Category: Toastmasters

  • Last Presidential Address

    Last Presidential Address

    The script for my last presidential address at my Toastmasters Club. I didn’t deliver it exactly as the script but you can still read it for free:

    Today is my last Presidential Address. Please don’t cry at the end of the speech. For the last 25 odd Toastmasters Meetings, I used to prepare something for each week.

    How many of you read the December 2017 edition of the Toastmasters Magazine? (How many of you know that there is a Toastmasters Magazine published monthly?)

    On the very first page, there’s a line by International President DTM Balraj Arunasalam, where he is quoting Mark Twain,

    “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read”

    In the same way, he says that

    “A Toastmaster who won’t lead has no advantage over one who can’t lead”

    It means that if you have an opportunity to lead a group of people, for your and their betterment, you must grab that opportunity with both hands. As Robin Williams said in ‘Dead Poets Society’,

    “Carpe diem”

    First of all, I would like to state that Trailblazers Toastmasters Club is not my baby as in I wasn’t a charter member or part of the executive committee until January 2017. But, when I had joined it in June 2016, soon I did adopt it as my baby. I saw it as a place which had huge potential for me to grow as a person. It was a place where I could meet new people and develop my communication skills. I tried my best to capture the moments I had in the club. Over the course of last one and a half years, I have seen this club grow from a novice club to a sophisticated club now. We now have proper standards, practices, procedures, and processes to run the club. In the recently held elections, we not only got the 7 officers elected on time, 3 more people stood up and took the responsibility of Associate Officers.

    During my time as acting VP-Education, VP-Membership and then as President, with the help of the executive committee, we tried to do whatever I could to make the club beneficial to everyone. I hope that our efforts were useful to all the members. I said this in my Presidential Acceptance speech 6 months ago and I will say it again that if we take our role in Toastmasters a tad bit seriously and see it as an opportunity to help others, we can do wonders. I will share a small story about helping others which I had read in a book some time ago. I hope you see some lesson in it:

    In 1892, at Stanford University in the US, there were 2 poor students who were not able to pay their college fee. So they approached a pianist Paderewski to perform in their college. Paderewski was quite the superstar at those times. They thought that they would raise enough money from the tickets that they would be able to pay the pianist as well as pay their fee. They asked him to perform for $2000. He agreed and performed.

    But, they could raise only $1600 from the concert. With their heads hanging in shame, they went to the pianist and said that they will give the rest of $400 later when they will be able to pay for it. Currently, they said that they were not even able to pay tuition fees. So, they gave him a cheque for $400 and requested him to encash it later. Instead of shouting and scolding them, to their surprise, Paderewski told them that they don’t need to worry. He will not only deduct his fee for this concert but also agreed to pay their tuition fee for them.

    Years passed. It was the time for the First World War. The pianist Paderewski had now become the Prime Minister of Poland. Poland was ravaged due to the war and was in dire needs of food and ammunition. He approached the United States to help them. US President Hoover quickly sent food supplies and helped Poland during the war. When Paderewski went on to thank President Hoover, Hoover said that he needn’t thank him. He was just returning the favor. He said he was one of the 2 students whom Paderewski had helped a few years ago to pay their tuition fee.

    Think of your Toastmaster role as a role of not self-improvement but helping others. Improvement will happen automatically if you come to the meetings. By helping others, by doing small things, can have a huge impact on others lives. Like taking up roles in a Toastmasters meeting. Your role as Ah-Counter can help someone stutter less and become a better speaker. I could go on and on.

    Before I sign off as the president, I would just request all of you, the new officers and the members to try to help each other. I am always there to help. You just need to be proactive and ask for help. You just need to capture the moment before it is too late. You can take my adopted baby now and help it grow more into an awesome person in the future.

    (more…)

  • Promise Needs Patience

    Promise Needs Patience

    “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
    Mexican Proverb

    You might or might not have heard this story before, but here it goes. I’ll start with a question:

    Does anyone here know about the growth pattern of a Bamboo plant?

    When the farmers start growing Bamboo, they must nurture it, water it and take care of it during its first year. However, there is negligible growth. The farmers must have patience and continue to water it in its second year too. Even then, there is nothing much to see. They fertilize it with best quality manure so that they see something soon. But seasons after seasons, years after years, there is almost nothing to be proud of. It doesn’t even show proper sprout.

    3 years pass. There’s still no motivation for the farmers to continue. But they continue to water and fertilize the plant. Even after the 4th year ends, there is still nothing. By this time, even the most motivated farmers give up. Who would keep watering the plant which shows no growth at all? But even then, the farmers persist.

    Now, this is the time when the patience pays off. In the 5th year of its cultivation, Bamboo finally shows some traces up from the soil. Not only that, it reaches more than 60-80 feet up in the air in the same season itself. And then, it continues to stay strong, no matter how harsh the weather is. It bends, it twists, but it stays strong. In case, you don’t know Bamboo is a kind of Grass.

    You know, all the years when it didn’t show any growth upwards, it was actually growing downwards. Yes, it was growing upside down. Its roots were getting longer and longer and they had eventually reached that length and gained enough strength that they could hold the soil to sustain 80 feet tall shoots of Bamboo.

    Same is the way in which revolutions work and revolutions fail. If there are doubts in your convictions, your beliefs, and your aim, no matter what you do, you are bound to fail.

    If you are doing things right with honesty, but you are not seeing any benefits, take some lessons about patience from the Bamboo. If you promise yourself patience and keep at it, it would need patience. It might take time, it might not show any positive results soon. But, if you keep working in the right direction, there will be a time that you will be really proud of yourself that you invested time on that very thing.

