[TM]CC#10 Inspire Your Audience - If they can so can we

CC#10 –ITCSCW( If they can so can we)

Imagine it is May 2013. You are attending our District conference, Ovations at Hotel Hilton, Chennai. The hall is filled with toastmasters from Bangalore, Kerala, Srilanka and Tamilnadu. The MC on the stage calls your name. Immediately the crowd starts to cheer your name… You are going to the stage to receive the District Champion of Public Speaking award.

If toastmaster Dhananjay from Srilanka can do it, why can’t we? If toastmaster Alex from Amazon can do it, why can’t we?

Good evening toastmaster of the day fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests.It was the year 1950 There was a small village called kalapet in Pondicherry. A young man, in his mid 20s, toiled hard and helped his father to get his 5 sisters married and also helped his 2 brothers to come up in life. He also had to help some of his relatives, financially.

He achieved his mother’s wish by becoming the highly educated person in the entire village by completing MA B.Ed. The nearest college was 20 Kms away and he used to cycle for more than an hour to get to college. After college he used to go for part time work to earn more to support his family. He was as busy as a bumblebee.

In his village, even though he was surrounded by lots of people who had drinking habits, he true heartedly believed, that drinking and smoking never brings harmony to one’s life. He lived his life like a sea fish without getting contaminated by the salt .

He got married to a lovely and beautiful woman. They got two sons and a daughter. Due to community problem in his village, he migrated to the city. Due to his hard work and perseverance he managed to earn money and build his own house. He gave good education to all his children.

If he can come up in life and live with high discipline in-spite of his hardships and surroundings, can’t we face the challenges in our life?

[SV1] I’m going to share with you the story of a toastmaster Eshwar, whom I met in Chennai Toastmasters Club 2.5 years ago. [SV2] One of his descendents attended Chennai toastmasters club 2.5 years back. In the first day as a guest, he was trying to hide himself from everyone.

The presiding officer asked, “Can you please introduce yourself and share your feedback!” “my name is ... my name is .. I enjoyed the meeting. You! You!  People got high skill sets. If you people bear with me I will join this club”. Eshwar replied with his trembling voice and shaking legs.

After joining the club, he continuously hides, hibernates from the TT master and did not take any role for nearly 7 weeks. His inner voice told that it is a wonderful movement to be associated with. So he keeps pushing himself to attend the meetings regularly as clockwork. One day a senior toastmaster named Mani asked him

TM Mani: Are you a guest?

He: No sir. I am a member for more than 2 months.

TM Mani: But I have not seen you taking any roles.

He: Sir you know I have fear and also I am not fluent.

TM Mani: Then what is the purpose of joining toastmasters.

He: Sir I am regularly attending the meeting.

TM Mani: Whenever you are entering the ruby hall, you should take at-least a role. Be it an ah-counter, timer or any role. You should play one role.

He: Ok sir.

Then onwards he tried to take up the roles continuously.

 He came to know that “One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks."

Eshwar’s inspiration was our former president TM Prabhakaran. TM Prabhakaran hardly missed a single meeting when he was a member. He also followed the same. If he can so can I.

Eshwar was amazed by the story of TM Priyanandhan, if he was able to thrash his perpetual stammering problem, can’t I make efforts to improve my communication and leadership skills? If he can so can I.

He started reading novels and ended with self-help books and biographies. He entered into a new world of thinking. He was amazed by the entrepreneur Richard branson who created 8 billion dollar companies in different sectors, Robin sharma’s amazing concepts of leadership, James Allen thinking concepts, Steven covey’s First things First, Brian tracy’s audio books and many more.

He pushed his sister also into toastmasters and saw a lot of positive transitions in her. Eshwar’s parents started planning for his marriage. When his to be brother in laws visited his house to see the bride groom, he gave his icebreaker speech to them and told that he will be busy with the club meetings on Sundays. He said, “Most importantly, after the marriage the bride should also come to the club meetings”. In fact, Eshwar’s conditions for the marriage made his future in-laws think twice before agreeing for the marriage proposal.

Eshwar had to organize his speech, use rhetorical devices, body language, vocal variety, and research data to explain about toastmasters and finally persuaded them for the marriage.

He was gifted to be associated with the people like TM Sadayappan, TM Saro Velrajan and many others, who taught him how one should be in life. If they can have so much quality thoughts and action so can he by following them.

If TM Sadayappan, can be the district 2^nd runner up within 1+ years of TM journey, Can’t he at-least win a trophy in the club level? If he can so can I.

Eshwar regularly participated in club contests – irrespective of whether he wins or loses. He participated in the club level Humorous speech & International speech contest and won the 2^nd place. This might be a little accomplishment in his TM journey but it gave him a sense of satisfaction to him-self.

He knows that his mountain may seem no more than a hill to others and he will accept that. He will be renewed by his own personal victories and triumphs no matter how small.

If a poor Eshwar who joined the club 2.5 years can become the President of the club, why can’t you?! Yes.. The Eshwar that I was talking about is none other than your ThanigeaswarIn TM Priyanandhan’s palate, I can say “Look at me now!”.

I recently met the father of DTM Aditya M, I greeted him and said sir “Aditya is a source of inspiration to all of us”. He immediately replied “if he can, so can you”.

In this world the top performers were once normal people. They got an opportunity to get inspired by other top performerswhich made them to decide … If they can do it so can we.

Our District Governor DTM Nina John said that we should not compare with others. Always we should compare with ourselves.

Nelson mandella said in his book “ Long walk to freedom”, After climbing a peak only, one will be able to see a lot of peaks to climb.” When you start making progress in your toastmasters journey, you’ll begin to realize the untapped potential in you.Fellow toastmasters, you don’t have to be GREAT to START, but you’ve to START to be GREAT!

