41st Session

The Session welcomed the return of our our ever smiling and refreshingly energetic President TM Aji Bhasker from a week long visit from Tokyo Kyoto Hiroshima and Fuji Japan. His son Sachin and himself were in awe. They hope to see all developing countries emulate the progress made by Japan. The session also welcomed the return of Area Director TM Ramkey  Assistant Director TM Saiju Victor and the presence of our supportive mentor and guide DTM Rajendra Verma. Guests for this session were two Presidents of Toastmasters Clubs from Muscat and United States of America TM Nilofer Tanna and TM Sachin Bhasker respectively. We also had the presence of guests Vaishali  Seth and Varun.

TM Salim in his maiden role as the Seargent At Arms carried out the role with utmost confidence and did not miss an opportunity to rap the knuckles of those who moved around while he was conducting the kick off.
I think that probably slightly delayed the start of the session.

Our President in his trademark manner conveyed a brilliant message on how  Attitude determines your Altitude. The story of a content and happy Hanif, a farmer from Africa , converted into a discontented and unhappy demoralised person, in quest of elusive diamonds, was thought provoking. Opportunities are at your doorstep and one needs to identify and grab them in a timely manner rather than run after greener pastures

The Toastmaster of the day was TM Ramalingam who never fails to surprise us with his in-depth research on any topic. The theme of the day was Listening and how well he enlightened us with a quote that informs us how people only listen with an intent to reply. He also thanked TM Raja for the quote on how one must Speak in a way that others love to listen to you and how one must listen in such a way that others love to speak with you. With personal examples on how he avoids listening to family and friends he demonstrated that people use filters and sea of opinions to discolour the message that would have been clear if understood in the way it was conveyed.

The role of the Time Keeper of the day was ably carried out by TM Afroz Ahmed who  very wisely said that punctuality is the soul of all business. He took this role at a short notice in the absence of TM Raghuram.

The Jokemaster of the day was TM Saiju Victor who with his witty and clever manoeuvring managed to make a dig at TM G Kumar in his absence. Humorous anecdotes  brought smiles to all the faces.

The Word master of the day TM K Venkat introduced us to a very unique word  Wool gathering which incidently  turned out to be an Acronym of the theme of the day. The word is very intriguing as it indicates how people indulge in idle fancies and  day dreaming. The round robin session by the users combining the two words resulted in the sharing of  many humorous and entertaining situations.

TM Nagesh read out the P1 speech requirements and Evaluation Criteria for the three P1 speakers TM Pramod, MTM  Swati and MTM Kavita in a precise and clear manner.

TM Pramod s P1 speech title was THE JOURNEY. TM Pramod took us down memory lane to Udipi the place of his birth. With the enthusiasm of a young child he shared his varying ambitions from being a driver to a doctor. His desire to do MBA was diverted towards Chartered Accountancy by his uncle and he shared the challenges of achieving that goal. He also informed us about his employment with the previous and current finance oriented organisations.

MTM Kavitas P1 speech title Poetry (Kavita) was a joy to listen to mainly because she was bursting with joy and confidence.  She poetically led us through  her lifes adventure where she was the apple of the eye of her parents and also how she was brought up in a  gender biased city of Dhanbad. Her vocal skills and humorous demeanour were very impressive when she dramatically conveyed her plan to fox her suitor. She ultimately did get married to a workaholic husband. Her metaphor of moving from a Jungle to Jail was quite something and she ultimately has reconciled to solace in Yoga and craft activities.

MTM Swati P1 speech title was Past Present and Future. MTM Swati  gave a great opening to her speech as she enthralled all with her mischievous quote on why she is always dressed well as Smile is the best curve and dress as well. In a quiet stoic manner she conveyed how she grew up with her uncles family after  she lost her parents at an early age of 9. Her mischievous and clever nature was well displayed when she told us how she managed to get her favourite cheese from the refrigerator every time. She followed the norms of taking permission from her elders albeit at different times to achieve maximum success She has moved on from being a nervous public speaker to one without any inhibitions and fear, thanks to the support of her daughter.

