mind i.e Aman. But often the man i.e. Adam gets misled by all sorts of people mostly well meaning, but who themselves do not know the way to happiness.

Therefore he frantically hunts for it all around the world. And when he does not find what he is looking for he becomes restless and distraught.

A genuine teacher or a guru like Inspector Acharya will show him the right path. He will say, “Stop! Don’t waste time and effort in searching for happiness and peace in the outside world. Look within yourself. Observe your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions. You will realize that the true happiness and peace lies within you ! It’s all in your mind!”

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[Date Delivered: October 9 2010

Objectives:

To understand that a story can be entertaining yet display moral values
To create a new story that offers a lesson or moral
To tell the story, using the skills developed in previous two projects

Time: Four to Six Minutes

Comments:

One day my younger sister then about 2 years old was missing. We desperately searched for her everywhere and feared the worst when we were not able to find her. And then suddenly we found her playing inside a big packing case in our own backyard.

There is also a saying in Hindi "Goad Mein Bachcha, Nagar mein dhindora", which means announcing to the whole town that you have lost your kid, when actually you are carrying it all along.

I also firmly believe that neither the circumstances nor the external objects are the cause of our happiness or sadness. It is we who choose to be happy or otherwise.

I created this original story with based on the above facts.

]

Speaking to Inform Project 2 - The World of Rhetoric

2010-08-04T23:59:00.000+05:30

How can I be a speaker who inspires; a speaker who successfully persuades the listeners; a speaker who generates enthusiasm?

These are the questions which play upon every earnest speaker’s mind.

The answer is simple. Use rhetorical techniques.

Now what is that?

Rhetoric is a way to attractively package the bland facts and deliver a speech that is memorable; a speech that creates an impact; a speech that strikes a chord with the audience.

Let me give you couple of examples.

Hamlet, a character in the Shakespeare’s play is very depressed and says “To be or not to be, that’s the question.” Now suppose instead of this Shakespeare had made him say “I can’t decide whether or to commit suicide or not”. Now tell me which one is a more powerful quote? Obviously the first one, though both mean the same.

Martin Luther King in his memorable speech said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” It created waves across America. But instead if he had said “I hope racial discrimination in America will disappear within a generation”. Would that have stirred the same emotions?

Effective speakers invariably make use of rhetorical techniques to get their message across.

Today I will give you three simple rhetorical techniques, which you can use in your speeches.

Let us begin with a technique called Contrast. What is a Contrast? When you clearly bring out the difference between two things, you are creating a Contrast.

You can achieve contrast through comparison, like Aristotle who said “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies”. Here he is achieving contrast by comparing the bravery of two persons.

Another way to bring contrast is by introducing a Pair of Opposites. As soon as he landed on the moon, Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind”. Small step! Giant leap! What a stark and dramatic sounding contrasts!

Reversing the phrases is yet another way to create elegant contrast. Winston Churchill once said “The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity”. Just note how effectively he has differentiated between an optimist and a pessimist by reversing the order of the words “opportunity” and “danger”.

Now let us move on to another simple technique - Question. Ask the audience a question or a series of questions.

It will reinforce your opinion. For example instead of simply stating that children are the sweetest gift to mankind, the great orator Cicero said “Of all nature’s gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?”

Questioning will also make the audience sit up, think and wonder what the speaker is going to say next. For example, when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain in midst of World War II, he said, “You ask, what our aim is? I can answer in one word. It is victory.”

Did you will realize that I myself have used this Questioning technique several times in this speech?

The third and the easiest technique is appropriately called the List of Three.

It can be three identical words for e.g. Three secrets of a great public speaker - Practice, Practice and Practice.

It can be three different but related words as in French revolution slogan – Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

It can be three phrases, which Mahatma Gandhi has used to define happiness. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”.

~~Research has shown that a three-part list creates an impression of completeness.~~

Lists with only two items sound inadequate and so the audience waits in anticipation for the third item. Therefore keep the most important point as the third item. And don’t create a longer list. You will loose your audience’s attention. [I left out these lines, during the speech. I just forgot ! Fortunately it went unnoticed !]

Today I have talked about three simple rhetorical techniques – Contrast, Question & List of Three. Use them in your speeches to create an impact.

Some say, “I don't believe in empty rhetoric. Action Speaks Louder than Words!” Agreed! But I would add, “Words Generate Action!” Welcome to the world of rhetoric!

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[Date Delivered: July 31 2010

Objectives:

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.
Effectively use at least one visual aid to enhance the audience's understanding.

Time: Five to seven minutes.

Comments:

I chose this topic because I was sure everyone in the audience will be interested in knowing how to enhance their speech to make it more effective. They wouldn't be attending the meeting in first place if they were not !

The speech was based on Chapter 6, The Persuasive Power of Words from the book - Lend Me Your Ears by Max Atkinson. Please see my review of this book in the other blog I write (Bookworm Reads)

The visual aid I used was a handout which was much appreciated by the audience.

The links to the audio/video files of some of the speeches I quoted from are :

To be or not to be (rendered by Richard Burton in Hamlet (1964)
I have a dream (Martin Luther King's complete speech - Original Video)
That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind (Neil Armstrong - Original Video)
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (Winston Churchill - Original audio)

I tried to speak as close to the original as possible. The audience liked the excerpt from Martin Luther King speech very much. ]

Story Telling Project 2 - The Turning Point

2010-06-12T22:09:00.000+05:30

You have to be a good English speaker in this globalized world!

The very fact that all of you have taken time to come to this meeting shows that you all agree with me.

There was a time when I could not even speak one sentence in English fluently and correctly.

And then I met someone and the things became better. No he was not a Toastmaster, trying to recruit me in his club!

I have to go back in time in early 70s when as a 10 year old boy I was growing up in a small town in Bihar, where my dad worked as an engineer.

Though I studied English at school, I was not at all fluent in speaking it. I used to speak in Hindi with my siblings and friends. I did not know even my mother tongue Tamil properly. This did not gel well with my dad. So one day he told me "I have nothing against Hindi. But when you talk to me and your mother, you should speak in Tamil only!”

So my mother tongue got its due and I picked up a fairly passable Tamil.

But where was the "poor English" in the scheme of things? It was still lying neglected in my tongue space while I graduated to real colloquial Hindi as it is spoken in Bihar.

One fine day, a business delegation from England visited my father’s office. A dinner was organized for the delegates in the Company Clubhouse. Around this time I had just got interested in cricket, so my dad told me that there was a cricket player among the delegates.

I asked," Appa, can I also come with you? I want to meet the cricketer and take his autograph. ““No! Absolutely not! Kids are not invited", said my father and left.

A couple of hours later, he gave me a call and said. "If you want to come, come immediately. The dinner is over and everyone is going to leave soon.” My dad was always like that. Whenever I used to ask something from him, his first reaction was always NO. But soon he would have a change of heart and would do whatever I had asked for.

So flushed with excitement, I dressed hurriedly, grabbed the autograph book and rushed to the club. When I reached there I found a gentleman in his late fifties about to get inside a black Ambassador car. He would have left earlier. But my dad had requested him to wait for few more minutes and he was very kind enough to oblige. "The boy has come", said my dad and nudged me towards him. This was the first time I had seen a foreigner. I was awe-struck by his glowing fair skin and sparkling light-grey eyes. Nervously I shook his hands and held out my autograph book. He asked me in a typical British accent, "Well young boy, how are you doing?” It was like a bouncer that just went over my head. I could not make head or tail out of what he was saying. I just blinked. I asked him to repeat what he said. Nothing wrong in it, except for the fact that I had blurted my request in typical Bihari Hindi, “Hum samjhe nahin. Phir se boliye! “(I don’t understand. Could you please repeat?). Now it was the Englishman who blinked and looked confused.

