siGnature - Eloquence Special!

ENLIGHTENMENT

FEARLESS LEADER ;

FEAR- NOT LEADER Go on, Dare to see beyond, Envision to do more & Dream to make historyPAGE 20

ENTERTAINMENT

ROMANTIC

COMMUNICATIONSGet Rejected in Style! PAGE 65

EXCELLENCE

MY TRYST WITH

EVALUATIONMy Journey to

the District Level

PAGE 46

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Division G Contest - Eloquence 2012

2 • SIGNATURE • EXPRESS YOURSELF

SIGNATURE • ELOQUENCE SPECIAL EDITION • 3

FEATURES05 International Presidents Message 07 District Team’s Address

ELOQUENCE12 Team Eloquence and Team Division G

ENLIGHTENMENT16 The Roving Ambassador DTM Deepak Menon 17 Are you an Aeschines or a Demosthenes? DTM Deepak Justin

18 Mentoring Matters DTM Mike Raffety

19 Enlightenment Continues

30 SPEECHES CLOSE TO THE HEART

EXCELLENCE 43 Out of this World @ Orlando DTM Chendil Kumar 44 D82. The No. 1 District in the World - DTM Nina John

45 Creating the best volunteering Organisation -DTM Saro Velrajan

49 WRITE A STORY CONTEST

ENTERTAINMENT 65 Romantic Communication DTM Kartikeyan Srinivasan

68 Open Your Eyes TM C T Thomas.


Editor-in-ChiefTM Harini Srinivasan

Sub-EditorsTM Suketh Kumar Chinchela

TM Ramprasad Gopalakrishnan

Guidance CommitteeDTM Sastharam Ravendran

DTM Kartikeyan Srinivasan

FROM THE EDITORToastmasters, they say, is a platform to improve one’s communication and leadership

skills. But I don’t agree. For me, this is a platform to learn anything and everything.! And I

learnt loads and bundles in the last one month – thanks to siGnature!

“Signature” – the word symbolizes individuality and uniqueness. We started this maga-

zine to symbolize Division G – that is siGnature! Being the editor of a Unique Edition or a

Unique magazine – makes you feel Unique – but you have a name to live up to and exceed

the expectations! :) This version of siGnature is aimed at helping people become better

writers, story tellers, Toastmasters or even better human beings!

A month ago, when I walked up like a child and asked “Can I please be the editor of this

magazine?” – a few felt I had taken away the leadership opportunities of the younger

ones. And my learning started right then and there! I was new to this whole arena of

magazine-making and had the pressure to live up to the “experienced person” image.

I had absolutely no idea of what should be done! But why worry when “There is always

help given in Toastmasters for those who ask for it”. My mentor, that poor man who gets

dragged into everything I do, got dragged here as well! And there was a surprise! There

was one more person, who I just caught on a casual chat, who went out of his way to

teach me new things – and teach me patiently! DTM Kartikeyan Srinivasan and DTM

Sastharam Ravendran – My bows! THANK YOU!

There was this one other little guy TM Suketh who was the best remote support system for

me. Sitting at VIT – he was one extremely helpful guy doing all that was needed and more.

This magazine wouldn’t have been possible without you Suketh – Thanks!

In the past one month, I learnt the art of talking to people, persuading people to help out/

write articles but at the same time not cross the lines! A few told me that I was the epitome

of patience (believe me- I am everything but that!), a few thought I was a bug on the wall,

a few others gave me the articles as though they were waiting to be asked for! Different

people, different experiences and different learnings! I made a few friends – some who

can Educate me, some who Excel who I can look upto and learn from and some others –

knowing whom is sheer pleasure & Entertainment!

Through the journey, what inspired me the most and continues to awe me is for most of

the Toastmasters in this magazine, we may not be a very familiar figure ot entity. But when

asked whether they could contribute, eagerly jumped on the situation and happily raise

the magazine’s standards by the day!

“siGnature” gave us the freedom to unleash the creativity and bring in more variety. And

we have done our best to give you a good experience!

Go on, Read – BE ENTERTAINED, GET ENLIGHTENED & START EXCELLING!

HAPPY ELOQUENCE! HAPPY READING! :)

TM Harini Srinivasan


September 23rd, 2012Dear Division Governor Kartikeyan Srinivasan

Congratulations on your Division G Conference and special congratulations that you have chartered 5 new clubs in the first quarter of the term. I am sure more are on the way to be chartered.

The conference is an event where you can help Toastmasters enhance their club experiences. Members are inspired to deliver manual speeches, give and receive speech evaluations, take on club meeting roles and grow as Toastmasters. When members are satisfied, they stay with our organization.

Each of us has grown through our experiences in Toastmasters. We have the opportunity to share our story and the benefits with our friends and acquaintances. As your International President, I have set a challenge for each of us to join me in inviting our friends and acquaintances to visit a Toastmasters club and be part of the Toastmasters movement.

In a profit-oriented organization, the shareholders are responsible for the growth of the organization; in a non-profit orga-nization like Toastmasters International, we as members are responsible for the growth of the organization – we determine our future.

When each of us recruits one new member, the magic formula of 1+1 will double our organization’s membership.

Our current global membership is close to 300,000; the 1+1 formula will help us fulfill our mission by sharing with even more members the benefits of Toastmasters’ communication and leadership programs. As the saying goes: “ Where energy flows, attention goes. ”

• LetusputourenergytobuildourexistingClubsandnewclubsandbyinvitingourfriendstojoinaclub• Letusdevoteourenergytomakingourorganizationmorevibrantthanever• LetustogetherigniteourpassioninToastmasterswhereleadersaremade!

Toastmasters:WhereLeadersAreMadeYours sincerely,

JohnLau,DTMInternational President 2012-2013Toastmasters International

The International President Writes...

John Lau, DTM, of Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, is a dedicated Toastmaster for the past 22 years and is currently the International President for 2012-13.

DTM JOHN LAU


“Eloquence”- it’s the one elusive quality all of us are looking for when we join Toastmasters- to become great speakers. But, as one of our clubs says, “Toastmasters is not a forum for great speakers, but for ordinary people to become great.”

The guests who join to ‘speak better’ find the gift of eloquence helps them become better individuals and leaders.

Division G set a scorching pace in terms of educational and leadership goals last year under the leadership of Div. Gov. Saro Velrajan, and I am sure Div. Gov. Kartik Srinivasan will hold the flag high this year, too. The division has already had several events, and the conference promises to deliver another memorable event.

One hallmark of Division G has been its willingness to hold demo meets all over Chennai and beyond, to ensure the Toastmasters movement spreads far and wide. The fact that every demo meet has Toastmaster members of varying degrees of seniority, and the fact that it draws members from across all the three divisions of Toastmasters in Chennai is truly heart-warming.

I wish Division G all the best in its march to glory, and look forward to the creation of many more leaders, with titles or without them.With warm regards,Nina John, DTMDistrict Governor

District Governor’s Address

Nina John, DTM is a Founder Member of the 1st club of Chennai, the first Distinguished Toastmaster in Tamil Nadu and, has held every possible leadership role - President, AG, Div G, LGET and now DG!

DTM NINA JOHN

DTM Nina John, LGET of District 82 (2011-2012)

was awarded the “Excellence in Education & Training” Award at the International Conference

held in Orlando. This award is for successfully

leading the team to meet and exceed its education

and training goals for the year.

Division G Salutes your contribution, and we

wish you many more laurels in the future!

Division G is here to support you for reaching

greater heights as the District Governor.


I haveaconfessiontomake!!!What’sapersonlikemedoinghandlingtheaffairsof Dist82oneducationandtraining?Everykid I speak to at Toastmasters seems to have a score nothing less than 90%.Every one seems so well read and knowledge-able.

Icaninfertwothingsoutof theseinteractions.Great!!!Theyareallwellreadandknowalmosteverything.OOFThanks!!!My task is easier. The second thought is: They are all well read and know everything. Better be well informed and read up all needed toastmaster info.

Lifeatthehelmof Toastmastereducationalaffairsisnoteasy!!!!ThesefeelingweresoothedandcooledwhenIreachedtheshores of Orlando for the toastmasters’ International conference .I was anxious and had gone through the Educational mate-rial given to me.

The sessions started on a good note. The Toastmasters were then divided into groups and given topics varying from Marketing, starting of clubs, quality mentoring, how to run a conference etc.What emerged out these interactions was simply superb. Its then I realised experience matters. Every time I spoke, TM’s lis-tenedwithattention.Itwasduetothefact,ourexperiencesatDist82werevaluableandthingstheyhadnotexperiencedorpractised before.

When leaders from other districts spoke, I listened, learnt and emerged better. Our practises were unique while their practises weredifferent.Theamalgamationsof theseendedupbenefittingtheLeadersof eachdistrict.Itwasalmostlikeavirus(whichwas welcome) and we drank up on these information.

Sit back and think for a moment Toastmasters. At a different scale don’t these things happen at your clubs? We haveToastmasterswhogivespeechesonsay“Theneedformobiles”andhowithascontributedtoourreducedspaces.Great!!!Thenwe have an experienced toastmaster who speaks on the good old days of writing letters and how he cherishes some of the letters even today.

If you had planned to call your parents today, I am sure you will hang up the phone and instead visit them. Imagine the Joy on their faces. Sometimes when you are too busy to make it, you will use technology to give them a call. An amalgamation of experience and practises.

Education to me is observing, listening and learning from these practises. Each one of you joined Toastmasters with a dif-ferent purpose. Some of us joined to become better speakers, some to gain confidence or some simply to improve their CV.While each of your purpose is meaningful, are you emerging a better person in these interactions and in the journey that you aremaking?

The good thing is, Toastmasters enables us in its unique way to become better leaders and speakers because you came to become better and you will be better and nothing less.

LGET’s Address

Kumaran Pethi, DTM is one of the most loved and respected Toastmasters from Bangalore. He was the Co-chair of Ova-tion 2008 and Conf. Chair of Ovation 2011 at Mysore.

DTM KUMARAN PETHI


Toastmasters International has re-branded itself with a new focus on the Member ExperienceandonLeadership.Thesearetwoof thepointsthatwerestressed

attherecentlyconcludedInternationalConventioninOrlando,Florida. Our challenge now is to improve and strengthen our own clubs, focus on giving the

member the best value, and grow the movement of Toastmasters in our district. We must develop more clubs throughout, and also pay particular attention to retaining the clubs and members we have. We must also focus on training our club officers so they can effectively serve their members, promote the members to complete their educational projects, and work towards the Distinguished Club Programmes as set out by Toastmasters International. Through this, achieving distinguished district status is one of our major goals. The first conference of division G is an important event, not only for the opportunities for networking and growth, but also as it sets the standard for the future conferences and activities in the division and the district. With the tremendous talent in the membership, it has the potential to be an excellent event, where the educational programmes can help in developing high quality professionals. I am confident that under the inspired leadership of your team of office bearers, the conference will draw in many members, develop the skills of existing members and our movement will continue to thrive. I wish you all the very best in the year ahead, and assure you of my full support for your activities. With best regards. Yusuf JeevunjeeLt.Gov.Marketing,

LGM’s AddressYusuf Jeevunjee was the first LGM of our district more than 7 years ago. He was the Conference Chair of Ovation 2009 in Sri Lanka.

TM YUSUF JEEVUNJEE

New Members Added from July 2012 - September 2012

TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club - 31TCS Maitree Insurance Club - 19Chennai Toastmasters Club - 17VIT Toastmasters International Chapter - 16Dow IEC Toastmasters - 14CAT EDCI Toastmasters - 7Clima VIT Toastmasters - 7Brisa VIT Toastmasters - 6Shell Chennai Toastmasters Club - 6Amazon Chennai Toastmasters Club - 5Ford Chennai Toastmasters Club - 5Verizon Toastmasters Club - 2


Accountants do not die they only loose balance. I learnt the art of selling at Toastmasters.

Being an Accountant, a bean counter by profession never thought I could sell even a comb. However, upon joining Toastmasters, we had no option other than sell toast-master membership to the public to set up the second community club in the city... withthreeclubswewouldgetanAreastatus,aBIGDEAL10yearsago.During the feedback session from the public, the usual question of “how was the meeting?”wouldbeasked,andthenaturalanswerwouldbe“great!”.Thesecondquestionis“howaboutenjoyingiteveryweek”, and thenatural answer is“good idea”.The thirdquestion is“howabout joining?”Havinggiven twoverypositiveanswers, no one will dare to say negatively. A signed application would be collected Name and Mobile Number immediately. Then regular phone calls till he/she takes up membership or changes the mobile number :) Ilearnttheimportanceof closingof asaleratherthankeepontalkingabouttheproduct/services..Insixmonths,wehad18newmembersandtheyhadabsolutelynoideaastowhatisToastmasters!Nowmostof themareactiveinToastmastersinIndiaand abroad. In fact one of our members Ajay Ramdoss is an Area Governor in Melbourne, AustraliaTodayIcanselladozencombstoyourDivisionGovernorKartik-THANKYOU,TOASTMASTERS!

District Treasurer’s Address

TM ABRAHAM zACHARIAH

It just seems yesterday that Tamilnadu hosted its first ever Division Conference - COMMQUEST2008-09whenKeralawasapartof DivisionG. Thegrowthof

toastmasters is evident as we moved on from less than 300 members to nearly 1000 members today. The flavor of Division G is still intact, despite so many changes and divisions. Personally, the journey in Toastmasters has been great for me as I entered the contest arena as an amateur who had no idea what was going on. I had no idea thatIwascontestingintheEvaluationContestof Reverberations2008(India(inclusiveof Division41)andSriLanka)alongwith stalwarts like DTM Punita Singh, and when I won the third place in the District Evaluations, it seemed like a dream. Contesting has a way of elevating your career. It was not just winning the contest that mattered, but the resultant confidence in handling events, managing people and driving for results – I cannot put it in words.Toastmasters give you so much of confidence. This confidence has helped me carve a progressive career, has helped me handle conflicts, lead different teams and emerge stronger. The simple reason is that I have learnt and evolved by being a part of a non-profit organization wherein we come together, learn together and grow together just because we believe in it.I am very happy to see so many new clubs, new contestants and new role players. This is the essence of Toastmasters – take up roles with passion – the resultant effect in your individual careers is something that you will cherish for a lifetime. Best WishestoDivisionG!!!Keeprocking!!!

District Secretary’s Address

DTM LALITHA GIRIDHAR


EDGE

The London Olympics was just round the corner; let’s jog our memorythrough some of the events that were the most awaited and spectacular. The 100m Men’s finals. The undisputable King of speed, Ussain Bolt came first in the 100m race. Yet again. Second place was bagged by a fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake, third place by American

JustinGatlin.Hmmmmm.Whocamefourth?Doesitmatter?Dowecare?

ThedifferencebetweencomingthirdandfourthisnotjustthedifferencebetweenWinningandLosing.It’sthedifferencebetween being remembered and being forgotten; between going down the pages of History or the Drains of Misery. It is the difference between pride and regret.

So,howbigisthisdifference?ThetimingdifferencebetweenJustinGatlinandTysonGay,thirdplaceandfourthplacewin-nersattheLondonOlympics100mMen’sfinalswasaninfinitesimalnumber,almostdiscountable-0.1seconds.LadiesandGentlemen,0.1secondscanmakethishugeadifference.Whoeverthoughtso!

We live in a world where a 0.1 second speed, timing, and EDGE is needed to be the BEST. It is not the big things we need to change to get an EDGE but the small things will help us achieve it. EDGE-whatisthis?thatmatterssomuch.IneedanEDGEwhenIgoforaJobinterview,whenIamsellingaproduct,whenI am delivering a speech, when I am at the most critical points of my life.

HowtogetthisExtraEDGE?

E- Emotion, to get to where I want to get, to be crazy and passionate that when I walk into a room filled with people, the passion in me should silence the room and translate to inner reflection.

D- Discipline, as the 2007 runner up of the International speech contest puts it, there is no Short cut to success, Take The Stairs.

G- Goals, to be a constant reminder, more intense than reminders that run through our minds about daily dull chores like eating on time, checking mails etc.

E- Enjoyment, there is no point in living, if I don’t choose to enjoy the life I live, which includes embracing everything thatcomesmyway,happiness,challenges,mistakesandlessons.LikeMileyCyrusputsit,Lifeisnotaboutwhat’sonthe

othersideof themountainonceIgettothetop,it’sabouttheCLIMB.

District PRO’s Address

DTM MALA MARY MARTINA

V Do you want to be a part of the Division or District PR team?

Drop an email to [email protected]


‘G’ is for Grandeur, ‘G’ is for Grace, ‘G’ is for Gratitude!Division ‘G’ has managed to reach Grace and Grandeur over the last few years with all your support… I am grate-ful to every one of you. Division ‘G’cameintobeingintheyear2008,growingbyleapsandbounds,reached its peak in the year 2011-12 with a phenomenal growth to 33 Clubs in 5 Areas. Year after year,

Division ‘G’ has stood tall as the finest Division, not just in the District but in the World of Toastmasters. Our Immediate Past Division Governor DTM Saro Velrajan, a man with a vision of bringing Toastmasters to a wider section of the society and focusing on the growth of the movement proposed and successfully managed to create 3 Divisions of the one strong Division ‘G’. Today, we are no longer a 33 Club-Strong division, but were only 13 clubs strong when we took over inthebeginningof theterm.However,withyourhard-workandsupportwetodayare18clubsstrongwithinthefirstquarterof the year and GROWING!Bytheendof theterm,weonceagainaredeterminedtobethestrongestDivision.

Howdoessuchgrowthtakeplace?Definitelynotbybeingapart-timememberorbyapplaudingalone;Suchgrowthcomesatacost–Thecostof participation,perseveranceandcommitment!FellowToastmasters,Eloquence2012isyourfirstopportunityto showcase that commitment. Many of you have stepped forward to take on leadership roles in making not just Eloquence 2012, but your own commitment to personal development a success. I thank every single one of you. This however, is only the beginning. In the coming days, weeks and months, there will be an abundance of opportunities in the form of Regular Club Meetings,YouthLeadershipPrograms,Speechcraftopportunities,Club,Area,Division&DistrictLevelContests,Rhetoric2013 and the father of all events – Ovations 2013.

My dear Division ‘G’ Toastmasters, The time is right, the opportunities abundant. If you don’t take it, someone else will. Gear up; Get set & GO FOR GOLD!

Cheers!Kartik

From the Division Governor’s Desk...

DTM KARTIKEYAN SRINIVASAN

DTM Kartikeyan Srinivasan being a Toastmaster in both India and Australia, adds a unique flavor with his wit and words, and powerful mentoring & motivating skills. He is a trainer by profession.

V NEW CLUBS IN DIVISION G : June - September 2012

Verizon Toastmasters ClubTCS Maitree Champions Toastmasters Club

TCS Maitree Alpha Toastmasters ClubBrisa VIT Toastmsaters ClubClima VIT Toastmasters Club

ELOQUENCE! HURRAY! The conference is here! Listed below are the Toastmasters because of which this conference is possible today! DIVISION G acknowledges these Toastmasters for their efforts and thanks them!

CONFERENCE CHAIRTM PRASANNA VENKATANARAYANAN

REGISTRATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRTM JANANEE RAMAKRISHNAN

PR TEAMTM JANANEE RAMAKRISHNAN

TM VYSHAK KAKKATTM SAHIL GARG

CHIEF JUDGEDTM SASTHARAM RAVENDRAN

IMM. PAST DIVISION GOVERNORDTM SARO VELRAJAN

MASTER OF CEREMONIESDTM ADITYA MAHESWARAN

SOUVENIR COMMITTEE CHAIRTM HARINI SRINIVASAN

CONTEST CHAIRTM THANIGEASWARA ANBARASU

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRTM MANVI MEHTA



Contests are one of the special occasions in Toastmasters. Contest is like a Santa Claus who brings gifts to every single member in the community. Be it a sea-soned Toastmaster or a very new member, contests and conferences have got heapsof educationandentertainmenttooffer,orinotherwords,toquoteourDistrict82GovernorDTMNina

John,“EDUTAINMENT”!Foracontestant,itisagoldenopportunitytoovercomethatlastbitof fearonewillhaveandmakeanattempttobecomeabetterspeakerattheendof his/herspeech.FortheExecutiveCommitteemembersof variousClubs,theymakefriendsacrosstheclubsandfollowsomeof thebestpractices.ForaDistrictOfficial, itgivesaplatformtoexpresstheirthoughtprocess.And finally for any member or guest, it is one of the biggest sources of inspiration and seeds that idea of improving oneself. It is the Critical thinking and the humorous nature that differentiates mankind from the rest of the animals. While being humor-ous relaxes us and promotes teamwork and bonding, getting evaluated pushes the quality upstream. Both of these qualities make this place a better and safe world to live. Though these qualities are mainly exhibited through speeches during the contests, the entire team gets an opportunity to get evaluated by senior Toastmasters. When we have a humongous task in front of us, many a times we panic: not because of the fear of completing it, but the fear of starting it right. It is the confidence people have in you and support they give, helps you form a TEAM. A team – actually the Eloquence Team is a bunch of people who generally lead by examples. When you have a team in place, your worry actually increases a bit -the worry of making sure that everyone gets equal share of payload and giving them quality work. Thanks to technology that helps us share lot of work and achieve it. But the joy of working together is memorable for a lifetime.Frequentmeetingswithdifferentcommitteeheads,latenightphonecalls,andcontinuousfollowupsenablenomiscommunica-tions. It felt so nice when people are ready to extend their hand the moment you say it is for Toastmasters. It is this particular friendly nature of every single Toastmaster that allows you to try lot of new ideas. Innovation costs nothing but mere perse-verance. Be it a simple design or a huge magazine like this, we have tried our best to innovate and make it interesting both for ourselves as well as participants.Today, it feels so good that our efforts have paid us. We, the team Eloquence, are extremely privileged to share our past learning, unlearn some of them and learn new things through this contest.

TM Prasanna

Conference Chair’s Address

TM PRASANNA VENKATANARAYANAN

VWe thank our sponsors for enabling us to run this great Conference!

TM K V V GIRI (Vaishnavi Freight Logistics)TM HARISHANKKARTM MOHAN KUMAR Clubs from Division G


Eloquent Learning!

There are some achievements that give you confidence, re-instate your belief in your capabilities and bring you visions that you would never otherwise have the courage to dream. And then there some others that do the exact opposite – take your confidence to an all-time low, make you question your own capabilities and ensure you think twice before dreaming!Takingontheroleof aVP-Eof suchafragileclubdidtheformertomebutbecomingPresidenthas

effectively pushed me into the latter zone. On one such depressing evening I thought to myself that it’s time to start pushing my limits and see how much I can achieve if I set my mind to proving myself – after all it’s very easy to be branded as just another pretty face, but vanity aside, good looks come with its own responsibility - the necessity of having to prove the pres-enceof thinkingpower&brains!SowiththisfireinmymindIvolunteeredtobetheConferenceCo-ChairforEloquence’12.

Andboy!Whatanexperienceit’sbeen.Youhavenoideaof themagnitudeof whatyou’resigningupforandhowyourper-sonal graph on the growth-chart is going to be like till you get into the thick of things. There’s so much to do AND so little time, so much to prove AND so little time and there’s so much to learn WITHIN this time. It’s been madness from the word go and continues to be so. Right from identifying people to fill in the various committees and key roles, to coordinating with our remote PR gurus – VITians, to bringing in the money, to following up with people, to making your peace with the rules andregulationsthatTMIhasinplaceforcontests,andaboveall,keepthatever-demandingDivisionGovernoroff ourback!Andinallthis,there’salsotheopportunitytoworkwiththe“LOGISTICSGENUIS”fromDivisionG–Mysuper-efficientConferencechair–TMPrasannaVenkatanarayanan.It isanabsolutedelightworkingwithhimandlearningfromhim!Hislegendarypatiencehastaughtmemanyalessoninthelastmonthorsoof bringingEloquencetogether!

Howdoesitfeelinthepenultimatelegof thisjourney?Ilookbackontheselastfewweekswithasenseof exhilarationandawe–athowamazinganexperienceithasbeenandhowmuchtheD-dayisgoingtoaddtothelearning!

Your Not-so-Modest, but Humbled Co-Chair,TM Manvi Mehta

Conference Co-Chair’s Address

TM MANVI MEHTA

V We thank our sponsors for enabling us to run this great Conference!

Giriswari HospitalsAdventure Zone (SALKA)

Sysmantec

DTM KARTIKEYAN SRINIVASANDIVISION GOVERNOR

TM HARINI SRINIVASANAREA GOVERNOR, AREA G1

TM SUGANTHI PERIASAMY,AREA GOVERNOR, AREA G2

TM SATISH VACHASPATHIAREA GOVERNOR, AREA G3

TM PRASANNA VASST. DIV. GOV, EDU & TRNG

TM KORULA CHERIANASST. DIV. GOV, MEMBERSHIP

TM JANANEE RAMAKRISHNAN ASST. DIV. GOV, PUBLIC RELATIONS

TM RAJASEKHAR BABU MAKANABOINADIVISION SECRETARY

TM THANIGEASWARADIVISION TREASURER

DIVISI

ON

‘G’

TEAM

DIVISI

ON

‘G’

TEAM


ENLIGHTENMENTThis Section starres a few of the Englightened Toastmasters, their articles throwing light on a few unknown areas and some newer perspectives. Go ahead, read them - GET ENLIGHTENED!

THE ROVING AMBASSADORDTM DEEPAK MENON ARE YOU AN AESCHINES OR A

DEMOSTHENES ?DTM DEEPAK JUSTIN

MENTORING MATTERS DTM MIKE RAFFETY

FEAR NOT LEADER; FEAR-LESS-LEADERDTM SASTHARAM RAVENDRAN

MENTORINGDTM KUMARAN PETHI

DON’T BREAK THEM; BEND THEM IF YOU KNOW THEM

TM PAWAS CHANDRA

EFFECTS OF EVALUATIONTM DEEPAK PANDIANMAKING A HUMOROUS SPEECH

TM RAJESH NATARAJAN

THE POWER OF EMOTINGTM ARNA CHUGANI

PERFECTING SPONTAENITYTM SANDHYA RAJARAMAN

TRAIN YOUR MEMORYTM RAJEEV NAMBIAR



Basundhara, a member of the Toastmasters Club of New Delhi, was waiting at the Mandi House metro station for the train to arrive. Lost in herthoughts, she did not notice another young lady

carefully observing her. Moments later the young lady tapped on Basundhara’s shoulder and said, “Excuse me, my name is Sowmya. I like the pin you are wearing on your shirt. Can you tellmeaboutit?”BasundharaturnedtoSowmyaandproudlyannounced, “I am a Toastmaster and this pin is a symbol of my membership.” The very next meeting Sowmya attended as a guest and is well on her way to becoming a member.