    The above was used as part of my Presidential Speech Script in my Toastmaster’s Clubs Meeting. I had come across this story in this book: http://amzn.to/2CYG9O5.

  • Year 2017 End Post, or is it?

    Year 2017 End Post, or is it?

    New Year Resolutions are something which I never pay attention to. They’re not for me. I stopped thinking long-term a while back and took life as it came. That worked most of the time but there are times for which one should also be prepared. But if I have to rate no-long-term-thinking-theory, it would still be one of the best decisions I made to stay happy. Fewer Expectations, Better Life.

    This time, however, I am thinking of taking a Strong New Year Resolution which requires full-time dedication. We will come to that in a minute or so. The year 2016 was a fine year by the way. Although I changed my ‘status’ that year, still I lived alone for 8 months. The latter part of 2016 was not good though. I got to know that Depression was something real when it happened to one of my close ones. Also, I had a motorbike accident which left me with not being able to use my right hand for more than 2 weeks. Plus, in my journey to be a more confident speaker, I came across an obstacle which made me question my decision itself to become a more confident speaker. Long story short, as I was entering 2017, I was not in my best state of mind and body.

    So, let’s have a thorough look back at the Year, Twenty Seventeen was.  Did it turn out okay, did it turn out alright? Boom! Here we go…

    • Firstly, I am very proud of this year. I learned a lot of things, both professionally and personally. The thing which was bothering me at the end of 2016, I took it head on and instead of running away from it (Public Speaking), I decided to confront it. I got my Competent Communication module of 10 Speeches done by May 10th. And that was the time (January-June) when I was peak busy at Work. This taught me a lesson that when one is super busy and focused at work, that is the time when the brain is at its optimum energy level to do things which can give you a break from work.

    Lesson Learnt: If you’re busy with work, that is the best time to do things which are totally unrelated to work. Break the monotony

    Break Monotony
    Break Monotony
    • I also gained enough confidence to recite poems (in my case, these are just words put in an order to rhyme, after every line) in front of a live audience. Although, the audience was known me, reciting a rhyme, in public, is a feat.

    Lesson Learnt: Let some skill, which you always have been shy about, come out in public. Some might like it. Overcome inhibitions!

    overcome inhibitions
    overcome inhibitions
    • For the first time, I traveled to Kerala i.e. Kochi, Alleppey, and Munnar. It was such a wonderful trip which left us wanting for more.

    Of course, needless to say that the lesson here is travel more. Anyone has anything to say against travelling?

    Some pics here:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BXuwwKzDHrj

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BceviXVD0-3

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BcKc35_DrwR

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BYDIXZEjaPS

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BYANGJdjZy_

    • I took over as the President of a Toastmasters Club which had 31 people when I started and my term ended (will end on Dec 31) with 24 people. Heh! Now, have I failed? Have I embarrassed myself? Have I lost the cause? Well, actually no. This experience of serving so many people is a humbling experience. This isn’t managing people. This is more like leading people to something they want to do, but they probably aren’t as enthusiastic as you are. I would say, being a President of a corporate Toastmasters club is a difficult task. But I am proud to say that I didn’t give up at all. I didn’t fail because I kept at it. I, with the help of some other people, always kept my members on their toes. Surely, we could do a lot better but I hope the wheels of motion are now set. I was commended by few people for the job I was doing. I was also praised by some that there won’t be anyone like me in future. But I would like to believe that at least one a couple of people would have taken some inspiration and would continue to work for others. Working for others give a pleasure which is immeasurable.

    Lesson Learnt: Experience Selflessness. Do something for others and enjoy their success.

    experience selflessness
    experience selflessness
    • Now some selfishness. I bought a new phone after 3 years. I was using Moto X2 since October 2014. The only issue with that phone was Battery. I had no issues otherwise and quite enjoyed the phone. But there was one caveat. The camera quality was not very exciting. So, I got myself a new One Plus 5t and since then, I am spamming Instagram almost daily. And I feel good about that kind of spamming!
    • I read more numbers of books this year than I have ever read in my life. Isn’t that awesome? This number also included so many superb books. I have written some reviews of those too. Kindly check them out here.
    read more
    read more
    • One important thing also happened this year. I didn’t miss Twitter. I didn’t miss TV news. That reaffirmed my belief that most of the social media and other media I have been consuming is a farce. I deserve much better and my time deserves the much better use of media. I don’t even want to spend any of my words here about how Twitter and stuff are full of crap. I would rather suggest a Chrome Extensions here: Nudge. This extension helps you to unfollow everyone and everything on Facebook. And block Twitter and all addictive social media sites. I installed and did exactly what it was supposed to do. Unfollow everything. Now, that’s something you should try!

