Ice Breaker Speech

The first speech in toastmaster is termed "Ice Breaker Speech". The peculiarity of this speech is that you need to introduce yourself to every body in 7 minutes.
After few weeks of the inception of the club, on August 26Th 2009, I gave my Icebreaker speech.

I spent days thinking what to include, how to format and to keep the flow. After long hours of preparation, I came up with my speech. Here it goes!!!
"
Good Evening Everybody... I invite you all for a short and a wonderful journey of my life. My life revolves around the theme, Live in the Present, Learn from the Past and Hope for the Future.
I am a simple, down to earth yet confident, philosophical sometimes, enthusiastic and a cheerful individual. I am friendly person. I am a hard worker and a workaholic. I have a positive outlook towards life. Whatever I am today is the blessing and upbringing of my family. I think every body is special in their own way.

Now, let me introduce to my family. Family is my world. I come from a small family of four. My father is a simple and a humble person. He is a banker and his passion is writing. My mom is a homemaker. We as a family traveled along with him to many towns and cities with him. I was born in M'lore, did my education till my SSLC in Madars, now known Chennai. I completed my Pre University study in a small town in Karnataka named Sirsi. I did my engineering in M'lore. Worked in B'lore for some time. Got married and settled in Delhi for about 3 years. My husband is also an engineer. After my son was born, I, again, shifted back to B'lore.

Now, let me take thru various glimpses of my life.

I can divide my life so far into 3 phases. Full on was my schooling time in Chennai. I was a typical tomboy. Through out my school life in Chennai, I was a good student who the teachers and my parents were proud of. I was an all rounder participating in all the extra curricular activities and representing my school in various inter school competition and national level sports. To sight a few, in arts section, I am a classical singer, I used to participate in many competitions, as an actor and dancer, I acted in musical dramas, in literature, I used to participate in Essay , Elocution competition. I won many prizes too. And in sports, I used to be a athlete, badminton, tennikoit player. And more importantly, I represented Tamil Nadu in the National Level Soft Ball Tournaments several time. As you can see, I was always good in multi tasking. I got my first salary when I was in 10Th grade. Even when I was studying and preparing for my board exams, I gave tuition to few kids from 4Th - 7Th Standard and gave Hindi tuition to few more. As I said, I was full on in life... Living life in my own way. Wanting to everything in life, every possible thing. Yeah.. also I still, am a great movie buff.

My next phase, of my life is titled mediocre .... Most of you must be knowing the popular tele serial, Jassi Jaisi koyi nahin.. I was like the Jassi in that. With thick glasses. New places, new friends... I could only study. But still used to participate in few competitions like quizzing and social activities like NSS. I passed out my engg in flying colors. Out of College, but no campus interview, as it was recession at that time. Still, I was the selected few who got a job soon after my college. Worked hard.... Got married and went to a new place. Started a new life. In this phase, I learnt a lot. I learnt the term ‘adjustments’

The next phase of my life, which I am still in what I term, "Back in action... Full on".. I have been gifted a darling son who recently completed 3 years. I manage office, home, and spend quality time with my son. We play together, we fight. I enjoy his company. All in all, I am rediscovering my childhood days with him. In spite of my busy schedule, I have learnt tennis, swimming.

Well, my philosophical side. I have been greatly inspired my Mahatma Gandhi's and Swami Vivekananda principles of life. I believe that, any good thing, a charity or any thing starts from one's own house. Of all, we should first be good human beings. Spreading happiness in the smallest form. One of recent instance, I want to share. I was driving down in my car in IndiraNagar in mid afternoon. I was waiting in the Signal. A bunch of small kids in school uniform, thronged me. One of them asked me if I could give them a lift to the nearest Bus Stand. And I happily agreed. Lo…all the kids jumped in the car happily. I dropped them to the NGF Bus stand. Looking at their smiling faces, made me happy through out that day.

Well, with the good principles, and great aspirations, I hope one day I fulfill all my dreams and ambitions in the entirety.
As Swami Vivekananda had said, "Arise awake and stop not till the goal is reached", with this saying I Thank you all for listening patiently and giving me an opportunity to share my life’s journey with you.

"
My experience on delivering the speech. After long years, I had stood in front of a audience to give a speech. I was really nervous.... After the first few seconds, I gained control and then nobody could stop me...... :) Needless to say, I had lot to talk. The feedback was good and encouraging. :) But I was happy that I broke the ice.

Being a Toastmaster!!!

Being a core member of Women Business Council of my company, we had a survey done from the women employees to get to know, what do they really want to improve on. As expected, a lot of feedback from leadership to work-life balance. We decided to take upon the majority ones and work on them.
I was involved in on one of the prominent feedback, "Developing Communication Skills". My friend knew somebody in our company who was a Toastmaster. A new word for me. So then on, the events preceeded to coin a new Toastmaster Club for the company.