Komal, a member of South Delhi Toastmasters, reached home late one Thursday night after attending a Toastmasters meeting. Her neigbour, Sakshi, called out to her, “Hi Komal! You’re very late return-ing from college tonight! Studying hardI see!” Komal responded, “No Sakshi, Iam returning from my Toastmasters Club meeting.” Her interest piqued, Sakshi asked, “Toastmasters?Whatisthat?”Sakshiisnowa member of South Delhi Toastmasters and delivered an excellent Ice Breaker speech yesterday, winning her the best speaker award!

Vikas of JPKU Toastmasters boarded his flight from Delhi to Mumbai and found his seat. He was a little vexed to note that he had a middle seat with co-passengers on either side of him. Sighing, he settled in his seat and took out the latest issue of the “Toastmaster”, which had reached him just the previous evening. He was looking forward to reading it from cover to cover.Littledidheknowthatdestinyhadsomethingelse instoreforhim!BarelyhadhefinishedreadingMichaelNotaro’sinspiring Presidential message, he noticed the passenger on his left peering into the magazine as well. Vikas looked at him, smiled, and asked, “Have youheardof Toastmasters?”Therest of the flight Vikas spent his time chatting with both his co-passengers about Toastmasters, while the rest of the maga-zineremainedunread!

Hark back to the time when you joined Toastmasters. Do you rememberwhofirstspoketoyouaboutit?Howdidyouget

invited to attend that firstmeetingasaguest?If that person had not spoken to you and had not invited you to that first meeting, would you ever have become a Toastmaster?Wouldn’t youhavemissedagoldenopportunity?Theopportunitythathasnotonlyenhancedyourskillsbuthaschangedyourlife!

To the names of Basundhara, Komal and Akhil, I can add your and my names as well. Each day provides us an opportunity of meeting people and talking to them about our favorite topic,

Toastmasters!Wearerovingambassadorsand brand builders for Toastmasters and we can help build the membership of our clubs like no one else can.

Use every opportunity presented to you to talk about Toastmasters. Wear or carry a symbol of your membership wher-ever you go. It could be a Toastmasters pin, a Toastmasters cap, a Toastmasters pen, a Toastmasters pad, the Toastmaster magazine or a Toastmasters bag. Even a Toastmasters umbrella! These silentlyspeaking symbols will act as icebreakers for you and will attract the attention of

people around you. They will be curious to know more from you and you will have a ready audience waiting to be motivated tojoinToastmasters!

WhatdoyoutellpeoplewhentheyaskyouaboutToastmasters?Think about how you will respond. Give them the big picture. Tell them about the mission of Toastmasters, its membership and its spread. Then tell them your story. Tell them about how it changed your life. Tell them about the friends you have madeandthenetworkyouhavebuilt.Andthenclosethedeal!Invite them to experience Toastmasters at a club meeting to decide if they would want to be a part of this exciting and invigoratingmovement!

So,ToastmastersAmbassador,whatareyouwaitingfor?Pickup your favorite symbol of Toastmasters and venture out today. Waiting for you is the whole world, ready to join you at Toastmasters!

The Roving Ambassador

A man known by many names - Wikipedia, Dictionary, En-cyclopedia of Toastmasters. A meticulous leader - he is a 4 time DTM, Past LGM, LGET, DG and currently the Regional Advisor for Marketing for Region 13.

DTM DEEPAK MENON


In the golden era of Greece public disputes were settled by the art of oratory. In a huge public assembly an orator would put forth his point of view and members of the gathering would deliberate as to whether the

proposition needs to be passed or notOn one occasion, the designated speaker for the day was the legendary Greek orator, Aeschines. After Aeschines finished speaking, the audience gave him a standing ovation, marveled the way he spoke and showered him with accolades. The general buzz in the audience was “What an orator we have in Aeschines…” “How I wish I could speak like Aeschines” “He’s truly one of the finest orators we have”

Now the next speaker was Demosthenes. The object of Demosthenes’ standing before the gathering was to invoke a sense of fervor among the masses to be prepared for the impending onslaught by Philip II of Macedon. At the end of Demosthenes’ address not one person in the gathering com-plimented him, not one person in the gathering marveled the way he spoke, not one person envied him, but all of them stoodinunisonandsaid,“LetusmarchagainstPhilipII”There are two kinds of speakers - one that we marvel and the ones, whose messages we want to put into action – The Aeschines and the DemosthenesAt the heart of it, the difference lies in “Style” and “Substance”Some speakers focus too much on “Style” that they compro-mise on the “Substance” while others focus too much on the substance at the cost of compromising on styleRecently I was invited as a guest of honor at a public func-

tion. The keynote speaker after his address came and sat next to me and asked me, “So DJ, how was my address”. I thought for a while and said, “Your content was good”. He didn’t understand. “So DJ, you mean, my address was good”. I said, “No, I said your content was rich and very good. But your delivery

had scope for improvement”In other words his “Substance” was good, but he appeared placid, lackluster and was completely devoid of “Style”So what exactly is “Style” and “Substance”. Substance is the content of the speech whereas “Style” is the delivery facet. That is why when someone imitates another’s delivery style we say that we see the shades of the other speaker and say he is imitating his style. The choice of words, the mannerisms, the choice of gestures, the way we modulate the voice all add to defining the style of the speaker. As Toastmasters we know that “Style” or delivery amounts to93%(BodyLanguage=55%,VoiceModulation–38%)and we cannot compromise on the same. The late Dr. Stephen Covey said that a lot life’s issues we try to look at it through the binary mode – ‘Either’ – ‘Or’.

It’s either my family or my job. It’s either my career or my dreams. It’s either saving or invest-ing. We look at life from the Either-Or lens. He says life would be more enriching if we were to look at it from the “And” lens. It’s my fam-ily and my job. It’s my career and my dreams.

It’s saving and investment. Likewise, this article is not adebate on whether it’s Style over Substance or viceversa, or Aeschines vs Demosthenes. But a truly great speaker is one who scores high on both groundsFocusequallyonbothandthenexttimeyoustandbeforeagathering people will not only marvel the way you speak but also will want to take action on what you said. So if someone were to ask you, “Are you an Aeschines or a Demosthenes,” smile in your own inimitable style and say “I chose to be a “DemAeschines”

Are you an Aeschines or a Demosthenes ?

Deepak Justin, DTM is a the rockstar of TM in the B’lore circle. As Chennai boy who studied in PSBB, he has learnt to con-quer all stages he climbs on. Past LGM of dist. 82, he is a cor-porate trainer by profession and a Motivational Speaker

DTM DEEPAK JUSTIN

“Some speakers focus too much on “Style” that they compromise on the “Substance” while others focus too much on the sub-stance at the cost of com-promising on style .”


Haveyoueverhadamentor?Wasn’titgreattohavesomeone to turn to when you had questions, to get guidanceonhowtodosomething?

Mentoring is an important part of the Toastmasters program. There’s no paid instructor with all the answers, which is what helps make Toastmasters so cost-effective. You learn from your peers, your fellow club members, and when it comes to technical details about the Toastmasters program, having an experienced member to turn to can avoid a lot of frustration

or wrong turns.

Wheredothesementorscomefrom?Themembers—YOU.Haveyoubeenamemberforatleastafewmonths?Chancesare you would be able to answer someone’s questions about your club, like how to get scheduled for a speech, how to vol-unteer for meeting roles, and ways to find ideas for speeches.

Serving as a mentor is a personally gratifying experience, a way to build a friendship that can go well past Toastmasters. Not only are you helping a newer member get the most out of Toastmasters, but you will also learn from your mentee as well, who brings in fresh approaches and new ways of looking

at things.

Mentoring, like Toastmasters itself, can have a widely varying time commit-ment, as little as an hour every month or two. You don’t have to have a Competent Communicator award or hold a club office to be a mentor, you just have to have a desire to help someone else navigate through Toastmasters to be a better communicator and better leader.

Serving as a mentor is recognized in two places in the Toastmasters educational program:

oTheCompetentLeaderaward,projectnine o The Advanced Communicator Gold award

In our strongest clubs, we commonly see new mem-bers immediately matched up with a mentor, and even 20-year members have mentors as well. Everyone ben-efits from having a colleague to bounce speech ideas off of and to keep motivated.

In new clubs, mentoring is still important — theremay be only a very limited number of experienced members available, so pairing up new members to co-mentor each other can work very well. One person will never have all the answers, but together, they can find out, they can keep each other motivated, they can listen to each other practice, and they can give speeches together as they work through the manuals.

Lastly,astrongmentoringprogramiscrucialtomembershipretention. Members with mentors will be actively involved and working on speeches, a result of someone taking a personal interest in their progress.

Goforthandmentor!

Mentoring Matters!

DTM MIKE RAFFETY

Mike Raffety, DTM - is a past International Director and is famous for his simple Dashboards that help Toastmasters around the globe.


Toastmasters!!! The forum that developsour Communication and Leadership skills.Communication – YES, the manuals help us to be Competent in a systematic manner, but

Leadership?Aretherethatmanyleadersinactionastheyareintermsof CLandALB?Howmanyof themfinditdifficulttocompletetheLeadershipExcellenceLevels?Why?This article is the result of these thoughts in my mind.

Gone are the days when Toastmasters was just a small movement in India. Today withmore than 180 Clubs andthousands of members – Tamilnadu by itself is now touch-ing 1000 members, the movement has come a long way and has presented us members with hundreds of opportunities to exhibit our leadership skills. There used to be times when regular members from various clubs had to wait for one huge event-TheAreaLevelcontest,tobeheldinChennai.Thatwas when they would get the much waited opportunity to take up some kind of a leadership role. And for those 10 odd roles there were about 30 interested members waiting to grab

the opportunity.

Today this entire scene might look funny. With 3 divi-sions in Tamil Nadu and 9 Areas, we have

enough huge events where potential leaders can try out dif-ferent roles and master it. Then, why is it that we see the same set of interested faces across club, Area and Division contests? This coming year(2013-2014) is a goldmine of opportunities in terms of leadership. More than four division governors, 12-15 Area Governors, and that many contests, that many roles… but why is there reluctance amongst people totaketheseroles?Arewesobusytoallocatetimefortoast-masters,oristheissuedeeperthanthat?ThatmydearfriendistheBigQuestion!

Thinking back I was 19 years old, I was young and a newbie in toastmasters when I was presented with the opportunity of taking up the Area Governor’s role. Back then entire Tamil Nadu was just one Area. I was definitely hesitant and I was

more than afraid. Taking up that role would have meant I would have to allocate time between Toastmasters duties and my Professional degree. With very few leaders to guide and tell us what is right or wrong, I had to make a solid decision to take up this giant role or to miss it forever. I eventually did say YES and it was no easy task. That year and that role molded me into a bigger, stronger and matured leader - One who had learnt from his mistakes, and had become mature from his experience.

Now when I am just back from the US after completing my masters and there already is a competition between my professional and personal life, the opportunity of handling the most massive toastmasters Conference of the District – Ovations2013cametome!!CouldIhavenotsaidasimpleNO?

There were mixed emotions – I was hesitant, excited, eager, nervous and afraid. I thought briefly about the many del-egates who would be arriving, about how I would allocate tasks and how I would be getting back to the main stream of Toastmasters after my elaborate break. I even thought if I was the right person to do it, but it was never about “do I have thetimetodoit?”

I was afraid too , I still am but at the bottom of my heart , I know I am in a mutually supportive forum and if I cannot make a mark here, I would not be able to do it else- where. Getting people to work along with me just for the passion of it as a reward is not the easiest of the tasks, but if I am able to do that, I can handle any conflict or hurdle in my professional life where the rewards are tangible.

I believe all of us have that moment when we debate within ourselves to come out with an answer to such questions. Its that spur of the moment decision where we decide if we want to be a leader or not and if you ask me, I would say, all of us can be good leaders, provided we aspire to become one. We all have personal and professional commitments, but if we shy away from a leadership role in toastmasters, we are miss-ing out on one of the biggest leadership opportunities ever.

Fearless Leader, Fear-Not-Leader

DTM Sastharam Ravendran is the youngest DTM in District 82, and the youngest Area Governor(2008-09). He is also the Conference Chair of Ovations 2013.

DTM SASTHARAM RAVENDRAN

“The next time you are confronted with a leader-ship opportunity, say YES .”


So the next time you are confronted with a leadership oppor-tunity, say YES. Don’t worry about anything. But once you say YES mind you, you better be ready to put the best you have towards it. There might be sleepless nights and tiresome days but the feeling of content that you get when you have accomplished the task is simply something that cannot be described and the results it translates to in your professional career is cascading.

So Time is something that you can manage, Commitment is something that will come up the minute you are passionate, and support from people is something that you will earn the minute they trust in you and in your vision.

So what should a leader followtobesuccessful?Here are some simple lessons I personally strive to follow.

1.Be Generous - Only when you

act with generosity will you gain trust from your team

2.Be Patient - Not all good things

happen over night

3.Be Open to Criticism - Without Criticism you can be a leader but

notaGreatLeader

4.Be Optimistic yet Realistic - Believe in yourself and in your team, but don’t be Over Confident.

5.Be a Team Player not just a Leader - If you do not get on the field and do the work, your team will not like

doing it too. There is no work that you can’t do as a leader, if you get down to it, your team will derive inspiration from the same

6.Be in Control - Giving enough freedom and liberty to your team is a must, but make sure you know what they

are doing, cause finally its your team and you will be ques-tioned for their mistakes

7.Be Fun Loving - If you are always serious, then it will becometooboring,SOON!

8.Be Creative - Unless you try out different things and come up with weird concepts, there will never be evolu-

tion. Experiment and Evolve

9.Be Loyal, Courteous and Kind - You can’t and must never hide anything from you team , for they are like

your family - hiding a fact or ignoring their emotion will only cause damage to your team.

10.Be Meticulous - if you can’t plan ahead and be orga-nized, you can never be a good leader

11.Be Passionate about the project you have taken up - If Toasmastering does not give you goose

bumps or that adrenaline rush, don’t take a leadership role in Toastmasters!

12.Be an Example to your team - If you

can’t be shown as an exam-ple to others, nor can you team be shown as a Model Team!

LastlyIwantedtotouchon5 factsaboutGreatLeadersfromLouisRMobley

1)Great LeadersThrive onAmbiguity. 2)GreatLeadersStickTheirNecks Out. 3)Great Leaders Believe inThemselves. 4) Great Leaders are DeepThinkers. 5) Great Leaders areRuthlessly Honest with Themselves.

So fellow toastmasters, are younowreadytobecomealeader?Areyoureadytotakeupanewroleandanewresponsibility?

IhavesofarnotturneddownanygivenLeadershipoppor-tunity in Toastmasters, and hence i can say i have benefited a lot from this movement. It has not been easy to clinch the titles - Youngest DTM and Youngest Area Governor in IndiaandSriLankaandnowprobablytheyoungestOvationsConference Chair. But I have to admit I have had the support of hundredsof fellow toastmasters andLeaders to achievethis. I would like to quote Sir Isaac Newton here “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.”

Go on, dare to see beyond, envision to do more and dream to make history.


When Harini asked me to write about mentoring a smile escaped my lips. My mind wandered to an incident a

few years back.I was asked to come to a college club and evaluate a Proj 10.The speaker was a young lad, smart looking, extremely well built and very popular in the class. When he rose to speak the class cheered and clapped enthusiasti-cally. He spoke on genres of music. While he spoke with lots of energy, it became evident to me he had not even read the guidelines of the manual and was only playing to the gallery. In my evaluation, I spotted out and highlighted his obvi-ous talents; I also humbly suggested that he repeat the project in his own interest. I also offered to mentor him.The class greeted me with silence. The way the speaker approached me, I feared he would assault me, keeping in mind his fearsome physique. The next day he visited my place along with his father who had an even more fearsome physique.“Whydidyoufailmyson”,hedemanded?I for a moment thought of fleeing the scene. In my best voice modulated voice I respectfully submitted that it was meant

only to make him better. “Give me fifteen minutes and I will mentor him” I said. When I finished mentoring him, a new respect developed between us .The young lad went on to do this speech in different clubs and win ribbons and accolades. It’s been a few years now. I don’t

know where he lives or what he does but a message now and then from him makes my day. It says, “Sir, thanks you made a differ-ence!!!”Sometimes the little joys of life are the ones most meaningful. I would have spoken a million words by now. Heard hundreds of speeches. But the little few words in the form of these sms makes one’s life that much more meaningful.To all of you Toastmasters who have indulge inthe joyfulartof mentoringCongrats!!!Tothose who have not taken these steps, do so, make a difference in the lives of these

Toastmaster. You in your own way will contribute to society and mankind. And when your mentee grows, it’s your growth and when he glows, it’s your glow.

Mentoring...DTM KUMARAN PETHI

DTM Kumaran Pethi is well known for his mentoring skills and is known to have mentored more than 300 Toastmasters during different periods of their journeys!

V CONGRATULATIONS!!! On your Advanced Communicator Award

TM Satish Vachaspathi - ACBTM Varadharajan - ACBDTM Nina John - ACS

DTM Kartikeyan Srinivasan - ACG


Since the time humans have evolved from being primate, one thing has been constant – Rules.

Have youwonderedwhy rules are important ?Why is thatyouareaskedtofollowtherules?Don’t read this article any further else you may know the truth.Humans, in early settlements, were small in number and used to stay on the banks of rivers in Africa. They ate meat or fruits and drank water from the nearest source. As you would imagine, the cycle of reproduction was a celestial phenomena. Anewbeingof yourownkind?Itwasastrangefeelingforthe primates at that time. As humans grew in number, the scarcity of food and water arose, with it the fights within. Earlier, the strongest man could mate with any woman, with or without her wish, and weak would only get beaten and slaved. It must have been some wise man who first real-ized that there has to be something that provides rights to an individual. Need for that something orginiated the very first institution of mankind. “Marriage”. The institution has certainly evolved but still is based on logic.Whylogic?Itisbecauseof thislogicthatour species is the dominant of all the spe-cies on planet earth. This logic or set of rules provides a mechanism through which humans can live with each other; such mutual existence is called a society. In society, it is only through rules that we foster the culture of harmony and peace. Yes, we would have different opinions, but we will have the basis of rules to decide what is good for the betterment of all. We evolve and so do rules with society.If you wonder how rules and Toastmasters connected, let me share something. Imagine, if there was a rule that you can only become Toastmaster, when you have certain speak-ing or leadership skills. Would you have qualified to be a member?Wouldallyourclubsmembersqualify?Evenwithmany exceptions, Toastmasters would have been nothing but super specialization of speaking skills. Thanks to Dr. Ralph C Smedley, we do not have such rules. However, there are certainrules inToastmasters .LikeourIndianconstitution,Toastmasters’ protocol book is very thick. After reading it in its entirety, I can say that our organization is based on values so

that every person has the chance to showcase the skills. The moment you start reading the protocol and policies of Toastmasters, you are exposed to rights of members and they are plenty. You will find it really strange that the person with most power in Toastmasters hierarchy is the Club President. Yes it is true. But with such power, the club president also carries lot of responsibilities towards the club member. Every member in Toastmaster brings in a unique value and it is our responsibility to lever-age these values to enable our members towards the path of self-improvement. Often because of sheer excitement, we break few protocols. The repercussions of such an act have a long lasting effect and often become a trend. For example, you need to take

permission of Toastmaster interna-tional if you want to print the logo on clothing, such as T-shirt, shirt, ribbons, or cap. However, most times the International office is not even being informed. Though it will be a great for the members, for the orga-nization it can be most denting thing. This organization is build of trust

and respect of members. The moment we start breaking the rules, we are breaking this bond of trust and respect with our organization that has helped us a lot.Breaking the rules is a normal phenomenon. Our minds usu-ally cannot process the word “Don’t” or “not”. You don’t believeitright?Youhavebeenreadingthisarticleevenwheninthethirdlinetheword“Don’t”iswritten.CaughtyouWith every rule, there is a leeway. Traffic rules say that you move in the direction of the traffic. How about driving a car inthereversegearinthedirectionof traffic?Areyoubreak-ingtherule?Certainlynot,butyouarebeingdifferent.Ona cautionary note, don’t try it. My humble request to you is to read the protocols and encourage the members to read the protocols. It is within these protocols we will find a mutual way to help each other not just as a Toastmaster but as a human being. It is because of the rules that our species have survived and let us try to make this world better.

Don’t Break them, bend them if you know them

Pawas Chandra is an enthusiastic Toastmaster from B’lore for whom TM-ing is a big passion. He is also the past Division Gov-ernor (L) and currently the asst. LGM for District 82.

TM PAWAS CHANDRA

“You need to take permission of Toastmaster international if you want to print the logo on clothing, such as T-shirt, shirt, ribbons, or cap.


What tips do you have for tackling Table Topics?Howdidyouprepareforthecontest?Didyoumemorizeabunchof quotes?Didyou spend days on end reading tiny anecdotes

withmorals?Doyouhaveadatabaseof topicsfromdiffer-entgenres?Canyouconductaworkshopandsharewhatyoulearntintheprocessof becomingaTableTopicsChampion?Dear Reader, If any of the above questions were the actual topic in a TT contest with an added condition being I should only speak the whole truth, I would probably stand in silence for 2.5 minutes before leaving the dais. Sure, I can tell you about the 5 wives and 1 husband technique (What,Why,When,Where,WhoandHow).Butyoualreadyknewaboutthat,didn’tyou?OhYes!Thetimelinestructure(Past,PresentandFuture)??!!Butsomebody already covered that in another workshop, didn’t they?Howaboutthe“Vital-Few:Trivial-Many”approachforlong-winding-complicated topics?Or the“For-and-Against”approach to debatable topics where you don’t want to simply sticktooneside?Werethesecoveredtoo?I’m sure they were, because I learnt these techniques from the amazingworkshopsmyself!!When faced with the responsible task of giving a sensible answer to an eager toastmaster, my toastmastering skills desert me for good. Because the harsh reality is, there is really no rigid structure or secret magic formula to excelling in spon-taneity. Now, while I cannot tell you what I did right in my TT speeches

till date, I can tell you a few extremely wrong things I did before and even after getting the famed trophy. I can call your attention to a few mistakes that have the potential to ruin any speech on the planet regardless of who delivers it. Because in the process of preparing for the contest, my lov-ing Mentor and friends patiently pruned these weeds from my otherwise beautiful garden of talent. It is to them, I dedicate my trophy… and the abuses that follow this article.MistakeNumber1:Fear“ooohhhhh.. It’s cold. It must be the air conditioning. Of course, it is the air. The air of suppressed emotion, untold fears, invisible demons, anticipation… I must IMPRESS the audience, the APPLAUSE must ring in my ears till I turndeaf, the seated audience must fall off their chairs laughing atmy jokes... but dear lordwhat jokeswill I crack? I can’teven prepare because the topic is not revealed to me yet!!Heck!I’mgoingtomakeabigfoolof myself.Thesearesuchfine people... educated in fancy places I think. They must know a lot more than me... what could I possibly say that would IMPRESSTHEM? JoiningToastmasterswas a lousyidea. Why am I not at home reading the Hindu news paper to improvemy English? I should have come here AFTERgetting a PhD in English... now is just too early to speak in this complicated language... THAT’S MY NAME HE’S CALLING….WHAT AM I GOING TO DO????!!!! AndwhyisthisroomsoCOLD???”I don’t know about YOUR mind voice but this was mine before a TT contest. It doesn’t matter what the topic was or what I did in those 2 minutes. I had already done sufficient damage before the mike was pinned to my shirt. Fearisaspeaker’sworstenemyandfirstally.It is importantto feel fear because it makes you ooze with adrenaline. And what are the 2 animal instincts we have when faced with dan-ger??FIGHTorFLIGHT.Bydefault,mybrainkeptsendingsignals saying the audience was far too big to be fought. I was attempting to take flight from the stage, from speeches, from contests, from Toastmasters itself. It took repeated practice and several embarrassing foot-in-mouth incidents to make me understand that it was not the audience who had to be fought; it was fear itself.

Perfecting Spontaneity

TM Sandhya Rajaraman was the District Champion of Table Topics - District 82 (District 82 was Whole of India & Sri Lanka then!) for the year 2010-11.

TM SANDHYA RAJAARAMAN


I volunteered to be pulled up for TT. I welcomed criticism with a smile – at least someone noticed what I spoke and felt I canbebetteratit!IsignedupforcontestsjustsoIcouldfacea larger and more intimidating audience. Slowly, I brought my body back to room temperature. The fear didn’t vanish. But alongside the fear grew a conscious understanding that my adrenaline had better use when applied to my brain instead of my legs.MistakeNumber2:Rateof thinking&Rateof speech=>The 2 bulls that pull my cartWhen I’m on stage facing an audience, I feel a RUSH; A sense of urgency!Andinvariably,oneof twothingshappens.Whenthoughts flood my brain, my voice and words fail to keep pace with my head and I end up trying to pack enough material for a 7 minute speech into 2 minutes; sadly, the audiences just don’t follow. But when my brain is empty and stuck on a difficult topic, my words go into an aimless overdrive in an attempt to keeptalking(utternonsense);thisiswhenthe incidence of awkward pauses and funny sounds increase. Haveyoubeeninthissituationbefore?Onetoastmastercalledit “verbal diarrhea”. A lot of us are affected by it. Here is how I was deal with this.It is almost impossible to have organized thoughts when a topic is thrown at you on stage. The brain is either flooded or suffering from a draught of ideas. But there is one thing we can do- “Draw a Mind-Map” and proceed with some sem-blance of order. Let’ssayyougetaneasytopic:Of all the ideas that come to your mind, pick one that is cen-tral. Then pick 2 more ideas that lead-to/help justify the cen-tral idea.Elaborate and expand in circles of RELEVANCE– don’t succumb to temptations like using a fancy sounding quote or narrating an unrelated story simply because you know it and it sounds impressive. Discard all thoughts that are vaguely connected or completely disconnected to the central idea. Once you make your point, wind up and leave. Don’t go for overkill.When the topic leaves you speechless:In your mind, rephrase the topic they way you understand it in simple language and pick the firstRELATEDpoint thatcomestoyourmind.Fromthatpointon,expandyourthink-ing one point at a time. Remember to use logical transitions and not cave into the temptation of using a million fillers like “The thing is..”,”means”,”actually”,”how do I say this…?”etc…If youarestillstuck(hopefullyonthe2ndor3rdpointaftertalking for a minute), wind up with a proud look, smile and leave the stage. There is absolutely NO need to sound apolo-geticorsorryforyourself (forgettingabadtopic)orfortheaudience(forhavingtolistentoyou).Gohomeandwonderin solitude about what else you could have said for that topic.