    So that was mostly it! Enough about 2017. Now, it is time to share

    Thoughts on 2018

    Day One
    Day One

    The above poster is inspired by this post by Ryder Carroll: https://www.instagram.com/p/BSeYbRPhDNs

    There’s one thing I have been meaning to do for a long time. That is to write daily. There is also a HUGE GAP in my usage of Adobe Photoshop this year as my laptop had crashed. Plus, this year I discovered vlogging and scope of me learning video editing. Also, I also have started to indulge in jumping on to the bandwagon and sharing ‘Stories’ on Instagram. So, I am looking at following things this year:

    1. Write daily. This is really important. Seth Godin, here I come.
    2. Take more photographs. Edit them better. Make better stories. Be a better photographer, better editor.
    3. Be a better storyteller. Better speaker. Better. And don’t let anything distract you from that.
    4. Indulge in Video making and editing. Tough task but time is now! Casey Neistat and likes keeps inspiring and sharing new people to get motivated from.
    5. Learn something new every week. New technology, science, history, word, technique, skills, something! And write about it.
    6. I didn’t have an actual big cycle when I was a kid. I had a small kiddy bike till I was 13. But then my younger brother got a proper bike. So I used it. But not as much as I wanted. So, if all goes well, I will buy a Bicycle soon and just ride it.
    7. Overhaul the overall brand. Come up as a person people should look up to. Learn from others. Teach what you know to others. Learn more, be more!
    8. Basically, just do. Don’t complain. Don’t indulge in politics. Don’t share irrelevant details. Don’t consume bad stuff. Don’t intake negative vibes. Just do your thing and be better!

    My Mantra for 2018 is going to be: JUST DO. If I get some more motivation, I will probably get a T-Shirt made out of this.

    Just Do
    Just Do

    On second thought, I think Nike has already done something similar. Nevertheless, I am going to follow-up on this motto and show up more often here.

    I am psyched!

  • Toastmasters Speak to Inform Speech 1 : A Bit about Bitcoins

    Toastmasters Speak to Inform Speech 1 : A Bit about Bitcoins

    I tried to give a very quick and high level layman understandable speech about Bitcoins for my Advance Speech Speak to Inform Project 1. Some people got it, some who hadn’t heard much about it, didn’t get as much as I expected. Nevertheless, here’s the script:

    Designed by Freepik

    Title: Money, money, money, it’s so funny, in the rich man’s world… (ABBA 1976)

    [Opening]

    Toastmasters and Guests, Good Afternoon!

    Do you remember that last year, on the evening on November 8th, a man appeared on TV at 8 PM. And said,

    “Bhaiyo aur behano…”

    This one man talked, and left us mortals shocked,

    and whatever money we had kept locked, was supposed to be getting blocked.

    PM Modi had just announced De-Mo.

    You all remember that day, right?

    What if, I tell you that there’s a way, in which you can keep all your monies safe and secure, encrypted and out of reach of any government or bank?

    Today I will tell you about 2 things: Bitcoins and Blockchains.

    Don’t worry, these terms Bitcoins, Cryptocurrencies and Block Chains are not as dangerous as they sound. To understand these is like understanding Money? Easy, right?

    So first.. Tell me, What do you understand by money? Any words which come to your mind?

    Money is nothing but another name for Worth or Value. When you say I have Rs. 100, that means, the bank recognizes that this paper is worth Rs.100.

    Thus, when I give someone any money, how do we know that the Transaction has taken place? We have eyewitnesses here, right! Or officially, we have Bank as the 3rd party which verifies all this.

    So, today I am going to tell you about a way,  a way in which there is no bank involved as third party.

    You might or might not have heard about Cryptocurrencies but Bitcoins is the most popular as of date. Let me tell you that price of 1 BTC has crossed 7 thousands US Dollars recently. In 2011, it was a mere 2 Dollars.

    [Body]

    I will explain the concept of Bitcoin in 2 steps.

    1. First, what is a Bit-Coin?
    2. Second, what is a block-chain?

    So what exactly is a Bit-Coin? Where did it come from? How does it look?

    Let me start by giving a very short history of Bitcoin.

    On August 18th, the URL bitcoin.org was registered. Few days later, Lehmann Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008. Coincidence?

    A person named Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity is, till date, unknown, came up with a White Paper in 2009 and he explained the basic concept of Bitcoin.

    The concept goes like this:

    In most simple terms, Bitcoin, is nothing but a currency. You can buy or sell thing by paying Bitcoins as tender. Like we store our physical money in our wallets, same way we store our digital money in digital wallets. Like Paytm or Airtel Money, Bitcoins are stored in Digital Wallets too.

    A Bitcoin Digital Wallet is nothing but a string of 26-35 alphanumeric characters. The part which makes Bitcoin wallet different from your Paytm wallet is that:

    1. Paytm wallet stores Rupees, Bitcoin Wallet stores Bitcoins.
    2. Paytm knows your email ID or even KYC details. Bitcoin Wallet stores nothing else than the Bitcoins you have.

    Now, the fun part, when you send some money from your Bitcoin Address to someone else’s Bitcoin address, the wallets gets updated digitally and anonymously. There’s no Bank in between to verify this. Like there’s a finite amount of Gold on Earth. Same way, there’s a finite number of Bitcoins present in the system. 21 million bitcoins to be exact. Not one less, not one more.

    Fun Trivia: In 2015, Satoshi Nakamoto was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, but of course, he didn’t win because nobody knows who he is. Also, Satoshi has probable 1 Million BTC himself. Right now, there are 15.6 million bitcoin in circulation .

    Coming back to Bitcoin wallets. So, say I transferred 1 BTC to you. My wallet will have 1 less BTC than previously, and yours will have +1. So, how do we verify this has happened?

    To verify that you have a certain amount of money with you, the Bank maintains a Statement which is nothing but a Ledger.

    Like Bank, the one 3rd party maintains our account, Bitcoin ledger is owned by everyone in the BTC system. That means, each transaction gets transferred and written to everyone who is part of this system. So, this irreversible, writing of ledger is, in simplistic terms again, is called a Blockchain.

