Session 147

This was one of those sessions where you leave the venue with a definite feel good factor.

Why?

Not because it was a full house. Of the 33 members, only 14 attended, which made the role-players feel they were performing in front of a mirror. Really guys, please make an effort to attend the sessions. The players would appreciate a bigger audience, and there will be a larger variety of people taking up roles. Someone will give you a call, as Godfather Don Corleoni used to say.

It was a joyous session because it was National Day tomorrow. It was enjoyable because there was a Talent Show. It was memorable because we listened to a great speech.

The SAA kicked off the session in time on a celebratory note, this being the 147th session for the club and the 48th year for the nation. Welcome back TM Viswa, after a gap.

President TM Rajat delivered a king's speech rather than a presidential speech, reading out the speech given by HM on 23rd July 1970, when he assumed power. Could there be a more suitable inspiring speech like today?

TMOD MTM Kiran had chosen as theme "Poetry", a subject obviously close to her heart as she took us through various samples of English and Urdu poetry penned by various famous poets. She also introduced role-players describing their favourite poets and, on occasion, asking them to recite a small portion of his poems. A great effort TMOD and we glimpsed a vista of world poetry through the ages.

Timer TM Muthu introduced timing criteria, throwing in a comparison of the R-Y-G norms used in manufacturing, A bit of interesting titbit that one.

Wordmaster TM Anil introduced the word DAUNTLESS to us, which the audience attacked fearlessly in the round robin. Unfortunately no one used it subsequently. Might be a good idea to improve visibility of the word somehow. Any ideas?

Jokemaster MTM Amaravani related jokes that were quite fresh and amusing.

Evaluation criteria for today's only speech, based on Effective Body Language,  was laid out by TM Rajat.

MTM Panna delivered her second project speech in Level 2 from her path Presentation Mastery, titled "Breaking Free", talking about the various circumstances that blocked her growth and freedom in her life and how she went about unblocking them. An inspiring speech with her own life as an example.

Table topics were conducted by TM Viswa, who gave topics of general interest that the speakers could do justice to.

There was an impromptu Talent Show, an open stage event, where TM Raja happily rendered a soulful Hindi song. On popular demand, TM Kumar sang a well-known Tamil oldie. Then Raja was again back on stage to the tune of Bade achchhe lagte hain.

Evaluation on the speech was conducted by TM Rajat, who, while appreciating speech structure, personal stories and body language, suggested simplifying the theme of the speech, restricting scope of example to personal life alone and enhancing dramatic possibilities further.

Grammarian TM Chaitanya gave a feedback on the good and bad usages of English during the session. His meticulousness and ear for detail is admirable.

GE TM Kumar gave an overall feedback on the session, praising in particular the TMOD's script and President's address. Among areas of improvement, he mentioned the following:

1. Timer can take a little more time to describe the criteria, for clarity
2. Jokemaster can improve eye contact, covering all parts of audience
3. Table topic master can mention the title twice - once for the speaker and once for the audience

TM Chaitanya conducted the Business session. There would be no session of 24th, being part of the National Day Holidays. On 1st Dec, we shall be having the Tall Tale Contest. Speeches lined up for 8th Dec were from MTM Kiran, MTM Sandhya, MTM Usha and TM Sumesh. TMOD would be TM Raja. Good going VP-E.

President TM Rajat gave his closing address and announced the following awards, before adjourning the meeting.

• Best Speaker:            MTM Panna (default)
• Best Evaluator:         TM Rajat (default)
• Best Table topic:       TM Raja
• Best Role Player:      MTM Amaravani (Jokemaster)

See you at the Tall Tales Contest on 1st Dec 2018.

Session 146

Our hall looked so colourful with members dressed up in ethnic wear. This was Diwali season after all.

Stand-in SAA TM Chaitanya flagged off the session at 3.15 pm on the dot.

President TM Rajat welcomed all to this Diwali session, a season of new beginnings. When we do not renew ourselves we die little by little. He read out a poem by Pablo Neruda that ended with the exhortation that we should, at least once a year, run from sensible advice. So let us do that this year, shall we?

Today's TMOD was a young member TM Lawrence who took up the gauntlet and set a theme of "Enlighten", quite a double-meaning since it is the festival of lights. He introduced each role player mentioning what learning enlightened him or her in that person's life. A great job TM Lawrence; you really managed time well.

Wordmaster MTM Kiran introduced the word TREPIDATION to the audience. It was a familiar word to most and the situations described in the round robin displayed a lot of variety.

Jokemaster MTM Niral, taking up this role for the second time, did good justice and the audience responded with mirthfulness.

There were three speeches scheduled today - two Icebreaker speeches and one HPL report speech.

MTM Sandhya described the evaluation criteria for the Icebreaker to be delivered by TM Yashpal.

TM Yashpal delivered a smooth and confident account of his life, mysteriously titled "P.S.F.", viz his growing up years and his life in Muscat, ending with musings on what he wanted to be remembered as, which was finally summarised as PSF - Plain Simple Folk. A good speech to listen to TM Yashpal.

MTM Swati delivered the evaluation criteria for the next Icebreaker speech (actually the earlier description of criteria would have worked for this speech as well).

TM Venkat, who has already completed his CC, was starting on Pathways with his Icebreaker speech titled "Second Innings". He took us through his years in his usual humorous manner that had us laughing with him at the vagaries of his life.

TM Chaitanya described the evaluation criteria for the HPL project final speech, wherein the speaker is supposed to share his or her experience of working on the project and the learnings gleaned therefrom.