Make a mental note of the new ideas that come up. Then go ahead and live in peace. Mistake Number 3: Template Trap“Canyoulistout10waystogetsuccessfulinlife?”Hmm… let’s see. 1. Be disciplined2. Make mistakes but learn from your mistakes3. Be prepared to tread a path that nobody has walked before4. ..8.Takebatheveryday9. Eat your green vegetables10. Err... Umm… Actually…Everybody has something to say about how a speech ought to

be organized. Below are a few structures you might have heard:•Beginning-Body-Conclusion•Story-Point-Story-Point•Quote-Story-Point-Quote•Purpose-Position-Problem-Probabilities-Proposal

•…..Itjustgoesonandon.Every structure is different and yet, similar to the others in the sense that it is still a template. You just try to fill in the blanks. How often have we tried to stick to a template and messedup?Wouldn’twehavebeenbetteroff makingupourownstructure?Timeandagain,I’vebeenaskedto“Thinkoutof thebox”!Mentors say “Don’t fall into the template trap”. If you can’t findastorytomakeyourpoint,it’sOK!Justmakethepoint,we’ll still understand. If you can’t think of any fancy quotes bygreatpeople,it’snottheendof theworld!!Makeupyourownquotesandclaimcreditforit!If youhaveonly3waystobecome successful instead of 10, say you have only 3, weave the 3 into a speech and get off the stage with your head held high! Remember, the lesser you borrow material, the moreoriginalyourspeechgets!A Toastmaster friend once told me about a guy who was given the topic “What would you do with a million dollars and no wife?”TheguytoldagrippingstoryaboutatriptoLasVegaswherelate one night he walked into a casino and bet the whole sum on a table. Everyone was waiting with bated breath for him to roll the dice – the bombshell bar tenders, the bouncers, his envious friends… he rolled the dice aaaaaannnnnnddd lost all his money.And that is how he got to be stuck in a room full of Toastmasters answering stupid table topics… :)He went on to be the District Champion :)These, are the 3 major mistakes I’ve been cautioned against. There are several more - like “Move around when on stage; don’t remain rooted to one spot” etc… But the ones I found most difficult to overcome (and still do) are the ones listedabove. I hope you have good luck dealing with these. :)

“Once you make your point, wind up and leave.

Don’t go for overkill.”


“Evaluation is unique to toastmasters and it’s the backbone of this movement.” - Perhaps you have

heard this in all the toastmasters meeting you have been to. This is because of the everlasting effect evaluation creates for the stake holders in the club. It follows that it’s the evalu-ator’sresponsibilitytobeawareof theeffecthecreates.Let’sexplore the various segments of people affected by the evalu-ation and the possible effects it can create for them.

For The speaker:Thepurposeof anevaluationistogiveinstant(nice)positivefeedback on how good the speechwas and (some) recom-mendations to make the speech and speaker even better. It’s easy to follow the above text book definition and win a best evaluator ribbon, but your claim for effective evaluation is complete only when the speaker acknowledges your evalua-tion with an enhanced self-esteem. Increasing the morale of the speaker should be your primary goal in this evaluation process. Tailor your evaluation based on the speaker’s com-petency and speech objectives. In your three minutes in the middle ensure that you recognize the speaker’s efforts, rein-force his/her strength and remove any doubts the speaker has about his own skills. Don’t forget to suggest the next possible step the speaker should put forward in becoming a better speaker. A genuine moral boosting evaluation has the power to motivate an irregular member take up more speeches and an extremely critical or false-praise evaluation has the danger of driving out members from taking up speeches. The key to becoming effective evaluator lies in the ability to find areas of improvement in a good speech and to gather honest positive feedback in a beginner’s speech or in a one that has gone wrong, with equal ease. The “Effective evalu-ation” manual from TI is good reference for the basic tech-niques involved in it.

For the evaluator:None of us step in to the toastmasters to do this normally difficult exercise of giving positive feedbacks and helping otherstobebetter.Weareheretomakeourselvesbetter!Butif you have been around for a while, greater the chance that you agree with my hypothesis that you become better by help-ing others rather than just trying to be better on your own.

By repeatedly evaluating the time-tested projects from toast-master manual you get to master the nuances of public speak-ing similar to a professor who learns from the mistakes of the students. By analyzing other speeches, you improve your abil-ity to give better speeches. Toastmaster evaluations serve as a fitting ground to practice critical listening and thinking skills which are very much in demand in personal and professional lives. The ability to inflict a high in others self-esteem indeed takes your personal esteem to a high. Be sure to genuinely experience it in the process of toastmaster evaluation and you will stay addicted to it.

For all others:By presenting a speech and its evaluation, the speaker and evaluator demonstrates the techniques necessary to deliver a particular project to other members of the club. While the speaker is responsible to give his best to the speech, the evaluator has the additional responsibility of highlighting the best practice in the speech. A good evaluation also serves as “HOW-TO-DO?”demo for those aspiring to step in toevaluation. An Uplifting evaluation doesn’t stop with elevat-ing the speaker’s morale but also enhances the quality of speeches in the club. A group of successful evaluators can inculcate a culture of quality speeches in the club and this leaves lasting effects even for the future members of the club. Clearly, evaluation is the thread which intertwines the distinct segments of Toastmasters. By choosing to be an evaluator, we also make a choice to contribute to the mission of a Toastmasters move-ment. By becom-ing aware of these effects, one becomes even more re sponsible with his/her evaluations.

Effects of Evaluation

TM Deepak Pandian is one of the star evaluators of Word-smith Toastmasters club, he is also a Past President of the club.

TM DEEPAK PANDIAN


Can youmake a Toastmaster search for words? Yes! It’spossible. Throw a question “How about doing a humour-

ousspeech?”

The probabilities of that seasoned Toastmaster stumble-ing for words and trembling in knees is high. Because many believe that the art of making people laugh is God given and bestowed with only few souls on earth.

Foreveryonewhoechoesthesesentiments,Ihavegoodnewsforyou.Likeanyotherpublicspeakingskill,doingahumour-ousspeechisnorocketscience.Anyone&Everyonecandoitwithlittleuseof rightbrain(if youhaveone;))Here, I am penning down three characteristics that can be developed by conscious practice to make people laugh

* Self-Belief –Everythinghappenstwice.Firstinthemindand then in reality. The Self – belief that you can make people laugh is the foremost quality you need to make a humourous speech. Paulo Coelho said “When you inspire for something,

the universe con-spires to help you”, similarly when you are prepared mentally to do a humourous speech, you automatically come up with humourous content.

* Exaggeration – Do you remember the notorious college friendof yourswhomadepeoplelaugh?If yes,youwillalsoremember that silly but exaggerated behaviour of his/her that tickled your laughter bones. Exaggerating normal life incidents are key to invoking humour.

* Unleashing your Creativity – This is where you give some work to your right brain. Unleashing your creativity with Words,Taglines,ThemesandLifeincidentsarethereservoirof humour.If you have come so far, I believe you are all set to make people laugh with your humour quotient. Go ahead and be the reason for someone’s smile, after all it’s the second best pleasure in this world :)

Preparing a Humorous Speech

TM Rajesh Natarajan is currently an Area Governor (N3). Fa-mous for his punch-lines and quick comebacks, he has previ-ously won the District Level Humorous Speech Contest.

TM RAJESH NATARAJAN

Train Your MemoryTM RAJEEV NAMBIAR

We have heard everyone talk about poor memory but few people ever do anything about it. Memory in

many ways is somewhat like our muscles. A muscle must be exercised and developed in order to give proper service and use, so must the memory, the difference between muscle and memory being that muscle can be over trained or become muscle bound but the memory cannot and there is not limit to the capacity of memory.“I feel assured that there is no such thing as ultimate forgetting; traces once impressed upon the memory are indestructible”—Thomas De QuinceyThere is no such thing called bad or poor memory. There are two classifications i.e- Trained Memory and Untrained Memory. Anything we wish to remember must be in some way or the other associated in our mind to something we

already know or remem-ber. To acquire a trained memory we should asso-ciate anything you want to remember consciously. It is extremely difficult to observe or remember that you do not want to remember or you are not interested in remembering. Nowtakethissimpletest:Lookaroundtheroomandseehow many green objects are there in the room. Take two minutes. Now close your eyes and recollect how many brown objects you noticed in the room. I doubt many of you would not answer this question. Actually this is more of a trick question on observation than memory. Had I told you before that I will ask for other objects too you would have been


interested to note it. You have remembered what you wanted to notice. So memory and observation go hand in hand. The two main important techniques used for memory are theLINKMETHODof MEMORYandPEGSYSTEMof MEMORY. The Peg system is based on phonetic alphabets and needs more of practice. But for our day to day lives, LinkSystemof memorycanbeappliedtotrainouruntrainedmemory. Do this simple exercise to learn link system of memoryRead these words once and remember these ten words in the given order- carpet, paper, bottle, bed, fish, chair, window, telephone,cigaretteandnail.Howmanydidyouremember?To use the link memory to remember all these words, the first step is to get a picture that is as ridiculous and illogical as possible. You enter your home and find to your surprise that carpets you saw in the morning are now made of paper and making crumbling noise as your walk on it and u find a big ink bottle kept on the table and red color ink is flowing out to your bed-room and your bed is fully red and on a chair in the bedroom you see a big fish sitting on your rocking chair and reading a paper and you run and throw the fish out of the window and the phone bell rings and you put hand through the win-dow pane to pick the telephone and the telephone changes into a cigarette and you are talking through the cigarette and then you hammer the cigarette as if it’s a nail into the wall. Visualize this for few seconds and then try to remember the wordsinthegivenorder.Everyoneof youdiditright?The link memory can be used to remember speeches, articles and scripts too. What many of our speakers do is to prepare

a speech by lay-ing it out thought to thought. They make list of each idea or thought they want to talk about and use this list in lieu of notes.

This way you can’t forget words as you have not memorized any and you can hardly lose your place as the list will show the next thought to put into words and those of you who would not rely on pieces of paper, the LINKmethod canhelp you easily. How often have your heard this or said this-“Oh I know your face but cannot remember your name.” It is so embarrass-ing to hear it and to say it too. It pays to remember names for example try calling your diver, office peon, security by name and observe more faithful action from them. Rule for remembering names:Every person in this world has a unique feature like scar on forehead, thick lips etc. Capture the feature which is predom-inant and associate the name of the person with that particu-

lar feature. Associate consciously to some-thing very peculiar, out of proportion or illogical and rhyme it mentally. If you had trouble in recalling the name the reason is that you did not actually see the association in yourmindseyes.Lookat the face again and strengthen your asso-ciation and do it again. Repeat the name of your new friend as often as possible in your initial conversation avoiding exaggeration. Why is trained and retentive memory important when we havesomanyreferencebooks,gadgetsandof coursegoogle?A lawyer pleading a case in court would rather have the details in his memory than to stop and look it up. If he quoted pages and laws the judge and jury would be impressed. A carpenter does not stop to look at a book when he has to use a particu-lar tool. When you visit your doctor and tell the symptoms of your illness, he does not have to refer to notes he wrote while attending medical school, he remembers which ailment has which symptoms. The telephone would never have been invented by Graham Bell if he had not remembered the prin-ciples of transporting sound that were then in existence. If it were not for memory we would never have new inventions and innovations. Many people make the mistake of confusing absent mind-edness with poor memory. They are two entirely different things. A person with trained memory can also be absent minded. Absent mindedness in nothing more than inatten-tion.Forexampleif yourwifecallsandasksyoutobuyeggson your way home and you always tend to forget it because you are not paying attention or that is not more important that what you were doing when she called. So next time she calls for eggs associate eggs with your door or with a grocery store or see a big egg on your car seat and you pushing it aside to drive home. You will never forget to buy them. Without motivation there can hardly be remembrance. So initially to have a trained memory force yourself for some time and then it becomes a habit and required no effort at all because ‘Habit is memory’. Apart from intending to remem-ber, the confidence that you will remember will also be use-ful. Think of your memory as a sieve and every time you say ‘I have an awful memory’ you put another hole in the sieve and every time you say ‘I have a wonderful memory’, you are plugging one of the holes. Practice these techniques and you can boast of a wonderful and accurate memory.

TM Rajeev Nambiar is currently an Area Governor(M1) in Tamil Nadu, and also conducts training sessions outside Toastmasters

“How often have your heard or said this-’Oh I know your face but cannot remember your name.’


I remember doing a speech about a serious social cause at one of the Toastmaster Meetings. I was talking about hard-hitting facts and I wanted the audience to feel the seriousness of the message. During the evaluation of

my speech, my Evaluator told me that my message was seri-ous, but he as an audience wasn’t able to intake its impact completely. I was disappointed. But it was in that speech that I learnt an important tool of Public Speaking. It was in that speech that I understood the power of EMOTING.

Google tells me that the word Emoting refers to “the portray of emotions in a theatrical manner.” Well this article does not deal with Theatrics or Dramatics, but merely the portray of Emotions.

Every speech has a different emotion attached to it. It can be a feel-good emo-tion or one of depression, it can be an emotion of thrill or one of fantasy, it can be an emotion of frustration or one of inspiration, or it can be a mix of two or more different emotions…even a factual speech contains emotions for that mat-ter!This toolof Emoting, according tome, is all about “displaying the right emotion in the right quantum”.

After that disappointing speech, here are a few steps that I have learnt to follow in order to improve my art of emoting -So first things first, to get the right emotion during the speech,weasspeakersoughttogetitrightinourheads!Whatdowewanttheaudiencetofeelduringourspeech?Onceweunderstand that ourselves, the remaining aspects fall in place more easily.. That makes the pre-scripting work complete.Now during the scripting process, we could add expressions that are expressive.If the speech goes as follows : “I was anxiously waiting for my college results…Finally the results were out, and…Ipassed!!”These lines would bring a smile on the listener’s face. But think about how these modified lines would sound –“Iwasanxiouslywaitingformycollegeresults…Finallytheresults were out, and surprise surprise…On looking at the resultsIflewtoCLOUD49!!!Ipassed!!!”

Just these few extra words would make the audience fly with the speaker to Cloud 49! They can feelthe extent of happiness evenmore this time.Cloud49, though exaggerated, relateswith the audience to a great extent.A few more examples that I’ve heard from speakers – “I was engulfed by a wave of sadness”, “I stood there.. horror-struck.” “If a thermometer was used to measure his anger, themercurylevelwouldhaverisentillitburst!”Making expressions like these could really turn into a fun hobby :) Modifying our speeches with a few more expres-

sions like the above would truly help with emoting. Next would be the post-scripting period – which actually deals with the delivery of the emotions during the speech. Here’s where Step 1 has a major role to play. If we can feel the emo-tions of our speech ourselves, delivery becomes much easier.Our CC lessons of Facial Expressionshave quite a role to play here. I have had this problem of smiling in every speech,

whether necessary or not. So when I smile unnecessarily, I lose the impact of the message. Similarly, if a speaker doesn’t smile when necessary, the impact of happiness is reduced to an extent. So the right form of expression plays an important role to connect with the audience through emotions.

There’s one other important point we need to remember. Overdoing emoting is a big no-no. Overdoing it results in less of emoting and more of animating. There have been quite a few instances where I have ended up animating on stage, and doing that might backfire. Reiterating the essence of emoting – “it is about displaying the right emotion in the right quantum.”

These were just a few learnings I have learnt about emoting. Thanks for giving this a read :)

The Power of Emoting

TM Arna Chugani is the Founder President of Chennai Speakers Forum (CSF) and she represented Division G in Table Topics Contest for 2012

TM ARNA CHUGANI

“What do we want the audience to feel during our

speech ? Once we under-stand that ourselves, the remaining aspects fall in

place more easily..


TM DHARMA CHENNAI

COMMUNICATORS CLUB

“Voila! In view a hum-ble vaudevillian vet-eran, cast vicariously as both victim and

villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the “vox populi” now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visita-tion of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.Pause!!!The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, heldasavotivenotinvain!!!Pause!!!Fellowtoastmastersandguests,todayI’m

going to share with you the story of a Mr. V … who was once a little boy who had to do extraordinary things to lead even an ordinary life.

Remember Remember the Fifteenth of November, a baby was born in this world withasilverspooninitshand.!!

He was born as the great great grandson of Shri Varahappian , who served as the Prime minister in the cabinet of Shri Shri Serfoji II .Shri Serfoji ruled the kingdom of south Tamil nadu with Thanjaur as capital.He was also great grandson of Shri Dharma raja Tikshadar, a Great carnatic vidwan and philathrophist.Shri Dharma Raja Tikshadar built many Dharmasalas

Remember, Remember the FIFTEENTH of November!

SPEECHES CLOSE TO THE HEART...There are speeches, and there are speeches! But a few are really close to your heart. Here is a small collection of the Speeches that are close to our Toastmasters Hearts! with the reason as well! Have fun reading! :)

This speech is very special to me

because it is my LIFE!”

TM GeorGe Vinoj, SeConD runner uP, DiSTriCT 82 inTernaTional SPeeChConTeST 2011-12


for poor people during his life and served many people . Early LifeThis little boy started growing up and began to go to school. The bad times began. Like camphor that vanishes inopen air, all the money, wealth and assets started to vanish because of somecunningpeople.SlowlyhisFamilystarted to lose its reputation and rela-tives started to move away. But, his dad didn’t realize that. His dad always fought with his mom for even petty issues and never created an atmosphere for V to study peacefully.

Mr. V had to take the responsibility of family in his shoulders when he was studying Eighth Std. He realized that only way to get out of that hell is to study hard and go to good college.

One fine day, when V started to school, there was a terrible dispute between his mom and dad. As the situation got quite complex, his dad asked V to stay at home instead of going to school. V had a public practical exam on that day. After that incident slowly V started to hate life. Vengeance …. Started to root within him and began growing like a huge banyan tree. His Vengeance start-ed to smile at his dad, when he came up to V and asked why V didn’t show his Progress report card though he has come school first in the exams.

College lifeAfter his ship sailing through bad weather finally V got a chance to anchor his ship at a good college. V started to get some hope about life. But, the hope was ephemeral. He took a wrong course which required minimum qualification of higher studies to get a decent job. Again, he got struck up. He went through the entire trauma and finally ended up getting placed in a software concern. Now again, V started to feel happy. He felt that his hey days have come.

Professional LifeBut Happiness didn’t stay for long time. V started to hear all his frens are get-

ting placed in that concern. He started to ponder why he had to struggle this much to get this job, which is just “a cake walk” for others. He started to cry again.Whymegod?Whynotothers?He strongly believed that he is unique and all the suffering had reasons. He believed that if we suffer a lot in the initial stages of life, later part will be bright. So, he started to expect good things from universe. But, it never hap-pened!

Formation of Netpines:His Vengeance again started to show up and “I am not a head count” spell started to recite within his head fre-quently. Suddenly, his senior came up with a plan for starting his own con-cern and approached V to help him. V felt it challenging and started to link likeminded people. V realized the power of networking and also realized that is his strength. Within Two years, Network enlarged and it transformed from being content writing concern called Writerzone to a wrapper con-cern called “Netpines” which is now diversified into Web designing, content writing, Branding , Andriod apps and many more.

Enlightenment begins:V never enjoyed his life during his school and college days as he believed that a time will come when his entire problem will be dissolved and then he will start to live enjoy his life. But, it never happened. There was a time in his life when he had nothing.

1. He was diagnosed with hyperinsu-linemia

2. He screwed his professional life by believing in MBA exams and

screwing the exams royally.

3. Pathetic family disputes surfaced again and again without any end

result.

PAIN!!AGONY!! SUFFERING!!!Noother words were there in his dictionary exceptthisthree!!

V had nothing more to lose to worry about. His Vengeance on life dissolved. His expectations from life nullified. At that moment, He realized that life doesn’t have any book rule which says that if someone suffers a lot in life it doesn’t mean that he will get everything inlifeinlaterpart!!

Project DharmaHe came out of his Vengeance and sur-rendered touniverse!!Hedropped theplan of committing suicide and started to follow his passion without expecting anything in return. He realized that life is nothing and selflessly helping oth-ers is theultimatepurposeof life!Herealized the purpose of his name and understood universe has sent him here for “Project Dharma” and he has to fulfill his great grandfather duties which were left unfinished.

He started to thank universe for mould him up to face any situation in life. He started to choose love instead of hate, passion instead of Vengeance.

Miracles started to happen! Suddenly,everything started to change. His health got better, A carrier shift happened in his life and lately his family situations also started to get relatively better.

V to P :Now there is no more Vengeance. “V” has finally become “P”. P wants to change the world with his views and ideologies which he believes that uni-verse has gifted him to give it back to society. Worldfelttheabsenceof HealthLedger,when “Dark knight rises “released as people missed the joker. Though Ledger left this world very early, hecreated an impact in the society. P also wants to be like that.“Remember Remember fifteenth of November, a baby was born in this world. The goal of the baby is not to live forever, but to create an impact in the society that will live forever!!!”


The best prize a speaker can get is influencing her audience-when most of the members at the meet came upto me and told me “They will definitely donate their eyes!”, I felt succesful!Also, Won my first Best speaker Award.”

TM AKSHAYA MAHALINGAM,

CHENNAI COMMUNICATORS

CLUB

SIGHTED!

It was a beautiful Monday morn-ing, as I stood witnessing the dawn break, the sun weaved in a golden hue playing hide and seek with the

clouds, the dew settle on the red rose PETALS and the spectacular phenome-nonof arainbow!WOW!whataSIGHT!I boarded the local train and something about nature gave life to my otherwise grumpy Monday mornings . the entire thing about the climate seemed to con-spire and plan my travel .Salutations :) Reached my destination was walking down a small alley-into the campus-fresh-ly mowed lawns , a sprawling campus , wow what a beautiful place !-The littleflower convent in Mt. road ,Chennai .We stood at the farther part of the ground hearing the students of the school reciting their prayers , we were lead into a classroom -2nd standard students-lovely little lids-looking cute in their uniforms greetingus—Iwaslookingatthemonlyto realize they could not look @ them-selves! Blind little children-stood therewitnessingthecruelestthingonearth!Now, don’t u think these kids deserved to look@thebeautifulthingsaroundthem?After spending hours with them, I real-ized how talented these kids were Just not being able to see did not stop them from doing normal activities that we do –they in fact did it way perfectly than we did .• As I was interacting with a stu-dent asking her how tough it was to lead such a life , she surprised me with her answer –she said , “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision.” -quoting the legendaryHelenKeller!We stood at the principal’s office and I asked her how best we could help these children – she said God gifted you with a beautiful pair of eyes – you could in turn gift these kids and enlighten their lives and at least for the remaining part of their lives they could really get a chance to see what a rainbow , a sun , the pink and

purplecolorare!As I stood hesitating , she enlightened me with the fact that they were not just going to pull away my eyes right away –Every third Indian in the world is blind ,80% of blindness is curable througheye donation, don’t let go your chance to enlighten another person’s life-don’t u think they deserve to see the dawn break, the rainbow, the red rose and the crystal dewdrops?????Keep hands on your chest- feel the beat ?well ,that iscalledpurpose–every1hasa purpose in life ----You have your own purpose to --inch forward and make some1 else’s life special too –give them the joy of looking at the beautiful world –Well ,if u think it is an option let me remind you it is your duty as well .Rendition of a few facts about eye dona-tion :-•Eyes have to be removed within sixhours after death•keep air conditioner or cooler runningand place wet cotton with ice over the closed eyelids. It will help keep the tissue moist and increase the viability of the donated cornea.•Eye Donation leaves no disfigurementthat will interfere with common funeral practices as it has to be performed within six hours and the entire procedure takes 20-30 minutes only•Peopleusingspectacles,havehadasuc-cessful eye surgery, and those diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension can also donate their eyes• Peoplewhodieduetoinfections,such as rabies, syphilis, infectious hepati-tis, septicemia, and AIDS, cannot donate.A person who lives in the hearts of mil-lion even after he dies is a legend , a person who makes another person smile even after he dies is a human being per-sonified .This child constantly falls over things in his environment...breaking bones each time. Now we have the medical technol-ogy to restore his sight. When you leave

Don’t just leave a will, leave a vision.


Today in this very special Golden Jubilee session, I will give a speech straight from my heart. I am going

to tell you about the most special per-son in my life –the driving force of my life- the guiding light in my life. Good evening fellow Toastmasters andguests!Iamgoingtotellyouaboutmy maternal grandmother. It is rightly said that children are closer to their grandparents than their parents. But, not everyone has had the privilege of seeing their grandparents. I was among the lucky few. I have been very close to my maternal grandmother and you have to trust me when I tell you that she was the most wonderful woman I have ever met or will ever meet –truly a gem of person. She is physically not around anymore.Fortheworldshemighthavedeparted in Dec 1999. But for my fam-ily and me, she is still alive, holding our hands and leading the way, stopping us from treading the wrong path.I could never bring myself to believe in spirits/ after life. But one incident shook me deep inside. We were on a family trip to Vaishno Devi travelling in an express train. All 20 of us were chatting, moving around; having fun, when suddenly my 50 year old maternal aunt screamed “help” .All of us left whatever we were at and ran to her and ladies and gentlemen, I can guarantee I haven’t seen so much blood oozing out of a person’s body as I saw that day. I haven’t seen such a deep wound ever as I saw that day. A flying stone had come into the train from the tracks maybe

and ripped my aunt’s forehead. None of us were specialists in trauma cases or even remotely associated with medicine, so like any bunch of people, we were flustered and ran in all directions, to all corners, to all compartments, asking for doctors/ first- aid kit. The sight of see-ing someone so close to you bleed pro-fusely is ghastly and more saddening is when you are helpless. We got so many pain relief sprays, ice, and wet cloth from the pantry. But somewhere deep down all of us knew none of this would work. Something stronger was needed.In times of trauma, everybody is expected to do something to help. I ran with my brother- to the main engine pleading the guard to arrange for a doctor at the next big station. Amidst all of this, it irritated me to see my mother sit passively just gaping at my bleeding aunt. It did not strike me then. But it did not take long enough either. Everybody felt something was different about my mother. She was someone else. As unearthly as it might sound, it is true my grandmother had descended and entered my mother’s body. With tears in her eyes, my mother took her head in her own lap and gently started stroking her hair and called her out “Baai”- now that was something only my grandmother would call her. In an instant, she hugged my mother or so to say her mother and cried like a 3 year old- “Maa. Please ease my pain”. Maa, was in tears seeing her daughter in deep pain and said-“You will be alright” through my mum’s body. The scene of my aunt hugging her

own mother whom she had lost 11 years ago, and in someone else’s body- still gives me Goosebumps .All of us were awe-

struck. We knew what had happened but none of us could express anything. Even before the doctors could arrive, the bleeding stopped. Science will not be able to explain this. But it is certain there are so many things we are yet to discover and explain and this is certainly one of them. My aunt climbed the hill the very next day, and she climbed the hill faster than all of us. You may attribute it to the person’s psychologi-cal strength, but I will still choose to believe that maa is here. She is around and she is helping us and the more I believe in her, the stronger her powers get.Every important decision of my life silently passes from my conscience to an unseen power for her approval and God knows that. Today, what I am, I am because of her because every move of my life had been approved by her. I have had so many instances where I am absolutely helpless and she has come to my rescue. I would like to tell you one beautiful reality of life- People who truly love are there with you looking after you no matter where they are. You just need to believe in them and they will come to you whenever you call for them. Always remember- your life doesn’t end on the face of the earth. There is an unending journey waiting for you and to make that pleasant, you need to be a good person in this life because ladies and gentlemen this is just the beginning. My maternal grandma will live in our hearts forever. Would you like to live forever too?Yourcall.

