165th session

This was a very special session.

Rajat and Panna Ray have decided to relocate to India and a major purpose of this session was to share memories of their stay here and to wish them the best in their future endeavours in India.

The audience was embellished by the presence of many dignitaries from other clubs, starting from District PQD Robin Anand, DTM Rajendra Varma, DTM Salar, DTM Saiju, DTM Babu Srinivasan, Area Directors Murthy and Lakshmi, past AD Nilofer, Founder President Aji, Presidents Vignesh and Safiullah and many more.

The session started 5 minutes late, kicked off by our ever-dependable SAA TM Viswa.

Acting President TM Chaitanya welcomed all guests and told the story of the Curie couple who brought such accolades to their name and their country's name. Any similarity with any couple we know?

TMOD Yashpal Mehta had taken up as his theme "Figures of Speech" and in an innovative twist, had assigned different FOS to different role-players, almost like homework, to be prepared and brought to the session. We learnt quite a few of the 27 figures of speech, thanks to the enthusiasm of TM Yashpal.

Timer role was played by MTM Shoba, an experienced hand, and she explained all the rules in a jiffy.

Wordmaster MTM Khathija had chosen as the word RAYS, being a take-off on the couple whose departure was imminent. It was an easy word of course, and the members and guests had no trouble with the round robin.

Jokemaster TM Venkat related a long joke about an even longer password attempt on the computer. Not to worry TM Venkat, abc123 works the best as password.

Evaluation criteria about today's Level 2 Project 3 speech were laid down succinctly by MTM Panna.

Today;s speech, delivered by TM Rajat on mentoring was titled "Let the Cycle Go". TM Rajat covered his protege journey first under his father and then under Toastmasters from multiple mentors. He ended describing the mentoring role that he himself had played in the club.

Table topics were conducted by TM Kamil, who had linked a topic to each of the currency notes that he had in his purse. Although the topics were simple, surely the speakers would have preferred the currency note instead.

MTM Panna gave her feedback on the speech delivered by TM Rajat, lauding his inclusion of his father as mentor and the linkage to Toastmasters, while suggesting that he used vocal variety more and paced the stage better for segmentation.

Grammarian MTM Rita punctiliously pointed out places of improvement in usage of English, both in pronunciation and in grammar and we sat suitably chastised.

GE TM Saleem,  from his own kind point of view, praised everyone's efforts in today's role plays. 

Felicitation session was taken over by our evergreen master of ceremonies TM G Kumar. He introduced all the dignitaries present today and invited each of them to share a few words regarding Rajat and Panna Ray, which they all did generously (in spite of the 2 min time limit) and in full kindness. Finally TMs Panna and Rajat also spoke a few words as their farewell speech, highlighting the strong bond they felt with Toastmasters Oman in general and RTC in particular. They were presented with a goodbye memento by the club.

TM Chaitanya wound up the session with an announcement of the day's awards:

• Best Speaker:               TM Rajat (default)
• Best Evaluator:             MTM Panna (default)
• Best Table topic:           MTM Usha
• Best Role-player:          MTM Rita as Grammarian

Next session will be at our usual venue at Abeer Hospital.

Those who are interested in taking up positions in Ex-com 2019-20, please send your name (nomination) to TM G Kumar or to TM Rajendra Varma who are the nomination chair, by 8th April latest.