My poor dad! He was highly embarrassed at my inability to communicate in English.

He told me, “You will get nowhere if I continue sending you to the local school. You have to speak better English if you want to have a successful career".

And within a couple of years, he packed me off to a one of the best public schools in Bihar. It was expensive, but he did not mind that. My dad was prepared to undergo hardships in the best interests of his son.

By the time I passed out of the public school, I was able to converse fluently in English. This enabled me to effectively interact in my career with my colleagues and customers from different countries through the global lingua franca English.

Sometimes I wonder how different things would have been if I had not met Sir Leonard Hutton that day. Yes, the man I had met was Sir Leonard Hutton. He was one of the best Test players in English cricket history. He once held the record of highest individual test score of 364. He was also the first professional cricketer to captain England.

The cricketing world may remember him for these achievements, but I would always remember him as a person who was kind enough to wait for me and indirectly instrumental in my improved spoken English.

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[Date Delivered: June 5 2010

Objectives:

To learn the elements of a good story.
To create and tell an original story based on a personal experience

Time: Six to eight minutes.

Comments:

This speech is based on a real incident, though as per the guidelines of the project manual I have spiced it up with imaginary dialogues and vivid descriptions (Reality was not that colorful !).

The plain facts are as follows. I did grew up in Bihar speaking in Hindi most of the time and could not speak English fluently. And I did meet Sir Len Hutton and took his autograph (unfortunately I have lost it) as narrated in the speech. But the actual question which he asked was "Where should I sign ?". I replied in Bihari Hindi "Kya Cheez ? (What ?)".

Just couple of years before I met Sir Len Hutton, Indian cricket teams' magnificent test series win over England had got me interested in cricket. In that series Sir Len Hutton' s son Richard Hutton had played for England. So I wanted to meet Sir Len Hutton because he was Richard Hutton's father ! I had no clue that he was such a distinguished cricketer, though I knew that he was an ex-Test cricketer.

It is also to a great extent true that my inability to communicate in English with Sir Len Hutton was one of the factors which made my dad to consider changing my school.
Sir Len Hutton passed away in 1990.

I have realistically portrayed my dad in this speech and the evaluator commented that his character came out well during my speech.
My dad is no more. He passed away when I was eighteen, while I was in my second year of engineering studies. I remembered my days with him, while delivering the speech and was almost choked with emotion when I came to the following portions in the speech
a)" My dad was always like that. Whenever I used to ask something from him, his first reaction was always NO. But soon he would have a change of heart and would do whatever I had asked for."
b) "My dad was prepared to undergo hardships in the best interests of his son"

Appa, I still miss you though it is nearly thirty years now since you departed !
]

Toastmasters Program – An Experiential Learning

2010-05-24T20:19:00.000+05:30

Ganapathy Subramanian runs the Management Scholars Academy in Chennai, India which conducts training programs and workshops on the art and science of project management. He fully recognizes the value a Toastmasters program adds in developing communication and leadership skills of an aspiring project manager.
He invited me to post a blog dealing with this aspect on the Management Scholars Academy website.
You can read my blog "Toastmasters Program – An Experiential Learning" at http://msacademy.in/wordpress/management-scholars-academy-blog/2010/05/toastmasters-program-an-experiential-learning-by-dr-r-gopinath/

Speaking to Inform Project 1 - Drug Development Process

2010-04-17T22:31:00.001+05:30

I was involved with Drugs last year! Don’t be shocked. I was not a drug addict. I was not a drug peddler either. I worked for a firm which developed software solutions for world’s leading drug manufacturers.

When you fall sick your doctor prescribes drugs. You swallow them and get back to normal. But have you ever wondered what it takes to make these drugs?
I came to know about the very fascinating and interesting process of drug development during my job.
I am going to share what I learnt with all of you today. This will help you to appreciate better the effort involved in making the drugs that cure you.

A drug lifecycle has 3 stages – Pre-Clinical R&D, Clinical Trials, and Post Marketing Surveillance.

In Pre-Clinical R&D the symptoms and the causes of the disease are studied. Through extensive research, candidate drug compounds are identified. Sometimes these compounds are discovered accidently.
This is how Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic -Penicillin. One day he forgot to cover the Petri dish containing the bacteria culture which he was investigating and went on a vacation. On returning he found that a mold had formed over this culture and destroyed it. This mold was Penicillium notatum which was found to contain powerful anti-bacterial compounds.
Once potential drug compounds are identified, they must be isolated from their sources and produced in sufficient quantities for testing. For Penicillin this work was taken up by the researchers Florey and Chain.
Isolated drug compounds are then tested on animals. Compounds found to be too toxic or ineffective are rejected.
Drugs which seem promising are ready for the second stage – the clinical trials. But before they begin the clinical trials the drug manufacturer must obtain clearance from the drug regulatory authorities like FDA in USA, Drugs Controller General in India. This is because the drugs will now be tested on people. Volunteers are identified to participate in the clinical trials. All the pros and cons are told to the volunteers who sign up.

Clinical Trials consists of 3 Phases.

In Phase I the drug is tested on 20-30 healthy volunteers. This is to find out whether the drug has any obvious adverse reactions on human beings.

In Phase II about 100 patients who suffer from the disease, participate. The researchers study the effectiveness of the drug and arrive at a proper dosage in this phase.

In Phase III the drug is tested on several thousands of patients. This is to confirm the effectiveness, the dosage and the side effects of the drug.
If clinical trials indicate that the drug is effective and safe, an application is filed with the regulatory body for approval. All the data gathered during the trials are also submitted along with the application. The regulatory body reviews all the information and decides whether the drug is sufficiently effective and safe to be marketed. If they approve, the drug is manufactured and sold.
Florey and Chain did clinical trials with penicillin on wounded soldiers of World War II. Their amazing success inspired them to develop methods for mass production and mass distribution of Penicillin in 1945. Fleming, Florey and Chain received Nobel Prize for Medicine the same year.
The final stage of Drug Development is the Post-marketing surveillance. The drug manufacturer, with the help of doctors and pharmacists must continuously monitor the use of the drug and promptly report any additional, previously undetected rare side effects to the regulatory body. The firm where I was working was developing software to computerize and automate this process. The regulatory authorities will withdraw approval if new evidence indicates that a drug may cause severe side effect.
Thalidomide a sedative was sold worldwide in late 1950s. But then it was discovered that when pregnant women consumed it, it caused nearly 20,000 babies to be born with physical deformities. It was withdrawn from the market in 1961. The thalidomide tragedy brought in very strict regulatory norms for drug testing on pregnant women.
The whole process of drug development takes between 2 to 12 years depending on the complexity of the disease and the drug compounds.
It is a very rigorous and painstaking process. Drug firms research and test 10,000 substances before one of them could be successfully introduced into the market.
Drug business is highly expensive and risky. It costs nearly $2 billion to introduce a new drug to market. And only one drug out of three introduced in the market recovers its development cost.

This is how a drug is identified, tested and introduced in the market.
Let me conclude by saying that the next time you recover from an illness, apart from thanking the doctor who treated you, also spare some thought and -
thank the researchers who sweated out in their labs and the philanthropists who funded the research; thank the animals that were tortured during testing and the volunteers who participated in the trials; thank the regulatory authorities, doctors and pharmacists who rigorously monitored the process.
They all ensured that you lead a happy and healthy life!

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[Date Delivered: April 10 2010

Objectives:

Select new and useful information for presentation to the audience.
Organize the information for easy understandability and retention.
Present the information in a way that will help motivate the audience to learn.