MTM Panna delivered her speech titled "Talk the Walk", where she related her experience of having worked on organising a Skit Competition for Division D, a competition quite different from those held earlier. The intense planning, the directions from the Guidance Committee, the assistance from the Task Force in implementation, the learnings absorbed in the course of the project, all contributed to a successful project execution and enhancement of the traits of leadership. Good show MTM Panna!

Table topics were taken up by TM Shahnavas, who presented head-scratching topics to the members, some of which were attacked well by the members and some of which forced them to retreat. All in all a fair battle, I guess.

All three evaluators gave their respective feedbacks to the three speakers, with due praise to their accomplishments and suggestions for their areas of improvement.

TM Rajat acted as Ah-counter and Grammarian, giving feedback on Word-of-the-day usage, Ah usage, good usage of language and not-so-good usage of language.

We were given a treat by the General Evaluation conducted by TM G Kumar. Criticism with warmth is his specialisation and he did not disappoint. Among his suggestions were -

1. Have a fixed backup SAA
2. Memorise jokes for better delivery
3. TT master should repeat the timing criteria
4. TT topics can be such that speakers can take a For or Against stand
5. TMOD can relax and deliver - no rush
6. Evaluators need not repeat the speech - dissect the speech

TM Chaitanya conducted the Business Session, fixing up MTM Kiran as TMOD. Speakers to confirm. Members please give your nominations for Tall Tales Contest to be held on 24.11.18.

President Rajat ended the session by welcoming the late guest and presenting the Guest Welcome Kit. He also declared the awards for the day:

• Best Speaker:           MTM Panna
• Best Evaluator:        TM Chaitanya
• Best Table topic:      MTM Amaravani
• Best Role player:     MTM Niral (Jokemaster)

The session ended with a group photo, tea, snacks and LOTS of sweets and chocolates.

See you all on 17.11.18.

Session 145

An unusual session today, because we had 3 speeches that were on three totally different planes of existence. Well more about that later.

The session was clocked off at 3.17 pm by TM Shanavas after a major furniture rearrangement in the hall of Abeer Hospital, who were, till then, holding another big meeting in the same hall. 

Acting President TM Chaitanya related a story of a young boy with his hand stuck in a jar because he had closed his fist around a coin in the jar and could not extract his hand through the narrow neck after that. Do we miss big prizes in life because we close our fist on smaller gains? That's the question.

TMOD Rita had chosen as her theme "Coffee". She educated us on coffee throughout the session and interwove her presentation with introduction to the role-players with admirable skill. Good job there TMOD.

Timer TM Bhaskar described all the speech criteria with his usual gentle insistence.

Wordmaster TM Lawrence had taken up a role right off the bat, introducing the word PERCEPTION to the session. An easy word, presented on powerpoint with images (wow), it was enjoyed by all as the round robin required everybody to make sentences with the word.

Jokemaster MTM Swati related a few coffee related jokes before she changed beverage to petrol. She was on liquid fire today.

There were three speeches scheduled today, interestingly from three different project manuals - one from Pathways, one from Advanced Communicator Bronze and one from Advanced Communicator Silver. A treat indeed for the club.

TM Saleem, the first evaluator, described his expectations from the Pathways Icebreaker speech that we were about to hear.

MTM Vaishali delivered her Icebreaker speech (her second time around) titled "Go with the flow". We once again listened to her history but with one big difference - the confidence in her delivery.

Evaluator MTM Panna described her expectations for the ACB project Read a Story that was about to be delivered, where the speaker would be reading out a story or part of a story to the audience, making the characters and story come alive.

TM Rajat read out a story titled "Mammon and the Archer" by American author O'Henry, about the conflict of money with love and the relative importance of these in the life of the hero Richard Rockwall.

DTM Rajendra Varma, the thrid evaluator, described the criteria for the TV editorial in the style of a Straight Talk that was about to be delivered.

TM Kumar, sitting at a studio table and chair, flagged off to the studio count of 3-2-1-ON, with his program titled "Care and Carry", where he took up the issue of littering of the beautiful places in Oman, with an appeal to all of us to take away the litter that we ourselves produce at picnic spots.

Three different speeches, or rather, productions, elevated this particular session to another level altogether, where the members got a glimpse of the variety that TMI can bring to our sessions through their various advanced manuals.

Table Topics were conducted by MTM Kiran, who gave situations to the speakers rather than topics, with which the five speakers played around, bringing their own life experiences into the subjects in question.

Evaluation feed back was given by the three evaluators, TM Saleem praised the confidence of MTM Vaishali, while encouraging her to improve eye contact. MTM Panna praised the story narration of TM Rajat, while requesting him to raise the bar of drama in hia speech. DTM Varma praised the facial appeal of TM Kumar while advising him to expand more on the theme (and be more formally dressed as a news channel anchor!).

Ah Counter and Grammarian MTM Shobha, who declared that she had a hard time staying awake after a heavy Diwali lunch, nevertheless delivered a gentle and succinct report on the usage of the English language, as expected from the Grammarian.

GE role was played by TM Venkat, who suggested that Jokemaster memorise the jokes instead of reading, and that the Table Topics be more succinct.

Business session followed, conducted by the VP-E TM Chaitanya.  For the following session on 10th Nov, TMOD was finalised as TM Lawrence, with speeches from TM Saleem and MTM Panna. Tall Tales contest was rescheduled for 17th Nov and is hoped to be a resounding success.

President TM Rajat wound up the session after announcing the awards:

• Best Speaker:       MTM Vaishali
• Best Evaluator:     DTM Varma
• Best Table topic:   Mrs Laxmi (guest)
• Best Role player:  TM Lawrence (Wordmaster)

See you all on 10th Nov, same place, same time.