Becoming a champion in whatever we do is easy, provided we are ready to invest our time, energy and commitment. If  TM Aditya Maheswaran, and TM Alex can become District Champions… we can too. “If they can so can we”.

Over to the TMOD

[TM]CC#09 Persuade With Power - Tae-ho

Tae-ho – CC#09

I don’t have time to prepare for my roles”

“ The commute is too long for me to attend toastmasters meetings”.

“Coming up with speech topics is very difficult for me”

We come up with a million reasons for not attending meetings and for not doing our projects.

Whenever human race is bogged down by the lack of self-confidence, hard-work, and attitude, God always sends someone so that people can get motivated, inspired and prosper in life.

Good evening toastmaster of the day fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests.

God has sent me … Tae-ho, today I belong to south-Korea. I’m a tiny little boy. My eyes are blue and my hairs dance rhythmically in my fore-head.

Oh! Where are my arms? Am I hiding it behind my shirt or trousers! No … I was born without arms and a congenital deformity of legs, 4 toes each. On seeing my disabilities I was abandoned right after my birth. I didn’t lose hope. I do like arms, the most. But I don’t have one… actually two! Instead of worrying about what I don’t have … I began living happily with what I have. Instead of complaining about things that are beyond my influence… I decided to focus on things that are under my influence. Even though I don’t have hands I have my two legs. Yea – Yea Yes – Yes.

Sometimes I will suffer from fever, head-ache. My throat hurts, my stomach hurts, but my attitude never hurts. The doctor told, under my circumstance, I won’t be alive beyond the age of 10. Now I am 11 years old, roaring to go.

If arms are not there, Can’t we use spoons? How even the humblest and most harmless of things like a blade of grass could be turned into a weapon of destruction, in the hands of an accomplished person.

Oh the chicken was grilled well! The soup tastes good. I love it (kissing part). I can remove the food particles in my mouth like this.  I can give romantic looks by keeping my chin like this. I can keep listening the lessons in the school.  I can play like others and I love to play with my brother. Ha – Ha- HA

Even-though I don’t have arms, I don’t expect other’s help. Instead I will try to do it myself. People with arms are not brushing their tooth properly, but I am brushing my tooth regularly and my teeth are glistening like mirror. Also I will help others. My four toes are limitless with that I can do whatever I want. The special doors pull, for my toe.

Come-on, Come-on. Hey – Hey My lovely mirror. I can also apply fair & handsome in the temple, right cheek, left cheek. How am I? Super is not? My hair looks great. I look great! Yeh – Yeh - Yeh ! I can dress and undress myself. Mmmm Removing my trousers come –on come-on – yeah yeah

I know swimming also. Doctors say due to my excessive usage of foot like arms, my spine got bent. But I don’t care about it. I will live my life with roller coaster happiness. Since I don’t have arms, heat in my body won’t be able to dissipate outside. So I will get fever easily. One day I will become a doctor and will put big injection on you. Hey stop pushing me! I can I can.

You are not physically challenged as I am. I am a man of strong will… What about you?

Hey … YOU !… toastmasters watching my video at Chennai… How many of you are actively participating in the meetings? How many of you giving regular speeches?  I am already in the gavel club and I am going to finish my cc next week what about you?  If I am able to do so many things with the so little things that I have… why Ccan’t you ? Blaming circumstances is very easy… but, influencing them is difficult. It is easy to limit ourselves by giving excuses … but, it is difficult to do something and prove others  “Yes ! I can”Please introspect yourselves.  I am very happy that my video is used to motivate others.  Bye! bye!

Dear Friends, look at the members from our own club Saro Kartik Nina, Lalitha Abraham Aditya, Sastha, Rajesh, Prabha, Saday. If they can do it, why can’t you?! The amount of confidence and leadership you gain from this movement is enormous. Rome was not built in a day. A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. Take a single step today and continue it for a time, your life will be changed forever.

Toastmasters Will you login to Sandyeast today and book the roles? If you need motivation, think of me… Tae-ho Over to the TMOD 

[TM]CC#08 Get Comfortable With Visual Aids - Vegetable Kingdom

Vegetable Kingdom

The king asked his minister which is the best vegetable for my people so that we can cultivate the vegetable in my entire kingdom?

 Good evening TMOD and fellow toastmasters and guests

 The minister was perplexed at the king’s question. The Minister replied, my lord, in order to find the best vegetable on the earth, I am forming a team of scientists who will research each vegetable and submit a report on it within 10 days.

 Soon this news spread like wildfire across the kingdom causing sleepless nights among the people especially foodies. While some people loved the idea of eating their favorite vegetable 365 days a year, some felt disgusted. Some people have drawn the pictures of their favorite vegetable in their house walls to remember. All the people were worried about the king’s action.

10 days passed and the d-day came.  The king, all his ministers and all village heads assembled to hear the report. The king said let’s hear the report.

The Minister in charge of Food welcomed the gathering and said,

Welcome to the best vegetable research reports session. The purpose of this session is to find out the best vegetable and to cultivate that in our entire country.

