Spectacle Bank!

Here's a humourous anecdote from Dr. Babu Rajendran's speech. Its typically Babu with his laconic delivery makes the punch line even more funnier. Babu clearly demonstrates that you are funniest when you seem very serious.

Even the Ladies enjoyed albeit with furitive

glances at each other to test the propriety of their enjoyment. Toastmasters aspiring to become humorous speakers should listen to Dr. Babu's speeches and pick up the style.

Here's the story!

In the early stages of the Rotary Club of Madras Southwest when Dr. BV was the charter President and Babu had just joined Rotary, BV came to Babu and asked him to suggest a good project. Babu came up almost immediately with a brainwave and said, 'sir, let's open a spectacle bank.' BV appeared to be puzzled and shook his head and asked,'How will you collect them?' Babu replied in his usual resourceful tone that they could ask volunteers from the Rotaract i.e. youngsters in college who could go aroud and collect them from the Rotarians. Babu also volunteeredd to clean the spectacles disinfect them and fit them on again to deserving recipients. BV did not reply but went away to the buffet table, filled up his plate and came back and said, 'Dr. Babu I don't understand what you are saying about this bank of yours. How will these youngsters collect the...what was it you are going to collect...?'

Dr. Babu says, "spectacles, sir."

BV now sighs in relief and says, "Oh..spectacles is it...I thought you said Testicles."

There was uncontrolled laughter in the hall after this.

Tall Tales at Two Hundred and Fifty

25.04.2010

The Chennai Toastmasters Club conducted its 250th Meeting today. There was a Tall Tales Contest to commemorate the day and the Past presidents of the Club were recognized. As one of the Past Presidents I queued up to receive my memento from TM Nagaraja Rao DTM.

A Few of the Tall Tales were good though the bulk of them were lackluster. Most of the youngsters were highly narcissistic and there was excessive concern about themselves and very little creativity. This meant that that most tall tales were no more than wishful thinking.

There were exceptions too. For example, the winners were both innovative and creative. Subhadra the winner gave an account about an imaginary club called Cheesemasters which her cat had attended. She used her talent in mimicry to good effect and kept the audience guessing as to how she'll interpret the Ten Projects of Toastmasters visa vis Cheese Masters.

Me. Ramnath with his extraordinary tale of becoming an attachment to his own E Mail message was a well deserving runner up. His use of Info Tech metaphors in his speech was excellent. (I Loved It)

Quotables:

The thin line of difference between genius and insanity is measured by success. (A quote by Bruce Feirstein, American Creen Writer and Humorist)

When you call someone aged to speak, remember that the length of the speech is proportional to the age and the content is inversely proportional. (Prof Chandrasekhar the first President of CTM who revived Toastmastering in Chennai...incidentally his speech was short and highly informative.0

Toastmasters Meeting

I attended a meeting of the Chennai Toastmasters Club after a long time on 7th March 2010 . The experience was as usual pleasant. We had two Ice Breakers and a Tenth Project.

Mr. Ashok Babu a participant at myTrain the Trainers public seminar had come with his daughter, Subhadra who got the best TT Speaker award. She spoke fluently and quoted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow inmpromptu which was well received by the audience. The quotation was

" The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."

I was called on to speak in Table Topics on the topic "I like Dreams of the Future Better than the history of the past". I agreed with this view and spoke about visions and goals. I made t he point that it is better to be able to see where we are going than remember where we went.

Othe nice TT Titles that I liked were:

Life is a Foreign Language.

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

Evaluation- The cornerstone of Toastmasters!

03.08.2008

I was the Table Topics Evaluator at ny Toastmaster Club meeting today. The speakers were above average and I sincerely hope I gave them good feedback. Incidentally, they gave me the best evaluator ribbon!

Here are some tips on good evalation techniques I heard at the Education session on Evaluation conducted by DTM Manian, a senior Toastmaster from Bangalore:

• Evaluation is the cornerstone of the Toastmasters Edifice.


• Evaluators are not specialists, but rather ordinary people giving feedback and learning in that process the art of giving constructive feedback.


• An evaluator should ask the speaker, beforehand, whether there are any specific inputs they would like to have on their delivery or content.


• The speaker deserves the evaluator's service. The Evaluator owes him three and a half minutes, which is the time allotted for evaluation.


• 6o% of the time, your evaluation should be positive and full of praise for the good things the speaker said or did; 30% of the time should be pointing out the possibilities for improvement in a constructive manner; the remaining 20% should give suggestions for inprovement.


• An Evaluation should also have a begining body and conclusion.


• Keep on noting down positive points because 60% of your time should be postive and constructive.


• Don't keep on carping on negatives.


• Begin with a quotation that is relevant.


• You can use notes.


• Your Summation carries 15 marks, so sum up the evaluation. Summing up should mention positive points, shortcomings and suggestions. Mention that you are going to sum up your evaluation!


• An analytical approach should be preferred.

Taboo Topics!

19.08.2007
To day is World Photography Day because the first announcement of a photograph was made on 19, August 1839, in France at a scientific demonstration. I celebrated World Photography day by selecting some of the best shots taken by me.