Time: Five to Seven minutes.

Comments:

As mentioned above the I chose to speak on the topic because I found the whole process of drug development very interesting when I first came to know about it.

I requested for Eight to ten minutes for this speech, since to give all the information in a easy to understand manner with examples and personal experiences it was virtually impossible to complete this speech within seven minutes as specified in the manual. I ended up speaking for nine and half minutes.]

One Year of this Blog - How did it fare in the cyberspace ?

2010-03-01T20:26:00.001+05:30

A little over a year ago, when I was learning Web Analytics , I needed some web metrics to analyze. But I did not have a website of my own, so I started writing this blog.
It is now exactly 1 year since I started tracking the performance of this blog through Google Analytics.
Here is how this blog performed over the last year (Mar 1 2009 - Feb 28 2010):

This blog had 2386 Unique Visitors (6-7 visitors per day).
Visitors came from 72 countries , the Top 6 countries being - India, USA, Canada, UAE, Singapore & Saudi Arabia.
Total of 6205 page views , approx. 2 pages per visitor.
Top 5 page views were for the following speeches:

Ragging - A Learning Experience (1015 Page views): This was my CC Project 5 Speech, where I spoke about how I was ragged as a first year engineering student at NITK, Surathkal (then KREC, Surathkal).
The Blog Home Page : 700 Page views.
Cherished Childhood Moments: (348 Page views) This was my Icebreaker Speech from the CC Manual, where I relived my good old carefree childhood days.
Mobile Phones - Early Days: (314 page views) This was my CC Project 2 speech. At that time I was working for Freescale and our business unit was developing wireless software for mobile phones. So I had enough background to speak on the story of how mobile phones evolved.
Wisdom, Wisdom Everywhere: (285 page views): This was my CC Project 8 speech. A few days before I gave this speech I had read the book , "Like the Flowing River " by Paulo Coelho. It had several soul-stirring stories and articles, some of them formed the basis of my speech. I have posted my review of this book in "Bookworm Reads", the other blog I write.

Not bad at all for the first year of blogging. Hope to better this statistics, in this year !

Story Telling Project 1 - All Fools Land

2010-02-14T21:35:00.003+05:30

[With this speech I took my first step towards Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award]

Please relax and go back to your childhood days. And imagine yourselves as 8 year old kids gathered around your grandfather, eagerly expecting a story to be told.

Are you sitting comfortably ? Then I'll begin.

Once upon a time in a small town there lived a fool. His wife .....was also a fool !

Every day they used to argue and fight. About what ? About who was a bigger fool !

Their neighbors were tired of their noisy fights.

One day they cornered the fool and told him, "Go and see the world. See how many kinds of fools are there in the world. What's the point of fighting like this?"

The very next day the fool set out on a journey. He wandered long and far till he came to a town.

As he was entering the town, he saw some woodcutters coming down the hill, carrying a huge log of wood. They were huffing and puffing.

He asked them, "Why don't you just roll the log down ? That would be much easier."

The woodcutters said,"Oh yeah ! That's the very good idea. How come we never thought about it ? Thanks a lot ! We will definitely follow what you say." They paid him some money for his advice.

As he roamed about in the town he came across a house. It was almost noon. The sun had reached its zenith. He saw a lady sitting at the doorstep of the house with an empty basket in front of her.

He asked her, “What are you doing?"

She said, "Don't you see? It is very dark inside my house. So I am trying to bring light into my house. I am tired of filling up this basket with sunlight and taking inside my house . But my house is still dark."

The fool observed that her house did not have any windows.

He said ""O, that's easy. If you pay me a fee, I'll fill your house with light." The lady agreed.

He went into the house , made big holes on the walls. Light poured into the rooms. The lady was amazed.

She was delighted. She gave him a hefty fee and also treated him with delicious and scrumptious lunch.

Then he wandered on till he saw a house with a terrace garden with lush green lawns. The house belonged to a milkman.

He saw the milkman pushing, prodding and beating a buffalo. He was trying to get the buffalo to climb to the top of the house. The fool asked him, "What are you trying to do?"

"O, my buffalo is hungry. I want to let it graze on the terrace garden. But the buffalo is stupid. Even though I beat him, he won't climb onto the roof. What shall I do?", said the milkman.

"For a fee, I'd be happy to graze him," offered the fool.

"Take it, here," said the milkman, giving him some money.

The fool at once asked for a ladder, climbed onto the terrace, cut some of the grass, and threw it in front of the buffalo, who happily began to chew on it.

On his way back to his own town, the fool came across the same group of woodcutters whom he had seen earlier in the day.

This time they were carrying the same log of wood up the hill. Clearly it was a very tedious job. They were huffing and puffing even more.

"What happened ?", asked the fool. "Well we are following your advice. We are taking this log up the hill once again so that we can roll it down every easily", replied the woodcutters.

"Hey ! There are bigger and greater fools in this world", thought the fool.

And then a brilliant idea struck him out of the blue !

He hurried home and came back with his wife.

They both settled down in the town and lived happily for the rest of their lives.

For they had become rich and prosperous by becoming management consultants to the town folks.

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[Date delivered: February 13 2010

Objectives:

To tell a folk tale that is entertaining and enjoyable for a specific age group
To use vivid imagery and voice to enhance the tale

Time: Seven to nine minutes

Comments:
The folk tale I told during this speech was largely based on the story called "Fools" from the book "A Flowering Tree and other oral tales from India" by A.K. Ramanujan.
However I blended in the incident of the woodcutters carrying the log of wood up and down the hill from a German folk tale which I had read when I was learning German. I also split this incident into two parts .Told one part in the first half of the speech and the other one towards the end.
The line in the beginning "Are you sitting comfortably ? Then I will begin." is actually the opening line of "Listen with Mother', a children's radio program that was broadcast every weekday afternoon from 1950 to 1982 by BBC.]

Project 10 Speech - The Three Essential Qualities of a Toastmaster

2009-12-07T18:53:00.005+05:30

[With this speech I completed all the requirements for getting the Competent Communicator Award from the Toastmasters International]

“Say What You Did! Do What You Said”. This is my principle.
I can motivate you to do something only if I have done it myself.
Otherwise my speech will have no credibility. It will sound hollow and will fail to inspire you.
However there is one achievement of mine that I can talk about with some credibility.

In just a little over a year’s time I have managed to give all the 10 speeches from the CC manual.
This is faster than the time normally taken by most of the members in this club.
But there is no great rocket science involved in this achievement.
If I can do it, so can each one of you!

A Toastmasters club can help you to develop self-confidence and public speaking skills.
But there are three essential things that you and only you can bring in as a Toastmaster.
One – Desire to achieve.
Two – Hard work.
Three – Willingness to Learn

You all understand how important public speaking skills are for your career and personal growth.
You have all gathered here because you desire to improve upon it.
But how strong is your desire?

A man once asked Socrates, “What’s the secret to success”?
Socrates instead of replying caught hold of him by his neck, pushed his head under the water and held it there.
The man struggled and gasped for breath, but Socrates did not release him.
When the man almost died, Socrates pulled him out and asked “ What did you want the most when you were under water?” The man replied, “Air”.
Socrates then said, “Only if you want success as badly as you wanted the air, you will get it.”
A burning desire is the starting point of your journey towards success.
A small fire cannot give much heat. Likewise a weak desire cannot produce great results.
Therefore I said to myself, come what may I have to become a CC within one and half years.
Toastmasters, can you cultivate such a strong desire?
Yes, you can! And so you should!