    And what exactly is a Blockchain?

    So, block-chain is the universally available ledger which has the list of all the transactions happening with bitcoins. It is irreversible so once the transaction is done, it is done. People who maintain these block-chains integrity, are rewarded bitcoins, hence they have to maintain same Blockchain copies everywhere there by making it almost impossible to fake.

    [Conclusion]

    So, how popular this bitcoin thingy is actually? Is it just a concept or is it something which is very much present in real life. Turns out, it is. Many countries have deemed it legal. Some countries are even accepting it as a mode of payment for their Visas. Many websites also accept it. Though, some websites, which have illegal stuff being sold, also accept it. And this makes it slightly in the grey area. For example, a drug selling website Silkroad was accepting it. As it is totally anonymous, it worked really well there. But that lead to it being banned in US. Eventually after arresting people and banning Silk Road, it was legalized again. Also, accepting Bitcoins is legal in India.

    November 8 will come and go. Paper currency may come and go. Bitcoins are here to stay. They will evolve into something in future, we will be more comfortable with. Remember the name Ethereum. All revolutionary things take time to adjust. So will be this currency.

    Sources:

  • Toastmasters Storytelling Speech 1 : Yet Another Love Story

    Toastmasters Storytelling Speech 1 : Yet Another Love Story

    I’m not putting my CC10 here, as it is too personal to tell. But I did that in May and since a long time, I hadn’t posted any new speeches here. So, here it is, my 1st ACB Speech: Storytelling Manual Project 1: Folk Story. This isn’t my original creation but a folk story from Rajasthan. I was sure that nobody in my club would have heard about it. Even I hadn’t known much about this apart from the name at RTDC Hotels.

    OPENING

    Together forever, never apart, maybe in distance, but never in heart…

    Toastmaster of the Day, fellow Toastmasters, and welcomed Guests… Good Afternoon!

    You might have heard of Romeo-Juliet, Laila-Majnu, Shahjahan-Mumtaz Mahal, and Heer-Ranjha. Today, I will tell you Yet Another Love Story which might jog you, or shock you, or even rock you.

    BODY

    Our story begins in the arid-lands of Thar in Rajasthan, circa 14th or 15th century. It was the month of May, the festival of ‘Akshaya-triteeya’ or as it was called there ‘Akhateej’ was in full flow. The royal palace of Bikaner was dazzling with fragrance of flowers and mesmerizing with the tunes of Shehnai. After all, it was the royal wedding of Maaru, the daughter of the King of Bikaner with Dhola, the Prince of Narwar, a town in Madhya Pradesh. The families were beaming with excitement and joy.

    The young prince Dhola, who stood 2 and a half feet tall, at a tender age of 3 was getting married to the playful naive Maaru, the sweet princess, who was just 2 years old.

    Child marriage, which it was, was common among the royals of that time. The wedding happened but since the couple were too young, it was decided that the bride shall go to the groom’s place only when she comes of age. Dhola returned back to Narwar with his family, while Maaru stayed back in Bikaner with hers.

    Few years passed. Maaru was excited to step into her new role as a wife soon. The family started to prep her for the life ahead. She started dreaming of her life as the new princess of Narwar. She was ready to meet her prince charming Dhola, and fall in love, officially.

    There was a conundrum though. Dhola’s father had died few years ago and Dhola was re-married to another woman Malwani. Being married so young, he had forgotten about his original marriage.

    Maaru sent letters to Dhola, expressing her love and eagerness to meet him. Dhola’s wife, Malwani received the letters before Dhola could get them. She enquired about this and she was made aware of the child marriage. Not only that, the way the beauty of Maaru was explained, it made her furious and utter jealousy creeped over her. Malwani decided to never tell Dhola about this and kept him under Dark.

    Whichever letters Maaru used to send, all used to disappear before it could reach Dhola. Maaru sent messengers but apparently Malwani got the messengers killed.

    Eventually Maaru sent off a folk-singer to Dhola’s court. The singer was told to sing a song about their love story. The singer went to Dhola’s court and sang a ballad.

    The ballad was sung in Raag Malhaar while it was raining. The setting, the ambiance and the song was so captivating that Dhola got intrigued by the lyrics and got hooked to it very deeply. It touched his heart and soul Dhola realized that it was a cryptic message for him from Maaru. He finally realized and remembered that he was indeed married to Maaru years ago.

    He at once decided to go to Bikaner to meet Maaru. But, his wife Malwani stopped him by engaging him in other matters and averted the meeting, for the time being.

    Eventually, one day, Dhola decided to go to Bikaner when his wife Malwani was not around. On his way, he got bit by a snake and died.

    But then a miracle happened. He was found by some sages who brought him back to life, as they understood that he was going to meet his wife and his love was pure and pristine. Meanwhile, Maaru was caught in a conspiracy by some local folks who wanted to get her because of her beauty. Maaru was made aware of the entrapments she was about to fall into. She decided to take matter into her own hands. She found the fastest camel available and rode straight to meet Dhola.

    Eventually they both met on the way between Bikaner and Narwar. They embraced each other and fell in love again. Despite so many hurdles and obstacles in their ways to get to each other, they were finally united. It was their sheer persistence and ever longing for each other that overcame all problems. Their true love was victorious in the end.

    Malwani, the 2nd wife understood the purity and piousness of their love and agreed to share her husband with Maaru.

    And then, they 3 lived happily ever after. That was the story of Dhola-Maaru.

