itc's imprints

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

From the editorial

team

Imprints of the

Icons

Imprints of the

President

Awards and

Recognition

Imprints of fellow

Toastmasters

30 seconds to

fame

Guest feedback

Say cheese!

Credits

ITC’s Imprints D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2 E D I T I O N # 1

Infosys Toastmasters, Chennai

Proudly Presents

Its Premier Newsletter Edition

Theme : The dawn of a new era

P A G E 2

From the editorial team

Dear all,

It gives us immense pleasure to present to you, the first ever newsletter of

Infosys Toastmasters, Chennai (ITC) – “ITC’s Imprints”. We believe that each

Toastmaster at ITC makes an indelible mark which gets etched in the

history of our club and so the name “ITC’s Imprints”.

A new beginning! The dawn of a new era! Yes, that’s the theme of this very

special edition of our newsletter. Embarking on a new journey rekindles the

achiever within each of us. A new era is marked by reflections, resolutions

and rejuvenation. We are at our inspired best and are driven to pursue with

greater hope, belief and bigger dreams that we truly believe in.

We have come here to seek a new beginning between our vocal chords and

glossophobia; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect. We do

so by recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech

can eradicate years of lack of self-belief. Growth is gradual and steady if you

attend the meetings regularly and participate consistently. We live in a

hectic and busy world. Shuffling among family, work and social

commitments, it is easy to get exhausted and believe professional

development is expendable. But rewards come to those who are patient

and those who are persistent.

In Toastmasters, we have a supportive environment which gently pushes us

out from our comfort zone to emerge as great speakers & leaders and

ensures that we don't miss out on the fun part too. To all our fellow

Toastmasters, keep the enthusiasm soaring. And the rest, look, if you had

one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted would you capture it

now or just let it slip?

Happy reading!

I T C ’ S I M P R I N T S

TM Monisha

Monikanta Rajan

TM Diwakar Labh

TM Jagannath

Panigrahi

P A G E 3

Did you know?

Rhythms" is the

longest English

word without the

normal vowels,

a, e, i, o, or u

Imprints of District 82 Governor

Infosys Toastmasters is a club that believes in being Toastmasters in every

sense of the word - it is a pleasure to see them actively participating in all

club, Area and Division activities, whole-heartedly and sincerely. The results

are there to see - a higher degree of commitment and dedication resulting

in a higher degree of professionalism in the club itself and in the workplace.

The publishing of a newsletter is no ordinary task - it requires a great deal

of co-ordination between the editorial team and the members, it requires a

great deal of patience and chasing up of writers to ensure deadlines are

adhered to, an entire gamut of organizational and leadership skills that will

stand every one of the members in good stead. Above all, it provides

members a chance to hone their writing and creative skills, talents that may

have been long dormant or never even recognized earlier. It is also an

opportunity to discover how writing for reading pleasure and writing for a

listening audience can be quite different.

Here's wishing the editorial team all the best, and wishing Infosys

Toastmasters a happy journey in the world of Toastmasters.


DTM Nina John

P A G E 4

Did you know?

"Underground"

is the only word

in the English

language that

begins and ends

with the letters

"und".

Imprints of Division ‘M’ Governor

Infosys Toastmasters club is one of the farthest Corporate Toastmasters

clubs in the city, located in the beautiful campus of Mahindra City. It is one

of the fastest growing baby clubs of Division M. On the helm, under the

leadership of TM Arun, the club has revitalized with lots of love for

Toastmasters. The club has achieved the DCP (Distinguished Club Program)

status already for the year 2012-13. Their contributions which unfolded

during the mega event of the year, Felicitous & Crescendo Twin

Conference, will be remembered.

With the club marking their 25th meeting with great pomp and glory and

also bagging the Smedley award recently, I am proud to see how each

Toastmaster has joined hands to help each other grow. Toastmasters create

a platform for individuals to hone their speaking / writing skills and also to

learn a lot from fellow Toastmasters. Helping each other to develop their

hidden talent, brings out the true leadership abilities. The “learning by

doing” in Toastmasters is the experience one can get out from the regular

club meetings. The exhibition of the inherent leadership skills will be

demonstrated during the course of the journey. My best wishes to

TM Monisha and her team for “ITC’s Imprints”.


TM Dhanraj Nadana

P A G E 5

Did you know?

There is a seven

letter word in the

English language

that contains ten

words without

rearranging any of

its letters,

"therein": the,

there, he, in, rein,

her, here, ere,

therein, herein.

DTM Karthik

Srinivasan

Imprints of Division ‘G’ Governor

CONGRATULATIONS, Infosys Toastmaters!

It is indeed a proud moment when you launch your very own Newsletter

and I have all my respects and admirations for the creative minds and

efforts that go towards bringing the Newsletter into existence.

