TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club, Mumbai Express. Engage. Evolve.
Rise & Shine /
COMMUNIQUE
Dec 2019
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK 'Rise & Shine' - two simple yet powerful words. It simply reminds you that at times, your life will be thrown haywire, but the important thing is to not give up. Every new day is a new opportunity to shine. As you go through the pages, you will find inspiring stories about how our club members decided to rise and shine irrespective of setbacks faced. We have Kshitija talking about her struggles with the French language, Twarit who helps others shine and Ojus who believes rising early is half the battle won. Like every achievement, this magazine is a result of hard work of a lot of people involved. As we worked through the magazine, the most important thing I realized was, people were always eager to help, no matter what. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge a few of them. Thanks, Kirty Nanda for believing in me, taking the initiative & contributing so much to
the content of this magazine. Neha Kirve, you are the one I could depend upon, always.
Our club President Akshay Singh, who has always been a pillar of support. Nayan Jain for providing valuable feedback on the magazine. Misbah Siddiqui, you were ever ready with your creative designs. The club has
indeed chosen another great VPPR. Shruti Agrawal , you were always eager to help and full of ideas. Abhishek Maurya, for promptly helping in collection of content. Roshni Porwal, you actually learnt Canva to help out with the magazine. Raj Bharat for being ready to contribute content, whenever needed.
And last but not the least the authors and artists who gave us the content to package and present to you! I hope this magazine inspires you to keep shining in your life! Happy Reading! - Tuba Mansoor PS: The front cover is a click by Neha Jain whilst she was holidaying in Manali. The picture on the back cover was meticulously clicked by Akshay Singh while we were on our club outing at Bhandardara.
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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS I believe, continuous learning & self-improvement is the way to live. Since Toastmasters is a platform that provides an environment to learn and improve communication & leadership skills, it has become an inherent part of my life. Starting the journey as an Executive Committee Member Sergeant at Arms in TCS Maitree Toastmasters, provided me with an opportunity to learn new things with each meet. As I understood the technicalities involved in running of the club, I came up with a few ideas for the club. When fellow toastmasters, chose me to be the President of the first elected committee of our club, I got an opportunity to execute these ideas. I started my term, with an intention of implementing my ideas with my team’s support. But soon I realized that each member of the executive committee was himself or herself equipped with some exciting ideas. Throughout these past six months, we have supported each other, to bring these wonderful ideas into effect, so that each and every member of the club has an amazing toastmasters experience. Continuing the legacy of our club, which has had a history of rich leaders was indeed challenging. But this journey has helped me acquire essential skills enabling me to grow as a leader. Prioritizing ideas and changes to work upon in the club was another challenge. We ensured that we received continuous feedback from the members of the club, for everything that we implemented. One important piece of advice that I received was “You may have immense energy and enthusiasm but work on things that the next team can sustain and build upon”. Keeping this in mind, me and my team has tried to work upon changes that
were sustainable in the long run. Of course, there’s lot more to be done and I am sure it will be taken up by the new executive committee. Looking back at the past six months, I realise it has been an amazing learning experience and lot has been achieved due to the dedication and hard work of the executive committee. I am extremely grateful to my team and club members who believed I could serve the club to the best of my efforts. Now as I pass on this responsibility to our next President, I wish him and his team good luck. I hope they inspire members with their ideas and creativity.
Akshay Singh
President (July-Dec 2019) TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club
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"It takes a perspective to make the evil look good. If truth is scattered across fine shades of grey, then all we have is - a perspective." - sketch & caption By Kannagi Mishra
Acrylic on paper by our new member Shruti Agrawal
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CONTENTS
06 08 09 09 10 12 14 16 18 18 19 20 22 23 24 26 28
Excom ke Mann ki Baat
Club Achievements
Moments of Truth
Pride Points
Rise & Shine
Educational Awards
How I Helped Make a Difference
New Members
The Bigger Picture
Guests' Corner Celebrating Diwali the Different Way Joint Meetings
Good Morning Syndrome
Do What Makes You happy
TEDx & TED Talks Interviewing a Basketball Enthusiast
30 32 34 35 36 38 40 40 41 41 42 43 44 45 46 47
Membership Campaign
Is Waking up Early Overrated?
Are You Doing Your Bit?
Sharing is Caring
15th Anniversary Celebrations
Club Outing
Educational Session by Ganesh Iyer, D98 Champion
Club Officers' Training Program
World Championship Highlights
Educational Session by DTM Lancy D'souza Every Moment is Precious
Powai Demo Meet
Where Do You Go, My Lovely?
Monster
Christmas Special Meeting
Revisiting Fliers & MoMs
Club Contests
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EXCOM KE MANN KI BAAT Six months of our term passed like It just started yesterday and finished in a while. With blessings of my mentor and clubmembers, I got a chance to serve my club as VPE. One of my vision was growth of every club member with equal opportunity for everyone. I faced many internal challenges within the club, but I had made a promise to club and club members to work for their growth and club development. Meeting Planning, interacting with members, helping them align to Toastmaster's educational growth and keeping their progress track was my dailylife, which I will really miss.
Raj Bharat (VP Education)
My dream came true when our club won the Pathways Unleashed Award at area contest Empower 2019. With my best wishes I handover to elected VPE Neha for next term.
July 2019 - the beginning of our wonderful term in the executive committee, I started my journey as the VPM with two humongous membership campaigns at Olympus and Powai offices. We were hugely successful thanks to the amazing efforts of various members across the locations. I took this role mainly because I thought the role would require me to have usual interaction with guests and members at sessions. But the journey from July onwards, through the renewal terms and the club contest seasons, taught me a lot about leadership, communication and much more… and what I feel helped me in becoming a better person overall. As we conclude this term, we have had 25+ renewals and 18 new members join us as of 1st week of December.
Naveen Jagdish Membership)
The journey has just begun. There is of course so much to learn...so much to believe in …(VP so much to work towards, …together as we move forward in this journey of toastmasters.
It was an overwhelming experience to work with such a supportive team. I would call myself as a PR - By chance since it was not planned for me but I thank by friends and fellow Toastmasters who believed in me and encouraged me and it was a blessing in disguise. I not only pushed my limits and explored things but got a new perspective and enjoyed my role to the fullest.
Kirty Nanda (VP Public Relations)
Being a VP PR means to be the face of the club and I am glad I was part of that. Looking forward to many more !
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EXCOM KE MANN KI BAAT
Nidhi Bhandari (Secretary)
Being a part of the first elected executive committee of this club has enlightened me in profound ways. Receiving so much love and encouragement from the members of the club motivated me every week to produce colourful MoMs. Managing our professional space alongside Toastmasters becomes challenging and kept me on my toes every time. I am extremely grateful to my entire Team for being so supportive of every aspect and pitching in whenever needed. I have learned a lot from each one of you in a short span of six months. Thanks a ton for bearing with me and for enhancing my Toastmasters journey. Signing off with lots of love,
I have always been a terrible person when it came to handling my finances. I am the kind of person, who at the end of every month wonders ‘where did all my money go?’ Because what even is budgeting and tracking down finances? But as I took upon the role of treasurer, it made me a much more responsible person when it came down to money. The past six months have taught me a lot of things and has given me a ton of memories worth cherishing.
