64th session

64th session.

Sent a shiver down my spine because my father developed a heart problem at the age of 64.

To top it all, theme for today was "How to break hearts".

I was very apprehensive, but I need not have worried. Trust RTC to come up with the youngest and fittest session ever. We started on time, sprinted down the track, and skidded to a stop at 4.55 pm, on the dot. We weren't even panting.

We had a brand new SAA today, TM Vishwa, who opened the session with a suitable quote and a lot of vigor.

President Aji Baskar delivered the welcome address with a cute story from Michigan where he described how a couple, in spite of terrible adversities, overcame them all came out shining in a sphere they had not foreseen earlier. Very inspiring, as usual; thank you Aji for that.

TMOD Ananth, the suave and smiling buccaneer, had announced the mysterious theme of "How to break hearts" with a build up of infatuations and scarlet gossip. Although he started in a proper hectoring tone like a priest about to sermonise, we soon realised that the subject was not really the heart but six inches lower - the stomach. Instead of blood, he was after our cooking oil, exhorting all of us to reduce or even forego oil in our food. An inspiring theme, TMOD, but next time, let's have some blood, shall we?

Timekeeper TM Alma introduced us to the timing rules, wishing all speakers the best. Sweet of you, TM Alma.

Wordmaster TM Mathen released the word STUPENDOUS for the day, and it scampered around the hall, jumping from lip to lip, lighting up sentences with its superlative sense. Thank you TM Mathen for an easy-to-use word that everyone, including the role players, found easy to incorporate.

Jokemaster TM Saleem was spaced out today as his humorous story unfolded in the cockpit of a jet. Very nice use of language, TM Saleem, and very smoothly delivered.

P-6 criteria were described by TM Panna, readying the audience for a demonstration of Vocal Variety. 

P-6 speech was delivered by TM Venkat, titled "6 bags". Based on his travails in the local gym as he toiled to convert his 6 bags to 6 packs, his speech was content-rich, humorous and ended with a health message. TM Venkat has a powerful voice and he did justice to the project criteria.

P-7 criteria were described by TM Aji, explaining the approach of a speech based on Research.

P-7 speech was delivered by TM Ramalingam, titled "Keep calm and drive green". Based on the inevitable movement of the mobile world towards non-fuel locomotion, TM Ramalingam painted a complete picture of current issues and future prospects supported by data. A good speech indeed, TM.

Table topics conducted by TM Raja found the speakers embroiled in matters of the heart, since the topics were in line with the theme. Doubtlessly, everyone had something to say on the subject, so it was a good basket to pick from, TM Raja.

Evaluations delivered by TM Panna and TM Aji were precise, to the point and motivating.

Harkmster TM Kavita was gentle on all, asking questions that could be answered fairly easily.

Grammarian TM Kaviya wielded her red pen with a fine but firm hand, covering as many issues as possible.

General Evaluator TM Rajat gave a glowing feedback. Time adherence had been impressive. TMOD had run the session beautifully. All role players had played like pros. What more could a GE want?

President Aji's closing smile was also beatific. What more can a President also want, except a session well-run? Let's move on to tea and snacks, he cried.

The awards were:

• Best Topic speaker:        TM Joy Mukherjee
• Best Evaluator:               TM Panna
• Best Speaker:                 TM Venkat

Next week's session on 4.2.17 is a club contest on Table Topics.

So please do come, as participant or audience.

63rd session - Table Topic Fest

There is a fact that all of us have to admit - something new keeps happening at Ruwi Club!

With competition season coming up, what better idea could VP-E have come up with than a marathon of table topics, with no choice to the members but to run. ALL the members who attended today were part of the fest, stood up and spoke, and went down in RTC history as having spoken their minds in front of the best of the best - DTM Varma, AD Ramki, TM Rajkamal and TM Vignesh, the original mentors and guides of the club. 

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Today's SAA was TM Vignesh and he opened the session on a congratulatory note, having watched the competitive fever warming up in the club.

President Aji declared the session open and related a story of five monkeys, which for once, ran into rough weather as that story had been related by acting president Panna a week earlier! However, a different voice served to reinforce the message and TM Aji used the story to mention the importance of work culture in team-building.

Today's Master of Ceremonies was TM Rajkamal, a past master at the game. He flagged off by inviting DTM Varma to conduct an education session on Table Topics, that would reveal some useful tips to the future contestants.

Those who missed DTM Varma's presentation today, missed out on an invaluable strategy session on Table Topics. DTM Varma dissected the approaches into 4 modes that would help the speaker to make up his mind as to what tack to take. He also highlighted the importance to listening to the topic carefully, the way to utilise the initial pause to think, the need of choosing an approach quickly and not deviating from it, and the benefit of importing as much of speaking tools into the speech as possible. A great session DTM, albeit shorter than we would have wished it to be.

The MC described the structure of the marathon. Wow! Take a look:

• Topics had been chosen by TM Rajkamal, the MC, from DTAC competition topics.
• The speakers (12 in this case) would be split into 3 groups. Each group would have one of the 3 topics.
• The group would go through a contest mode, ie the participants would be called into the hall one by one and given the topic to speak on. The speaker could then stay back.
• A video of the winning speech would then be shown, as an example of how this topic had been exploited by the champion speaker.
• All the audience members had been evaluating the 4 speakers and the feedback slips would be collected and handed over.
• The evaluators (DTM Varma nd AD Ramki) would give individual feedback to the 4 speakers.
• Repeat for the next group.