At Toastmasters, we all come in together on a quest for self-development.

We march towards this self-development by way of practicing and

supporting one another to become better speakers and leaders. The focus

is on developing communications, and one of the finer ways of doing this is

by proactively participating in the publication and release of the

Newsletter, because communications is not just speaking & listening, but

also reading & writing!

A Newsletter, once it becomes a regularly distributed feature among all the

members within and outside the Club, can not only provide general

information of interest but also provide a platform of higher learning &

expression in specific areas such as contests, special events, publicity, etc.

With the release of the Newsletter, a new era dawns in the growth &

progress of Infosys Toastmasters. Dawn is the time of the day when light

first appears in the sky, just before the sun rises. Dawn also indicates

something beginning to develop or coming into existence. May this dawn

bring forth to every member of Infosys a journey into leadership filled with

sunshine and hope!

Every time we blink, it’s the Dawn of a New Era… face it with a smile!


P A G E 6

Did you know?

"The letters ‘a’,

‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’ are

not present in

the numbers

from 0 - 99.

TM Rajeev Nambiar

Imprints of Area ‘M1’ Governor

The ushering in of a new era that fosters new ideas, fresh thoughts and

abundance of opportunities for self-learning and development among the

youth in today’s world is always a welcome sign in any forum especially in

Toastmasters where a novice leader realizes and augments his or her

hidden talents and potential to a very high degree. A year into the

movement and he/she would find himself/herself to be a mountain of

possibilities and ideas which were hidden on account of their fears, lack of

enthusiasm, self belief and many other limiting factors. However few words

of caution - only individuals who are totally committed with their mind,

body and soul will be able to realize and augment their potential and

talents to an incredible extent and for those who think that mere joining

the movement would propel them to become top class leaders with luck

here and there and without the required commitment and sheer hard work

will be in for a rude shock to find out that at the end of a year they are in

the same position as they were when they started their journey of “Self

Development”.

Dear friends as the saying goes, “There is no substitute for hard work”. The

same saying applies to a great degree in this movement too “Where leaders

are made”. Thus as an individual you have to learn to propel yourself with

commitment, character and lots of focus to become the leader who can

lead others with utmost efficiency and effectiveness. In other words, a

good leader is one who has the ability and capability to lead from within.

Because if a leader can’t lead himself then how can he lead others to realize

their goals and objectives in reality.

So my dear Toastmasters, as Swami Vivekananda aptly put it decades ago -

“Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached”.

Be the leader you want to be so that you augment many more leaders to

become the leaders they want to be.

Happy Toastmastering!


P A G E 7

Did you know?

"The sixth sick

sheik's sixth

sheep's sick" is

said to be the

toughest tongue

twister in

English.

Imprints of Past Division ‘G’ Governor

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path

and leave a trail”.

I get reminded of this Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote whenever I think

about Infosys Toastmasters, Chennai (ITC) and its leaders. There are 3

categories of leaders in this world.

1) Builders: You give them a vacant land. They involve a number of people

and build a beautiful castle, plant trees, develop gardens. They do things

that benefit NOT only the current generation, but also the future

generations.

2) Maintainers: You give them a vacant land. They put a fence around and

protect it. They pay daily visits and make sure that NO HARM is done to it.

However, the vacant land continues to remain vacant.

3) Destroyers: You give them a vacant land. They don't care about the land.

They let weeds grow. They let people dump garbage into it and the land

becomes a dump yard.

The champions of ITC – Anand Narayanan, Arun Kumar, Monisha, Vishnu &

Dhanalakshmi converted the vacant land into a beautiful castle. They

played a key role in getting the club chartered. From just a desire, it

became a dream. From just a dream, it became a passion. The passion

turned into performance and the performance produced the results.

Today, ITC is one of the rising stars in the skies of Toastmasters in Tamil

Nadu. The club has produced so many new champions and leaders. Kudos

to each one of you! You have not only made ITC proud, but the entire

Toastmasters community in Tamil Nadu too.

Many of us joined Toastmasters because we wanted to develop our

communication skills. Later we realized that we can also groom our

leadership skills by performing various roles. Toastmasters is a voluntary

organization and you don't get paid for your service. However, with all the

skills and experience that you gain here, imagine the difference you

would make at your workplace where you are getting paid to build a

great product; where you are getting paid to build great teams; Where you

are getting paid to bring the best out of people.


TM Saravanan

Velrajan

P A G E 8

Did you know?

A sentence that

contains all 26

letters of the

alphabet is called

“pangram”. Ex:

Pack my box with

five dozen liquor

jugs.

