Communicate 98 March 2018 Edition

Communicate. Collaborate. Celebrate.

COVER STORY

WHERE WILL PATHWAYS TAKE YOU? THE ALL NEW LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

THE OPINION PAGE FEATURED

TO SPEAK OR NOT TO SPEAK, THAT IS THE QUESTION

A WEBCOMIC CREATOR TALKS ABOUT HIS PASSION AND KEEPING CREATIVITY ALIVE

HUMANS OF D98 TOASTMASTER, ARTIST, ELOQUENCE CONVENOR - THIS STORY WILLÂ A-MAZE YOU!

MARCH 2018

DISTRICT 98 OFFICERS

OUR DISTRICT OFFICERS (2017-2018) Arvind Nair Ravi Teja Marrapu Leo Kurians Paulose Chandrashekar D P Patrick Pereira Nishant Mehta Niteash Agarwaal Chidanand Pradhan Hasnain Changi Raunak Kulwal Vinod J Sharma Akshay Chillal Siddharth Suman Anant Katyayni Smita Mishra Shijin Sreeraman Ajay Hiraskar Dhanraj Kamdar Dipankar Das Mahesh Puranam Manish Kamdar Debahooti Basu Tanmaya Panda Parakh Kukreja Prashant Sampat Kannagi Mishra Poonam Kumar Chris Kingsley Seema Rani Vijay Bhanushali Pramod Kiwande Heena Garg Mayank Naidu Priya Lekha Ajit Shah Sapna Ohri

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District Director Program Quality Director Club Growth Director Immediate Past District Director District Administration Manager District Finance Manager District PR Manager District Logistics Manager Division Director - Div A Division Director - Div B Division Director - Div C Division Director - Div D Division Director - Div E Division Director - Div F Division Director - Div H Division Director - Div M Division Director - Div P Area Director - Area A1 Area Director - Area A2 Area Director - Area A3 Area Director - Area A4 Area Director - Area B1 Area Director - Area B2 Area Director - Area B3 Area Director - Area B4 Area Director - Area B5 Area Director - Area C1 Area Director - Area C2 Area Director - Area C3 Area Director - Area C4 Area Director - Area C5 Area Director - Area D1 Area Director - Area D2 Area Director - Area D3 Area Director - Area D4 Area Director - Area D5

Aparajitha Chakilam Ankur Agarwal Rahul Ghelani Priya Mathur G. K. Aajay Pavan Kumar Tulsija Shefali Johar Prudvinath Malepati Narita Rai Subramanyam KV Abhishek Shukla Tanay Tejasvi Asha Pratyasa Sunil Sharma Dr. Tejinder Singh Rawal Shubhangi Pandey K Srikanth Ravi Sharma Pratibha Jithesh Umme Salma Babrawala Navin Raj Abraham Vinay Prabhu Mhambre Shreya Kanabar Angad Sathe Syed Moazzam Daimi Ravi G. Motwani Swapnil Sonawane Pramod Mohandas Arjuna Shivangi Usha Udayshankar Atul Morey Eknath Hole Karan Gupta Mukta Nadkar Shireesh Nadkar Suryaprathap Reddy K

Area Director - Area E1 Area Director - Area E2 Area Director - Area E3 Area Director - Area E4 Area Director - Area E5 Area Director - Area E6 Area Director - Area F1 Area Director - Area F2 Area Director - Area F3 Area Director - Area F4 Area Director - Area F5 Area Director - Area H1 Area Director - Area H2 Area Director - Area H3 Area Director - Area H4 Area Director - Area H5 Area Director - Area H6 Area Director - Area M1 Area Director - Area M2 Area Director - Area M3 Area Director - Area M4 Area Director - Area M5 Area Director - Area P1 Area Director - Area P2 Area Director - Area P3 Area Director - Area P4 Area Director - Area P5 District Training Manager Club Extension Chair, Hyderabad Club Extension Chair, Pune Club Extension Chair, Mumbai Credentials Chair District Newsletter Editor District Chief Judge District Parliamentarian District Web Master

IN THIS ISSUE

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5

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CELEBRATING THE MILESTONES

COVER STORY

ASK THE TRIO

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11

12

LEADER SPEAK

MENTOR MOMENT

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15

COMMUNICATE 98 FEATURES

13 HUMANS OF D98

16 THE WIRE

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THE OPINION PAGE

UNLEASH

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WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!