Neha Kirve (Treasurer)
Soumya Babaleshwar (Sergeant at Arms)
I was amazed by the incessant efforts put in by the EXCOM team (Jan-Jun 2019) unflaggingly throughout the week to make a meeting successful and soon I got an opportunity to be part of EXCOM team (Jul-Dec 2019) as Sergeant at Arms for this impeccable TCS Maitree toastmasters club. That day I was on cloud 9 and I must say these 6 months of my journey of being a part of EXCOM team with six other virtuous people has been spectacular. Punctuality and importance of time is what my role has taught me. As the 1st person to reach and the last person to leave the meeting room, I have enjoyed my role. I now have lots of vivid memories and experiences to cherish for a lifetime.
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CLUB ACHIEVEMENTS TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club has achieved 9 /10 Distinguished Club Program Goals. Golden Shield Recognition criteria met by the club with 40 % Non Renewed Members participating in the Exit Discussion. Pristine Award criteria : for a club to renew 20 or more members on or before 1st OCT 2019 was met in October 2019. Smedley Award criteria : Add 5 new, dual or reinstated members between 1st Aug to 30th Sep 2019 was met successfully by Club Raj Bharat from the Club is the Pathways Focal Driving 100 % Adoption of Pathways in Division B. Pathways Unleashed Award Won for having 100% Members Enrolled in Pathways at B2 Area Conference. Venue Partner for Inspire 2019 Division B and M Speech Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contest. Venue Partner for SOAR 2019 for area contest for M division. Akshay Singh and Kirty Nanda from the club were conveners for INSPIRE 2019. Shraddha Patel - Design Chair and Faraz Mohammed Hospitality Co Chair at Eloquence 2020 District 98 Conference, while Neha Kirve is part of the Design Team.
We had 10+ members from club playing roles at Area, Division Contests and Conferences. Kannagi Mishra from the club was 1st Runner Up at Area B2 Humorous Speech Contest.
We have Kannagi Mishra and Shruti Agrawal whose sketch and writing respectively is published in District 98 Communique Newsletter in Months of October and November. We conducted 29 meetings from start of July to December 2019. These include joint meetings with two community clubs, regular club meetings and demo meeting, Out of these 18 Meetings we started on time while 14 of them we ended on time. Our members have been enthusiastic and their particpation has been among different district PR activites like at Joggers Park and TEDX Palm Beach. Roshni Porwal from club has been helping for PR activity with Poster Design for the Pathways Team of Division B.
Club member Sai is serving as the Area Director for B2 under District 98. Club Members have also been part of various demo meetings across Mumbai and New Mumbai helping to build new Toastmasters Club and spread the Toastmasters movement. Akshay Singh & Raj Bharat were chief judges at club & area contest. Kirty Nanda was Test speaker at both Division M & club contest. Naveen Jagdish was part of the COTP registration team. Akshay Singh, Neha Kirve, Nidhi Bhandari, Naveen Jagdish & Soumya Babaleshwar took various roles in EMPOWER 2019 Naveen Jagdish, Kirty Nanda, Abhishek Mourya & Sai took various roles in SOAR 2019. Akshay Singh, Nidhi Bhandari & Soumya Babaleshwar contributed as roles players in PARADIGM 2019. Sana Siddiqui, Soumya Babaleshwar, Prashant Karkera, Abhishek Maurya & Kirty Nanda contributed as role players at various club level contests.
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MOMENTS OF TRUTH The Moment of Truths (MOT) is an important aspect of a club that enables the club to work on areas that demands more work from members’ perspective. MOT for the term July to Dec 2019 was conducted by Anand Deethi on 27th September, 2019 at TCS Powai. He had divided the members and guests present on that day into 6 groups and each group was assigned a moment to discuss and allot a score. One representative from each group represented their moment and provided suggestions where applicable. After that the MOT club officer team discussed the MOT results, charted out a plan of action and were able to work on the suggestions and implement them. 1. First Impression -26 2. Membership Orientation -26 3. Fellowship variety and communication -28 4. Program planning and meeting organization -29 5. Membership Strength -29 6. Achievement recognition -28 Also this time to maximize feedback from members as club had many new members MOT PDF was asked to be filled by members via. a WhatsApp group simultaneously with meeting MOT and collated by Anand Deethi and taken into consideration to score the MOT sub point scores.
PRIDE POINTS To encourage participation amongst the members of the club, we have a system of pride points, wherein every member is allotted points. These points are alloted based on various criteria like attendance, taking up roles at last moment, social media presence, bringing along a guest etc. As the term comes to an end we now reveal our member's pride points that our excom has painstakingly kept a record of.
Tuba - 645
Nayan - 465
Sana -345
Prashant - 400
Abhishek - 330
Special mention needs to be made for Kannagi, Ranga, Sadaf, Shraddha, Neha Jain & Sagar who all have 200+ points. Other 16 members in the club have 100+ points. We wish everyone congratulations!
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RISE & SHINE -KSHITIJA SURYAVANSHI This is a story of a time long ago when I was still in school. It was time for us to choose a language as an elective subject with the main contender as ‘Hindi’. I happened to watch the movie ‘Pink Panther’ and I fell in love with Steve Martin and the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau with his French accent. It became my dream to speak fluent French just like him and the next day, I handed in my elective subject as French.
Just when I thought I had found a foothold on this mountain I was attempting to climb, new challenges emerged in the form of writing essays, recipes, itineraries, tediously long translations, formal and informal letters. It was difficult to be optimistic at times but my passion to learn kept me afloat. New strategies and more practice helped me cross that barrier with flying colors. My scores were on an upward trend and so was my understanding of French. I started to gain confidence in my grasp of the I had believed that being good at English, French language. would be manageable. My very first lecture proved that the cold hard reality was far from my fanciful Just like I was getting better, my challenges were also delusions. To learn a new language is a herculean evolving. A defining moment came in a lecture where task. It was too different from anything I had seen my professor asked us what we knew about France before. Soon I was treading on the unfamiliar territory other than Paris and Eiffel Tower. This was when the of new words, illegible pronunciations and internet was a luxury and not the necessity that it is incomprehensibly complex new rules for grammar. today. It was a revelation how little I knew. My nemesis were the verbs and the grammar. Nearly every single word, be it a noun, adjective, verb or adverb had variations according to gender, number, situation, tense and conversational usage. Grammar decided the usage of these variants, which were again was modified for various sets of conditions, all for the same answer. To make the party even more interesting were the multiple exceptions to all these conditions. The struggle to frame even a single meaningful and grammatically correct sentence was grueling.
