37th session - Joint session with MMTC - 2

Joint session returns.

This time it was at the Ruwi Club venue and we were excited to be the host to a well-established club like MMTC. Those of us who had attended the earlier joint session were already familiar with the attending members and others quickly got introduced.

The session kicked off in time at 3.15pm, with TM Venkat standing in as SAA since TM John was unable to attend.

President Aji Bhaskar piqued everyone's interesting by displaying  clear liquid in a beer glass, but it turned out to be an inspiring speech as to how we must consciously put down all the load that we are carrying in order to enhance joy in our lives (not sure how putting down a beer glass will enhance joy, though). He also requested the guests as well as the MMTC toastmasters to introduce themselves for easy familiarity.

TMOD Nagesh had chosen JOY as the theme of the day. How to ensure that we feel joy in everything that we do, on every single day of our lives, was the secret to be discovered. Enjoying the smallest of things and living in the present moment seemed to be the key and we have to find our own ways of practicing them. He introduced each speaker by sharing what he or she thought joy was all about and what was the most joyful moment in the speaker's life. We could see that similar things give great joy - birth of a child, graduation, success in a difficult endeavor like giving a speech and so on. So the answers already lie within us and we just have to extrapolate.

Time keeper TM Kamil was introduced and he explained the rules of timekeeping efficiently to us.

Wordmaster-cum-Grammarian was being played by MTM Rita. She introduced the word RAPTURE to the audience and all the members had a chance to use it in a sentence made up on the spot. Nobody found any difficulty being enraptured.

Jokemaster TM Raja concentrated his jokes on the marital theme and we had a couple of hearty laughs, especially at his effort at being an evaluator of his wife's cooking.

There were three project speeches lined up today - a P2 speech being evaluated by TM Chetlur Prasad, a P3 speech being evaluated by TM Mathen and a P9 speech being evaluated by TM Saiju Victor, who we were seeing in the club after a long time (Welcome back)! All the evaluators related the purposes of the project speeches and the bases on which they will be judged.

The P2 speech "A Mother's Melancholy" was delivered by TM Chaitanya. With the goal Organise your speech, it had good structure, excellent language and delivery, and theme had an emotional content. 

The P3 speech "Fizzy vs Fresh" was delivered by TM Prasanna. With the goal Get to the point, it exhibited a clear general purpose and specific purpose. The speaker restricted the scope of the speech intelligently.

The P9 speech "Be the Reason to Light a Lamp" was delivered by MTM Lavanya. With the goal Persuade with power, it achieved that goal succinctly and efficiently in the allotted seven minutes, a tough task as per the evaluator. We all felt energised and willing to respond, so the speech was a great success.

The highlight of the session was definitely the Table Topic round. Conducted by MTM Rhea, she had a field day with the choicest of speakers from the experienced MMTC to call upon. Speakers like TM Antony Isaac, TM Chetlur Prasad, TM Rajendra Varma and TM Suryakanth spoke confidently on the topics given. It was indeed a treat and a lesson to see the smooth approaches of these seasoned toastmasters.

The project speech evaluators gave their congratulatory feedback to all the three speakers, with suggestions for small improvements.

Harkmaster MTM Swati also had a good time. She had questions to which the audience did not have answers and she wagged her finger at all of us. Luckily we could do better for questions on the later sessions otherwise she would have asked us to reorganise today's event completely for sure.

MTM Rita gave her feedback as Ah-counter and Grammarian, regarding various ineffective uses of English. She pointed out various examples which we hope to remember (It is still a moot point whether we should mention examples by the speaker's name, for a better connect, or give a general example to be tactful, like she did. We can debate on this).

General Evaluator TM Ananth did a great job, with humorous poultice on his critical barbs to take out the sting. Well covered, TM, though this was your first attempt.

President's closing comments were preceded by a few remarks from MMTC president-elect TM Chetlur Prasad. He expressed his happiness with the concept of the joint session and the way the logistics had been worked out. President Aji suggested that it might be the forerunner of a few more such sessions, maybe similar or in the debate format. The idea was welcomed by all and will be worked out sometime in August.

We adjourned at 5.05 pm.

The day's awards were:

Best Evaluator:               TM Saiju Victor

Best Topic speaker:        TM Antony Isaac

Best speaker:                  MTM Lavanya

Till we meet again on next Saturday 2.7.16.

36th session - Joint session with MMTC - 1

Joint session.

In my college days, this would conjure up an image of a dimly lit room, sweet-smelling smoke and relaxed bodies. But the joint session we had on 19th June was totally different, though no less intoxicating and heady.