The Table Topic master of the day MTM Rita once again brought a unique twist and flavour to her role. Instead of a topic/sentence she gave the speakers a word to speak on with a condition avoid the use of four or five pre advised taboo words. She asked the members to make a note of whether the speakers used the taboo words or not. TM Venkat TM Nilofer and TM Mathen managed to do so while TM Sachin  found it as a bit of a challenge.

President Aji Bhasker then asked Area Director TM Ramkey to advise and guide the members of the club. TM Ramkeys encouraging words boasted the confidence of all present and he also suggested that Ruwi Toastmaster Club members participate in joint debate sessions with other clubs in the area.

TM Ananth highlighted various positive qualities of TM Pramods P1 speech and the enthusiastic manner in which  he conveyed his lifes journey  He suggested areas of improvement in positions and stage usage while delivering his speech

TM Chaitanya complimented MTM Kavita on her high levels of confidence especially when she led us through her varied experiences. He also complimented her humorous style of  delivering her speech and suggested areas of improvement in terms of right pauses at the right time. He also advised her to use the stage in an effective manner.

TM Nagesh  praised MTM Swati in  the way she conveyed her past present and future leaving only her past life as a mystery. He praised  the eloquent and humorous manner in which she made good use of communication skills with  the audience. He praised the well constructed opening body and conclusion and its  ideal mix. His suggested improvements in speech modulation and stage usage

Young and budding President Guest speaker TM Sachin Bhasker played the role of the Harkmaster with precise and crisp questions, He was pleasantly surprised that the members and guests were not Wool gathering and had great Listening abilities throughout the session

Lack of time led to the skipping of the inputs from Ah counter and Grammarian TM Mathen

Our Mentor and General Evaluator DTM Rajhendra Verma advised us to monitor time effectively either by increasing the time allotted or by restricting the speakers from crossing time limits. He complimented all the role players with a special compliment to the Toastmaster of the Day.He suggested that the TMOD should introduce the Harkmaster Grammarian and the General Evaluator in the beginning of the session. He also suggested that the club to invest in a collar mike to counter the problems of hearing by the members sitting at the end of the hall.

The Business session needs to be adequately finalised as TMOD role is yet open for the taking. Once that role is finalised then the Project speech of TM Chaitanya can be finalised. TM Afroz Ahmed will be doing his P2 speech and TM Ananth will be doing his P5 speech. TM K Venkat and TM Ramalingam will be doing the evaluations.

The President concluded the session with the award ceremony.

Best P1 speaker MTM Swati
Best Table Topic Speaker TM K Venkat
Best Evaluator TM Chaitanya

This is TM Chaitanya signing of on behalf of TM Rajat Ray

40th Session

The 40th session took place on the afternoon of Sunday the 24th   in hot sunny Muscat city.  The few who managed to make it were elated to see two Toastmasters return from a well earned break, TM G Kumar and Toastmaster Raghuram. The  presence of two guests Shobha Chad and Kala Rao helped enlarge our session beyond the designated role players.


Our Seargent at Arms TM Ramalingam kicked off the session with his regular panache of quoting an informative message by Annie Sullivan on how every Renaissance comes with a cry of the human spirit to be free.

Our own Thalaiva TM G Kumar gave the opening address in absence of our President, wherein he shared his experience of visiting the head quarters of Toastmasters International in Rancho Santa Margrita( Orange County) California. He was pleasantly surprised to see how a small but simple office was able to manage their role in such an efficient manner. He explained the office had  beautifully displayed all the 135 flags of the member countries. He also informed how well they were able to meet the welfare of the members with the only the fees from the members. He highlighted how the guide from the HR department explained each procedure for every department from the cards displayed and not from the staff of each department. He encouraged all of us to make it a point to visit that office whenever one gets a chance to go to that region

TMOD of the day was MTM Rita who chose an informative  theme of Secrets. While one wonders what secrets each person holds close to ones chest,, she was able to probe into each speakers conscience. Every speaker she introduced she had convinced them to confess their desire to keep secrets and to share their confidant as well.  Secrets can be of various types and nature, be it the secret of the ingredients of the Coco Cola company or the alogarithms of the Google search module. She also enlightened us on how the secret information on the investigation on the assassination of John Kennedy would be released in the year 2050 and how a conjurer/magician can secretly guess the card without even touching it.

