Poetic Evaluations

Dear readers,

I've now composed 3 'poems' as part of my evaluations at Toastmasters. All three have fetched me the Best Evaluator award for that meeting. Do I see a pattern? Well, you can draw your own conclusions :-)
The first poem was for Ravi Pratap Singh's Icebreaker, the second for Nagaratna Nagaraj's Project II and the third for Rajdeep Manwani's advanced project on the guidelines "Speak off the Cuff". Nagartna wanted to keep what I wrote for her, so I don't have that to share with you. The other two are here for your reading pleasure. As always, your comments are welcome :-)

For Ravi Pratap Singh:
Strongly did your speech begin,
You shared with us the promotion joy you felt within.

You told us the struggles you went through in your early life.
You also told us about your child and your lovely wife.

You had us enthralled with humour,
This is a hit with the girls, that's the rumour.

You told us about your dream,
With the Toastmasters backing, you will achieve them, it would seem!

For Rajdeep Manwani:
This project speech has hardly been done,
With "The Magic Touch" our hearts you have won.

You spoke about how you took Bindu under your wing,
Over 7 minutes of impromptu speaking you proved you are King.

Your speech had a lot of facts and dough,
You spoke all along of what you know.

Facts and anecdotes were at your fingertips,
Humour as always was sweet from your lips.

You approached the topic from many an angle,
Which part of your speech was best, it was difficult to single!

Cheers!!
JAM

Another winner from our club!

This post is loooonnngg overdue... On the 24th of May, Aaron Watson made history when he was declared Winner at the International Speech Contest held at Ovation 2009 in Colombo. It was a historic occasion because he earned the right to be the first Toastmaster from District 82 (Sri Lanka and India) to compete at the World Championship of Public Speaking! Seen below is Watson with District Governor Balraj Arunasalam and Pat Johnson, Second Vice President, TMI, after winning the contest at Colombo.The diminutive Watson joined the club in October 1999. He was then an apprentice at Mico. What stood out in his project speeches was his remarkable voice, loud, strong and variable. Over the course of his growth at Toastmasters, he worked on his strengths and tasted success by being voted the "Best Speaker" every single time he spoke. The turning point came when he won the III place in the International Taped Speech Contest, the first time anyone from our club had won such an accolade. Watson has moved on higher, both professionally and on the Toastmasters ladder. He is now Manager - HR at Sobha Developers, and even led the club for one term as President.
To reach this point, Watson has won speech contests at the Club, Area, Division and now, the District level. Watson will now lock horns with 7 other contestants in the Inter-district Speech Contest on August 11 at Connecticut, USA. If he emerges victorious, he will be at the World Championships on August 15. Would it not be appropriate for a winner from India to be crowned on our Independence Day??
Watson, we are all with you. You carry the hopes, dreams and wishes of all Toastmasters in the No. 1 District in the World! All the very Best!
Cheers,
JAM

Plight of the Indian

I'd promised you in a previous entry that I would look for and share my poems. Well, here's the first... It was published in the school annual when I was in the 8th standard.
Given that there has been a clear mandate from the Indian voter at this election, there's some take-home from these lines. Hope you enjoy it. Feedback is welcome...

Prices keep rising now and then,
Nobody cares for starving women and men.
Prices rise beyond our reach,
But ministers make unwinding speech.
The more they talk, the less they do,
So there lies little hope for me and you!

Daily, poor Indians struggle for their bread,
And everyday, thousands are found dead.
So dear Indians, here's some advice,
Trust no politician who steals your rasam and rice.
Let's join together and build a strong nation,
Where there is freedom and no exploitation!

Cheers,
JAM

Our First DTM... finally

Last Friday's was a truly memorable meeting at the Bangalore Toastmasters Club. We had our first Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) in the form of Harikumar Santhibhavan.
For the unitiated, the DTM is Toastmasters International highest recognition to a member. It recognizes excellence in both Toastmasters tracks, communication and leadership. On the communication track, a member has to give around 50 speeches both within and outside the club. Along the leadership track, a member has to serve as an officer at both the club and district level. If you get your DTM, it shows a very high level of commitment.
Hari joined the club in May 2003. Among his varied achievements at the club level are the successful launch of club website (www.bangaloretoastmasters.org.in), which has been like a magnet, attracting guests and prospective members by the dozens. District leadership was next in the form of Area 8 Governor in 2007-08 and now Division B Governor. He has blossomed here too, leading them to Distinguished Area and Distinguished Division respectively.
DTM Harikumar, here's wishing you the very best! I hope to follow in your illustrious footsteps!

Poetry

I'm not sure if you can call it poetry. It's more a collection of words centered around a theme, with the last word of every pair of lines rhyming. If that qualifies as poetry, then so be it.
My poetic streak began in school, in the 8th standard to be precise. Two of my poems were published in the school magazine that year. One poem was about my classmates, while the other was on the "Plight of the Indian".
The poet in me then woke up in my first semester of engineering at PESIT. Our class team (considered underdogs) had just defeated a senior batch (who were favorites) in the finals of the inter-class cricket tournament. Voila, a poem flowed out. It was pretty long too. I was proud of it.
A long silence followed. Then, out of the blue, at a recent Toastmasters meeting, one of the speakers, in the course of her Icebreaker, mentioned that she composed poems and narrated one she had written celebrating her breaking the ice. I was incidentally evaluator for another speaker, who was also giving his Icebreaker. Presto, an impromptu 5-stanza poem was born. Needlessly to say, I was voted the Best Evaluator.
Then last week, I was evaluator for the poet speaker and I pulled off a 6-stanza poem, which fetched me the Best Evaluator award again. At this rate, my club members will expect a few stanzas from me everytime I come up to speak!! Hmm.. not a bad idea. Will put my creative skills to the test!
I'll post the poems I've composed some time.. I've to hunt them out first.

My first blog entry...

... was actually this: thought2word.blogspot.com

I started out in November 2006, but didn't get beyond the first post. This is my second post on this site, so that's an improvement already ;-)

Lost and found!

I'd completely forgotten about this blog I started more than 2 years ago. Chanced upon it by mistake... I've got some time on my hands now, so hope to get the thoughts back into words ;-)