What Toastmasters can DO to you is largely dependent on what you DO in

Toastmasters. To perform various roles in Toastmasters, you don’t need to

have the capability. You can develop the capability over a period of time. All

that you need to have is commitment to do things; passion to achieve

success and willingness to learn. With these qualities of leadership, you can

easily build clubs - where everyone would like to visit, join and realize their

dream of becoming a better speaker and leader.

Happy Toastmastering !


P A G E 9

Did you know?

The past tense for

the English word

“dare” is “durst”.

TM Anand

Narayanan

Imprints of ITC’s Club Mentor

Toastmasters – Toasts you for your life to taste better

With the start of this Toastmasters club in Infosys, it has marked a new

beginning towards making people effectively communicate, articulate and

lead by example. The club is already witnessing immense growth in its

members and it has also unleashed that hidden potential that already

existed in some. The common comments that I hear from people are “I fear

talking in front of an audience, What if I am called to the stage and I am not

able to talk on a given topic, I am not confident enough in English language”

and so on. My question for you is “Wouldn’t you come out of your shackles

and speak in front of an audience who wouldn’t mock at you but would

rather be supportive enough to help you speak and to understand your

concerns when you are not able to speak? Wouldn’t you like to be amidst

people who encourage you to make mistakes and learn? Wouldn’t you love

to be in a positive environment where the word discouragement is out of

the dictionary? Wouldn’t you prefer ‘Learn by doing’ to teaching and

pampering? Wouldn’t you want opportunities to come your way like

meeting stalwarts of public speaking, getting to participate in contests at

the area, division, district and finally in the International arena in the US”?

If your answer to each of these questions is a ‘Yes’, then toastmasters is the

way – it is indeed a dawn of a new era.


P A G E 1 0

Did you know?

The longest one

syllable word in the

English language is

“screeched”.

TM Arun Kumar

Imprints of the President

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” a quote by

Lao Tzu formed the main theme of our first meeting of Infosys

Toastmasters, Chennai way back in April 2012. True to this quote, what we

took as a small step then went on to make that first giant stride with the

club getting charted in May 2012.

When Anand wanted me to take the role of the President, I was clueless as

to what the role demanded both during the club meetings and outside the

club. We had the chartering ceremony & swearing in of office bearers, at

the end of which I was expected to give a 3-5 minutes acceptance speech. I

have never before seen a President’s acceptance speech. As this happened

in May, most of the office bearers were already serving their terms and

hence I did not get a chance to see how it should be presented. Taking

inputs from Anand, I delivered a speech highlighting just the areas which I

would focus during my term, (a) Building a guest-friendly club environment,

(b) When pursuing DCP goals, will ensure that the quality of the meeting

roles or the speeches is not compromised and (c) Giving each member a

complete Toastmaster experience by encouraging them to attend

community club meetings and to participate in events of Area and Division.

Even today after 6 months from the club getting chartered, despite the fact

that 12 members left us, Infosys Toastmasters, Chennai has provided the

best club environment for all the guests walking into our meetings (we get

6 – 10 guest every meeting) without compromising on the quality of the

meeting and engaged most of the club members in various events of the

Area and the Division! This wouldn’t have been possible without the

relentless effort of members of the club, PR Campaign team and the

members of the Executive committee.

By far these are the most cherished moments in my life to see the club as a

baby crawling, sitting and now standing on its own feet. I envisage it to

grow up strong, compete in a race and win laurels for all its stake holders.

With this I applaud the newsletter team (Monisha, Jagan and Diwakar) for

taking that extra effort and going that last mile to make our first ever club

newsletter the one we would all enjoy reading. I wish them all the very

best.


P A G E 1 1

Did you know?

The oldest word

in the English

language is

“Town”

Awards and Recognition

The following is the education tracker of our members for the

communication and leadership tracks.


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

TM Vishnu Kumar

TM Vijayshree

TM Vidiya

TM Saravanan

TM Rakesh

TM Rajshree

TM Monisha

TM Hugh

TM Diwakar

TM Arun

No. of projects completed

Competent Leadership Tracker

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

TM Vivek

TM Vishnu Teja

TM Vishnu Kumar

TM Vijayshree

TM Vidiya

TM Varun

TM Sumitha

TM Shaharyar

TM Sathish

TM Saravanan

TM Sai

TM Rakesh

TM Rajshree

TM Palaniappan

TM Palani G

TM Monisha

TM Jagan

TM Hugh

TM Hari

TM Diwakar

TM Barath

TM Arun

TM Anjana

No. of projects completed

Competent Communication Tracker

P A G E 1 2

Did you know?

The word

“almost” is the

longest word in

English language

with all the

letters in

alphabetical

Awards and Recognition

Imprints of ITC

The milestone meeting #25 was celebrated by conducting a Tall tales

contest which was a great success.

