Quote of the Day

If you have nothing to say, better say it quickly.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

79th session


Can we have too much of a good thing?
Two wives or husbands?
Two mothers?
Two best friends?

After attending this session, the audience would have gone back convinced that two TMODs, at any rate, really elevate the quality of a session. For this session had two TMODs, playing a lovely duet.

SAA kicked off the session 2 minutes before time and handed over the stage to the acting President MTM Panna.

MTM Panna this time told the story of her life, in particular her mother's life - how she had migrated from Burma to India during the war and brought up her family in an atmosphere of uncertainty and financial constraints, while lending warmth and guidance to the children throughout. An inspiring story about a very strong woman, from whom Panna has probably inherited her energy and enthusiasm.

TMODs for today were MTMs Rita and Kaviya, with the theme of "Mother". The subject touched the heart of each and everyone in the audience. The TMODs led us through the various stages of a mother's life and the different roles that she plays. It was an effortless duet between the two, supported by slides that had humorous aphorisms about mothers. They also introduced the role-players by asking them questions about their views on different aspects of motherhood. A very well-designed session, flawlessly conducted. Kudos TMODs.

Timekeeper's role was played by MTM Swati, who was a seasoned hand by now, waving around the flags effortlessly.

MTM Alma introduced the word MATERNAL, in keeping with the theme, and the round robin flew around the hall full of maternal uncles and maternal love.

There was a P2 and a P5 speech scheduled for today. TM Venkat delivered the P2 speech criteria while the P5 criteria were described by TM Ramalingam. They both did a good job of laying out the expectations from these project speeches.

MTM Usha delivered the P2 speech "Unsung Hero". In a session where the theme was flooding everyone with motherliness, MTM Usha represented the father to us in all his low-key glory. Though unplanned, it was a nice counterpoint to the session and a really well-delivered speech to boot.

TM Chaitanya delivered his P5 speech "Dates". He described the first dates that he had with his future wife, with high humorous overtones that had the audience in splits. A very entertaining speech, TM, although your commitment to the speech made you overshoot the time limit.

Table topics were conducted by TM Kamil, who adhered to the theme of the day in his choice of topics. The topics were varied and interesting and the speakers could speak from their own experience.

TMs Venkat abd Ramalingam delivered their efficient evaluations of the two speeches.

TM Kumar undertook a special session where he spoke about the change in core committee members scheduled from July'17. Nominations already received were declared and he invited everybody to nominate themselves in case anyone wanted to contest for the posts, failing which the nominated members would be declared as part of the new core committee. As no one contested, the following new core committee was declared:
  • President: MTM Panna
  • VP-Education: TM Mathen
  • VP-Membership: TM Chaitanya
  • VP-PR: TM Rajat
  • Secretary:  TM Nagesh
  • Treasurer: TM Ramalingam
  • Sargeant-at-arms: TM Raja

Congratulations to all of them and may they lead the club to greater heights next year.

Ah counter and Grammarian role was played by TM Raja, who was feeling thoroughly motherly and indulged in a few scattered loving reprimands.

General Evaluator role was played by TM Rajat, who was also pretty high on the milk of human kindness and wrapped up before time with a strong appreciation for the TMODs and some mild observations on the proceedings.

President Panna, before wrapping up, congratulated TM Kumar on taking over the mantle of Division-D Director for 2017-18. He was crowned and presented with a congratulatory greeting card signed by all present members.


She also announced the awards for the evening, which were as follows:
  • Best Table topic:  TM Viswa
  • Besr Evaluator:  TM Venkat
  • Best Speaker:  MTM Usha Vijay

Being Ramadaan, no snacks were served.

See you all on 3.6.17, a session that starts at 5.00 pm and ends with an iftaar party.



Saturday, May 20, 2017

78th session




Summer vacations as well as Ramadaan is approaching and attendance is usually affected. But, though less than usual, the rows were pretty well occupied. An extremely encouraging sign people, and do keep it up through the slog overs in the next two months.

SAA TM Ramalingam kicked off the session 2 minutes before time. In fact the class was already seated at 3.12 pm and was getting restless at the lack of activity.

Acting Prez MTM Panna led off with a small inspirational story about a blind lady who energised others in her daily commute by her upbeat attitude and independent spirit. Let's keep our tail up, she said. If blindness can be overcome, anything can be.

TMOD Raja had chosen as his theme "Being blind". Starting with 15 mins of "eyes closed" sitting, his session took us into the world of the blind - the blind from birth, during life and the visually impaired. It was informative and thought-provoking. He introduced every role-player with a question on some aspect of blindness that he had asked them. A well-played role, TM Raja.

Timekeeper MTM Roman was new to the club but had immediately taken up a role - kudos. She explained the timing rules perfectly and promised she would keep her eyes wide open.

Wordmaster MTM Rita introduced the word MYOPIC to the group, in keeping with the theme. The audience had an enthusiastic go at the round robin, making sentences with the clinical meaning of myopic as well as the metaphorical one. A good word, MTM, and an eye-opener for us.

