The Voice of CTC second edition

On Celebrations... The Voice of CTC

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

NOVEMBER 2013 C

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The Voice of CTC

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COROMANDEL TOASTMASTERS CLUB NOVEMBER 2013

Inside this issue

The Editorial team’s Voice 3

The President’s Voice 4

Life changing moments with Toastmasters 6

Embracing Toastmasters International 8

Brain teasers 9

My CL journey 10

Why should I join a new club? 11

The Voice of an ice breaker 12

What did I really lose? 13

Precious 10 14

Did you know? 15

An interview with ITC’ians 16

Ideas that live 18

Opportunity or problem?! 20

To think and to laugh 21

The Grand Chartering of CTC 22

Reverberation 2013 23

3

COROMANDEL TOASTMASTERS CLUB

The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

The Editorial team’s Voice

Dear Readers,

Greetings to All !!!

We are glad to present you the second edition of

Coromandel Toastmasters Club’s (CTC) newsletter—The Voice

of CTC.

The last quarter of any year is full of carnivals not only in

India but in almost every corner of the world. Everyone, the

rich and the poor, the young and the old, the literate and the

illiterate, are happily celebrating and enjoying every festival

coming their way. Talking about the year end celebrations,

Ganesh chathurthi, Navrathri, Bakrid, Diwali and Christmas

come to our mind.

And to extend the list of celebration moments at

Coromandel Toastmasters Club, we had our club’s chartering

ceremony followed by the release of our inaugural newsletter,

DTM Jayan’s Divisional take over in the evaluation contest, ice

breaker marathon and bagging the Smedley award within a

week after chartering. To cherish and celebrate these moments,

we have chosen the theme for our second newsletter as

“Celebrations” . Through this edition we would like to share

some of the memoirs of the seasoned toastmasters and budding

toastmasters of both home and friendly clubs.

We express our cordial gratitude to everyone who

contributed ardently for this edition of our newsletter by taking

some time out of their busy schedules.

Happy reading!

TM Iniyan Editor-in-chief

TM Monisha Advisor

TM Naresh Proof reader

The Voice of CTC

4

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.


TM Madhavan Nampoothiri is the President of

Coromandel Toastmasters Club of Area M 01, District 82.

He is an entrepreneur in the renewable energy sector and

has more than a decade’s experience in the energy sector.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering

from M.S. University, Tamil Nadu and MBA from Kelley

School of Business, Indiana University, USA.

The President’s Voice

September 2013 and the chartering

ceremony held on 21st September 2013. Here

are a few things the club has achieved since

then.

Contests

The senior most member of the club,

DTM Jayan Narayanan, set an example for

other club members by winning the Division

level evaluation contest and making it to the

District Level Contest (Reverberation 2013)

to be held in Bangalore later this month.

Membership

We started with a membership base of

22, and in the first month after chartering, 5

What can a club achieve in 2 months?

Quite a lot! Want a proof? Look at our own

club.

Coromandel Toastmasters Club

(CTC) is officially less than 2 months old,

but the club has done several things it can be

proud of. CTC was officially chartered on 6th

Distinguished Club Program (DCP)

As on 20th October 2013, CTC has

earned 4 DCP points. We still have a long

way to go to earn the remaining 6 DCP

points, but the level of commitment

exhibited by the members shows that

achieving those points won’t be difficult.

Initiatives to improve club meetings’

quality

CTC is a new club, and naturally,

most of the members are new to the

Toastmasters community. In order to

encourage them to play an active role in the

club and also help them benefit from the

new members were added. By doing this,

CTC earned its first Smedley Award, which

is given to the club that added 5 or more

additional members during August and

September of a year.

Education

2 of our members (Monisha M and

Madhavan V N) completed their Competent

Leadership (CL) track.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But we have promises to keep, And

miles to go before we sleep, And miles to go before we sleep.”

TM Madhavan

5


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

A head full of fears has no space for dreams.

He has completed the Competent Leadership track and

is on the way of guiding and mentoring the budding

toastmasters of the newly formed Coromandel

Toastmasters club.

Toastmasters movement, an Ice-breaker

marathon was held and 4 new members

started their Competent Communication

(CC) journey by breaking their ice. A

Toastmaster of the Month (TMoM) award

has been instituted and TM Naresh Kumar

won the first TMoM award of the club.