Henceforth, after spending 3 months of discussing and planning, Crystal Talk Toastmaster Club was born. The club has been chartered with the Toastmaster International and since Aug 1st we have our meetings every Thursday. I was offered the role of VP Membership for the club. For me, from being a person who went to promote communication skills to become the VP of the Toastmaster club was really an achievement. I was in zenith. And now, I am in the thick and kin of the role, which is a huge responsibility in itself.

Well, I have to men ton about the women percentage in this club, currently it is hardly 25%. Those women, who voted for Developing Communication Skills....? Though the club is still naive and it is gaining popularity and interests company wide.

For people who don't know about toastmasters. Toastmaster International is an organization meant for developing public speaking and leadership skills through practice and feedback in local clubs. Speciality in this club is, there is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved. Manuals are given by Toastmaster International. The first project is "Competent Communication" which is made up of ten speeches of distinct and varying difficulty level. For more information on toastmaster, do visit: http://www.toastmasters.org

From now on, I shall post the speeches that I have given in my toastmaster club. Do read them!!!

Well, I want to add some wise saying :) ,

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more”

The Great Indian Wedding!!!

Everybody keeps hearing this phrase every now and then. The media creates the hype to either making Indian wedding ridiculous or earning money out of it. Like the popular show 'Rakhi ka Swayamwar', a perfect example. :-)

Well, I have been married for five years now. Yippee....Yippee.. Ye... Ye... :-) On a flashback, I remember my marriage was like any other wedding. A simple yet grand Indian wedding.

This year, my younger sister got married. That's a wedding to remember, maybe a benchmark for others to follow. Her wedding was a successful pompous show. From the get together party, mantap, hall, the food and the dressing all was fabulous, making the guests say 'WOW'. A perfect Gen Next Wedding...

Well, so after the wedding, when I sat back and relaxed. I started wondering what a drastic change has happened in 5 years... Is this called Generation Gap?
On a flashback, I remember my wedding, the first marriage in the whole family of my parents. As I was the eldest granddaughter of all in both my mother's side and father's side. I had no say on anything, whatever decided was OK with me, kind of goodie goodie girl, that I am. Even I did not have any thought what should it be like!!! :-)
Kya zamana tha... / Kitni Dumb thi... [In today's terminology...]

Coming back, to this year's wedding. I was an ominiscious present in all the departments in the entire marriage occasion. In these five years, I have seen enough weddings. I have grown into an individual with my own self image. Also, I have accumulated many thoughts/expectations in a marriage. As the famous saying goes, "Experience is the best teacher".

Surprise package of the whole wedding was the bride, i.e. my own sister. She was the one determined to handicraft her own wedding. And I was there for her, to see that all her thoughts and expectations take shape. She had arranged a DJ Party on her get together. She had her say for the Hall, the design of the mantap... basically everything...

I wonder how different we both are? Or is it the Great Generation Gap...

Whatever one may call it, today's young generation are really tough nuts. They enjoy the material benefits. Exposed to Over Hyped Media with reality shows in the center stage. Shows like Roadies, Splitsvilla, are the IN thing. They live their life king size, as if there is no tomorrow.
Good or bad,... this is how things are...and will continue to change in the years to come. As the popular saying goes, "Change is Constant, adapting to change is a smart move".

I wonder how would it be in the years to come.... The Great Indian Wedding :-) ))

Here goes a popular saying,

Learn from yesterday, Live for today, and Hope for tomorrow

Thank God!!!

This year I wanted to do something interesting and special.
It was long time desire to write diaries. I had seen the bundles of diaries that my father has written. It always used to inspire me to write.
Along these years, my father used to give us diary every year and advised to cultivate the habit of writing. Me and my sister used to heed his advice and start writing the diary. For the first few days, we used to write the diary in dedication without any fail. In the next couple of days, we would have skipped some days. To make up for those missed days, we would write one time in a particular day. Usually, it would be something like this:
"Got up in the morning. Went to School. Returned from School. Played. Watched TV. Did Home Work. Going to sleep. Thank You God for everything. Good Night."
Imagine the same thing pasted for all the missed days. It had to end. So after few days, as the missing days became wider, we used to lose interest in writing diary and close it for that year.
The next year the same thing used to repeat.

In spite of all this, that one thing that stuck chord in me, as you can make out, is the last phrase in every single day's diary. "Thank You, God." This was my father's style that I have adapted. It is very precious to me. And how meaningful.

We Thank God, only when we find ourselves fortunate than the less fortunate ones whom we meet. That particular day, we find that all our worries are nothing compared to theirs. We sigh a relief.