Presided over the meeting of the Chennai Toastmasters Club. The meeting was moderately well attended, with a few enthusiastic guests. As the meeting drew to a conclusion with nearly fifteen minutes to spare, I decided to exercise my prerogative as presiding officer and take up an issue for constructive discussion. Three topics viz. Sex, Religion and Politics are known as taboo topics and are to be avoided by all speakers at Toastmaster meetings. I raised the issue as to what was it that was to be avoided. For example, TM H L Ratan in his speech today about the pain of parking in Chennai, mentioned the names of two well known politicians and commented on how they had misused the “perquisites” (His word not mine!) to use traffic rules for their benefit. The question is whether this amounts to speaking about politics. Similarly, TM Aditya had earlier delivered an awesome speech on the essential unity of the male and female by giving examples from Hinduism (Ardhanareeshwar), Christianity (The Blade and the Chalice) and Chinese Buddhism (Yin and Yang). Is this Religion? I also gave the example of Guruvayoor temple where in the lower tiers of the pagoda in the sanctum sanctorum, various human figures engaged in the sexual act are depicted. Is this sex or sexuality. (By mentioning this I suppose I broke two rules, mentioning sex and religion!)

But that was what I wanted the members to explore. We had comments from TM Abraham Zacharia CC, TM Pattabhiraman CC, TM Aditya Maheswaran, TM H L Ratan, TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC and finally TM Akhil Lila a visitor. The sum and substance of their collective view was:
You can use quotations from religious texts and stories etc. but should judiciously avoid making fun of another religion or putting another religion down.

Talking in general about sexuality is OK so long as this is not misused to deliver jokes and innuendos that are in bad taste or extremely gender biased or chauvinistic.

(While on that, there are a certain variety of marital jokes that have no sexual innuendo but are extremely gender biased in as much as they paint married women (that’s wives!) as being always suspicious, nagging, overbearing or spendthrifts. TM Nina John ACB CL always reacts to these types of jokes and TM Abraham and I are always in her line of fire as we constantly indulge in such jokes at the expense of our respective wives. In fact TM Nina once remarked very perceptively that people like TM Abraham and I, who crack these misogynistic jokes have two wives, the imaginary woman that we describe in our speeches who nags and argues and commands us and our real wife, the poor innocent lady who takes care of us and our children at home! I think she is right. But, these jokes come out well in speeches and have almost become an idiom of life if not a cliché.)

Politics is best avoided as it will definitely lead to controversy.

The reasoning behind the taboo was clearly brought out by TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC, when he mentioned that these three topics are also banned at the officers’ mess in the Defense Services for exactly the same reason viz. they lead to avoidable controversy and ill feeling.

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!

Before we begin today's Blog, I think a hot cup of coffee is in order. Here's my favorite from Barrrista!
I attended the Chartering Ceremony of the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters' Club today at their offices in the Madras Export Processing Zone.

For those of you who don't know what or who a Toastmaster is here's a brief Intro:

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit organization with its world head quarters in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Founded by Ralph C. Smedley in 1924, Toastmasters is today a worldwide organization with 211,000 members and 10500 clubs in 90 countries.

At Toastmasters members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 People who meet once a week for about an hour. Each meeting gives every one an opportunity to practice Communication and Leadrship skills. Members learn about

• Conducting meetings
• Giving Impromptu Speeches
• Presenting Prepared Speeches
• Offering Constructive Evaluation

At Chennai we have Chennai Toastmasters (CTM), the club to which I belong and Speakers Club. We also have Wordsmiths which was recently started by CTM. We also sponsored a Corporate Club at Covansys. This club is the brain child of a senior and Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Janaki Prasad Pattanaik (JP) who works at Covansys. JP is a walking encyclopaedia of Toastmastering.

Today the Covansys ChennaiToastmasters Club (CCTM) was chartered. I was invited by JP to this. I was also asked to address the audience.

Members of the Covansys ChennaiToastmasters Club

A gist of my speech is given below:

Respected dist. Gov. Bosco Abraham, Lt. Gov. Education and Training M. Venkat, DTM JP, Madam President Indira Jayaraj, TM Ravi Bhaskaran and of course my beloved members of the Covansys Chennai Toastmasters Club,

I want to begin with just one word, "CONGRATULATIONS!"

CCTM is our baby! A baby of the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters Club, of which Club, I have the honor to belong. We from the Chennai Toastmasters were privileged to be part of the process of forming CCTM. I can remember those early days when CTM Members used to visit Covansys on JP's invitationfor runni8ng the Speechcraft program.

We met some great human beings like Jayan, Kumar, Satyanarayana and Chrles. It's so fulfilling for us to see these very same people performing superbly and running the meeting so efficiently and effectively. So, Congratulations first. (I requested all present in joining me in applauding the CCTM members.)

Friends, All of us want to become Eloquent; (Applause, because this was word of the day!)

All of us have the potential to become eloquent;

but, all of us need the environment to learn, nurture and develop our communication skills.

This is exactly what Toastmasters (TM) provides. A corporate club like CCTM would obviously provide great opportunities for improving your communication skills as well as leadership and teamworking skills.

TM helps us to learn the art of giving and accepting both praise and criticism. When praised we accept it with grace. When a better approach or way is suggested we accept it and try to apply it.

The seventh habit in the 7 Habits of highly effective people propunded by Stephen R. Covey is "Sharpen the Saw". TM is an excellent method for sharpening the saw. Time spent at a Toastmasters meeting is always a second quadrant, high value added activity that helps you to practice continuous self renewal and build your production Capability.

I hope to attend your meetings more often and request you to attend ours on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday of every month at the Presidency Club.

I Wish you all the best.

I could interact later with Dist Gov. Bosco and LTEG Venkat over a superb lunch hosted by CCTM.

Here are photos of me with them:

Tm. Srikanth,DTM JP, LTEG Venkat, TM. Jayanthi (Director HR, Covansys) CTM Indira (Pres Chennai TRoastmasters), Dist Gov. Bosco Abraham.