While CTC has been getting

recognition for what the club has been

doing, we cannot rest on those laurels. We

still have resource crisis. The attendance is

for our weekly meetings is still between 15

and 20, and we need to consistently have

packed rooms. We need to generate more

revenue which can help us improve the

ambience of our meeting venue. The bottom

line is that we still have a lot of work to do.

To paraphrase Robert Frost -

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But we have promises to keep,

And miles to go before we sleep,

And miles to go before we sleep.”

Coromandel Toastmasters

Club congratulates Chennai

Toastmasters club for achieving its

successful milestone of 10th year.

On this gracious occasion

“The Light House club” of

Tamil Nadu has unveiled the new

logo for the club.

The Voice of CTC

6


DTM Lalitha

DTM Lalitha Giridhar is a Senior manager—Human

resources at Future focus InfoTech private limited. She

has over 20 years of experience and donned several roles

in the field of Human resources. She served as the

President of Chennai Toastmasters club and other

important roles of TMI. She is currently one of the

ambassadors of District 82.

Life changing moments with Toastmasters

I had the opportunity to witness

Chennai, Mangalore, Hyderabad and Kerala

compete at the Division level of the

Humorous and Evaluation Contest. I saw

DTM Aditya Maheswaran in action for the

first time on stage in the Evaluation contest,

and wondered, “Will I ever be able to

evaluate like him?” I was excited when I

received the certificate from the Conference

Chair, DTM Sastharam Raveendran for my

work at the Registration Desk. That was the

beginning of my celebrations at

Toastmasters.

The first year in Toastmasters was a

roller coaster ride, and I was in awe as I

experienced my first ever Ovation at

“You are in charge of the

Registrations Desk for the Division

Conference” were the words uttered by the

President of Chennai Toastmasters Club in

my second week as a new Toastmaster. This

was in October 2007.

growing, and I was part of demo meetings

across the city, and had the opportunity to

mentor upcoming Wordsmiths, Caterpillar,

Sathyam and Sysbiz Clubs. This frequent

opportunity to speak and evaluate in front of

alien crowds gave me the confidence to give

my name for the Club level Humorous and

Evaluation Contest in June 2008.

I always thought humor was my forte

and I had a time tested speech on my

experiences when I learnt driving and I also

contested in the Evaluation contest just for

the fun of it. One of my co-contestants was

DTM Aditya who was already an ACB and

an established speaker and contestant.

Bangalore. I never dreamt of being a

contestant on the big stage wherein the best

of talent from entire India and Srilanka (we

were a very large District then) locked horns

for the coveted title.

Passion and encouragement of

mentors like DTM Nina John and DTM

Sastharam, and my own enthusiasm and

interest paved way for many opportunities

to speak in smaller platforms. We were

“The frequent opportunity to speak and evaluate in front of alien crowds

gave me the confidence. ”

10 % conflicts is due to difference of opinion and 90% is due to wrong tone of voice.

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The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

She was the District level winner of the Evaluation contest

and 2nd runner up in the Humorous speech contest at

“Reverberation 2008”

The DTM’s Voice...

I was extremely happy when I came first in

the Humorous Contest and Second in the

Evaluations Contest at the club level.

The celebrations grew multifold at the

area contests. Sastharam was the Area

Governor then. My humorous speech

brought the ceiling down and to my

astonishment, I was placed first in both

Evaluation and Humorous Contest while

Aditya came second in both!!

The Division contests were held in

Kerala. Aditya and I had a pact that I will

concentrate on humorous and he will

concentrate on Evaluation. By doing so, we

ensured that Chennai was represented at the

District Level… Deal!!!

The contests started. I delivered my

humorous speech with the same zeal and

enthusiasm. Surprisingly, the audience

remained very silent. I was so depressed. I

knew I had not made it to the top. I gave

my evaluations as always. There was utter

silence as the results were announced….

“Third Place in the Humorous Speech

contest!!” I knew that I did not make it. But

I was very happy when Aditya won the

Humorous contest. And I was sure that he

will be representing our city in both the

contests.

Then the evaluation results were

announced. Aditya came second and I had

lost my hope. So I was sitting as small as

possible in my seat (knowing my size, that

was pretty difficult). The winner of the

Evaluation Contest is………. Lalitha

Giridhar!!!