 The first one in the list is the vegetable which has the power to shake the government. Let us welcome the vegetable Onion

Onion: I am the king of all and a leafy vegetable. Without me cooking is not at all possible in this world. You take vegetarian food or non-vegetarian food, without me nothing can be considered as a tasty food.  I am very magnanimous to the people who are peeling my own skin by washing their eyes in the form of tears. My usage is not limited within the kitchen room. I can be used as the substitute for glycerin for actors. I am also into different avatars, the most influential avatar is my cousin sister sambhar onion, the gem of my kind. Without her the saravanabhavan sambhar won’t be tasty. Think of a food without onion, definitely it will be a bane for cooking. I am also helping in reducing blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels which leads to a good cardiovascular system

.The second one in the list is the native of this land. Let us welcome the vegetable drumstick

Drumstick: I am the native of this land wearing lush green striped coat. I am honored that my color is in the national flag. I am a favorite vegetable for every south Indian and also a favorite of actor bhagyaraj. Pregnant women should often eat me as i help ease any kind of pre and post-delivery complication. My soup helps ease any kind of chest congestions, coughs and sore throats.

The third in the list is the king of mountains. Let us welcome the vegetable potato.

Potato: People fondly call me as Aloo. I am very close to the humans, that they assign my name as nick name to their Rolly-Polly friends. I am not stingy as others; My generosity is increasing body weight. I am responsible for the crisp and tasty chips available in all around the globe. In KFC and MCD I am available as French fries. Since I am rich in carbohydrates, so it is easy to digest and facilitate digestion. This makes me a good diet for patients, babies and those who difficult to digest but require energy. Also I am used to relieve from both the external and internal inflammation.

The next is the coolest one in the kingdom. Let us welcome the Cucumber

Cucumber: People always refer me in their speeches especially in Toastmasters  as “cool as cucumber”. I am very close to ladies because I cool their eyes and I am also used in cosmetic creams. I am the one who reduces the heat in the body during summer season. Also my elders are serving humans in the form of juices. I am one of the very low calorie vegetables providing just 15 calories per 100 g and contain no saturated fats or cholesterol. My peel is a good source of dietary fiber that helps reduce constipation.

 The next is an aromatic herb. Let us welcome the

Coriander Leaves: I am the queen of aroma and the tender child of mother greenery. If you use me in any food, the aroma of the food will fill the entire house. I am having Eleven components of essential oil ,six types of acids ,vitamins and minerals each having number of beneficial properties. I am in Iron which helps directly curing Anemia.

And many more vegetables followed……….

After hearing all the vegetables report, the king got confused and he sought the help of his ministers to choose the best vegetable. Like birbal in the akbar empire, vedal in the vikramaditya story, chanakya in Chandragupta mourya empire, the minister wants to teach the king about the importance of all the vegetables. The Minister for Food said, my lord imagine an Aloo gravy without onion, chilly, coriander; definitely it won’t be tasty. Every vegetable has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the nutrition value and taste it adds to the food matters. Also the important health benefits which it has matters the most my lord. So all the vegetables are equally important. The king also understood the point and appreciated the minister.

Hence please don’t neglect any vegetable; every vegetable has its own value.

Over to TMOD

[TM]CC#07 Research your Topic - Higashi Nihon Daishinsai

Higashi Nihon Daishinsai

Supermoon, a rare celestial event was to occur on March 19^th. The day on which the Moon comes very close to the Earth. Media and newspapers predicted natural disasters. Every single human being on the earth was anxious and apprehensive about what is going to happen?

Good evening toast master of the day, fellow toast masters and distinguished guests.

But before the Supermoon, the world got a Super shock and saw the Super wave. On March 11^th. a massive Earthquake hit eastern Japan, the land of the rising sun triggering a gigantic Tsunami. It was as if the predictions of Supermoon came true. 

It was terrible to watch see the sea rise up and swallow the entire eastern Japan, taking away people, cars, buildings and everything that came its way. It was devastation of the highest degree.

Both my friends Ravi and Ganesh with their families felt, were so rudely shaken that they decided to leave Japan. They were at the Narita International airport at Tokyo on March 18th to board a flight to Chennai. It seems the normally bustling airport was full of people looking hungry and dejected. There was no food or water available. Everyone wanted to leave Tokyo at the earliest. In the airport itself they felt tremors. and it further added to their woes.

The Higashi Nihon Daishinsai which means the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake reduced eastern Japan into a rubble. People feared radiation leak from the nuclear power plant and they moved to faraway places from Tokyo like Osaka and Nagoya.

On Friday March 11th, a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake struck Japan at 2:46 PM Japan time in the western pacific ocean sustaining for 6 minutes. The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai and Honshu which was 130 kms away from the epicenter and 373 kms from Tokyo. Over 800 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater have occurred since the initial quake.

A minute before the earthquake was felt in Tokyo, the Earthquake Early Warning system, which includes more than 1,000 seismometers in Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong tremors to millions. The intensity of the earthquake was nearly double that of the 9.1-magnitude 2004 Indian ocean earthquake and tsunami which took the lives  of 2,30,000 people. This surface is equivalent to approximately 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.

This earthquake triggered tsunami waves of up to 97 feet. Minutes after the earthquake the sea water travelled 10km into the land. The Japanese national police agency has confirmed 11,938 deaths, 2876 injured and 15,478 people missing across 18 prefectures damaging over 1,25,000 buildings. The entire infrastructure like roads, railways lines and buildings got completely washed away. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water.

Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant due to the destruction by tsunami. Officials from the Japanese Nuclear Safety Agency reported that radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times to normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant were up to 8 times normal levels.

On 12th March a huge explosion caused by the buildup of hydrogen gas, blew away the roof and outer walls of the Reactor 1 building, but the reactor itself was not damaged in the explosion. On Sunday, 13th March, Japanese authorities said that a partial nuclear meltdown could be occurring in Reactors 1 and 3 which may lead to the impairment of several other reactors.

As the news about radiation spread, people fled from Tokyo and nearby areas. That’s why my friends were also at the Narita International airport

Higashi nihon daishinsai is one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world. The earthquake moved Honshu 7.9 feet east and shifted the earth on its axis by 10 cm.

Estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at 34.6 billion dollars. The Bank of Japan offered 183 billion dollars to the banking system to normalize markets.

Japan government estimated the loss to the tune of 309 billion dollars, making it the world’s most expensive natural disaster on record.

Will Japan get back to normal? Yes definitely they will. After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki disaster in 1945, within 65 years they had developed their country as one of the top economies in the world even though they had no proper land and natural resources.  

In the past years they had developed world class organizations like Mitsubishi, Toyota, Honda, Sony, Panasonic, Nintendo, Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Casio, Pioneer, JVC,

Nikon, Konica Minolta, Fuji Film, Yamaha.

Their culture is so much different from ours. I will narrate an incident that portrays their culture. A two wheeler collided with a car in Tokyo. The car driver came out of the car and analyzed the damages caused to the two wheeler and the bike rider did the vice versa. And both of them called their respective insurance agent and they speak in a friendly way.

Also you might have recently seen the photographs of long queue of people to get the essential food items after the tsunami. Not even a single looting or untoward events have been reported which will normally happen in other parts of the world.

In their country, they don’t have an iota of iron ore but their road and railway bridges are full of iron. Even though their land is full of mountains, they have the fastest connectivity in roads and railways. Also the importance they are giving for time is commendable.

There are lot of takeaways from Japan and Japanese people. But sadly the earthquake was so severe and the devastation so vast that it will a long time for people to feel safe in the country.  The people of Japan will definitely bounce back in no time.

I only wish another magical celestial event occurs that will bring back all prosperity in Japan, the land of the rising sun.

[TM]CC#06 Vocal Variety - HSB

HSB

Microsoft is in every software engineers dream, Intel is in every Hardware engineers dream. Even DTM is in every Toastmaster’s dream. HSB is in every hotel servers and food lover’s dream. Good evening toast master of the day fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests. HSB stands for Hotel Saravana Bhavan.

It was established in the year 1981 after a lot of hard work. What was gaga about HSB compared to the other hotels in the city. After started eating at saravana bhavan, I had become an ardent fan of this hotel chain. Daily 1/3^rd of my food constitutes of HSB Tiffin sambhar alone. I had tasted almost all the menu items. Believe it or not some branches of these hotel chain are running 24X7. You can also see the HSB mini buses in the city for picking and dropping employees. Did you ever see another hotel vehicle picking up their employees? No you can’t see it because this hotel chain is growing like anything.

One day when my friend and I enter the HSB at vadapalani. One elder man, who waited for the bill to be paid, pointed me and then pointed the bill book. I didn’t understand and stood still, and then he stared at me and said. (Gestures twice)

“oh! If you are neatly dressed means, you won’t help in paying the bill? Now the servers are too arrogant in HSB”.(loud)

I was petrified by this comment and said

“Sir! I am a person like you, who came here for eating.” Then he understood the misinterpretation and quickly said

“Sorry sir! As your attire is similar to that of servers, I got confused”.(mild)

One day my friend and I enquired the manager about the cooking process in the hotel.

He said “Sir we will change the OIL every 3 hours, one person will clean the stoves and cooking area every 2 hours. We will only procure food items of high quality. Also we were allowed to spend the money if urgently needed without the permission of the higher official”.

One day after paying the bill the server bring the remaining change, as my mood was bad I took the entire change without giving tips . Suddenly the server said

“Sir! Why you are leaving the bill alone. Please take this also sir”

After hearing this I got stunned and angry.

One day I met a server at HSB in Santhi theatre. I was amazed to see his leadership skills. He always serves the food with the smiling face. When I order for 2 masala chapattis and the order taker mistakenly marked it for one. When the server came to my table with one chapatti. As I was very hungry, I got angry and asked him

“Where is the other one man? I order 2 masala chapattis!”(shout)

He immediately smiled and replied to me “Sir No problem sir within couple of minutes I will deliver you sir”(mild)

After hearing his reply, my mood got entirely changed and I was totally astonished to see the leadership skills of this server. Even though the problem was done by the order taker, he judiciously handled the situation. In the corporate world if the customer lodged any complaints, immediately the blame game will be triggered. Isn’t?  After this incident whenever I enter this branch I closely watch this server and had become a big fan of him.

In HSB all the employees are insured and hierarchies are strictly followed. If any employee is performing well, he will be awarded onsite opportunities. i.e. To work in any of their franchises in abroad or granted to participate in the international exhibition. Sound similar to the IT industry, isn’t?. Wow! What a great place to work?

Even though the price of the food in the hotel chain is frequently increased, people never stopped going to this hotel.

If you got the chance of seeing the kitchen of HSB, you can see a lot of placards fixed to the wall. The placards will contain the details about the precise quantity of food that has to be served. For e.g.: if you opt for normal meal, the quantity of rice should be 400gm, if you go for normal dosa, the weight should be 150 gm. The taste of each item will be same across all its branches. Advanced CMMI Level quality isn’t?

I have learned many lessons after started to having food at HSB

1)    “Don’t ever go to the hotels with the similar attire of the server”, because you will be mistaken for server.

2) Always try to give some minimum tips to the server if you are a regular visitor. So behave like a roma when you are in Rome.

3) If you are giving the highest quality to your customer and even though if you increase the service cost, the customers will flock you. For aspiring entrepreneurs never ever compromise on quality.

4) As Robin Sharma says “We can always lead without a Title” No need for money/designation, we can always lead ourselves in each and every situation.

