Listening to Nirmal, founder of Exnora

I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Nirmal, the founder of Exnora at SMOT campus on 10th December. He has a powerful and passionate style that belies his age, 65 years!
He spoke about many things in his inimitable rapid fire delivery.
I liked his comment about good, bad and mad government officers. The good one takes your money and does what he has promised. The bad one takes your money and fails to deliver on his promise! The mad ones… they do their duty and don’t take a bribe!

Nirmal has coined many new words including Innovention, which is a combination of innovation and Invention!

He also spoke about the 6 Hs of serving people – Help, Heart, Head, Hand, Humanity and Happiness!

He says extravagance is the enemy of the home! He says that he will not make installments make him an insolvent!

He explained how his efforts in cleaning up the street where he lived led to his forming a world famous civic rights protection organization.

Mr. Shiv Khera (Hullooo) You can Bore!

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!

Ovation 2007

Ovation is the annual conference of District 82P of Toastmasters International. Ovations 2007 was held in New Delhi this year at the India Habitat Centre on 18,19 and 20 May.

What a great Ovation we had. At the outset “Wow!”

The entire event was a seamlessly organized learning experience right from the inaugural with two nationally acclaimed speakers to the speech competitions. (of course Shiv Kera could have given us a few tips on public speaking or even leadership instead of boring us to death about AIDS and Smoking. I am sure he had valid reasons for structuring his presentation in the way he did.)
Here are a few things I loved

(a) As a man who lives to eat, let me tell you the food was great!

(b) The party on Saturday Night was a smash hit. This is what TM is all about.
(c) Putting the agenda in the Name badge pouch is a stroke of genius.
(d) Putting the photos on display and allowing us to choose and buy copies was also a good idea.

(e) All the educational sessions were top class. The faculty were knowledgeable and down- to – earth. As in all TM events the educational sessions were punctual to the minute.

(f) The competitions were professional and flawless.
(Congrats to the Team that did it.)

(g) The special meeting of the District Council on Division Governor Election was an eye-opener to me. I could see democracy at work. Still may be we need to be more careful about advance notices and giving opportunity to vote in future.

What could have been done better?

(a) The buses to and fro venue / YMCA were unpredictable. I wish they had been clearly announced during the session so every one would know and plan accordingly.

(b) The email ID and other contact details of delegates could have been circulated. That way we could all stay in touch. We should, of course take their permission.(This can be consolidated on the second day and circulated on the third)

On the whole I carried back great memories and look forward to Ovation 2008!