JOINT MEETING AWARDS

CELEBRATING THE MILESTONES

100TH MEETING OF CROWN TOASTMASTERS MUMBAI | 10TH MARCH

175TH MEETING OF INFOSYS TOASTMASTERS, HYDERABAD PRAKRITI | 15TH MARCH

50TH MEETING OF KJ SIMR TOASTMASTERS | 23RD MARCH

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DIAMOND JUBILEE MEETING AND CLUB CONTEST OF TCS KOHINOOR PARK TOASTMASTERS, HYDERABAD | 15TH MARCH

COVER STORY

Where Will Pathways Take You? Pathways. You may be sick of hearing that word by now - in your club meeting, contest, Area conference, (soon to come) Division conference and in your club Pathways education session ad nauseam. Well, I remember rolling my eyes at the whole thing a year ago and thinking, I want to be as far away from that as possible. Now, I am a Pathways Guide. Let me talk you through what happened.

I took up the role for one primary reason – change is hard. The main thing in managing change is effective and positive communication with members. As I read through the program, every part of it started making sense. I started to understand why Toastmasters International was pushing this program so aggressively – it really was exciting, fun, and addressed the needs that had been sorely missing from the Toastmasters experience so far.

Here are some of the major highlights of the program, straight from my experience as a Pathways Guide and in no way endorsed by Toastmasters International or the District. To all who are reading this, know that your member experience will forever change for the better.

Customization All Toastmasters are not created equal, so why should they all go through the CC and CL tracks? Granted, those two have been the cornerstone of the program for ages and they have some valuable lessons to teach.

But as we expand our membership base we need to let the members decide for themselves what learning path they want to take. The 10 learning paths teach a variety of interesting skills and I cannot wait to see the new projects in action.

When you begin the program, you can take a skills assessment to get a sense of what paths might be right for you. But then, you can still choose the path you want to take. Even within the path, past Level 1, you decide what elective projects to do and as always, the pace is in your hands.

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COVER STORY Mentoring This has been the source of contention for most of our clubs and the District as a whole – the lack of qualified mentors and a set process around mentoring. Certain Divisions like E, F, and H have tried to address this by creating a centralized mentor pool, but it is at best a stopgap solution to a fundamental thing. Ask any leader in Toastmasters or any member who’s stuck around for a time – mentors are crucial to your success. So, how does Pathways address this?

In Level 2 of any path you take, you must do a mandatory project called ‘Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring’. This way, we start teaching all members the skills to be a mentor. If a member is interested in pursuing this further, they can complete all 4 mentoring projects and complete 1 full path to be designated a ‘Pathways Mentor’.

In the immediate term, we will have no such qualified people in the District and our stopgaps will have to do. But this is a fantastic way of building in quality to the system in the longer term.

Professional Skills Toastmasters helps us both personally and professionally but often, those skills must be inferred indirectly from the things you do or the roles you take up. In Pathways, there’s a lot more direct correlation.

There are projects like Manage Projects Successfully, Make Connections Through Networking, Prepare to Speak Professionally which can directly help you build useful skills for work. There’s new age stuff too, like Manage Online Meetings, Write a Compelling Blog, or Create a Podcast.

Many other projects are still old school and build the robust skills needed for public speaking and leadership success. The new projects are geared towards the modern world for possibly decades to come.

Remember, Pathways is the first major shift in the program since the 1940s. Its built to last well into the future.