It's not just the technicalities of the language that matter. I have always believed that the heart of a language lies in its people who influence it and are influenced back. Now the focus was to learn about France. This included studying its geography ranging from wide rivers to snow topped mountains, monuments, transportation, seasons and specialties of various regions and cities. Not only that, its history from Charlemagne to the current prime minister, food, wine, famous celebrities from various backgrounds like acting, sports, science, architecture and so much more. To study all of this in French was both a blessing and a Lost in this maze, my scores plummeted. So many curse. It felt both vastly mind boggling and like a drop mistakes made and with every single one I sank in the ocean at the same time. A little more progress deeper in my failure. It was a test of my conviction with every setback became my motto. and sheer perseverance saw me through it. I finally started to understand the depth of the Inspite of my worried parents and teachers language I was trying to learn. Not just some dull convincing me to switch subjects, I decided to persist structure of words, it was full of context and insights and improve in French. The next semester, there was that came alive in everyday slang and chitchat and at a mass exodus of students who had left for greener the same time enriched its Latin legacy that had pastures. I was one of the few left, stubbornly digging endured centuries. I fell in love with the language in what seemed to be barren land. again, this time for the complicated beauty, the musical pronunciation and sheer intensity of emotions I constantly analyzed and improved mistakes. I that simple phrases could convey. The title of the most recited pronunciations, verb conjugations and romantic language in the world that French holds is grammar rules until I could do it in my sleep. My absolutely befitting. Seeing French in this perspective passion and constant efforts were rewarded, and helped me forge a deeper connection to the people I these small accomplishments made me ecstatic. wished to meet one day and the country I longed to see with my own eyes.
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Finally, my board exams came bringing the final insurmountable challenge. It was time for the endgame. In addition to all previously mentioned topics, I also had an oral examination for French which included 5-10 minutes of conversation with an examiner and speech. It seemed an eternity, the way I felt the passing of every stroke of a clock against my heartbeat during those tense moments. This was among the toughest challenges in my life and I consider a great success to have scored 94/100 in my Board exams for this language. It was a sense of huge accomplishment and success that engulfed me. My love affair with French continues. My nostalgia was back when my younger brother also chose to study French. What had started as doubt solving for my brother ended up as tutoring in French grammar for him and his friends. He too scored above 90% in French! The word spread and every year there were more students that found their way to me and I taught them the basics of my beloved language in the free time I had during college.
During the time I lived in Bangalore, I visited the famous monuments of the city. One of them was the Bangalore Palace, where a longstanding dream of mine came true. I met a French lady and her daughter who had come to visit her brother there. Not being fluent in English, they were trying to ask for directions in broken English mixed with French. I intervened and soon a lively chat followed as we walked back to the gates. I had so many questions about them, their lifestyle and their country and it was the same for them. I was glad that day to have persisted in learning French back then. Thanks to that, I could have this wondrous conversation with this stranger that otherwise I most probably would have ignored and gone on my way. To have fought and risen again from my failures then, helped me grow. As I continue to learn, I am certain I will make room for myself at the top and shine brighter. This connection and interaction was a gift indeed and I hope to visit France one day to experience it again.
"If you are going to rise, you might as well shine!" Photo credit: Nayan Jain
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l a n o i t a c Edu s d r a Aw Nayan Jain ADVANCED LEADER BRONZE
Neeta Patil COMPETENT COMMUNICATORÂ COMPETENT LEADER
Raj Bharat COMPETENT LEADER
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PATHWAYS LEVEL 4
Raj Bharat
PATHWAYS LEVEL 3
Naveen Jagdish
Akshay Singh
Kirty Nanda
PATHWAYS LEVEL 1
Tuba Mansoor
Neha Kirve
Sadaf Ahmad
Prashant Karkera
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HOW I HELPED MAKE A DIFFERENCE
-TWARIT SAXENA
It was a typical hot, humid June noon when I had first set my foot on an Indian village called Puddupatinam. The streets were narrow with thatched roof huts on both sides. Young boys played cricket on a barren patch of land and a girl peeped from behind the curtain of her house. Towards the end of the street was a temple, both a place of learning and meeting. There was peace and calmness coupled with chirping birds on the lush green trees. Also, I could hear the rustling leaves. Honestly speaking, it was my first visit to a village and the kind of calmness I experienced there cannot be described in mere words. We interacted with the villagers, tried to learn about them and the demography of the village, and identified their pain points. On interaction with the village women we sensed that they wanted to be financially independent. After a lot of brain storming, I came up with the idea of making silk jewellery . Seeing the enthusiasm and the never dying attitude of village women, I immediately had a word with my mentor in college who looked after CSR activities. He agreed with the roadmap I had in my mind. With aid from college, we went ahead to train village women in silk jewellery making under the Govt. of India initiative called Skill India and Self Help Group (SHG). After training them, the college arranged for the initial capital to be invested. Meanwhile, we went to Chennai in search of markets from where we could procure good quality raw material at a cheaper price. The sweaty summer heat did not deter us. While we came up with the product pricing, promotions and place strategy, women practiced hard to make the picture perfect bangles and ear rings. Once the women were proficient in jewellery making, we handed over the raw material coupled with the designs and patterns we predicted would sell better. Once they completed the designs, we reviewed them because we didn’t want to compromise on the quality. After a careful quality check, we decided to come up with a brand name to give them an identity.
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We named it ‘Kriya’. This helped in marketing and positioning the products better. In the month of October we launched the first batch of products because there could be no better time to shop for jewellery than the days of Navratri, Dandiya, Dusherra and Durga Pujo. Capitalising on this opportunity, we gave discounts while cross-selling. After tasting success with door to door selling in the village outside temples and cosmetic shops, the women also moved to the beaches of Mahabalipuram, Kalpakkam and Chennai. Today, more than 100 women are financially independent and training others in their village to become one as well. When I saw the bright smiles on their joyous face for the first time, it gave me more happiness than anything I could have thought of. As I bid goodbye to my college in March 2019, I could not be more grateful to it for giving me this life changing opportunity. The truth is, we experience inner peace and happiness when we bring about a difference in the lives of others. This is difficult to achieve in materialistic world, but not impossible! Let’s come together and lend a helping hand in transforming the lives of people.
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NEW MEMBERS
Misbah Siddiqui
Twarit Saxena
Roshni Porwal
Kshitija Suryavanshi
Prerana Ukey
Abhishek Maurya
Namrata Keni
Shruti Agrawal
Pushpendra Pandey
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NEW MEMBERS
Ojus Kapoor
Jainab Rasool
Nivedita Shrivastav
Sana Siddiqui
Glen Sobrinho
Shital Khandelwal
Sagar Manek
Devendra Shashank Villa
Sharique Ahssan
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THE BIGGER PICTURE We Toastmasters are not only into public speaking and building leadership skills but we are also responsible to bring about a change in our society. We commemorated World AIDS Day which is designated on Dec 1st every year since 1988 on Nov 22nd 2019 in Powai. Our theme "Get the Bigger Picture" by Toastmaster Kirty was to bring awareness amongst people, talk about the prevention, causes, myths and beliefs in our society about AIDS. We had a small quiz to involve audience and made sure that they have few take aways too. To involve the larger audience we had another session in the afternoon where we involved TCSers and posed few questions for debate. Our fellow Toastmasters were extremely supportive and enthusiastic to participate and we achieved what we had planned. We would say it was a day well spent !
GUESTS' CORNER
I have participated in the toastmasters last time. I think in my opinion everyone should join the club as it is a good opportunity to develop leadership skills and to raise your opinions on different aspects, as somehow it may inspire other people also.