With this speech not only did I become an ACB but my club became

“President’s Distinguished”.But most importantly, this is special to me because it is about the most special person in my life who is the guiding light of my life

Even after the Mortal Demise

TM ANKITA BIHANI, VIT Toastmasters


“If today was your last day, and tomorrow was too late, could you say good-byetoyesterday?”

Listeningto therockbandNicklebacksing these lines, I was inspired to choose this topic.

“Livelifelikeit’syourlastday”

Mr.TMOD, Fellow Toastmasters andfriends, Have you put something important on the backburner today, saying you have all weekend to do it?Did you spend the morning focusing onlessimportantthings?Most of us in this room have already taken tomorrow for granted. Thus we muddle on with our lives, until finally there is no tomorrow.The saying “Live life like it’s your lastday” has a slightly distressing tone to it. Its philosophy has 2 key messages. • First is focusing on themoreimportant things in life. • Thesecond is, if in fact therewas no tomorrow, what would that leave youwith?Only today- the livingpresent.Now let us dig deep into each of the above thoughts.Focusing on important thingsThe most important things in our life are more than just about us. They are about bigger things… about other peo-ple. Important thingsmay be short&long term goals, desires of your loved ones that you want to fulfill, getting that space for yourself to be creative and many more.

The act of replacing such high-priority actions with low-priority tasks, leads to procrastination. We are at times seen spending huge amount of time on trivial things such as thinking about how we were treated badly at a meeting or messing up in a job interview. How to stop procrastinating to truly live each day like our last in spirit? Ihave some suggestions that will help…1. Examine the amount of time you spend procrastinating and doing trivial tasks. Examine the effect it has on you. You will be surprised with the results.2. Set reasonable goals. Have a To-Do list, if you’re not sure what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done. Allow time to complete things. Set time aside for the unexpected.3. You may not want to do your work right now, but you can still think about how to do it more quickly and efficiently. Make mental notes and set a deadline for yourself.4. Approach each task in smallintervals. This will seem less daunting. A half hour or one hour may be a rea-sonable amount of time to concentrate before taking a break. 5. Just get started. Going from doing nothing to doing something is the hardest part. The first step you take is the longest stride. It takes about 15 minutes after starting to become engaged. Once you’ve reached this level of engagement, it becomes hard to stop!

6. Reward yourself along the way. A break or some kind of treat as you prog-ress will keep the energy alive.

7.

Stay focused. Say “no” to things that you get easily distracted. Build confi-dence in your ability to make choices.8. Don’t expect perfection. It’sbetter to try your best than do noth-ing at all. Remember: An imperfect job done today is always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely.

Once we learn to focus on the more important things in life, we can move to the2ndpartof theexpression“Livinglife as if it’s your last” –

The part about living each present day to the fullest…

Sipping that coffee and really tasting it and savoring the aroma in the air. Enjoying your food as you chew it slowly, letting the flavors dance all over your taste buds. Really listening to your friend during conversation instead of thinking ahead of what you’re going to do later on are some of the examples of living your day to the fullest.

The ability to appreciate everything today has to offer, not keeping your head in the future or past always, but keeping it in the present so you don’t miss out on anything is the key to living your life like you’ll never live it twice.

Steve jobs once said “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most impor-tant tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expecta-

The concept of thinking each day is my last, helped me prioritize my activities

and not procrastinate on the important tasks in hand. It also helped me live each day to the fullest, prepare myself to pursue that passion, today!

Live life like it’s your last day

TM ARUN KUMARInfosys Toastmasters Club


tions, all pride, all fear of embarrass-ment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not

to follow your heart.”

To sum it up, I would say that if you combine the habit of • livinginthepresentwith• focusing on the more impor-tant things in your life, it’s a recipe for a life definitely worth

living. This is how you can live each day like it’s your last.

As the same song by Nickleback goes – “You know it’s never too late to shoot for the stars regardless of who you are. So do whatever it takes because you can’t rewind a moment in this life.”

Fear is Ubiquitous

Fear is ubiquitous, it is every-where. It is an emotion so pervasive among human beings that we have created a

whole vocabulary of fear, a dictionary of phobias.Why do we have a dictionary of pho-bias? Because we have such a hugevariety of fears! Possibly, the varietyof fears is equal to the variety of human beings. A look into the diction-ary of phobias reveals strange words like Triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13. The number 13 never meantanyharmtous.Sowhyfear it?A more common word, Clostrophobia, is the fear of closed spaces, like this room. And its antonym, agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces. There is also the fear of public speaking for which we have the word glossophobia. The fear of death, that most common of all fears is the same emotion. The fear of death is special in that it is common to all of mankind.At its root, fear is uncomplicated. It is still an emotion. Like all emotionsit can be controlled, conquered, and extinguished. Its control is, has been and will be a significant part of evolu-tion. If we never overcome our fears we will always remain children, always fearfulof adults.Letuslookatacouple

of historychangingeventswhereFearwas subdued, eliminated and exorcised.About 2268YearsAgo,Alexander theGreat’s father King Philip II was in the market to buy horses. A particu-lar horse – a great black horse with a white patch on its forehead interested him. BUT he wasn’t willing to buy it because his horse tamers couldn’t tame it. Alexander the Great, at that time only 13 years old, offered to tame it. He observed it and found that it had a fear.Itfeareditsownshadow.Dang!Hepitied it. He approached it slowly, talked to it soothingly and turned it away from thesun.Whoa!Itcouldn’tseeitsshad-ow! Alexander then mounted it, rodeit, he named it Bucephalus. Bucephalus accompanied Alexander to all of his important battles in his world conquest and Bucephalus became legend.About 500 years ago, Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador set out to Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men against his commander’s orders, to conquer Mexico. Mexico at that time was ruled by the Aztec Empire, a great empire not different from the Chola Empire that ruled Tamil Nadu. It was so flour-ishing at that time that the capital city, Tenochtitlan alone was inhabited by 200000 inhabitants. Insurmountable Odds, hostile territory, dissension with-

in ranks and above alltheFearof Death.What did Cortes do in this situation? Heburnt his ships as

soon as he landed. He told his men that they either had to die trying to conquer Mexico or die trying to swim back to Spain.Theyconqueredandhow!!!TheAztec Empire was routed, its people decimated and its culture all but wiped out of existence.These 2 history-changing events teach usaquiteafewthingsaboutFearandits conquest. I can summarize 3 points here:1. Wallowing about fear will not help. If Bucephalus hadn’t allowed Alexander to tame him, hadn’t allowed Alexander to turn him away from his own shadow, he wouldn’t have been the most famous horse in history.2. Face your fear, Stare it in theface and chase it away. Cortes’s men were faced with a grim reality. They had to choose death either ways. BUT they chose to go ahead and conquer and now Mexico speaks Spanish because of that.3. Get someone to help you or guide you to overcome your fear. Bucephalus had Alexander, Cortes’s men had Cortes to guide them. So can

TM AEJAz HUSSAINAmazon Chennai

Toastmasters Club

It epitomizes fear. It gives 2 well-known historical examples

to build on the subject. The subject – Fear – is something Toasmasters International helps you to overcome.


In a small picturesque village in the Shvalik range of mountains, south of Himalayas, there was a farmer called Rumy who was

living with a teenager son and fateful donkey whom he called Bahadur.Bahadur, and his son helped him with his farming. By rotating crops with their help he used to earn well and lead a good life. One fine morning Rumi came to stable as usual to fetch Bahadur. But, he was shocked to see the stable empty, Bahadur e was missing. He searched for him, inquired with his son, but to no avail.The son and father went to the farm and when the villagers saw the donkey was missing and inquired “Where is Bahadur of whom you were soproudof?” Rumy replied: He is missing since morning, looks like he ran away. The villager said: What a bad luck. Rumy replied in a calm voice: Good luck,badluck,whatever!Next morning, Rumi and his son got up with sound of a breying of donkies.

They were surprised to see not only Bahadur but, 2 more donkeys. When they went to the farm that morning the same neighbor remarked: What a good luck, now you have 3donkeys. Rumy replied: Good luck, bad luck, whatever!Needing some seeds he asked his son: Go to the market and return soon. Use the donkey.As Bahadur was helping his father, the son rode on one of the 2 donkeys. He returned home late. The farmer was shocked to see him. His leg was bandaged . What happened my son he asked.The son replied: This seems to be a wild donkey. He threw me off.When the villagers heard the news and came to see his son, they again com-mented:What a bad luck, your son is injured using the donkey brought by Bahadur.The farmer replied in a calm voice: Goodluck,badluck,whatever!Very soon the kingdom was attacked by a neighbouring King.

The king of Shivalik issued a Govt. order “There is national emergency. All the youngsters must be drafted in the army immediately.” When the army recruiters

came to Rumy’s house, they found a lame youngman. They did not draft him. All the villagers whose sons were draft-ed, were shocked and surprised. They came to the farmer and said: “Rumy, you are lucky, your son was not drafted today because he is injured.Rumy replied in a calm voice: Good luck,badluck,whatever!Dear toastmasters and guests, did you getthemoralof thestory?Accordingtome the moral of the story is Acceptance, accept whatever happens in our life as pre-ordained. We have no choice other than to accept whatever comes our way, calmly. So, Rajesh if you don’t get a girlfriend or, if your girlfriend desserts you , take the courage and say: Good luck,badluck,whatever!Becausenoth-ing in the world can disturb you except yourself.

Whatever!

This Story conveys a very good moral which is very

close to my heart.

TM RAMESH DASWANIChennai Toastmasters Club

V CONGRATULATIONS!!! On your Competent Communicator Award

TM Karthik PalaniappanTM Pavithra Mohan

TM Srividhyaa Sainathan


This is a true story of a young woman who went through the most gruesome fire. When you read her story,

you’ll realize that your trials are abso-lutely nothing compared to what this young girl went through.It was September 25, 2000. Maricel Apatan was an 11-year old girl in Zamboanga. On that day, this little girl went with her uncle to draw water.Along the way, four men met them. They were carrying long knives. They told her uncle to face down on the ground, and they hacked him on the

neck and killed him.Maricel was in total shock, especially that the men were their neighbors. She tried to escape, but the men ran after her.She cried, “Kuya, ‘wag po, ‘wag n’yo akongtagain!Maawapokayosaakin!”(“Don’tkillme!Havemercyonme!”)But they weren’t listening. With a long knife, a man slashed her on the neck too.Maricel fell to the ground and lost con-sciousness.When she woke up, she saw a lot of blood. She also saw the feet of the men around her, but she pretended to be dead.When they walked away, Maricel ran

back home. But along the way, she saw that both her hands were falling off. Because the men hacked them too. She cried but she kept running.Sometimes, she would faint and fall to the ground. But she’d regain conscious-ness and run again.When she was near her home, Maricel called her mother.Upon seeing her daughter, her mother screamed in terror. She wrapped her bloodied child in a blanket and carried her to the hospital.Herewastheproblem:Fromherhouseto the highway, it was a 12-kilometer

walk. It took them 4 hours just toreach the highway.When they arrived in the hospital, the doctors thought Maricel was going to die. But for 5 hours, they oper-ated on her. It took 25 stitches to stitch together the long knife wound in her neck and back.Maricel barely sur-vived. And she lost both of her hands.

Ironically, the next day was Maricel’s birthday. She was 12 years old.But tragedy didn’t end there. When they went home, they saw their home was gone. It was ransacked and burned down by the goons.Being very poor, Maricel’s family also didn’t have P50,000 for their hospital bills.But God sent many angels along the way to help them.Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, a dis-tant relative, paid for hospital bills and helped them bring the criminals to court. They were sentenced to prison.Today, she’s staying with the nuns at Regina Rosarii with Sr. Eppie Brasil, O.P.

But this is the incredible miracle. Instead of staying down, Maricel kept running.Instead of cursing God why she had no hands, she now uses her wrists in incredible ways that will boggle your mind.Maricel was cited as the most indus-trious, best in computer, and most courteous in the School for Crippled Children. In2008,shegraduatedfromacourseinHotel and Restaurant Management. She even received a Gold medal for Arts and Crafts.In 2011, she finished her education to be a chef. Yes, a Chef without hands.Nothing can stop this young lady from reaching her dreams.Real Winners Don’t Give Up….

Real Winners Do not Give Up

This is a true story that I read on the

internet and wanted to share it with a larger audience.

TM BHUVANA SADANANDAMPaypal Toastmasters Club

CONGRATULATIONS!!! On your Advanced Leadership Award

TM S Varadarajan - ALBTM Avnish Mishra - ALBTM Asha Verghese - ALBTM Sumit Kumar - ALB

TM Aswin Chandrasekharan - ALB

On your Competent leadership AwardTM Bharath Raja

TM Dinesh NatarajanTM Sadeesh KumarTM Senthilnathan M

TM Jayalondon Bobby PullabhotlaTM Kumaravel SivakumarTM Pooja Jaykumar Kabra

TM Ashwin KumarTM Aparajita Lahree

TM Pallavi DaniTM Suketh Kumar Chinchela

Division G Congratulates you and wishes you the best for your journey ahead!

EXCELLENCEThis section throws light upon a few Toastmasters who have excelled at what they have done, and a few others where Toastmasters has helped them Excel! Happy Reading.

OUT OF THIS WORLD @ ORLANDODTM CHENDIL KUMAR

D82 - THE NO. 1 IN THE WORLDDTM NINA JOHN

CREATING THE BEST VOLUNTEERING ORGANISATION

DTM SARO VELRAJANMY TRYST WITH EVALUATONSDTM ADITYA MAHESWARAN

DELEGATION FOREVERTM VIKRAM NAGARAJ

MY JOURNEYTM ROOBALAKSHMI DHANAPAL



“I was extremely shy of public speaking. My friend invited me to attend a Toastmasters meeting. I assured him I would join the club as long as they promised me not to ask me to speak in public.

My friends didn’t keep their word. And here I am. No regrets. Only thanks.” - Michael Notaro, TMI International President welcoming first comers to the International Convention at Orlando,FloridainAugustthisyear.

Well, I had a business engagement in the US in August and oneof thecitiesIwasscheduledtovisitwasTampa,Florida.Ididn’t want to miss this opportunity and signed up for my first conventionandboy,itwasanoutof thisworldexperience!

I did not exactly come in contact with aliens but it was a huge learningexperience!Herearesomesnippets!Plan early and take advantage of some unbelievable offers both by airlines and hotels. I had booked in a resort around five miles from the venue, Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort. However, dear friend TM Guna from Dubai urged me to hop on to the Hilton as the cost of ferrying to and from my resort to the Hilton would have added up a neat pile. Made a lot of sense. Try to find partners as for both single and double occu-pancy, the rates are the same.

The2014conventionisinKualaLumpur.If westartworkingin unison and dialogue with Air Asia, we may be able to pull of an amazing deal ! Iam sure the District big-giesareworkingonthis!

Most of you may have a concern about ‘ what do I do if I land up alone. There will be strangers everywhere.’ Sheer fal-lacy. Don’t forget, you can reach out to each of the three thousand odd who assemble there simply by starting your

conversation with “ TOASTMASTERS” ! Yes, TMs are interested in knowinghow we conduct Table Topics, evaluations, exchanging views about educational sessions......

Educational sessions are revealing but a lot of learning expe-rience happens when you attend the semi final and the finals of the International Speech contest, apart from the obvious pleasure of listening to variety of speakers, you can hone your judging skills by personally marking the judges ballot.

And the TMI store is a treat for members looking for manuals, books and other TM material.My biggest learning at this convention: “ You don’t have to fake an American accent, no need to straddle the stage left and right, prance around or resort to severe contortions in he name of body language to win the speech contest. In fact, the second place winner, Palani, an Indian from Malaysia spoke with a normal Indian accent, did not move around but made a terrific IMPACT with a powerful display of metaphors. In the semi finals, he used two coconuts to indicate ego and he smashed both of them on stage to tell us that we need to smash our egos if we seek to build relationships with spouse, friend, workplace associates or just any one meaningful.In the finals, he wore two different coloured shoes to indicate how we are always try to get into sone one else’s shoes and not living our lives. The impact was phenomenal.

Well, I have to conclude with a bit of humor that Palani used in the semi finals. “ I’ve had several fights with my wife. The first time, SHE WON and the second time, SHE WON and the thirdtime,ILOST!”

Do make the trip. It is an investment not an expense!

Out of this World @ Orlando

Chendil Kumar, DTM is fondly known as CK. His tryst with Chen-nai started at birth, he became Mr. Popular here after his ses-sion on ‘Humor’ in 2009 ‘Comquest’. He is a trainer by profes-sion, a TEDx speaker and a wonderful and loved human being.

DTM CHENDIL KUMAR


August 2012 – I was invited to D56 for a District Marketing Workshop, and introduced to the gathering as District Governor of D82, thenumber1districtforfouryearsinarow!Ifeltin

that moment a surge of pride that I had never felt earlier-an epiphany that really jolted me. Toastmasters as a formal entity has been in Colombo and Mangalore for many years, but more as a single club rather than as a movement. It was in 2003 that several leaders got together and decided to band the few scattered clubs across the sub-continent into a formal Toastmasters District.Bangalore was the hub of Toastmasters by then, and leaders such as Ian Faria and Balraj Arunasalam took the initiativeto create a Territorial Council and send a formal proposal to TMI.District 82 (P)was created as aprovisional entity,butin one year we were able to prove that we did not need the Provisional tag and that we could sustain the Toastmasters as a District. Bosco Abraham was the first District Governor, and the Chennai Toastmasters club was the first signatory to the resolution asking for all clubs to join and form a district. Deepak Menon was one of the leaders that took Toastmasters D82 to theNumberOne position, a ranking based on themembership growth and number of clubs in a District, along with the educational awards. I remember how these leaders would travel across the district, as far-flung as it was then, all at their own expense, and sacrificing their own family and work-ing time –from Delhi to Chennai, to Mangalore, Hyderabad and Colombo.Looking back, itwas an amazing achievement forD82, thenew kid on the block, to have consistently beaten the other Districts till last year. In fact, when I met the DG of D79, he

told me they had only one point in their annual agenda: beat D82andbecomeNumberOne.Theyhadaclear-cutstrategy-achieve the district goals in six months, and accumulate extra points the other six, which they did.D82successhasbeenattributedtomanyfactors,andIwouldrank the quality of the leadership right at the top. Every single one of the leaders we had from every single region mentioned, had leaders whowere devoted to the cause, andwere (are)passionate about Toastmasters. We started so many clubs, we actuallyhadtosplitintotwo-D82andD41,andtalksareonto facilitateonemore! In fact, thenumbershavebeenbotha blessing and a bane for us: the numbers helped us become Number One, but sustaining the membership and number of clubs becomes difficult without sufficiently trained officers and leaders at the club level.Passionate leaders and members are the heart and soul of the Toastmasters movement. The thousands of members who have attended Toastmasters meetings and become leaders in their own right show us how Toastmasters became such an integral part of our lives.The leaders of District 82have alegacy to pass on to the next generation –creating more great leaders.

D82 - No.1 in the WorldDTM NINA JOHN


15 mantras to create the BEST volunteering organization – Saro Velrajan

On a Sunday evening I received a call from Harini Srinivasan “Saro!IneedanarticlefromyouforSignatureandthetopicis...howtocreatetheBESTdivision?”.Thetopicforcedmeto do a deep introspection. I started listing down the impor-tant things that made Division G, the #1 division in District 82 - teamwork, hardwork, delegation, patience, not givingup, aiming high etc., If I start to describe them all, it is either going to be boring for the readers or Harini Srinivasan will have to print a 1000 pages magazine. So, I decided to list the 15 mantras to create the BEST volunteering organization, based on my experiences as a Division Governor last year.

1. If the team WINS, you WIN. Celebrate your team’s vic-tory and not yours.

2. Always look at the glass half-full, instead of half empty -leadersarealwaysoptimistic.Leaderisasellerof hope.

3. Volunteers cannot be fired. You’ve to maintain good relationship with all kinds of volunteers. Whenever

people create problems, focus on the problems and not on the people.

4.Be positive, talk positive and act positive. Never bad mouth others.

5. Small things make perfection, but perfection isn’t a small thing. So, always aim for perfection. At the same time,

provide a platform for your members to fail, safely.

6. None of us can achieve what all of us can achieve together - TEAM

WORK is very important.

7. Small actions x Lots of People =BIG Change. Involve people from all cross sections and not just from your buddy list.

8.Get committed people, give them responsibilities, and trust them to

do their work. There are times when it is easier for you to do things yourself. But, still involve people and provide them an opportunity to learn.

9. Don’t just delegate a task to a super star, create a super star by delegat-

ingatask.Lookforcommitted members who’ll learn the most by doing some-thing. Don’t just look for DTMs who are already established and who have already performed the task several times in the past. The motivation levels of a new member will be very high when compared to that of the DTM.

10. When YOU do it, they’ll FOLLOW - Lead byexample.

11. Appreciate even the smallest of the accomplishments. When you appreciate be Specific, Positive, Open and

Timebound(SPOT).SPOTrecognitionshelpyouinbringingrepeatable good behaviors.

12. Stay connected with people and keep them informed - Maintain transparency as much as possible. Use

social media to connect people.

13. Advicescomeforfree-Likeaswan,whichcandiffer-entiate milk from water, take only the GOOD advices and ignore the REST.

14.Focusonyourmembersandfollowallthenumbers.Establish metrics to monitor the performance of your organization and continuously monitor them. Share the metrics with your team periodically, so that they know where they stand and where they should go.

15. Your title is for a year, but the relationship is going to last longer. Don’t let your title come in between YOU

and YOUR relationship with people.

Creating the Best Volun-teering Organisation

Saro Velrajan, DTM - His TM innings in chennai started quite slowly but cometh the hour, cometh the man! As a Div. Gov. he took his division to the No.1 position and exemplified calm and servant leadership.

DTM SARO VELRAJAN


My Tryst with Evaluations

Aditya Maheswaran, DTM has been the President, Area Gov. and Asst. LGET. He is very popular for his evaluations and has won at the District Level Evaluations Contest. He is also a TEDx speaker and an active member of both district 82 and 41. He Talks about his Contest Journey here.

DTM ADITYA MAHESWARAN

The learning curve begins - 2006I don’t exactly remember when I delivered my first evaluation. I’m guessing it was some time in 2006. I also don’t remember whether that

speakereverreturnedtoToastmasters!ButwhatIdoremem-ber is what that single experience taught me. Evaluation till then to me was another chance to go on stage and deliver a good speech. Over the course of my first 10 evaluation expe-riences, I learnt that evaluation is not about the evaluator, it neverwasandneverwillbe!Evaluationisaboutthe ‘evalu-ated’. Focusingunconditionally on the speaker results in agreat evaluation. This, till date, has been the biggest learning I’ve had in evaluations. Each time I get on stage, I still keep remindingmyself of that!The learning curve continues:2007-2008–Howtoevalu-ate!2007 was my first Evaluation contest experience. I was rusty at the club and area contests and scampered through to the Division contest. I had 2 weeks between the Area and Division contest. Those 2 weeks re-oriented me as an evaluator. I reached out to senior Toastmasters for advice. I researched on how to structure an evaluation, tried out dif-ferent formats, techniques and transitions. I still remember the 30 minute call with DTM JP the night before the contest. And next morning, I delivered with all the new knowledge I had received - which TM Abraham still tries to convince me, asmybestevaluationtilldate!The learning curve gets interesting:2008-2010-Howelsetoevaluate!2008 evaluation contests taught funny lessons. I won thehumorous speech contest at the Division level in Kerala and losttheEvaluationcontest!Lalitha,whohadagoodhumor-ous speech, lost the humorous speech contest and won the Evaluationcontest.Contestsalwaysthrowthesesurprises!After that, I was more determined and served as an evaluator innearly80%of myclubmeetingsduring2008–2010.Thisis the period I started experimenting with evaluations. The questions I tried to answer were ‘How to add value to the speaker?WhenandHowdospeakers remember feedback?,How to get the audience engrossed?’. I experimentedwithAcronyms, Poetic rhymes, Rap, Topsy turvy, Compartment

approach – and realized that so much value can be packed inside 3 mins – just by creative structuring.The learning curve gets better: 2010-2012 – There and back again!After a break in contesting due to Leadership roles, itwasrefreshing to be back in the contesting mode in 2010. I was much more confident than as a 20 year old in the 2007 sea-son. Experiences as the Area Governor, Contest organizer and Judging in that period taught me more nuances of evalua-tion and the judge’s ballot. I won the Club, Area, Division (Eloquence) and District (Reverberations) semi-finals inMumbai. I was placed 2nd in the finals and could not reach the pinnacle. The 2011 season was even more satisfying for me personally. I won the club, area and Division contests with a more natural and at-home feeling performing evaluations. Epilogue: The learning still continues!If TM meetings help you discover yourself, Contests help you re-invent yourself. Though I have detailed my jour-ney in Evaluation contests alone, every contest, including International speech, Humorous and TT has taught me huge lessons and pushed me to be a better speaker, just as the lead-ership roles pushed me to learn leadership.Evaluation is both Art and Science. The path of mastering evaluation includes learning both ‘the Art of Delivery’ and ‘vthe Science of Speaking’. It is a journey which will end only when every evaluation of ours transforms the speaker profoundly. Till that point, we keep evaluating so many times, torealizehowignorantstillweareaboutevaluating!Sotothinkof it,mylearningcurvehasjustbegun! Division E conference – 2007 Eloquence – Eval winner - 2010


My Journey

Roobalakshmi Dhanapal began her journey with Madras Toast-masters and she is one of the best examples of the transforma-tion one can undergo through Toastmasters. From someone who wasn’t able to talk well in English, she has transformed to someone who wins Table Topics Ribbons!

