Abhinav Bhatt

Toastmasters Speech # 4 ‘How to be a Superhero’

Speech 4 of Toastmasters Competent Communication manual: How you say it!

Now this one was special. I delivered this in my club and was asked to repeat it as it was not very effective (going by the objectives of Speech 4). My evaluator didn’t feel that I had done any justice to the speech. Sigh. I felt it was fine and I had felt good after delivering it. But very bad after the evaluation. Nevertheless, I went to another club and delivered the same speech there. But there, a mishap happened. I went blank for about 10-15 seconds in the middle of the speech as I felt my mouth had completely dried up. I couldn’t speak anything. And when I regather myself to speak, I forgot where were I. But, my evaluator did something fantastic. She praised my confidence, my content and even the delivery (which was far from perfect). She encouraged me to not get discouraged from dry-mouth sort of things and keep it going. I felt so nice after that. Moreover, the club presented me with ‘best speaker’ ribbon award that day. I can’t imagine how that happened but probably they wanted me to feel better.

In Speech 4, one has to use proper grammar and incorporate usages of rhetorical devices to enhance the message of the speech.

Do you ever wish that you could do something that could change the world or make it a better place?
Do you wish that you had Some Sort of Superpower to do Something Special?
Do you ever wish to become a Superhero?

Mister/Madam Toastmaster , fellow toastmasters and welcomed guests.

Just picture this:

It is quite late at night. And a girl is walking back home. All Alone and Afraid. She walks. The street she walks on is dark , dingy and dangerous. She wants to reach home as soon as possible. She hurries. She knows that it is too late to be out at night for the night is dark and full of terrors. She takes a turn. And all of a sudden out of the blue someone appears in front of her. It’s big as a bear kind of figure. That is a Goon!!!!!! , a Goon with a knife , a Goon with a criminal intent. She is shaking. She is terrified! She shrieks for help. The Goon is about to pounce on her.

Now , If I happened to live nearby and if I possessed a Six Sense Superpower like Peter Parker The Spiderman or Amazing Abilities and senses like Matt Murdock the Daredevil, I would have got alarmed. I would have quickly changed into my superhero gear and jumped on to the scene. I would’ve beaten the pulp out of the goon and saved the life of the girl using my Superhuman abilities. People would have gathered thanks to the noise. And they would’ve clapped and praised my name. And eventually told the stories of my bravado to their kids. And may be the girl would’ve fallen in love with me too, who knows!

But but but this is all Nonsense. I don’t have any superpower. Neither I am that brave. Nor I want any girl to fall in love with me , now that I am married. Too late! And also, I don’t like to wear underwear over my pants.

So , what really makes one a Super Hero? Candidness? Candor? Courage? Costume?

So what do you wish to have your superpowers like?

Invisibility? Invincibility? Integrity and strength? Yes or no?

I believe , most of us , want to do something good for the society. Many of us , work with NGOs. We donate money to charities. And we also change our Display Pictures on Facebook for some cause or the other. All that is good indeed except changing DPs. But there are some other ways also , by which you can do good for others.

I can tell you about one of the easiest way which can make you a superhero.

Blood Donation.

(Pic via Marian Academy Blood Drive 2014 #9 by *Amanda Richards via Attribution Engine. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.)

There was a blood donation drive in our office recently. Initially people felt reluctant but later few went and donated. Still I feel that everyone should have participated in the noble cause. But people didn’t. They ignored it like they ignore ‘Read Me’ or ‘Terms and conditions’ documents before installing any software. Let me clear some common misconceptions about blood donation.

Do you know , that it takes a maximum of 20 minutes to donate blood. And they take only 300 ml to 400 ml. The body regains the lost blood in just 36 hours and the overall quality of blood in mere 3 months. And one feels absolutely no difference before and after the donation.

In our office , many people donated, the gatekeepers donated , canteen staff donated , sweepers donated , both men and women donated. Although some were sent back because of them being anaemic. But it’s the gesture that counts , isn’t it?

C’mon people , let me assure you that this is the easiest way to help someone. And it helps you in return too , in case you need Blood yourself , you will be given free of cost for the next 6 months. Of course, you donated Money in charity , but who knows where is it going? I am sure , your donated blood will be used to only help someone in need of blood. As far as I know , there is no Dracula or Vampire who also needs blood. Best part is that , you needn’t know who is getting benefited by your this gesture.

