Best Mentor!
Good Evening Toastmaster of the Evening & Fellow
toastmasters and Guests.
Today I want to award the best mentor award to my mentor DTM
Saro Velrajan for the guidance and insights he provided me for the past 10-15
years.
Around 2011, he returned to India after lived in the US for
12 years. I first met him in a toastmaster’s club meeting in 2013 in Chennai,
India. At that time, he was taking club officers role & gradually moved to
the district officer roles in his toastmaster journey. I was struggling to
speak fluently but was eager to learn. Post one of my speeches, he came to me
and asked whether he can be my mentor. I was happy and soon accepted it.
Post that, prior presenting my speech, I will share my
script upfront, and he will review and revert with his comments. I will
incorporate his comments and present my speeches.
Around 2015 when I returned from Japan after a 1-year work
in Tokyo, In one of the club meetings he asked me about my job and my pay
details. He suggested that for my skillset and years of experience, I am
getting way below the market average pay, he suggested me to try for jobs in
the market. I took his word and searched, within 1 year I got a good job with 30%
pay rise.
Around 2021, he quit his high paying job to pursue his
passion of corporate training. Last year he published his book on 5G wireless
networking & about to complete his doctorate in his field. He is a
prominent speaker in his field. He is so passionate about toastmasters, For any
toastmasters related details, you can visit his website saroscorner.com.
Even though, I have moved to Japan, whenever I visit India, I
will get his appointment and get his valuable feedback. Two years back, in one
of the discussions, he asked me about my goals and suggested me to pursue MBA
as he also done MBA in the US in the past. He told me that studying MBA will
give an advantage to me to understand the business perspective behind the
decisions in the corporate world. He convinced me that having MBA will provide
me opportunities to enter the C suite. He also shared his experience of doing
part time MBA during his job. He told that only the initial stage will be some hiccups,
once you sustain the early months into the course you will be used to it, and
you can easily complete the degree.
I took his word and joined part time MBA at Globis
university in 2022 in Tokyo. Now it is 2024, I have completed the degree. I
have become an improvised version of me now when compared 2 years ago. Thanks
to my mentor.
Our relationship has grown beyond toastmasters and today I
want to thank him again for the impact he had on me so far to bring the best
out of me. I am very happy to award the best mentor award to my mentor DTM Saro
velrajan. Thank you!