Ganga
Gaurav
I remember the date 8th November when one of my friends Abhishek invited me to a Toastmaster’s session. I went to the program and saw every person was learning by giving their speeches and presentations. All members of Toastmaster have good communication skills. While people were giving their presentations, I was learning new things too. And finally, I realised that if I want to boost my self-knowledge I have to learn every day. I also learnt something new that will help me in the industry. I am thankful to the Toastmasters Club and my friend Abhishek who invited to me attend the Program. 18
CELEBRATING DIWALI THE DIFFERENT WAY “Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.” ― Brian Tracy
Diwali for most of us is about spending time with loved ones, eating scrumptious food, getting all dressed up and firing crackers. But we at toastmasters decided to do things differently this time. Our first visit was to the All Saints Home at Mazgaon which houses elderly woman. But mind you, for these aunties, age was just a number. They danced with us, sang for us and played Housie for us. The kind of energy they had would put most youngsters to shame. We thought we were going to help them celebrate Diwali, but instead they showed us a good time. We gifted some groceries and clothes With some time left on our hands we went to visit Thelma JRD Tata’s Anand Kendra Trust in Worli. It is an orphanage for boys aged 8-18 years. The smile on their faces when they saw us made the visit even more worthwhile. Thanks to all the people who put in efforts arranging this visit so that we could have a memorable Diwali! Looking forward to more such visits in the future.
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TCS MAITREE TOASTMASTERS & POWAI TOASTMASTERS JOINT MEET -NIDHI BHANDARI
A joint meeting between TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club in association with Powai Toastmasters Club was organized on a Saturday, the 26th of November 2019 in a co-working space in Hiranandani, Powai. The theme of the meeting was "The Mind of a Leader" with Toastmaster of the day as Avinava from Powai Toastmasters Club. Tuba won 'Best Speaker'. We also had DTM Mukta Nadkar as General Evaluator who provided essential insights on how to better a meeting. It was a fantastic experience collaborating with toastmasters from a different club. Looking forward to more such collaborations in the future.
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TCS MAITREE TOASTMASTERS & THANE TOASTMASTERS JOINT MEET A joint meeting between TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club and Thane Toastmasters Club was organized on 22nd December, 2019. The theme of the meeting was "Thank You" with Toastmaster Tuba. Faraz won best speaker and Raj won best table topic speaker. It
was a unique experience interacting with a community club with a high count of members. What we found interesting was that they have
three
additional
roles
of
Vote
Counter,
photographer
&
Auditor. All in all it was a fun filled learning experience!
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"GOOD MORNING"
SYNDROME -PRASHANT KARKERA
If you are familiar with the pictures, then you are probably hit by ‘ Good Morning ’ syndrome. People get up late and when they reach office after surviving the traffic, it's already afternoon. So probably they started posting 'Good Morning' messages. The other reason could be that they do not have enough jokes to forward (Pun intended). These messages became mundane after a period of time and hence they started forwarding animated images and videos with 'Good morning messages'. Every time 'Good Morning' messages are not bad as it helps to keep in touch with loved ones. It's helpful for those who talk less due to their shy nature or lack of time. On a personal front, I have kept image download off in WhatsApp. This helps me to filter out images just by looking at the blur images. I even save on data by not downloading images or videos that come with the tagline of 'Good Morning'. Now you might think in the world of JIO data who the hell is talking about saving data which has been free or dirt cheap since a year. To be kind enough I actually reduce the traffic on internet and thus serve the society. On technical front 'Good Morning' pictures or videos actually consume data which is a plus point for service providers as they earn money out of it. For some it's being in touch with loved ones. I would prefer simple 'Good Morning' text typed rather than pictures or videos which are directly deleted or ignored by 90% of the WhatsApp users including me. So next time you want to wish good morning to someone just type it or call them. 22
"DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY" -KANNAGI MISHRA
R e c e n t l y , I p a r t i c i p a t e d a t t h e c l u b l e v e l s p e e c h c o n t e s t . I f s o me o n e a s k s me t h e n I wo u l d n o t b e a b l e t o a n s we r wh a t e x a c t l y t o o k me 5 y e a r s t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n a c l u b l e v e l s p e e c h c o n t e s t . Y e s , a s u n b e l i e v a b l e a s i t ma y s o u n d b u t I h a d b e e n p u r p o s e f u l l y a v o i d i n g s p e e c h c o n t e s t s . I wa n t e d t o t a k e p a r t b u t I ma d e i t t o o b i g a d e a l i n my mi n d t h a t e v e n t u a l l y i t b e c a me unthinkable and unachievable. E v e n my r e g u l a r s p e e c h e s h a d a c e r t a i n f o r ma l t o n e . S p e e c h e s t h a t l o o k a n d s o u n d g o o d b u t r a r e l y s t r i k e a c h o r d . T h e s p e c i f i c p u r p o s e wa s a l wa y s t o i n s p i r e t h e a u d i e n c e . I d o n ' t k n o w a b o u t t h e a u d i e n c e b u t i t b o r e d me t o b o n e e v e n t u a l l y . I b a r e l y e x p e r i me n t e d l i g h t h e a r t e d c o n t e n t wh i c h i s h o w I t r u l y a m - f i l l e d wi t h p a s s i o n f o r f u n , l a u g h t e r a n d l i f e . I n e v e r c o u l d bring this person out on stage. 2 0 1 9 h a s b e e n a s p e c i a l y e a r f o r mo r e t h a n o n e r e a s o n . T h e b e s t r e a s o n i s t h e b i r t h o f my s o n o n 7 t h No v e mb e r . Wh e n I wa s c a r r y i n g h i m t h e r e we r e ma n y u n s o l i c i t e d a d v i c e I r e c e i v e d f r o m p e o p l e a r o u n d me . L e t me s h a r e a c o u p l e o f t h e m f o r f u n ’ s s a k e - s o me o n e f r o m my g y m t o l d me n o t t o we a r p y j a ma s t o g y m f o r r e a s o n s wh i c h c a n ma k e a n y o n e l a u g h , my g y m i n s t r u c t o r t o l d me n o t t o t u r n u p , s o me o n e i n s i s t e d t h a t I q u i t c o f f e e , a c o l l e a g u e t o l d me t o s t u d y V e d i c ma t h s - ' T h e k i d wi l l t u r n o u t t o b e a s c h o l a r l a t e r ' s h e s a i d . Mo s t o f t h e s e a d v i c e s we r e wo r t h z e r o a t t e n t i o n a n d I f o l l o we d n o n e e x c e p t o n e g i v e n b y my mu m. S h e t o l d me t o d o wh a t ma k e s y o u h a p p y a s y o u r s t a t e o f mi n d wi l l r e f l e c t o n y o u r k i d . No w t h i s o n e ma d e a b s o l u t e s e n s e t o me . I h a v e a l wa y s l o v e d e x p r e s s i n g my s e l f o n s t a g e a n d o t h e r wi s e . T h e z e a l t o f o l l o w my mu m' s a d v i c e h e l p e d me b r e a k t h e o l d b a r r i e r a n d t a k e u p e n t e r t a i n i n g s p e a k e r a d v a n c e s p e e c h ma n u a l s e r i o u s l y . P r a c t i s i n g h e l p e d me g e t t h e c o u r a g e t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n h u mo r o u s s p e e c h c o n t e s t t h i s y e a r . T h e s e c o n d b e s t r e a s o n t h a t ma k e s 2 0 1 9 s p e c i a l wa s wi n n i n g t h e c l u b l e v e l c o n t e s t s . A p a r t f r o m t h a t I l o v e t o s k e t c h a n d r e a d . My s k e t c h wa s p u b l i s h e d i n d i s t r i c t 9 8 Oc t o b e r n e ws l e t t e r a n d o u t o f t h e b o o k s I r e a d I wo u l d l i k e t o r e c o mme n d ' S h o e Do g b y P h i l K n i g h t ' t o e v e r y o n e . S o me t i me s wh a t r e a l l y that - do it part of your
i t t a k e s a n e x t e r n a l mo t i v a t i o n t o c a s h i n y o u r t i me a n d d o ma k e s y o u h a p p y f r o m t h e c o r e . A l t h o u g h I wo u l d l i k e t o a d d n o t f o r a n y o n e e l s e b u t y o u r s e l f a n d ma k e i t a n o n - n e g o t i a b l e life!