And believe you me people , once you donate , you feel good . What a lovely feeling that is , as if you have accomplished something . I have myself donated 7-8 times and it is, for me , as satisfying as getting a infinite sheet of bubble wrap for popping.

Also , after they take the blood out , they provide snacks and juices. So at least for that you can donate blood no? Remember friends, one hand forwarded for donating blood, is equivalent to pulling someone out of a life threatening ditch.

Even Subhash Chandra Bose will give you blessings if you know what I mean.

So from now on , if given a chance , please
Go donate blood!
Go help someone in need!
Go and be a Superhero!

Rhetorical Devices used in this speech:

Alliteration- words beginning with same letters to create a rhythmic effect
Triads – combination of 3 words to emphasize something / Rule of three
Parallelism – drawing parallel between 2 unrelated things
Paraprosdokian – Sentences with unexpected ending
Simile – as big as, as good as, etc
Anaphora – repeated words to stress on something

ORA*TORS award — These are my achievements as of now. The Orange one is the most precious though as I received it for this speech even when I didn’t deserve it by any stretch.

BTW, if you have been to my blog earlier, this speech was a slightly modified take on this.

Featured Photo by Raj Eiamworakul on Unsplash

Hardly Surprising: Thoughts on Bengaluru's Apparent Night of Horror

What else do you expect to happen to a girl (or say girls) surrounded by 1000s of men on road at Midnight?

Do you expect grown up Indian men to behave well in Public? Haha. Seriously?

If you are reading this, and you are a girl, may I ask your expectations from Bangalore? (Or any other city in India for that matter) You thoughts things would be better after 2012 December? You must be living under a rock.

How can people even expect mobs in India to not indulge in unruly behavior? I mean, where were you all these years (since forever). When were we good to women, is all I want to ask? Was it during the time, some RSS folks might argue, before invaders came from up North/West/Central Asia? If yes, that time has passed long back. And I am pretty sure, that even then we were the same. If I can remember, I am sure that Indian men (#YesAllMen) have never sympathized nor empathized with what women face daily. Some people are tweeting incessantly sharing what their friends faces. As if that would help. Nopes. This is not cynical. This is real.

Just because TV News is paying attention to it for 3–4 days, doesn’t mean that it is going to get solved.

And how come Bengaluru is treated as if this is some special part of the country where people are extra mannered and cultured. Hehe, no, Bangalore is same as rest of India. Now at least I can feel, how Delhi people must be feeling.

Year 2016 End Blog Post

2016 is almost about to end, finish, over, poooof!! YAY!

Now, for some reason, I don’t understand what the hoopla was about. Bad things happened this year, sure, but that happens every year and this is going to continue to happen next year as well. Probably, I don’t feel as impacted as supposed to, by most of the things which happened this year, as I transitioned from being, how to put it mildly, Sngl to Mrrd in January itself. Once you have made that change in your life, every other impact feels like falling of a 1 KG metal ball or a feather in space.

So, as goes the tradition, this is the year-end summary blog post for 2016. Some major things are summarized below so that I can read the same 10 years from now (if all goes well):

January was something. Apart from the D-Day, I also stepped outside Indian soil. And landed on a semi-Indian soil. And it was fun.

And the events that followed after Jan’s main event, have been fun alright! For the first time in my life, I got to live alone. Like actually alone. Sounds very weird after the first 2 points but that is how it was. I lived alone for about 8 months, with occasional visits from friends and family. But living alone gives you some perspective in life which nothing else does. I recommend, everyone should live alone for a month of two, at least. I played a whole lot of Pokemon Go for 1 week, before those idiots took it down. Around mid-year, I joined Toastmasters. One, to slow myself down. Second, to become a better public speaker. The journey has been super exciting as having an aim in life, a purpose, gives you a lot to look forward to. Also, the club gives you an environment which one craves for in a job, that it is not just rewarding, but also competitive and that school-college-classroom feel is there. However, I don’t know how much have I improved as a public speaker, I surely have become more open to talking to any number of people. I would go in more confident now, as compared to past. There are still many glitches to overcome, but we shall do that in 2017. And yeah, I have completed the CL Manual, and very soon, I would be a Competent Leader officially. Yes!

