Toastmasters Project 6

HELLO

Good evening

//NOTE-First call comes on mobile ,fumble//

Oh sorry

Good evening Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guest. As I was saying.

//Phone rings again . Body language to depict surprise, fumbling with phone//

This might be important . I think I will just take it.

Hello

//5 seconds pause

Hi, I cant really hear you and I am in a bit of hurry. So let me assure you I don’t need to buy any insurance or a subscribe to hello tunes. If however, you have a credit card then I am interested.

Mom!! Whose number is this? Anway I will call you in some time. Bye.

Oh sorry folks. This is how life is. Now we are just simply never unreachable. All thanks to technology and the mobile phone. (wave the mobile phone)

Today of course mobile phones are everywhere. I went out with some friends to dinner some time back at a place in Pune. Since we were all sitting on low diwans, we all kept our mobiles on a side tables. I was amazed. There were eight people and eleven mobile phones. Two friends had two mobiles each and one of these two cool folks had a borrowed cell to talk reliance to reliance free.

There was a time when mobile phones were not that widespread. I remember in 96-97 when erickson and usha cellular first started offering mobile phones. Out going rates were 24 rupees per minutes and incoming was 18 rupees a minute. Those were the times folks. One sms was 8 rupees a minutes. I used to joke that dialing wrong numbers on mobile phones should be a criminal offence. At eighteen rupees a minute for an incoming call, a wrong number was like being punished by God.

My first cell was a grey screen cellphone and I was so happy. I did not think of another cell for years. Last month , I was gifted a touchscreen phone and I am already thinking about the next. I am not sure what I want in a new mobile phone that my present one does not have but I know new cells come into our lives as certainly as the income tax returns every year.

And then thanks to the mobile phone we have the 160 characters which mean everything in life nowadays. Yes, the 160 characters is nothing more than the length of a short messaging service message or as we all say SMS.


The S.M.S. service has spawned its own language where words are shortened acronmyms. Tomorrow as 2-m-r-w and good morning as g-m. Is this as many say a vice?

I do not know because most of the times I simply don’t get the language.

Like “tc”. For a long time in my first year of engineering I thought tc meant turbo C. For those who have forgotten, turbo c was this great compiler for c language. When this friend of mine started to sign off her messages as tc, I thought “oh! she must really like C language.”

It was only much later that I realised Tc meant take care, but the joke stayed.

Anyway there is a reason why I talked about mobile phones. With great power comes great responsibility. A recent international survey said Indians were among the nationalities with the lowest levels of telephone etiquette. And we need to change that.

I was sitting in the mutiplex sometime back ,watching a movie. Suddenly a mobile phone rang somewhere around. I thought, I would hear a sorry and the sound of the call being cancelled.

Instead , I heard someone say,"Hello ruchi, Hows you?" And instead of hanging up, the talk just went on and on. After about 5 minutes I tapped the girl on the shoulder from behind and said,"Mam, I know the movie is pathetic but still there might be people who would want to watch it. " I think she got the hint.

And so many times, phones ring in meetings,conferrences ,hospitals, and in so many other places where they should never sound.

It reflects badly on us. So I ask all of us to say that my mobile phone is silent or switched off in all places where it is not supposed to ring. And even if no one asked us to do the same.

And there is a simple reason why…

Once upon a time ,there was a boy who was gifted a mobile phone by his parents. He was very happy. Next day his cell phone rang. It was his mother . He was amazed. He asked his mother-"how did you know I was in the principals office"

The mobile phone does not know where we are. We should tell it so by keeping it silent.

Over to you Mr. Toastmaster

Toastmasters Project 5 speech

Again a speech with roots the past.

this is a speech as Project 5 in my aim to reach a competent communicator status(5 more to go)

A lot had to be added to make it worth it.

“Scrapped Unfortunately”

Scrap... There was a time when a scrap automatically brought visions of waste. But then occurred a revolution and they called it 'Orkut'. After that a 'scrap', it seemed had a whole new meaning for the masses.