That was one of the most memorable

moments in Toastmasters. The journey

continued to the District and in more

contests. But that is another story for

another article.

Wishing many new aspiring speakers

the experience of contesting and winning.

All the best.

“I did my humorous speech with the same zeal and enthusiasm.”

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work until it is not open.

The Voice of CTC

8


DTM Jayan

DTM Jayan Narayanan is presently the founder and CEO

of “TOSS THE COIN”, a new age marketing advisory and

outsourcing company based in Chennai. He is a

motivational speaker and spends his free time at colleges,

industry forums and organizations conducting

communication workshops, delivering lectures on varied

topics around marketing.

Embracing Toastmasters International...

select the “Best Companies to work for in

India”. Covansys was ranked 8th and one of

the three reasons for being selected to be a

part of the prestigious top 10 was

“Toastmasters”. The top management was

visibly excited and so were the founder

members of TM club at Covansys. For me,

it doesn’t really matter whether a third party

agency is talking high about TM or not.

What mattered to me were the benefits

that my fellow Toastmasters & I were

reaping being a part of the TM movement.

Yes, we absolutely did.

I have personally witnessed several

success stories in numerous corporate TM

I have all along been in a corporate

Toastmasters environment and have always

wondered why corporate companies are

keen to introduce Toastmasters to their

employees. Interestingly, seven years ago

when the Toastmasters club was started at

Covansys in Chennai, not many knew how

effective a Toastmasters membership would

be in one’s career. The same year, Business

Today Group was conducting a survey to

considered to be an employee development

program with the mandatory hours

included. Now here’s the sad part of the

story. Despite having so many advantages,

the turnouts in most corporate TM clubs are

bad and they remain such for many

consecutive sessions.

The reasons for poor turnouts are

never convincing. The ones that top the list

are project pressure; unavoidable meeting

scheduled by boss, customer call and many

more trivial excuses. Having been a mentor

for many such Toastmasters, I have had

only one advice to offer –

clubs that I have been associated with.

There’s no doubt that the corporate TM

clubs are far luckier than community TM

clubs. Yes, their logistics is completely taken

care. In most cases, the TM sessions happen

on a typical work week day, infrastructure

is almost readily available, again in most

cases the TM clubs are totally or partially

funded by the corporate. What more, for a

lucky few, the TM movement is included in

the L&D portfolio and hence it is officially

“The frequent opportunity to speak and evaluate in front of alien crowds

gave me the confidence. ”

The eyes are useless unless the mind is blind.

9


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

He is the Division level winner of the evaluation contest held in October 2013 and he will be representing Division— M at “Reverberation 2013”.

The DTM’s Voice...

“It is a voluntary decision to join

Toastmasters. So no one can ever force you to

attend and benefit from it.”

Many have shared their success stories

with me and had repented having not been so

sincere in the early days of their TM journey.

It’s never late for such heart-warming

realisations! Corporate TM movement has

come a long way and today there’s a deluge of

corporate TM clubs mushrooming all across

the country. Incidentally, corporate

companies in the IT sector top the list. The

reason has been word-of-mouth, competition,

brand recognition, employee attraction and

retention. In my opinion a TM movement

in a corporate environment will have

to be embraced by several departments –

Human Resources, Finance, Learning &

Development, Sales & Marketing, Delivery

and all Customer facing functions. If they

all come together and see the value that a

TM movement can deliver, it will be a

healthy scenario for the corporate club and

its members. Cheers to this stupendous

growth phenomenon. May employees

benefit! May brands benefit!!

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.

Check for solutions at page 13

The Voice of CTC

10


TM Monisha

TM Monisha is the Vice President – Public Relations of Coromandel Toastmasters Club. Graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, Monisha had been into the IT industry for 1.5 years. She is a budding blogger and her blog posts can be read at

http://memoirsofmonisha.wordpress.com/

My CL journey

So what made my CL journey interesting?

Homework

For every role which I take, I do a

considerable amount of homework. For

example: When I played the role of an ah-

counter, instead of just mentioning my role,

I also researched a little on how to overcome

the crutches in a speech and used the tips

when I explained my role.