I got the opportunity to visit Gokarna for the first time, and Ooty for the 2nd. But, I couldn’t give myself much time to click photographs, so there is one things I missed out on. I should have clicked more.

I moved to a new place. After spending full 6 years in the most North Indian part of Southern Bengaluru, I moved to Eastern Central Bengaluru. I am going to totally miss, Bun, Tea and Momos. And the people there which made the place worth living. Last but not the least, I had my first ever and the most severe, Bike accident. I had forgotten that Bengaluru’s roads have potholes and I drove in to one. Bike toppled, as did I. Luckily, only bike’s headlight got broken and my right hand got muscle sprained. Nothing bad happened. But my right hand is still recuperating. I got to wear that protective sling thingy for the first time ever. Hopefully, I will remember how to ride on roads in this country.

Have I changed? Yes, to a certain extent. I have realized that time doesn’t stay the same always even when it seems to have frozen for some time. And most importantly, life after marriage is fine. It only seems dangerous till you haven’t done that.

2017, bring it on!

2 Things A Soldier Needs

In a country like India, where even getting basic amenities is a struggle, there are only 2 things a Soldier, who defends us 24/7, needs.

Just 2 things. Optimism and Motivation.

They need to have that optimism, that whatever their job requires them to do, they should do that with best of their abilities. Their optimism helps them to do the job to fulfill some cause. The cause being safety and well-being of fellow citizens. They are hopeful that when they accomplish their jobs, someone somewhere would feel safer. Someone somewhere would have a place to stay. Someone somewhere would have something to eat. They are hopeful that their effort won’t go in vain. They are hopeful that even if their individual effort isn’t recognized, their leader, their team, their battalion or their country would get something better. Nobody wants to go to war. Nobody signs up with Army to kill someone else in order to win a war. They sign up to defend. But if someone has decided to get signed up, they’re hopeful that their in-charges would attempt their best to avoid confrontation directly or indirectly with another soldier who is hopeful for someone else, just like they are.

Another thing they need is motivation. They don’t get best treatment when it comes to place to stay, climate to work under, infrastructure to work with and even the equipment to work on. So they survive with just motivation. They are able to do what they are supposed to do, just because they have got a motivation. Their fellow soldiers motivate them. Their leader has motivated them. Their families have motivated them. Their country has motivated them*.

*Conditions Apply

There was a news recently of Indian army’s attempt to strike strategically some areas in the Kashmir which is under Pakistan’s occupation. Their sole motive was to destroy the camps which harbor people who keep sending infiltrators and terrorists to the Indian sides and kill innocents. Army claimed that they achieved their mission successfully and in a way, took revenge of the Uri attacks and also send a signal to the terrorists that enough is enough.

How they did it, when they did it and did they do it actually, is immaterial and for everyone’s safety, should be, and is classified. If you don’t believe in it, your wish. You want to dance and celebrate it, your wish.

Now suppose you don’t believe it, which is fine, but if you question the integrity of the system again and again, what is the message are you sending to the world? That you don’t trust your army? Sure you can hate the government and their policies. But by raising doubts about the very statement which CANNOT be made public because it is a question of severe intelligence compromise, don’t you think you should take a step back? Don’t you think that by discussing the same thing over and over again, on news, on tv, you are not shaking the 2 very beliefs the soldier needs to be able to do their job properly? Don’t you think that more you do this, more the soldier would be forced to think that whatever they do, gets no appreciation, neither monetary, nor financially, so why should they do it honestly in the first place? You can say whatever you want, but isn’t this a basic fundamental duty to not meddle with lives of others, specially those who need soldiers and armies when basically every neighborhood country is at logger heads with us?

Don’t stoop so low, just to satisfy your own ego that you take away the only 2 things a soldier needs to be a soldier: Optimism and Motivation.

Toastmasters Speech # 3 : Impact of Hobbies / Hobbies do wonders

Imagine this scene.

It is a usual Monday Morning and your mood is right up [gesture low hand pointing to the ground] here.

You come or rather drag yourself to your workplace and a Colleague asks “Hey man… how was the weekend? Anything interesting?”

Most of us just shrug and whimper with a dull reply, “The usual”.

