Area 8 Contest 2018-19

The Area 8 contest has always been a strong contest as it had strong clubs. Currently 5 clubs constitute Area 8 and the AD had taken up as a theme the 5 elements that constitute creation - fire, water, air, earth, space.

The following clubs constitute Area 8:

1. SBG Toastmasters Club
2. Ruwi Toastmasters Club
3. Pioneer Toastmasters Club
4. Sur Toastmasters Club
5. Asyad Toastmasters Club (new club)

This time, since the area had more than 4 clubs, only one contestant from each club (the Winner) was eligible to participate in the Area contest. Asyad did not send any representation, so each contest had only 4 contestants so each contest was a short and sweet one, though well-contested.

The Table Topic contest, chaired by TM Raja from Ruwi, had as a topic "Judge a man by the questions he asks, rather than by the answers he gives". The contestants did justice to this juicy topic and the winners were:

1. TM Rajat Ray (Ruwi)
2. TM Vignesh (SBG)
3. TM Safiulla (Pioneer)

The Humorous Speech contest, chaired by TM Subodh Kumar from SBG, was again a popular contest were there were stalwarts giving speeches, aimed at our funny bones. The winners were:

1. MTM Panna Ray (Ruwi)
2. TM Salim Al Mawali (Pioneer)
3. Ramkumar Ram (SBG)

The Evaluation Contest, chaired by TM Ajith Kumar from Pioneer, saw a model speaker delivering a speech with the theme Change yourself and your world will change. The 4 contestants were ready with their analytical sheets. The winners were:

1. TM Rajat Ray (Ruwi)
2. TM Babu Srinivasan (SBG)
3. TM Gopal (Sur)

The International Speech contest, chaired by TM Amir Ali from SBG, was the most looked forward to as it had formidable speakers participating. The winners were:

1. MTM Panna Ray (Ruwi)
2. TM Sankarasubramanian (Pioneer)
3. TM Subramanian Katta (SBG)

It was a clean sweep by Ruwi club all the way!!

Congratulations to all members of Ruwi Club and thank you for all the support. 

Many club members played roles in this contest:

• TM Viswananth as SAA
• MTM Vaishali as Timer
• TM Lawrence as Tally counter
• TM Raja as Contest chair
• TM Bhaskaran for Refreshments
• TM Venkat fotr Vote of Thanks

Thank you all for volunteering for playing roles in the Area Contest and contributing to its successful implementation. Also, thanks to those (Swati, Saleem, Amaravani, Sandhya etc) who just came to support.

Division-D Contest is on 30th March 2019. Please do turn out in large numbers to support Area 8 and Ruwi Club at the Division Contest.

Session 159 - Evaluation and International speech contest

When two movies run back to back, it used to be called a Double Bill.

That's what we had in the last session - two contests back to back.

The Evaluation contest was well contested by 9 contestants and Contest Chair MTM Swati and SAA TM Raja did a good job of keeping the contestants cooped up in a room till the time to evaluate came up for each of them. Model speaker was from SBG club, TM Jagadeesan, who delivered a humorous speech titled "Understanding your Lady", that laid out the misunderstandings that occur in a married life when the husband is clueless as to how to delve into the depths of a wife's mind.

The results were:
1st place:        TM Rajat Ray
2nd place:       TM Chaitanya Khimji
3rd place:        MTM Panna Ray

The International contest had only 4 speakers (5th speaker dropped out due to ill-health), but were well delivered, with titles "Rihana's Song", "Hang On... Pain Ends", "Mother's Melancholy", "You Reap What You Sow". Contest Chair MTM Rita did an excellent job as usual.

The results were:
1st place:          MTM Panna Ray
2nd place:        TM Rajat Ray
3rd place:         TM Chaitanya Khimji

The 1st place winners will be representing the club in the forthcoming Area 8 contests on 22nd Feb.

Do come and cheer - it makes a huge difference to the contestants.

Session 158

We stole a normal session in between the contests going on, to catch up on a training session and to progress on speech giving.

Today we were thrilled to have as guests we had the Presidents of the PDO club and the Ras al Hamra club.

The session started on time, thanks to our ever diligent SAA TM Viswanath.

The welcome address was delivered by MTM Panna, who, while talking about the World Cancer Day on 4th Feb, elaborated further on cancers of the mind that eat us up from inside - like, anger, envy etc. It would be good if we could take preventive care of these diseases as well.

TMOD Shanavas had chosen as his theme "Food are Medicine". There are many food items that have medicinal properties, well known to our culture. He had asked each role player, which item of food they thought was also medicinal and the answers varied from ginger and garlic to potato and water. The answers were sometimes humorous, but by and large an illuminating theme.

Timer MTM Sandhya explained the timing criteria.

MTM Vaishali was the Wordmaster and introduced the word SUBSISTENCE to the group. Not an easy word and the group faced a climb when making sentences. 

Jokemaster MTM Amaravani related a few hilarious ones with a straight face, based on the medical industry. 

TM Rajat conducted a training on "Effective Evaluation" as a preparation to the club contests to be held next week. There were many practical tips on what to talk about in evaluations, how to manage time and how to practice.

TM Raja described the evaluation criteria for an Icebreaker speech to be delivered today.

TM Srinivas delivered his Icebreaker speech. As he described his initial days of struggle and later success through sheer persistence, I sometimes wonder why we surf the internet to find inspiring stories where there are so many amongst our own group of friends. A powerful life story, delivered with passion and humour.

Table topic master was TM Lawrence who had some topics on the theme (food based) and some general ones. People tended to choose the food-based topics (known devil, I guess) and were fairly successful.

Speech evaluation was delivered by TM Raja in a motivating tone and tenor, wishing TM Srinivas further success.

Grammarian MTM Swati gave some feedback on the good and bad usage of English.

GE TM Yashpal gave a meticulous feedback on all roles. Among other things, he reiterated the need to use mikes so that the audience at the back could hear better.

President Rajat closed the session, after exhorting all to give their names for the Evaluation and International contests scheduled next week.

The day's awards were:

• Best Table Topic:        TM Nayakam
• Best Evaluator:           TM Raja
• The only speaker was disqualified on time.

DO ENROL FOR NEXT WEEK'S CONTESTS.

Session 157 - Humorous speech contest

Today something funny happened.

In fact six things funny happened.

Six humorous speeches at the Ruwi Club Contest, that lit up fireworks in the air and brought a smile to everyone's lips and a guffaw to a few throats.

Contest Chair TM Rita Khimji was the epitome of professional compering.

Chief judge DTM Rajendra Varma kept a keen eye on the proceedings.

The speakers in order were:

1. TM Lawrence's speech, titled "How to be Raja Raja Chola". He brought up laughter as he described how to keep your wife happy by agreeing with her.
2. TM Rajat's speech, titled "The Macarena Dance", described the travails of managing life with limited house keys.
3. TM Yashpal's speech, titled "Who wears the pants", spoke about various situations where ladies take the upper hand.
4. TM Bhaskaran's speech, titled "Mr B", talked about the problems faced with failing memories.
5. MTM Panna's speech, titled "Chicken Cutlet", took us through her alliance fixing process.
6. TM Venkat's speech, titled "Twin Troubles", listed the misunderstanding that happen when twins go about in society.

The 5 judges had a tough time probably in deciding who evoked the highest laughter. But the end results were as follows:

• Winner:               MTM Panna
• 1st Runner up:     TM Venkat
• 2nd Runner up:    TM Rajat

Congratulations to the winners. The Winner will be representing Ruwi Club in the Area Contest on 22nd Feb.

Next session will be a normal one.