    Story of Dhola Maaru
    Story of Dhola Maaru via http://www.aboutindia.it/uploads/dholamaru_cover.jpg

    CONCLUSION

    This legend has got so much ingrained in the local culture in Rajasthan, and also in MP & Chhattissgarh, that whenever a couple gets married, their love is compared to Dhola and Maaru. Dhola and Maru were a couple who were separated for years but despite all hardships, they got united.

    As Paulo Coelho puts in his book Alchemist, when you want something really really bad, the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. And as John Lennon put it, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

  • This time, last year, we all found eggs

    This time, last year, we all found eggs

    It was around 6 PM in the evening. I was sitting in a park near my apartment, fully indulged in my phone. That park was special. Not because of it had a lot of greenery, birds and kids happily chirping away and playing, so many smiling people strolling-and-chit-chatting along their way to good health (who has time to see all that?), but where I was sitting, it had 2 PokéStops, equidistant. It was really fun… after every 5 minutes, I could use one of the stops and refill my PokéBalls and earn major XP without even walking. And then use another. On top of that, one could find many Pokémons there. And even better, within 50 m away, there was a Gym where I could battle with others.

    Few more people like me, immersed into their phone screens, kept on walking around these Pokéstops to get as much as they could. But since I had grasped that middle seat, I could do all that just by sitting, and they had to keep walking. Mostly all strangers, but occasionally one would ask, so are you also playing ‘Pokémon GO’? Smiling, I would say, yeah, what all you have got till now?

    This time, last year, in 2016, the middle part of July was really different. It was like a temporary cultural revolution of sorts. Whoever got to know about this game, downloaded apk files (where it wasn’t available yet) and jumped on to the roads and started playing. I had downloaded it, because that time I was living alone and since the monsoon-y weather was quite good to go around and walk. And also because I wanted to give my 2nd Speech in Toastmasters. Otherwise I had no interest in Pokémons at all. I didn’t watch their cartoons, as I though all of those Japanese cartoons look the same. 🙂

    But for this game, I not only walked around kilometers during evening, but even in Night. Everytime I went out, I could notice people playing. Herds of youngsters, all looking into their phones and walking slowly and funnily. There was another Pokéstop near my place where I went to fetch some collectibles at 1.30 AM in the night. Only to return disappointed to see a group of girls, sitting under the tree there and guarding the place, figuratively, if not literally.

    13691100_10154377255584228_8841893963457104728_o.jpg
    When so much was nearby, how could one stay at home?

    I even walked around in office campus during lunch time (and sometimes just for a break, you know!) to get as many new Pokémons I could catch. And, as I was using a bike to go to office, I used all my time in the jams and traffic to collect many more Pokémons and refill my bag with Pokémon collectibles on the way.

    13765781_10154395318174228_7059477319061193105_o.jpg
    When you could go no where, you could still catch some Pokémons

    Best part about this was, that not everyone got it. But if you saw someone looking at their phones walking, and then suddenly stopping and doing incessant clicking, you could know that they were playing Pokémon GO!

    13717271_10154390894114228_4405088857597657626_o.jpg
    Augmented Reality should have really taken off then. But probably, it would take some more time.

    And these were the scenes all over the world. People played this in cemeteries, walked into other people’s properties and sometimes almost got them killed trespassing, just to get a rare Pokémon. They used bikes where they didn’t want to walk. They stayed hours near water bodies because there they could find, some Pokémons which were available only near lakes and ponds. It was indeed a fun time, last year in July.

    This could have become a thing. Unfortunately, their servers kept crashing down due to huge surge in popularity in so little time. Hence, they disallowed people, at least in southern part of India, to play. So my pastime from July 14 – July 21 was short-lived. It was released later but then the enthusiasm had worn off and I got involved in other life related activities that I gave up.

    When you think about it, rarely few things happen, which grab attention of everyone in the world. Games are like that. It had become a rage. In park, the roads, small town, big cities, every where, everyone who was playing that, had a sense of common aim and a feeling of family like animosity. Indeed a rare feat (apart from everyone throwing ice-bucket over each other). With this technology of augmented reality, surely, in future, we would do more such stuff when people would be more ready. The thing with games is that it connects everyone alike and makes them do things normally they won’t even team up for.

    Watch this video about how can gamers help us to do bigger things:

    I downloaded Pokémon GO today again. I can see few stops, gyms and available raids nearby. But then, who will walk now?

  • How Can I Help?

    How Can I Help?

    So, by the sheer result of persisting with it, I have become the Club President of my Toastmasters Club, Trailblazers.

    This is the speech I presented as an acceptance of the Club President’s Role:

    Hello Trailblazers!

    Good Afternoon!

    I would like to thank all of you for putting your trust in me by choosing me as the President of the club. I would like to assure you that I will continue to work hard in making our club one of the best places to spend 1.5 hours every week. I would also like to specially thank Toastmaster Narayanan and all the past officers under whose leadership we grew into a Select Distinguished Club.

    Whenever we go for an ‘inception’ or start something new, we all feel an uneasiness in our stomach. Do you know that there’s a term for this:

    Collywobbles!

    Have you heard it before?

    On June 3rd, 2016, when I joined this club, Trailblazers were celebrating our 75th Meeting. I raised my hand to volunteer for the table topics. Our then VP-Education and past President Megha, the Table Topics master, gave me the word ‘Collywobbles’ to speak on. That’s all. Just the word. And as you may guess, I had no idea about that word, then. I couldn’t speak for more than 10 seconds. I realized that I need to improve a lot. I need to be more active, learn more, speak more and if I spend some more time here, I will surely improve. It was all about myself.