Within 5 months of chartering, the club was able to gain 5 DCP

(Distinguished Club Program) points and get the status as a

“Distinguished Club”.

The club has added 5 new members in August - September 2012 cycle

and bagged the Smedley Award (Award for membership building) from

Toastmasters International.

TM Rajshree and TM Hugh Conan represented the club in the Area level

Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests in Sept 2012 and TM

Rajshree emerged as the second runner up at the Humorous Speech

Contest.

TM Vishnu is the first member at ITC to complete his CC (Competent

Communication) and CL (Competent Leadership) tracks.


P A G E 1 3

Did you know?

Ernest Vincent

Wright's novel

Gadsby:

Champion of

Youth - a story

of more than

50,000 words in

which the letter

‘e’ never

appears.

The rays of hope

If you had queried a person in his 20s about his goals in 1960s, his answer

would have been, “I am an overachiever -my three children are playing in

backyard and the fourth one in my wife’s womb”. If you had posed the

same question to the then youngster of 1970s, his reply would have been “I

want a government job”. If you ask the same question to today’s youth,

response would be “I want to start my own company!”. This sets the stage

for us to broaden our minds and views.

It is not an exaggeration to consider the current generation as beacons of

new dreams, new hopes and new aspirations as they want to jump across

the hurdles and stand out as champions. It is inspiring, meaningful and

impactful when our world faces numerous socio-economic problems. The

onus of taking the trickle down economy to the poorest of the poor and to

the last mile is on us to make a world a better place to live in.

To nurture our dreams and shape into reality, we have to solve too much in

too little time; we have to imbibe the knacks of great leaders to spread our

wings; we have to constantly reinvent ourselves to reach the pinnacle in

our field. And these things are challenging when life and work take turns

on the pivotal of communication and collaboration.

Equation of communication boils down to listening, critical thinking and

feedback. The conundrum of collaboration involves time management,

planning and implementation, organization and delegation. Where else can

you find a better solution for change, a paradise for reinvention and a

temple for transformation to groom yourself as a better leader for a better

world, than in Toastmasters!

Friends, when we constantly and consistently strive together for a better

future of needy people the Dawn of the new era lucidly signifies the rays of

hope emanating from Generation Y.


TM Vishnu Kumar,

VP - Education

P A G E 1 4

Did you know?

"Queuing" is the

only word with

five consecutive

vowels.

Dawn of a new era in senior citizens’ life

According to an estimate of United Nations nearly 40% of senior citizens

living with their families are reportedly facing abuse of one kind or

another, but only one in six cases actually comes to light. According to the

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, one out of

every ten people on the planet is now 60 years of age or older .

In such a scenario, it becomes inevitable to give our attention to these

aging millions who are waiting for a new dawn where they are showered

with love, care and support.

With the fast changing socio-economic scenario, rapid urbanization,

higher aspirations among the youth and the increasing number of working

women, roots of the traditional joint family system has been eroding very

fast. Majority of older people are forced to live alone in their own houses

or they are dumped by their own children in old-age homes. Social

marginalization and negligence in old-age lead to violation of Human

Rights of Older Persons. Ironically, in India older generations are unaware

of their human rights as 85.9% older persons have never heard about

Human Rights of Older Persons.

Every individual has the right to healthy aging which not only comes about

medically, but also via social relationships and gratification.

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights has recognised Human

Rights for senior citizens. The Government of India has enacted legislative

acts like The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and senior Citizen Act

(Senior Citizen Act), 2007. Under these acts parents can claim maintenance

from their children. But money cannot take place of emotional support and

care.

Today it seems that privatization and globalization have filled our pockets

but emptied our ethics, it has made us so techno philic that we like the

touch screens in our phones more than the touch of our loved ones. We kill

our time on Facebook, Twitter, weekend parties but feel bored in the

company of our loving parents. Let’s take out some time from our busy

schedules for our parents who are growing old and need our love and care.

Let the elderly people age gracefully with dignity. Let’s vow to bring dawn

of a new era in senior citizens’ lives.


TM Diwakar Labh,

Treasurer

P A G E 1 5

Did you know?

A ghost writer

pens an

anonymous

book.

TM Saravanan,

Secretary

5 reasons why you don't need an MBA!

Let’s start with a simple question, why do you need an MBA? By now you

would have memorized the 2 paragraphs that you have written on every

application form. If you want to do an MBA for any of the following 5

reasons, let’s get into details. After all “The devil is in the details”

1. “ I want to earn more than 10 LPA”.

a) What if your placement year is similar to the situation which B-Schools

faced in 2009? Even IIM Grads were struggling to get into PSU for just 6

LPA.

b) CTC 10 LPA including all unbelievable & unachievable targets actually

amounts to 8 LPA. If you continue working with current employer for 2

more years and move to another company with a hike, I am sure you

will be somewhere near to it.

c) Don’t underestimate your investment in terms of fees and opportunity

cost for 2 years. I know few management Gurus who have been paying

their Educational loan for more than 10 years.

