A more than 300 strong group of Toastmasters was eagerly waiting for Mr. Shiv Khera, the joint chief guest for the inaugural function of Ovation 2007 and the man comes late by half an hour. Kiran Bedi the other chief Guest and Magsaysay award winner, who has another important meeting on security issues comes on time and is waiting.
Finally the man arrives and the function starts. Kiran Bedi delivered a brief but effective address. She took the theme of the event which was Speak. Listen. Lead and gave us a brief address on her impressions and reactions to the theme.
Mr. Shiv Khera came on stage later. Though he began with Country First and a call for patriotism, suddenly he switched over to a lengthy presentation on AIDS awareness which ran on and on and on… Finally he came to a halt and as the audience were heaving a collective and silent sigh of relief he launched on another equally lenghthy presentation on “Evils of Smoking.” He violated every rule in the Communication manuals. He had obviously not prepared, timed or practiced the speech. He had a power point presentation which was not tailored to the audience or the occasion. He skipped slides. He wasted time on useless statistics that every one knew.
Why did he do this? Here was an audience of Toastmasters of whose number he claims to be one though he has never found the time or necessity to complete the manual. All of us were eager to learn something new. He gave us a disappointing performance.
His habit of repeating the words “hullooo” and “Folks” didn’t endear him to the audience either.
The greatest fun was the crowd which thronged around him after the speech to give their cards so he could send them copies of his presentations. Proves the point that in this country there would be a queue for phenyl if it is given free!
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