Ruwi Toastmasters Club: 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.