2. “I want an IIM or some B-School brand for my life”.

a) Once there were only 5 IIMs, now 12 and may be 20 tomorrow. There is

no life time brand even for IIMs.

b) After certain years of experience only your skills and achievements will

speak for yourself.

3. “I cannot tolerate this IT sector any more and I want to enter into any

other sector”.

a) I am sure that MBA would not give a relief. 70% of sales roles combined

with some financial analyst roles are not a cake walk when compared to

IT industry.

b) There is high probability you may end up in a sector which is not the

one what you were aiming to enter. Maybe again to IT.

c) Have you tried changing sectors now? I feel MBA route is not the

shortest.


P A G E 1 6

Did you know?

The most used

letter in the

English alphabet

is “E” and “Q” is

the least used

4. “I want to start my own venture”.

a) Go and learn more about the specifics of your industry and start. MBA

education is not about it.

b) If you say “I need to think about the industry during my MBA “, you are

going to be late.

5. I am a Manager material with proven leadership qualities.

a) Good, you have those qualities. Develop those in places where leaders

are needed.

b) You cannot improve your leadership qualities amongst self-proclaimed

leaders in B-Schools.

c) Be aware of the fact, B-School is a place where ‘Pebbles are polished

and Diamonds are dimmed’.

But in spite of knowing these details even before doing an MBA, the ‘logical

decision making’ MBA aspirants will go ahead with their MBA plans, as I did

few years back.


P A G E 1 7

Did you know?

The word

"lethologica"

describes the

state of not

being able to

remember the

word you want.

TM Vidiya Prasanth,

Asst. VP - Education

Living with this world

I have heard lot of people saying “life is a race” . I have even heard people

saying “In life, you have to do or die” . Life is a pretty hard race to run and is

also a damn tough fight.

Every day runs on expectations! A poor man runs for his everyday food

expecting to become rich one day. A middle class man runs for securing his

life expecting to get into the richer class. A rich man runs for accumulating

more and more wealth . Do you actually think only the rich man is enjoying

his life? Absolutely not! The poor enjoys lot of love and affection and he has

time to take care of everyone. The middle class man enjoys calculated

luxury and he shows calculated love as well. The rich man enjoys surplus

wealth and whatever he knows in the world has a price tag. We can't deny

that there is no love in rich people's hearts but it’s very meager. Every

human being is so desperate for something or the other and no one is an

exception.

Everyday runs on hope! Thinking of making a better tomorrow for the next

generation, we stretch ourselves to get the most out of today. We start

everyday with the hope that world would not end on 21st December. We

start everyday with the hope that there will be peace in the world soon.

Whether it happens or not, we still hope. To script a peaceful life in this

world you need to have less expectations, surplus love and excessive hope.

Life is not a race to win. It’s a holiday to relax and enjoy.


P A G E 1 8

Did you know?

The infinity sign

is called a

lemniscate.

TM Rajshree Nancy,

Asst Secretary

A tribute!

“The dawn of a new era” was what Nirmal dreamt of. Not for himself, but

for the environment! A true environmentalist who practiced what he

preached and rescued creatures from being killed.

Some have dogs as their pets, some fishes and some birds, but he preferred

to pet snakes! He was primarily trained to be a snake rescuer. Living in a

city with forests in close proximity, it was only natural for snakes to

frequent the human habitat. He had handled over 1500 snakes and took

them safely to the forests and released them. Though snakes are one of

the most deadly creatures, for him, they were the most wonderful

creatures and stressed on the importance of snakes in maintaining the

ecological balance. He preached about the only four varieties of snakes in

India that are poisonous which have to be handled with care. He used to

play with the non-venomous ones, train the venomous ones and keep them

as pets. He had handled the king cobra twice with ease. He trained many

nature lovers to handle snakes. He conducted awareness programmes to

erase the misconceptions about the slimy creature from the minds of

school and college students. Whenever he held a snake, it seemed as if the

snake was comfortable in his loving hold and hardly made an attempt to be

free of it. He, in fact, enjoyed the snakes squirming on him. Ironically, on a

fine dusk, the same species for which he had dedicated his life to protect,

stung his life out of him at an age when life begins. Though he was not as

famous as Steve Irwin, national newspapers bore testimonials on the

phenomenal life that he led and the impact of his work on the

environment. The world has lost a great man; his loved ones have gained a

God and for him, it’s yet another ‘Dawn of a new era’!


P A G E 1 9

Did you know?