[TM]CC#05 Your Body Speaks - Privileged License

Privileged License

Mom at what time father left the house. She replied an hour ago my dear son. I just looked at the wall clock and looked at the entrance. I was eagerly waiting for my father’s arrival, you know why? He just went to buy a new Hero Honda bike from the shop. After a while I heard the hooting of horn. I ran towards the entrance and saw the bike and became awestruck. The bike was driven by the mechanic, what about my father? My father was a pillion rider. You might wonder why my father had not driven the bike, because he did not know bike driving.

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests.  Good evening!

During my school days, I was a person who used to bargain with my father for doing errands to give his bicycle for while. Even though I did not know to ride a bicycle, I used to move it by walking. So obliviously I did not know how to drive our new bike. What a pitiable thing. But every day I had a dream of driving the bike. I had said to all my friends that we bought a new bike. The first question they asked me was about the experience of driving the bike. When I told the real situation to everyone they made fun out of me because they knew how to drive a bike.

I had a deep discussion with my father about our future endeavor of driving our new bike. At last we requested my cousin to teach us driving and he heeded to our requests. It was pleasure to drive a new bike? When we rode the bike, every one’s eyes were riveted on our bike and including beautiful girls. What more was needed for a poor young boy than the glance of a beautiful girl.

Generally people used learn driving using old bike than they will go for new bike but we were learning the driving using a new bike so it made others to feel panic. Many times we use to fell down from the bike, the persons nearby gazed us as we spoiled the new bike. From their look itself we understood their anguish, even though they knew to drive, they didn’t have a bike.

My father and I applied for driving license. We had daily self training sessions both in the morning and evening. After having enough training we both appeared for test on same day. The day before the test, I went to the place where the driving test used to conduct and watched how others were taking the test. The same day at night, we filled two litres of petrol and trained vigorously for nearly three hours by practicing the sign of 8 in the designated area.

I took leave for the college and my father took leave for the school as he was a teacher.

On the eventful day my mother got up early in the morning and performed heavy pujas for us to pass the driving test and just before we leaving our house my mother performed aarathis and applied holy powder on our forehead. My father and I promised her, we will return with success. There were 10 persons who came for the test. When I was asked to perform, initially I started well, when I entered the area of the 8 sign, I fumbled and failed to use the clutch while slowing down. I literally stumbled and stopped the bike then I perceived my result very early. Some of the persons who were waiting for the test got nervous and some laughed as it might not happen to them.

The same history repeated for my father also. Finally we both successfully failed. When we reached home, we were quite ashamed to face my mother. After observing our successful failure, my mother suggested that my father and I should not appear for test on same day. From that moment, we realized the importance of time and the time would not be favor if we both attend test together. So I did a lot of causal analysis for the failure and came to the conclusion that I should not do more practice. Because we had to drive just for 5 mins. So the actual need was mental strength.

So I took a limited training and reappeared for the test and successfully got the license. But my father lost confidence in getting the license and approached a driving school and again appeared for the test, but this time again he fumbled and literally stopped the bike. But he got the license as he applied through the driving school. But one thing I want to confess is, while signing the license document the traffic inspector told to my father that I am signing this document against my conscience.

My license endeavor taught me the important things in life : We should have full concentration on whatever we do and we should not overdo simple things. It is not about what we have matters It is all about how we use it matters.

Over to TMOD.

[TM]CC#04 How to say it - My live cricket watching experience at the stadium

My live cricket watching experience at the stadium

Sachin and Sehwag are hitting sixes with upper square cut; yuvraj singh has pulled off an impossible catch.VVS laxman’s classy flick on the leg side, Rahul dravid’s impeccable square drive and cheer girls dancing on the other side in traditional costumes. Crowd was going berserk for every run scored by our Indian team. Suddenly Ganguly had hit the ball for a six, it directly flies towards me, I suddenly moved from the place to catch. A loud noise in my room, I fell down from my bed. I woke up and saw, there were no players, no ground, no crowd, Oh it was a dream.

Good evening toast master of the day, fellow toast masters and distinguished guests.

That dream was no more a dream. Because the next day I got a chance to watch a one day cricket match between India and England at MA Chidambaram stadium.

Since my school days I was very much crazy about cricket. I was the guy who watched cricket match by standing outside the TV shops for hours when the match was not relayed on television at my home. I have been a cricket fanatic and had longed to watch a cricket match directly in the stadium. In my school days I wrote letters to my cousin who lived in Chennai to purchase a ticket whenever an India played at Chennai. But that time my request didn’t bear fruits.

After a long waiting, that too during my PG, I got a chance to watch the match in the stadium. My unfulfilled desire from my school days is going to get fulfilled. I had informed to all of my friends that I am going to watch the cricket match at the stadium and also enquired them whether they had ever got a chance to watch an international cricket match in the stadium.I also boasted of myself about the amount of joy I am going to have at the stadium.

I went to the stadium very early. But after reaching there I realized I am very late compared to others. There was huge crowd standing in different queues like a snake roads of the hill in front of the entrances. Nearby there were lots of selling going on. Flags, whistles, eateries and many more things were sold at exorbitant rates. A mini india was assembled there. People with faces fully painted with the tri-color and with the banners and the flags were there . I felt very proud that I am also a part of it.

When I entered into the stadium, my eyes got soothed to see the lush ground after a long stand in the queue. It was like a green lake. All the stands in the stadium were slowly getting filled up. Since mine was 100 rupees ticket there was no seat number so i searched for an empty space. The crowd almost filled all the spaces. At last I had found one seat and seated myself over there.

The dream of my childhood was half fulfilled. I am in the stadium to watch a live cricket match. Wow what an atmosphere, the crowd was cheering like anything, “INDIA - INDIA” the Indian flags flew everywhere. Again the crowd cheered, this time for the toss. England won the toss and elected to bat.  The late comers to the stadium had no space to sit and they watched the match by standing itself.