Evaluations Bad Evaluations in Toastmasters come in two flavours, overly critical or excessively encouraging. To correct this, the new evaluation template gives the evaluator a way to structure the feedback beyond the standard oral evaluation, which remains the same. The form contains the skills being tested in a particular project, a ranking scale with comments from 1 to 5 against each skill (1 being the lowest), and an explanation for what each score would mean for the speaker. This way, the speaker gets the truest sense of how they’re progressing in their journey.

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COVER STORY

Moreover, evaluations can now be stored and accessed online through the member’s profile, which makes accessing them anywhere easily. This is a key feature running throughout the program, the digital aspect. All 10 paths are available online, but only 5 will be there in print, at an extra cost for printing. The reason is again pushing the organization to the future, where such things become a necessity and not just a quirk.

The Basics So what happens, you might wonder, to the cornerstones of our program today, the core CC and CL projects? Well, the answer to that starts with the statistics which say that only 1% of the entire membership base worldwide is completing a CC certificate every year, a significant low and yet another reason to change the approach. To the best of our knowledge right now, the CC and CL basics will transform into the Levels 1 and 2 of any Path. These should help orient the member in the same way the current program does, with none of the drawbacks of switching or choosing between manuals.

As a final note and in the interest of transparency, I would like to talk about pricing. For the club dues you pay, one path is available to you for free. For dual members, you get access to two free paths. Every additional path costs $20 to unlock and for a print path, you pay a charge of $25 over and above the path cost (even if it was a free path), to get the printed materials shipped.

In conclusion, Pathways is everything that it promises to be. No, it will not be perfect and yes, there will be hiccups and growing pains. But it is truly the most exciting, fun, and interesting time to be a Toastmaster.

Edited and compiled by Karan

Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

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ASK THE TRIO

I started my journey as a Toastmaster with a bang. Always excited to participate but from 2 months due to my job pressure and Saturday's working couldn't attend last 4-5 meetings. Now again my confidence is going down and I have started feeling disconnected. In this scenario, what are the ways where I might not be participating but remain connected with TM and that zeal remain alive?

TM Nidhi Dubey, Palava Toastmasters Club, Mumbai (Answer by PQD Ravi Teja) Nidhi, I am happy not only to see the urgency but also the interest to be in a Toastmasters club meeting and the zeal to learn from them. Taking a break in Toastmasters is nothing wrong, Sometimes work and personal commitments do take over. I would suggest the following activities that you might want to do: 1. Mentor your club members’ speeches - These can happen outside the club timings and can help you learn the skills of mentoring.

2. Prepare Speeches and speech topics - Speech writing is an art, try it in your free time on Sunday. Try writing a speech and validate it yourself. See if you are able to enjoy the process of speech writing as much as giving a speech.

3. Visit other clubs that meet on a Sunday or on an off day - Some clubs in Mumbai meet on Sundays too.

See if you can visit them. Visit clubs on weekdays as well if you have some free time during the weekdays.

Take up roles or if you are lucky enough, you might get a speech slot as well.

4. Talk to your mentor or VP-ED - Keep both of them informed of the challenges and ask them if you can help the club in any way.

5. Watch Toastmasters YouTube Channel or the resources page to practise some speaking techniques.

One of the mantras I follow in my own club is scheduling. I block my calendar for a Toastmasters meeting a month in advance. I let all my stakeholders know about it. That way no one can take that time away from me.

If you can do it or if you have the chance to do it, try it. It will not only help you but will send a strong signal to all your team members about what Toastmasters means to you and how keen you are to improve yourself by investing time in your learning.

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COMMUNICATE 98 FEATURES I took the name “Incidental Comics” from the term “incidental music”, the background music in a film or play that lends atmosphere to a scene.

In the way of incidental music, my comics are the background score to my life. They reveal what I value and give my attention to on any given week. It was also a play on words, as it contains the word “dental.” I was in dental school at the time I began making the comics. Kind of goofy, but it works!

Q: You have done several illustrations in collaboration with others. How does doing creative work with others compare with doing them by yourself?

