Toastmasters

Toastmasters happened to me for a reason. Words fail to describe how passionate I feel about this great organisation. The following is what I wrote for one of the egroups sometime in 2003. I still feel the same way about Toastmasters.

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Now that the New Year has come a long way – almost 2 months to be
precise, all of us would have made some resolutions - kept few, broke
few and going on with few. I even remember having had some healthy
discussions on how we got to celebrate the 1st day of the year too.
This reminds me of exchanging gifts. We are so busy choosing gifts
for others, have we ever thought of a gift for "ourselves"?

Now that I have your undivided attention, let me tell you about an
interesting organisation - "toastmasters". For those who know
what "toastmasters" is all about, you can happily skip the following
three paragraphs.

A "toastmasters" is a non-profit international organisation that
helps its members to enhance their communication skills, leadership
skills and also public speaking skills. Here, at the first level the
members are encouraged to take up 10 projects that have guidelines in
making an individual a very efficient and confident speaker. Nothing
much! 10 scientifically arranged speeches based on 10 themes/topics,
which are entirely left to the speaker's discretion. And at the end
of every speech one can surely sense the achievement. End of 10
projects… there you are… so proud, smiling and happy for yourself.
This is the magic "toastmaster" does to all its members. Does it
sound like "cakewalk"? That's the fun.

When a member is joined new, the other senior members play
responsible roles in moulding his/her personality. They also assign
a mentor and evaluate member's performance. The best part is here.
The mentor is a friendly teacher – who takes the member through this
journey into the garden of speeches. Not only this every time the
member presents a speech, another friendly member also evaluates the
speaker objectively. The mentor brings to the speaker's notice the
positive aspects of the speech and suggests some points for
improvement if any. Where else can one find a mirror to reflect your
real self?

Another interesting thing about "toastmaster" is while preparing the
speech. "Say what you do and do what you say" becomes the "mantra"
here. The content members prepare is so much from their self that
he/she may start wondering if this was their real self. When
speaking out or while giving the speech, it comes out with so much of
feelings that one gets lost with all other members. Doesn't this
sound like a solitude moment?

Hope I've said more than required. In case you would like to
explore, virtually you can take a journey into www.toastmasters.org
or if you want to see all this happening for real, you are most
welcome in any of the clubs that are spread all over the world.
There are 9000 clubs all over the world and 19 clubs in Bangalore
alone. The Taj Gateway on Residency Road has a club called LA1924
that meets every Wednesday at 7 pm. Just drop in. There are no
obligations as to who you are, where you are from or what you are :)

I'm sure this is a gift each one of us have to give – of course – to
ourselves!

"loneliness" in Kodai

Anu shared this pic just few hours ago. This pic she took when we did our “adventurous” trip sometime in April last year. When a friend asked me what I mean by adventurous, I had told her with a grin we did not take pictures of ourselves. Anu proved me wrong. She had taken this and I was not even aware!!!

I got to know something like this had happened few days back when Anu told me she has sent a picture for a contest. Today she shared this link http://panachallenge.com/challenge/show_entry.php?challenge=59&sortby=chlg&srch=&cam=&favs=&entry=4073

She had posted this pic under the theme “loneliness”. I don’t know if I really look that lonely. J All that I know is, Anu and me were talking endlessly early morning and later she took her camera to take some pics and I was sitting by this big window in that Swedish home – lazily curling up in that thick blanket. I can’t even recollect what I was thinking.

However the theme “loneliness” really intrigued me. If this picture communicates loneliness of the person in the frame, look closely. There is light the other side of the window. Come to think of it, it’s the person in question who is even creating that feeling for her. There is light out there and all that requires is a little bit of effort to just move towards light and let go of the feeling of alone. This so much making it evident how we create barriers for ourselves.

I’m super thrilled with this picture and the thought that it induced in me. Here goes a zillion thanks to Anu for capturing this moment for me.

Short movies and BRTFF

I'm all excited about this weekend. Coming Saturday, BRTFF has a long day movie screening of short movies. Here's the link for more details http://www.brtff.com/brtff6

I have developed this passion for short movies for quiet sometime now. From first, my interest has been in art movies though I enjoy the mainstream movies too. It was sometime in August/September 2003 I was part of collective chaos - an amateaur short movies club that used to screen movies once in fortnight and also discuss about the movie. Babu, the brain behind this was a very creative ingenious short movie maker. I had good time while I was part of that group. The group still exists in yahoo and I just rejoined.

However, looking forward to the weekend to catch up on all the lost short movies which otherwise is not accessible for private viewing. Lets see how it goes.

Live life - Kiran's way

Here's something what my sweet friend Kiran has to say.

"Take chances. Tell the truth. Date someone totally wrong for you. Say no. Spend all your cash! Fall in love. Get to know someone random. Be random. Say I love you. Sing out loud. Laugh at a stupid joke. Cry. Take revenge. Apologize. Tell someone how much they mean to you. Tell the a**hole what you feel. Let someone know what they r missing. Laugh til your stomach hurts. LIVE LIFE!"

I liked it a lot. A lot of us may not have courage to do any of the above. But want to do it all deep down. So, its for anybody who wants some confidence and ideas may be.