First innings finished and the second innings started. I was sitting in the same place for more than 5 hours. I literally lost my enthusiasm in watching match. As the time progresses the lights were switched on. The powerful lights from the four sides of the ground beamed like sun shine. The darkened evening changed to day. The ground was glowing like a moon fell in to the earth. I enjoyed seeing the view. As time passed by my eyes were in immense pain as it had faced the powerful lights. Also my body got perspired with the humidity in the stadium because of huge crowd.

Later I felt very tired and tried to move out of the stadium, the path to the exit was completely blocked by the crowd. As I was seated at the same place for 8 hours I was completely dejected, when I tried to stand up, the person who seated behind me who started yelling at me. At last India won the match. Finally I got relieved and moved out of the stadium. From that moment, I burned my desire to watch a cricket match live at the stadium forever.

This incident taught me watching cricket in TV is better than watching it live at stadium alone. If you really want to enjoy the match by watching at stadium doesn’t go alone go along with your boyfriends. Sometime you might need your friends help to fulfill your dreams.

Over to TMOD

[TM]CC#03 Get to the Point - Keep our Environment Clean

`Keep our Environment Clean

If you want to buy a property in London you should be a multi billionaire

If you want to buy a property in Bombay you should be a multi millionaire

If you want to buy a property in Chennai at least you should be a crorepathy

But is it necessary to be rich to keep our environment clean?

Good evening Toast master of the day, fellow toast masters and distinguished guests.

Every human being who has the thinking sense should be able to keep their surroundings clean. Since industrial pollution, vehicle pollution, depletion of forests cannot be controlled by an individual but we can keep our house and its surrounding clean. Even Gandhiji had emphasized the importance of cleanliness. When there were severe diseases spread in the Indian residential areas at South Africa, he personally went and cleans the toilets in the houses and drainages.

Let me tell you some example. One day my friend and I went for a walking in Osaka at morning. There we saw one Japanese lady who came for walking along with her dog. She had a small bag in one hand and in another hand she wore a glove and holds the chain of the dog. Believe it or not, we were quite amazed to see that she picked her dog’s shit and put it inside the bag. Later we came to know that it is common in Japan. Japanese give more importance to their environment. I am not asking you to pick your dog shits; at least we can restrain ourselves in spoiling the cleanliness of our environment by not spitting on the road and littering.

Whenever there was an election in Japan. Not even a single poster is pasted on the wall. A separate placard will be given to the contesting parties where they can advertise. Only leaflets are distributed to the people. Just think off our country, everywhere we could see posters and banners that too every day. Right from birth, all the birthday every year, and marriage, then all the marriage day every day, some people even beyond 2^nd 3^rd marriage celebration, death day, and death Remembrance Day every year has become the de facto standard. Wall posters and banners has become a way to show one’s wealth and power. All the signboards, milestones and bus stops became the victim of poster maniacs. We have to create a sea change in the attitude of the people if we want to change this raucous behavior of polluting the environment.

Even though Gandhiji had professed that we should love the sinner and only hate the sin, but I can’t control myself in hating the tobacco or pan-parag chewing creatures and polluting the environment. Chewing pan-parag may be their heart beat. I don’t want to criticize their habit. But why are they spitting it all the way, movie halls, shopping centers, trains, buses and almost anywhere. The worst part is that they are spoiling their health also. But in their house they spit only in the toilet or washbasin. If I have the power to punish these persons, definitely I will recommend them to clean every part of the stain caused by them.

A man of dirty habits is far away from civilization. Instead of blaming others, we should try to keep our surroundings clean. In developed countries, lots of recycling projects has been deployed to utilize the garbage’s and other wastes. In 2020 we are aiming to become a developed nation. This cannot be achieved unless we follow the foot path of the developed nations and we must give high priority to the recycling projects to save our environment.

By keeping clean ourselves and the surroundings we can prevent ourselves from the diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and many more harmful organisms. There is an old saying “Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”. By seeing the surroundings of the place we can easily guess about the culture and the attitude of the people. The environment helps to shape the life and attitudes of the people: it creates the peaceful place where people can live happily. Simply it protects the people for free of cost if you keep them clean.

If every one of us maintain our surroundings clean then it will make the entire city clean. A clean and healthy environment will determine quality of our life that we desire for ourselves now and for our children in the future. Little efforts can make a big difference. So let us work together to keep our environment clean. Over to TMOD

[TM]CC#02 Organize your Speech - He is also in our Society

He is also in our society

One day I was standing at the bus stop in triplicane high road waiting for the bus to go to office. Sun was so warm and the cool breeze was passing frequently kindling my eyes. Like any other day, today also everybody was busy in the road with their daily routine. Hotel Anandha bhavan was as usual loaded and a lot of people were tasting their breakfast idly, vada, dosas, pongal, poori, tea, coffee. My eyes were roaming around my watch and the road, to catch the glimpse of the bus.

