43rd session with
theme of “Independence” was advanced by a day as the Office bearers of the Club
had a scheduled Office bearers’ training session on 13th August.
Session commenced on dot by our Thailavar and Acting Sergeant At Arms TM Kumar
in his inimitable cool and composed style. He stressed on the need for freedom
of speech, writing, etc and briefed how Toastmasters International helped in promoting
Interdependence, which is a beneficial aspect of public speaking. He briefed
about the taboos to be avoided during the session, requested Members for
keeping mobile on meditative mode and read the mission statement. He then
requested President TM Aji Bhaskar, a leader par excellence and passionately
puts in great efforts at office, professional interests such ISACA, Toastmasters, and at home, to take the session forward.
President TM Aji in his creative
and storytelling mode welcomed the Members to the 43rd session. He chose a
story underlying the importance of “Independence” and “Interdependence” and how
they are interrelated. He avidly narrated the story of Veera Kerala Pazhassi
Raja, known as the Lion of Kerala. He was one of the earliest freedom fighters
and in late 1766 started a war against the British policy of ‘divide and rule’
and exploitation of the people. The British tried to alienate his followers and
isolated King Pazhassi Raja, who left to Wynad Mountains with his wife and few
followers. He started inflicting damages to the invaders and killed 25 soldiers.
The British intensified their fight against him and on 13th November 1805, he
was killed. The British accorded recognition on his death. TM Aji then
highlighted how each of us can help one another for freedom to public speaking.
He highlighted how under the guidance of our Founder Member TM Kumar, the Ruwi
Toastmasters Club made efforts to make the Members face the fear of failure of
public speaking and emerge successful.
The Toastmaster of the day was
TM Ananth, who dressed like a Bridegroom,
humorously explained how his daughter reacted when he told that he had
selected
Independence Day as the
theme of the day and his daughter was wondering how he can recreate the scenes
of Bomb blast, Presidential speech and Spaceship like the one she saw in the
movie “Independence day”. He reminisced how the importance of Independence Day
evolved - as the School leader in the 10th standard he was thrilled to hoist
the National flag and get sweets and at the age of 20, it became very memorable
as his sister got married on the Independence Day in the house of Pattabhi
Sitaramayya, an Indian independence activist and political leader from the
state of
Andhra Pradesh. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
contributed to the fight against the British and participated in Quit India
Movement and was instrumental in establishing
Andhra Bank and
also started Andhra Insurance Company. TMOD TM Ananth highlighted that the
benefits we are all enjoying now is thanks to the sacrifices of such great leaders.
TMOD had painstakingly taken
inputs from each one of the role players and had thoroughly researched into each
one of the freedom fighters admired by the role players. His approach was to
highlight some of the anecdotes of such freedom fighters and then call upon the
role players to the stage.
This was a great freedom
fighter, a lady, born in Hyderabad. She was a Child prodigy but when at the age
of 14, her teacher gave some problems in algebra, she found it so difficult to
solve but she wrote pages of poetry with sweet rhythmic words. She Studied in
Cambridge and fell in love with Govindarajulu Naidu and after marriage, her
name became Sarojini Naidu, one of the renowned freedom fighters and 1st Indian
woman president of Indian National Congress. She traveled across different
states delivering speeches on social welfare and her poetry became the medium
of sending out the message of independence. Today’s time-keeper was inspired by
the Nightingale of India , and he welcomed TM Swathi.
MTM Swathi in her usual
composed manner effectively conveyed the rules to the role players. There is
breaking news from her for all the Toastmasters, which will be mentioned in the
blog.
TM Ananth introduced the
freedom fighter admired by TM Kavita, the word master of the day. She was born
in Varanasi and studied shooting and horsemanship from home till the
age of 14. She was married to King of Jhansi and then Manikarnika became Rani Laxmi Bai, a leading figure of
Indian rebellion against British Raj.
MTM Kavita introduced the word
“Lucidity” which comes from the Latin word “lucidus” meaning
"light, bright, clear." She used the synonyms which are clarity,
clearness, simplicity,etc and Antonyms of the word which are obscurity,
abstruseness, etc. MTM Kavita encouraged
all the Members to use the word to form a sentence.
Before the Jokemaster of the
day was introduced, TMOD enlightened Members about a renowned Reformist,
Freedom Fighter, Educationist, Journalist from Kerala who worked for upliftment of
downtrodden and was imprisoned for Non Co-operation movement. He was the
Founding member of the popular newspaper "Mathrubhoomi". He was Kellappan Nair,
known as Kerala Gandhi. He was a simple person like Mahatma Gandhi and at the
time of his death, had left only Rs. 28/- as he had contributed everything to
the society.