    But soon I realized one more thing. That when we join Toastmasters, we all join it for selfish reason. Oh I want to be better at this. I want to learn this. I want this.. I want that..

    Over the course of time, I understood that we can do good for ourselves, only if we help and support others in their journey. Instead of asking who can help me or what I can get from the club, the only thing we need to ask ourselves, is ‘How Can I Help?’.

    I will remind you of the most clichéd but one of the best stories about ‘How can I help?’ attitude.

    In the Cold War era, when US and USSR were involved in Cold War, both the nations were competing fiercely in the space wars. Each one trying to outdo another. So in 1960s, John F Kennedy, asked the citizens on the US, that we must all try to put a man on the moon before the end of this decade. The whole nation started working towards that cause.

    In Mid 60s, JFK was visiting NASA. He met a Janitor there. JFK asked the janitor, what his job was? Janitor said, proudly, that he is there to help put a man on the moon.

    It is easy to not realize that each of your effort, can help others a great deal. When you take up the role of an Ah-Counter, you are helping someone to get rid of their fillers. When you become a Grammarian, you help someone get good at grammar. When you become a Sergeant-at-Arms, you break ice and your energy can transcend into audience. When you give a speech, how your words can impact someone, you never know!

    Every little thing done by you, helps others in a great manner!

    Can I request you that from now on, every time there’s an ask, you will jump in pro actively?

    Can we do that?

    Now my second request, to the officers in particular and members in general. I wish to make this club, the most fun place to be where you can spend your 1.5 hours every week. Remember the words, the most fun place to spend your 1.5 hours every week. And bonus part: Learn skills on the way. We should all strive to make this club, a Cult.

    So instead of making claims that as a President, I will do this and that, I have just 2 requests from all of you.

    1. Ask yourself before each session: How can I help?
    2. And once you jump in to help, ask yourself, that how can we make the meetings more interesting and fun to attend.

    Now, we have a new set of officers, ready to provide services to the club. I am sure that, whatever achievements our past officers have brought us, we will try to improve on them. Also, don’t think that the officer’s alone will run this club. Everyone has to contribute. Everyone is an officer here.

    With our mutual support for one another, I duly accept the position of the President. Please feel free to bother me with any question, clarification, help or support you may need. I wish you all the very best. Looking forward to see you in next meeting.

    I would conclude with this proverb:

    ‘If you want one year of prosperity, grow seeds. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.’

  • Collywobbles – 2.0

    Collywobbles – 2.0

    Phew!

    So on May 10th 2017, I finished my 10 Projects from the Toastmasters’ Competent Communicator Manual. I am a “CC CL” now.

    It took me 11 months, 8 days to deliver 10 Speeches. Excluding one Contest Speech which I delivered twice. That was some journey, I must say. Out of the 10 CC Speeches, I delivered 3rd, 4th and 5th twice. As the evaluator thought that I wasn’t good enough. I mean, it wasn’t a harsh evaluation as such but partly I didn’t take it in the right spirit, I must admit. I thought I did a fair job of achieving all the objectives. But the evaluator apparently didn’t think so.

    In the 3rd speech, I used a visual aid which got into technical issues so I thought I should deliver my speech again.  I thought I did a fine job in my 4th speech but Evaluator suggested me to repeat. I delivered the second-time 4th Speech in a different club than mine. This club was 8 years old Club and had an audience of close to 30 people. I started in really good style but in the middle I felt my mouth going dry. And then bombed super hard there. I went blank for about 10 seconds (which felt like gigantically long) but still somehow, they gave me the Best Speaker Award there. In my 5th speech, again I thought I did decent but I was told to repeat. That actually irked me off. I almost felt like leaving this thing altogether. I assumed that Toastmasters was supposed to be a fun and friendly place where you could be supportive and encouraging. Being asked to repeat twice in a row didn’t go down well with me. So, I thought either I should quit or fight hard. I chose latter because I knew that I could do it. I shouldn’t get bothered by small lows as that one. So I concentrated on my CL, improving on my confidence and chose to deliver the CC5 Speech only after 100 days or so. But then I eventually did it and I was back at it, with more energy and passion.

    I decided to explore other clubs where I could go and face a totally different audience. And so the 6th Speech was delivered in a different club. That fetched me Best Speaker again. I delivered my 10th speech again on May 16th in the same again as well later with another Best Speaker. After the 5th speech, it was a ride in 5th gear. I did my 5th speech in March and then raced, mind you with each evaluator appreciating the speech, with all the rest of the speeches in next 1.5 months. In the middle, I also participated in International Speech Contest and somehow won in the club too, didn’t win at Area level though. And contesting was anyways not my intention in my first year.

    Collywobbles haven’t disappeared completely, which is actually a good thing too. But I thought it is good to jot down my experience from a really thorough, fully devoted and mind-bogglingly passionate last year.

    So, let me share the changes I feel in myself after almost 1 year of my Toastmasters’ journey.

    Disappearance of Fear of Public Speaking

    pexels-photo-326642.jpeg
    Or getting rid of Fear rather

    I feel that now I can speak to a big crowd, without feeling afraid of them. I might still feel nervous and jittery in order to trying to do good. But I don’t feel intimidated by an audience because, I know that when asked to come up on the stage, half of the people will dig their hands in sands, half of the remaining half won’t be able to speak anything understandable. So it is liberating to know that you are in the minority of people who can go up to a stage and speak. It might not really make good sense but ability to speak on a stage eliminates fear.