Suddenly my eyes caught a glimpse of a lean figure walking along the road towards my direction. Without my knowledge I started looking at the person. The person was moving very slowly as compared to normal person and it further increased my attention towards him. My eyes started focusing on the person and the eyeball started zooming to the view. He might be in mid of 30 years. He wore a grey horizontal striped T-Shirt and a miscellaneous designed lungi. The T-Shirt was faded and having numerous holes showing his body like numerous crimes of our society. He was also holding one big gray bag of 5 feet height like a treasure of him with half of his left shoulder supporting it. The bag dangled slowly in his shoulders. After seeing these all I came to conclusion that the bag was half empty. My mind doesn’t want to go to argue whether I should see the bag as half full or half empty. My mind came to the conclusion that he is a rag picker, the dilapidated face of our society

My mind was thinking again, “Ok, Like any other rag pickers in our society, he is also one”, Then why he is walking slowly. Might be the bag is heavy. If the bag is heavy he might be having more money out of it. No I had already saw, that the bag is only half filled. My brain pushed my eyes to focus sharply on the rag picker like the modern CCTV. Oh I found something, the rag picker is limping and his left leg might be having some problem. I pondered what the problem might be

1)      His leg might be injured as he has to explore the inhuman places for his living or

2)      By birth he might be handicapped, so he might fixed the artificial legs. or

3)      He might had a fight with his companions and injured his leg.

As our brains are more powerful than modern day supercomputers, these thoughts were revolved in my mind in a fraction of a second.

As time passed, he slowly closed to the bus stop where I was standing. My eyeballs peeped into his left leg. The lungi he wore covered both of his legs. But my eyes spotted his uncovered part of his left foot. It was totally different from the normal foot. My mind said that definitely it is not an artificial leg or injured. It is something other than these.

My eyes again zoomed towards his left foot. Now I found something, the height of the foot itself may be more than 30cm compared to normal 3 cm. The foot was disgorged with lots of swellings which look like mountains of the Western Ghats. My mind identified the nature’s inhuman face. He was affected with elephantiasis disease, the end state of filarial disease.

My mind was again runs into non-ending loops like

1)      Why he has not taken any treatment?

2)      Whether he has the information that where the treatment for the disease is given?

3)      Whether he has partially stopped the treatment?

By this time he crossed me and started moving. Oh what a pity seen to be remembered? All walks of people are moving in either side of the road not at all caring about this affected rag picker. He also lives in the same society as us.

My mind pondered whether I should talk to him and help him to go to medical needs.

Suddenly the bus has arrived; automatically my brain ordered my legs to gorge into the bus. The bus started moving, still my mind was thinking about the rag picker. What if he got a parents like me. Definitely he would have got good education and a good job. Now he won’t be picking rag instead like me he might have waited in the bus stop to go to his job. I was fully disturbed the whole day. In my mind one thought was continuously revolving in my mind ie. “I should have helped him to a hospital”.

[TM]CC#01 Ice Breaker - Who Am I

Who Am I

Good evening Toast master of the day and fellow and future toast masters. I am Thanigeaswara. I was born on 1 st of February 1980 at Pondicherry. which is also known for the home of paa-venthar Bharathidasan and the second home for Aurobindo, Mirra Alfassa  a.k.a  “The Mother”, Bharathiyar and many famous personalities. 
  
My father is a retired teacher and my mother is a home maker. I have one younger sister she is doing her post graduation at Chennai. I had one younger brother who passed away last year due to sudden illness. 
  
My home town is a former French colony. As we know the French people are very famous for their architecture skills. The architecture of the roads inside our city was designed by the French people. There is a ring road around the city and inside the ring road all the roads will be perpendicular to one another. So you can enter any road and you can reach any road. 
  
During my school days like others I was also crazy about cricket, whenever there was a match between India and Pakistan, i declared holiday to my school, telling various reasons like special camp, special function at home, sometimes I used to kill my grandmother many times. But like a proverb “Thief will be caught one day”, I also get caught. 
  
I did my B.sc mathematics at St.joseph's college of arts and science, cuddalore and post graduation M.C.A at SSN college of engg, chennai. In my PG when I got the first semester results, my marks were totally in disarray because I failed in many subjects. After that I spent 3 days continuously in a room with full depression. Because back home my parents borrowed money from my relatives for my studies. Being the elder son to my parents I felt terribly bad and had doubt whether I am capable of studying the course at all. 
  
But from the second semester I got a new roommate Mahidhar Reddy who gave me lots of confidence by saying me   “Look you are going to clear all the papers with flying colors by second semester itself”, I believed that god has sent him to help me. I have learnt from him what hard work is all about. I owe him a lot in my life. After the first semester results I started to grow beard. I had the beard till i cleared all the papers. During those days I was look like a munivar in penance hoping to see the god. My hostel life gave me the courage to face challenges in my life. 
  
After finishing the PG I also entered in the rat race to get a job in an IT firm. Finally I got a job in SRM Technologies as a software engg. Then soon I got an opportunity to work at abroad. I worked in Japan for 2 years. What fascinates me about Japan was their importance to time and their culture. Before going to Japan, I read in the books that in Japan, “Only buses will wait at the bus stop, not the time”. When I was there I experienced it and also learned Japanese language a bit. People always stand in a Q while entering into lift or the bus or train. You could see double Decker road bridges, double Decker underground railway tracks and lots of amazing things.   
  
My best experience at Japan came when we toured to interior parts of Japan. I got delighted while travelling in the bullet train. Like fellow toastmaster balaji sadaiappan’s 1234 of life ambition. I do have 1234 ambition in my life. This year I will acquire 1 in my life that is wife.

  
I learnt that in our life, time is very important and according to the usage of time, the developments in our life will be. I decided that I should spend my time wisely, so I joined Chennai toast masters club to use my time wisely. 
I also believe that one should invest the time to improve himself/herself and this in turn will lead them to greater heights in their life.
  
From my experience, I strongly believe that “Smooth seas never made skilled sailors” 

Over to TMOD 

Laundry to London: The rags-to-riches tale of JSW Steel's Bikash Chowdhury

Bikash Chowdhury's motivation to take English lessons was orange squash. The associate VP of treasury at JSW Steel was the son of a Kolkata laundryman who pressed the clothes of the family of Arun Lal, the former Indian cricketer.