Induce variety

No matter how many times I take up

the same role, I tried to bring in a little bit of

variety. For instance, when I took up the

role of a grammarian in a corporate club, I

When I joined Toastmasters way

back in August 2011 and received my first

set of manuals for CC and CL, I flipped

through the pages and wondered when I will

finish all the projects. But as my journey

began, I began to enjoy every single

experience on my way and the pressure to

complete my CL before the mentioned

deadline almost vanished in thin air; because

“I began to do what I love and love what I do”.

This is one of the key factors which kept me

going.

skills better for the next time.

These key parameters helped me

earn my CL for the 2nd time this year and is

one of my “celebration moments”. The CL

manual is an absolute treasure which

contains all the key ingredients to develop

one’s leadership skills. If you are keen on

honing your leadership skills, then

Toastmasters is the place you should be in!

I would like to sign off by quoting

the words of TMI’s Past President Helen

Blanchard, DTM, “If you get out of

Toastmasters all there is to get out of

Toastmasters, you’ll never get out of

Toastmasters.”

compared my role to that of a lexical

analyser which was easily comprehensible

to that crowd.

Work on feedback

The few lines of feedback from each of the

evaluators who filled my CL manual really

had a huge impact on me. It was not just

about getting the manual filled for name

sake. I considered each of the feedback

sincerely and worked towards polishing my

“If you get out of Toastmasters all there is to get out of Toastmasters,

you’ll never get out of Toastmasters.”

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

http://memoirsofmonisha.wordpress.com/

11


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

TM Anirudh is the Vice President—Membership of

Coromandel Toastmasters Club. He is also a member of

Chennai toastmasters club. He is working as a Software

Engineer in Cognizant Technology Solutions.

Why should I join a new club ?

“Why do you want to move into a

new club where meeting standards may not

be on par with that of an established club?”

This is the question people asked me when I

was planning to become a member of

Coromandel Toastmasters Club. This

question may also arise in the minds of

guests who want to become Toastmasters,

“Why should I join a nascent club when

there are well established clubs in the city?”.

I can relate this with working for a well

established organization versus working for

a start up. Working for a start up was not

considered cool a decade or two back, but

now lot of youngsters stepping out of their

college prefer to begin their career in a start

up where abundant learning along with the

freedom to experiment is possible. Same is

applicable to Toastmasters Club too. In a

decade old club, there is an existing

framework and one may feel that he/she

can’t explore beyond a certain limit. Getting

a leadership role is also not easy because of

the competition that prevails there. Whereas

when I was a few months old Toastmaster

of CTM, I got the role of VP-Membership in

CTC. After all we are here every weekend to

hone the communication and leadership

skills. One can’t better the leadership skill

until and unless he/she takes up a leadership

role. It was a great experience to work with

other Executive Committee members and

with all their support and hard work we got

more new members and we chartered our

club. The purpose of forming a new TM

Club is to bring in more new members and

to form a supportive learning environment.

We also achieved the goal of bringing in 5

new members in the month of September

and CTC opened its account in the ribbon

tally with the ‘Smedley Award’. It was a

challenging task for the youngest club of

Chennai, but with all our persistent efforts

we made it and it also gave us a sense of

accomplishment.

At CTC, there are “more leadership

opportunities” and last but not the least,

“more stage time”.

“At CTC, there are “more leadership opportunities” and last but not the

least “more stage time!”

TM Anirudh

Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.

The Voice of CTC

12

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.


TM Iniyan

TM Iniyan is a budding toastmaster at Coromandel Toastmasters club. He is a Mechanical Engineer by profession for around 4 years, currently associated with the Product Development team of a leading Automobile company.

The voice of an ice breaker

spoke about Toastmasters, kindled my

curious nature to attend one of the

Toastmasters meetings in a corporate club.

There I heard about this newly

formed club in my locality, Tambaram,

called Coromandel Toastmasters club. It’s a

community club which is open to all, unlike

corporate clubs. When I attended CTC’s

meeting, I found a lot of differences between

those two types of clubs. One is serene with

supreme quality acoustics and highly

sophisticated gadgets and “the other” is

open to noises and hardly contains any

gadgets. One contains technically qualified

people working towards the common

“You don’t have to be great to start, but

you have to start to be great” goes an

illustrious quote by Zig Ziglar, an American

author, salesman and a motivational

speaker. And that is how I started my

journey as a Toastmaster. It was through my

friend TM Malavika, I got introduced to this

new trail of life. The energy in her voice,

the dilation of her pupil and the

intensiveness of her speech whenever she

instigated me to join the club.