Can a strong desire alone lead you to success? No! You must sweat it out.
You have to plan, prepare and practice the speeches to the best of your ability.
Remember that’s the promise you made when you joined Toastmasters.
In my experience with all our other engagements like office work, studies, and family commitments it is a real challenge to keep up this promise.
But as Epictetus, an ancient Greek philosopher said. “The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it”.
I scheduled the dates for all my 10 speeches well in advance and tried my best to meet the deadlines.
I spent most of my free time searching suitable topics and materials for my speeches.
I wrote and re-wrote each speech at least 5 times, improving upon it every time, till I was fully satisfied.
I used to record the speeches and listen to them while commuting to work.
The week before a speech I used to rehearse at least 2 times everyday before the mirror.
It was not easy. But if you want to become a CC there is no substitute for hard work. I worked hard to internalize the speech so that I could deliver it with ease.
Toastmasters, can you work hard too? Yes, you can! And so you should!

Your desire for success and your hard work must be supported by your willingness to learn.
There was a woodcutter who used to work very hard but could cut only 2 trees per day.
And then one day someone advised him to spend some time in sharpening the axe.
Following this advice the woodcutter was now able to cut 4 trees per day.
So sharpen your speaking skills by being open enough to learn from every Toastmaster, especially your mentors and speech evaluators.
There is no end to learning. However good you are, there is always a scope of improvement.
Even before joining Toastmasters I was quite experienced in public speaking. I had given presentations in my office; had presented papers in conferences; had conducted several training sessions; had delivered invited lectures in IIIT.
Though these were generally well appreciated by the audience, I felt that I still had a long way to go.
So I joined Toastmasters with a mindset of a beginner and with a sense of humility.
I got my speeches reviewed by my mentors and incorporated their feedback.
In fact I had prepared something else for my Project 10 speech.
But on my mentor’s advice I willingly changed the topic and started all over again.
I thankfully accepted the constructive criticisms from my speech evaluators and tried my best to improve on the areas suggested by them.
All these helped me a lot in preparing and delivering my speeches. It also helped me in the presentations at my work.
It was all because I had an attitude of a disciplined student and was willing to learn.
Toastmasters, can you commit to learn? Yes, you can! And so you should!

Let me conclude by reminding you that the Toastmasters program is a serious endeavor.
A Toastmaster club is actually an educational institution not a recreation club though it appears like one.
It provides its members an opportunity to develop oral communication skills, which will in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.
However these are the three expectations from each and every Toastmaster.
You must have a burning desire to become a CC at least!
You must put in hard work while planning, preparing and practicing your speech!
You must be willing to learn from your evaluators and mentors!

If you are already meeting these expectations, then what are you waiting for?
Arise, Awake and Deliver your next speech and the next and the next and Stop Not till you become a Distinguished Toastmaster!
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[Date delivered: December 5 2009

Objectives:

To inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievements.
Appeal to the audience's needs and emotions, using stories, anecdotes and quotes to add drama.
Avoid using notes.

Time: Eight to Ten Minutes
Comments:
This has been the most difficult speech from topic selection perspective. In my association with Toastmasters for a over a year, I found that most of the speeches given by the Toastmasters tend to be very preachy. Well I don't have anything against it per se, but how many of us practice what we preach.
So till now I had avoided giving such preachy speeches as far as possible because as I said in the beginning of the speech , "Say What You Did ! Do What You Said" has always been my principle.
But this time there was no escape since the Project requirements demanded that I preach !So rather than trying to inspire the audience to do something lofty which I myself have not achieved it, I choose to speak on how I completed the 10 speeches from the CC manual and what qualities a Toastmaster needs to have to achieve this feat.
I was not sure given the trend of speeches being presented for Project 10, whether my simple and sincere speech will be viewed favorably by the evaluators. But on my mentor's advice and encouragement , I decided to go ahead with this.
The rhetoric element "Can You ....? Yes You Can ! And So You Should!" which I repeated several times during my course of the speech was inspired by Barrack Obama's "Yes We Can!" refrain. And I was pleasantly suprised that on one occasion when I posed the rhetoric question "Toastmasters, can you commit to work hard ?", I received a resounding "Yes!" from the audience even before I coud say "Yes You Can !"
On the whole I got good appreciation from the evaluator and the audience.
]

Project 9 Speech - Sponsor a Girl Child

2009-09-02T22:18:00.013+05:30

[Showed the poster of a small girl saying "My Parent's Can't Send Me to School, Can You ?]

Her parents can't send her to school.
But You Can ! And I earnestly call upon you to do so.

Today I am going to talk about a project called "Nanhi Kali".
This project is doing a yeoman service in ensuring the education of underprivileged girl children.

In many parts of India, when a girl is born people mourn not celebrate! They consider them as huge economic burdens. They abandon them at birth. They marry them off as children. They don't see any point in educating them.

Thousands of girls are forced to dropout of schools because their families cannot afford it.
For every 10 girls who enroll in Std I, only 3 complete Std X.

Education for a girl child born in a poor family is still a pipe dream.
The Nanhi Kali project intends to change all this.
Nanhi Kali means "Little Buds". So friends here is your chance to transforms these budding girls to blooming flowers by joining hands with Nanhi Kali project.

How can you help?
Sponsor a girl child. Be her guardian.
Give her the assurance that no matter what trials her family faces, she will never have to drop out of school.
Your sponsorship will provide her with books, stationery and uniforms. It will also be used to train her teachers to create a conducive environment in her school.

You may ask what is the guarantee that my sponsorship money is well spent ?
It is a very valid question ! A project like this has to be run by trustworthy, effective and efficient people.
Nanhi Kali project is jointly managed by the Trusts created by two respected industrial houses - Mahindra & Mahindra and Dr. Reddy's Labs. These have the finest professionals in the development sector working with a sole objective to ensure that every girl child in the country can complete 10 years of formal quality education.

On what basis do they select the girls for sponsorship ?
The girls who are selected are normally the ones who are enrolled in government schools; they belong to the poorest sections of society; their parents are illiterate ; they are the eldest girl in the family and have many siblings; they come from communities where deplorable practices like female infanticide, early marriage etc. are prevalent.

Will you come to know about the girl you are sponsoring ?
Yes. You will receive a profile and a photograph of the child . You will also receive half yearly updates about her.
This is Lata, the child I sponsor and these are her progress reports which I have received over the years. [Showed the Photos and Reports].
It tells me about her academic performance, her extra-curricular activities, her health, her personality and her family conditions.

Ever since its inception in 1996, Nanhi Kali project has supported the education for more than 50,000 underprivileged children. But there is still a long way to go. So I sincerely urge each one of you to sponsor at least one child.

How much it will cost ? It costs Rs. 1800 per year. Just Rs 5, per day.
For you this could just mean forgoing a cup of coffee or walking an extra kilometer instead of using a transport.
But for this child [showed the poster again] this could mean an escape from being housebound; escape from being exploited as a maid or a child prostitute; escape from being married off early and possibly dying during childbirth!

Every moment, millions of underprivileged girl children are living with the hope that someday, some one would reach out to them with love to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.

And each one of you can be that special someone ? Support Nanhi Kali just at the price of a coffee a day !

[Distributed among the audience 1-page fact sheets about Nanhi Kali project which had details on how to send sponsorship money]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Date Delivered: Aug 29 2009

Objectives:

Persuade listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or to take some action.
Appeal to the audience's interests.
Use logic and emotion to support your position.
Avoid using notes

Time: Five to Seven minutes

Comments:
Readers of this blog post who would like to know more about Nanhi Kali Project may visit http://www.nanhikali.org/ for more details.
Information on how to make donations to this project :
For Indian Residents : http://www.nanhikali.org/donate/donateregister.aspx
For US Residents: http://www.nanhikali.org/nanhikali/nk_usa.aspx
]

Project 8 Speech - Wisdom, Wisdom Everywhere

2009-07-19T20:56:00.009+05:30

”Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. " These are the famous lines of Samuel Coleridge. However today's speech is not about drinking water scarcity. It is about acquiring wisdom.