    Huge Boost in Confidence

    Man jump through the gap between hill.man jumping over cliff on
    Confidence

    There will be a shift in one’s confidence surely. Speaking in front of a group, making people laugh, seeing people taking inspiration from your speeches, taking leadership roles, being a Club Officer to decide the future plan, makes one feel confident about oneself. You know that you have to plan something, and then deliver on it. And if it turns out good enough, you get the small shot in the arms which make you feel real good about yourself.

    Being in a Classroom Again

    There is always a feeling of going back to school when you are in a club. You feel like a student again. There’s so much to learn from others. So many in-jokes to share. So many times you feel like speaking impromptu. It gives a sense that nobody will judge you (of course they will but you get ‘so what who cares’ feels imbibed into you). Also, you might feel bored while someone is speaking. Totally like being a student, right?

    Toastmasters_Disliked_Member
    Pic via Toastmasters Magazine

    There are so many other changes but I am listing just the top 3. After my first year in Toastmasters, I could win these small tokens of appreciations. At least some people would have liked my speeches and at least a few of them would have taken some inspiration as well to do good in their journey.

    Toastmasters Ribbons
    Toastmasters Ribbons

     

     

  • Toastmasters Speech 9 : Black Mirror

    Toastmasters Speech 9 : Black Mirror

    As a follow up to my blogpost: “Dumbing my Smartphone” I thought of reframing it as my Toastmasters CC9 speech. CC9 is all about persuading your audience to take some action or change their beliefs. I attempted to ask the audience to do away with their phone’s notifications.

    The title was inspired by the TV series Black Mirror. Do check that out!

    Here’s the script for the speech:

    Can I request you all, to take out your smartphones…
    And place them in front of yourself on the table.
    With the screen facing up
    Thank you!

    Toastmaster of the day, Fellow Toastmasters, And Guests!
    Good Afternoon!

    Now tell me, how long can you resist NOT looking at your phone screen?

    Or even glancing it.

    I am assuming that each phone here is in Silent Mode, but you can still have distractions, right?

    Now can you please place your phone face down? Thanks a lot.

    Since we don’t have any distractions anymore, can anyone here tell me about a term called “Gamification”?

    The dictionary definition says: Gamification is the process of adding games or game-like elements to something like a task to encourage participation.

    For example, there are Numbered Levels in a Video Game. As soon as you finish Level-1, the next challenge pops up. And you find yourself eager to go to the next level. And the next, and the next. There is a sense of reward, an achievement when one does that.

    I am sure you can relate to another example.

    Project 1 – Ice Breaker

    Project 2 – Organise your Speech

    …

    Project 9 – Persuade with Power

    Project 10 – Inspire your Audience

    You get a Competent Communicator Award.

    And then?

    Advance Communicator Bronze, then Silver and, then Gold and so on.

    Human Mind finds “Next Level” or in general “Numbers” irresistible. As soon as we achieve a level or a number, we want to go to the next. Then next and so on.

    This Gamification concept, has been beautifully used on our Smartphones. Through a simple, harmless word called as “Notifications”.

    Admit it or not, our ego gets a boost or a jolt when we see Notifications on our Phone. It could be a New Message. A +1 in number of New Friends in Facebook. Or New Followers on Twitter. We want to get more Number of Likes and more Number of Retweets. And as soon as we see a Notification Number on an app, we like to read it, we want to read it, we *have* to read it.

    And this is how, we turn into ‘Screen Time Addicts’.

    Too much of our time is being spent looking at our phone screens.

    Studies show that, an average person, spends 3 to 4 hours looking at their phones in a day. That is, apart from office hours where we spend our time by looking at Computer Screens for at least 6 hours a day.

    So do we all agree that we do spend a lot of time looking down at this black mirror, instead of looking up?

    When we go to a restaurant, as soon as we settle down, everyone’s phones come out. And before taking the first bite, we first take Instagram Picture of our food. And after we take our first bite, we check again to see the number of Likes.

    When we meet our family and friends, shortly after, we stop looking at them and instead start checking our WhatsApp messages. Looking for approvals and gratification from virtual friends than real people.

    I don’t want to brag, but I have close to 900 friends on Facebook. I run a Facebook page with over 8000 Likes. I have over 1000 followers on my Twitter account and I am part of over 25 groups on Whatsapp. People love me? Heh, of course not. I get notifications left and right, morning or evening, day or night!

    And I am *seriously* fed up of notifications. So much of distraction they are, which actually affects productivity.

    So do we all agree that there is a problem, right? And we should do something about it.

    I am going to try to help you all, and also, help myself through this speech. I am as much guilty of above actions, as you may be.

    There are 3 ways to get rid of your Screen Time.

    1st Way – The Hard Way

    Throw away your smart phone or Drop it in the dustbin. Move on with life!

    Of course, that is not possible. Phones are not free of cost. You have already spent more than your salary on them.

    2nd Way – The Relatively Easier Way

    Get your smart phone exchanged. And switch to this.

    [ showed a dumb phone : samsung guru ]

    This is the cheapest phone available. It costs Rs. 1200. It has no Internet, no FM, no Bluetooth, No MP3. No notifications. But it does its job of calling perfectly. And fits the pocket really well! Only notifications are SMS. And who sends SMS nowadays?

    3rd Way – The Easiest Way

    No need to throw your iPhones. No need to exchange your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (anyways they will blast off themselves).