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"DO Y O U-
DH EM W AYTS TMI FAYKI NEGS T E D X WA I TPHP RYA" J B H A R A T H -TUBA MANSOOR
-KANNAGI MISHRA
It’s a known fact that Raj loves photographing himself and using them as his Whatsapp status! Once I noticed him put up a picture of himself standing next to huge blocks of letters spelled as ‘TEDx’. That got me intrigued. I had listened to TED talks and always found them interesting. If something remotely similar was happening near me, I had to know. So I got hold of Raj and posed some questions to him about TEDx. Here is what he had to stay. What is TEDx?
TED is the parent company which is responsible for conducting TED talks. Since they wanted to reach more local people they created TEDx. TEDx can be organized by anyone with permission from TED. TEDx again is a platform wherein people share inspirational talks. You can say that TEDx speakers may not be as good as TED talk speakers. What TEDx?
exactly
happens
in
a
In TEDx people share their personal life stories including how they achieved their goals and dreams.
Do you think one should attend TEDx?
Oh absolutely! One should definitely attend TEDx. People share valuable lessons from their lives which we can implement in our lives. It’s so difficult to learn about others and if we can get a snippet of their lives in 18 minutes then that’s amazing. As humans, we enhance our knowledge through various means like books etc. because we want to be better versions of ourselves. TEDx is one such platform to learn from others so that we can be better human beings. Do we have to purchase tickets to attend TEDx?
I attended both sessions free of cost. But yes there might be some cost involved for attending an event. Where can we get information about upcoming TEDx sessions?
There are Instagram pages and Facebook pages that you can follow. Plus you can create a profile on TED website and they will intimate you about any upcoming sessions through email. You can of course reach out to me in case you need more information.
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TCS MAITREE TOASTMASTERS AT TEDX On 8th December, TCS Maitree Toastmasters attended the TEDx Plam Beach Rd Women session in Kharghar, to help out with Toastmasters PR activities. Also Raj, Akshay & Prashant grabbed the opportunity to become 1 minute Tedx speakers
TED TALKS INDIA: NAYI SOCH NAYI BAAT
- KIRTY NANDA
TEDX is an apt platform for people who aspire to be a public speaker and I am not excluded from that. I was not only excited and exhilarated by the invitation I received but made sure that I reached on time and did not miss any bit of experience with the super star Shahrukh Khan who was hosting the show. The show was house full for obvious reasons and I was mesmerised and most importantly inspired by the out of the box thinking of the participants, their journey and their dedication. This will be one of my fondest experiences and I would love to share how much ever I am asked to. I felt like I am the "Star in the Making".
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INTERVIEWING A BASKETBALL " D O EW AR IKQ UEE SA H S S A N N T HH U SA I AT ST M SHA YOU HAPPY" -WITH AKSHAY SINGH
-KANNAGI MISHRA
Everytime toastmaster Sharique speaks about basketball, his face simply lights up! I decided to dig a little further to find out about how basketball plays an important role in his life. How did you discover your passion for basketball?
Initially when I started playing basketball it was just a random choice for an extracurricular activity. But once I played a tournament ( even though we lost it), I became addicted to it. During my school days sometimes I practiced for 8-9 hours a day. My family & coaches have always been supportive. Now it is not just a passion for me but it is a part of my life..
Major achievement that makes you proud?
When I went for one of my nationals in Patna, Bihar.. We won the tournament there and I was declared the best player...after that some very young kids approached me for some tips as an inspiration to them... It was a happy moment for me.... Lessons you learnt from basketball game?
Team player, leadership, dynamic thinking, on spot decisions, adaptability, accepting failures.. How did u overcome failure?
Working on my weaknesses, learning and practicing...
Major milestones in pursuit of basketball passion?
Share about your greatest loss?
I have played 2 nationals and have won 4 corporate tournaments consecutively. I have been declared best player/ highest in all the corporate tournaments...
Most of my losses came in the early days of my career .. I remember a match where we lost the semi final by 1 point that too opponents scoring the buzzer beater...
What is your schedule?
What happens when u loose a match?
practice
Saturday morning evening 3 hours...
3
hours
routine?
and
Any
Sunday
Challenges you faced with the game and people whom u played with?
First of all I accept my failure and when I am the captain I apologize to my team and try to cheer them up... And then later I analyze where we went wrong and how we can improve as an individual and as a team. What are your thoughts before and after a
Initially learning the rules of the game was a challenge as basketball is a game with a lot of rules and regulations.. Then leading the college and corporate team was a challenge... Also I have coached female teams who were totally new to the game, it was the biggest challenge for me...Also now at this level when playing with players who have different game plan, it is really difficult to adapt.
game?
Before the game I am always nervous... Butterflies in the stomach types... Once the game starts everything seems normal... And after the game, depends upon the result of the game... But mostly I analyse my game, taking feedback from my teammates and coach
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Who inspires inspiration?
you?
Are
you
someone's
When I was in Kolkata there were 2 persons in my club... Jennifer Ghosh, she was 60 when I joined the club and she was such a great motivation to me with her dedication towards basketball.. and Sunder Singh, he was 52 when I joined the club... He had a spinal cord operation couple of years back but he still plays with such a huge dedication towards the game... Both were so senior in the organization but they still made some time for this game... These two people are my motivation for this game...During my undergraduate days I was an inspiration to many juniors of my college and also in TCS Kolkata I have inspired many to play this game...
Something about motivates you?
your
trainer
how
he/she
As of now I don't have any trainer... But during my initial days my coach always asked me to stick to the basics, respect the game, respect your teammates and opponents as well... Always learn from your mistakes... Future plans with the game?
Wherever I go, first thing I look for is a basketball club to play... There are no plans for now.. To continue playing this game is the only future plan for me...
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MY EXPERIENCE PARTICIPATING IN SPEECH CONTEST - NAVEEN JAGDISH The Mentor's Push
It was 21st of Sept 2019 - a day before the Club Humorous and Speech Evaluation Contest. Membership renewal targets and new member queries for the club contest had already taken up my entire week. I was on the verge of backing out on what would have been my first Club level contest. That is when I realised the importance of having the push of mentors in a Toastmasters journey. I connected with my mentors / senior members of the club to help me overcome this feeling of giving up before the game. They made me understand the importance of the club meetings that I had attended for the last 6-7months which was my base for this journey towards Public Speaking. It gave me the necessary kick to get my confidence back and go back to my desk and prepare for the upcoming Club Contest the next day... The Club Contest
It was early 7am on 22nd Sept - role players had all gathered. As breakfast was served and tummies filled, the CJ briefing was done, and we were ready to battle it out at the Speech Evaluation Contest. The MoC sang, the Test Speaker began and Evaluations took every corner nerve as Evaluators Commended Recommended and Commented on Speeches. My Evaluation was a learning curve as I understood how to evaluate at this level. Post lunch was the Humorous Speech and as we had anticipated it had breathtaking speeches. We heard energetic speeches from some amazing senior members and new comers. I began my speech with my usual delivery style and took the confidence that I had learned from my club meeting speeches to the contest level. As the final whistle was blown it was our senior Toastmaster Kannagi Mishra who won the club championship of both Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest. It was one hell of a delivery and one hell of ride. It was Kannagi who had introduced me to Toastmasters earlier last year... It was great to see her win this title at club level.