Jokemaster TM Nagesh was in his element as usual and entertained us with some impromptu jokes as well as his prepared ones (colour blindness while buying sarees was a good one). At the end of his session, he had had the audience rolling in the aisles with watering eyes.

There were 3 speeches scheduled today - a rich haul. P-3 speech criteria were explained by TM Rajat, P-4 criteria by TM Chaitanya and P-8 criteria by TM Paresh.

MTM Swati delivered her P-3 speech "Essence of Life". Meant to showcase communication of general and specific purpose in the speech, she achieved her objectives, the speech subject being water, our blindness to water wastage and the need for conservation.As usual, she was very free on stage and exuded confidence.

MTM Kaviya delivered her P-4 speech "Direct the Sail", which was about her travel travails in Mumbai monsoons when she went there to represent her college. P-4 speech is all about good use of language and language has always been a strong point with MTM Kaviya. A very well-written script.

TM Ramalingam delivered (second time, as he had not been satisfied with his first delivery) his P-8 speech "My Life's Learnings". P-8 speech is about use of visual aids and TM Ramalingam's piece-de-resistance was his powerpoint presentation that shared the learnings with aphorisms, anecdotes and humour.  His various gems of wisdom were eye-openers for us.

Table topics were conducted by MTM Usha using the same theme of blindness. However, the subjects were more on mental blindness, which made them more interesting to the speakers and audience. Good choice of topics, MTM.

Evaluators gave feedback to the respective speakers, with regard to achievement of project goals, things done well, and aspects to keep an eye upon.

Grammarian TM Vishwanath was both happy and unhappy. Happy because he could hardly find any grammatical errors even with eyes and ears wide open, and unhappy because of the same reason.

General Evaluator TM Venkat went through the session meticulously as usual and gave encouraging comments to all.

Acting Prez MTM Panna distributed the awards and announced the session closed.


Todays awards were:
  • Best table topic:    MTM Sharanya
  • Best evaluator:     TM Paresh and TM Chaitanya
  • Best speaker:       MTM Kaviya
See you all on 27.06.17.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

77th session
















The 77th session on May 13th 2017  was kicked off by none other than the Master, the Leader and the Stalwart of us all Kumar bhai.  He has the flair to motivate anyone and this session began with him commenting that there was slim attendance due to the fact that some members were in Vacation mode.

The Welcome address, in absence of our  sparkling and exuberant Acting President MTM Panna, was delivered by TM Chaitanya. In line with the tradition of stories with a message TM Chaitanya narrated a story of a King who had injured his finger in a hunt and ultimately due to infection had to lose his finger. The perceived catastrophe by the King ultimately turned into a boon when his life was saved as a result of this loss.  Good Bad who knows is how one should look at each incident in ones life. The moral of the story was never to judge an event as good or bad as each occurrence bears a significance in ones life.

The Toastmaster of the Day was TM K Venkat. He led us to a wonderful flight to the world of Vacations. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. To derive benefits of physical well being  a real Vacation can only happen when one unplugs from work and focusses on what one likes to do beside work. Vacations relieve you of Stress and its negative effects on ones physic. Vacations  also help to clear ones head of confusion and the feeling of being frazzled. Vacations increases happiness  helps in  building ones immune  system and lowers the risk of heart diseases.  Vacations improve your bonding with the family, the quality of sleep and the final rejuvenation of your body.

The Time Keeper of the day was carried out by the now increasingly confident MTM Vaishali who not only gave us the time criteria but also explained us through a quote the value of time and how to respect it.

The Word master of the day was filled in at the last minute by our ever helpful TM Salim. The word introduced was IMPLAUSIBLE. It is an adjective which means (of an argument or statement) not seeming reasonable or probable; failing to convince. Even  though it sounded close to the word impossible TM Salim was able to have a successful round robin usage of the word in sentences by the members present.

The Joke master of the day was MTM Rita who tickled our funny bones in a unique style of her own. There was  witty humour  free of any gender bias.

The Project 9 speech criteria of Persuade with Power was eloquently explained by the confident TM Vignesh. His pleasant disposition and clear deliverance of the project criteria had a persuasive and motivating power to it.

The Project 9 speech titled The Genuine Sandwich by MTM Criselda Pinto had quite an interesting twist to it. The smooth manner in which she explained her desire to get genuine feedback from not only her evaluator but all members present was very innovative as well as motivating. Many TM fall victim to giving only positive feedback with no meat in it. The distribution of feedback slips to each and every member made it easy for her to encourage and motivate the members to give her a feedback. Kudos to our guest speaker whose message will always be imbedded in our minds.

The Table Topic Master of the day TM Raja were in line with the theme of the day with topics which were laden with humour and innovative style. Vacation without money, Vacation which was memorable and Vacation a status symbol were some of the challenging topics given by him.

The P9 Speech evaluation by TM Vignesh was amazing and an eye opener not only for the speaker but all of us who were present. He gave a fantastic feedback which  encouraged the speaker with meaty positives and also had sufficient genuine areas of improvement. A thorough evaluation which taught us that one is only genuine when one balances the pros and cons of any speech.

