107th session

Happy New Year to all members, those who attended this session and those who didn't.

By the way, why don't all of us make a new resolution in 2018 to attend at least 3 sessions out of 4 in the month? We have 30 members in the club. Can you imagine how great the hall will look if all of us turned up? Celebration every single time.

Today's session was also a successful one.

SAA Raja kicked off the session at precisely 3.15 pm with a heartfelt wish for a successful 2018 and all the usual admonishments.

President Panna this time shared her personal resolution of contributing her time and effort towards helping stray dogs and cats in Muscat by working with NGOs. She urged everyone to pick their passion and devote some little time to serving society. A more inspiring story than usual, Prez.

TMOD Nagesh had chosen the theme of New Year and took us on a knowledge trip of the history of calendars, which was extremely interesting. Prepared in very short order too, as nobody was stepping in for the TMOD role. That is the hallmark of a true Toastmaster.

Timer MTM Khadija, playing any role for the first time, explained all criteria with full confidence.

Wordmaster TM Anand, also playing a role for the first time, had chosen SAGACIOUS as the word of the day. In an impressive departure from the norm, he played the role without any notes. Hats off to you.

Jokemaster role was taken up by TM Raja, in a dual role. TM Raja is one of the few TMs in our club from whom we expect constant humour, and he did not disappoint us. A number of jokes, narrated in the names of our club TMs, had everyone rolling in the aisles.

There was an ACS level speech scheduled today from the Humorous Speech manual, by an external speaker. The evaluation criteria for the same were described by MTM Panna, in that the speech should have a serious subject but begin and end on humorous notes, It would indeed be interesting to listen to.

The ACS speech, titled "Shhh..." was delivered by TM Natan of MMTC . Based on the theme of the growing seriousness of board exams in the lives of children and parents and the consequent need of silence in the house, his speech was peppered with humour and had us smiling all through. An excellent effort TM Natan.

Table Topics were conducted by MTM Sushma, who was playing her first role as well. Her topics were based on New Year and Resolutions and provided speakers good opportunities of expounding on them. Good job Topicmaster.

Evaluation on the ACS speech was given by MTM Panna. She praised the humorous content of the speech and the aptness of the theme. There were some areas of improvement suggested that were taken in the right spirit by the speaker.

Harkmaster MTM Vaishali took all to task by pitting two teams against one another. I think the audience passed with flying colours, didn't they?

Grammarian TM Chaitanya, a past master at this, gave everyone meticulous feedback on the usage of words and expressions. You are a linguistic asset to the club TM, mark my words!

TM Mathen had donned the mantle of GE today and gave smiling and laudatory feedback on all the roles. He only hoped that the attendance would improve. Members reading this please do not hide behind newspapers but do make sure to turn out in large numbers next session, which is the club contest date for TALL TALES, where we relate improbable and impossible stories.

Don't you want to let your imagination run wild? Where else would you find a bunch of serious people listening to such nonsense? Participate by giving your names to VP-E immediately.

The session was wrapped up by MTM Panna after distributing the day's awards:

• Best Speaker:            TM Natan
• Best Evaluator:         MTM Panna
• Best Table topic:       TM Rajat
• Best supporting:        TM Raja (Jokemaster)

See you all on the 13th Jan at the Tall Tale Contest in our club.