"Polish" is the

only word in the

English language

that when

capitalized is

changed from a

noun or a verb

to a nationality.

The dawn of a new era

I sat bolt upright in my bed with a cry, slamming my hands down onto the

mattress. It was 1 a.m. and I just had a terrible nightmare - that it was the

morning of an exam, and I hadn’t completed the syllabus. I have had this

nightmare all my life. Even on the night after my graduation, I had the same

nightmare. It was then that I realized that I had taken the last exam of my

life. It was the dawn of a new era in my life.

Starting today, I want each and every one of you to enter a new era in

which the primary judge for your success will be: “YOU”.

I will be sharing some pointers on how to emerge successful on your own

terms.

Point 1: “Follow your passion, and success will follow you”.

Don’t make the mistake of waving off your talent, simply because you

won’t be a ‘star” or get rich off it. Just go after it with a fire in your belly

and the mantra “YES I CAN”. At the end of the day, if you can face yourself

in the mirror and say “I am happy”, then you are a success.

Point 2: Go in actual pursuit of your own happiness.

Most of us fail to realize that happiness is not a “someday somewhere

phenomena”. True happiness lies within you, waiting to be discovered.

Waste no time in searching for it in the world outside. Go in actual pursuit

of your own happiness.

Point 3: "The time is always right to do what is right."

Decide to do what is right - today and every day. You will find

yourself building a life that matters. When the day arrives that you are now

calling "tomorrow," you will call that day "today" and a different day will be

called "tomorrow."

The time to make amends is now. It’s the dawn of a new era for each and

every one of you. It’s time to stop living your life for other people and start

living it on your own terms.


TM Anjana Pradeep

P A G E 2 0

Did you know?

Switching letters

is called

spoonerism. For

example, saying

jag of Flapan,

instead of flag of

Japan

TM Hugh Conan

Doyle

This day, that age

With a gentle breeze flowing through my stiff and curly hair and my legs

swaying from left to right, I scanned the sea to understand the ebb and flow

of the tide. The skies were overcast and the bullock cart I was travelling in

pushed through the muddy roads of the village. A civilian said pointing at a

house, “Thambi, Antha veedu nambalodathu than. Poi oyvu

yeduthukonga.” (Brother, that house belongs to me. You can rest there for

a while.) I understood the reason behind the gesture. He did not want me

to get drenched in the rain. I told him to go inside and that I would follow

him. He obliged.

I, for a moment wondered if I had said the right thing. All of a sudden I

noticed a tiny drop of water splash on my right nostril. I understood I was

caught up in the middle of nowhere as I had taken a long walk towards the

seas. Then came another drop and another. I had no option but to get wet

in the rain. It started pelting down within seconds. I stood still. I tried

counting the number of drops that fell on my sulking face but I failed

miserably. I took a step forward and shook my leg. I saw a fisherman

coming out of his hut. So did another. One by one everyone in the village

came out to relish nature’s pleasant blessing in the form of a downpour.

Each of them was on their feet. I had been to several dance competitions

but this seemed to outdo them all. I hardly knew any of them but without

considering me to be a stranger almost all of them took turns to share some

dance moves with me.

And lo! Whilst in the middle of such celebrations, the church bell struck

hard. The clock showed 5.30. It struck again and again.

I opened my eyes and realized the alarm was screaming to remind me I was

late for work. Back to square one. No time for playing; neither in the rain

nor to take a dip in the sea. Client calls awaiting morning chores. I heard a

sudden cry of pain from outside and realized it was the ambulance. My

mother came in and said “Son, it’s dawn.” I smiled and understood that it

was the dawn of a new era. An era where business is religion and money is

God.


P A G E 2 1

Did you know?

The dot on top

of the letter 'i' is

called a tittle.

TM Sai

Venkateshwaran

Dawn of a new era...

It was 1906 and the Bambatha rebellion was keeping the British busy and

occupied. It was a Zulu revolt against colonialism. There was one

diminutive, puny man with bright eyes assisted by twenty other fellow

countrymen helping the injured soldiers by posing as stretcher-bearing

corps. He decided to turn his back and face the colossal might of the

colonial troops with a sharp weapon – by spirit and heart. This noble soul,

going by the nomenclature – Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, went to

become Mahatma of India, liberating India from the clutches of nefarious

colonial rule. His methodology – Satyagraha or non-violent protest

metamorphosed into a beacon of light, swallowing time zones with a new

era dawning over the horizons of the under-represented.

At a distance, in the USA, leaping years forward to 1963, a man delivered

his speech – “I have a dream”, and nineteen months later he was honored

with the Nobel Prize for peace. This man, Mr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

brought down racial inequalities and its squalid themes to its knees by

delivering the new era of non-violence again, with a profound impact

reverberating over the entire North American nation.