Good evening Mr Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests.

Yes I am talking about the website Orkut. There seem to be various descriptions for it and its bethrehen include a networking site, a community website, a social site, etc. However I will not clinically analyze 'Orkut' today, but rather reminisce about the good old times, when things were still simple


My first introduction to Orkut were the unsure steps I took when a good friend of mine sent me an invitaion and literally forced me to register nearly five years ago. Of course back then Orkut was totally unknown and I was confident that I would never go back to check on the site again.


Time it seems has proved me wrong.


First came Internet in the college hostel where I was studying, then came 'Orkut mania'. The first signs were long hours on Orkut waiting in desperation for new scraps. As one of the first victims, I remember checking for scraps every hour and getting gloomy if I did not find new ones.


Of course suddenly the number of scraps became linked to popularity on Orkut and it seemed no number was big enough and no means mean enough. One afternoon, I remember this conversation between two seniors using scraps.


Gujral- “Oye Akshat, How come you have become so rare these days. I never see you around”
Akshat- “Hi Gujral! Have been pretty busy with life. Wassup with you”
.
.
some 20 smaller scraps...
.
.
Gujral- “So from where are you accessing the net? I am using Minocha’s comp.”
Akshat- “Yaar, I am sitting on Ashraf’s comp.”

Of course they conveniently forgot to mention Ashraf and Minocha were room-mates. The two were basically sitting back to back and chatting using orkut. I heard that one afternoon Akshat sirs rating jumped by 20 percent.


Beyond the addiction there are many benefits of Orkut. Somehow, I personally have never seen any. For example what is discussed in my engg class community on Orkut? Everything except academics. There are games like, will u kiss or marry the person above, whether the person above is sexy or hot(byt the way, I was hot and heavy) , etc. Somehow all games seemed to have something to do with the person above you. Or else there is someone trying to make me rich by working from home or even worse, advertising another equally boring community.

So after some time Orkut started to become boring. I wondered, is it over? Is the colour in life gone? Will I now have to watch a balck and white movie. However I should not have despaired!! To rescue me came a knight called Sir Facebook. Suddenly everyone was in love those funny apps , that ability to poke into other people’s conversations using comments. Of course Orkut in its later avatar would suddenly sprout exactly the same features but there is a charm with the original.

These days people folks automatically assumed that everyone and anyone else is on Orkut and Facebook. And when someone states that he does not access any of these sites, people automatically assume that something must be wrong with him. Afterall since everyone else is on orkut and everyone else cannot be weird, the person not on orkut must be weird.

Of course these days so many social websites have mushroomed up that its hard to decide on an essential list of social sites. I am drowning in spam. Someone want to meet me on Hi5, a bot by the name of Shruti invites me to apna adda, someone else has sent me a private message which will expire soon unless I accept an invitation to Jhoomla.com. The list just goes on. I suddenly miss the old days when even gmail did not exist. Forget facebook or Orkut.

Recently my parents became my friends on facebook. Initially I felt proud,” My parents are so tech savvy that they are on facebook.” I felt like writing a poem about it.

Five minutes later the panic set in. “My parents are on Facebook. They can see all my pics , the flirts with girls, the sarcastic comments in my friend-circle”. Ten minutes later , my facebook account was cleansed. Everything funny, interesting and even mildly suggestive deleted. Now of course I have been joined by the entire gaggle of relatives , cousins and even family friends.

Now I think twice before clicking publish always wondering who all can read it and what potential scandal can occur .The good days when liberty reigned are long gone never to return.

I am now beyond Orkut having left the temptation behind. But you like this speech please ,please let me know by scrapping me. My Orkut ratings are still at 80 percent. The scraps may just help.