    All you have to do is to switch off the things which can curb your Phone’s Gamification Quotient.

    Go to your phone settings and then the app you use the most.

    Just do this – Switch off the notifications. Simply. Block them all. No notification, no distraction.

    Whenever you are free and want to get connected, you can open the app and see it directly. Instead of Phone pushing down notifications upon you. You can pull them yourself.

    Shutting down notifications is the best thing which I did recently. It helped me to focus better, increase my productivity and allowed to me to talk more freely to people face to face. You can do the same. Just try it for a few days and see the difference.

    We should only pay attention to one notification. Hiccups! They say, when someone actually remembers you, you get hiccups. That’s the only notification you should care about!

    I have taken charge to not get notified every 5 minutes!

    We should not leave our life on the mercy of notifications.

    We should take control of our lives back from this Black Mirror.

    High time we do this!

    Let’s get back our lives!!!

    Here’s a brilliant comic book style poster series for the show BTW:

    black.jpg

    And more: http://mashable.com/2016/12/10/black-mirror-comic-book-covers/#24AtBrsAuiqH

  • International Speech Contest – Who Am I?

    International Speech Contest – Who Am I?

    I recently participated in Toastmasters’ International Speech Contest. This starts at your club level, then Area, then Division, then District and then Internationally.

    I won at my club level, surprisingly. And then moved to participate in Area level at IIM Bangalore. Although, I didn’t win there but I did good, as per my own expectations.

    Here’s the script for the same:

    Instance 1
    I was in 12th standard. At a coaching institute in Jaipur. One guy walks up to me and asked:
    “Are you from West Bengal?”
    “Nope!”
    “Oh, but you do look like a Bengali?”
    I was as confused as a non-Bengali when they hear Bengalis say ‘A for Orange.’

    Instance 2
    I had just reached Bangalore. I met a few people in company’s cab.
    “Nice to meet you. My name is Abhinav Bhatt.”
    “Oh Bhatt? Single T or Double T. Are you from Mangalore?”
    “No.”
    “So you must be a Gujarati or… Kashmiri?”
    “Ah, no, wrong answer!”
    “But Bhatts are from there only!”
    “Sigh”

    Instance 3
    During an Interview when asked “tell me something about yourself…”
    “Hi I am Abhinav. I’m from Jaipur, Rajasthan.”
    “Ah Rajasthan. You must be a Marwari, right?”
    “Err No.”
    “Then, how far is desert from your place?”
    “Desert? Oh that is about 300-400 KM. But do you know, we used to go to our school on Camels. And my mother used to travel 5 KM daily, to get us a bucket of water? Life was tough, indeed. Can I go and drink some water? I am perpetually dehydrated, you see!”

    Has it ever happened with you? As soon as you give them a little hint about your name, surname or native place, people’s judgemental antenna come out. People start applying labels, tool-tips and subtitles to everything you say. They start judging you from the word go?

    Oh you are a Northie? Hindi Speaking Paneer Guzzling Loud People!
    Oh you are a Southie? All are Madrasis. What to say!
    Oh you’re from North East. Noticed.

    Happens! Right?

    Sherlock Holmes is known for doing that. By seeing people, he gets to know, who are they, where they came from and why they’ve come! But, we all start behaving like Sherlock and start placing people on certain classifications as soon as we meet them as we deem right. Sherlock used the ‘Science of Deduction’. And we? We use the Art of Assumption. We don’t want to spend time to understand anyone. We have set rules to classify people and that doesn’t even take time. So, we judge everyone, in an instant.

    I’ll share few real life examples:
    I was in Hyderabad and for the first time, I had an interaction with a girl from Odisha. She told me, Abhinav, you are a boy. I said ‘Yes, of course why doubting?’ And you are an Engineer. I said ‘Indeed’. Then why don’t you eat Non-Veg and Drink Alcohol? I was as confused as you are or when one gets when one sees the payslip at the end of the month.

    This was an incident which can be overlooked as being funny. However, Things turn ugly when this stereotyping goes beyond jokes.

    You must be familiar about a racial attack which happen with African people in Delhi recently. Similar, there was a huge ruckus when an anti-North-East people Text Forward became viral and Bangalore and almost everyone from the North East had to run home for their lives.

    When I hear such incidents, I question myself. Who I really am and what is my native place?

    My ancestors belonged to some place in South India, near Pennar river. Then they moved north few centuries ago. Few landed at MP, few at UP, some took a detour towards Maharashtra and Gujarat. Rest of us landed at Delhi and Rajasthan.

    That leaves me with a question: WHO AM I? WHERE I AM FROM? WHERE DO I BELONG?

    Am I a Hindi Speaking North Indian who was brought up in Rajasthan, studied in a Punjabi School, and now works in South India? Seriously, who am I? And if you think about yourself. Who are you really? Where are you from?

    And most importantly, do you think it matters? Do you think we have time to think about someone’s geographical background in today’s day and age. We are now so much connected with technology that it doesn’t matter where you are from. Everything is Global.

    I take pride in my city and language I speak. But I fail to understand how does it make me superior or others inferior.

    I look like the most average Indian brown-skinned person who could be any caste or religion, speak any language and from anywhere in India. If it can happen with me. Imagine what happens to those who: Look different. Speak different. Dress different. The only way, to stop people from judging others, is to wear this wherever you go around. And when everyone will wear this, it won’t give anyone else a chance to form opinions about others, just by reading the name, hearing the language and watching the color of the skins.

    Do you want everyone to look like this?

    Think about it!