The General Evaluator of the day TM Ram has a unique way of evaluating the role players with humorous punches. Winston Churchill once said  “Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” 

With concluding remarks of a session well completed in all aspects, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this blog. I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.

Best Speech Award MTM Criselda Pinto
Best Evaluator TM Vignesh
Best Table Topic Speaker TM Chaitanya


Saturday, May 6, 2017

76th session - Platinum Jubilee celebrations

75 sessions.

Is that a long way to have travelled, or a short way?

For a club less than 2 years old, it IS a long way and great cause for celebration, for we all know that without tremendous care and support, infant mortality rates for new-born clubs is quite high.

One need not have worried about RTC on this front though. It had been born a healthy baby, full of energy, taken care of by the Founder fathers and the Mentor mothers and handheld by a serious big brother SBG club. It had flourished in this nourishing environment and had walked, talked and started fighting well before time.

No doubt a celebration was required for this milestone and we were graced by the presence of dignitaries like the Division Director, the past, present and future Area Directors and a multitude of guests.

SAA TM Raja examined the pitch closely and flagged off with an energetic "Three, two, one..." and handed over the bat to the Acting President MTM Panna.

MTM Panna, in keeping with the importance of the occasion, related three stories instead of one, regarding cricketers who had excelled in their fields in spite of serious health issues. She exhorted us not to give up if faced with a closed door. Perhaps a gentle push would open it. If it didn't, jolly well kick it down!


TMOD Chaitanya, who had emceed for the 50th session as well, had once again come up with a great theme. With the Indian Premier League cricket fever raising the heat, he had chosen IPL as his theme, giving us a history of the formation of the franchise and introducing each role-player mentioning his or her favourite team. In fact, he has already distributed team T-shirts to be worn during the session - a hallmark of his enthusiasm and meticulous planning for such occasions. Hats off to you, TM Chaitanya, for a wonderfully conducted session.

Timekeeper MTM Rita explained the rules in her usual clear and lucid manner, in a copybook forward defensive style.

Wordmaster TM Saleem had chosen the word IMPLAUSIBLE for the day. This was a googly as it sounded like Impossible but differed slightly in meaning. A few wickets fell when the audience members tried to form sentences with the same, but there were some sixers as well.

Jokemaster MTM Kaviya had pulled out a number of good jokes on cricket that were well-appreciated by the audience. Good running between the wickets there, MTM.

A P-8 speech was scheduled today and veteran TM Babu Srinivasan described the criteria for this Visual Aids project in down-to-earth terms. Given the capability of the speaker, he said, he expected many lofted boundaries over the heads of the close-in fielders.

P-8 Speech "My Life's Learnings" was delivered by TM Ramalingam. He had gleaned various pearls of wisdom from his own life and presented them with a dash of humour, supported by a powerpoint presentation of photos, clips and messages. His cyber-family in particular, was very endearing. His strokes were strong and along the ground, but the slow outfield prevented many boundaries.

Table topics were conducted by MTM Swati, who in her usual innovative spirit, carried a tennis ball on stage, which she tossed to the person who was being targetted to speak. The topics were cricket-related of course. MTM Swati was pleased as punch to have so many distinguished guest speakers and she did some bodyline bowling with gusto.

P-8 evaluation was given by TM Babu Srinivasan in his usual critical yet encouraging style. In particular, his suggestion for using more than one visual aid was a valid one.  All aspiring P-8 speakers would do well to follow such net practice sessions.

A Keynote Speaker champion was present today, the winner of the Keynote challenge held recently. She was introduced by TM G Kumar. A keynote speech is a relatively longer speech, around 20 minutes, in which the speaker usually adopts an inspirational theme.


Keynote speaker MTM Israa Al Ajmi played a champion's knock, She spoke about the judgments that we make of people without adequate knowledge and without applying our minds. At the same time, we ourselves work for the approval of our friends and family, which in the long run, may not be in our best interests. The speech was fluent, it expressed deep ideas and it made us think. Her wagon-wheel covered the whole field and made for a very successful keynote speech.

There was a 6 minute presentation of "Highlights" of the last 20 months of the club, presented by TM Rajat through an animated powerpoint presentation , which took the audience on a journey from the club's birth to charter, to the Talent Show and the 50th session celebrations. The talk celebrated individual achievements at the club contests and the clubs foray into ribbon-collecting. New initiatives like Word of the Day were appreciated. As TM Rajat said, RTC was into playing 20-20, either sixer or out, young, enthusiastic and informal. We hope to retain that spirit as we grow older, bigger and even better.

TM Kamil acted as General Evaluator, smooth but not sparing anybody just because it was the 75th session. Like Hawkeye, he showed us action-replays in slow motion so that each role-player understood clearly where he had taken his eyes off the ball.

The session was declared closed by MTM Panna, who removed the bails and produced a knife for cutting the commemorative cake.


Snacks today was a special treat, home-cooked and arranged by Mrs and Mr Rajendra Varma. We all partook with a festive air, as if at break-time the first team had scored 200 plus runs and considered the match to be practically a walkover.


Far from a walk-over, friends. The 100th session is just round the corner and expectations are going through the roof.


See you all at the next session on 13.5.16.