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.