TM Salim in his own unique way explained the essence of how he would maintain the time allocated to the various speakers.

MTM Kavita introduced the word Novice and explained how it was a Noun originating from a Latin and Old French  word Novicus and Novus new. A confident approach was used by all members in the usage of this word with a special emphasis on their own status in the Toastmasters Club.

MTM Swati  displayed a varied sense of humour with a refreshing twist. She was able to turn the tables on many previous joke masters by targeting the men as the butt of her jokes. She was also well equipped with many one liners.

TM Raghuram and TM Rajendra Verma explained the P4 criteria for TM Ananth and P5 criteria for TM Ramalingam respectively with their unique style and with consummate ease .

The P4 speech  Hidden Truth by TM  Ananth was a big eye opener for many as he emphasised how every smoker is actually a victim of not only drug usage of nicotine but also a victim of the lack of intent and desire by various national institutes to dissuade smokers from falling victims to carcinogenic situations. He was able to emote through his body language and props the evils of smoking.

The P5 speech  Jungle Safari by TM Ramalingam made us see a very different presentation of a very serious situation of a hold-up by dangerous robbers/dacoits in a humorous and witty manner. The experience of encountering and tackling the situation was very effectively voiced by a quiet speaker into a dramatic actor. Well done TM Ramlingam

TM Nagesh surprised us all by a blast from the past. This day that year Nescafe was introduced to the world and the secret behind the origin of the word being a confluence of the words Nestle and Cafe. His topics of the day were well arranged emotions ranging from Happiness Thrills to Nervousness and Panic. All the speakers including the two guests spoke with confidence and aplomb.

TM Raghuram also delivered his evaluation in a  crisp and clear manner. His encouraging words makes the speaker feel special with the way he encourages them His emphasis on figures of speech usage was commendable and so were his suggestions on areas of improvement

TM Rajendra Verma the stalwart was able to convey expertly how a confident opening grabbed the attention of the audience, He also explained how to use the body V formation and method to address the audience and how to emote the expressions along with the voice decibels.


The role of Grammarian was very effectively conducted and executed with a great degree of panache by TM G Kumar but his expert listening ear missed some of the Ahs and you knows of the speakers.

The Business Session too was successfully carried out by our Thalaiva with able help from TM Swati who reminded all that the next sessions TMOD would be TM Ramalingam. There would be three P1 Speeches by TM Pramod MTM Swati and MTM Kavita with evaluations by TM Ananth TM Nagesh and TM Chaitanya.  MTM Rita would be the Table Topic master, TM Raghuram would be the Time Keeper and the role of the Jokemaster would be by TM G Kumar.

TM G Kumar in his concluding remarks conveyed his thanks to all the members for helping him rejuvenate himself from a tough jet lag scenario towards an exciting Toast master session. He also complimented the two guests on their speaking abilities and welcomed them while announcing the winners of the day

Best Speaker TM Ananth  Best Table Topic speaker TM Rajendra Verma and Best Evaluator TM Raghuram

This is TM Chaitanya, who also played the role  of General evaluator ,signing off on behalf of TM Rajat Ray.

39th session

We met after skipping a session on the 9th, so we were all quite elated, rather skippy in fact, at meeting each other again. The attendance of members was low as many were away on holidays, but the presence of six guests more than made up the deficit. The group photo was as full as usual.

TM Ramalingam kicked off with an admonishment not to fear, and gently introduced the President, sharp at 3.15 pm.

President Aji Bhaskar, in an approach that has become legend in Ruwi Toastmasters, started off with a small story. A bartender, who had once helped a destitute lady with a well-timed meal, was in turn rescued from roadside begging by the same lady who had now become an owner of a company. Moral of the story: never lose an opportunity to help someone as you never know when you will need help in turn. Nice message Aji, as we really do take our own life for granted and pass by less unfortunates with polite indifference.