I broke my ice by giving a speech on

“My journey through dynasties”. I took up

several roles like Grammarian, General

evaluator, Table topics master before my

first speech which improved my confidence

on the dais. Besides, the mentor-mentee

concept helps me to have a friendly learning

of the communication and leadership skills

both in professional and personal life. Every

time I take up a role, I feel excited like I am

celebrating a carnival. My journey of

“Toastmastership” has just started and have a

long way to go !

mission and vision of a company and the

other contains the people from diversified

professional background including students.

I preferred not to join the One, but “the

other” which is not only exposed to the

realistic milieu of public speaking, but also it

is the platform to meet different people.

I find every aspect of Toastmasters

positive and constructive. When I attended

the meeting as a guest, surprisingly I was

given a chance to speak. The intention to

make each and every one who attends the

meeting to speak on the stage, somehow,

“You don’t have to be Great to Start, but you have to Start to be Great.”

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

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

13


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

TM Divya Venketraman is a Final year PG student specializing in Human resources and a member of Chennai Communicators Club. She is passionate about public speaking and describes herself as talkative by nature. She is interested in writing and reading motivational stories.

What did I really lose ?

TM Divya

Solutions for Brain teasers… 1 - sandbox; 2 - man on board; 3 - i understand; 4 - reading between the lines 5 - long underwear; 6 - crossroads 7 - downtown; 8 - tricycle; 9 - split level; 10 - 3 degrees below zero 11 - neon light; 12 - dark circles under the eyes 13 - stretch chair; 14 - paradise 15 - touchdown; 16 - 6 feet underground 17 - mind over matter;18 - he's beside himself 19 - glance backwards; 20 - life after death

Think before you speak. Read before you think.

the beauty of nature while travelling,

without getting my ears plugged with ear

phones. That one week, I got a sound sleep

in the night, without meddling with games,

which I was addicted to! I began to live a

new life... Rather, I realized what life is.

May be, this was the much needed change!

May be, losing my mobile wasn't for a heart

break, but for a tea break! Second comes

after first but the second has to be valued

first, for each and every second is a

blessing... To be famous, one has to be a

celebrity but to be happy, one has to

celebrate! For, the purpose of life is a life of

purpose, the purpose of losing cell phone is

also a life of purpose :)

Waking up at 5 a.m. every morning is

the worst night mare any college student

would have imagined! And yeah, that

became true for me. With my eyes closed

and stomach empty, I used to go for

accounts classes about 20kms away from

home. One fine day, I happened to lose my

cell phone! Lesser did I know, missing sleep

is less important than missing my cell

phone! I felt, I lost my life partner at a

throw! That marked the day of anguish. I

felt that I am finished, but as the days

proceeded, it was a new beginning. That one

week, I enjoyed in class with friends without

messaging any one situated miles away. The

person next to you belongs to you more than

the person on call. That one week I admired

“To be famous, one has to be a celebrity

but to be happy, one has to celebrate!”

The Voice of CTC

14


“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”

Precious 10

Missed to attend any of our club meetings ? CTC never misses anyone! It uses a prudent

tool to share the knowledge. Below is a crossword puzzle which consists of words used in

the meetings of CTC as “Word of the Day”. What are you waiting for? Crack it…?!

Across

3. Skill or expertise in a particular

activity or field.

4. Doing things in a natural and

often sudden way.

5. Bring about or initiate (an action

or event)

8. Being out of the ordinary : rare,

unusual

9. Only taught to or understood by

members of a special group

Down

1. Promote or make widely known (an

idea or cause)

2. Great courage in the face of danger,

esp. in battle.

4. Satisfy (a desire or an appetite) to

the full.

6. Imagine as a future possibility;

visualize.

7. Luminous

Check for solutions at page 19

15


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

Did you know?

Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.

Eno

chlo

ph

ob

ia

is t

he

fe

ar o

f cr

ow

ds.

Glossophobia is the

fear of public speaking.

The Voice of CTC

16

No one will listen to us until we listen to ourselves.


TM Subhadip

TM Subhadip is a member of Infosys Toastmasters,

Chennai who hails from Kolkata. Two persons who

inspired him in life are his dad and Abraham Lincoln. He

believes in setting and achieving smaller victories in order

to reach a greater goal. He’s a conversationalist and likes

to meet new people. During his leisure, he is engaged in

reading books and photography.