Water is a basic necessity for your survival. It adds to years to your life.

Wisdom is the next level of necessity. It will add life to your years.

You can acquire wisdom from your teachers, friends, enemies, parents, strangers, animals. Almost from anybody.
You just need to be open enough to receive it.
But don't think only living things can teach you something. You can find your Gurus even in common day-to-day things.
One such lesson I learnt from thus LCD projector. I have seen it giving technical problems to the speakers. So I decided not to give a power point presentation.

I have brought my props. So let's get started

<Here I took out a currency note and asked one of the Toastmasters in the audience>
This is a thousand -rupee currency note. Suppose I say I will give it to you. Will you take it? Yes you will.
What if I fold it and give it to you? Will you still take it? Yes you will.
What if crumple it and throw it in a dustbin? Will you still take it? Yes you will.
It doesn't matter what I do to this money. It is still a thousand- rupee currency note. It still has its value.
Similarly so often in your lives, you will be crumpled, trampled, ill-treated, insulted, and yet, despite all that you will be still worth the same. Don't let such things lower your self-esteem. Hold yourself high!

Having held your self-esteem you need to be live in peace with the world. And to live in peace with the world, what better object can there to teach you that be other than this humble pencil.

This pencil can write many correct answers, write interesting stories, and draw beautiful pictures. But can it do it all alone? No, it needs a hand to write.
Similarly you will be doing great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding you. We call that hand God or a Supreme Power and for those who do not believe in God your own consciousness that always guides us.

Now and then, the pencil becomes blunt and can't write properly. So you must stop writing and sharpen it.

This makes the pencil suffer a little, but then, it becomes capable of writing again. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains, sorrows and setbacks, because they will make you a better person.

What if you make a mistake while writing?

The pencil will always allow you to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes and correct it. This means you must be open to accept your mistakes and correct them.

Snack break is still some time away. But let us learn something from a very common foodstuff.

Bananas! Believe me Bananas can teach you the meaning of life.
I have three of them here - A Rotten one, A Raw one and a Ripe one.

Rotten banana - Its life is gone. It is past. You did not utilize to the full. Now it is now too late!

Raw banana – This is the future. It is not ready yet. To do certain things you need to wait till the moment is right.Learn to be patient where you need to be. They say "Sabr ka fal meetha hota hai". If you are patient, the results will be sweet.

And the Ripe Banana? This is the present moment. Make the best use of it. Just learn how to gobble it up without fear or guilt.

So friends don’t you agree that there is a profound wisdom underlying common objects.
"Wisdom, Wisdom, everywhere,
In everything under the sun;
Wisdom, wisdom, everywhere,
You just need to seek and learn. "

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[Date delivered: July 18 2009

Objectives:

Select visual aids that are appropriate for your message and the audience
Use visual aids correctly with ease and confidence

Time: Five to Seven minutes

Comment:
This speech is based on several short pieces of writings by Paulo Coelho in the book "Like the Flowing River". I have posted a review of this book in my other blog "Bookworm Reads". It is really a very good read.

The thousand-rupee currency note part was based on the article -Who Would Like this Twenty-Dollar Bill ?
The pencil part was based on - The Story of the Pencil
The banana part was based on - Rome:Isabella returns from Nepal

]

Project 7 Speech - Electronic Voting Machine

2009-06-14T00:22:00.009+05:30

How many of you voted in the recent elections?
Conducting free and fair elections in our country, the world’s largest democracy is a Herculean task.
But once again we have done it successfully!
One of the major reasons for the success is the Electronic Voting Machines viz., EVMs.
EVMs did play a very major role in ensuring free and fair elections in a very effective and efficient manner.
Let me share with you some interesting facts to support my viewpoint.
For those of you who voted, these facts would reinforce your belief in our electoral system.
For those who did not vote, it would clarify some of your doubts about our electoral process and the EVMs.

Whenever a new technology is introduced, most of us are skeptical about it. So was the case with EVM too. There were lots of concerns about its reliability, integrity and security. Let me tell you how the process of electronic voting and the features of EVM addressed these concerns.

The first and foremost concern - Is EVM a tamper proof device?
Yes it is! I can neither change the software program embedded in its chip nor manipulate the data in its memory.

What if someone manages to pre-program the chip in one’s favor?
No! This won’t work because EVMs are allocated to polling stations in a random manner. As a programmer I will not know beforehand to which polling station a specific machine will be sent.

As a candidate how can I be sure that everything is OK with EVMs used in my constituency?
Before the polling begins the presiding officer will prove to the candidate’s agents, that the machine’s memory is blank and will also demonstrate the proper working of the device.

What if booth is captured while polling is going on? How can an EVM help here?
EVM as a device cannot eliminate booth capturing, but it minimizes the risk.
A vigilant polling officer, can press the "close" button on the EVM to prevent recording of any vote, if he sees intruders entering the polling station.
Assuming the booth gets captured, in the paper-based voting system the intruders will rapidly stamp hundreds of votes in their candidate’s favor within 5-10 minutes and run away before the police force arrives. But with EVM based voting, the machine will not allow them to cast more than 5 votes per minute. This means it will take 30 minutes to cast 150 votes. This gives police enough time to come and catch them.

Can EVMs work in a remote area where there is no power?
Absolutely! EVMs run on batteries and have no dependency on the power supply.
But what if the batteries get discharged?
The polled data in the EVM will remain intact even if the batteries get discharged fully!

You saw in these elections that all the results were declared in just half-a-day. I remember the days when it took at least 3 days for all the results to come in. It was the deployment of EVMs that drastically reduced the turn around time.

And now get ready for some more interesting facts and figures.
Do you know that more than 13 lakhs EVMs were deployed in the recent polls? Barring some minor isolated problems, they all worked successfully.
Do you know that the deployment of EVMs saved us nearly Rs 200 crores, as we avoided consuming nearly 10,000 tonnes of ballot paper! Consequently we have saved 2.4 lakh trees! Because each tonne of paper requires 24 trees to be cut down.

So EVMs helped our economy, environment and democracy!

Now for the best part. EVMs are indigenously designed and manufactured in India by BEL, Bangalore and ECIL, Hyderabad. Mr. S. Rangarajan, the electronics engineer in BEL, who headed the EVM development team, was also a very famous author of several Tamil science-fiction thrillers. He wrote under the pen name Sujatha. He once said, “EVM is one invention I shall be as proud of as my writings”.

We too must feel very proud of the way India has effectively and efficiently developed and deployed EVMs and demonstrated its commitment towards ensuring free and fair elections.

However feeling proud is not enough! EVMs on its own cannot ensure a successful democracy. We as responsible citizens of this country should make it a point to vote in each and every election! Let us all convince as many people we can to vote in every election and ensure a successful democracy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Date Delivered: June 13 2009

Objectives:

* Collect information about your topic from numerous sources
* Carefully support your points and opinions with specific facts, examples and illustrations gathered through research.

