Ruwi Toastmasters Club: Session 131

Muscat summer shows no signs on waning. The summer vacationers are returning home in a trickle and by next session, we hope that the attendance will be far improved.

SAA TM Viswa kicked off the session on the dot, with a motivating quote.

President TM Rajat reverted to story-telling, with a story demonstrating how those with a willingness to ask for help from masters progress much faster in life and are able to come out of problematic situations easily. Yesterday having been Gurupoornima, the full moon night when teachers and masters are remembered with gratitude, the message was appropriate.

TMOD MTM Panna had chosen as her theme "My Maiden Voyage", which related the story of her recent cruise holiday together with her daughter to Stockholm, Tallin, St Petersburg and Helsinki. We had the vicarious pleasure of enjoying a week-long holiday with her, totally free!

Timer role had been taken up by none other than our Thalaiva, TM Kumar. For a change, he asked the role players to describe their timing criteria, which they did of course.

Wordmaster MTM Shobha introduced the word BENEVOLENCE to the audience. It was a positive word and the audience, in the round robin, ascribed the attribute to various people in their lives.

Jokemaster was played by TM Chaitanya, who had to break the mold for this role. However, the jokes were new and good and raised laughter in the audience.

Pathways Icebreakers speeches were gathering momentum and there was a speech scheduled today for which MTM Rita was the evaluator. She explained the criteria in detail, especially from the new Pathways set of norms.

TM Saleem delivered his Icebreaker speech titled "Difficult Roads lead to Beautiful Destinations" once again as he was starting off on his Pathways journey. He took us through his early life and shared important life issues with us all, especially his work with NGOs. Good show TM Saleem.

Table topics were handled by TM Bhaskar, who presented relatively simple topics for people to speak on, and the members utilised the opportunity to the fullest.

MTM Rita presented her evaluation of TM Saleem's speech, with full appreciation of his efforts and a few suggestions for improvement, which TM Saleem would be sure to take into account.

General evaluation was conducted by TM Venkat, who in his usual motivating style, praised all role players to the hilt. Surely, GE, there was some scope of improvement?

TM Chaitanya conducted the business session. Although there was a COT scheduled for 3rd Aug (Fri), we would still be having our normal session on Sat. TMOD was fixed as TM Venkat, with the speeches yet to be stamped.

President Rajat gave his closing remarks, commending TMOD for very good time management for the session, which was about to end on the dot at 4.40 pm.