Ruwi Toastmasters Club: 109th session

Dislocation.

No, not of a shoulder joint or anything painful like that, but simply a dislocation of our club meeting venue. The Zubair Hall was not available as the renewal process had run into rough weather. So who do you think came to the rescue? TM Chaitanya, of course, offering the use of the Tasnim Hall at his offices in Ghala, which is also the venue of the Tasnim Toastmasters Club.

Right-o, we said, and climbed into pool cars at Zubair building and sped off to the temporary premises.

It was indeed a very nice venue, used also as a corporate training hall, fully fitted with overhead projector, light-box, the works.

An attendance of 23 including guests was also pretty heartening.

SAA TM Viswa kicked off the session with renewed enthusiasm.

Acting President TM Mathen earnestly asked everybody "Who is packing your parachute?". The story he related revealed that we all have people in our lives who are continuously looking out for us and we should acknowledge and appreciate the same.

TMOD TM Raja then took the matter in hand and understandably, his theme was Palmistry. As it is, the subject is interesting to all, and as TM Raja gave glimpses into the hidden meaning of the lines on our hands, everyone was surreptitiously peering at their palms. Dinner menu was still a mystery, I am sure.

Timer MTM Swati, attending after a long time, reminded everyone including herself of the timing rules.

Wordmaster TM Somakumar had introduced the word COPACETIC to the group, somewhat to their consternation, but as the meaning was easy enough (well-arranged, fitting together), sentence-making was fast and furious.

TM Nagesh took on the Jokemaster's robes, a role he could practically do without much preparation, which he went on to demonstrate, drawing on incidents in his recent life and turning them into laughable anecdotes.

There was an ACB speech scheduled today, on story-telling, particularly a folk tale. DTM Robin Anand expounded on the evaluation criteria for the same, in that it should be based on a folk tale, should be narrated as a story with lots of vocal effects and acting. Looking forward to this, especially as this folk tale seemed to be meant for "Pre-primary" folks.

MTM Panna delivered her advanced speech "The Kalabash Kids" a folk tale from far-off Tanzania. We were all engrossed in the fairy-tale-like narrative of the story. It is fun to be a kid sometimes.

Table Topics was conducted by MTM Vaishali, who introduced a variation by having objects on a plate that had to be chosen by the speaker and spoken on. Nice round it was.

Evaluation on the folk tale was conducted by DTM Robin Anand. While appreciating the choice of story and the narration, DTM Robin advised the speaker to heighten the strength of the climax a bit more in order to render more drama into the closing.

Grammarian role played by TM Rajat was rather professorially done by a lecture on the various types of linguistic deviations that have petrified as maladies among speakers in general and Toastmasters in particular.

The highlight of the evening was the briefing given by DTM Robin and TM Bipin Kuriakose on the upcoming Pathways programme that TMI has launched, that will become live for us from March 20 2018. This was a totally different design from the conventional CC, CL, ACB, ACL etc and offered 10 different paths instead of the conventional two till now. Customisation, breadth of scope and reduction in paperwork would be the benefits. Eager to switch it on!

General Evaluator MTM Rita gave a succinct feedback on all role-players, including a suggestion to the Table topic master that when using props like she did, the prop chosen should also be loudly announced.

TM Mathen distributed the awards and declared the session closed.

The day's awards were: