spotlight - speech craft edition

The Spotlight

The Future Leaders

The Spotlight

The Spotlight

Table of Content:

From the Editor’s Desk 4

President’s Message 5

Coordinator’s Message: Speechcraft – A New Learning Experience 6

Do You Procrastinate? 8

Passion Towards Cooking 9

Learning: A Unique Way of Enhancing your Personality 11

Camera Clicks 12

Grand Finale – Agenda 14

My Fairy Land Kashmir 16

LLL - Life’s Long Learning 18

My Son Asked me a Question 19

Physical Exercise 20

My Visualization of the World 100 Years from Now 21

Talk to Yourself 22

The Genius Kid 24

Succinct & Precise 24

Mistakes 25

Girl’s Education – A Poem 25

Life’s Like That 26

My Favorite Teacher 27

The Spotlight

From the Editor’s Desk

“You need to learn how to negotiate

better with the suppliers and contractors” said my boss while I was just one year in employment, “you are too soft and often agree with their demands” Those were the words that pushed me in search of a platform where I can develop my communication skills, hone my speaking abilities and learn how to be a better negotiator. I have joined Diamond toastmasters back in January 2011; since then, my journey had a fair share of ups and higher ups (nope, no downs) A year later, I was sitting in my boss’s office and he said: “Adnan, I see you have changed a lot, guess that toastmasters did that”. Yes, I have reached my objective and fulfilled my mission of joining a toastmasters club. Yet my journey continuous, sailing in the Sea of opportunities with Toastmasters, not just on communication aspect, but in leadership as well. In every meeting, I get to meet and sit with people from different backgrounds and different mindsets. Every session brings in new information and unique experience. Every plan we make brings in new challenges, various problems, and complicated riddles!

But isn’t this a journey all about? The people I meet? It makes me a better communicator and person to understand people better. The different information I get? It is slowly expanding my horizon and helping me understand this universe bit by bit. The problems I face? It is only making me a better problem solver and turned me into a person who accepts challenges. To be an editor of this magazine - it was a challenge; as it is the first time I have taken such a huge task. But I am thankful for the opportunity given to me, as this definitely a thrilling encounter. 5 years have passed since I joined Toastmaster. Like how the uncertain Sea teaches those who rides it, Toastmasters harnessed me to face the high waves and rough winds and made me a better helmsman.

TM Adnan Syed

The Spotlight

President’s Message

Communication is one of the

major tools which gives confidence to a

person. People start wondering around

to see if they can get facilities in which

they could get motivation and build their

confidence; and here I am thrilled that

Toastmasters International has given me

a platform to build/enhance within

myself - communication and leadership

skill.

In Toastmasters club, people join to

strengthen their aim of becoming

successful communicators and leaders.

Earlier it was very hard to know many of

the aspects of the world happenings, but

now because of rapid improvement in

friendly communications the world

became too small – as if things are

happening next door.

By nature I am an introvert, people of

this nature find it very hard to interact

with friends, subordinates, and boss and

even with relatives. Most of the time we

prefer loneliness and communicating

with big audience is next to impossible.

One fine day my wife explained me

about Toastmasters club, and because of

her encouragement I joined

toastmasters club.

During the first few weeks, it was a hard

task for me to face the audience. But,

slowly I overcome my fear of facing the

audience.

After spending long years with

Toastmasters, now I realized that it had

brought enormous changes in me and I

thank Toastmasters for it. Those who

are looking forward to bring changes in

them in the field of communication and

leadership, I fully recommend that

Toastmasters is the best platform.

TM Zakir Hussain, ACB, Cl

The Spotlight

Coordinator’s Message

Speech craft -

A New Learning Experience!

Action Thought

Ever since I got elected as VP-Membership, I

want to do something different to take Toastmasters more closely to the communities; during the training I came to know about speech craft and I shared the information with our president TM Zakir Hussein. He was excited and got support from Area 51 Director TM Suranga Fernando. The next week DTM Shaikh Shakil Anjum visited our club and ignited the team. TM Sadique Basha, TM Syed Faizulla and TM Syed Adnan poured in immense oil to set fire and lead the team to success.