Over to you Mr Toastmaster

Toastmasters Project 4

This is my toastmaster's project 4 speech. Having realized previously the importance of humour, I wanted a totally humorous speech, so that the audiences attention is fully captured. Also with a club level humorous speech contest coming up next week, I wanted a trial run of the speech.

It went well. The audience was literally in splits.

Dial M for

Dial M for Murder. Ooops sorry, I got carried away.. M mean something else not murder definitely. But for now I will keep u guessing.

Let’s say we Indians have a special affinity for the M word. Which M word ? That M word. The one that everyone wants to experience. Yet most of the people who experience think they were better off, without it.

Folk its M for marriage

As western culture is fixated with love, Indian culture has an obsession with marriage. Since ancient times marriage is part of our psychology. And its firmly grounded there. Marriage seems to be the start of a settled life. For parent’s it seems till the times their children are not married, their duties are still not done. So the moment the child becomes eligible for marriage he/she is prodded into thinking about marriage. Don’t smile people. I know since the day you got your married each of you have at least one mused about marriage

Now talking about marriage let me put it this way. I am an unwilling iconoclast.

I firmly believe marriage is not a small thing. Its not even a word. Marriage is a complete sentence… A life sentence….

I can see a few people smiling. We all know when a newly married guy smiles but when he smiles after 10 years of marriage is when everyone is flummoxed.

There are lines from Salman Rushdie’s novel Shame that I love “I don’t believe in arranged marriages. There are some things you should not be able to blame your poor parents for”. Tragically the day I recited these lines to my parents, they developed a deep animosity for the author. How can someone say this ? It is our duty?

Everytime I hear words like marriage and duty, I remember the idea of firing a gun held someone else’s shoulder. Mine unfortunately.

Indian parents suddenly develop this attachment to rituals and culture which can be a bit to the kids disadvantage.

My dad said the other day,”Son I left the decision of marriage to my sisters and relatives and it has been a very good journey . You should also do the same.” It was a family function. I looked around and I could see the past when I was ten years old or so. As the only male kid with nearly 10 sisters as first cousins in my age group, I grew up indeed in a disadvantaged position. Relatives would come visiting and my sister would team up with her other cousin sisters. The attack would be sudden. “Charge” is all I would hear and next moment I would be getting beaten to a pulp in a fight I had already lost. “Resistance is futile” could very have been their theme.

So as I remembered those moments, fear took hold of me again and I literally begged my parents to promise that if a time came that I was desperate enough to allow them to choose a match, the task shall not be out sourced to any sisters. If they could have beaten me to pulp as a child, imagine the havoc they could create now.

Of course my dad refuses to believe I even have a choice. "Son ,you don’t have the right to choose your own match. That is with me". With most of the western world world already weary about marriages , we could be the only nation where marriage is a joyful occasion. At family functions these days all those old-old aunts now have nothing else to chat with me about except my marriage. Even when I would insist even the idea is far away they would not stop. So I started to chat with them about funerals.

Instant silence.

All you unmarried people out here ,remember the tip. May help you.

In western civilization if you cant date or fraternize with the opposite sex, YOU WILL die alone and lonely. In India, “ Bapu to dhoond hee denge”. Parent will find a match. The parents finding a bride/groom is a great back-up option. We ,Indians can actually be single and happy. Because parents are there.

Of course arranged marriages are not all that bad. There was this white kid who was asking his father, “Dad I have heard in India, a man does not know his wife till he marries her. Is it true? ”It happens everywhere, son. Everywhere.

Of course with section 377 of Indian Penal Code being struck down suddenly society has had to comprehend a new reality which most do not acknowledge.

"What is the use of the law ?",asked a relative of mine."There are no gays in India".

Sure , I mused. Then who were all those people in the gay pride parade in the metros.

Society may still does not accept gay or lesbian couples but it will change. I have a close friend who recently came out of the closet You can imagine the havoc that happened when the only son told his parents he was gay. His parents went ballistic. But we must give parents the credit that they deserve. Their love for their child remained undiminished, but they did voice their opposition to his choice.