TM Raja, the Jokemaster of the
day presented Jokes, some of which flew like bouncers to the Members making
them wonder what was that and ended up with a personal anecdote of how Honey,
which was used as home remedy to cure a wound became a delight for the germs in
the wound.
This youngster, from the age
of 14, was one of the advocates of Violent overthrow of the British Raj. He
assassinated a British Police Officer and was convicted and hanged for
assassination, at the age of 23. The legacy of Bhagat Singh inspired youth to
continue fighting for independence. TMOD welcomed TM John for P1 Evaluation
criteria.
TM John lucidly explained the
rules of P1 Icebreaking speech and encouraged TM Saleem to be fearless while
giving his P1 speech.
He was known as Tiger of
Mysore. He is considered as a pioneer in the use of
rocket artillery and deployed the rockets
against advances of British forces and their allies. He won important victories
against the British and remained their implacable enemy. Dr
APJ Abdul Kalam, the former
President of India, called Tipu Sultan the
innovator of the world's first war rocket. TMOD invited TM Saleem for his
P1 speech.
TM Saleem hailing from Udupi narrated
his life journey from the struggling younger days, how his dreams of becoming a
Chartered Accountant and Engineer got shattered and how he persisted to
complete MCA, PGDCA and MBA and got into a good job with IBM and later on moved
to NBO, much to the shock and amazement of his class mates. He scripted a
passionate P1 speech, in such a short time frame, that the Members were
reminded by the President TM Aji in his concluding remarks that it was
finalized only at 1 am on the day of this session. Hats off to this
multilingual budding Toastmaster and wish him a great journey both in life and
Toastmasters as well.
His favourite pastimes during the
childhood were twisting dogs' ears. He passed out 10th standard with
40% marks. He spent 21 years as an NRI. His attempts at establishing a law
practice in
Bombay failed miserably as he was unable to cross examine
witnesses. The turning point in his life came when he was thrown out of a train, which was exclusive to
whites. And the rest is history. He is none other than Mahatma Gandhiji,
father of the nation.
TM Mathen, like our Captain
Cool explained the rules of P3 speech and encouraged TM Nagesh to make the
speech to the point and convey the general and specific purpose of the speech
to the Members.
This national leader passed
his 10th grade at the age of 22. Family elders regarded him as an non
unambitious man. At the age of 36, he went to England and completed a 36 months’
Law course in 30 months, and was the topper too. While he was cross-examining a
witness in the Court, he was given a note informing him of his wife's demise.
He read the note, pocketed it and continued to intensely cross-examine the
witness and won the case. He broke the news to others only after the
proceedings had ended. It was Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the First Dy. Prime
Minister and the Ironman of India who was instrumental in uniting 565 princely
states into the modern India. TMOD invited TM Nagesh for his P3 speech titled “Hunger Pangs”.
TM Nagesh passionately
highlighted about how hunger and wastage of food co existed in our lives. 1/3rd
of the food prepared goes to waste and impacts Mother Earth. He exhorted
Members to try buffet instead of serving food on plates; shopping and planning
for provisions once in a month rather than taking multiple trips; and buy only
what is required. He explained how ‘Operation Robinhood” is helping in
collecting and distributing food to the needy. He urged Members to focus on
preventing wastage of food and since our kids are learning from us we have
added responsibility for this. A well scripted and passionately delivered
speech by TM Nagesh and I am sure Members will consciously remember his words
when they take food hereafter.
This is about a great poet,
social reformer, freedom fighter who has penned thousands of poems covering diverse
topics like Indian Nationalism, love songs, songs of nature, and glory of
the
Tamil language. He fought for greater rights for women and a
reputed University is named after him. He is arguably one of the greatest Tamil
poets. He is none other than Chinnaswami Subramaniya Bharati known as Mahakavi
Bharathiar, a leader adored by TM Kamil, the Table Topics Master of the day.
TM Kamil filled into the role
swiftly as TM Vignesh could not attend the meeting. Like the word of the day,
the topics were lucid (Love at first, tell us something about self which is unknown
to others,etc) and made the role players comfortable and speak about it as
evidenced by all the speakers qualifying for the vote. It opened up some of the role players who
broached on the subjects such as love at first sight and secrets unknown to us
about them.
TM John applauded TM Saleem
for his P1 speech for not using the notes, well prepared script and good usage
of gestures. Areas of improvement mentioned were about giving a title to the speech;
provide some information about siblings and spouse and the need to throw out
the voice as the voice was feeble.