An interview with ITC’ians

How do you know about Toastmasters?

Subhadip : I have been working in Infosys

Limited and I came to know about

the existing club in Toastmasters through

the mails in my workplace.

Tejas : I came to know about Toastmasters

when I joined Infosys, Hyderabad. I happen

to read Infosys Hyderabad TM club mail for

meeting invite and that is when I started

following it.

When and why did you join Toastmasters?

Subhadip : I have been into debating from

my school days. Initially I visited a

Toastmasters club just to check how it

works. Then I found out that it’s something

which I like to do. And moreover during my

first 3 meetings as a guest, I won the table

topics. Those little winning moments made

me to come again. But later I understood

that there is much more in it.

Tejas : I had decided while I was in Infosys

Hyderabad, that I would join this club and

a few months later I was transferred to

Chennai. When I got a meeting invite from

ITC, I walked in as a guest and I became a

member of the club after attending three

meetings. I am very fond of speaking as a

profession since it has the power to get

things done and bring changes across mass. I

would like to imbibe this skill to share ideas

and inspire people for changes I would like

to see around me and I feel TM is the place

to start that journey.

What surprised you the most about

Toastmasters?

Subhadip : The friendly nature and homely

ambiance of the club meetings. I have never

thought a learning arena can be so friendly

even when made of people

of different age groups.

Tejas : TM is the place where people come

together avoiding all inhibitions no matter

what their age is. I see members who are

fresh, enthusiastic college students and

members with grey hairs on the brink of

ending their career, all of them trying to

improve by supporting and encouraging

each other. This environment every time I

visit any club surprises me.

17


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

TM Tejas S. Sawant is a member of Infosys Toastmasters

club, Chennai. He completed his graduation from Mumbai

university and MBA Information system from Symbiosis,

SCIT, Pune. He is passionate in reading books, listening to

music and watching educational and inspirational videos.

The Voice of ITC’ians...

TM Tejas

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

If someone asked you to give a

presentation on short notice, how would

you react?

Subhadip : A year back I might have

flinched. But now, I’d say “Yeah bring it on!

Just let me know the time and venue.”

Tejas : Being a Toastmaster, it is all about

being ready with unexpected and how you

deal with that situation, be it you are on

stage giving impromptus or asked to take up

activities in the club. So giving presentation

would not be a difficult task for any

Toastmaster.

What do you like the best about CTC?

Subhadip : Perseverance and determination

of each of its members. Whenever I go to

CTC I find a welcoming atmosphere.

Tejas : The best thing about CTC is that it

is in its nascent stage, slowly growing and

improving which matches with my goal as a

speaker and that is what encourages me to

visit CTC whenever I get time.

How Toastmasters helped you to use

communication skills in your career and

daily life?

Subhadip : In my career I am able to handle

client calls and interact with colleagues with

much more ease, and in daily life, I made

some great friends here.

Tejas : I am in an IT industry,working with

clients and peers across world. Having clear,

concise and effective communication is

essential, be it for calls, video conferencing

or mails. Being a Toastmaster, allows me to

work on this aspect of communication..

What is the most important thing you

would tell your friends and family about

Toastmasters?

Subhadip : I guess the best part about TM is

that no matter how good a speaker you

already are, there's always more and more

that you can learn from TM.

Tejas : Apart from improvement in

speaking skills, the varied people you meet

and make connections with, improves your

network which helps you for professional

and personal activities. This is what I would

like to share with my family and friends for

visiting TM clubs while I encourage them to

do the same.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1329609415

The Voice of CTC

18

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.


TM Bharath

TM Bharath Raman is a budding toastmaster at Coromandel Toastmasters club. He is a MBA graduate from IIT Madras, currently associated with Cognizant Technology solutions as Senior Business development analyst. His hobbies are gaming, body building and reading.

Ideas that live

decide whether to fund his/ her idea (or

not)?”

The common response: “We look for passion.”

It’s cryptic and it’s banal yet it’s the

best answer anybody can give to such a

question.

An entrepreneur I know was once

asked why there were so few people trying

to make it on their own. Why did so many

people pass up the opportunity to try and be

an entrepreneur?”