By the way, Kiran is my sweetest friend. We play Table Tennis together, laugh at silly jokes together, check our weight and compare together, crave for same kind of food and eat it too then, crib about putting on weight.

Its strange how some friendships even bloom. Though i've seen her in the office for more than 2 years now, its during the Table Tennis tournament last November '08 that I took notice of her. She was in the semifinals (women's singles - i think) and semi finals (mixed doubles). She lost in both and we became friends to beat our opponents.

Later we realised there is more than Table Tennis to our friendship. We both love to laugh and do that all the time. We are understanding to each others needs, respect each other and love to hang around with each other. All in all, we rock.

Hey Kiran, this is for you.

Top 10 things that pain me

1. Bangalore losing its old charm
2. Trafficjams that refuse to make a move
3. Bikes parked sideways in the middle of the road
4. Multi level car parking
5. Trash on the road
6. Infants and Toddlers used in begging
7. Newly laid road being dug
8. The stray dogs of cubbon park
9. Child labour
10. The orphan printouts near the printer on the 9th floor printer room

car key and today..

Though the order could be today and car key, the events that surround around car key precedes any other event that would have occured today. All of a sudden, I remembered I have this shopper's stop gift coupon that I won as a performance award last year. When I saw it for its vailidity, it had expired by a month. I thought I'll take my chance with my luck as Shopper's Stop is just the next building, I decided I go down and buy something in swift. Also, I had to return the audio cd to the library which was in the car. A raised multitasker that I am, I decided to do all this and a little bit of socialising, I called Deepthi to accompany me. We both set our way to Shopper's stop with the usual chit chat as if it was just two of us who existed on this planet.

When we formally cross checked if I could still use the coupon, promptly I came back to cosmetics section to browse on what's new on the beauty enhancer's front. As nothing fit the bill, we happen to land our eyes on the lovely handbags and wallets as both of us binged on seeing all the bags. Its then I remembered, my car keys were missing. I literally went berserk and ran to the first stop of our journey in SS, the cosmetics section. No..its not there. My heart beat slipped 2..no no..4 beats. Then I remembered, we had also gone to perfume section. No luck there too.

I know i was tensed. Tensed about all the practical problems. As far as I know, I dont have a duplicate key back at home. I dont even know what to do next. I put my brain to the best use and sent away my friend back to office. Went to the customer care section and made them do an announcement that such a great thing has happened to me. My brain and heart had changed places. However, I was all set to face the consequences. Promptly called a very good friend of mine for some advice. Again, this is what girls do. We want to tell the whole world if possible, what's happening within too.

Deep down, I was very confident I'll get the keys. This is something, I have learnt out of attending a mind power course and experience. I just visualised as if everything is fine. And me going home in my yellow car, listening to my favourite music on the same road that takes me home everyday. I'm not at all rational then. I know there is this little angel above me which is always protecting me and all.....

And the miracle came to me through this angel who was on the cal. He kept insisting I stay put at shopper's stop till i get it. I really dont know what prompted him to do so. I again went back to Shopper's stop with my emotional baggage and the luggage with prayers to the above lord to the same spot where i lost the sight of the key. While I was wandering near the bags section, the salesman of that particular domain casually asked me dangling that cute little car key around his index finger if that's what I'm looking for.

I almost visibly jumped out of excitement, joy and what not. The rest as they call is history. Thanked everybody - all involved and non involved staff of shoppers stop.

Drove home like how i visualised. Listening to my favourite music in my yellow car on the road that took me home like it does everyday.

slum dog and dev D

I watched “slumdog millionaire” over the weekend. I came out of the theatre with great admiration to the director for his excellent style of narration. Not so avid movie buff that I am, I can’t relate or compare movies. However, from the limited experience I have in watching movies (on an average of 1 per week – on TV :)) I know that this is one of the best. As I have not read the original book “Q&A” on which this movie is based, I am not sure if the book is also same or the director has adopted this style. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every moment of the movie. Each one of them has done a splendid job in their own areas.

I personally liked the “happy ending”. How can Jamal not get Latika? Especially when Jamal is so genuine, true and simple. Isnt these the ingredients for love?

2 weekends later, I watched “Dev D”. A record of its sorts for somebody who watches on an average only one movie in the theatre per year. So, I have to be very choosy about what I’m watching.

I was drawn to this movie only because of 5 star rating. Only after done with the movie, I realised after a little bit of googling that it’s the modern version of Devdas. I couldn’t believe my coincidence as I watched Sharukh Devdas just a week ago. So, I could draw a lot of parallels of Dev D.

Though the whole movie was flawless, it’s intended for adult viewing. I was surprised to see some kids. Anyway, our modern Devdas does not have any problem in marrying Paro except he himself. And our Paro too is the women of today who doesn’t ask him “again” to reconsider marrying her though both of them are madly in love with each other. The love triangle is completed with the entry of Chanda, which draws some kind of reality inspiration from the MMS scandal that happened in a school sometime back. Nice to have some kind of social message in an entertainment media. Overall, a nice movie. Again, happy ending as Devdas gets Chanda which is not the case in the original Devdas. I like happy endings.

After these two movies, I’ve vowed not to even wander anywhere in the vicinity of any theatres for the next two years.