We were talking the other day and somehow the topic veered to marriage. He goes like, ”The problem with choosing my own bride is that my parents wont be happy if the bride does not have the same social status. ” I thought for a moment and said, ”Dude, you are gay. Your parents would be distribute sweets if you ever get a girl home”.

He looks at me and says,”Oh shucks, I forgot I have told them”

I think just to satisfy society, we could have inter-orientation marriages. Imagine an advertisement like “Committed well settled handsome gay couple look for professionally qualified lesbian couple to satisfy parents demand for marriage. Caste no bar. Please send both your horoscopes immediately at desperate-to-satisfy-parents@gmail.com. ”

Now these days at functions etc people are asking my mom,” What sort of a girl do you want?” When my mother told me this , I was like,”a) I am not getting married and b) even if I am, Why are they asking you. They should be asking me. Its not as if you will be the one marrying.

This again did not go down well with my parents. The world just does not appreciate humour.

I will just give you all one tip about successful marriages that you may not have heard anywhere.

The secret to a successful marriage after so much of research still remains a secret.!!!

Toastmasters Project 3 speech text

This is the text of my project 3 speech. You can all see the video in my earlier speech. The basis of this speech is an old college magazine article that I wrote.

However it was totally redone for the speech. /* xyz*/ denote speech instruction

One turn too fast

One error of judgment, one stroke of misfortune, a momentarily loss of control, one turn too fast. And it’s all over!/*Pause 3 sec*/

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests,

Yes it just takes one moment on the road to change everything. Just one turn too fast and it could just as well be the last.

80,000 people die in road accidents in India each year. What does it mean?

……Someone has just now lost a life in a road accident, and before I finish my speech, there would be another death on the road.

Still the horror never hits us. The day we hear about an acquaintance or a close friend being killed or injured in a road accident I am sure most of us slow down a bit. I know because I vividly remember the day in 12th class when a classmate was crushed by a bus while on his scooter. I never knew the guy even remotely but I can assure you that day I just pushed my scooter a little less hard and so did the rest of us.

You could wonder why the moral lecture? What has another death forgotten in the sands of time got to do with you? I say, everything! Because YOU would probably be driving, today or tomorrow. And when you get behind the wheel you ought to know the mortal danger you are in.

‘I rode at 100 km/hr’ /*Pull your collar up while doing it*/said my friend. That’s 28 m/sec! Measure it and try to imagine covering the distance in a second on foot. It’s impossible. And yet we seldom think twice before using the accelerator while driving.

Maybe some of that callousness would disappear if you were to see the results of rash driving first-hand. Because no description can fully describe the horror of being there. The sound of metal twisting, the wails of the wounded , the moans of the barely conscious, the horror of the onlookers and pain that is unimaginable. Of course there are people who can boast about walking away unhurt from the wreckage of vehicles. But they were just lucky. Death was just enjoying being irrational.

Let’s imagine an accident. Someone is driving, and suddenly he collides with another vehicle at high speeds. Maybe it was not his fault. Maybe the other driver was rash and drunk. But maybe he could have gone a little slower.

And now suppose that person is you. /*Very slow */

After that one moment you wake up to find your leg bent at an impossible angle. But you are too confused to realize it’s broken. Maybe your lungs are filling up with blood because of broken ribs. You are literally drowning in your own blood and there is nothing you can do. I wonder if anyone would like a similar scenario,' to wake up from an accident only to realize you are dying'. There are injuries for which doctors can do nothing more than just move on to the next patient who could probably be saved. Also in India, where you would probably be bundled by bystanders in a rickshaw and sent to a hospital which will probably refuse to accept you for the fear of a police case.

Or you could be like my friend who was hit by a truck in the wee hours on a national highway. No one stopped to help and she lay there in a ditch, for over two hours, dying just 200 meters from the comfort of her home on a chilly morning. It turned out to be a beautiful December day. It was just not so bright for her.