TMOD Ananth was feeling lucky, so he had chosen ASTROLOGY as his theme. He related amazing personal experiences with an astrologer in his youth which left us all thoughtful. He would be introducing every role-player with his or her sun sign, its characteristics and which celebrities share the same sign. Interesting intro, although he did stretch it a bit by saying Pisces sign people eat fish and Capricorns eat corn. People's faith in astrology might be shaken by such utterances, Ananth !

Timekeeper MTM Swati was introduced and she has almost become a pro at this split-second game. We gladly left this difficult task in her safe hands.

Wordmaster was TM Pramod, who introduced the word PANACEA to us. People readily related the theme Astrology to be the panacea of all ill-fortune, so the round-robin had many references to this connection. A good word, very succinct, and rarely used by us.

Jokemaster was played out by TM Vignesh. Some people are so natural at this that we start smiling as soon as the jokemaster starts speaking. Vignesh is one of them. People may not remember the jokes but they will all tell each other that they were bloody good!

There were three project speeches today - P2, P3 and P4. An excellent variety, like appetizer, main course and dessert. P2 was by MTM Rita (ev TM Chaitanya), P3 by TM Nagesh (ev TM Varma) and P4 by TM Rajat (ev TM Kaushik).

All speech criteria were ably explained by the evaluators.

P2 speech by MTM Rita was titled "Miracle Cure". She spoke about fitness being the panacea of most of the ills and diseases in life. She shared her personal journey in developing physical fitness and appealed to everybody to incorporate this important aspect into our lives. A well-delivered P2 speech.

P3 speech by TM Nagesh was titled "Hunger Pangs". It had a lovely and sensitive subject of food wastage, before it reaches our dining table as well as after. Being a P3 speech he concluded with specific actions that we individually can take to reduce the wastage of food that passes through our hands every day. A great subject and a nice semi-humorous delivery. It was a pity that time was exceeded.

P4 speech by TM Rajat was titled "The Colour of Passion". It spoke about the conundrums parents face when trying to decide an apt career for their children, and shared what approach our ancient texts have recommended in this aspect. A serious speech, full of vedic wisdom, but relevant to our lives, nonetheless.

Table Topics were conducted by TM Saleem. His topics revolved around destiny and was obviously influenced by TMOD's theme. All the guests had a chance to ponder on the mysteries of destiny and free will, both of which are required if they are to become future TMs!

All the evaluators did justice to their roles. The tension in the air was palpable as TM Chaitanya evaluated MTM Rita on her P2 speech. But it went off without a hitch in the hall (and later also, we are sure). DTM Varma did his usual comprehensive job when evaluating the P3 speech of TM Nagesh. TM Kaushik also gave his likes and recos list of the P4 speech of TM Rajat.

TM Vignesh, playing a good-brother-bad-brother double role, now descended on the stage as the dreaded Ah counter and Grammarian. He pointed out a few valid grammatical issues and overall caught some 30 Ahs. You got a good ear, TM!

General Evaluation was done by TM Rajkamal, in great detail. For the record he asked -

• SAA to be more confident
• Timekeeper to remember to tell about the 30 sec grace.
• Wordmaster to mention part of speech and source of the word.
• Topicmaster to consider members without roles before guests, and to call on the speaker after announcing the topic.
• Evaluators to mention the time taken and to recommend lengthening or shortening the speech.
• Speakers to practice with timing.

We were grateful for the details that you went into, GE, for our benefit.

Business session conducted by Aji Bhaskar saw next week's speeches and roles finalised. He recommended that the members refer to the master sheet prepared by VPE earlier so that speech preparation can start well in time.

Aji Bhaskar, now in the President's role, concluded the session. Everyone appreciated the revival of the final snacks and tea and the last round of friendly gossip before we all dispersed.