TM Mathen praised TM Nagesh
for choosing a very relevant topic and using right usage of language and
confident delivery of the speech without notes and having a proper opening,
body and conclusion. Better usage of the Stage, more eye contacts, and
reiterating the key points as final conclusion were the areas of improvement
suggested for him.
This nationalist leader had 14 siblings and was born into a wealthy family of
lawyers. Violent Patrotism was his strategy to fight against British and he made
his own Army. He was the President of Indian National Congress and escaped from
India and took the help of Germans and Japanese in his fight against
British. His death is still a mystery
and Dr.Subash Chandra Bose, regarded as a great freedom fighter is an inspiration to TM Pramod, even though he
does not advocate violence himself.
TM Pramod, the Hark Master was
cool as a cucumber, and tested the Members on the listening skills. Being an
Auditor, we were fortunate to get a clean report today on the listening skills
of the Members.
Our next hero is one of the
Unsung heroes of Indian Freedom movement. At the age of 16, he planted
bombs near police stations and targeted government officials. He was arrested
for conducting a series of bomb attacks. The judge, surprised, asked him
whether he had understood the meaning of the sentence that was just pronounced.
He replied that he surely had. When the judge asked him again whether he had
anything to say, in front of a packed audience, he replied with same smile that
if he could be given some time, he could teach the judge the skill of
bomb-making. He was Khudiram Bose. Khudiram had 7 days time to appeal to the
High Court but he refused to make appeal. At the time of his hanging,
he was 18 years, 8 months 8 days old.
TM Sachin, our Grammarian
informed that only 3 ‘Ahs’ were used during the session. He made proper pronunciation
of words such as “Iron”, “Synonyms” and “Antonyms”. He also emphasized the wrong
usage of “He could not be able to” and how it can be grammatically rephrased was driven home to the Members.
He was a disciple of Bal
Gangadhar Tilak and started the Swadeshi Shipping Service, which was competing against British. The British
company tried to destroy the completion by reducing the fare and finally offering
a free trip to the passengers plus a free umbrella; however, nationalist
sentiment meant that the free service was underused and he successfully managed
to get national patronage for his Shipping company. He was a great Tamil
Political Leader and Member of INC. He was charged on Sedition by British
Government, sentenced to Life imprisonment. But that did not deter Valiappan
Olaganth Chidambaram Pillai, popular as V.O.C to be part of the freedom
movement.
TM Ramalingam, the General
Evaluator of the day, applauded Members for coming on a Friday. He thanked TMOD
Ananth for good research on freedom fighters. He informed that some of the role
players underutilized time given and some exceeded it. He suggested that
Mentors help should be sought for time management of prepared speeches.
She is a freedom fighter from
Kerala. She was a Teacher and later became Head Mistress. She joined freedom
struggle and led a mass rally to revoke ban on Congress. The British police chief ordered his men to
fire on the rally of over 20,000 people. She cried, "I am the leader;
shoot me first before you kill others". Her courageous words forced
the police authorities to withdraw their orders. She was arrested and went to
jail and later became full time worker of State Congress. She is none
other than Achamma Cherian, known as Jhansi Rani of Travancore.
President TM Aji took over
from the TMOD Ananth and congratulated him for a wonderful performance and said
that other budding Toastmasters can learn from him on how he is grooming
himself into a matured performer. The business session of the day saw the
confirmation of the roles for the 44th Session on 20th of August:-
TMOD by TM Mathen. Sergent At Arms by TM Ramalingam, Welcome Address by President TM Aji , Harkmaster
by TM Nagesh, Joke Master by MTM Kavita, Table Topics by TM Saleem, P5 speech by
TM Ananth and P5 evaluation by TM Kumar, General Evaluation by TM Kamil. Roles of Word master and one
more speaker and speech evaluator are open and I am sure the freshly arrived Members
would grab it immediately.
TM Aji also announced the
breaking news that TM Swati will be witnessing the International convention live
in the USA. A Proud moment for the Ruwi
Toastmasters Club indeed.
The much awaited award winners
were announced by the President along with his concluding remarks and adjournment.
Best Table Topic Speaker - TM Sachin
Best Speaker - TM Nagesh
Best Evaluator - TM Mathen
Congratulations Winners.
After a long account of the Independence day session’s proceedings, on behalf
of TM Rajat Ray, this is Team Raghuram
and Raja signing off.
PS There will be a new blog writer for the next session as TM Raja will also be
travelling.