Of course initially, because of shock you will not feel any pain. You can stare at your mangled hands with indifference. But then if you can just survive for some time, then the shock will wear out and you will start feeling pain that you never knew was possible. God forbid, if you had been driving recklessly before the accident then at that moment you are lying there hating yourself. You would probably do anything to go back and set it right. But this is life my friend! What’s done can never be undone.

And if you are counting on surviving the accident, don’t forget it could involve anything -from long lonely months of recuperation in a hospital, the guilt of having caused the death of innocents or even leading a crippled life.

Friends, drive safe. There are only two self -evident truths which I know of and they are that mixing drinking with driving kills and helmets save lives. Only a fool can deny these. So drive knowing the risks. Because the problem is not driving but bad driving.

There is a simple reason why I spoke about accidents the way I did. Why I talked about death as if it was just around the corner. Because if you can imagine the pain after a crash or even better see yourself lying unattended on a stretcher still,/*2 sec pause slow*/ very still; ,/*3 sec pause even slower*/ then maybe you will just be a little easy on the accelerator next time.

Over to you Mr. Toastmaster

Sweet revenge, Toastmasters project 3

So two weeks back, I had lost to another guy in the toastmasters club in the prepared speech section.

My revenge came on Wednesday when I defeated him with my latest speech.

I wanted some more detailed feedback on myself ,so I used my cellphone to record the speech.

The sound is muffled , the video is poor but I think its better think its bett er than nothing.

I come in after about 30 seconds in the video. The speech lasts 5 minutes.

Anyway from the video I realized my pauses are very poor. Also my voice is still not reflecting emotions well. I think the body language and gestures were decent.

the speech is titled 'One turn too fast'

The Secret-Toastmasters international project two

Good Evening Toastmaster ,fellow toast masters and honored guests.

It is written in the toastmaster manual that in case of a prepared speech, one must begin by doing something to arouse the curiosity of the audience or they may get bored and not really listen. But I disagree. I would not mind if some of you were to wander off in my speech. Because I am going to tell you a secret. One that all of us know but never acknowledge. And this secret can change your life.

I begin this tale with a story. In early 1940s a daughter was prematurely born as the 20^th of 22 children to a black couple in Tennyssee, USA. Despite the complications, because the couple were black, the local white hospital refused to treat the child. And because the couple were very poor, they could not afford to spend money going to the doctor in the neighboring county. But the child was a born fighter and she survived. However tragedy struck soon when their daughter was diagnosed with polio. “She will never be able to walk”, was what the doctors told her parent. But the mother hoped against hope and took the child for weekly therapy sessions. By the age of ten the child could walk with leg braces. Pretty much like the young Forest Gump in that immortal movie. Then one day the mother returned home to find Wilma playing basketball without the leg braces. Some called it a miracle. I think human will had triumphed.

Why some may ask is this story relevant. It is important as I look around and I find so many people miserable with where they are, unhappy with who they are. They stand convinced that there is something lacking in them and they deserve all the misery. I wonder if they are right?

Let us all look inside. Are there things that make us unhappy, are there things we want to change? And are these the very things that we believe we cannot change ourselves.

Yes, my friends, there are things that we want to do but never get around to doing it because we think its just too big a task for us. We are intimidated by the odds even before we start.

But there is a truth is that we all forget. The secret that we never say out loud. And that truth is that our happiness is in our own hands. Do you believe this? Even if you do not say to yourself, My happiness is in my hands.

What do I mean by happiness is in our own hands. Does it mean we should accept whatever happens to us. Does it mean that even after a particularly bad day in office you don’t have the right to be unhappy. Maybe your code just refused to work. Or you think your efforts are not being appreciated and you got unwarranted criticism. Am I telling you to still be happy?

No, while you have the right to be miserable, I insist that you realize that your happiness is within you. No one else controls your happiness. We have within us to end up where-ever we want to be.

