Ruwi Toastmasters Club: 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.