TM ROOBALAKSHMI DHANAPAL

A Year ago, when I was in final year - Masters in Computer Applications. There were many doubts in my mind on each and every work. When I stepped into this world of

Toastmasters, it turns into attainment. There were many reasons for each and every one to enter into this world. mainly, fear of public speaking. But I came to Toastmasters to speak in English. When I got Distinction in all the subjects, I struggled to get even pass marks in English. I could prove the critical math-ematics problems and theorems but I failed to answer English Grammar. My own parents were ashamed of me.I got to know about this non profitable organization through my brother. Attended three months of meetings as a guest and finally joined. Initially I started to do vari-ous leadership roles. I loved the Timer role much and played the role more than 25 times. Slowly I started to do projects. Every single project taught me a big lesson. Even a mosquito doesn’t get a slap on the back until it starts to work. I have attended the meetings week after

week.Completed my graduation with many dreams about the IT world but without a job. Think! What would a jobless Toastmaster do?J.Yes, I started to attend Demo Meets, Corporate Meetings in week days with parallel job hunting and travelled around Tamilnadu for Demo and Contests. With the help of my mentor and my lovable Toastmasters friends I slowly started to overcome and conquer my fear of speaking in English. I have been the Target speaker in nearly 15 contests, and that gave me the confidence to stand in front of people.And today here, I am happy to pen for this Division G. The great Achievements involve great risk. If we have more involvements on what we are doing it doesn’t go wrong. We may not be there yet, but we are closer than what we were yesterday. When we have Perseverance on all the work with Perfection, it turns and ends up as the phenomenal work.

Mentor’s Empowerment -a true story about “Delegation Forever”

TM VIKRAM NAGARAJ

I am sure every one of us knows something about the Guru-Shisya parampara. I am re-emphasizing the same story to empower the Mentee-Mentor connection: the toastmasters’ way. Today, Division ‘G’ is mentoring the

newlyformedDivision‘M’&‘N’.

This club story germinates in the prestigious Division – ‘G’ in the year 2009. The charter of Sysbiz Toastmasters Club at the Madras Race Club illustrated‘Pomp&Show’.Thepresidentof thenewlycharterclub, Rajiv Gabriel was instrumental in setting up ‘The Sysbiz

Toastmasters Corporate Club’ aim to improve by Communication &LeadershipProgram.Allthe senior toastmasters whom I call ‘Mentors’ were part of the club charter ceremony. Club boosted about having‘greatmentors’likeDTMBalraj&DTMNinaJohnforthe Sysbiz club charter.

Sysbiz Toastmasters became a medium for me to understand


Rajiv Gabriel : There once lived a smart, wise and motivated man who never took no for an answer. He was the sole reason behind a corporate club being formed and charted in their organization. A dedicated toastmaster, humble human being, simple and friendly person - A toastmaster who cannot be easily forgotten ; a man who left behind a legacy. Today he is a living legend.LateRajivGabriel.

thelogicof fun&learning.Myperceptiontowardstoastmas-ter is of ‘a true treasure trove of knowledge’ to turn you into a good listener. The mentors in 2009 were DTM Nina John, RaviBaskaran,LalithaGiridhar,AbrahamZach,C.T.Thomas,Aditya, Sastharam and more…were instrumental in shaping this club into good standard and moving DCP into President Distinguished status by 2010.

My mentor, Rajiv Gabriel had a knack to access “the go-getters”. You can find such “Go-getters” in both corporate & community clubs. ’Rajiv’s gratitude’ was always with thego-getters who transform life to improve. Year 2010 saw another feather added to this club with able support of mentors. Ovations 2010 saw Conference Chair DTMNina John & Co-chair Rajiv Gabriel rock theshow along with the other Toastmasters. The conference was a trendsetter in a way, with live broadcast by ‘104.8Chennai Live & and interview telecast on NDTV Hindu’Metro’. The presence of Mark Brown ‘World Champion of Public Speaking 1995 ’ at Ovations2010 set a new pace for Toastmasters conferences in India & Sri Lanka; a learningexperience in moments of enjoyment. The P.R skills of Ovations conference chair & co-chair inmaking Chennai Ovations2010 a popular event in the toast-mastering fraternity arena of Chennai-Bangalore-Kochi-and toalloverIndia&Sri-Lanka.Trulyremarkable! I can still visualize the “Alchemy of Articulation’ - the awe-some power of Toastmasters@Ovations 2010.It was a felici-tous combination of club-to-club learning, teaming up to chipinwiththebest&movetheyoungclubsontothepath“WhereLeadersaremade.”

At Sysbiz Toastmasters Club ; This Mentor-Mentee relation-shipstartedinFeb2009asMenteeclub–to-MentorclubinDivisionGhasmovedby‘Delegate&Empower’toforma-tionof twowonderfulclubsKCG(nowDiv.N)&Virtusa(nowDiv.M)Toastmasters.Now thisclubagain turns intothe ‘Mentee’ mode in Division M by Oct,2012.

However the delegation process continues: the new men-tors atKCG&Virtusa for year 2012-13 are the teams of AreaGovernorSuganthiPeriasamy&AreaGovernorRajeevNambiar continuing the mentoring programs. Working in tandem with two different Areas in two different divisions in a District is an art by itself; a true learning experience. Kudos toDivisionGformentoringnewlyformedDivisions‘M’&‘N’- I call thisprogramof DivisionGas theHLDP ‘HighLevelDelegationProcess.’ Good Mentors like my Mentor Rajiv Gabriel have a knack to fuel thementoring process of ‘*Delegate& empower’ andget appreciation and compliment to the entire team working together. A Great Mentor takes care of you like a parent, treats you like a friend and makes you feel like his/her peer. A great mentor’s delegation process never ends…

Choose your right mentor and see your delegation power as a good mentee forever. This real story can be narrated by goodmentees young&old at all Toastmasters clubs; I call them with gratitude “the Go-getters” from club charter –to- sustain the existence of club –to- sustaining the glory of the same club.

CAT EDC-I Toastmasters Club

When and where do we meet? Every alternate Thursday in Ascendas 7th floor from 2.30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. Hey, you could join us on October 18th for our 87th session!

What do we do? We do what all Toastmasters do- Speak and have fun!

What are our achievements? We have provided a platform to make the good become better and the better become the best. We also use a lot of cliches.

WRITE A STORY CONTESTToastmasters are not just speakers or leaders, but they are brilliant Story Tellers as well. HERE IS THE PROOF! Results of Write a Story Contest are Here!

DAHI BHEL PURITM RAGHAVAN SRIDHAR

LOGICA CHENNAI TOASTMASTERS DIVISION N

RAINDROPS AND TEARSTM SHARANYA SEKARAN

APIIT TOASTMASTERS, SRI LANKA

WHISPER LULLABIESTM HAMSINI RADHAKRISHNAN

SHELL CHENNAI TOASTMASTERSDIVISION G

FIRST PLACE

THIRD PLACE

SECOND PLACE



Itwas4.30pmandRahulwashun-gry. After his breakfast he had not had anything and it was telling on him. The date on his iPhone

read Feb 28, 2014, Friday. Strangely,his hunger now was reminding him of memories he had long chosen to forget. Memories, he thought he had success-fully kept aside. Memories that he knew would have changed his very life had he let them. Driving his Honda City towards his favorite “Bombay Chat” he was inexplicably caught now in these memories. It was a woman. The most beautiful woman he had ever met in his 25years. You wouldn’t say she was the prettiest physically, but there was something mys-tical about her. The way she walked, the way she spoke, the way she parted her hair that obediently fell on her eyes every 5 minutes. Gosh! She was a womanbeyond compare. She had walked into his life like a gentle hurrying breeze and walked out of it not too differently. It had all begun with an office com-municator chat. A lot can happen over a Communicator session and one such conversation had changed everything. He had joined an internationally renowned club “Toastmasters” in his office.TheclubhelpsbuildLeadersandmakes an individual a better commu-nicator and an effective leader. As part of the club’s activities one has to dish out speeches based on various syllabi. It was during his 10th speech, a landmark occasion for a toastmaster, that destiny interfered.Rahul’s club was celebrating their 50th consecutive meeting and toastmasters from all over Chennai had been invited. Rahul was dressed in a shiny black 3 piece suit and it was also his first time in a suit. Understandably he was ner-vous. He knew he looked good. He was prepared, yet more nervous than he had

ever been.He did well that night. His objective was to inspire his audience and he achieved it in style. So much so that even two days after the event the acco-lades were flowing in. Complete strang-ers were messaging him with encour-aging words. And so when a new ping arrived from a person named Swetha on his communicator window, he guessed it was another fan. He responded to her and the chat was on. But just five min-utes into the chat he realized this woman was different. “I couldn’t help but notice that your left hand was inside your suit pockets all the time during the speech. ‘Toastmasters’ teaches you stage manners first. So ges-ture could only mean two things, wither you were scared chicken that day or you are an arrogant and disrespecting guy. Whatever it is, change your attitude dude. Ciao” she said.Bam! The window was closed and shehad bid a bye. Rahul was fuming. How could a stranger speak such stuff ?Scared?Arrogant?Boy!Thosewereseri-ouswords!How could thiswoman saysuch stuff about a person she knew nothingabout?Preposterous!Hisbraintold he had accepted all the accolades that had poured in and it was only right on his part to accept criticism equally graciously, but his heart would have none of this argument. He wanted to confront this Swetha character and ask her how she could accuse him such whenshehardlyknewhim?So the next day, first thing he did the morning was to open his communicator to ping her but he found a note against her name that said she would be out of office for the next 10 days. He was angry on her now. She had accused him and when he wanted to confront her she had gone on a vacation. Now he had to wait for 10 days with the same emotions

he had right now to be able to put up a decent argument. He was now irritated with this woman even before he knew anything about her.

Ten days went by and Rahul had almost forgotten Swetha when his communica-tor blinked orange again. It was her, she had returned to office. Their chat start-ed. They were arguing with each other for the entire day. Soon this became a ritual. They were working in different floors and in different projects. Their competencies were different, their tastes were different. She was a year older than he was; yet, Rahul discovered they were of the same batch and they Both were engineering graduates. He found her attractive. He had never seen her but he could feel her words all around him and one fine day they met.

They had met at “Bombay Chat” and sat down to eat. She asked him what he’d like to have when the waiter asked for the orders.

“Hmmm, either a Dahi Puri or a Bhel those are my favorites…. Well, I will go with a Dahi Puri” said Rahul. “Give him a Dahi Puri please” said Swetha. “YouMa’am?”askedthewaiter.She smiled and looked at Rahul with a glint in her eye. He didn’t understand. She turned to the waiter and said “Dahi BhelPuri”!!Bang!Heknewthathaddoneit.Hehadfallen in love. Such a silly thing to fall for he knew, but his heart simply wouldn’t listen. The way she balanced his tastes, combined his favorites and smiled at

Dahi Bhel Purithe love story of a Toastmaster

TM RAGHAVAN SRIDHAR


him, did it. He knew she had done it on purpose. Why else would she smile at him like that? That one gesture wasenough for him!For long he hadbeengoing out with girls. He had often had a snack with women and contemplated loudly on his favorite dishes, before selecting one. But never had anyone donethis.Hehadfallenforher!

And she had fallen for him too. He knew it. Their relationship blossomed from that point on. Phone calls, VoIP calls, text messages, emails, Communicator chats… every medium became their ally. Neither of them told the other, but they really didn’t have to. One year went by like a flash and their relationship deep-ened.

And then something happened. Swetha came to him and told him she was get-ting married. She told him that her father had met with an accident and a young doctor had saved his life. In return for the doctor’s favor her dad had promised his daughter. She handed him an invita-tion for her marriage.

Rahul thought he had lost his mind, he thought all these were a very bad dream but there was no escape. This was hap-pening to him. He saw the world crash-ing on him. He pleaded, he begged, he desperately called out to her to stop this but she was firm. Her eyes told him she wanted to be his but she was powerless.

And thatwas it! She resigned from thecompany andmoved away. Life turnedupside down for Rahul. He did not

succumb in self pity but rath-er worked positively. He had turned every negative emotion

on Swetha in a positive direction and his career progressed. As a toastmaster Rahul flourished too.He looked at his own reflection in the rear view mirror and smiled. He had changed, his natural smile had disap-peared. It was then that it stuck him, it was not hunger that had reminded him of the past, it was the date. It was her birthday today. He brushed away the thought and told himself he had truly gotten over her.

He went inside the eatery and sat down.“What can I serve you sir?” asked thewaiter.

“Dahi Bhel Puri” a voice from behind him said. Rahul froze. Every nerve, every sinew, every muscle, every fiber in his body stopped functioning. He knew that voice. This voice was not only etched in his memory but was embedded in his very soul.

It stunned him. Rahul turned around. It took so much of effort from him and when he looked back, he saw her. The most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was in a saree, peacock blue color. Her face was glowing and her hair was the same, falling into her eyes for her to part them with grace. She was stand-ing behind him looking straight into his eyes!!

She had gained put on little weight and it made her look even more beautiful, even more majestic. Age it seemed had stayed away from her. On her left was a man, her husband, Rahul figured. He couldn’t bear to look at him. This was the guy who had saved a man’s life and taken away his.

Rahul stood up and the very effort cost him so much. He wanted to walk away but his body wouldn’t move. Then she spoke, “I never married Rahul. I am still your…. Well I still am unmarried.”

It took Rahul full 5 minutes to compre-hend what she told him. 1000 questions popped up in his head and left him

dazed. His heartbeat was getting louder and he felt paralysed.“I am sorry things have been the way they have. I went back to my parents and spoke with them. It took me a long time to convince them Rahul. Ankit here was the major reason I could even convince them.Andoh!ThisisAnkit,thedoctorwho saved my father and the man who was to marry me”.

The last thing Rahul wanted was to shake this A’s hand. But he did. He was still not exactly sure what was happening but decided to let things roll.

“I explained everything to Ankit and he understood me. We became friends. With his help I was able to stop the mar-riage. My parents were angry and didn’t allow me back to Chennai. But here I am now Rahul. Back to where all this start-ed. I have come back, the same girl who bid farewell to you 2 years back. I never toldyouRahul….ILoveYou...Willyouplease…marryme???”askedSwetha.

Rahul stood there; he heard what she spoke but didn’t understand. He saw her but couldn’t believe any of this. He saw Ankit whispering something to Swetha and leaving the place.

“Will you accept me Rahul? Will youmarryme?”sheaskedagain.

“Well, you will have to ask my wife about this” Rahul said. He had recovered par-tially when Ankit went off but was still groggy.

“Excuseme!?”shesaid

Rahul turned away and sat on a chair and didn’t respond. She walked over to his table and sat facing him, “Excuse me?Whatdidyousay?”sheaskedandlookedinto his eyes, actually she invaded into his heart through his eyes

“OkFINE!I’mnotmarried,buthey!Ihave a girl friend and we are marrying soon” Rahul said. He wanted to hit back at her and this was all his weak heart

“Dahi Bhel Puri” a voice from behind him said. Rahul froze. Every nerve, every sinew, every mus-cle, every fiber in his body stopped functioning.


could come up with. “Ahem..Then?”sheteasedhim.“Alright alright don’t look at me like that, I am just flirting with her but hey Iwillsoonmakehermarryme!Wannabet??”heblushed“I am a friend of yours on facebook Rahul, under a different name. I have

been looking into a part of your life everyday and I know you have been single all along. I know you love me. I know you are angry. But will you for-givemeRahul?Icouldhavecomebackto you earlier, I could have contacted you, explained to you, but I didn’t want to leave you again. So I had to make

sure. I promise I will make it up to you.WillyoumarrymeRahul,please?”asked Swetha

Rahul looked into her eyes for a full minute, turned away and called out to the waiter “Two Dahi Bhel Puris please…”

Whisper LullabiesTM HAMSINI RADHAKRISHNAN

It wasn’t often that Caitlin went to France on vacation. In fact,she hadn’t had a vacation in so long that she considered this small

cottage in Carcassonne a blessing. It wasn’t too rundown, just enough that one person could comfortably live in it without the walls giving in. “Rural France is just the antidote I need formy frayed nerves,” she thought, as she unpacked her meagre belongings. She couldn’t afford to stay longer than a few weeks at best; she had more deadlines-filled, stressful days of work ahead of her. This was exactly why she’d taken a fewweeks off. Like every office-goerwho eventually needs a break, she saved up her vacation days every year and went on mini-vacations. She had friends who’d usually accompany her, but this time of the year, everyone had other commit-ments, making her the only one with the desiretowanttogotoFrancedespitetheless than enthusiastic response when she mentioned her half-formed plans.

She’d chosen Carcassonne after a lot of deliberation. She didn’t fancy walking the streets of Paris alone, giving romance a skip this time, neither did she want to visit

smaller towns with creperies around every corner. What she

wantedwastogotooneof France’smany villages from where its real wine came from – full-bodied and heady – where she could drink at noon and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Carcassonne was just the place, the bonus being that it was surrounded by medieval fortifications, complete with castles, sculptors and artistes who gaze at the tall structures and paint them. Or that’s what she read in the tour guides anyway. Booking a ‘rustic-looking’ cottage online, she dreamed of walk-ing along in narrow streets, munching on baguettes and revelling in the time she could spend discovering the almost fairytale-like town.She immediately settled down to rest, putting away her suitcase in the dusty cupboard. It was late evening and she had no intention of hurrying. She want-ed long baths, long walks and long lunches and she wouldn’t ruin it by jump-ing in her rental and putting X’s on her map where she’d been or updating her Facebookstatuswithcheck-ins.

It had been nearly a year of pacing and she wanted leisure, tranquillity and the peace that comes by knowing that she won’t wake up to a shrill alarm clock and a hurriedly-made coffee. She fell

asleep, dreaming of medieval suits of armour, antique chests that would look ridiculous in her flat, but belonged in here

and the satisfying dent that her head left in the soft pillow.Several hours later she felt her scratchy throat and groaned. She’d forgotten to keep water by her bedside and now she had to fumble around in the pitch dark to find a jar. She knew she’d seen it by the table, but in her sleep-fog, she couldn’t remember where. Stumbling at the entrance of her bedroom door, she hobbled to the kitchen door, bunching her loose nightie by her ankles so she could walk faster. Reaching the table, she took quick, deep gulps of water, sighing into the jug. It wasn’t until she looked outside the broken kitchen window from across the living room that she saw the dark, spreading splatter on the eider-down. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes since the thing that caused the disturbing stain was splayed along-side the path on the other side of the kitchen window. She abruptly shuddered and clutched to the jug like a lifeline. She could hear faint ringing in her ears and a taste that can only be described as bile rising at the back of her tongue. She inched towards the cracked window like she was in a trance.She had the strangest feeling that she had seen the splatter just then or was it

When she stopped meters away from the body lying face down, she sensed the dread replaced with an inevitable calm that comes from meeting someone you knew for years.


hoursago?Shecouldn’tseemtorecall.It was all she could do not to rush away because she knew what she might find on the path. She went around the backdoor, squaring herself to see what might be a stray cat caught in a fight or a rodent thrown against her window by someone who obviously thought it was an unwelcome pest. But on no account did she believe her own explanation and focused instead on the dread that refused to leave her gut. When she stopped meters away from the body

lying face down, she sensed the dread replaced with an inevitable calm that comes from meeting someone you knew for years. “This is absurd,” she thought, “How could I possibly know this abandoned corpse?” She starts tocough, then smothers it down, looking at the congealed mess, not wanting to inhale any residual odor. She almost glided towards the corpse and gently tried to wipe away the blood pooled beside it and turned it over.The strangled squeak of recognition

was drowned in the flood of memories that she knew were always there, but didn’t want to revisit. It had happened, that was enough. Caitlin had seen a lot of strange things, but looking down at her own body was an experience she wasn’t prepared for.She didn’t know if it had been several minutes or hours, but she stopped star-ing and just wanted to leave. She saw her abandoned suitcase in the bedroom and walking past it, she keeps on walking.

Raindrop And TearsTM SHARANYA SEKARAM

She watched the rain pouring down outside the window of the dingy-one bed roomed apart-ment while curled up in the

window seat, watching the swollen drops fallen with a soft “plonk” against the glass and inching their way down until they were slowly swallowed up by the gap between the window and the frame.

She saw her own face, the heavy set almond shaped eyes, the oval shaped face, and the cupid brow lips- reflected in the glass back at her. Suddenly she real-ized with a kind of detached surprise the trail of moisture tricking down her cheek wasn’t a raindrop on the reflection but a tear running down her face.

Drawing her knees up to her chest, she allowed her thoughts to wander and as though of their own accord they stalled on the day she felt was the day that everything had begun. The day she met Paul. A faint smile crossed her lips as she remembered how she hadn’t even noticed him at first; he had been just another student sitting across from her in the university library reading tables. She had glanced up from her book to find him staring at her with the most fascinated expression, his book lying forgotten in one hand and his chin rest-ing on the other. Annoyed when he dint

look away even when she caught his eye, she had arched one eyebrow. He started, and flushed under her irritated, question-ing gaze.“I’m so sorry” he had said, “its just you’ve got the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen”.She hadn’t said a word, and her face has registered no change in expression; save for the fact that her arched eyebrow had returned to its original place, and she commenced reading her book. But inside she found herself recalling his sleepy, half-crooked smile, and the way his eye had a kind of glint. She caught a smile that was beginning to spread across her face and bit her lip guiltily like a small child caught with their hand in the cookiejar.Firmlyforcingherself backtoHemmingway, she didn’t allow herself to notice his presence again until an hour or so later when the sound of a chair being scraped backwards told her that he had just vacated his seat.

The next day, as she walked along the pathways of the campus she had all but forgotten abut her encounter with him. As she walked enjoying the feeling of the cool breeze against her face, she suddenly felt something or someone tug on the duppatta of her shalwar kameez. Whirling around she found herself face-to-face with the admirer of her eyes

from the previous day. He flashed a bright, mischievous grin.“Hey beautiful” he said “Do you know what was on my mind almost the entire dayyesterday?”She maintained a cool façade but inside her heart was pounding.“No,what?”sherepliedkeepingavague-ly amused smile lingering on her face.“Your beauty” he said, “and I was won-dering if you would like to have coffee withmethisafternoon?MynameisPaulby the way”

And that had been the start of four months of what could only be described as a whirlwind romance. That one date had been what she considered the open-ing wedge of what had split the life as she knew it in two halves that had become unrecognizable from each other. In the first month of her relationship with Paul she realized exactly how dif-ferent their lives were. Paul was the only child of parents whom from what she could gather seemed so wrapped up in their own lives that they had failed to


build any real relationship with their son. So from a young age Paul had surrounded himself with other young rich kids and begun spending his years partying through the night with friends, women and the expensive lifestyle. But coming from such sheltered home, she barley understood this kind of lifestyle and looking back she realized that was the power that he had held over her and that was the cause of how quickly every-thing had spun out of control.

It began when he would make fun of her traditional style of dressing which her parents had made clear to her was the only acceptable way she could dress. So to please Paul she would purchase clothes she would otherwise never, even in her wildest dreams think of wearing and began changing secretly at his or his friends places before they would go out. Staying out late became less of an issue for her as she became more accustomed to lying to her parents. She told them she was staying with friends, and rela-tives. She sneaked out of the house at all times of the day and night; she claimed that due to the demands of her degree she was expected to take (fake) tripsconstantly.

It was about two months into her rela-tionship when her parents first informed her of the

proposal that they had received. Amir

sounded like the typical “good catch”. He was two years older than she was, studying for his medical degree in one of the leading universities, his father was a well-known doctor and his son would be joining his prosperous practice as soon as he graduated.

The first meeting required a great deal of skilful lying and planning on her part. Knowing that she had no choice in this matter she had agreed to the meeting and had hastily told Paul that her parents were taking her out of town ensuring that he wouldn’t impose on the meeting. Then she had slipped into the character of the “good daughter” and dressed carefully for the meeting.

Amir had seemed nice enough, but sev-eral times during their conversation she found herself mentally measuring him up to Paul. She was unable to see the genuine kindness in Amir’s eyes, as she was too busy noticing how the lacked the mischievous sparkle of Paul’s that she found so sexy.

From then on her life began to spiralout of control. Her parents and Amir’s parents formally agreed to the union of their families and preparations were being made on one side for the wed-ding. Terrified that her relationship with Paul would have to end she only became

more splitting her life and began to give more and more of herself to the man who would later throw her away like a rag.

When the thun-derbolt struck 5

months later, a month before her wed-

ding, it stuck with maximum impact and destroyed her life as she knew it. The second she found out she ran to Paul’s flat in the hope that he would stand by her. As she entered his bedroom she switched on the lights to find that Paul wasn’t spending the night alone. Her mind whirling with the way her life was quickly spinning out of control, she left in a sate of shock, his last words still echoing in her head. “Well you dint actually think you were theonlyonedidyou?”Telling her parents the next morning was worse. Her mother broke into wal-ing sobs while her father simply left the room to return ten minutes later. He told her that he no longer would consider her a child of his and that she was to leave the house within a week. He said that he would pay the rent of a flat for her to live in and also provide her an allowance on which she would be expected to live and that she was not to communicate them in any way, and if she did he would withdraw the funding he was providing immediately. She left that night.

Four months later she led what couldonly be described as a dismal life. She worked as a Sales girl in a department store as she has never finished her degree. The flat in which she lived was in one of the more run-down areas in town a far cry from what she had been brought up in and was used to.

Gazing at the rain falling faster, she struggled to choke back a sob when suddenly she felt her breath whoosh through her and her hands flew down. The baby had just kicked for the first time.

...quickly spinning out of control, she left in a sate of shock, his last words still echoing in her head. “Well you dint actually think you were the only one did you?”