Down south, a man chained for decades, dealt a heavy blow to apartheid

with a new missile – made of Gandhi’s principles, the non-violence. It was

1993, after sixty seven years of struggle for social justice, this gentleman -

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was bequeathed with the coveted Nobel Prize

for peace. The new era of non-violence resuscitated itself, in the place it

was born, transmogrifying itself from a little spark to an inferno with its

gargantuan tongue devouring the policies of racial segregation.

This era of non-violence, though one hundred years old, is still new and

takes various forms at several places of need and stops only to spring out

again at a different place at a different time. This shall last long, longer than

the longest of the eras, extending over epochs to arrive, masquerading into

newer forms into will and heart of the societies and its progenies inheriting

the land.

This is a new era – The era of non-violence, advocated by Gandhi.


P A G E 2 2

Did you know?

“Dreamt” is the

only English

word that ends

in “mt”.

TM Varun B.

Krishnan

Digitization of humanity You wake up in the morning to the digital melody of your phone alarm.

You are not yet fully awake, yet your hands involuntarily login to Facebook.

Welcome to the digital era, where machines control man and man has the

6th finger – his mobile phone.

Look around you. Everywhere you go, you have machines telling you what

to do. You want to drive somewhere? Ask the complex GPS satellite

thousands of kilometers away in space instead of the shop keeper standing

less than 5 metres away! That is the satire in the world today. We’d rather

trust machines than our fellow human beings.

Call up customer care with an issue, and the first thing you hear is a

computerized voice welcoming you to customer care. After a few million

minutes of hearing cheesy music and ads being played in loop, you finally

hear a customer care executive saying some name so fast you can’t hear it.

When you state your problem, they will boost your confidence with words

like ‘Definitely we will help you in this regard sir’, only to be followed a few

minutes later with, ‘Sorry sir, the computer says it’s like that, so we can’t

help you in that regard’. We have forgotten the human touch in the

mechanized world. We are rapidly becoming machines ourselves, drained

of consideration for our fellow human beings.

Booking a train ticket? Never go to the booking center. Just log on to IRCTC

website and then post on Facebook that the site is too slow and inefficient.

Of course it’s going to be that if it is overloaded with some 100 times its

capacity!

We people should re-learn the art of getting something done without

dependence on technology – we have come to a stage where we want to

do everything with the click of a mouse or a few swipes on our Smartphone.

So, slow down. Let your phone run out of charge, it’s not like a meteor just

wiped out your family, it’s just your phone going to sleep. Try actually

meeting that friend of yours instead of just liking his pictures on Facebook.

Drown out the IVRs and replace it with human voices (even animal sounds

are fine). Try not to photograph everything – sometimes there is no better

camera than the eye, and no better film to process it than the brain. Be the

master of technology, not the slave. Live free.


P A G E 2 3

Did you know?

“Four” is the

only number

whose number of

letters in the

name equals the

number.

30 seconds to fame This column is the result of a telephonic impromptu session wherein the

Toastmasters were given 30 seconds to think and express their thoughts on

“How they correlate to the theme ‘The dawn of a new era’?”

“I want an equal society where there is no barrier between the rich and the

poor. There should be equal opportunities for everyone.”

- TM Barath Sastha Selvaraj

“People should stop blaming others and should start taking the blame on

themselves. They should be more responsible and the sense of

responsibility must begin from each one of us. One is responsible for one’s

own destiny. People must own up their actions and work for their dreams

to make life better and live happily.”

- TM Hari Srinivasan

“The dawn of a new era will be an era of mobile technology which is gradu-

ally becoming the center of our lives. Where hearts cannot penetrate ,

mobile phones are pervading the human space. With the touch of your fin-

gers, the world gets zipped to the pocket. Shortly, I can call it as a Personal

Assistant for every human being.”

- TM Karthikeyan Kuppusamy

“There should be no weapons and no wars. Peace and joy should spread

everywhere.”

- TM Kulasekara Pandian

“In my opinion, anything that is different from what you normally do is a

new era. A new era is indispensable for something good to happen and for

something that is positive.”

- TM Palani G. Sankar

“The first thought that comes to my mind is happiness. When we look into

the future, we don’t hope for something bad to happen. We look forward

for something new which makes us and our life happy.”

- TM Rakesh Thayyil


P A G E 2 4

Did you know?

“Bookkeeper”

and

“bookkeeping”

are the only two

words in the

English language

with three

consecutive

double letters.

30 seconds to fame “Women are bound to fulfill so many responsibilities in both their personal

and professional life. They are answerable to lots of people. They think that

they can handle both personal and professional life perfectly, but

unfortunately that doesn’t happen. They finally end up getting more

stressed compared to men. According to me, men should step forward to

help women and share their responsibilities. They should not dominate

women. Men and women should help each other thereby everyone’s life

will become simple and with this attitude people can achieve whatever

they want.”