I’m very comfortable working by myself and being alone at the drawing table. I have never collaborated directly on the initial idea, sketches, or script of a comic, but the final product is always a collaboration. I turn to my first readers (my wife and my twin brother) as well as my editors for ways to clarify my initial sketches and strengthen the final product. The collaborator acts as a balance to my selfindulgent impulses and helps me see the finished work through a reader’s eyes. It’s a terrifying but necessary part of my process.

"INCIDENTALLY" COMICAL, INTENTIONALLY CREATIVE GRANT SNIDER | CREATOR OF INCIDENTAL COMICS Grant Snider is the creator of ‘Incidental Comics’, a comic series that won't just stun you with its beauty and complexity, but will also make you laugh and introspect.

His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Kansas City Star, The Best American Comics 2013, and all across the internet. A collection of his comics, ‘The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity’, details the trials and tribulations of the creative process. Read on as he talks about his work, communication through the medium of comics, and the importance of staying in touch with one’s creative side.

Q: What got you started with ‘Incidental Comics’ and why did you call it that?

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Q: It is inspiring that apart from being an illustrator, you are also an orthodontist and father of 3. How has having this sort of ‘dual life’ influenced you creatively?

I’ve become an expert at work-life balance, unintentionally.

I save my drawing time for early morning, my kid’s naptime, and lunch breaks at my day job. It helps give my illustration life perspective - writing and drawing are an essential part of my life, but they’re not the only part. I think this time constraint lends my work some of its simplicity. I want to say as much as possible in just a few words, lines, and colours.

COMMUNICATE 98 FEATURES as I see it. Although I notice a few messages that keep sneaking through: Take time to slow down and look at the world around you. Keep doing the creative work you love it’s worth the struggle. Read more books. These are simple, motivational themes, but ones I’m constantly interested in.

I hope my comics can be understood and appreciated by any reader that picks up my book or sees my work online.

They may be more appreciated by people with creative aspirations and a literary bent. But I feel that everyone should cultivate a creative pursuit. Also, the world would be a better place if we all spent more time with our heads in books.

Q: Why is it important for all of us to stay in touch with our creative side? What is your advice for someone who wants to integrate a creative pursuit into their daily life as an outlet, or for self-expression?

We all have something interesting to say about the world and the way we see it. Creative work is the best way to express that.

Q: Your comics manage to convey complex ideas in an incredibly simple way, making one reflect and relate them to their own experiences. How do you manage to strip your ideas down and integrate all these elements effectively?

I struggle with this “stripping down” constantly. I have many, many thoughts, and it’s hard for me to sort through them. The structure of comics helps. I can only fit so much visual information into a single panel and still keep it legible. A strip must have a limited number of panels.

Ideally, the final piece should be able to be read in a book, printed on a poster, or viewed as a set of pixels on a tiny cell phone screen.

I’m a devout reader of poetry, so this inevitably comes out in my work. Plus, the sly jokes and wordplay are my way of staying entertained at the drawing table. Making comics is slow, solitary work and I have to constantly surprise myself to stay engaged.

Q: What are some of the ideas and messages you wish to convey through your comics, and what kind of audience do you feel is drawn to it?

I don’t set out to express any particular ideas or messages, but I do hope to pose some questions and reflect the world

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As for integrating it into daily life - make creativity a priority!

Carve out an hour or half each day for yourself and your notebook. Hold yourself to a weekly schedule - for me, it’s one comic per week. For another person, it might be one poem per week, one painting per month, or 500 words per day. Also, keep a notebook. Better yet, keep half a dozen notebooks. Fill them with your all thoughts, from the worthless to the worthwhile.

But the most important thing is just to play around.

Experiment with words, colours, sounds - whatever tickles your brain. If you are having fun, it will be reflected in the finished product. Other people will respond to it.

You can check out Grant’s work at www.incidentalcomics.com Edited and compiled by Ruchika

Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

LEADER SPEAK

See the way in darkness TM SHUBHANGI PANDEY |Â AREA H5 DIRECTOR

Tell us something about your initial journey at Toastmasters and how you became an Area Director.