Share your dream with the ones around you.

The Alchemist – “When you have a dream, the whole universe will conspire to help you in achieving it”

Speech craft team and Advisors - TM

Shabana Zakir, TM Ahmed Ijaz, TM Muneer Ahmed, TM Syed Adnan, TM Zaffer Mir Their commitment, hard work and working togetherness took this event to the heights.

Two Men - If likeminded, definitely will deliver more than two man

After every session we had two- three

meeting to improve upon and plan for next sessions. Phone calls were unlimited.

Constant Communication among the team – a major factor that drives the team towards the common objective - Success

I am a panic man. Understanding that our

president TM Zakir Hussein said “Raj, concentrate on one meeting at a time”. This advice made a big difference.

One at a time – To sharpen the outcome

After the 1st session, we got a

recommendation (from one of the participants, Mr. Bilal Ahmed) regarding the seating arrangement. The event outlook was world class after changing the seating arrangement.

Feedback – The best source for improvement

The Spotlight

For the 3rd session, as per initial plan TM

Miuru was supposed to evaluate all speakers. My team suggested that this will not give TM Miuru with enough time to comprehend his comment. I was not comfortable to change the plan, but TM Miuru gave a warm welcome for this recommendation and he gave a classic evaluation.

Listen to the team – improves perspectives

Once TM Shabana Zakir said “Having faith on the team helps the leader to perform, what he is supposed to be”

The Speech Craft team did an immense

amount of planning and re-planning to bring this event up to the mark.

Planning – The Roots

The surgical evaluation of each session, with

the thrive to drive the coming session to next level took this event to the undiscovered altitudes

Monitoring and Controlling - The Stem

During the course of each session, the eagle

eyed coordinators, advisors and the speech craft team were so cautiously involved to execute this session without any scratch.

Implementation - The Wings

The best ten presenters who

wholeheartedly delivered their workshops made with event priceless.

Toastmaster - Thrives for the betterment of others, while thriving for her/his

Presence of District 79, 2016 Champions -

DTM Nashid Abdul-Khaaliq , TM Minuri Wijesekara and TM Rubab Fatima Rizvi marked the superstardom of this event.

Interaction with the champions woke up the champions in each one of the attendees.

To get a leave from my boss - not an easy

task. But when I had to do that while speech craft was already half way, I just had to delegate during the team meeting.

Toastmasters - A treasure of leaders; be with them to become one.

Even before the 1st session, the speech

craft team could smell the potential, enthusiasm and passion of 17 unparalleled participants, which was one of the factors driving the team to deliver the quality each session had.

If higher customer expectations, sometimes it is better to tap it - to set higher quality standards for the product - to take the product to new horizons.

I agree that there was lot of area for

Improvement.

As TM Syed Adnan once said ”In Toastmasters even if you make mistakes,

you will never get fired”

TM Rajmohan Nair

The Spotlight

Do you Procrastinate?

Like many other toastmasters, I too

regret why I didn’t join the

toastmasters club earlier. For me the

answer was very simple,

procrastination! Unfortunately, this is

a career threatening aspect for an

individual. Although for many years I

knew about this organization, I was

looking for time to join it - the perfect

time! Procrastination will always make

you feel that now is not the right

moment to do - wait for best suitable

time. We underestimate the speed of

time and days become months -

months become years; but, that

perfect moment never comes.

Benjamin Franklin said it beautifully,

“You may delay but time will not”

If you want to do something, achieve

an objective or attain something in life

then the best time to do it is NOW.

Just start it by just doing it! As the

clock ticks, every step you take

gradually will make you realize that

you have covered a major distance in

achieving something. Someone has

said it right “the best way to get

something done is to - begin”

Do not allow procrastination hold you

in your comfort zones and keep

deceiving you and telling you that

tomorrow is there. Yes indeed,

tomorrow is there but not to start a

dream; it is there to continue what

you have already started.