Happens, right?

I’m sure that you wouldn’t have shrugged if you had spent your weekend doing something which you enjoy.

Mister / Madam Toastmaster Fellow Toastmasters Distinguished Guests

Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, once said,

“You never lose a dream , it just incubates as a hobby.”

Today I would talk about Hobbies. Hobbies are activities which you “USED” to enjoy doing in your leisure time. But now you are simply “BUSY”.

Most of us do have something or the other as our hobby. Everyone likes to do something when they have nothing else to do right?
Some like to solve puzzles or crosswords, some like to sing or dance , some like to read and some like to play. Some like to do Gardening. Some like to cook.

And then there are some, who just like to eat and sleep or ‘Netflix and Chill’. And they’re , indeed, living the best life.

HASHTAG #SARCASM

Do anyone here like to share some of THEIR hobbies? Anything unique?

See, We all lead a very busy life. So we need something to unwind ourselves. To take us to back to our roots. To do things which makes us feel happier. Don’t we?

Today, I would share with you the impact of hobbies which I had on my own life.

I Like to indulge in visual arts. As in, I sometimes Draw Cartoons , Click Pictures , Spend Hours on Photoshopping them. Also I create Posters , Design Logos and so on on so forth.

5th Jan, 2012, a hindi movie “Mr. India”, was being shown on TV. I used to love that movie as a child. So I decided to create a small poster for the movie. Just as a tribute.

This shows Anil Kapoor and Sridevi through a red glass. Those who have seen the movie would get it easily. Those who haven’t , just hold on. This is a Minimal Poster where very little or just the core of the story is shown.

What happened after, is that I shared this on my blog, Facebook and Twitter and got a very positive response. This prompted me to create some more posters for some more movies and TV shows. I enjoyed making them and my friends continued with the praise. I wasn’t doing anything special . I was just passing my time by creating minimalistic tributes to the movies I had enjoyed myself. Just to feel nostalgic .

Then I created more posters . Now in non-Hindi languages as well. I’ve created close to 200 posters by now.

When the blog got popular, it finally got noticed by some movie makers and then some journalists. Then this started happening.

I got popular.

I got interviewed many times. My posters have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines. I am not saying that I am very good at it. Far from it! Just that I kept pursuing my hobbies and others liked that. It made me famous and gave me something to brag about and encouraged me to keep doing it over and over again.

My point is , who knows where your hobbies could lead you to. You are doing it just for fun . But you never know , what impact could they have on you and people around you.

Thus, I would just encourage and request you all to take some time out and do what you like, other than usual working for 8 hours a day.

Take out that old guitar which you always wanted to play but never took time out. Go join some dance classes and start flying again. Lately, there has been no Philately but who is stopping you from collecting stamps again. You like to cook? Be better at it and who knows you could land into Masterchef one day?

Even if you don’t, at least you’d have spent your time in doing something you liked and enjoyed. Isn’t that good in itself?

I would depart with the following quote from Warren Buffett, often called the world’s richest man,

“Whatever YOU like to do , make it a hobby and
whatever the WORLD likes to do , make that a business.”

Here’s a rehearsal recording of the speech:

Today was the day I should write about in a blogpost

What a day!

Sine wave, would be apt to describe the day I had today. With only 1 cycle though. It was a day one should be blogging about because if we are looking for a reason to blog in this attention span absent world, this must be one of the reasons.

It started off badly with huge traffic on the way to office which could make anyone’s mood downbeat and morale absent. I somehow reached office in 1.5 hours battling a gruelling volume of cars, bikes, buses and truck on the road which usually takes me 25–30 minutes.

Anyways, today was a big day for me, as I had to give my Speech 3 of the Competent Communication manual of the Toastmasters Club. Since I joined the Toastmasters Club, I felt like I had found my calling. I am a terrible public speaker and speaker in general (as on the date of the writing of this blog). I want to and I HAVE TO get better at it. There have been so many things in the past which I gave up. This one I don’t want to give up on. I don’t fear the stage. I just mess up on it. Just that when I reach the stage and come down from it, I always end up feeling that I should have done this and I should have done that. And I could have been far far better than what I eventually ended up with. To top that, I speak very fast naturally. And this in turn makes other feel that I am nervous (which I do get but who doesn’t) and that I am skipping words. Which is mostly true. So the feedback I have received till now in my previous speeches is to slow down.