Human will has always had the upper hand. We as humans wonder –“Can I do it?” and frequently fail to convince even ourselves that we can achieve it. I ask all of you, why don’t we ask “Why can’t I do it”. Because I can assure the day we do, we will ourselves realize that all our limits are made by ourselves only. We believe in our limitations and so they exist.

Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She did it because she did not believe in her limitations.

There is a band that I listen to on the web sometimes. The funny thing is that the band consists of only one person who is the singer, the lead guitarist, the sound technician as well as the drummer. Only one person in the band. I think you could all imagine how bad it would sound.

The band is deafboyone and the only member of the band is deaf. Imagine being a musician and not being able to hear. Yet Deafboy one makes wonderful music. The lyrics of one song are “I am standing across the crowded bar. I can see what she wants, But you. You have to shout!”. The deaf singer instead of being unhappy pokes fun at all of us who cannot understand sign language. Because he does not need to hear. He can simply see and understand.That is the power of human will and belief in our innate abilities.

Who are you all after-all? What is your inheritance ,your identity? You all are humans bestowed with free will and intelligence far above animals.

They say man is an ape. But are apes human? All of you must know that chimpanzees our closest relatives can be taught language and how to communicate. But do you know, psychologists have realized that even when a chimpanzee has been taught how to ask for a fruit through signs, he just wont do it. They just don’t get the utility of a language.

And that’s why I say while man may have evolved from monkeys, we are no apes. As humans you are not bound to follow the herd. And those who do ,please, please quit the herd mentality. Stop monkeying around

So how do you go about claiming your happiness. Firstly tell , yourself that only you are responsible for your happiness. They say we let others be responsible for our unhappiness by giving them that power.

Take it back and hold your happiness within yourself.

Secondly believe in your abilities and your strength. You are not another human. You are A HUMAN, capable of splitting the atom and conquering the deepest oceans.

Thirdly think how you can achieve your dreams. Plan and if you think its possible take that step towards achieving them. Not all who set about trying to achieve their dreams succeed, but I assure you all of those who try feel satisfied.

I started with a tale about Wilma, the polio affected black girl in Jim Crow South. Wilma was actually a real person. After having taught herself to walk, Wilma became the local school basketball star.

But her achievements and fame do not stop there. In 1960 Wilma Rudolph became the first American lady to win three gold medals in the Olympics’ track and field events. The girl who was not supposed to walk set a world record and became the fastest runner on this planet.

Over to you MOC Kartick

Toastmasters Club: Project 1 , The icebreaker

"Strengthen your strengths and weaken your weaknesses." I know I can speak very well and people shower me with praises for being confident and great at speaking. However I am also aware that I am at times a little too rough at the edges. The possibility of a devastating blowup on stage always remains. Probablity could be my big enemy with each successful meeting that chance of that big embarrassing performance on stage.

So I joined this club called “The Toastmasters International ” at my company. I get to give 10 speeches over a period of time with various themes and aims. My intention is to firm up a strength. If I am a good speaker there is no reason why I can’t be better.

The first speech is an ice-breaker. I am supposed to introduce myself on stage and try to identify with the audience. I gave it on this Wednesday. It was a decent effort though I think people praised me more than I deserved. I did not memeorize the whole speech and it caused some issues. Also a major fact was that my eye contact with the audience was poor.

Anyway here is my speech.Its titled 'hope'.

“Good Evening Toastmaster ,fellow toast masters and honored guests. Today on my first meeting as a toastmaster, I have the pleasure of welcoming among us a writer, poet, debater, blogger as well as a budding singer.

Would any of you like to guess who he is ?Don’t look around. That person is occupying the stage right now.

Let me tell you a little secret about my name,”My middle name is actually my first name.” And I can assure you it causes innumerable problems. In school and college where people only normally knew me by my name middle name, the presence of Syed used to cause a lot of confusion . I would get a lot of comments like “ where did this Syed suddenly come from?” As if people change their names everyday.