In reply, he joked, “If you can get a girl

to say ‘Yes’ (what for? You should know!!) In

three days a lot of boys will tail her. If it’s going to

The acid test:

If there’s any relationship as

complicated as the one between romantic

partners, it’s the one between a ‘Venture

Capitalist’ (VC) and the entrepreneur whose

idea the VC decides to back. Time and again

a common question is asked on public

forums:

“What does a venture capitalist look

for in an entrepreneur, when he/ she have to

towards the trainer. Once the horses

understand this logic, they go through the

test.

A horse can survive for a couple of

days without water. The horses that are put

to test are fed, but without a drop of water

for a few days. Once they’re really thirsty,

they are released from their enclosure with

barrels of water placed at a distance. All the

horses gallop towards the barrels. But, just

before they reach, the trainer blows the

whistle. Those horses that turn and gallop

towards the trainer pass the test, those that

don’t, fail.”

take three years only a few will tail her.”

The untamed horse:

I remember my Secondary School

Physics teacher once telling us the following:

“Do you know how an Arabian horse

is trained? Why they’re deemed to be the

best horses in the world? The training

procedure is quite simple. In training, the

horses will be allowed to gallop away from

the trainer. The horses travel a few hundred

metres after which the trainer will whistle.

The horse should then turn and gallop

“Our thoughts are like an untamed horse, energetic and full of spirit, but

they wander about, unable to focus on important things.”

19


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

idea would bear little relation to its current

state.

The owner of the idea would be

confident about it to such an extreme that it

would appear he/she was being driven by

faith rather than logic.

Above all, the owner of the idea will

be ready to debate and defend it, at any

point in time with anyone.

Baby Blues

An idea is the owner’s baby. It is

born, nurtured and nourished within that

individual. When it comes to life, it is cared

for and parented by a group until it grows

strong enough to survive on its own. But,

the bigger challenge for the parent/s is to

realise that it’s time to “let go”.

Our thoughts are like an untamed

horse, energetic and full of spirit, but they

wander about unable to focus on important

things. To make your mind focus on what

you want, it needs to be trained, and that

training can be very hard. It can be made

enjoyable only if you are working on

something you really believe in.

Some common characteristics:

As a sentient species, we observe,

absorb and assimilate information about the

world around us. But, each and every one of

us does it in a different way. Moreover, we

don’t focus on the same things even if we

exist in the same environment. We perceive

things differently. That’s how a sense of

identity is built.

A person who believes in the potential

of an idea has a few easily noticeable traits:

They would have done a lot of

research about it and may even have gone to

the length of trying some experiments based

on it.

An entrepreneur who wanted to

improve the hygiene of rural women built

his own machine which made sanitary

napkins for a very cheap price. But testing it

was a problem. He went to the extent of

testing it on himself!!

The idea would have been looked at

from various angles and would have been

modified so many times that the original

Solutions for Precious 10

The Voice of CTC

20


“Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for

success.”

You never fail until you stop trying .

Opportunity or Problem ?!

21


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

To think and to laugh...

Mom….! Lol...

Me or We…?!

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

The Voice of CTC

22


The Grand Chartering of CTC...

23


The Voice of CTC

NOVEMBER 2013

Reverberation 2013...

“Reverberation 2013 awaits DTM Jayan Narayanan” and

CTC awaits the next celebration...

“Jayan … Bang it …! Bring it…! ”

The Voice of CTC

24


TMs can Book your slots @ www.easyspeak.org

Or

Contact our VP-E : TM Satish @ 9884072841

We meet every Saturday

between 5 - 7 pm

The walls of CTC are always ready to echo the voice of

guests.

Meet us at

Coromandel Toastmasters Club

Sitadevi Garodia Hindu Vidhyalaya

Kalamegam street extension,

East Tambaram,

Chennai—600059

For directions to reach the venue,

check http://goo.gl/PRwYrO

To join our club

contact TM Anirudh

Vice President - Membership

@ +91- 9940382976 or

drop a mail to

[email protected]

Club ID # 3075300

Area #M1

District #82

http://goo.gl/PRwYrO

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoromandelToastmastersClub/

http://www.pinterest.com/CoromandelTMs/

https://twitter.com/CoromandelTMs

http://www.youtube.com/user/CoromandelTMs/

Documents

The Voice of CTC second edition