So in order to get inspired and learn the tips and tricks of the game, I started watching YouTube videos of other clubs. And I have visited a community club nearby to see how they do that. And believe me, I have been ODing over YouTube lately. One speaker I would like to mention is Dr. Rajdeep Manwani. I watched couple of his videos and was amazed to see the brilliance and on the feet thinking of his while delivering any speech, even if it was impromptu. And the sense of humor was spellbinding for me. No wonder, he won so many awards in the District Championships. So in last few days, I ended up binging his youtube videos (mostly from Bangalore Toastmasters Club weekly meetings). I watched all his videos and rewatched them as they were not only entertaining, but highly inspiring. I wished if I could meet him someday, I would go gaga over him.

So in today’s speech, I bombed. I spoke so fast, that I forgot many things from my speech. I had to use 3 slides of MS PowerPoint and mid-way during the speech, the projector wire got disconnected which made me forget even more. This speech I had practiced at least 15–20 times. It had become etched on my memory but due to the nervousness and fast delivery, I screwed. This made me touch the trough of the sine wave of the day. I felt really bad, with myself. But, since I have decided not to give up, I am going to attempt the same speech again next week. But still I kept feeling bad till the time I reached home.

I reached home by 5 PM. And I had 2 chocolates, to celebrate my messed up day, as goes the tradition. I was checking Facebook and saw that today Bangalore Toastmasters Club and Beechi Club had linkers meet. And they had a speaker from Singapore, Hitesh Ramchandani and speeches from Dr. Rajdeep Manwani and their own club members.

Meeting was scheduled from 6.30 PM at Catholic Club, Bangalore which is 8.5 KM from my place. I was low. Normally, thanks to my never say no to procrastination attitude, I would have given it a pass. But, I registered for the event and eventually went to attend the meeting.

There, I had the privilege to hear Dr. Rajdeep Manwani live. And it was his CC10 (Which he was attempting 2nd time, after completing everything Toastmasters could offer). And it was brilliant and overwhelmingly inspiring. I am a person who is the last person to ever listen or read anything remotely inspiring. So when I am saying it was, believe me. To top that, Hitesh Ramchandani (motivational speaker who is suffering from Cerebral Palsy) gave such a superb speech that those who haven’t heard, are probably unlucky. I mean, his and Rajdeep’s speech were like eye openers for everyone who takes life for granted and give up easily. Like me.

Their speeches were so so brilliant, that I kept on grinning and laughing during their speeches and hoping that I won’t cry because that would be very very awkward. I got so much inspired that if you touch me now, I might give sparks and generate electricity. After that, I met Dr. Rajdeep and shook his hands. And that made me really really happy. Some people have no idea, what their actions inspire others to do and bring change in their lives.

I hope, I would make use of the inspiration and give my next speech in a much better way, that everyone would enjoy watching and listening to it. Sigh.

What a day!

First in life : An Eulogy

Just for a minute and a half though, but I had to give an eulogy for a colleague who passed away recently. I know, as we get older, the news of deaths keep on increasing. However, this was a shock as the colleague passed away due to strange case of Dengue which took the life away in mere 48 hours, probably in even lesser time. Dengue in 2016 Bengaluru should sound ridiculous. However, this is the world we live in. What’s going to happen next, nobody can know. To add to the misery, the departed was one of the most jovial natured person I had ever met, at least in office. It’s not that we used to hang out a lot, but when you see a happy face, in a sea of mostly dull faces, almost daily once, and then you get to know that now you won’t see that face ever, is a very weirdly awful feeling.

I just wish that the parents of the deceased come to terms with the reality and time heals this immeasurable loss.

Life is fragile. Nobody usually imagines the scenario when you won’t be there and there would be people left behind you. Who loved you and depended on you. Even if you lived away from them but at least they knew that you existed. If one spends time in thinking about that scenario, probably, that would give you an opportunity to consider the things which one is not doing right. And what could be done better. Which all relationships should be given more time. Which all activities one must do before the time comes. Because there might or might not be life beyond the death, but we could live a bit more in the present, happily, before getting done and dusted.