My initial journey at Toastmasters was very exciting. I was introduced to Toastmasters through Communicate 98, post which, me along with some other colleagues, began the journey of the inception of TCS Nagpur Toastmasters Club. Inspired and motivated by the district leaders like DTM Chandra and DTM Ravi Teja, I always aspired to become a leader like them. Initially, it was TM Siddharth who reached out and asked me whether I will like to apply for an AD role and I said why not and applied for it just half an hour before the deadline! Little did I know that this role would give me so much exposure and learning to cherish lifelong.

We see immense bonding happening among the Toastmasters clubs of Nagpur in the last year. What’s your contribution in this?

Nagpur has got immense potential in becoming one of the leading cities having Toastmasters although most of the clubs stayed in their shells. I just tried to bring all the clubs together, build up some momentum and inculcate a sense of camaraderie amongst each of the members.

Toastmasters of Nagpur now feel that they are a part of a big family and together we are learning and growing.

What are some of the biggest events you have organized for the Toastmasters of Nagpur after becoming the Area Director?

Even before starting my term, I organized a joint meeting on 24th June 2017 with all 7 clubs of Areas H4 and H5 which acted as a good kick-off event.

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We also had a massive PR event in the month of December and a Public Speaking and Speech Writing workshop, which grabbed a lot of attention from the local crowd and built enthusiasm in the existing club members.

After the PR event, we got some good leads, one of which is already in the process of being chartered.

List three main challenges you face as an Area Director right now and tell us your action items to overcome those.

College clubs have always given a tough time to the ADs and Nagpur college clubs are no exception. The only workaround is to plan a smooth and proper transition of EC members from one batch to the other. We have to keep in mind their strict schedule and yet try to include them in different activities.

Enhancing the quality of club meetings is also a big challenge, as most clubs are comparatively new. To make sure that club meetings have a value proposition, I personally used to visit the clubs and take different roles like GE, TMOD etc, showing them how a particular role is done.

Membership retention in MBA college clubs is another challenge which I faced. I tried to overcome it by engaging more with each member personally and understanding their reasons for not being able to continue.

Edited and compiled by Santosh

Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

MENTOR MOMENT

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS TM SHREYA KANABAR | AREA P1 DIRECTOR

The cycle of learning and relearning keeps going on in life and also in Toastmasters. Mentors play a vital role in this cycle, due to which I have seen magic happening ever since I joined.

I’ve had some magical experiences and I call them Magical Mentoring Moments. In those moments my mentors or rather, magicians, inspired me with their powerful words and helped me evolve exponentially, thus creating magic. Once, when I was scared to be a Table Topics speaker, one of them said “If you can think it you can do it” - those words rekindled my confidence.

Next, when I could not perform well in evaluations and I gave up the idea of being an evaluator, one of them said “Challenge yourself and face your fears” which gave me comfort and that’s when the magic started to happen. They made me feel so comfortable that I could go to them and I would always receive my magical answers.

When I was unsure whether to take the role of the club President, I received another magical moment when one of them said: “Leaders take initiative and they do it with commitment and responsibility.” That inspired me to take one more step into leadership.

Just like a magician pulls out a rabbit from a hat, they brought out the good qualities and also the flaws in me which I could work on with their help.

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I have been mentored and helped by so many magicians that mentioning their names here will be a big list. But I really thank them from bottom of my heart.

As I progressed as a mentee, my magicians suggested that I step to the other side and share what I had experienced and learned. It was time for me to become a magician for someone else. One of my mentees wanted to complete his CC soon but was not sure if he could do so without compromising on the quality of the speeches. I assured him of my support and advised that he needed to plan his slots and work on his speeches whenever possible. When he completed his CC it reminded me of this quote which one of my magicians believes in “I become successful when I help you become successful.” That feeling of happiness when my mentees win awards is inexpressible.

Over time, the bond I developed with mentors and mentees feels like winning a bonanza as I experience learning from both sides. I still continue to experience these magical moments for every one has some quality which I wish to imbibe in myself. I wish to keep enlightening and experiencing the best of both worlds.

