119th session

Every Saturday, a bunch of people park at Sultan Centre with no intent of shopping. They have an intent look on their faces and to all intents and purposes their focus on learning is intense.

The SAA, TM Viswanathan, called the meeting to order and started the ball rolling.

The acting President, TM Rajat, promoted out of turn by the non-availability of the President (who was giving a speech every week) and the VP-E (who was of of country) and the VP-M (who was out of action for this session), related the story of two monks, one of whom nonchalantly gave a lift (literally) to a lady, thus messing up the mind of the other monk for a long time. Physical baggage (like the lady) is easy to put down but mental baggage (like the other monk's agitation) has a more tenacious hold (thumbs up for using the word-of-the-day!).

TMOD  Somakumar had chosen as his theme "Healthy Living". He gave us controlled doses of knowledge as to what constitutes healthy food (it being a vast subject), ending with how to buy healthy vegetables. A pretty informative and interesting session by the TMOD.

The timing criteria were laid down by TM Bhaskaran.

The word of the day was TENACIOUS and was introduced by MTM Swati, who had been careful with her choice of words, being aware that the word needed ease of application in the round robin. This was indeed the case and everyone could make their version of sentence with the word.

Jokemaster MTM Vaishali, on furlough from her favourite duty as timer, indeed related a few funny ones to us. Internet provides material but the editorial - choice of what to present - is important.

There was an ACB manual speech slated today and TM Babu Srinivasan, our Area Director, laid down the criteria of this particular speech. It was to be a touching story, with the necessary, plot, characters, climax and resolution.

MTM Panna delivered her ACB speech titled "Love". A story of an unsuitable marriage and the tenacious love of mother and daughter (another thumbs up!), it put the audience in a sombre and introspective mood.

Table topics were different today, in that this was to be a practice session for DTM Ramki, who was representing Division D at the DTAC in Table topics. Topicmaster TM Sethuraman presented challenging topics for DTM Ramki to chew upon, but he gulped them down in a jiffy and regurgitated TT speeches of high quality. The audience gave a few feedbacks on his speeches and wished him all the best for the competition.

TM Babu Srinivasan evaluated the ACB speech delivered by MTM Panna. While appreciating the story and the delivery, he suggested that a story needed more pauses for dramatic effect and it should have a message in the end.

The General Evaluator TM Venkat was generous in his feedback, except for suggesting that the Jokemaster would be more accomplished if the jokes were not read out.

Area Director TM Babu Srinivasan presented the club with two ribbons - the Distinguished Club Award 2017-18 and the Fast Track CL Award 2017-18 - amidst much cheering.

The Acting President drew the session to a close after announcing the day's awards:

• Best speaker:              MTM Panna (default)
• Best evaluator:           TM Babu Srinivasan (default)
• Best Table topic:         DTM Ramki (default)
• Best Role player:        MTM Swati, Wordmaster

See you all next session on 28.4.18.

118th session

Our sessions are getting hotter - one because of the summer creeping up, two because of our educative themes, and three because the ribbon for the Distinguished Club 2016-17 finally came in hand and was displayed on our banner.

The session started a little earlier today, at 3.00 pm, as there was an All-Oman photo-shoot scheduled at Qurm Amphitheatre at 4.30 pm, and we all wanted to make it there in time, and not as a photo-finish!

Acting President TM Chaitanya exhorted all of us to pause and smell the flowers, and not treat life like fast-food. Enjoyment is an important part of living, right?

TMOD Rita had chosen as a theme Bonsai. As I mentioned earlier, our sessions were becoming educative and we were given an excellent expose on the history of bonsai as well as a beginner's course on the mechanics of growing a bonsai plant. Kudos to you MTM Rita for compressing the vast subject into the span of a session, a bonsai version as somebody said.

Timer role was played by MTM Swati, an expert timer who is also going to be a timer in DTAC.

TM Raja introduced the word of the day OUTLANDISH, a straight word with a variety of applications. It was indeed a good choice.