Q: In the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Steven Spielberg created history for the first and only time by featuring two of the most prominent cartoon characters in the same frame. This portion of the movie lasted exactly 30 seconds. Who were the two prominent cartoon characters?

A: Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse


Toastmasters in HeavenTM SANDEEP KANABAR

“Grrrrr…. Grrr….Grrrr….” I was snoring loudly sleeping like a buf-

falo on a gentle Saturday morning and suddenly I had a dream….

I was entering the gates of Heaven and God was standing at the gate to welcome me with a big smile and open arms. “Welcome to the new millennium… 2300 AD“, flashed a sign board at the gates and lots of celebrations were going on, marking the onset of year 2300…

Instead of being happy about entering heaven, I was sad. With my eager and curious eyes I asked “God, did I get to marry that cute gal on whom I had a secretcrush?DidIgetachancetohave2cutekidswithher?”

With twinkles in his eyes, God replied “Son, we are running late for a meeting. Once the 2 hours meeting is over, I shall answer all your queries. Come now, it’s almost time for the meeting to begin”.

Just then I saw a beautiful damsel, tall, slim with slender curves, free flowing hair, beautiful ear-rings, colorful bangles, flashy nail polish. My heart skipped a beat and I instantly fell in love [or infatu-ation] with her forgetting my earthly crush.

“God,whoisthisbeautifulwoman?”

“Oh, she is Menaka, the eternal Apsara.”

“IsVishwamitrasagearound?”Iquizzed.

“No, he’s busy in penance.”

“Cool,” I thought, “Green signal. I have abrightchance!”andlookedatGod.

God smiled and shook his head.

“God,whichmeetingisit?”

“Son, you’ll soon know in a minute.”

AndsoIenteredthehallandlo!!Therewas Saro wearing black blazer and trou-ser, white shirt and a red tie looking smart and tall and instantly I guessed that it must be a Toastmasters meeting.

“God, I can’t believe this. TM’s in Heaven…?”

“Yes, son, we just formed a club called Heaven Speakers Forum [HSF] fromoriginal Heaven ToastMasters [HTM]. Btw, I’m giving my ice-breaker today and my mentor Saro is giving his 2nd DTM Speech today”.

I was super excited and forgot Menaka for time being. Just then I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around…. “Rajesh Natarajan..you... wow..so nice to see you but…How come you landed in Heaven..?”

“Eh…What do you mean? That onlyyou are eligible for heaven and we are all devils?”

“No no my dear Rajesh… I certainly didn’t meant that.. What I meant was…” I was fumbling for words.

“I am the Area Governor here too and a word against me and I’ll make a chapatti out of you”

“A chapatti is still better option than a parotta,” I thought to myself. Not know-ing what to say further, I said “Rajesh, excuse me, I need to attend nature’s call. Be right back in 5 minutes.”

“You can’t escape from heaven once you enter it so I’m gonna get even with you soon” He replied.

“God…God.. .God… sorry to disturb

you… but I have a query.”

“My pleasure, Son”

“How in the world did Rajesh Natarajan land up in heaven in spite of having multipleGirlFriends…?I thoughtonlygood guys without Girl Friends wereeligible for heaven. This isn’t fair. Politics existsinheaventoo?”

“Son, that criterion was valid long back. Now it’s 2300 AD. If I apply outdated criteria, heaven will be empty and hell overcrowded. Also, it’s appraisal time for me and I need to achieve my mini-mum number of admissions to heav-en. Coalition Government similar to Manmohan Singh’s Government exists even in Heaven too… Okies, I gotta run... I have my ice-breaker today and have butterflies in my stomach…”

I ran to Saro and told him my dilemma.

“Sandeep, forget worrying about why Rajesh Natarajan is here. In fact you have something more to worry about.” said Saro, looking far and moving hands over hisFrenchbeard.

“Worry? I thought worry only existedon earth”

“Rajeshhasgot3GirlFriendsinheaventoo and Menaka is one of them.”

My heart was pierced by Brahmashtra and all I wanted to be was a PAROTTAAAAAA……


And so the meeting started… God start-ed his ice-breaker with “Who am I” and endedwith“IamLOVE”…

Saro started his Speech in true DTM style with “Some Gods attend TMs to escape their pestering spouse for 2 hours, some God’s attend TM to sleep and snore in AC hall for 2 hours, some God’s who are forever hungry attend TM to eat yummy sandwiches and samosas at the end of meeting…but I joined TMs for all of this and much more…” and the audience roared…

In all this humdrum, I forgot to notice that a short, cheerful, bubbly girl with locks of beautiful hair falling down her forehead was seated at the far end of the

hall in the last row. Time for Table Topics and the TT Master said “I would like to invite TM Sandeep…”

I walked confidently to the podium and shook hands with TTM.

“Your topic is…..”

I turned to face the audience and saw the bubbly girl seated there. She smiled and encouraged me genuinely but in a frac-tion of a second, my confidence came crumbling down.

“God, this isn’t fair. Whenever that bub-bly girl spoke I never never never got the

TT ribbon. In heaven also, mymiserycontinues?”

God smiled, “Hey, that’s a new and super bright addition to our club. We just transferred her toHSF from one of theclubs. She’s our golden goose.”

“Destiny exists in heaven too” I thought and resigned myself to fate when sudden-ly I heard myself shouting “Ouch…..” with water being splashed on my eyes. I opened my eyes and saw my roomie looking at me with big, sharp, inquisitive eyes as a doctor looks at a mental patient. “Dude, marrying Kareena Kapoor is still easiercomparedtowakingyouup!!”

I got out of my bed still wondering about my dream and who won the best TT speaker. Just then I saw a blue ribbon lying beside me on my bed. “Yayy… I shouted... I finally won the ribbon… the dreamwasreallytrue,afterall!”

My roomie stared at me, ready to dial 108. “There are some rare unique idi-ots in the world. But you are the most distinguished idiot I’ve ever seen;” he said “I’ve seen people sleep with actress’ photos, I’ve seen people sleep with their girl friend’s photos and scarfs… but I’ve never seen any guy sleep with a blue rib-bon.”

And with that I was back to square one…. And the saga continues…

Rajesh Natarajan has got 3 Girl Friends in heaven too and Menaka is one of them.”My heart was pierced by Brahmashtra and all I wanted to be was a PAROTTAAAAAA……

Appa’s FacebookTM BHARAT KUMAR

Appa was happy that evening. I asked him why. He said he had spoken to a friend from his school days. It was not

so fascinating for me when he said that. I thought,“What is thebigdeal?, I toospeak to friends once in a while..” Then he added saying “It has been 40 yearssince I have seen or heard of him. We had searched for him in many places and tried contacting him through some one or the other, but we could not. It was a miracle that I finally was able to talk to him”. Now, that was a big gap and a special friend too.Social Networking sites like Facebook

and others has made life easy to access friends for the current generation; we get to catch many friends online. That does not help us think how special it is to be in connect with all our child-hood friends. As far as people of my father’s age are concerned, people who havenoideawhatFacebookandTwitterare, such coincidental meet or chat with friends is such a rare wonder come true. I just imaginednot usingFacebook for10 years and trying to catch friends…hmmm…Now, that was something …


A Second Chance

I am at the dining table singing along with my wife, relatives &friends - birthday carol for my daughter at her 7th birthday. We

are all very excited and very happy antici-pating her joyfulness when she opens all her birthday gifts – especially the Barbie doll. After the cake cutting, my wife takes away the cake for distributing to all. I take my favorite chair towards one cor-ner of the room. I comfortably sit on the chair, taking a relaxing breath - reflect-ing on the entire day, how busy my wife and I were planning for our daughter’s birthday. Coming out of my reflection, I realized that the room is suddenly very quite. No shouting of children, no laughter, no birthday carole, no decoration on the walls – in fact the walls look very weath-ered with paint peeling off. Shocked, I jumped out from my chair and looked around!At the other corner of the room I find a young lady talking softly to my wife, as if discussing something important. I walk up to them to listen. My wife was saying - Only if your father was here, we would have celebrated your birthday this year in a grand way. And then she looks throughmeatmyfavoritechair.What!!Shejustlooksthroughme?Ilookedbackat the chair realizing it was very old and in bad shape. I quickly glanced at a near-by newspaper – Times of World – year 2032!! 2032??My face suddenly turnedwhite – realizing that I must have been dead for20 yearsnow!!And the younglady by my wife is my cute little daughter -shehasturned27today!Shehadtakenthe facial features of her mother but eyes and hair color were definitely similar to

mine.I continued listening to my wife for sometime – I felt my heart and soul were crying out for the state of financial affairs I had left them with. It is all for my bad company of credit cards. I always had a lot of them and their friendship limit was always utilized to the hilt, squeezing out every ounce of mycurrentearnings!!The lureof livingstyle luxuries distanced me from my true friends – investments and savings. If only I had been saving at least 25% of my monthly income – in cash, Provident fund, insurance, stocks, fixed deposits and Mutual funds – my family would have been comfortable.Upon my death, my last rites exhausted my wife’s petty cash reserves. One of the insurance companies declined honor-ing the policy – because I had defaulted in paying the premium for over a year!The other company declined – because Ihadgivensomeincorrectinformation!!From the other insurance amount shereceived – she paid off her part of our 3BHK housing loan. How I wish I had been wise enough to insure myself more rationally. My wife receives pension – but with the inflation sky rocketing – potatoes are now priced Rs 200/- a kg and petrol pegged at Rs 757 a litre, it was quite dif-ficult to make ends meet with the meager cash inflow to her.How I wish I had created a second sourceof incomeforher!!If onlyIhadpurchased a 2BHK and a 1BHK at the cost of my 3BHK! At least the rentalvalue would have kept pace with the inflation.Trying to hide my tears, I noticed the newspaper headline Sensex at 85000points. WOW!! At least now my wifecan have some money. I recall my invest-ments were 5lacs when the Sensex was at 17000. On a quick check I found my investment value was only Rs 4lacsas few of my investments in quick rich

companies were frauds and no longer existed!If onlyIhadbeenprudentandwise in investing.

She was worried sick about my daugh-ter’s marriage jewellery. I recalled that my wife’s marriage jewellery & few of our gold investments were lying in the Bank locker – and wanted to remind this to her. But my wife since my death has been running pillar to post to get a court decree pronouncing her as the rightful owner. She had incurred a huge lawyer & court fees in the past 20 years.Ohhhow slow our legal functions are. If only IhadpreparedaWILLinmywife’sfavorit would have saved her from all the use-less sufferings.Ohh!HowIwishIcouldgobackintimeand reset all the mistakes I had done. God–givemeasecondchanceplease!I cannot let my loved ones suffer for my financial mistakes.Suddenly I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I looked up with tears in my eyes and remorse in my heart – ready to plead GOD for a second chance. But Lo! its my wife smiling at me and mydaughter jumping around in joy to have received her favorite Barbie doll as birth-day gift. I hugged her and my daughter. I told them how much I loved them and will always be there for them. Deep in my heart, I knew this is my sec-ond chance. GOD THANK YOU for granting me A SECOND CHANCE- to share precious moments with them and to financially secure their future before YOUR agents finally come calling upon me.

TM NIKHIL BHAGANIA

Ohh! How I wish I could go back in time and reset all the mistakes I had done. God – give me a second


It is an official function attended by Tamilnadu Governor and many dignitaries are sitting on the dais. A son who is thinking of his

beloved father is also one of the special invitee.It is really unbelievable, the programme is totally recorded and one of the news channel is also telecasting the show by live recording.The Mobile crane is also moving front and back and every second is a spe-cial moment, but like the mobile crane which was moving front and back, the son’s memories of life was also flashing to know who is the reason for his par-ticipation as special dignitary.Memories going down the lane to his childhood.The small boy was holding his father hand and his father was crying in front of the God in the village temple say-ing; I am leaving this ancestral village, Iamleavingyouandmy58yearvillagefriends, only because of my son’s good education and his good life.Crying father, further said oh lord!Forgiveme.The Fathermoved to theChennai cityfor the rest of his life, A small boy partic-ipating in English play in the school, that is a Shakesphere Drama. The dialogue is “you too Brutus” father explained his son and telling that English is a stylish language and wherever you may be, but your pronunciation will always speak. He taught that while telling “you too Brutus” there should be a punch like

“you toooo Brutussss…” Then the small boy identified importance of the English language and realised that this English language will do many wonders, Subject

to learning the language properly. The small boy has now become a grown-up man and realised that he has to learn English otherwise it is very difficult to survive in the modern world. While he was in his 10th Std. the English teacher had given him 300 times imposition to write “after TO PAST TENSE WILLNOT COME”. His father saw that and took him to the school and asked the teacher as to why you are doing like this. Instead of asking him to write imposi-tion, teach him what is past tense and explain him what is present tense. On the way of returning from school, father took him to book stall and presented thebook“Wren&Martin”keytohighschoolEnglishgrammar&composition.Teenage also gone, now this is the age to find a job. The son who put wrong steps for simple dance has to perform for the main programme. Yes, now its a turn for finding job for his life, the son tried many competitive exams and failed. Whenever the son appears in any exam, the father will have sleepless nights, because he always with his son and helped him succeed in all BSRB, RRB, SSC Exams.This son never succeeded in any of the exams and the father realised that his son has only one talent that he is good in PR. So he suggested his other son to train him on the business what he was engaged in at Bangalore.The life journey of son was travelled without his father only during his train-ing period at Bangalore.After completion of training son came back to the native town of Chennai and started his own business.With the great advice and 70 years life experience of his father, the son put

more efforts and succeeded in business, the company is growing, growing, grow-ing…..Duetoold-agefactor,at theageof 87hisfatherisunabletowalknow&heisbed-ridden, even now the son takes the major decisions on his business using his father’s experience and adviceA very recent quote of his father goes like this “The age of 40 is a creamperiod of your earning. The efforts and experience so far put in to the business will start to ripe from now and accord-ing to your earning, you will have more expenses at this age. If you overcome your expenses cleverly with your good savings, you will not have problem for money at the age of 60... But this for-mula will not apply for born genius like Sachin, A.R. Rehman, Vishwanathan Anand”.The claps of the auditorium bring back the memories to the live show. “The bit of speech the son presented before the august body is given by his dad”Yes, all the credit goes to his father, because the son-whatever he achieved so far has been only with his father sup-port.Yes, the prayer of the father standing before the god on his village temple is also answered. The son for whom the father cried has been invited as a spe-cial invitee to the “Tamilnadu Children welfare programme” organised by Government of Tamilnadu.Even though his father is bed-ridden and unable to attend the function, the son never failed to show the live telecast to his father.While watching the TV father said, “Yes - my goal is fulfilled – the tears dropping from his eyes spontaneously and shout-ing at loud, he said – I succeeded...On returning from the function – The Real Hero Dad wished his son Toast Master K.V.V. GIRI many success in his life.

“Crying father, further said “oh lord! Forgive me.”

DAD-The Real HeroTM K V V GIRI


A Tale of Two Dead Bodies

It was a picturesque twilight set-ting which was putting a lid on a fine September day. Captivating the eyes in such a setting was a

small English Brick home. This particu-lar place housed the quintessential mod-ern family. The daughter Catherine had a particular interest in crime and detective work, which was a welcome relief from her usual high school work.On summer mornings, Catherine could usually be found curled on the sofa, her nose buried deep within some crime novels. This one particular morning, she was home alone, so she busied her-self with her novels. Then, out of the blue, there was a sudden surge of noise coming from near the garage. At that time, she was all alone in the house and Catherine being Catherine, was so curi-ous and wanted to know what all the fuss wasabout.Fearingtheworst,sheheadedtowards the garage with a broken steel pipe in hand and slowly turned the knob of the door and to her disappointment it wasn’t a serial killer or a psychopath or something from her worst nightmare, it was just a group of birds, having con-sumed the bird seed that she had kept outside and were only clamoring for more. Being the bird-lover she was, she immediately rushed out to the nearby convenience store to get some food and upon her return a few minutes later fed the birds. As she headed back into the house, she had a right good laugh regard-ing the recent turn of events.As the September sun had set and a fresh reviving wind blew on the leaves, there was a certain eerie silence in the air. She suddenly felt a strong urge to go out and when she did, to her utter disbelief, she found an injured new-born baby lying on the garden. She immediately went and picked up the baby and scoured the landscape for the parents, which eventu-ally turned out to be fruitless. As she was picking up the baby her mind began to wonder as to how all of this could have

happened. She was almost paralyzed with fear yet she still managed to muster enough courage to just go ahead and pick up the baby.Catherine immediately rushed into the house to attend to the injured baby. As she was heading upstairs, she glanced through the windows and caught a glimpse of what looked like two bod-ies in her neighbor’s yard. For a brief moment she didn’t know whether to stick or twist. Her curiosity finally got the better of her and as she finally went out, she found two dead bodies, whom she presumed to be the parents. She tried to be as cool as a cucumber and did her utmost to not hit the panic button imme-diately. But she couldn’t control her emo-tions and the sight of two dead bodies almostgotthebetterof her.Finally,shemustered enough courage and went into her house and dialed 911 and reported spotting 2 dead bodies behind her house.As she was waiting for the paramedics to arrive, her curiosity got the better of her. She went into the house and grabbed her dad’s brand new camera and started taking some pictures of the crime scene, without disturbing it. After the para-medics made their long-awaited arrival, they closed the crime scene. After their arrival, the police were initially highly suspicious and spared no one. After an intense interrogation involving all of the family members were let off.As Catherine was heading back home along with her family, she noticed that the two dead bodies had been taken away by the paramedics, who had also taken the injured infant to give proper medical care to the wounds that was sustained. Then, she suddenly remembered about the photos that she had taken and imme-diately rushed into the house.Catherine, after having a close look at the photographs she had taken, was sud-denly taken aback, as she finally remem-bered who the dead people were. She confirmed it by searching the net. The

family who had been shot in the head was Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and the baby that was found injured was their daughterLisa.TheThompson’sweretheeditors of the “The Daily Herald” and had only recently moved into the neigh-borhood. At first, the case looked plain and simple. It was just a classic case of “snatch and grab”. But, a closer inspec-tion into the whole matter and a glance at what the family was recently working on brought a whole new perspective to the one Catherine was working on. She thought that she had finally met her match and had a mystery to solve all by herself. Catherine finally managed to muster enough courage to go to the scene of the crime to look for clues that might help her solve the case. At night, she sneaked into the house through the trapdoor on the side which led to the basement while the officers were taking a dinner break. As she was sneaking into the house she remembered the conversation she overheard, between the couple just a few days back. They were discussing about the recent homicide that had been hitting the news, which was believed to be a “cold case”. Catherine vividly remembered the con-versation as she was mowing her yard in the evening, while they were having a stroll across theirs. She recalled Mrs. Thompson telling her husband that “The homicide seems pretty mixed up from the beginning and something smells real-ly fishy here, tom.” Then in her head, she remembered the place where the case file was. It was in the most unusual of places, it was in the basement under

TM SRI HARI


a small ledger close to the door. She immediately rushed to the location and got a hold of it. Then she began read-ing Mr. Thompson’s notes regarding the case until then.“For starters, there was no guns orknives used. Not even darts or a syringe was used. It seemed like a medical over-dose of some kind. So after I ran a closer inspection through a nearby lab, I found that it contained traces of Botulinum toxin. So a suicide or any natural causes were totally out of the question. The man in question was a lone wolf, had no record of any living relatives, so a bene-factor in the bloodline was also ruled out. The curious thing about the whole matter was that the only person whom he actually met with regularly was his doctor, Mr. Burke, who had, only a few months back signed a contract to appear on a television show which was believed to be worth a million dollars. ”He then continued on, “They had been meeting at the doctor’s private practice for a few months. After which, Dr. Burke and his patient had seemingly developed a very good understanding and began discussing personal matters and a lot of other stuff too. On a par-ticular occasion, Dr. Burke let his tongue slip on a scam he was part of and started regretting his decision even though he had the utmost trust that his patient won’t let the word out. He was still skep-tical about his patient. And suddenly

there was a twist in this tale; his patient had decided that,

in his will, all his possessions will go to Dr. Burke, as he was the only soul on whom he had so much of his trust and faith in. When Dr. Burke was informed of this, he was literally jumping with joy, but already began plotting a plan to kill his patient and be the sole proprietor of his possessions which was worth an untold fortune.”As Catherine was coming to the conclu-sion of Mr. Thompson’s notes, con-fused as to what happens next. She then took a look at Mrs. Thompson’s notes, which was lying just beside it, and began reading off of hers.“Days had passed and the doctor had finalized his plan. He planned to slip a few milligrams of Botox into his patient’s medication in the perfect com-bination so that its trace cannot be retrieved and the case would be closed. As planned, he went forth and 2 days later, the doctor had received news of his patient’s death, which was music to his ears and when it was not declared a murder, his plan was vindicated and he had become a multi billionaire.”After reading the case file, Catherine began to have a clear understanding of what was going on. A couple of weeks later when the case was reopened by the Thompson’s, Dr. Burke was running scared and yet she was still unaware as to how the couple wound up dead. She figured it must have been a murder arranged by Dr. Burke. Then to clarify her assumption she went over to Dr. Burke’s clinic and by chance was able to

sneak into his room and in the trash can, she found a piece of shredded paper and on it was a picture of man and a phone number. She instantly recognized this man as he was on the news only a few days back. She identi-fied him as the paid assassin the police were after in connection with a series

of recent murders.With the obtained evidence, Catherine was sure that her assumption was right. In a state of panic, Dr. Burke had hired an assassin to kill the family and make it seem like a run-of-the-mill robbery. This, Dr. Burke, thought was completely foolproof. But as he went ahead with his plan, he forgot one important aspect. He forgot to tell his assassin to strip the house of any data that may have linked him to his patient’s death. In a state of panic, this quintessential thing was for-gotten and that proved to be his undo-ing and that was all that was required by Catherine to uncover his dastardly plot and bring out the truth.Finally,Catherinehaddraftedacopyof her story and sent one to the District Attorney’s office and another to the FBI. As the whole matter was madepublic, Catherine was proclaimed as an unrivalled sensation, she was the talk of the town for a few days thereafter. But something was still bothering her, she still couldn’t understand as to how the couple found traces of Botox which were initially absent in the autopsy. And then she remembered that in the FBIreport she saw earlier, the consulting doctor for the case was Dr. Burke. This simple fact that it contained traces of such a poisonous substance was missed only because of a botched up lab report under the supervision of Dr. Burke. In the end, she was silently smiling at the fact that all this had happened, only because of a miscalculation on the part of the doctor who thought he had it all figured out. And she thought to her-self that this is not an end, but just the beginning which leads her to a whole new world of mysteries.

For starters, there was no guns or knives used. Not even darts or a syringe was used.

V Do you want to be a part of the next month’s siGnature?

Drop an email with your creation to [email protected]


Friends

Rosa was the personification of “Beauty with Brains”. She had been the school topper yet she decided to follow her

passion of cooking so she got herself enrolled in the best catering college of the country. The college was naturally shocked when they received her applica-tion, for she was a topper and manage-ment had received only low scoring stu-dents into this college. So they decided to conduct an interview for her. Mr.Mayadit was the dean of this insti-tution and was another person who instinctively loved following his passion. This institution was a result of his hard work and passion and when he heard about Rosa, he was intrigued and wanted towitnesstheinterviewinperson.Littledid he realise that three months later, Rosa would be responsible for an acci-dent in his campus.K.Sakrit and Shivnegs were best friends. They had been in the same college for a year and were a part of all the historical occurrences in that year. Breaking the windshield of their teacher’s car, stealing their friend’s bike, beating up students from the neighbouring schools were some of the few things the whole school would remember for a long long time. “FRIENDS”–VigneshDuring the oriental cuisines class, all the students were asked to try out one dish- noodles. But, they were asked to cook and present it in their own excit-ing possible manner. It was during this class that Rosa was asked to team with Shiv while Sakrit was asked to team up with the most daring chef of the class Yasad. Yasad had always been creative and daring when it came to oriental cuisine so Sakrit was more than happy to play second fiddle to Yasad. So the class begun and people were on their heels as this was a part of their internal assessment. Rosa began by cooking the noodles first and getting a pan ready with oil on another burner, she was a person

with splendid multitasking skills and this was the one skill which was needed to make it big in the world of chefs. Then there was Shiv who was dumbstruck by the speed of Rosa while carrying out the toughest task of cleaning vegetables in water to make an accompaniment as commanded by Rosa.Yasad on the other hand was trying out a completely western style of cooking by cutting the vegetables first and cooking them in red wine on high flame which gave out a brilliant red flame which caught the attention of the entire batch including the chef Jasher who was their special guest for the day. In the midst of red flame and wine nobody realised that one person was missing who had gone for his morning quota of smoking and that was none other than Yasad’s partner Sakrit.“Ten minutes remaining” screamed chef Jasher from one end of the class. That was when Rosa came up with the idea of frying the vegetables and while she had completed and was making the garnish she asked Shiv to clean up the place. Shiv being a clumsy boy was holding a hot pan of oil tried frightening Rosa by tak-ing the pan near her face. Just as he was about to take it near her face she quickly moved her hand causing the hot pan of oil to spill on shiv’s legs. Although he was wearing shoes the damage was done. Shiv was rushed to the hospital where the doctors told him that he had suffered from second degree burns and the epi-dermal layer of his foot was completely burnt and he would not be able to attend college for 3 weeks. When Sakrit rushed to the hospital after hearing about Shiv’s accident and met the doctor he was shocked and angered. He was angered because he thought that his best friend was admitted because of the new arrival, Rosa. So he decided to teach her a lesson which she would never forget for a long time.A week later the students had decided to

go for their annual tour. They had decid-ed on the place, date and the whole agen-da but no one was willing to take respon-sibility. That was when Rosa decided to take up the responsibility, the only reason for it being so that her classmates could talk to her as everyone was refusing to talk to her after what happened to shiv. So she saw this opportunity to clean up the image she had created because of the accident. Sakrit was the first person to disagree with this idea because he would be missing the company of his best friend Shiv, but more importantly because Rosa was the in-charge and he didn’t like the idea of being commanded by the person who had caused harm to his friend. But the next day, after visiting Shiv in the hospital Sakrit decided to go to the trip for one reason to avenge what happened to his friend and this trip was the perfect opportunity because he could ruin Rosa’s reputation as leader by play-ing some prank and blame it on someone else. There by fulfilling his objective of shattering Rosa’s image among the stu-dents yet he could be safe.Rosa decided that they would be travel-ling only after twenty days as the weather in Marhastas was too unpredictable. This also meant that Shiv could join the tour. When Sakrit heard this, he was filled with joy as his best friend could also accompany him on this trip and the plan to ruin Rosa’s reputation could be plot-ted by both of them. Yasad was plan-ning on how to make this trip memo-rable for everyone by looking into the arrangements with respect to food and entertainment. While the other students Anith, Adeep and Tashik were helping Rosa with money matters and ticket booking. Sanarpan was the man running

TM VIGNESH SWAMINATHAN


around between the departments to catch hold of one lecturer to accompany them along their trip as it was mandato-ry according to the college rules. Rahini was preparing special games which they could play during their journey.Twenty days later they were travelling in their bus while all the students were enjoying the tricks of Bhraarpak, the magician of their batch. There was one person who was waiting for Rosa to open her purse. Ten minutes later Rosa was screaming at the top of her voice as she found a scorpion in her purse. All the others were also frightened but then as something flashed in Shiv’s mind he turned around to see what Sakrit was doing and there he was rolling on the floor laughing. Only then did everyone realise that this was one of Sakrit’s prank. Everyone had a hearty laugh about the incident of plastic scorpion and went to Bhraarpak’s show. But one person was missing now, Rosa who was sitting and crying in a corner as she felt embarrassed and also felt that Sakrit had finally manage to humiliate amidst her

friends.

After eight hours of travel they arrived at a beautiful resort nestled in the wil-derness of Marhastas. Near their resort was the beautiful yet the mighty river of Raan, flowing smoothly beside their rooms and sound of the flowing river became the lullaby of Marhastas. Rosa decided to share the room with Ayinarp as she was the most silent student of the class. While Ayinarp was fast asleep, Rosa was planning to take revenge on Sakrit by planting a similar scorpion in front of his room in the same floor and she did so in the next 15 minutes. But in between their tales of revenge the nature decided to play a small cameo in their game. There were fiery winds all around the place suddenly and the plastic scorpion had been blown away into the river Raan and had also dis-placed a live scorpion from the banks to the floor of their hotel. Yasad, who was returning after his late night walk, saw the scorpion in front of Rosa’s door and decided to throw away the scorpion. But it stung and Yasad was crying in pain so loudly that everyone woke up. Anith, Tashik and Sanarpan took yasad to hospital immediately after seeing him. While everyone was puzzled with their friend’s accident, Rosa tried to pin the blame on Sakrit and because of his earlier prank framed him. There by enhancing his reputation in the wrong

direction.After hearing about this incident after the trip Mr.Mayadit decided to take strict action by suspending Sakrit for 3 weeks and because of his previous attendance lag he was not able to write that semes-ter and had become his batch mate’s junior after his return. A few days after his return, he saw Rosa walking towards him and Shiv. His hatred for Rosa had been pushed to its maximum limit yet he decided to talk to her. She apologised for her childish behaviour. But she was shocked by the response she got from him. Sakrit said “Even I had gone out with Yasad and Shiv the other day when he was bitten by the scorpion. Shiv and me, we were on the other side of the corridor smoking when he was bitten by the scorpion and Shiv was taking a video of smoking tricks. Unfortunately, when you were planting the scorpion Shiv had recorded it unknowingly. So he was shocked when you framed me for what happened to Yasad. Despite the consequences I was aware that I would be facing, I made Shiv delete the video”. Rosa meekly asked after recover-ing from the shock of listening to this withoneword “Why?” forwhichShivreplied in a simple yet a powerful phrase “Then there wouldn’t be any difference between you and me”

While Ayinarp was fast asleep, Rosa was planning to take revenge on Sakrit

Sea BiscuitTM SATISH VACHASPATHI

While I was driving down to Chennai from Salem I heard this story about a horse which was an

inspiration to Americans during the Great Depression during 1930’s. Three men, Red Pollard, Charles S. Howard, and Tom Smith had come together, respectively, as the principal jockey, owner, and trainer of the cham-pionship horse Seabiscuit, rising from troubled times to achieve fame and suc-cess through their association with the horse.

Red is the child of a wealthy family, financially ruined by the Great Depression. In desper-ate need of money, the family leaves Red with a horse train-er. Red eventually becomes a jockey, but makes extra money through illegal boxing matches, which leave him almost blind in one eye. Howard is a clerk in a bicycle shop who gets asked by a passing motorist to repair his automobile, a technology which has recently been introduced. Some years later, Howard is the largest car dealer

in California and one of the Bay Area’s richest men. However, his son is killed in an automobile accident while driving the family car, which sends Howard into a bout of deep depression, which eventu-ally results in his wife leaving him. On a trip to Mexico to obtain a divorce and to drown his sorrows, he meets Marcela,


While I was driving down to Chennai from Salem I heard this story about a horse which was an inspiration to Americans during the Great Depression during 1930’s. Three men, Red Pollard, Charles S. Howard, and Tom Smith had come together, respectively, as the principal jockey, owner, and trainer of the cham-pionship horse Seabiscuit, rising from troubled times to achieve fame and suc-cess through their association with the horse.Red is the child of a wealthy fam-ily, financially ruined by the Great Depression. In desperate need of money, the family leaves Red with a horse trainer. Red eventually becomes a jockey, but makes extra money through illegal boxing matches, which leave him almost blind in one eye. Howard is a clerk in a bicycle shop who gets asked by a passing motorist to repair his automobile, a technology which has

recently been introduced. Some years later, Howard is the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area’s richest men. However, his son is killed in an automobile accident while driving the family car, which sends Howard into a bout of deep depression, which even-tually results in his wife leaving him. On a trip to Mexico to obtain a divorce and to drown his sorrows, he meets Marcela, whom he marries.Howard then runs into Smith, a horse trainer who has been homeless. Howard hires him to take care of his newly acquired stable of horses. Smith later tries to get a jockey to ride Seabiscuit, but the jockey is frightened off when Seabiscuit rips off a bit of his shirt. Smith then finds Red Pollard fighting with other stable boys and sees in him a similar temperament to the horse. They begin to race Seabiscuit. After consider-able success, Howard tries to provoke a race with War Admiral, the top race horse in the country. While they wait for that date, Pollard is asked to exercise a race horse for an old friend. Someone suddenly starts a tractor, spooking the horse. Pollard falls off and is dragged along until he crashes into a wall, frac-

turing his leg. When the doctor reports that he will be unable to be a jockey again, Red suggests that Howard get the successful George Woolf to be his new rider.Red teaches Woolf about Seabiscuit’s handling and mannerisms. In the big match race, Seabiscuit upsets the heavy favorite, War Admiral, partly because of a secret that Pollard relates, instructing Woolf to hold him head to head with the other horse so he gets “a good look at theAdmiral.”Lateron,Seabiscuit isracing at Santa Anita when he is injured and has to stop. Red helps him to recov-er and get fit enough to race again. The last race is again at the Santa Anita, and Red rides him this time after putting a special self-made brace on his own leg to keep it stable. Woolf is on a differ-ent horse. Seabiscuit drops to last place and trails the pack, but Woolf holds back to be alongside Red. After a short conversation, Seabiscuit surges and wins the race.Red says, “You know, everyone thinks that we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn’t. He fixed us, every one of us, and I guess in a way we kinda fixed each other, too”

DTM CHENDIL KUMAR

While Ayinarp was fast asleep, Rosa was planning to take revenge on Sakrit

The Taj MisadventureTM NISHANT DAS

Yeah, I was a kid then, guess a 3rd grader. That’s almost 11 years back! No wonder it’sall so fuzzy. Though I still

remember that Ultimate Misadventure. So it all started when we went to see The Taj Mahal! The trip was quite a familyreunion. My family that is my parents, my sister and me as well as my maternal uncle’s family, we all went together to Agra. We took an auto from the Agra railway station to the all so predictable destination, The Taj Mahal, the symbol of love. My cousin Ambuj and I were having a good time together. I was his idol, the big brother, his Superman or rather ‘Shaktimaan’- our own indigenous

superhero.

Ambuj was three years younger than me, not to mention 3 inch-es taller too. He is a strapping teenager now. He was all but a five year old kid at that time. Still, we share a piece of history, which I doubt any of us will ever forget. Now, to 2000 A.D, we reached the main entrance of The Taj, a huge brown door. I don’t remember if we took tickets or not, I was a kid and how was I supposed to bother aboutsuchthingsbackthen!Sohandinhand with my cousin, under the watchful gaze of our parents we walked into the perimeter of the world’s most beautiful

monument ever built. But what I saw lookedlikeagrayscaleof theTaj!Evenkids can differentiate between sandstone and marble. My father saw my confusion, and then he clarified, “Son what you see isn’t the Taj, it’s just a replica made in sandstone”, I just sighed in relief. I don’t exactly remember but I guess we passed three such replicas before we got to the real thing and believe me, it was better


than anything I could have imagined. All shimmering and white, the Taj glowed like a tulip in the sunshine. I was all mys-tifiedwiththeTaj!Wehadaphotoses-sion before the fountains and then we proceeded towards the main courtyard. We had to give up our slippers at the shoe counter and so we walked barefoot into the Mahal. We were accompanied by a guide who showed us around the monument. Ambuj and me, we tried skating with our socks on the marble floor. Too bad for kid, he tripped bad and started wailing like a typical kid.

We then descended down the stairs towards the tomb of Queen Mumtaz. I don’t remember the details, though I was very happy to come back up. Tombs never really fascinated me. Back in the courtyard, I went sat near one of the minarets with my dad and Ambuj. Suddenly our folks started moving, I also got up and then I saw that Ambuj was still squatting, oblivious. I went up to him, took his hand and then we walked towards my Mom. Mom was walking down the stairs towards the shoe counters. She came out, wore her sandals and trotted on. We were still behind. We ran quickly but soon, we got tired and besides the fact that we weren’t wearing any footwear did also count. Mom walked on towards the exit withoutlookingback!Wetriedtocatchup and we did just at the exit point only to see some stranger wrapped in that lovely blue saree, we kids were confused whereourparentswent!DidtheyleaveusandgobacktoNewDelhi?

We were perplexed and flustered; we looked around only to see a vast array of unfamiliar faces. Only minutes ago, I was sitting in my dad’s lap answering GK questions, which was my idea of

fun, not that I was geeky, I was just bright!Andnow, Iwas separated frommylovedones.Pictureit!Twokids,oneeight other five, stranded in The Taj Mahal, a place with thousands of visi-tors each day, looking around for their parents. A sudden impulse made me rush back to the exit, I saw the first auto and ask the driver innocently “Uncle, willyoutakeustoDelhi?”,thenasud-den glint of light caught my eye, I saw a knife under his shirt, I didn’t know if it was just a paper knife or a dagger but we sure ran for our lives, reached the main crossing, the guy called behind us but to no avail. I still think it was good that we didn’t talk to that driver, for all we knew hecouldhavebeenanimmoralperson!Sane people don’t carry daggers under their hoods. Soon enough we went to this other amicable looking autorick-shaw driver, asked him the same inno-cent question, to which he asked , where are our parents, Ambuj said, “Mummy and Papa left us and went to Delhi” The driver sensed that we were lost, he asked us to get into his auto. It was a small sized petrol run auto with yellow paint, tarmac covering its roof. All the way, we never sat down. We were reveling sitting in the backseat, “Yay, we’re going to meetourparents!!”

It was a short drive, in another five min-utes we reached our destination which in no way looked like our neighborhood in Delhi. I was getting apprehensive; Ambuj was oblivious and all playful. I guess he really thought that I was ‘Shaktimaan’ and no harm could come onto him as long as he was with me. I just hope I would live up to his expecta-tions. The engine shut down and the driver got out of the auto. He instructed us to be seated until he came back and we did. He came back with a constable in khaki and they took us inside. The only thing conspicuous about the con-stable was his pot belly and maybe his overstrained belt threatening to buckle any moment now.

We sat on the rickety sofa chairs in the police station, soon enough Ambuj got

restless and started toying with paper weights, the inspector came to us and took our names, noted our dress colors and asked us when and where we saw our parents last. But, I guess even then we needed some courage and food to speak up! He got us chocolates andbiscuits and a soft drink that tasted like ‘Rasna’. As soon as our stomachs stopped burgling, our tongues got into action. We narrated the whole incident to the inspector and then played ‘Hide and Seek’ with the constables.

Now how many of you have been to a policestation?NotmanyIguess!Evenif you have been, I’m sure you weren’t offered chocolate biscuits and soft drinks let alone play with the corporals.

I won’t call it an ordeal, rather a mis-adventure for us dragon hearts, though considering our families’ point of view; it was the worst ordeal ever.My dad heard the police’s announce-ments at the Taj, about two lost kids and needless to say he rushed to the police station and as soon as he saw us he took us in his arms. His happiness wasoverwhelming!Hewas ecstatic.Atthat time, I did not understand, but now I do know how relieved he would have been to say together, back in one piece all alive and kicking. Papa took us back to the Taj, where our mummies were crying their eyes off and jumped up when they saw us and took us in their arms! Thesemany kisses in one day! Iguess that’s the reason I rarely get kisses nowadays! It’s like I exhaustedmy life-long quota of kisses in one minute.

Sure enough our reunion was emotional and ecstatic. I was so happy to see my Mummy and Papa and my sister. Most of all I was proud because I had been a good big brother. When I look back now, I just wonder, what if we had fallen into wrong hands. What if we hadn’t met thatdriverunclewhosavedus?Whatif wehadneverbeenfound?Wemightaswell have turned out as child laborers or worse, beggars. I guess providence always had better plans for us.

guess he really thought that I was ‘Shaktimaan’ and no harm could come onto him as long as he was with me.


The earliest form of romantic communications known to man is during the cave-man period. The first recorded

history of romantic communications is when the cave-man saw this scraggy haired, muscular short, smug woman of unknown origin. There was no language in which to verbalise. So, he grabbed his HUGE Club, knocked her unconscious on the head, and dragged her by her hair tohis cave!Missionaccomplishedand MAN had found a way to express his love and affection to his woman… romantic communicationsWHYareweallhere?Toimproveourcommunications skills! AndWHAT isthe MOST important form of com-munications that we all are interested

in? Ask any Rajesh, Aditya, Arna orAarti, each one will echo the words – ROMANTIC COMMUNICATIONS and they are not wrong! From theday we are born till the day they drag us kicking and screaming to the grave, this is one aspect we all are totally focused on! Irrespective of whether you are amale or a female, we spend every living moment of our lives chasing members of the opposite sex (ooops… sorry!)gender.Idon’tknowaboutyou,butI can certainly speak for myself.My earliest memory of the first roman-tic communications is from my child-hood in Delhi. I was minding my own business (wink) in the cradle busilywetting my nappies, when the neighbor lady came in with her baby daughter.

While my mom and the lady got busy chatting, they downloaded the little girl also intomycradle.HereIwasbusyplanning my pick-up ga..ga..goo.goos, but the little lady took the initiative, andpulledmebymyhair(whichIhadabundantly at that age). And thus came my first romance to its short-lived end –mescreamingmyeyesout.Notgreat?Well, in its own way it was a form of ROMANTICCOMMUNICATIONS!Next stage, during my kindergarten days, my favourite rhyme.. Georgie Podgy Pudding Pie, Kiss the Girls and makethemCry!IwasneitherGeorgie,nor Podgy, but just loved it and decided on trying it out! One day at school, Iactually did (bite lower lip and starelike an idiot). The result…yuck – they

Romantic Communication

ENTERTAINMENTSection of the magazine where our Toastmasters have explored their Entertaining Skills!

DTM KARTIKEYAN SRINIVASAN


tasteddisgusting(betnoneof thegirlsIkissed every brushed their teeth :X and never got a chance to update their status onFacebook,andguesswhat-noneof themcried,butinsteadkissedmeback!I ran off home crying louder than ever before!Then came the not-so-colourful college life; why not colourful… because it was anight college– allboys! Idon’knowmuch about education but I gradu-ated into a full-time thug. As a result, whenever I saw a girl I was interested in (and that was every single girl whocrossed my path), I would walk-up to her in my bell-bottom orange jeans and a green t-shirt, shoulder length hair and a semi-grown beard, a cigarette dangling

from my lips, and give her my well-prac-ticed left profile tough look, and growl, “HEY, you want to come with me?”.The response usually was in the form of her finger-printsonmy leftcheek!Notbeing a true Gandhian, I never offered the other cheek, but ran quick smart beforeshetooktheinitiativetofinditOkay, you may not believe this, a girl finally fell for me – an Australian Red Head (none of the local ones wouldeven look at me side-ways) – why – because she saw me standing next to a pack of camels, and decided I was better looking; and we went to the temple and the church, took our vows of caring and sharing,tilldivorcedidusapart!Andmyhunt for a romantic partner started all over again, and by extension, the need to develop my art of romantic commu-nications.But by now I was well advanced in age and experience. Grey hair may not be a sign of wisdom, but it certainly pro-motes your age and maturity. This is the time young ladies start feeling safe

in your company, so there was heaps of potentialPlus, I joined the International forum for developing one’s commu-nication skills – TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL! In this ocean of talent, I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting and rubbing shoulders with other professional romantics from vari-ous walks of life. In completing my CC 10,IlearntaboutBodyLanguage,VocalVariety, Research, Visual Aids and the artof PersuadingwithPower!So, nowadays, I do a lot of research about every single lady I meet, find out the kind of flower they like, invest a bit on my visual aid, put on a bit of attitude, a bit of body language, voice modula-tionandgo,“ILOVEYOU,BABE!” ,andgetrejectedinstyle! because she saw me

standing next to a pack of camels, and decid-ed I was better looking


Veritas Liberabit Vos

“Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free”, is the inscription on

the façade of the main building in the college that I studied. I did not pay much attention or think a lot about this bibli-cal phrase and it had very little impact during most of the time that I spent there. However, during the last couple of months of my studies, I was inspired by a famous professor of computer science to think closely about these words. He insisted that humans had very little natu-ral inclination to examine that which they assumed was the truth, and he wanted to inculcate in us the sense of skepticism about anything that we heard, learnt and read as scientific fact. He would say that skepticism was the cornerstone of the scientific method, and that we had a duty to ourselves to apply it diligently to everything including that which we believed completely in. “Without skepti-cism and enquiry your education is not very different than a fancy and expensive brainwashing”, was his unusual urging.I responded to this professor’s urging, with skepticism (I had to listen to himone way or another :) ) and told myself that it was probably not true in my case, as the facts that I believed were well whetted and obvious. I approached him one day and talked to him for a while, and he asked me to be the devil’s advo-cate and try to find things that I thought that were true and try to disprove it. I started with an open mind and soon was astonished to see how often I was able to find, what I had taken for granted had turnedout tobe false! Ipresent in thispiece 3 such examples below. There is enough material on the internet for you to Google and indulge your skepticism on these nuggets.

0.9999999…… = 1.0The number .9 recurring decimal is exactly equal to 1.0. Most people who

see or hear the above equality think that this is an approximate or infinitesimal quality. The reality is that this is as abso-lute as it can get. The most common question that people have is “How can two different numbers be equal”. There are many proofs for this with varying levels of rigor. The simplest proof is as follows – if you used long division and divided 1 by 3, you would get 1/3 = 0.333333……. Now, if you multiplyby 3 on both sides, youwould get 1=0.99999……!!!!

Water is colorlessIt is commonly taught in school that water is colorless. The most offered “proof ” for this is “Water in a glass has nocolor”,or“Lakesandoceansappearblue due to scattering/reflection from the sky” or justifications as “Impurities in the water give it a blue color”. In reality, it turns out that water has a light turquoise blue color. The best way to demonstrate this is indoors (wherethere is no scattering) in a pure white tiled swimming pool that is filled with completelydemineralizedwater(distilledwater) when observed with white light, shows a blue color. This is caused by a very weak selective absorption of light in the orange part of the visible spectrum and this absorption gives rise to a color-ation of it’s complementary color i.e. a “weak” light blue. The absorption hap-pens due to a phenomenon called “vibra-tion transitions” and the O-H bond in water is the only bond that is found in nature that absorbs light in the visible spectrum.

The only manmade structure visible from space...

This is a popular pop culture myth that the Great Wall of China is visible from space. This “fact” is reinforced many times over in a variety of books, articles and TV shows. The truth is far from this “fact”. It turns out that satellite pho-

tography gives us an easy mechanism to verify this fact. If you look at the satellite images of the region around the great wall, you will find many man made structures visible like dams, highways, airports etc… What is conscious in its absence is the great wall, because it is not very wide and so not easily distinguish-able among all the other features that surround it. This myth was so famous that the Chinese astronaut Yang Liweitried unsuccessfully to spot the Great wall from space and concluded that it wasnotvisible!I want to leave you with this thought – Question everything and more impor-tantly question that which you believe twice as much as everything else. You never know what you might learn or unlearn.

Stay Skeptical - Stay curious.

VISWANATH SANKARANARAYANAN

I started with an open mind and soon was astonished to see how often I was able to find, what I had taken for granted had turned out to be false!”


The cup that cheers me car-ries the imprint of a beauti-ful chrysanthemum. The cup appears before me four or

five times a day. Yet it took several weeks before the flower caught my attention. When I finally saw it, I wondered how I missed such a thing of beauty.So, Toastmaster of the day and fellow Toastmasters, I suggest you keep your eyes open-at home, at work, in the streets, wherever you are.Let us start with the home. An earlymorning sight is of the lowly crow on the compound wall or on the neighbor’s window grills. A much-maligned bird, the normal tendency is to ignore its exis-tence. But have a close look: jet-black color that no artist can mix. A well-chiseled body , broad shoulders taper-ing off in a perfect geometrical shape, smooth grey neck like a matching collar on a black shirt, deep eyes and a sturdy beak. No wonder a VIIth Standard stu-dent writing in The Hindu Young World

said that “the crow always wears a businesssuit.”!Legendhasitthatthecrow was once white in color and an important member of the Sun god’s court, but came under a curse where-by it became black and was banished

to live on Earth. That is another story, but black is beautiful.What’sthereinaname?,askedtheBardof Avon.“Lots”,Chennaishopperscansay. The sheer ingenuity and originality of some of the shop names have long amused me. One shop in my neighbor-hood is ‘See Through’ because they sell spectacles; ‘Handcuffs’ sells men’s clothing. When I saw a shop named ‘Heaven’ I eagerly stepped in, and then beat a hasty retreat – it was only for women!Doctors areno less ingenious:An orthopedic hospital is ‘Bone and Joint’ while a gastro-enteritis hospital is ‘Gut and Liver’. One constructioncompany tells you ‘Caution! Magiciansatwork’!Eating places too, want to indicate their specialty early- ‘Hotel Mamiyar Virundu’ is a classic example- where else you can get “tasty food like at your moth-er-in-laws place”? ‘Chill-out’, sells ice-creams and fruit juices. Then we have ‘Ayan Idli kadai’, Hotel Oru Soru, Appa

Kadai, 2 Idly 1 Vada, and a special Dosa shop which has biriyani and Chicken 65 on its menu.When we keep our eyes open, we can also get free lessons in civic sense and manners. The other day, I was passing by a reputed school when a prosperous-looking couple alighted from their car with their precious progeny. The elegantly dressed, very caring mother took out a tissue from her handbag, ten-

derly wiped the boy’s face, and satisfied herself that he was clean and present-able. Then, without looking right or left, she just flung the tissue to the ground outside the school gate. On the other hand, Witness this scene at the park. I was highly impressed by the smartness and agility of a little girl, flitting nimbly from see-saw –to swing, ladder to slide and so on. When she fin-ished, I complimented her. After a while, she joined her grandmother for a stroll. When they passed me I could make out from her gestures that she was telling her grandmother that I had compliment-ed her, and I heard the grandmother asking,”Didyouthankhim?”If Toastmasters spend time in a park andwatch themen &womengesticu-lating and kicking the air as they walk, they will have learnt a lot and equipped themselves admirably for the Project five speech.Spend some time also watching the chil-dren. Some cling to their mother’s apron strings, some bully their playmates, some meekly submit –you have here the future leaders and followers.Finally, it has been said of Sir WalterScott, the author of many a classic, that hecouldnottravelinacoach(thecon-veyance of those days), without glean-ing some information, or discovering some new trait of his companions. And Goethe said, “There is no man so com-monplace that a wise man may not learn something from him.”You, too, will learn many things, and unlearn many more: keep your eyes open.

“Spend some time also watch-ing the children. Some cling to their mother’s apron strings, some bully their playmates, some meekly submit –you have here the future leaders and fol-lowers.

Open Your EyesTM C T THOMAS

Q: Who is the Chairman-elect for the Tata Group after the retirement of Ratan Tata?

A: Cyrus Pallonji Mistry


A Holiday in the Life of a TM

DearFellowTM’sandfriends,Saturday- 15th Sept’12, 6.00am-I was wide awake. It was neither my wedding nor a

picnic with my friends. However, it was an importantdayinthelifeof TM-Lalithaof Shell Chennai Toastmasters Club.Having won the 1st place in my club evalua-tion contest, I was on cloud nine. However, my club members didn’t seem to think it was a great deal, or maybe I got this feeling as we were all busy making arrangements for the upcoming area level contests. Just a couple of days before the contest, we were informed that the areas G1 and G3 contests would be held on the same day at the same venue-Shell Chennai Toastmasters Club.Wewerenot only hosting theAreaG1&G3 humorous and evaluation contests, but I was also one of the “contestants”. It was a busy night as we went about making sure we didn’t leave any stone unturned in welcom-ing our guests and ensuring that they feel very comfortable and “at home”There was a pang as I couldn’t take up any organizer roles, but there was an unfamiliar whoosh signaling my role as a representa-tive of our club as a contestant – nerve-wracking,indeed!Having taken care of all the last minute, minute details, we were all set to welcome our guests the next morning.When the morning of 15th September arrived, collective butterflies came alive in ourtummies!I couldn’t believe I was about to graze shoulders with the Gods of Toastmasters in Chennai – Nina John, Saro Velrajan, Sastharam and a few others!What’smore– when I saw Sastharam arrive at the Shell parking lot, I couldn’t resist giving a second look.AthisshinywhiteBMW,thatis!Once everyone finished their safety brief-ing, all settled in the room and made them comfortable. To be honest, I felt a little out of place in my own work place, for the first time. Almost everyone seemed to know everyone else present in that room. The hosts, including me, were introducing us

to the veteran TM’s present there. Having met TMs Harini, Manvi, Jananee and a few othersfromFordandAmazonduringtheirclub contests as a role player, I went around the table greeting them to the home turf. In a bit, the contests began and even before I could realize the Area G1 contests were over. However, the judges would not announce the results till we were through with the Area G3 contests too. The target speaker was excellent, his demeanor and speechmannerismsatreattoevaluate!Iwasrunning out of ideas to suggest as areas of improvements, because, frankly, I had to dig deepforany!However,Imanagedtogivequite a good evaluation and was happy that my contest was over. Now, I could relax and enjoy the other speeches and evaluations.All the contests were through and it was result time. The results were announced and I was not among the first 3 winners. I assumedIcamefourth!Ifeltalittledeject-ed, but soon realized that how much more I can learn and then decided to approach some of the veterans to be my mentor. All is well that ends well, and at the end of the day, I went home with loads of experi-ence and knew that there was so much of scope for learning and improvement in me and this is the place to find all the experts who are ever willing to guide, coach and mentor anyone who shows interest in learn-ing from them.If there was a little hiccup that disconcerted me, it would be to hear words of encour-agement and motivation from the veteran TM’s and judges. As a first time contestant, I was quite apprehensive, and a little cheer and inspiration from people who’ve been doing this for a while would’ve been icing on the cake. A nudge in the direction of wisdom of how not to have our legs turn tojellyperhaps!That night, I slept very peacefully as my fear had temporarily vanished since I didn’t make it to the next round. Only the next day did I realize what I was missing – the butterflies in the stomach that urgesmetodobetterandbettereachday!