Time: Five to Seven Minutes

Comment:
Most of the facts and figures presented in the speech are sourced from the website of Election Commision of India and internet archives of many leading newspapers of India.
An ad display in HDFC Bank requesting its customers to opt for receiving account statements through e-mail instead of paper statements, highlighted the fact that 24 trees are cut down to manufacture 1 tonne of paper. I used this information in this speech to highlight the fact that savings of 10,000 tonnes of ballot paper resulted in preventing 2.4 lakhs of trees from being cut down]

Project 6 Speech - Michael's Story

2009-05-20T17:53:00.006+05:30

Today I am going to tell you a story. Just a simple story about a young man called Michael.

Michael was madly in love with a beautiful young lady Michelle. Infatuated by her, he spent all his time trying to woo her. “Michelle, my jewel”, he would say, “I love you! Can’t you see, what you mean to me? I’ll always be true so please love me too”.

Michael’s persistence bore fruit. They got married. But friends, marriage is not a bed of roses. Both the husband and the wife must work hard to make it a success. Michael worked hard to earn money. Michelle too worked hard. Worked hard to blow up Michael’s hard earned money!

And then one day Michelle wanted a diamond ring, which poor Michael could not afford. He tried to talk her out of it. “Michelle, my jewel. Is this our real need now? Why don’t you wish for some simple pleasures in life which requires little money”? Michelle got angry and walked out of the room. Thus seeds of discord were now sown in their happy married life. Michelle started nagging Michael everyday for the diamond ring.

Then one day Michael lost patience. “True, I am not able to get you a diamond ring. But I have been a very considerate and loving husband. I am not demanding as a man, why don’t you love me for what I am. If you are stubborn, I am afraid we will fall apart. Life is very short and there is no time for fighting, my dear. Either we can either work it out or say good bye”.

Next day Michelle left Michael. Michael was heart-broken for he still loved Michelle very much. As time went by Michael lost interest in life. He started drinking to forget his sorrows. He was fired from his job. His debts skyrocketed .He was surrounded with troubles.

He called on his friend and unburdened his sorrows. “ Only the other day all my troubles seemed so far away, now it looks they are here to stay. Oh why she had to go? I said something wrong. Oh I long for those days when we were so happy! Help me if you can I am feeling down. And I do appreciate you being around. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won’t you please help me?”

The friend took Michael to a life coach. The coach said, “You got no cash, got no style, got no girl to make you smile. But don’t worry be happy! Whenever you worry you come and meet me, I will make you happy”. But inspite of repeated visits to the coach Michael’s worries never ceased. But the coach became richer and happier at Michael’s expense.

Finally Michael decided to end his life. He was about to swallow an overdose of sleeping pills. At that moment he heard a sermon in the radio.
“Pray to God to grant you serenity to accept things you cannot change.
Pray that he grants you courage to change the things you can.
Ask him to teach you how to accept hardships as the pathway to peace.
Trust that he will make all things right for you.
If you surrender to his will you will be a happier man!”

This stopped Michael. He started praying everyday and tried his best to the teachings of the sermon. Within few months his life changed for better. He had given up alcohol; He had got back his job; He had paid off all his debts. And then he met a woman who was very understanding, considerate and was a great source of strength and support to him. He lived happily and peacefully with her for the rest of his life.
Friends, that woman was none other than Michelle who had realized her shortcomings and had turned over a new leaf.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Date Delivered : May 16 2009
Objectives:

Use voice volume, pitch, rate and quality to reflect and add meaning and interest to your message.
Use pauses to enhance your message.
Use vocal variety smoothly and naturally.

Time : Five to Seven minutes

Comment:
The story narrated above in this project speech is my first attempt at story writing. Story seems pretty mundane, a typical soap opera . But it gave me ample opportunity to exhibit a range of vocal variety expressing love, firmness, anger, sadness etc.
My creativity, if I may say so was in stringing together the lyrical content of several popular songs into the story. The dialogs in this speech were inspired by the songs of

The Beatles viz; Michelle, Love Me Do, Can't Buy Me Love, We Can Work it Out, Yesterday and Help
Lobo - Love Me For What I Am
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy

The sermon heard by Michael in the radio is based on the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr.
]

Project 5 Speech - Ragging : A Learning Experience

2009-04-04T23:12:00.006+05:30

RAGGING! It is back in the news again. A medical student beaten to death. An engineering student tried to commit suicide! Does ragging always leads to such unfortunate incidents? Let me go back in time by 30 years and tell you how I was ragged and the lessons I learned from it.

As a 17 year-old I joined NITK Surathkal. I was very happy in getting admission to such a prestigious engineering college. But at the same time I was also worried about getting ragged. Then I thought that it was a part and parcel of college life. So I mentally prepared myself for the worst, while hoping for the best.

On the very first day I got a message from the second year students to come to their hostel. There was no question of disobeying their summons. I was nervous but then I thought "Chalo Jo Hoga Dekha Jaayega (let me face it come what may)" and put up a bold front and started walking towards their hostel. As I entered their hostel, I saw the students running away from me in all possible directions. I even saw one fellow rushing into the rest room and shutting himself up. I was wondering what was happening. It seems seeing my big built and the confident style of walking they thought I was a warden who was coming to catch them red-handed ragging the students. So the lesson here is - Appear confident outwardly even if inwardly you are feeling uneasy!

Now let me tell you about three specific instances when I got ragged by seniors. There is a common thread underlying these instances.

I was asked to climb on top of the almirah and jump down from there. I had never done such acrobatics in my life. I being fat and bulky was not at all confident of doing it. I made some half-hearted unsuccessful attempts and then pleaded with them, “Sir, I can’t do it. Please excuse me.” They gave me such a scolding that I was scared out of my wits. And that motivated me to immediately climb to the top and jump down successfully.

On another occasion I was asked to dance. I was feeling very shy and could only manage to do some hesitant steps. Seeing this the seniors yelled, "Hey Fatso! You better dance properly other wise....". At that moment something triggered off in me. I lost all my shyness and broke into what I called as elephant dance. Seeing this innovative dance that suited my bulk, everybody rolled with laughter and really enjoyed it.

In yet another incident I was shown a full-length poster of a stunningly beautiful young lady with a gorgeous figure and was asked “Suppose she walks into your room and you are all alone, what you will do?”. This question had been earlier asked to some other freshers also. One of them had said, “I will tell her to go out’, while another person had said, “I will go out”. When my turn came I gave a spontaneous reply "I will grab the opportunity!". They were really impressed by my quick and witty reply, said I was a smart alec and shook hands with me.

What is the common thread underlying these three incidents that I just talked about? Remember I was under pressure. The lesson here is - A right amount of pressure could bring out the hidden potential in you. You will be able to do things that you never realized that you were capable of.

But not everything was hunky dory. Towards the end of the ragging season, some seniors asked me to come over to their place. But I just ignored them. I had become overconfident and was sure they won’t do anything. My refusal hurt their ego. So they caught me and ragged me thoroughly. Though I was not harmed physically, by the time I was let-off I was really tired and drained out. So what is the takeaway here? Don’t become overconfident; you might get into trouble.

Ragging was a real learning experience for me. I learnt several lessons that were helpful to me in my career.
I learnt to be mentally prepared to face any difficulty, trouble or eventuality. If you are prepared for the worst, you will find that the things actually turn out to be better than what you had imagined.
I learnt that you have to appear confident even if you are not sure about something. This will help you in negotiations, sales presentations and if you are an entrepreneur impressing the venture capitalists. But I also learnt that one should avoid becoming overconfident.
I learnt that an optimum amount of stress brings out the best in you. If you set challenging goals for yourself you will be motivated to achieve them. Achieving such goals can boost your confidence. If you aim for stars, you will at least climb Mt. Everest!

Here I would like to make it very clear that I am totally against ragging which devastates the victim and causes death, suicide or mental imbalance. We were lucky in NITK, Surathkal. Our seniors could very well gauge the endurance limit of each fresher and they never exceeded that limit. So when I look back, I can say on the whole, ragging did benefit me.