The 350 session old MMTC club had a joint club session with the 35 session old Ruwi Club at the MMTC club venue. This was a first for Ruwi Club and there was a lot of curiosity to know how a matured club like MMTC conducts itself. There was also a fair amount of excitement because, being a young club, there was a point to be proved and a mark to be made.

No two clubs conduct sessions in exactly the same manner, inspite of the guidelines set by the organisation. We noted differences and we also noted good practices that might be worth emulating. We can check these out as we go along.

The session started at 7.00 pm (Note: There is a first-bell second-bell concept like the movie halls of yore). 

After the SAA's address, the President TM Chetlur Prasad welcomed all toastmasters and guests, highlighting that this was a memorable session on account of being a joint session. Many senior members of MMTC club were present. He mentioned that today's theme EDUCATION is more relevent than ever since there is no end to learning.

TMOD Uma Maheswara Rao Ganti started the session with a 2-minute video on MMTC club, which made Ruwi Club members familiar with their history. He then embarked on his theme of Education, the need for non-book learning and the different ways learning is looked at nowadays. He would be running this theme throughout the session (Note: We noticed that TMOD runs an independent script, not connecting the theme to the role-player being introduced, like we do nowadays).

Time Keeper TM Gomati Sankaran was introduced and related the rules (Note: We saw later that at the end of speeches, apart from saying whether any speaker disqualified, time taken by every speaker is also read out).

Word Master TM Sunil Pnyatt introduced the word EXUBERANT, mentioning that it was very appropriate for this sort of joint session (Note: There is no round robin conducted by the Wordmaster using the word of the day).

Ah-counter and Grammarian was TM Suryakant, who introduced his role to the gathering.

General Evaluator TM Donald Pinto was announced. (Note: This is not done by us)

Guests were requested to introduce themselves, including the TMs from Ruwi Club, for the familiarity of all.

There was a Round Robin session conducted by the TMOD based on the theme. Usually each member of the audience is asked to speak for 20 secs on some aspect of the theme. Today, TMOD asked members to mention two words that come to mind when he thinks of Education. So it was a shorter session than usual, but very revealing. It was obvious everybody had varied views on the subject.(Note: This is different from our round robin, which uses the word of the day).

Joke Master TM Venkat went on stage to relate a number of funnies in his inimitable style. The audience were thoroughly amused. (Note: This was an additional contribution from the Ruwi Club as MMTC normally does not have this role).

Then started the main session of the meeting - three project speeches - P3, P4 and P6.

Evaluation criteria for the P3 speech were related by TM Bipin Kurlakose, which is mainly about Getting to the point and being clear about the general purpose and the specific purpose of the speech.

P3 speech was delivered by TM Rajat. "A Perfect Paradox" was a good speech that achieved the project purposes and added some punch through humour. Since the theme was incompatibility, he could probably speak with a free mind because his wife was in India on holiday!

Evaluation criteria for the P4 speech were related by TM Senthil Kumar, which teaches How to say it, with good words, sentence structure and rhetorical devices.

P4 speech was delivered by TM Raghuram.  "The Problem of the Centre of the Universe" was a thought-provoking speech that addressed the issue of our self-centred thinking and how this lack of social responsibility is slowly destroying our world. A good natural delivery, with excellent usage of words.

P6 speech was delivered by MTM Ganti Lavanya. We had all heard her P5 speech at our club and she did justice to the P6 speech, "No shortcuts in life", dramatically achieving the requirement for Vocal variety. An intelligently chosen story-based script enabled her to showcase this to the hilt. A great effort.

After voting for the Best Speaker there was a snacks break, (Note: The SAA collects the voting slips in a small container, which is a good idea. Moreover, the voting page is actually a number of tear-off slips, pre-printed with comments on the speakers, and voting slips for Speaker, Evaluator and Topic. The slips for speakers are used for audience feedback directly to the speakers, which is also a good idea).

Snackmaster was TM Aji Bhaskar, in absentia, because he could not return from India in time. We all missed you in this session Aji. However, the layout of snacks was lavish and members were finding it difficult to return to their seats inspite of the second bell ringing away.

Table Topics were held right after, to counteract the effects of the food. DTM Rajendra Varma was, for once, on the other side of the table (or in this case stage), and he offered the members very thought-provoking topics, though sometimes too long to remember. Both TM Mathen and TM Chaitanya spoke extremely well and I think they missed being best topic speaker by a whisker. (Note: MMTC follows the classical method of giving a topic of the Topicmaster's choice to the member called upon - no slips being picked).