How good it would be if we Thank God every day. We will end up being more happier, more relieved and charged up to take on the whole world next day enthusiastically. It is quite simple. When we thank God, we get rid off the negativity in us of comparing. We accept ourselves as we are. We are happy about ourselves. It boosts our confidence level and we incline more positively towards life. I can bet on this... :-)

Coming back to this year of writing diary. As they say, History repeats itself. Now, its long time that I have touched the diary. But this time around, I have assured myself that I shall write the diary on event basis rather everyday basis. Hope I shall maintain that!!!

Bye :-)

Little Wonder

Kids are full of surprises. Any time, you cannot guess what their answer or action would be.
Yesterday, we had been to Lalbagh for the Flower Show.
My son was fast asleep, when we left the house. In the car, he slowly opened his eyes and told he want to sleep at the back.We have a kept a pillow, so whenever he feels sleepy, he just goes there and sleeps happily. :-) So, this time too he went and slept.
On the way, I realized I did not put his shoes. So I told my husband let's go back and get his shoes; as he would be wide awake by the time we reach Lalbagh, and he would want to run around. I had just begun...
Suddenly, my son with a twinkle in his eyes looking at me says "Chinnu does not want shoes, amma, it's ok".
I was awestruck by his response. My son barely two and half years of age; has so much wisdom.
This event was indeed one of the rare occasion when he shows his wisdom ... :-)
Otherwise, he is as naughty and childish as possible.
Well this, was something I didnt expect from my son. And for which, I feel very happy and priviledged... I just can say "Thank you, God"

Oil Strike

Usually, any strike going on our country, we take it very casually, at least I used to do so. This time, public sector oil companies have gone on indefinite strike[ really don't understand what does that mean..life long.. if nobody entertain their voices]. No Joking...
This time around, it has affected all people like anything, with the strike going on for more than 3 days.
Media is very good in creating panic to all people. On Thursday paper, headlines read "most likely petrol bunks will go dry in two days....". This was enough, for people to make beeline before the petrol pumps. All vehicles, some people filling their vehicles as well the cans... If they have filled/got the fuel. They come out triumphant.. :-)
At least I felt so... when standing in a big queue for more than half an hour and filled up car tank. There was a glow, a sign of relief.
I usually, fill up my car weekly once. Coincidentally, that falls on Thursday.
On my way to office, I saw most of petrol pumps closed. I reached office. But no fuel, made me little uncomfortable. So I set out on a mission to fill fuel at the petrol bunk at noon from office.
The nearest petrol bunk, there was a big queue. I ventured to find out a petrol bunk with minimal queue. I wasted fuel on searching petrol bunks, found all of them closed. Then I finally returned to the same petrol bunk, only to find the queue a little more extended. For more than an hour, I waited for my turn to come; and consciously praying God, that the petrol doesn't get over, when my turn comes. As it used to happen, while waiting for a movie ticket, when we reach the counter, we read the tag "House Full".
Fortunately for me, my turn came, and fuel was still there. I proudly filled my car "Full Tank".
Today, when I see the much bigger beeline and closed petrol pumps and the ongoing strike, I am much relaxed.
The strikes should end, and the government should do something, or else to morrow I may have to stand in beeline for essential commodities.
Well, all said, I have also learnt something useful, as the popular saying goes

ದೂರದ್ಧ ಬೆಟ್ಟ ನೋಡಕ್ಕೆ ಚಂಧ್ದ ಹತ್ತಿರ ಇರುವಧೆ ಅಂಧ

Meaning,

Other side of the River always looks green and lush

Update on the Club

Well, gathered some info about these clubs. Looks like they are all bogus, and try to lure people to become their member. The sites they promise, is all fraud.
We just Thank God, again and again, for taking out of this unscathed...
So much learning from this incident. It's kind of eye-opener. Well, that's it for now. Bye.

New Year 2009...

This New Year, the day started with some new events.
For the first time, we went to a club. The unpleasant visit to country vacations, who ate our head and time for almost 3 hrs for us to become their member. But the pleasant thing about that was that we received a token gift at the end of all :-)
In the evening, we drove down to one of the shopping complex, returned home more frustruated. Coz, my son was adamant to play in the play area and the authorities were not letting him in as he was a small kid. Finally, we took him to another mall, where he could play to his heart's content. :-)
The visit to the Club made the whole day quite busy; the whole noon went waste. All of us including my son got bored from the trip to the club.
Sooner we know, the first day of the new year had already passed.
But sooner or later, I thought I had to iniatiate my writing process which was always postponed for lack of time.
I hope, I shall sustain the writing process and keep updating the blog.
See u soon..