43rd Session

43^rd 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 13^th 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 44^th 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.