Session 164

We were still in a state of euphoria as the aftermath of a very successful Family Day held on Thursday evening at Passage to India. Games, singing, good food, full moon, outdoor setting - what more could one want...

SAA Raja started the session at 3.16 pm, taking a leaf out of MTM Panna's playbook of Fish-Bird-Rabbit as he gave his welcome intro. An innovative twist, SAA.

Acting President TM Chaitanya told the story of King Arthur as he struggled to find the answer to the question "What do women really want?" The answer, not surprisingly, was "To have control over their lives". We husbands had learnt that long ago. 

TMOD Bhaskar, being keen on food and cooking, had chosen as theme "Spice and benefits" and kept us engaged with the benefits of various spices. He even made jeera-water and methi-water on stage and kept them ready for drinking after the session. Good show, TMOD.

Timer MTM Khatija explained the timing criteria, assisted by Raja with the flags, like an Engine-driver with a Guard.

Wordmaster TM Senthil, taking up a role for the first time here, introduced the word OUTREACH to the audience. It may have outreached the audience's capability because apart from TM Chaitanya, no many could use the word in their speeches. But very well presented, TM Senthil.

Jokemaster TM Venkat, always ready to don the garb of humour-king, reeled off a few new ones, very enjoyable too.

There was a Level 2 Project 2 speech scheduled today, with the theme "Understanding your Audience". TM Chaitanya, as evaluator, explained the requirements of the project, which was to present an unfamiliar subject to the audience in an interesting manner.

TM Rajat delivered a speech titled "Lust for Life", based on his experience of learning oil-painting and encouraged the audience to pick up new learnings in order to satisfy their own lust for life.

Table topics were conducted by TM Yashpal, who introduced a thinking hat to help the speakers get ideas for their speeches. His topics were thought-provoking yet easy to speak on and all the speakers did justice to them.

TM Chaitanya gave a feedback on TM Rajat's speech, saying oil-painting was an unfamiliar enough topic for most of us so it met the speech criteria. He suggested speech improvement in tonal quality in order to dramatise portions of the speech.

Harkmaster MTM Panna did a rapid fire round that had the audience up and running. Not that they had been sleeping anyway as the plethora of answers showed.

Grammarian MTM Sandhya focussed more on how the role-players spoke rather than on specific points of grammar, which could have been brought into play.

GE TM Saleem, being a kind-hearted soul, was all praise for every role-player.

TM Chaitanya conducted the business session, grabbing a TMOD and 3 speakers for the next session. He also requested all to pay the membership fees for the next 6 months (RO 30/-) to the Treasurer before coming weekend, as the TMI site had to be updated with renewal names.

The day's awards were:

• Best Speaker:      TM Rajat (default)
• Best Evaluator:    TM Chaitanya (default)
• Best TT speaker:  Mr Manas (guest)
• Best role player:   MTM Panna (Harkmaster)

Next Saturday 30th March is the Division D speech contest, where Area 8 is represented by TM Rajat (TT and Evaluation) and MTM Panna (Humorous and International). Your presence and applause will make a large difference to the results. So please roll up and encourage the contestants.