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HUMOROUS SPEECH CLUB CONTEST
Kannagi Mishra (Winner)
Naveen Jagdish (First runner up)
Anand Deethi (Second runner up)
EVALUATION SPEECH C LCUOBN C TO E SNTT E S T
Kannagi Mishra (Winner)
Akshay Singh (First runner up)
Anand Deethi (Second runner up)
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MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN POWAI
 When a team works together to achieve success; it is nothing short of a Blockbuster that it delivers.
The Powai campaign began rather silently. With two wings to manage at the TCS-Powai office, the eight TCS-Maitree Toastmasters had to divide work. We managed to set-up base right before the entrance of the two cafeterias. With 8 members at Powai, compared to the 16 in Olympus, this wasn’t going to be easy. But what we witnessed was sheer brilliance of ideas, energy and team spirit. We worked to touch base with more than 300+ TCSers, out of which 150 joined as guests on our social platform on Whatsapp. The session at Powai, post the campaign saw 45+ attendees at the club meeting. It was indeed a blockbuster success! 30
MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN OLYMPUS THANE We began our first campaign of the term in July at a new location of
TCS-Thane-Olympus.
Diving
into the unknown, we weren’t sure how this would turn out to be.
A
new
campaign,
location, new
new
set
of
Toastmasters; little did we realize it would turn out to be one of the more
successful
membership
campaigns in the history of TCSMaitree
Toastmasters
Club,
Mumbai.
A drive at the two packed floors of Cafeteria during lunch & snacks saw a holistic marketing of Toastmasters including
the
PA
system
announcements, TV Screen displays, mailers/flyers to the associates and other out-of the box ideas. Fifteen TCS–Maitree Toastmasters managed to touch base wirh more than 400+ TCSers, out of which around 200 joined as guests in our social group on WhatsApp.
The first meeting of the term at Olympus saw 40+ attendees at the club meeting.
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IS WAKING UP EARLY OVERRATED? - OJUS KAPOOR
It is a regular weekday, nothing out of the ordinary. I am at work. The clock strikes 5, and the team is all set and secretly delighted to halt work and initiate the voyage to the office cafeteria after a customary stop at the restroom. We are seated on a large white rectangular table with chairs on either side with fried savouries in front of us. I bring up fitness and explain how going to the gym at night after work is doing wonders for my fitness journey. I am inquired as to why I do not work out in the morning but at night, to which I most innocently reply, “There’s no time!”. “But you have to reach work by 11, and you live just opposite to the office building, you have so much time!” was the reply. “Only an hour”, I said, “After waking up at 9:30 I need to take a bath, iron my clothes, prepare breakfast and also eat it.” Sipping his tea, my boss exclaimed, “Nine thirty? Well, there’s so much of life you are missing”. Conversation leaped to a different topic, but I was provoked, I felt uneasy, rather pathetic and a little sad. I was fine with my routine, until that moment. I was the earliest riser among the 6 of us sharing a three-bedroom apartment in Mumbai. And I was the last to bed too, at around 2 AM. It was perfect. Just what I needed. The inner revolt felt strong enough this time to conquer the kingdom of excuses that have been defending my waking up late. Luckily, I successfully identified the awakening and got hold of it. “I won’t go gentle on me this time”, I thought.
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I knew that the biggest obstacle standing tall between me and the materialization of my plan of getting up early in the morning. And that was: What to do once I’m awake that keeps me awake and most importantly not let me sink into the swampy depths of the bed again? At least for the initial weeks to practice the routine of getting out of the bed early morning, the activity had to be thrilling and exciting, maybe even refreshing to set a healthy start to the day. Refreshing? Bingo! I had my answer. An activity so ideal that even thinking about it was electrifying. I texted a friend, “ Bro how’d you like it if we go for a swim every morning?” He replied, “I’ve been meaning to start swimming myself, need to train for a triathlon.” It felt as if the existence was conspiring along to make it happen. The plan appeared to be falling in place. I was ecstatic. All of this happening had a very positive vibe to it and it could be felt. The following morning, the alarm went off and the tone was “Paper Planes by M.I.A” which was set by me the previous night (It has persisted as my alarm tone since then). After getting out of the bed, I went straight to the kitchen to make myself a large mug of warm milk and added a big spoon of instant coffee powder to it. No sugar, thank you very much. Within no time, I was on my way to the pool, a 5-minute walk. I met my friend there, had an hour-long deeply satisfying swimming session and returned home full of life. Even though my fitness tracker reported that only 350 calories were burnt, I was chronically starving. I ate like a horse. A balanced, heavy, healthy and nutritious breakfast that I made myself. Waking up at 06:50, that is like clockwork, that is me now, even on weekends and holidays!I feel amazing. I feel alive. I feel livelier. I simply feel more human. This post too is being written during a time in the morning when previously I used to be fast asleep. It’s imperative to list down the major changes I’ve observed and how it’s improved the quality of my life: • I am, clearly, more energetic throughout the day than before. Seriously. • The day feels long (in a good way). It appears like there is so much more that I can accomplish in one day. • Nothing can substitute the fresh fragrance of a new day breaking, the sound of leaves rustling, a host of birds relishing and all life rejoicing. • Did I mention burning 350 calories, give or take, during swimming? • Another substantial benefit is that my bowel movements have also learned the art and benefits of following a routine and they have got punctual unlike before. A great success and relief, ha-ha. • After a few weeks, the routine becomes natural. It’s no longer a conscious effort. Remembering the good old school days when waking up early in the morning was the biggest resentment of life and the worst part of the day, contrasting to the present where it is the best part of my day. Obligation & duty VS. freedom & choice. Funny, food for thought.