Chowdhury was the first in his family to study in an English medium school. Lal's wife Debjani offered to help with the language. And along with the tuition she always gave Chowdhury — he was about 12 then and is 39 now — a refreshing drink. "I would go every day to study because she would give orange squash," the soft-spoken Chowdhury says in an interview over tea on a Saturday evening at his apartment in Sewri, Mumbai. With some striking art around the house, the surroundings are a world apart from the footpath in Kolkata's Bhawanipore area where he grew up.

A relationship that started with English intensified. The Lals, who don't have kids, took Chowdhury under their wing, and guided him to milestones. Chowdhury, splitting his time between the Lal home and his father's pavement dwelling in Bhawanipore, went on to do BCom and MCom. Then he appeared for the CAT. In 2000, got into IIM Kolkata. Jobs with Deutsche Bank and Credit Agricole followed, including a stint in London for DB.

A new family for Chowdhury "I have two sets of parents, Mr Arun Lal and Mrs Lal and the other, my biological parents," Chowdhury says. On his part, he has generously expressed his gratitude to the Lals. Chowdhury has gifted them a Mercedes, while driving the relatively modest Volkswagen Vento and Renault Duster.

He also financially aided the Lal family when they wanted to move from an apartment into a bungalow. As the ultimate tribute, the Chowdhurys named their daughter Arunima after Arun. Asked what kind of a person his improbable story has made him, Chowdhury says, "I hope into a better one.

"We gained a son. He is a terrific human being and I am grateful to the Lord for Bikash," said Arun Lal.

I keep telling my wife Kamna that even if I am around 50 per cent of either of my fathers, I would have achieved something. I try daily to do a good deed. I have got a lot and try and give as much as I can."

Paying it forward A day earlier, he had planted trees. Two days earlier, he had fed blind people. On the day of our meeting he planned to feed stray dogs. Talking of which, Cindy, the family's 11-yearold pet beagle, ambles in and out of the room during the interview, the pitter-patter of her paws and the tinkling of her collar bell a pleasant soundtrack to the conversation.

Another frequent passerby is the three-year-old Arunima. Sport too played a role in cementing the bond between Arun Lal and Chowdhury, who often refers to his mentor by his nickname 'Piggy' (Lal got the name because he likes to eat).

Chowdhury was a midfielder with Young Bengal, a first division football club. He wanted to become a pro, and would meet Lal during training. "The club was paying me around Rs 10,000 per year along with food which I felt was a lot," Chowdhury says. "I played u-16 cricket too, but I never liked it. 

I was considering becoming a professional footballer, as I played for sub-junior Bengal as well. So I was on that path, quite aggressively. Piggy encouraged me but said there were no guarantees in sport. I am very grateful he did that because I focused on studies after class 9."

The numbers challenge Chowdhury is not sure whether studying came naturally to him. But he says as a student one of his pastimes was to look at number plates of vehicles and perform random mathematical functions with the digits. He also liked to read.

And he spoke little, most times. Mathematics at IIM, however, was more daunting than the number plate variety, and he had to take help from seniors. "The first month after induction, the level of maths hit me, I thought I'm not going to make it," Chowdhury says. "At that time I was lucky to have a friend named Manoj Goel. We are still friends. He helped me, our seniors helped us and I managed.

The institute was a really nice place and I became very popular and became a Lord, who is an informal student body head. So I would have information on the goings-on in the institute. I would tell Manoj, 'You teach me maths, I'll give you all the dope'." Goel, who works on the global markets team at HSBC in Mumbai, confirms he helped Chowdhury with maths, and says he benefitted from Chowdhury's sporting nature and outlook towards life. "He was outgoing and sporty. I would be confined to my room studying," Goel says. "He showed me there was a life beyond academics. He's a guy you can trust your life with."

A hard-knock attitude Chowdhury, who enjoys running and travelling to places with natural beauty, is asked if growing up on a pavement made him street smart. But street smartness to him is a small part of the overall package. "You must also be dedicated," he says. What the road did teach him was resilience. And it helped him when he was laid off by Deutsche Bank in 2008. "Nothing bothers me," Chowdhury says. "The first thing I did after losing my job was call Piggy and mom (Debjani). I told them to not worry and that I would get a job soon. By that time I had created a reputation for myself that I do my job and make the money (for the bank). I got a job in a week's time (Credit Agricole)." His background has also made him more humane than the typical finance and banking industry type. "I don't like being strict," he says. "Which is why I get setbacks once in a while. They say I talk softly, but that doesn't mean I'm less aggressive."

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Back to his roots When in Kolkata, Chowdhury sometimes drops by his locality in Bhavanipore. He feels blessed, but there is no survivor's guilt. He worked hard for his success. It wasn't just luck. In addition to studying, he did part time jobs and took tuitions. "I still have friends there and I like spending time with them," Chowdhury says.

"Some of them are struggling. They don't usually approach me for help. If they do I try to do what I can. They were very supportive of me in the past. They would take me out for a movie even if they weren't earning that much. One of my earliest friends was Sukhpal. He had a dhabha. After the dhabha closed for the day we would polish off the leftovers. He's in Bengaluru now.

About two years ago, I met him and he told me that he tells his son that study daily for an hour and you will make something of your life." Chowdhury did that. And he did that in no small measure because of Arun and Debjani Lal. Some months ago, Lal was diagnosed with jaw cancer. "He's getting better slowly. He's starting to eat semi-solid foods," says Chowdhury. The two speak often. Lal, a gritty opener, never scored a Test century.

But he and his wife continue to play another, far more important innings.