Edited by Karan, compiled by Ruchika

Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

HUMANS OF DISTRICT 98

An a-MAZE-ing tale!

TM LASYA MADIREDDY | ELOQUENCE 2018 CONVENER #MAVERICK

Lasya Madireddy is a well-recognized face in the Toastmasters’ Hyderabad circuit. Known for her articulate speeches and exemplary use of language, she mesmerizes her audience with each passing speech she delivers. But what does Lasya do when she isn’t busy Toastmastering? The answer will aMAZE you! A techie with TCS, she has a unique knack for drawing mazes.

She is so accomplished in her art that her name is part of the Limca Book of Records for drawing the largest hand-drawn maze (a whopping 320 sq.ft.!) which was also a completely solvable puzzle during the 2015 Design Summit. In a tete-atete with the refined artist, we tried to unravel the mysteries puzzles hold for her and what keeps her engaged with her passion.

As a child, one has interests in doodling and stuff and as one grows, one's logic also grows. So, it is a combination of art and logic. All thanks to a horrible math teacher that I had, who drove me into using my brains in a better manner.

So yes, it started with random doodling in classroom lectures to avoid soporific drones to discovering the art of drawing cryptic mazes. Intensely passionate about art and design, I have been drawing these chicken scrawls for the past 10 years and getting better or worse at it. Mazes keep my brain from turning into an unsolvable maze of grey cells.

When you love the subject but hate the teacher, the attention wavers and you get your imaginative side working. I didn’t go through a catharsis to discover this latent talent, it was a manifestation of the things I drew and tried to make some sense of it!

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As I discovered the art of drawing mazes, the quest to make them as complex as possible began, my each and every notebook had mazes in them. As the complexity of the mazes increased, the rate of people solving my mazes decreased (all my mazes are solvable puzzles!). This got me connected with a lot of interesting people across the globe.

Limca was a chance rather than a choice, I was invited to do a live art where one idea led to the other and we finally created a record. I wasn’t aware that a Limca Record was a 'big deal'.

I just took it up like just another project, but with more effort on the logistics. It brought me a lot of accolades, but not a single solver! This shifted my thought process on how people perceived my mazes. Ever since, I’ve started focusing on the aesthetic appeal of the mazes and today I’ve moved from ‘creating complex mazes’ to ‘creating simple, artistic and solvable mazes’.

Why do I continue drawing these chicken scrawls? Labyrinths keep my brain from turning into an unsolvable maze of grey cells. Not to mention, it is a great conversation starter, people never cease to be aMAZED by my mazes. Mazes are also wonderful gifts, I am a person who loves to personalize her gifts, what’s more personalized than a maze which is so unique and stands tall on the wall of one’s room!

Always pick at least one thing that you love immensely and let your thoughts go bonkers trying to master it. This will help you build confidence, keep your grey cells tickled and you would have carved out a niche for yourself in your community!

Edited and compiled by Disha Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

THE OPINION PAGE

The best speech conundrum TM JAGRUT VAISHNAV | TOASTMASTERS @NOVARTIS HYDERABAD

If one has ever visited Toastmasters International website one can’t miss the significant letters in capitals staring at us that read – ‘Every Toastmaster’s journey starts with a single speech’.

It essentially means that with each speech we gather observations and learnings that we try to incorporate into the next speech. We get more cognizant of ourselves as a speaker and try to find our niche in the process trying to learn and improve from where we are to where we want to be. But often during this journey, we all fall into a trap. A trap that I am sure we see at our clubs.

We often come across members who win a contest or two and unknowingly get trapped into the belief that their next speeches can be nothing less than a perfect mind-boggling speech. They suddenly sense an urge to be a speaker who is full of wisdom. The result - an increased gap in speech making. From one speech every 2-3 months, the speaker now speaks once in a while or in a few cases once in years.

I have a simple question to ask all those speakers: who learns more? Is it the one who gives a speech regularly (i.e. gives 3-5 speeches in 10 months) or the one who hardly gives a speech (i.e. none or a namesake one)? As we all know and say, stage time is important if one wants to learn in Toastmasters. I wish that we all remember it through our different stages of journey in Toastmasters.

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Another commonly observed phenomenon is with new members or the ones for whom speaking doesn’t come naturally. They are quite enthusiastic with their first two to three speeches but often with time they fall prey to comparative analysis, or the intellectual club environment, or the misconstrued expectations of friends or mentors, which leads them to hibernation. They shy away from speech making as they feel they will dilute the meeting quality with their speech or are not yet ready for public speaking.

My dear friends if you can relate yourself with any of the above situations it’s an alarm loud and clear that you should start speaking more regularly rather than beating yourself to write or deliver the best speech.

Of course, I don’t suggest rushing through the speeches but one needs to carefully set a pace that is comfortable and needed as well to be an ace of ‘learning’ in Toastmasters. So long as one is giving speeches regularly with proper effort and learning, they are on the right track.

The next time you get trapped in the best speech conundrum, ask yourself the golden question – Who learns more? Keep speaking, for your best will only come if you keep speaking.

Edited and compiled by Prathima Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

UNLEASH

TRUE PURPOSE TM AMEY AROLKAR | MAPUSA TOASTMASTERS, GOA

People ask me, “What do you do?”, I say, “Morning I go to the loo”, Later I clean the house, And practice helping my future spouse.

I don’t know the reason why are we here.

Definitely not to make an ugly manoeuvre.

Our purpose should be to help each other, This is what they said, our forefathers.

Afternoon I cook some lunch, Those who are over can munch.

I don’t believe in fixed gender roles, She may have her own life goals.

My dream is to live in peace and harmony, Love & respect those who’re in your company.

To get in touch with my own feelings, They are responsible for your true healing.

Neither do I like to get told, “Do something before you turn old”.

I believe their intentions are pure, But that does not the problem cure.

Invest your time in what you find at the bottom of your heart, I’m pretty sure it won’t make you drift apart.

I don’t think life is all about paper money.

To be honest, I think the system is very phoney.

Who knows for us what is best?

Do you want to leave it in the hands of the rest?

Always let the person decide, In his heart, he knows what resides.

Some may discover it very soon, While others may fret over several noons.

Do not judge because you’re on a different path, If you do, go home and have a bath.

Yes, money is required for us to survive, Not at the cost of what makes you thrive.

The question is, “how much do you need?”

That will depend on the desires you want to feed.

Do what you love and spend your free time, The satisfaction you’ll get will give no amount of dime.

Who knows when our time is up, With smiles shall we fill our cup.

In the end, what is life about I wonder?

Sometimes we all need to sit and ponder.

On a giant ball, we go round & round, Stuck together with our feet on the ground.

And another ball of fire lights our day, Pushing people, to office we make our way.

From each other we are so diverse, Connected together by this one universe.

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Take a moment to give us feedback for this article, or the issue HERE. You might get published in Letters to the Editor!

THE WIRE REGION ADVISOR KUMARAN PETHI VISITED DISTRICT 98 IN PUNE | 26TH FEBRUARY

OUTDOOR MEETING OF WALTAIR TOASTMASTERS VISAKHAPATNAM | 15TH MARCH

DISTRICT 98 OPEN HOUSE AND DEMO MEETING, RAIPUR | 18TH MARCHÂ

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WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!

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JOINT MEETING AWARDS

Hearty congratulations to the Toastmasters Club Of Pune North West (Division C, Area 4) for winning the "Joint Meeting Award" for Q2 2017-18 (October - December) cycle.

This award was instituted by the CGD office under the 'Clubs Supporting Clubs' strategic pillar in July 2017 to help promote a spirit of clubs providing mutual support for each other and helping them grow together.

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(Watercolour) TM Anuja Laxma Khaire Persistent Pune Ar/Pg Toastmasters Club

Communicate 98 March Issue designed by Ruchika

"The House Dreamed About"