Jokemaster TM Kamil offered us a series of witty humour, wife-related and otherwise, that we all laughed at.

In this session, the first speech on Pathways for the club was about to come up. TM Venkat, as evaluator, outlined the expectation of the Ice-breaker speech. Unlike earlier, the Ice-breaker level is now supposed to incorporate body and voice tools as well. 

TM Bhaskaran delivered his Ice-breaker speech that made us familiar with his background once again. All members appreciated this landmark event for the club.

Table topics was conducted by TM Somakumar. He chose conventional topics that people found easy to speak on and the speeches were enjoyable.

TM Venkat conducted the evaluation of the Ice-breaker speech where he appreciated TM Bhaskaran's attempt and offered suggestions for improvement.

TM Rajat as Grammarian gave feed back on the usage of English in the session. He focussed in particular about avoiding fragmented sentences, advising the audience to somehow finish the sentence properly, having started it.

TM Viswa, as General Evaluator, suggested that all speakers address others as TM etc and not by any other prefix, as per the convention of TMI. He also suggested whether we can consider the Jokemaster role to be elevated to a 3-min humorous speech role.

Acting President declared the session adjourned, in a bit of hurry since it was already 4.15 pm and we had to drive to the photo-shoot.

The day's awards were:

• Best speaker:            TM Bhaskaran (default)
• Best Evaluator:         TM Venkat (default)
• Best Table topic:       TM Chaitanya

More photos are available on our facebook page.

See you all on 21st Apr. Please flood the VP-E with speech offers!

Division D contest

Held in the hi-tech and plush auditorium of ABA school, the Div D contest kicked off to a great start at a great setting. Earlier, the Toastfest had been held in the same auditorium and we were well aware of the difference in delivery, especially the angle of the neck, required to perform from a sunken stage.

RTC had 2 representatives in the Area 8 team - TM Rajat for Evaluation and MTM Panna for International. There were a fair sprinkling of role players - MTM Swati, TM Bhaskar and TM Raja - who had been roped into the Division team.

The whole program ran for 8 hours - from 2 pm to 10 pm - almost enough to reach USA by flight. But it was a great flight, with no glitches, expert Contest Chairs, of which our TM Chaitanya was one, for Humorous, and an Emcee DTM Robin Anand who was witty and enthusiastic at the same time, because of which we forgave him for talking about Pathways so much.

Apart from our own club RTC, we were also supporting Area 8 contestants. 

In the first contest which was Evaluation, the model speaker had flown in from Dubai and was an unfamiliar face, which helped us in a way as we had no preconceived notions. I could only hear 4 contestants speak, and all did a good job. The final results were as follows:

1. TM Rajat Ray (RTC)
2. MTM Priyanka Bohidar (Speak & Lead)
3. DTM Rajendra Verma (MMTC)

The Humorous contest had no one from RTC. Once again, there were those whose scripts were fabulous and those whose delivery was rib-tickling. The final results were as follows:

1. MTM Sharaniya Sriram (Smart & Beautiful)
2. TM Sam Cheriyan (MMTC)
3. TM Salim Al Mawali (Pioneer)

After the tea break, Table Topics were conducted, with the topic "Clean your face, not the mirror". As expected, all contestants had their varying takes on it and it finally boiled down to who spoke most logically. Once again, no representation from RTC. The results were:

1. DTM Ramakrishnan Vijayan (SB)
2. TM Vignesh (SB)
3. DTM Rajendra Verma.

The final frontier, the International speech contest was unleashed and we were given a treat of histrionics and hyperboles the likes of which we had never seen earlier. Our President MTM Panna delivered a very powerful speech on parental pressure. When all the dust had settled, the results were as follows:

1. Aloke (Speak & Lead)
2. TM Sankara Subramanian (Pioneer)
3. TM Thomas John (Speak & Lead)

One award to RTC who is going on to DTAC. 

5 awards to Area 8 out of 12 awards. 

Three cheers to both results!

Friends, I hope you all have registered for DTAC. Would love to meet up in Millenium Hotel on 5th and 6th May 2018.