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 2nd 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 2nd 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
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