TM Donald Pinto was called upon to conduct the General Evaluation session. (Note: This is as per the book since all Evaluators, Word master, Time-keeper and Grammarian are supposed to be part of the General Evaluator's team. So all these feedbacks are co-ordinated by the GE, not TMOD).

All the three speeches had been of high quality and the speech evaluators could find little fault to pick in most of the cases. 

Voting for the best evaluator took place.

Wordmaster gave a report on the number of times Exuberant had been used. In fact he upped the count to 96 by asking all members to repeat the word three times right there and then!

Grammarian also gave his report, which was quite generous and mild on all speakers.

GE gave his final report on the proceedings. His report was mostly laudatory as every role player had played their roles exuberantly and to perfection and there was hardly anything adverse to comment.

Voting for the Big Three took place (Note: The big 3, viz, TMOD, Topicmaster and GE compete with each other for the best role played that session).

The awards for the day were as follows:

• Best Evaluator:         TM Bipin
• Best Topic speaker:  TM Balachandran
• Best Speaker:            TM Rajat
• Big Three:                 TM Uma (TMOD)

(Note: Apart from the certificates and ribbons, small rolling trophies are also presented that are taken back at the end of the session)

President wrapped up the session at 9.10pm and there was a group photograph.

All in all, it was a very good experience, especially for Ruwi Club role-players as they performed in a different venue than they are used to and with a club so much senior than themselves.

Congratulations to all the role-players for their sincere and superlative performances and to all the club members who attended and gave their heart-warming support.

We look forward to hosting the next joint session of MMTC and Ruwi Club at the Ruwi Club premises on 25.6.2016 at the usual time.

35th session

Today was our 35th session, as important as the 350th one of older clubs. We were proud to have achieved much in this short stint, although we were still a bit informal, perhaps, in our conduct of meetings. All in all, a great gang and great going!

SAA TM Ramalingam kicked us on our way on the dot at 3.14pm. 

President Aji Bhaskar, in his address, related the story of the unborn child remembering her brother's singing while she was still in the womb, and recovering miraculously in post-natal care on the strength of his tuneful voice. Don't stint on giving out love and kindness, concludes the anecdote, because they have tremendous healing power. A great example, Aji.

TMOD Raja had chosen as theme FAITH VS FEAR. These two aspects of our mind and emotions affect our actions and the directions in which we travel in life. When one is there, the other cannot exist. TMOD planned to introduce us to each role-player relating that person's moments of greatest faith and fear, giving us another insight into their personalities. A good theme indeed, TM Raja.

Timekeeper TM Ramalingam did an efficient job as usual, introducing us to the time limits of the various speakers.

Grammarian role was played by TM Chaitanya, who acted as Wordmaster as well. As he pointed out, these two roles are supposed to be played by the Grammarian only, as per the manual. (Clubs follow different practices; I attended MMTC meeting and found they also assign Grammarian and Wordmaster roles to different people). The word of the day were actually words. TM Chaitanya wanted us to know the difference in pronunciation and application of ADVICE and ADVISE. An interesting variation to the usual wordmastery, TM Chaitanya.

Jokemaster TM Mathen indeed cracked five funny jokes, inspite of his trepidation that we might cry instead of laughing. You need not have worried TM Mathen. Every bit of humour is savored and appreciated in a TM meeting.

There were two project speeches scheduled today - a P3 speech being evaluated by TM Raghuram and a P5 speech being evaluated by TM Kumar. They both elucidated on the evaluation criteria before the respective speeches.

The P3 speech, A BAR OF CHOCOLATE, was delivered by TM Venkat. Loving & giving, sharing & caring and being humble were his main thrust points and he used the prop of a chocolate bar (converted to chocolate mousse in his pocket) as an effective prop for the same. His speech was fluent and powerful, and his message went through clearly to the audience.

The P5 speech, POWER OF M, was delivered by guest speaker MTM Lavanya, who spoke about the power of motivation as a tool for encouraging people to succeed, even under high stress situations. A good speech that graphically demonstrated the P5 objectives of using body movements.

Table topics were conducted by TM Rajat, following the theme of Faith and Fear. The topics were a bit philosophical, given the nature of the theme, but the speakers did justice to them.

Feedback on both speeches were given by the evaluators. 

Harkmaster Rhea gleefully took the stage and fired real toughies at the audience. I think overall they scored 50% marks or so and were admonished suitably by the Harkmaster.