- TM Sangeetha C.

“When I think of a new era, I feel the old things should vanish and the new

things should emerge. According to me, the new era should have social

acceptance, equality and respect for everybody.”

- TM Sandeep Kumar

“People should help each other to whatever extent possible. We have got

only one life and we should always be happy. There are problems at every

facet of life. So people need to help each other and get them solved.”

- TM Sathish Kumar Natarajan

“I dream of a new era where there is no poverty, no illiteracy, no war and

no nuclear bomb. I want people to be happy.”

- TM Shaharyar Danish Khalique

“In a new era, I expect dignity of labour and respect for every single person.

And all people should be educated for a better tomorrow.”

- TM Sumitha T.V.

“A new era should be the dawn of new ideas or new thoughts which can

improve our lives and bring about a revolution. It could be, for instance, a

new technology. In the case of mobile phone or Facebook, our lives have

changed so much from the 1990s to 2012.”

- TM Vignesh Venkateswaran


P A G E 2 5

Did you know?

The word

“queue” is the

only word in the

English language

that is still

pronounced the

same way when

the last four

letters are

removed.

30 seconds to fame “When I think of a new era, it’s happiness and things that make people

happy that come to my mind. People should be grateful and they should

not be greedy or jealous.”

- TM Vijayshree Mahesh

“I am excited about the hot topic “The end of the world”. I don’t know if

this would really happen. But if this is the case and if there’s a new dawn, I

want corruption and the clashes between people to die. People should

realize their mistakes.”

- TM Vishnu Teja Sunkaranam

“From my perspective, a new dawn can be either in terms of technology or

in the way we interact with people. These days, people rely more on

Facebook than on actual social networking. They are more dependent on

technology. They are losing their inherent skills and are forgetting

everything over a period of time. Sending a letter/postcard is losing its

charm. Gone are those days when people eagerly waited for 10-15 days to

get a letter or money via post. People have lost patience today and so they

send e-mails. But on the positive side, there is more transparency today.”

- TM Vivek Khare


P A G E 2 6

Did you know?

The word

“alphabet”

comes from the

first two letters

of the Greek

alphabet :

“alpha” and

“beta”.

Guest feedback

“The meeting was pretty nicely put. The content was good, it was real

pleasure listening to people”.

- Sumit Pant

“Meeting was good, well organized and completed well within the time

schedule. It is a good platform to check concurrent knowledge and know

about current happenings”.

- Jitendra Katiyar

“I had been a toastmaster in my college for few months. Toastmasters is

really wonderful and improves self-confidence to speak in front of a group .

I should really appreciate you guys for your wonderful meetings”.

- Preetha Subramaniam

“I attended the first meeting just out of curiosity. It was an amazing

learning experience. Each meeting had something as take away. The three

different categories (prepared speeches, table-topic and feedback) are well

thought and they contribute to make each meeting a special one”.

- Nikhil Chandrakant Vichare

“It was a pleasure to sit through the meeting. It’s a single forum to speak

out yourself adhering to the best practices of public speaking. The meeting

in my words:- P-Pleasurable, L-Lively, E-Ecstatic, A-Adorable, S-Suave,

A-Awesome, N-No-frills, T-Talismanic”.

- Tushar Kanta Jena

“My friends used to say that I may be good in technical skills, but I need to

improve my communication skills to express my ideas effectively. I think

Toastmasters would help in improving my communication skills”.

- Pandurengan Jegadeesan

“I was impressed to see a Toastmaster handling the audience during a

social gathering and so I dropped by to see the Toastmasters meeting at

Infy. Most of the meetings were quite enjoyable. I felt that participating in

the proceedings would help strengthen my skills as well”.

- Malavika Murali


P A G E 2 7

Say cheese!


P A G E 2 8

Credits

EDITORIAL TEAM

TM Monisha Monikanta Rajan

TM Diwakar Labh

TM Jagannath Panigrahi

PROOF READERS

TM Anand Narayanan

TM Varun B. Krishnan

ADVISOR

TM Arun Kumar

OFFICE BEARERS

MEETING DETAILS

When : Every Wednesday (unless it’s a public holiday) 4.45 - 6.15 PM

Where : B5 - Piraeus (Ground floor)

You need not be a member to attend our meetings.


President - TM Arun Kumar VP - Education - TM Vishnu Kumar

VP - Membership - TM Rakesh VP - Public Relations - TM Monisha

Secretary - TM Saravanan Treasurer - TM Diwakar

Sergeant At Arms - TM Jagannath

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