Having heard me, what are your views on ragging? Remember that the bright sun has sunspots and the dark clouds have silver linings. Should we allow a lightweight ragging that can be a learning experience or should we rather throw out the baby with the bathwater by totally banning the practice of ragging?
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[Date Delivered : April 4, 2009
Objective:

Use stance, movement, gestures, facial expressions and eye contact to express your message and achieve your speech's purpose.
Make your body language smooth and natural

Time allotted : Five to Seven minutes

Comment:
This speech gave me ample opportunity use body language to convey vividly the experience I was narrating. Here are the some of the portions in my speech where I effectively used the body language :

"...put up a bold front and started walking towards their hostel. As I entered their hostel, I saw the students running away from me in all possible directions. I even saw one fellow rushing into the rest room and shutting himself up"
"I made some half-hearted unsuccessful attempts and then pleaded with them..."
"I lost all my shyness and broke into what I called as elephant dance"
"...by the time I was let-off I was really tired and drained out."
"I will grab the opportunity!".
"If you aim for stars, you will at least climb Mt. Everest!"
"..should we rather throw out the baby with the bathwater by totally banning the practice of ragging?"

]

Project 4 Speech - Daffodils

2009-03-02T13:58:00.009+05:30

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high over vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;”
These lines of Wordsworth have motivated me to speak about Daffodils today. Till recently Daffodils were an arcane subject for me. Other than the fact that a Daffodil is a kind of flower, I hardly knew anything else about it. But I felt that, being a member of Daffodils Toastmasters club I definitely needed to learn more about Daffodil the flower. Today I will share with all of you what I learnt about daffodils.

So let me start with a story. Narcissus, a character in Greek mythology, was very much in love with himself. You might have heard about Narcissus syndrome. Once he saw his reflection in water. He stood their stunned, stupified and spellbound admiring at it for a long long time, till he passed away. It is said that later Daffodils bloomed on that spot. That’s the reason the botanical name for Daffodils is Narcissus.

Daffodils are delightful, gorgeous flowers with a sweet fragrance. They have inspired many poets to write about them. In Hindi they are called Nargis. In several old Hindi film songs, the beauty and charm of the heroines are compared to that of Nargis i.e. Daffodils. I can recollect a couple of them here - “Kisi Nargisi Nazar ko Dil Denge Hum” (I will loose my heart to someone wiho gazes like a Daffodil) and “Aye Nargis – E- Mastana, Bus Itni Shikayat Hai” (O Merry Daffodil, I have just one complaint!).

Daffodils were first grown in second century B.C., near Mediterranean Sea. Egyptians used them in funerals to honor their dead. Romans grew them in greenhouses to decorate their homes. By early nineteenth century around the time Wordsworth wrote the famous poem on Daffodils, they had become very popular in Europe, Britain and America. They were grown in almost in all the homes and meadows.

Daffodils are generally golden yellow in color. But some varieties may have different shades of yellows, golds and whites. Daffodil plants are about 2 feet tall with 5-inch blooms. They are poisonous, so they escape being eaten by pests. Their stems are thin and triangular in crossection. This shape enables them to twist and turn easily. So when the wind blows over them, it looks as if the daffodils are dancing. They present a spectacular sight, which inspired Wordsworth to write
“Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

Shelly wrote, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”. After a dull cold winter, the first flowers to bloom and lead you into the colorful spring are Daffodils. In a way they are very similar to a Toastmasters club. Just like Daffodils, the Toastmasters club leads you from winter of nervousness and stage fright to the spring of public speaking excellence. There is one more similarity between Daffodils and Toastmasters clubs. A Daffodil flower looks like a loudspeaker of a vintage record player. It looks as if it is urging you to shed your inhibition and speak out your views, your thoughts and your experiences that are recorded within you. In my opinion the founders could not have chosen a better name for our club.

I have heard people say that they enjoy and have more fun in Daffodils Toastmasters club as compared to other clubs. So here is a tribute to the jovial spirit of all Daffodilites. These lines are again by Wordsworth, slightly modified by me:
“The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
I could not but be merry, [Original: A poet could not but be gay]
In such a jocund company:
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And Dances with the daffodils”
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[Date Delivered: 28 February 2009
Objective:

Select the right words and sentence structure to communicate your ideas clearly, accurately and vividly.
Use rhetorical devices to enhance and emphasize ideas.
Eliminate jargon and unnecessary words. Use correct grammar.

Time Allotted: Five to seven minutes.

Links:

The Complete Poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" at Poemhunters.com
Video on Dancing Daffodils at YouTube.com

]

Theme of the Day Speech - 1

2009-01-27T22:14:00.006+05:30

Theme :
"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear" - George Orwell

This quote is from the Preface of the George Orwell's well known book 'The Animal Farm". This book written in 1945 is a satire on Stalin's policies in USSR. Ironically the British government edited out this preface since it did not want to antagonize USSR , its ally in World War II.

All of us are fortunate to be born in India where most of the time we can exercise our freedom of speech without the fear of getting tortured or executed.
However Liberty does not mean character assassination, abusing a person, putting down a person. And I don't think Orwell meant it this way. I would interpret his statement as Liberty being a right to give a constructive feedback to people without any fear of victimisation.

Here in Toastmasters club each and every member, whether a new member or a long time member, young man or an elderly gentleman, an undergraduate student or a Ph.D, an unemployed person or a highly successful professional is treated equally and has a complete liberty to give the gift of feedback to any of its members. And fortunately we toastmasters really want to hear the feedback so that we can make progress towards being excellent communicators and leaders. We have well defined process to achieve this.
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[This is an extract from my first speech as a Toastmaster of the Day. It was delivered on Jan 24 2009]

Project 3 Speech : The Last Lecture

2009-01-17T22:59:00.004+05:30

A lady used to introduce her young son to people like this. She would say, “This is my son. He is a doctor. But not the kind who helps people. He is a PhD”. But this young proved his mother wrong. Many years later he inspired thousands of people across the globe by helping them to handle their problems with courage and to enjoy their lives to it’s fullest. He achieved this by giving just one lecture, by writing just one book and in just one year’s time – the last year of his life. He was Prof. Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Today I am going to talk about his Last Lecture and try and get you interested enough to watch it on the Internet.

Many US universities ask their professors to deliver a so-called “Last Lecture”. Speakers need to imagine that it will be their last lecture before they die and must talk about what matters to them most. When Randy gave such a lecture he was already diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer and had been given a maximum of six months to live.

But the way he cheerfully delivered the lecture, you have to see it to believe it. He first announced as a matter of fact that he was dying of illness and he joked, “ We cannot change the card we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you”. He then went on to talk about
· His childhood dreams and how he achieved them.
· People who helped him to achieve his dreams
· His values – honesty, integrity and gratitude.
· The lessons he learnt in his life.
The dying professor’s lecture was all about how to make most out of one’s life. It was delivered with such a terrific sense of humor, that it kept the audience laughing and applauding all along.

This lecture’s video was made available on the internet and over 10 million people have viewed it till date. It has made a profound impact on most of the viewers. Many of them said that after watching the lecture they stopped complaining about trivial matters, indulging in self-pity and feel motivated to take concrete actions to make things better for them. Many said that the lecture has prompted them to pay more attention to their families. Parents said that the lecture has made them realize the need for encouraging creativity in their children. For many terminally ill patients this lecture was a lesson in facing death with courage and making the best use of the remaining life.