Grammarian TM Chaitanya gave meticulous feedback on the usage of English. A keen ear and eye for detail, TM Chaitanya, and we are really impressed. 

General Evaluation was given by TM John. He did cover all aspects of the session, but if we were to give an evaluation of his evaluation, we would have to say that he was more appreciative than critical with every single roleplayer. We will not mind you mentioning points for improvement, TM John.

Business session was conducted by MTM Panna. The next two sessions are to be joint sessions with MMTC club, on on 19th (at Hatat House) and 25th (at Zubair building), so the speakers and role-players were to be clearly assigned. Moreover, since she (VPE) would be away till Aug, she was doing her best to finalise as many agendas as possible. A good effort MTM Panna.

Concluding remarks from the President ended the session, with no tea and snacks unfortunately, because of Ramadan.

The day's awards were:
Best Evaluator:           TM Kumar
Best Table Topic:        TM Kaushik
Best Speaker:              MTM Lavanya

See you all at MMTC Hall on 19.6.16 
There will be no session at Zubair on 18.6.16

34th session

34th session of Ruwi club saw a few guests and seniors arriving, perking up the mood of all the members. Rajendra Verma, Ramki, Vignesh and Rajkamal were seen after a gap and were warmly welcomed. Two junior guests lowered the average age of the gathering.

President Aji related the incident of "Paid in full with a glass of milk", the true story of Dr Howard Kelly. Kindness is always paid back in a hundredfold, when one most needs it and least expects it. So please spread random acts of kindness. Thank you Aji, for the knowledge.

At TM Aji's invitation, DTM Rajendra Verma shared his experience at the DTAC meet in Abu Dhabi, where he had been the second runner-up in Table Topics. Congratulations again! And next time we all hope to be there, at least to cheer.

Our TMOD of the day TM Raghu, started off mildly on the theme of ETHICAL DILEMMA, but we were soon on a roller-coaster ride as he kept on introducing new variables to the narrative and plunging the audience into ethical conundrums. We were always agog for the next instalment. A wonderful script, TM Raghu, that held our attention to the last.

We were soon nudged on our way by Timekeeper MTM Swati, who reeled out the rules for the speakers. 

Our Wordmaster TM Raja introduced the word IMPEDIMENT to us. Everyone grasped the meaning correctly and participated in the round-robin with aplomb.

And then Jokemaster TM Venkat was upon us, with a mixture of old and new ones, and we thoroughly enjoyed the lighter moments before being plunged into the intricacies of project speeches.

There were two project speeches to be presented today and the evaluators TM Mathen and TM Vignesh carried out their introductions and criteria-publishing, for P2 and P4 speech respectively.

TM Kamil presented his P2 speech UNDERSTAND TO BE UNDERSTOOD, which dealt with generation gaps and how the understanding between them can be enhanced. It was a cool and sensible speech, in TM Kamil's usual laid back style.

MTM Panna presented her P4 speech DON'T LET THE COOKIE CRUMBLE, dealing with the Empty-nest Syndrome that manifests as children grow up and leave for higher studies and the parents are left to themselves once again. The mothers especially, need support. It was a hard-hitting speech, in MTM Panna's usual powerful style.

The two speeches presented a good contrast of style and subject matter, and the audience enjoyed the varied fare.

Both the evaluators had more good things than bad to say, regarding the two speeches, and the speakers rested with enhanced confidence.

This session was a very special one as it included a 40-minute Education Session on "Speech Crafting", conducted by TM Aji and TM Ramki. Presented as a combination of theoritical knowledge and a mini-workshop, the audience absorbed the concepts quickly, applied them in creating a mini-speech and were given feedback on the spot, enhancing the value of the session manifold. A great job TM Aji and TM Ramki - and many thanks.

Table topics were conducted by our young member MTM Rhea and she was kind enough to give very chew-able topics which most people did justice to. The young guests also participated, much to everyone's delight.

TM Rajat carried out General Evaluation of the session, with a few specific observations.

TM Kumar took a few minutes to explain the changes in the committee at the Area level, with TM Ramki slated to be the Area chief for the year 2016-17. TM Kumar was understandably sentimental about his association with Ruwi Club in particular, which he had nurtured from birth. He will always be part of Ruwi club, as long as he can talk, I am sure!

President wrapped up the session and called for tea. A long session it was, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Awards for the day:

Best Evaluator:            TM Vignesh

Best Table topic:          Ananya (guest)

Best Speaker:               MTM Panna

See you all on 11.6.16.