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ARE YOU DOING YOUR B I T ? - MANJU ABRAHAM As they say, let the best person win, the same principle applies to those travelling in a Virar Churchgate (VC) local. Sometimes I wonder if Charles Darwin might have travelled in a VC local when he found "Survival of the fittest". After a few years of maintaining the overseas residency status, my soul yearned to come back to offshore. I didn't realize this yearning of my mind will lead to an adventurous journey (adventurous perhaps is an understated word :). I was asked to take up a project assignment in downtown which made me spent daily 5 to 6 hours in travelling (I was living in the outskirts of Mumbai in the western suburb). Initially, days of train travel were filled with fear and anxiety. Especially how much ever one has post graduated by travelling in VC local, the learning does not seem to matter - if one didn't know how to jump inside the train before it halts, if one does not know how to grab seats before someone else does, if one does not know which queue to stand in while alighting from the train, if one does not know how to jump out of the train before it halts at the station. How much ever tiring or killing this train journey is, I still enjoy every thrill of it compared to driving to the office and wasting the fuel. Maybe that's the least I can do for the planet, my bit- use public transport even though the travel is gruelling. How about you - Are you doing your bit? Think about it - if you are not using public transport or not carpooling, is it worth wasting your vehicle's fuel being stuck in the traffic for hours. If you haven't started doing your bit, grab that opportunity and be the one to secure a seat for the planet's sustenance. "Jump In - Show that you Care" 34
SHARING IS CARING - TUBA MANSOOR
They say ‘Sharing is caring’. When I was a little kid, I had very unique views about sharing. The kids in my class took home whatever caught their fancy rubber, scale, pencils etc. before I had a chance to share anything with them. Soon I started hiding away my stationery from any little prying eyes. Not sharing was caring for yourself, looking out for yourself. As I reached middle school, began the concept of sharing your notebooks and workbooks. But this carried a risk of the borrower losing your book or in the best case scenario returning it in a much more soiled condition than it was before. Soon I realised you share, you lose. But as I reached my college, sharing became the bane of our existence. Sharing notes, assignments, last year's question papers, knowledge and rumours. I am not sure what exactly drove the need to share everything you had with your friends including each other’s secrets but sharing was trendy! Once I began my professional career, sharing meant something different. Working meant earning which meant I could now share my money. Working as a team meant sharing my work. Sharing was sharing your resources to ensure a bit of equality. Starting my website Taagung meant I could share my and others knowledge, opinions and ideas. Sharing now meant sharing abstract entities. Then I joined Toastmasters and I learnt sharing meant a lot of things. As people of the same club you share your greetings and smiles. As evaluators you share your opinions. In Communique, you share your thoughts. As a toastmaster you share your experiences and stories. As friends you share memories. This Diwali we went to an old age home in Byculla - we shared our time and they shared their smiles. Sharing is about giving and receiving. Because when you share, you receive much more back in return - beautiful smiles, friendships, knowledge, ideas, and memories. Sharing is caring but it is caring about yourself because trust me you are the biggest beneficiary in this trade. 35
15TH ANNIVERSARY On 23rd June, 2019 our club completed it's 15th anniversary. This of course called in for a huge celebration. It was a fun filled night with a lot of TCS Maitree Toastmasters in attendance along with guests. We had couple's rampwalk, dancing, singing, roasting, awards, cake cutting etc. Here's a sneak peak.
Singing
Jan - June 2019 excomm bidding goodbye
Fashion Show
Skit
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CELEBRATIONS
Shaking a leg (and the stage!)
TRoast
Na-Real Awards
Audience
Unveiling CommuniquĂŠ June 2019
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CLUB OUTING - MIHIR TRIVEDI
On the 2nd Weekend of December when we were confident about the pleasant weather and no rains, we planned a wonderful club trip to Bhandardhara which is a beautiful holiday resort village located in western ghats of India about 180 kms away from Mumbai. This was a perfect weekend gateway and everyone in the club got an opportunity to know amazing club members closely. Everybody got together at Thane station on Saturday morning where Tuba, Akshay & Sagar made sure that all 16 people were onboarded. We got down at Kasara station and from there, the 16 of us sat in a 10 seated vehicle due to which everybody got extremely closer with each other and some got a chance to do chaiya chaiya on the roof. The campsite had nature's blessing. We enjoyed the breakfast, lunch and barbecue dinner at the banks of the Pravara river. In the meantime, we relived our childhood by playing games on the ground followed by card games where all Toastmasters became Bluffmasters. Mafia game post dinner had everyone's involvement and was enjoyed by all. Campfire lasted full night so did everyone's energy level. In the morning everyone enjoyed a boat ride. Getting hot and strong chai at midnight and in the morning was the X-Factor of the trip. The trip ended with a game of UNO on the local train and a wonderful cheer for the organizers of the trip Tuba and Akshay.
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EDUCATIONAL SESSION BY GANESH IYER
- RAJ BHARAT
On 9th Aug 2019, Our club had an educational session on Humorous Speech writing and Delivery. 2019 District 98 Champion of Humorous speech contest & International speech contest, Toastmaster Ganesh Iyer visited our club at TCS Olympus office. He conducted a workshop for effective Humorous Speech writing and Delivery. Along with our 17 club members and many guests, toastmasters of other clubs also visited to attend the session. The session was very interactive. TM Ganesh helped the audience to understand the importance of addition of humor in a speech. He emphasized on building a punchline for humor in speech writing. He explained the importance of observing surroundings in our daily activity for developing ideas for speech writing and importance of verbal & nonverbal way of creating humor in speech delivery. He delivered a mock humorous speech too. During workshop, he insisted that everyone think of at least 2 ideas for generating humor and to build a story. It was an hour long interactive session, full of learning, which helped us a lot in developing humor in speech writing.
CLUB OFFICERS' TRAINING PROGRAMME
Excom at the COTP (Club Officers' Training Program) training. This training is conducted for officers of a club to help them perform better.
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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF PUBLIC SPEAKING HIGHLIGHTS Toastmasters International 2019 Convention was held on 22-24th Aug 2019 at Denver, Colorado. This is a peak experience for a Toastmaster. International speech contest segment was scheduled on 24th Aug, final day of the convention. Six finalists contested to be 2019 World Champion of Public speaking. In Mumbai, live telecast of International speech contest segment happened at Bocconi Asia center, Powai. Toastmasters from across Mumbai attended this live telecast to experience the moment. AARON BEVERLY from Pennsylvania won 1st place in the 2019 Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking with winning speech title - 'An Unbelievable Story'. LUISA MONTALVO from Texas won 2nd place in the 2019 Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking with speech title 'First Impression'. KWONG YUE YANG from Guangzhou won 3rd Place in the 2019 Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking with speech title 'Less and More'. Toastmasters of District 98 would be fortunate enough to listen to Aaron Beverly, the 2019 world champion of Public Speaking, as a keynote speaker at Eloquence 2020, the Annual conference of District 98.
EDUCATIONAL SESSION BY DTM LANCY As we geared up for the evaluation contest, it was important for us to know how to perform a good evaluation. On 30th August, our VPE Raj arranged an educational session with Lancy. Lancy who has been a part of Toastmasters since the past 20 years was the ideal candidate to conduct this session. With his engaging talks, he kept the audience interested in what he had to say. He spoke at lengths about how evaluations should be meaningful and useful to the speaker as well as should provide positive encouragement.
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EVERY MOMENT IS PRECIOUS
"A moment can never be perfect until we stop making it perfect."