TM LALITHA RAMACHANDRAN

TOASTMASTERS ... A - Awakens youB – Builds your confidenceC – Challenges youD – Destroys your fearE – Encourages youF–FostersyourcapabilitiesG – Greets you with optimism H – Hails your achievementsI – Ignites the spark in youJ – Joie-de-verve of speaking K – Kindles the passion in youL–LetyoubewhatyouareM – Makes you believe in your-selfN – Never puts you downO – Overwhelms you with enthusiasmP – Propels you forwardQ – Quells your doubtsR – Raises your spiritsS – Springs surprisesT – Transcends you to a differ-ent worldU – Unleashes the potential in youV – Vocalizes your thoughtsW – Welcomes you with a big heartX – X-tracts the best out of youY – Yells your abilities to the worldZ – Zaps you to give your best every time

TM KRISHNAN CHIDAMBARAM


Want to make some changes right now?

First write down four actions that you need to take that you have been put-ting off. May be you need to lose some weight. May be you need to stop smoking. May be you need to communicate with some-one you’ve had a falling out with, or to reconnect with someone who’s important to you.Second, under each of these actions, write down the answer to the following questions:1.Whyhaven’tItakenaction?

2. In the past, what pain have I linked to takingthisaction?Answering these questions will help you understand that what was held you back is that you’ve associated greater pain to

taking the action than to not taking it. Be honest with yourself. If you’re thinking, “I have no pain associated to it,” think a little harder. May be the pain is simple; maybe it’s the pain of taking time out of your busy schedule.Third, write down all the pleasure you’ve had in the past by indulging in the nega-tive pattern.Forexample,if youthinkyoushouldlosesome weight, why you have continued to eat bulk-size bag of chips? Youv’reavoiding the pain of depriving yourself, yes, and at the same time you’re really doing this because it makes you feel good right now. It gives you pleasure! Instantpleasure!Noonewants togiveup thesefeelings!Inordertocreateachangethatwill last, we need to find a new way to get the same pleasure without any negative consequences. Identifying the pleasure you’ve been getting will help you know

what your target is.Fourth, write down what it will cost you if you don’t change now.What will happen if you don’t stop eating so much sugar and fat? If you don’t stop smoking?If you don’t make phone call that you know youneed tomake? If you don’t start consistently work-ingouteachday?Behonestwithyourself. What’s it going to cost you over the next two, three, four

andfiveyears?What’sitgoingtocostyouemotionally?What’s itgoing tocostyouin terms of your self image?What willitcostyou inyourphysicalenergy level?What will it cost you in your feelings of self-esteem?Whatwill it cost you finan-

cially?Whatwill itcostyouinyourrela-tionships with the people you care about most? How does that make you feel?Don’t just say “it will cost me money” or “I will be fat” That’s not enough. You’ve got to remember that what drive us are our emotions. So get associated and use pain as your friend, one that can drive you to a new level of success.The final step is to write down all the pleasure you’ll receive by taking each of these actions right now. Make a huge list that will drive you emotionally, they will really get you excited: I’ll gain the feeling of really being in control of my life, of knowing that I’m in charge. I’ll gain a new level of self- confidence. I’ll gain physical vitality and health. I’ll be able to strength-en all my relationships. I’ll develop more will power which I could use in every other area of my life. My life will be better in all these ways, now. Over the next Two, Three, Four, five years. By taking thisaction, I’ll live my dream. Envision all the positive impacts both in the present and in the long term. End Note:For all those who use to cross ques-tion the author such as “Have you ever followed this advice?” I want to say“Yes”! This particular methodology Ihad followed to give my CC#2 Speech at Chennai Toastmasters. After reading thiscontent,Itookinitiativetoprepare&present my CC#2 speech.

FellowToastmasters!BeBenefited!

ORIGINALLY TOLD BY Mr. ANTHONY ROBBINS

Change!TM RAJASEKAR PC

Q: In cricket, there is only one pair of players with a record of having taken 100 wickets and have amassed 10000 runs in One Day Internationals. Who are they?

A: Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.


Dreams

Dreams are very colorful and also powerful. We should know how to use it. To quote someone “Dreams

are today’s answers to tomorrow’s ques-tions.” It is one of the unique things that differentiate humans from animals. Animals do dream; but not in the same waywedo.Yes,Lionsdon’tdreamaboutthe beautiful lioness it is going to meet. Or Lions don’t dream about the tastydeer it is going to eat. But we humans do. We dream about Aishwaryas and Sushmitas. Chickens and fishes. Golds and diamonds. Ferraris and mustangs.People say dreams are the reflections of our deep desires and fears. I can’t publi-cally say that deep in my mind I wanted to marry Simran; but I can say that I am very scared of snakes. I have seen both of them in my dreams. But not together. Inmyownway Ihave identified4dif-ferent kinds of dreams. First, A kindof dreams which are impossible in all practical senses. Like literally flying inthe sky without wings. Or climbing to sky using stairs. Or like sitting on top of the universe to play with it. Or, more so, bringing the universe on top of your bed room. Critics would say we can do virtual reality; But definitely not close enough to natures dynamic colors. We dream to be our favorite super heroes. Super mans, Spiders mans or even Ben-10s. But, realize these kind of dreams will keep you happy; but with no definite output. They are just dreams.

Second, we dream about the things which happened in past; a growing past. Like an 80 year old woman dreamingabout her golden young ages. But back then she was worried about future. We all, dream about the days we slept on the laps of our mother. When we had chance to do it, we were too busy grow-ing; but now we dream about it. We could still do it; but not in the same way. Again, dreaming and living in your past keeps you happy; but dreams are not timemachines.Faceit,youmayalreadybe living in the dreams of your future. You never know. So enjoy the present. Third, a kind of dreams which are practically possible; but are bounded many constraints. Constraints, because of your living environment; because of your choice of living and your choice of priorities. Like, Idreamaboutplayingcricket at least 1 hour every week. 1 hour a week. But no. I simply can’t. People who are living in nuclear family and raising a 3 year old son would know the constraints I am talking about. I also dream about sitting in front of my most favorite place in the whole world for an entire day. Niagara falls. Yes, it is practically possible, only if I sacrifice my other priorities; the priorities I am living for.

Fourth,akindof dreamwhicharepracti-cally possible; you are only little far from the realization of it. You could make it come true it if you try. These dreams are

y o u r g o a l s . S o m e people call it as day dreaming. But Day dream-ing is a powerful tool; only if you use it in the way you should. It could moti-vate you to fly with your own wings. It sets the path ahead. These dreams are the answers to your tomorrow’s ques-tions. Dreaming is the source of great innovations and success. Some great innovations are dreams of someone. Some great achievements are dreams of someone. Some great people changing movements are dreams of someone. Dreams could give you the mind power to compete against the best in the field. It gives you courage and confidence. But it is very important to understand it is up to us to compete; it is up to us to jump. It is up to us to try. If we don’t try, only keep dreaming, we end up only seeing the dark reflections of our bright dreams; Wasting our time; Dreaming about heaven, but living in hell. But if we chase our practically possible dreams, it puts our future in our hands. A colorful future. A powerful future. Not a super man; but a super liv-ing. So let’s dream on. And chase them. Martin Luther King once said that hehas a dream - A dream that one day he will see both black and white kids go to school together. His dream has come true today.

TM MUTHUKUMAR

In the road to success there is a curb called Failure, a loop called Confusion; speed bumps called Friends; red lights called Enemies; Caution lights called Family. If you have a Spare-part called Determination; an Engine called Perseverance; Insurance called Faith, and a Driver called God, you will make it to a place called Success!!

TM Varadharajan S


I came to know about Toastmasters two and a half years back after watching an interview of an International

Speech Contest Champion in NDTV-Hindu TV Channel. The next day I searched Google for it and I landed fortunately at Chennai Toastmasters Club. After that there was no looking back. It completely altered my think-ing and the way of life. I can boast that I had missed only 3 to 4 meet-ings in the two and a half years. What attracted me most was the chain of good things that happened to me after joining Toastmasters. People who are attending the meeting at prime time on a Sunday (4.00 – 6.00 pm CTM timings) will have only one thing in common, i.e., to improve oneself con-

tinuously with a positive attitude. The amount of encouragement the fellow Toastmasters provide will transform a novice speaker to a champion speaker.Also to improve my vocabulary, I start-ed reading books and I landed in the world of self-motivation. To give speeches one has to prepare a script, it helps one’s thinking power and creativity. By sending the script to the mentors, one can develop camaraderie with them. The encouraging feedback by the evaluators after every speech motivated me to perform better in my subsequent speech. By attending the meetings and listening to the speech-es, one can develop the invaluable skill of listening which is very much needed for a good leader.It also provided me an opportunity to meet lot of quality and inspirational leaders. We can imbibe a lot of valu-able qualities of those great leaders so that we can also try to possess those unique qualities.

Also we will be having two bi-annual contests apart from the special events. The amount of learning, one can have in participating or organizing the events is immense. By participating in the contests, one could pre-pone the growth in Toastmasters. By involv-ing in organizing the bi-annual gala events, one can surely gain invaluable leadership skills.Also I took up various leadership roles in the club. Starting from Treasurer, VPM, VPE and now “The President”, the amount of learning one can pos-sess are un-measurable.By seeing the amount of benefits one can reap, I made my sister and wife also to be the members of Chennai Toastmasters Club. I am seeing a lot of positive transitions in them also. In my family, Toastmasters is second next to our jobs.On every Sunday evening, one can see our family get together @ Chennai Toastmasters Club.

My Experience in TMTM THANIGEASWARA ANBARASU

V CONGRATULATIONS!!! On your Competent Communicator Award

TM Deepa Bharatkumar TM Jayalondon Bobby Pullabhotla

TM Kumaravel SivakumarTM Faliha Zikra

TM Natarajan SundaresanTM Mohamed Ismail S


Perception is the one that matters, doesn’t matter what the subject is. Please go on to read this article

only if you are not busy and hate your job. So you go on, well! At some point of time, your body wears out completely after the whole week of soul destroying work and there comes the weekend! And you experience that overwhelming feeling of joy as if you have been released from a jail. You come and sleep over your bed and sometimes suddenly you get a strong notion that you are about to get fever sooner or later combined with couple of sneezes conforming that you already are having cold and then comes headache for free and you can’t sleep. Your mind becomes completely blank and suddenly you start to think about Meta physics and skeptical sci-ence and at that moment you can say

for yourself that you are totally con-fused. This is what exactly happened to me last night.

All kinds of silly questions crept up to my mind like, how did our universe evolve? Are we alone or do aliens exist? Does somebody control us? Then why some live long and some die early, only some are born with disorders and many do not. Why our brain always does things which you order not to? I order you not to think of an Ice-cream, what did you think of right now? That’s what I was talking about. Can we really devise a language to express our feelings? Some people live on streets with no home, no food and have dozen babies, how do they really live, do we give a damn? What is the eternal factor that decides everything? Life goes forward and memories go backward can we reverse it by any

chance? Do you have an exact answer when I ask you, why do you live? You never know until you know it! You never know whether you win or you’ll lose. Isn’t life similar to gambling? What’s life beyond death? All of a sud-den life looked so complicated.

All these questions got tangled up and I was really in a sticky question. As I already said, I had headache, these questions did not help me in anyway. They just added fuel to the fire. I applied balm and now I was feeling sleepy. One last question that popped in my mind which was, why did I think about all these questions? I had no answer for this as well, eventually I decided not to think like a scientist and I told myself “Though life seems to be complex, it’s simple in its own ways.” When I say life is to be happy, work, play, sleep and, enjoy each day as it comes, doesn’t it look simple? Definite answer to this question –yes. Well, Perception is the one that mat-ters. Oops, you seem to be confused!!

Perception of LifeTM AVINASH

For those of you who picked this article thinking it is a satire on a crazy friend, I am very sorry to disappoint you.

This article is in fact a 21st century Indian teen’s perspective on what the word “friendship” has morphed into today, and the factors that have con-tributed to this mutation in India. Let us go a decade down memory lane and look at what friend-ship was back then. Social networking was a fantasized virtual dream, wished for by few and known about by even fewer. Let alone smart, phones were

not a luxury any Tom, Dick and Harry could afford. Basically exposure to global vices was not as widespread as today. Consequently, friendship was dominated by togetherness, sharing experiences first hand and prominent vices such as drugs and alcohol were not as widely abused as today. Coming back to the glori-fied present, where social networking is a life force which drives the youth, an elixir , if I may, and smartphones have made sure that one’s private life gets about as public as one wants. Friendships are based on how active one is on another’s virtual identity, friends are made every day with the click of a mouse and friendships are broken every day because issues are glorified on such forums in front of an audience which has nothing to do

with the issue in hand. Moreover, glo-balization has brought myriad vices to our country. Substance abuse is as widespread as ever and again, friend-ship has become a quotient of how often one pays for another’s cigarette or vodka. I would like to con-clude my short perspective on modern friendship by saying that though every friendship is built on the same num-ber of values as before, the number of factors on which this pure relation-ship can break down have multiplied , regretfully so. The only way the integ-rity of such bonds can be maintained is to look beyond superficial claims and to get to know your friends by actually being with them, rather than judging them on what they project their image to be.

The Delusional FriendTM BREJESH AIYERV


Signature - a nostalgic and vibrant word in English language. But, it has transformed into a deadly mis-

sile in my life. You may be wondering why I have become Hiroshima and it has become UncleSAM!!Because,Ihavetwosignaturesyndromes!1. H-Syndrome2. N-SyndromeH- Syndrome:Firstly, my Handwriting is a like a sinewave .It is picture perfect whenever I start my exam .But after some time, it starts to oscillate like a sign wave. Unaligned formats of my handwriting starts to be in a perfect alignment in each page of the examination paper. This deadliest syndrome was the primary reason for me to lose out district first rank in my board exams. Hope you could have sensed my problem.“Your signature will determine your life- Me”. Many of us don’t realize that. I realized it perfectly when my board exam results came.

N-Syndrome:Signature can also change your “Nature”. Frombeinganaïveperson,thissignaturewill turn you into a culprit. Being from a reputed family, I had an innate ability to duplicate the sign of others. Don’t ask me what’s the connection between reason and justification. I toodon’tknow! “Bethe change you want to see in the world- Gandhi”. I have been following it reli-giously since my school days. Whenever my friends worry about getting signature

in rank card from their parents I helped them. Even, two years back, when I came to Chennai for job, I theoretically became my house owner for submitting a rental agreement form at my company. Signature conundrum:But, my signature is like a sine wave -It is oscillating from my child hood. During school days, I wrote my name as signa-ture. But, when I had to open my own bank account during my college days, I realized that I needed a signature. Instead of putting my name directly, I added some curves here and there to make it as my signature. Everything was going welluntil IopenedPPFaccount inSBI.During verification, I was treated as a cul-prit. Bank felt that I was not the same guy as my signature was completely different. Finally,Ihadtouseachangeof signatureformtoopenmyPPFaccount.Fatecontinues:After a few days, I had lost my ATM card. I went to the nearest branch of my bank and applied for a new card. In the form, my signature was mandatory. Alas!! Mysignature was completely different from the signature when I opened my office bank account two years before. What to do? No other choice! I had to takechange of signature form once again. I filled the form and gave it to bank offi-cer. Bank officer was a young lady in her mid twenties. After checking that form she informed me that all the signs in that form were not same. I gazed at her. Finally, we had an agreement.We final-ized on one of the signs which I previ-ously signed in another form. At last, my

deal was over. But as a part of agreement, I had to apply for my credit card through her. Next day, I went to collect my debit card from that lady. But, I had to put my sig-natureinaformtocollectthatcard.God!I didn’t remember which signature I had zeroedinon,yesterday! Again, the signature in the form didn’t match the signature which I put yesterday. Finally,thatladygavemetheformIhadfilled the previous day and after practicing my correct signature for “N” times, I suc-cessfully got my debit card. Mohammad Ali once said “If you view the world in the same way at 50 when I viewed it 25 years ago, you have wasted 25 years of your life”. But, if I follow that, banks are considering me as cheat. My signature is changing my “nature” frombeinga“naïve”to“cheat”.

Finally a hope:Nowadays, I am practicing my signature as Robin Sharma said “Everything you do for 21 days will become your habit “. Now, I have reached 20th day. If Robin Sharma fails, I have no other option in my hand.Plea to Government:“Could you please start to implement e-Signature in everything as world is get-tingdigitalized?Insteadof puttingahandsignature, let us consider using a pass codewith a digital signature!Let’s avoidsignature syndrome! Let’s get modern-ized! Help millions of people like me!Thanks!”

Signature- the Sign wave of my nature!! TM DHARMA

Q: This BBC TV quiz show came to an end in 2011 after its host announced herdecision to quit the programme. It was a popular daytime show, and its presenter,who was nicknamed “The Queen of Mean”, had attained a certain degree ofnotoriety. Briefly, there was an Indian version of the show as well.Which quiz programme?

A: The Weakest Link


Why a traveller & not a Tourist?

“A traveller’s destination is never a place, but instead a new way of seeing things.”

He visits a destination and accepts that visit as an end to it, he his happy to have merely seen the place and conquered it andhencemoveson. . .No!Now, thatwas what we call a tourist.Whereas a traveller, is a traveller wher-ever he roams. He sees every destination whether it is the post office or the corner newspaper stall in his hometown as a beginning. His world is full of infinite possibilities and endless stories, and it is no wonder that so many great writers are and have been travellers at heart.

We travel to lose ourselves and at the same very moment find ourselves, to open our hearts to the rich and diverse culture of this very world. A philoso-pher once said, “The world is a book and for those who do not travel read only a page”. Being a traveller is a sweet curse, it instils that passion of a nomad that once you start you would not want to stop. Leaving home as we begin on

a journey, we leave our stress, worries behind and go on to a new place to explore the unseen, whether it’s here in India or outside, any place you travel to for the first time is always a riveting experience.

Travelling to a place like Egypt and seeing the staple diet is Dates and the variety of dishes that can be made using dates is in itself puzzling and at the same time a novel and wonderful experience to have. Getting to know of a new cul-ture and absorbing it in our very soul remains in our heart throughout our lives. Escaping the reality is really helpful sometimes, it clears our thoughts, helps us regain balance of situations at hand so that when we get back, we can start afresh with a new zeal.

Travelling has changed the lives of men like Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo and a person of our times – Che Guevara – he was a man who at a very young age travelled all across South America from the bottom to the top and in the process he had experiences which

changed his entire life, from becoming a doctorhewenton to joinFidelCastroin the Cuban Revolution. If travelling could change a person to an extent so humongous, it can surely make a differ-ence to our lives too.

But, travelling doesn’t always have to be in it’s literal sense, when we see a movie or find that particular vacation spot, time does get held up, that is travelling too, travelling in time,when actually youdidn’t get to know how time just flew by. AmIright?

And thus, we should “travel not to go anywhere, but to go. To travel for trav-el’s vsake because the great affair is to move”–RobertLouisStevenson

TM PARTH DEO

VIT TOASTMASTERS CLUB ACHIEVEMENTS* Achieved the coveted ‘Golden Gavel’ Award from District 82 for the year 2011-12 in the first year of inception.

* With a membership base of 82, we have successfully multiplied from one club to three clubs now and to five clubs further because of the growth and support of the University.

* Successfully organized ‘India Emerge: A Riviera Youth Summit 2011’ on 28th and 29th January, 2011 with eminent speakers like Dr. JP Narayanan, (President, Lok Satta Party), Padmashree Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla, (Eminent Paralympics Champion), Shri E. Sarathbabu, (Founder and CEO, Foodking Enterprises), Mr. J. Gopalakrishnan (Eminent Journalist), Mr. Ram Sahasranam (Director, TED India), Mr. A. Muruganantham (Eminent Entrepreneur), Mrs. Nina John, R. Prasanna (Eminent Guitarist), and Shri Sanjay K. Dewan (Honorary Consul General, Republic of Cape Verde).

* Successfully organized a National Level Conference - ‘India Emerge Youth Summit 2012’ on September 8th and 9th, 2012. The theme of the conference was ‘Indian Policy Framework: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’. The stu-dents were addressed by Shri Lagadapati Rajagopal (Founder Chairman, LANCO Infratech Limited and Member of Parliament, Vijayawada Constituency), Padmashree Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla, (Eminent Paralympics Champion), Shri Prakash Rohera (Director, RedwoodEdge Corporate Training and Consultancy, Pune), Shri Ramesh Phatak (Director - Automation, Schneider Electric India), Shri SK Uppal (Retired IFS Officer), Dr. A. Manohar (Deputy Advisor, Planning Commission), Dr. M.K. Sridhar (Executive Director and Member Secretary, Karnataka Knowledge Commission).


DOW IEC TOASTMASTERS CLUBMembership:- Initiated at IEC in 2009 with a membership of 30 members and has 20 members currently

Key Highlights:• GENERAL & AWARDS:

- The club has produced 7 Competent Communicator (CC’s) & 2 Competent Leader award recipients. - Awarded under the Distinguished Club category of Toastmasters in 2009-2010, the first year of inception.- The club organised a Video Conferencing Toastmasters Meeting with the TM club in Dow’s Midland Office in 2009.

• CONTESTS:- The club had a representative (TM Arun Subramanian) at the District (International) Level speech contest in 2010 - One of the highest honours in a division.

o TM Arun was one of the representatives from India in the International Speech Contest. o Was the winner from 3 levels of speech contests involving more than 50 TM clubs.

- TM Praveen Raj was one of the participants in the Division Level International Speech Contest in 2012. Praveen was also the winner at the Club Level Contest for both the International Speech Contest & Table Topics Contest.- TM Sindhu was the winner in the Club Level Contest for the Humorous Speech Contest & Speech Evaluation Contest.

o Sindhu also represented IEC at the Area Level Speech Contest in September 2012.

Bubbling Enthusiasts – Shell Chennai Toastmasters Club

History:With an intention to improve one’s communication skills, a few folks in Shell Chennai floated the idea of bringing ‘Toastmasters’ to the organization. To feel the pulse, the concept was introduced through a learning tour. Several liked the concept and volun-teered to become a part of this gathering, the first of the curious onlookers. The rest as they say, is history...or at least a part of it! Ford Toastmasters club assisted us with demos and chartering our club. The concept started spreading through word of mouth and finally we managed to hit the Magic 20! SCTC, a fledgling, was born on 12th June 2012. The founding members with the sup-port of all the club members have fostered the growth of SCTC into a popular club in Division G.

Club Highlights

Meeting: Our sessions are held every Tuesday between 3-4 PM.

Recompense: From the time the club was chartered, it has been providing time-tested communication and leadership programs to assist individuals in reaching their goals.

Diversity: The blend of cultures and people of all ages makes the Shell Chennai Toastmasters Club a unique learning environment – friendly, informal, yet dedicated to learning.


Amazon Chennai Toastmasters Club

We call ourselves ACTC – short for Amazon Chennai Toastmasters Club. We take extreme pride in calling ourselves the Phoenix club – a club that died and rose from it’s own ashes in June 2011. ACTC might be a teeny tiny club but one with extremely strong pillars of support within the club as well as in the Toastmasters fraternity. ACTC is spe-cial to a lot of Division G’s veterans for the leadership opportunities created and the les-sons learnt.

Yes we do come across a lot of hurdles till date but then which club doesn’t? That has never stopped any of us from being an active member and contributor. True to Amazon’s core values, we at ACTC also believe in “WORKING HARD, HAVING FUN and MAKING HISTORY”. And somewhere along the lines – it’s the HAVING FUN bit that has passed on as a core value from one ex-comm to the next. The WORKING HARD bit fol-lows automatically and the resulting HISTORY is our reward. And this we confidently say because – any toastmaster who has attended our club meeting will agree on how infectious our energy is – be it 7 to 17 members!

And yes! We do feel immense pride at how much TM Harini Srinivasan, TM Jean Zibbin and a few others - have time and again done us proud but that is an add-on! We do have our shortcomings and might not be the best but if you happen to be in Kandanchavadi on a Wednesday – do step into S.P Infocity and see how we continue to grow despite all these “shortcomings” – We thoroughly enjoy it and we’re sure you will as well! :)

Contact : [email protected]

Options: Self-paced programs that allow the members to maximize their learning potential and to progress as rapidly or gradually as their needs dictate.

Club Achievements

SCTC Hosted the Area G1 and G3 Evaluation and Humorous Speech contests in Sept’12.

SCTC Club members have competed at Area, Division level contests with outstand-ing achievements and participation.

SCTC Club members have taken up various leadership roles at the Area and Division level contests, thereby enhancing their experience, knowledge and skills.

Office Bearers:President: TM Nikhil Bhagania; VP Ed: TM Lalitha Ramachandran; VP Membership: TM Srinivasan Raman; VP PR: TM Hamsini Radhakrishnan; SAA: TM Shobhan Satuluri; Secretary: TM Sivakumar Haskota; Treasurer: TM Shankar Narayanan

KEN KEN PUzzLESFill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so the digits within each heavily outlined box or boxes (called a cage) will produce the target number shown in that cage by using the operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) shown by the symbol after the numeral. For single box cages, simply enter the number that is shown in the corner.


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siGnature - Eloquence Special!