The day's winners were:

• Best Evaluator        - DTM Varma
• Best Topic speaker - Shreya 
• Best Speaker           - TM Rajat

See you all on 23.7.16.

(Next blog will be posted by TM Chaitanya, so get ready for a different flavour !)

38th session

After a couple of joint sessions with MMTC, we were back to our original shape and size. Seriously, for a Saturday preceding Eid holidays, attendance of 15 (including guests) was pretty good.

The stand-in SAA was TM Chaitanya and he started the session on the dot with a great deal of verve. His energy really set the pace for the session.

President Aji Bhaskar, as usual, related a beautiful story about Alfred Nobel, when, in a mistaken obituary about himself, he saw himself described as "Merchant of Death" and decided this was not how he wanted to be remembered, just because he had invented dynamite. He then involved himself in altruistic work and created the Nobel fund for awarding excellence in various areas. This is another way of approaching the habit of Begin with the End in Mind. Decide how you would like to be remembered, and work towards it. Thank you TM Aji, for that lovely insight.

TMOD Venkat has chosen the theme ANGER. In between role plays, he kept on expounding on ways of handling anger. In his introduction of role-players, he also described what made them see red and how they dealt with it. An interesting psycho-couch on all role-players, Venkat, thanks to you.

Timekeepr TM Pramod, in his debut role, was introduced. Pramod perfectly described the timing rules to all of us.

Wordmaster for the day was played by MTM Swati and she introduced the word IMPECCABLE. People had a shot at making sentences in a round robin, where surprisingly, the subject of sports was exploited thoroughly. Other humdrum fields of life are not so impeccable, it seems.

Jokemaster MTM Rita took the stage next, with dire warnings that she had locked the doors till due laughter was registered. She related a number of real-life funny situations in examination scenarios, which were quite amusing. It's a fine line between that and a joke really, so we declared the role-play successful.

There were two P3 speeches scheduled today (would have been three, but TM Nagesh could not attend). TM Rajat explained the expectations from a P3 speech.

TM Mathen gave the first speech with the title "Idiot box - a menace or blessing". Both the general and specific purpose came through quite clearly as he finally laid down ways to ensure that the idiot box remained a blessing. Good speech TM Mathen.

TM Ananth gave the second speech titled "Seatbelts do very little help". Interestingly, he expounded on the other issues of car safety, like size, crash rating, ground clearance etc, that we seldom consider when when buying a car. Using safety belt is not the only aspect of car safety. Very educative, TM Ananth.

Table Topics were conducted by TM Chaitanya and his topics revolved around the theme of anger. They were intellectually stimulating and all the guests and Rita, who were on the call list, displayed very good attempts at handling them. Kudos.

Evaluations were given by TM Rajat and TM Vignesh respectively, who lauded both speakers on the impeccable aspects of their speeches and highlighted areas of improvement. 

MTM Swati returned to the stage as Ah-counter and Grammarian. She was supported from outside by TM Chaitanya and together they pinned many an Ah to the wall. Grammatical errors were duly pointed out as well. Good job MTM Swati and we hope to see more nit-picking role-players in future. All to the good.

General Evaluation was done by TM Aji Bhaskar, who applauded all the role players at having acted their parts beautifully. He suggested that the Grammarian, when pointing out mistakes, can mention the names. After all it was all in the spirit of learning. He also asked the Timekeeper to exhibit the colours when talking about them. We will remember, GE.

Business session was conducted by TM Mathen. It was discovered that there would be very few attendees for the 9.7.16 session, being in the middle of Eid holidays. After toying with the idea of having a joint session with the Airport club or SBG club, it was finally decided to drop the session on 9th and go directly to the 16th session. Since some speakers were dropping out in both the 9th and the 16th session, there would still be only 2-3 project speeches. Ananth will be TMOD. 

President Aji Bhaskar adjourned the session, after declaring the awards.

Today's awards were:
Best Table Topic:             MTM Rita
Best Evaluator:                TM Rajat
Best Speaker:                   TM Ananth

See you all on 16.7.16 - same time, same place.