Could there be a more comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Table Topics in a mock session? I think not.

What a wide range of participation was there - from stalwarts like IPAD Kumar and Pres Aji to brand new members like TM Sabu and TM Sridhar. All speakers raised their efforts by a clear notch and gave the evaluators points to laud. Evaluations by DTM Varma and AD Ramki were encouraging but specific and the speakers benefited hugely from the same.

Now what were the 3 topics?

1. Whatever happens, happens for a reason.
2. Living dangerously is the only way to live.
3. If I could rewrite history...

Those members who could not be present, please choose a topic, stand in front of the mirror and shoot. 

And please look up the winning speeches on Youtube - they are indeed impressive. The speed with which the winners formulate their approach, proceed on logical paths, pull out examples in support, wrap up a conclusion and at the same time gesticulate, vary their voice, use the stage, bring in personal experience, emote, connect with the audience - practically give seven minute project speeches in just two minutes - is just mind-blowing.

DTM Varma was also handed over a topic to speak on "Which has greater value? What others see in you or what you see in yourself" and gave a cracker of a speech declaring that beyond a point, we need not bother about others' opinions. AD Ramki was handed an innocent topic "Natural disasters" and spoke fluently and passionately about the disturbances in our minds being bigger disasters than any earthquake.

Topics chosen for the mock session were indeed friendly yet interesting and everybody had something to say. We were all grateful to TM Vignesh and TM Rajkamal at having willingly taken up the two major roles for the day, which ensured that we all could participate.

AD Ramki had a surprise in store for us, a recognition of president Aji at a DTAC ex-com meeting that Ramki was attending, on account of a show of integrity. We are all proud of you, TM Aji.

Our session ended at 6 pm, with everyone's eye on the clock, as we had the hall only till then. But thanks to the courtesy of the caretaker, we were still able to have our tea and snacks in peace and enjoy the warm glow that comes at the end of a superb educative and participative session.

Like I said, it only happens at RTC.

See you all again on 28.1.17 at a normal session.

61st session

By sixty-one, a working man would have retired. But nothing could be further from the truth about Ruwi Club. We were still a growing boy and the the activities of the day were frolicsome as usual.

The meeting was kicked off on schedule by SAA TM Ramalingam.

TM Kumar was once again in the role of acting president and declared himself connected to Aji through the e-medium. This enabled him to relate a story suggested by Aji about how, in a firm, employees had been invited to attend the funeral of the person "who had prevented your growth" and everybody was astounded, after a lot of conjecture as to who that could be, to find a mirror in the coffin reflecting his own image. We ourselves enable or extinguish our ability to grow, nobody else. A nice story, Kumar-Aji (like Salim-Javed) and quite impactful. He further added the beautiful example of an egg, which, when cracked by an outside force, extinguishes life but when cracked from within, sends out a new life. Let us use these competitions to come out of our shells and ignite new personality traits,

TMOD Vishwa had chosen SAVE ENERGY as the theme of the day and he conducted the stream of information beautifully, educating us on various aspects of the current focus on energy and introducing role-players while sharing what their views on energy conservation and alternate sources were. Very well-conducted, TM Vishwa. You arrived in the nick of time an completed on the click. Great job.

Timekeeper TM Saleem took us through the time criteria, with a difference. He showed the green flag and reeled off at what time this would be shown for all speakers. Then he showed the yellow flag and repeated the same. Is this a better method? We can debate.

Wordmaster TM Swati had chosen the word STELLAR for the day. Very positive word and applicable in various situations so people had it easy in the round robin. TM Swati also introduced the idea of showing a thumbs up whenever a speaker used the word, in order to encourage him. A great idea.

There were three speeches scheduled today - P1, P5 and P7, whose criteria were described by TM Ramalingam, TM Rajat and TM Dinesh respectively.

TM Shobha delivered her P1 speech "The girl who did not talk" with great confidence and aplomb. 

TM Venkat delivered his P5 speech "Driving my life", about his experiences on obtaining a driving licence in Oman, with tremendous ease and packed with humour. This was a speech supposed to showcase Body Language, which he achieved to a great degree. Kudos TM Venkat.

TM Panna delivered her P7 speech, "Child from the heart", on the subject of adoption, with her usual dramatic opening and powerful delivery. She supported her speech with statistical data and quotes, as this speech was based on Research. A good speech, TM Panna.

Table topics were conducted by TM Alma, with topics related to the theme of energy. There were good speakers present in the audience like DTM Varma. TM Joy and guest Mrs Shilpa and we were treated to some impromptu gems.

Evaluations were carried out efficiently by all three evaluators, in the text-book manner. One could make out that the upcoming competitions were charging up the potential combatants.

Jokemaster role was played by TM Raja, who is a specialist on the husband-wife theme and kept us in splits with his short sallies.

Harkmaster was acted by TM Kumar. As usual, the questioned were varied but the audience was also wary and fielded all of them expertly.

Grammarian TM Mathen gave an extensive feedback on both uses of grammar as well as Ah-counts. The group seems to be improving continuously in rendering of the English language.

General Evaluator TM Ananth gave a very detailed feedback on the session, including mini speech-evaluations! It is always a pleasure to hear him speak because of his natural delivery and he took the sting out of whatever critical comments that he made.

TM Kumar closed the session with his concluding remarks and we adjourned for tea and snacks.

The day's awards were as follows:

• Best table topic:         Mrs Shilpa Asher
• Best evaluator:           TM Rajat
• Best speaker:              TM Panna

See you all on the 14th.