Shruti Agrawal
Living life is as important as breathing it!! One Sunday evening, me and my friend decided to meet at Marine Drive after a long time. The purpose behind this was to share our chaotic and unpleasant life experience. While complaining about our lives, there was a kid playing handball near us with his father and they seems to be enjoying it. As we were busy cribbing about our lives, we saw a chubby little girl with her innocent smiling face coming near us with her father. She kept on starring the same father-kid duo near us while her father was busy on the phone. Her eyes were sparkling as if she was imagining herself playing that. I couldn’t help but relate to that little girl’s situation. We all at some point want to live someone else’s happy life. After some time, her father got off the phone and without wasting a moment that little girl insisted on him playing the handball just as the duo. Her father replied that they do not have a ball to play! I could literally feel the sadness of that little girl on hearing her father’s response. Her sparkling eyes were filled with tears and so did mine. I was confident that her dreams were broken just like mine….I started thinking how cruel this world is and we can do nothing to solve it. But what happened next has changed my whole perspective about it. Seeing his little girl sad her father started acting as if he had an imaginary ball to throw and asked the girl to catch it or she will lose. Hearing this she also started acting to catch the ball and the entire scenario changed within a fraction of time. This act made me think what was the driving force that turned the table upside down? The answer was simplePerspective! A little change in the perspective can fill the void of unhappiness and change the entire scenario. A moment can never be perfect until we stop making it perfect. To summarize, “Happiness comes when we live life and not chase it “
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DEMO MEETING AT TCS KENSINGTON
- SAGAR MANEK
I have only recently started my journey with TCS Maitree Toastmasters and here I was already experiencing something new - a demo meeting was going to be conducted at an account level (Boeing) and I was pretty much excited. It was conducted on 26th Dec, 2019 in Recruitment Bay, Powai and preparations were taken care of by the host herself - our upcoming VPM Tuba, accompanied by Naveen our current VPM. Everyone was prepared with a guest list of let say 70 but to our surprise a lot more people just started pouring in and the list increased to 90+. Not only were there people from Boeing but throughout the Powai location, thanks to a location mail that the HR had sent that morning! The meeting began sharp at 4 PM with the theme of the meeting as 'Whats your phobia?'. SAA Shruti enthusiatically welcomed everyone! Toastmaster of the day -Tuba introduced herself to the guest, played a game, followed up by a ppt giving information about the Toastmasters club. Like everytime, this time too she had an interesting game to play. She asked who was good at playing cricket, and then asked him to come on stage to which our frequent guest Rakesh volunteered. He had to 'bowl' chocolates to the person in the audience if he or she correctly answered her questions. She then mentioned few phobia names and the audience had to guess what the phobia was about. Post the game completion all the role players were introduced to the audience. Grammarian Twarit played her role perfectly. Word of the day was 'Perpetual' & phrase of the day was 'to be on cloud nine' Our upcoming club President Naveen played the role of Ah-counter. This time we had a timer from the targeted account of Boeing- Hari and he did a fabulous job even though it was his first time. Then began the Speeches round and again we had a speaker from Boeing named Tejaswini who was gave her Ice breaker speech in front of such a huge crowd and she already looked like a pro. Her speech title was 'This is me - Tejaswini'. Then came the lady whose humourous speech made the audience laugh and she won everyone's heart as well and it was non other than Toastmaster Kirty. Her speech title was 'Don't judge me!'. It was a humorous speech about how the world judges her due her phobia of dogs. She had everyone in splits with her speech! Next was the table topics round which I (Sagar) conducted. We had about six enthusiastic speakers from the audience come up and volunteer. Last and the final round was Evaluation round which was taken care of by Nidhi and Raj. Kirty won 'Best Speaker', guest Ihshan won 'Best table topic' & Raj won 'Best Evaluator'.
Overall, the event was more than successful and I look forward to being a part of more such activities now that I am part of the membership committee! Cheers!
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WHERE DO YOU GO, MY LOVELY? - NAYAN JAIN That, by the way, is a super-hit 90s single by the band No Mercy which I have always loved. It not only appeals to me musically but also keeps reminding me to take a break and discover a new favourite place whenever I feel I’ve worked too hard for too long (which is usually a few days). The state of Kerala happens to have many such destinations, and the southern portion of the charming Western Ghats is somewhere I have ended up visiting thrice in as many years now. As a general rule, Kerala never disappoints. It was five of us this time. As we landed at Coimbatore airport with our backpacks, we received a warm welcome in the form of a cool drizzle : ) We took a taxi and then a bus to reach Kottayam (where, if you must know, noted author Arundhati Roy grew up) only to catch another bus that took us to the place where our vacation would actually begin. Ready to join me as I get all nostalgic about a trip I returned from just last week? :P Windswept Wagamon
Our first sojourn was in Vagamon, also spelt Wagamon, a relatively unfrequented hill station 100 km off from its popular cousin Munnar. Our minds were literally blown by the place, especially the spot where we lodged ourselves for three nights — it was exceptionally windy! We even went on what is known as the ‘windy walk trek’, and it was a wonderful outing indeed through a panoramic view of the beautiful Idukki dam reservoir and the famed evergreen Shola forests of South India.
Tasteful Thrissur
The winds then took us to Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala. We were hosted by a friend who showed us around the city (it was Christmas time) and treated us to some excellent food. Now ‘tasteful’ also means ‘showing good judgment in style and behaviour’ and the pun is indeed intended when I use it for Thrissur. An observation that really struck me was that, even in slow-moving traffic on congested roads, hardly any motorists exercised their birth-right to honk! Made me feel rather un-Indian, I must say.
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Wicked Wayanad
After spending three fulfilling days in Thrissur, to end our holidays on a ‘high’ just as we had begun, we headed to the hills again, this time somewhere much more well-known – Wayanad. I call it wicked not as in ‘evil’ but as in ‘playfully mischievous’. We were welcomed this time by not a drizzle but a heavy shower! And one of the three days that we were there turned to be the day of a rare full solar eclipse… what we got is a full eclipsing of the full eclipse by an endless cloud of mist that consumed us. Oh yes, that was pretty wicked of Wayanad. But ‘wicked’, when used as slang, means ‘strikingly good’, and even idle walks in the hills of Wayanad can indeed present some wicked natural scenes to the human eye! Alas, all good things, like this article, must come to an end. So did our vacation, as we made our way back to base (Bombay), just in time for the New Year’s. I already have new places in Kerala on my wish list for the next winter. But, right now, let me ask you — Where do you go, my lovely?
MONSTER
- FARAZ MOHAMMED
I see a monster sitting on my chair With pointed teeth, smelly feet and a nose too big. Who tells me my dreams stink, And that the stage's no place to be. Holds me back when I want to rise, Eating my courage when going hungry. Killing my confidence, He lets out a monstrous laugh. He's just a smelly Pinocchio And the big nose too is due to his lies. So I rise up, go on stage "Avada Kedavra" (I destroy as I speak)
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CHRISTMAS SPECIAL MEETING The Christmas special meeting #598 was also special because it was the last meeting of this year and of the excom's term. It was hosted by Faraz who made us revisit the year. As the current executive committee bid an emotional goodbye, the new committee was formally installed by Area B2 Director Saikumar. Other highlights of the meeting were: 1. Members who achieved Pathways milestones were congratulated. 2. Pride points winner Tuba was felicitated. 3. Dec 2019 issue of club newsletter Communiqué was unveiled. 4. Secret Santa! With this we wish the new executive committee good luck for their upcoming term!
Current Excom with their certificates
Installation of the new Excom Unveiling Communiqué December 2019
Santa Akshay giving MOC Faraz his Christmas gift
Those in attendance......
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REVISITING MINUTES & FLIERS
Flyer credit : Kirty
MoM credit : Misbah
Flyer credit : Misbah
MoM credit : Roshni
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The Sun rises from the dark to light, its rays illuminating the path The Stars twinkle in the dark, guiding one on to their chosen path Rise from each failure and Shine As you are the star of your journey!
-Akshay Singh