In Infosys on the other hand the display name is so widely used that, people generally ask “If you are Ashraf, who the hell is Syed? “

But enough of the banter. Let me tell you something about myself. I come from Allahabad, the land of Sangam and the Kumbh mela. My father is an army officer and my mother is a lecturer in English. I have been brought up in a lot of places. In fact in my first school, we used to have snow days. Rain the joke went , we could handle any day.

Anyway after a certain time my dad decided changing schools too frequently would harm me academically. So he asked for a posting to our hometown where I joined to Boys High School. Our most famous alumnus is someone who has choosen acting as his profession. We know him as the Big B or Amitabh Bacchan.

Later while dad would get posted to literally the other end of India, I would stay put in Allahabad.

I have always read quite indiscriminately since childhood and my favourite book is Midnights Children. I am also a big fan of Urdu poetry. There is a line in Urdu poetry which translates something like “Sufficient heartache will make even a person with a heart of stone pen poetry”. After class tenth, I started writing poetry. What I can tell you is that there were girls and heartache. Neither in limited quantities.

In that period I also was part of my school magazine board and also worked with the Times of India as a freelance writer. I was the youngest freelance writer by a very big margin.

I say that where I am is the result of a series of accidents and conscious decisions. I was quite enthusiastic about being a until I realized in class 12^th that being a doctor required too long a commitment.

So I switched to engineering. Having just missed the cut for IIT, I decided to join NIT Warrangal through AIEEE. However man proposes God disposes. My parents had never heard of Warrangal. The day after I was allotted NIT warrangal, Naxals killed 6 policeman in the district. That was nearly 4.5 years ago when Naxalite violence was rare. My mom thought I was going to Somalia for engineering and would never return. Nit Warrangal was over.

So dejected I joined computer science engineering at Army Institute of Technology , Pune. But I would later be surprised because AIT turned out to be a great experience.

AIT is a fully residential college & hostel life turned out to be a great eye-opener. Only those who have been in a hostel can appreciate the experience. There were people willing to borrow anything and everything. And of course later forget to return the stuff.

With no mom and dad around ,everyone had to stand up for himself /herself(I will be politically correct). There is an incident I remember vividly. Earlier I used to pride myself over the fact that I did not get into conflicts. No one had told me what a big fool I was. I had a roommate in SE who had a habit of suddenly screaming at you in your face for no reason. First time he did it, I waited two days to tell him, that Varun my parents don’t shout at me and neither can you. But within a month he repeated it again. This time I waited two hours to express my disapproval. Then before another month had passed he repeated it again. This time even as he started shouting, I took one more step in his face and screamed back even louder. He never shouted again.

In my first year of college I was accepted into the Magazine Board at AIT. With one written test and three exhaustive and gruellling rounds of interview, the joke goes went that it is easier to crack a job interview than get into the magazine board. Publishing the magazine was just one of our tasks. We arranged treasure hunts, notice boards, started juicy rumours, set college dress codes for Valentines day and even had a betting organized on results of certain events. The Mag Board and AIT gave me opportunities to hone my talents.

From someone who wanted to do his M.Tech and be in research and development roles, I realized I absolutely relished leadership roles. So I became an MBA aspirant. I have written CAT two times but my performance has still not got me that dream call I desire.

Infosys is another step in the journey called life. While I had another offer ,I choose Infosys because of the tremendous learning possibility. I had hoped to be posted to Pune but man proposes, and Infosys disposes.

Mysore while tragically not being the hip and cool city like Pune allows me time to pursue my passions. I read on a regular basis every night. I have learnt how to cook. My French classes started yesterday and I now learn hindustaani classical musical every weekend.

From life I have learnt the lesson that not everything works out the way we want it to. Even after a month, my Saa (the music tone) is still not firm. But I and my teacher see progress. And I find hope.

Over to you Mr. Toastmaster.

”