When I watched this lecture I felt that apart from its inspirational value it could also be an excellent educational material for the Toastmasters. If you watch this lecture you will come to know
· How to communicate the scope of your speech
· How to speak enthusiastically with a sense of humor
· How to use body language and visual aids
· How to lend a personal touch to your speech
· How to conclude strongly and make a lasting impact on the audience

You will find this lecture very helpful in preparing and delivering your project speeches.
So I urge each one of you to visit the site www.thelastlecture.com and watch the video of the lecture, which is a free, download. I also suggest an educational session where we watch this video together and have an experienced Toastmaster comment on it. If you want to know more about Randy’s personal and professional life, I would strongly recommend reading his book “The Last Lecture”. It was a No.1 Best seller.

Randy passed away last July. He leaves behind his wife and 3 small kids. Randy said that his last lecture and his book were meant only for his kids. He wanted to leave a message for them to understand once they grew up. In his book’s introduction Randy says “Under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children. If I were a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am a lecturer. So I lectured”.

Randy’ lecture might have meant only for his kids. But it also lent a healing touch of optimism and pragmatism for thousands of troubled souls. No wonder his close friends used to pull his leg and call him “St. Randy of Pittsburgh”!
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[Date Delivered: 17 January 2009

Objective:

Select a speech topic and determine its general and specific purposes
Organize the speech in a manner that best achieves those purposes
Ensure the beginning, body and conclusion reinforce the purposes
Project sincerity and conviction and control any nervousness you may feel
Strive not to use notes

Time Alloted: Five to Seven minutes]

Project 2 Speech : Mobile Phones - The Early Days

2009-01-17T10:20:00.004+05:30

We take many things in our life for granted. One such thing is the mobile phone. It has become a part and parcel of our lives, almost an extension to our hands and ears. And yet we take it for granted! Perhaps if we could learn something about how it evolved we would appreciate it better. So today I am going to talk about the history of mobile phones.

By 1920s, telephones and radios had become popular means of communication. Telephones enabled one-to-one, two-way communication through electric wires. Radio communication was mainly one-to-many, one-way through wireless medium. Both the telephone and the radio were not portable enough to be carried around and could be used only from a fixed location.

But people wanted to listen to their favorite radio programs even when they were on move. This led to car radios and portable transistors. Now they wanted to use telephones also on the move. This was almost impossible using wired communication systems. You can’t just walk or drive around in the city with a telephone and a long wire trailing behind you. So they invented hand-held walkie-talkies that used radio technology. A conventional radio just had a receiver. But a walkie-talkie had both a transmitter and a receiver. This made one-to-one, two-way conversation possible while on move.

But the walkie-talkies could operate only within a range of 1.5 kms. For longer ranges it required a more powerful and hence bulkier transmitter to be carried around. Now this would have been fine for weightlifters but was certainly not for everyone else. Hence they installed these huge transmitters weighing nearly 40 kilograms in cars. This enabled car-to-car communication while on move. A single central radio tower in the city coordinated the communication up to a range of 80 kilometers.

And then someone had a bright idea to connect car phone to land phone calls. This was the first Mobile Telephone system.

However the problem was far from over. Firstly, how do you provide long-range connectivity to people walking around without expecting them to carry bulky mobile transmitters? Secondly, the mobile phone operators were authorized to use just around 400 channels. Therefore only 400 calls were possible at one time. This was certainly not enough for a big city.

Introduction of cellular concept solved both these problems. The city was divided into small cells of about an area of 25 square kilometers each. Instead of a single central tower for the entire city, each cell had its own base station. All the base stations in the city formed a wireless network to relay the calls to longer distances. So the mobile phone transmitters needed to be just powerful enough for its transmission to reach its nearest base station. This reduced the size of mobile phones and made them portable.

Cellular concept enabled reuse of channels. The available channels were allocated to the cells in such a manner that two adjacent cells did not have any channel in common. But non-adjacent cells could reuse the channels without any signal interference. This method enabled much more people to talk simultaneously.

This was the birth of first generation cell phones in early 1980s. Second-generation technologies like TDMA, CDMA increased the capacity of the cell phones to handle thousands of simultaneous calls.

You very well know what today’s cell phones are capable of. The next generation phones will have high quality audio /video content being transferred at high broadband speeds. We will have features like video chatting, mobile TV, high-definition video TV content, Digital Video Broadcasting. There is lot more to look forward to. As Sharukh Khan says in Om Shanti Om, “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!(Show is not over yet !)”
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[Date Delivered : December 20, 2008
Objective:

Select an appropriate outline which allows listeners to easily follow and understand your speech
Make your message clear, with supporting material directly contributing to that message
Use appropriate transitions when moving from one idea to another
Create a strong opening and conclusion

Time Alloted : Five to Seven minutes]

Project 1 Speech - Cherished Childhood Moments

2009-01-17T09:47:00.005+05:30

William Shakespeare wrote - “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;” I made my entry 45 years ago. My grandma was very happy and excited. She barged into her elder brother’s room and conveyed the good news with all enthusiasm. My grand uncle was deeply engrossed in repairing his radio set. He was a slightly capricious old man. Annoyed at being disturbed he muttered “ That is the only thing which is lacking!” He then suddenly picked up the radio set and smashed it on the ground. So, the news of my birth was literally breaking news!

I was a chubby and healthy baby. A well-known baby food company wanted me to model for their product. But my superstitious grandma refused fearing an evil eye. So my modeling career was aborted and I missed the chance of being well known throughout India as Glaxo baby. Many years later, I did get a chance again and I grabbed it. I did modeling for 5 years. And I was pretty successful at it. I can see some disbelieving looks among you. Well actually I was doing mathematical modeling, which got me a PhD from IIT-Madras.

As a kid I was dangerously naughty. Once my uncle gave me a cricket bat with high hopes that I will become another Nawab of Pataudi, India’s hottest cricket star in those days. Today he is probably better known as Saif Ali Khan’s father. I went out to play, when I saw our cook who was sitting down and grinding masalas. I gave her a nice hard whack on her head with the bat. I may have been around 3 years that time but I vaguely remember that poor old lady having ice packs on her head and emitting painful groans at regular intervals. The law of karma made me pay for this act 15 years later. I was playing cricket in my college, NITK-Surathkal. I was batting. I received a bouncer. The ball avoided my bat and preferred to meet my spectacles instead. I got a deep cut below my eye. That ended my cricketing days.

I grew up in Laloo Prasad Yadav’s state – Bihar! So I picked up Hindi very naturally and was better it than my mother tongue, Tamil. But I was not at all fluent in English. Once I met a very distinguished old Englishman. He was a former captain of England cricket team. He was Sir Leonard Hutton. He signed my autograph book and asked me something. I just blinked. I could not follow his accent at all. I wanted him to repeat the question. I said, “Hum samjhe nahin. Phir se boliye! “(I don’t understand. Could you please repeat?). And now it was Sir Leonard who blinked. After this incident my dad put me to a better school to improve my English.

After finishing my school, I did B.E. from NITK-Surathkal and followed it up with an M.Tech from IIT-Madras. In 1986, I began my career with TVS-Motor Company as an R&D Engineer.

During 20 years of my career, I have made several technical presentations; presented papers in conferences; conducted training sessions. But I know that I have a long way to go as a speaker. And that’s why I have joined Toastmasters Club to improve my speaking skills and help others to do the same. So let us all work together, learn from each other and become excellent speakers.
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[This is the first prepared speech (of 4 to 6 minutes duration) also called Ice Breaker speech which new members of a toast master's club delivers. It is generally about introducing themselves. The objective of the speech is to - 1) Begin speaking before an audience; 2) To discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention.
I delivered this speech on November 9, 2008]