TM Ahmad Ijaz

The Spotlight

Passion Towards Cooking

As a young boy it always amused me

to watch my mother in the kitchen, making yummy breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. I slowly started assisting my mother in her work. I liked doing little things for her, like peeling boiled eggs and mashing the potatoes. It was a wonderful time helping my mother in childhood. Years later, I had to leave my parents and come abroad, cooking was a daily need for me. It made me feel special, showing off my culinary skills to my roommates. It gave immense satisfaction to my passion towards my cooking when we had gone on vacation and we had a big gathering and I helped my mother in preparing food.

Food channels and celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Sanjeev Kapoor, Nigella Lawson and Sanjay Thumma, became my inspiration. When we see others cooking it looks easy but it is not so easy! Also Following the recipe is not enough to get that good taste and aroma. It needs undying passion and loads of practice. Thomas Keller, the great chef says that “A Recipe has no soul, you as a cook must bring soul to the recipe”. Cooking is also a stress buster for me, because it makes my children happy to be served by their favorite celebrity chef. Muneer Burhan

The Spotlight

The Spotlight

Learning – A Unique Way of

Enhancing Your Personality

Our minds perceive that up to

certain age we can learn and

afterwards we feel that we are fully

learned; but it is not so. Everyday life

teaches us something new and this

keeps polishing the edges to become

diamond. I have always been a

staunch believer in learning and

exploring new things in every

direction.

In recent times lot of individuals have

joined Toastmasters International

(TMI) and adopted the mantra of

internationalization. TMI course

encourages participants to explore a

transformative interpretation of

internationalization of our personality

and to take action to change our own

self. The learning algorithm “Learn by

Doing” developed by TMI has

benefited lot of people and

transformed the life’s. This

methodology gave rise to a new class

of theoretically elegant learning

central concept.

To facilitate adequate learning various

opportunities are designed in order to

increase the amount of engagement

learners who can participate & learn.

In addition, it provides a structure by

which to integrate intentional and

incidental vocabulary learning which

leads to fluency development. It offers

different concepts of communication

and leadership necessary to become a

leader - with knowledge to understand

and apply the powerful algorithms

that have we been developed over the

last few years.

In today’s challenging world and

changing modern era it has become

need of the hour in the personal and

social perspectives to enhance the

capabilities of communication. Be it at

education level or at the job today the

learning participation and change at all

levels of tertiary has become

mandatory to reach the targeted

goals. So let’s partner together in

developing ourselves with the support

and contribution of each one to

become a polished global citizen.

TM Shuja Sherrif

The Spotlight

Where all it Began

Participants Attempting Table Topics

Coordinator addressing

Participants

The master of all skills - Listening

Camera Clicks

The Spotlight

Participants Attempting Evaluation

Session 7 – Entirely managed

by Speech crafters

One of the many Workshops

Camera Clicks

The Spotlight

The Spotlight

My Fairy Land - Kashmir

Kashmir, known as the “paradise

on earth” and “the Switzerland of East”

is surrounded by lush green mountains.

Most of the states populace is

concentrated in this beautiful vale. It is

spread over an area of about 150 km in

length and 80 km in width situated at an

average elevation of 5000kms. Valley

offers a revitalizing climate and

landscape, captivating the visitor with its

green carpet meadows all over for half of

the year. Dynamic beauty of Kashmir

consists of countless attractions, which

accordingly have made tourism as one of

its major industry.

Vale is rich geographically,

anthropologically, historically and

culturally. Physically it is stunning and

stimulating, it is an unparalleled place for

tourist interest. It exceeds every

description of beauty and charm.

“Paradise on the earth” Paradise formed

by nature and made doubly beautiful by

its inhabitants.

Nature blessed vale with alluring

features of immense beauty which

makes it the famous destination

throughout the world. Its lofty

mountains, transparent lakes, vast green

meadows together with its cool climate

have been attracting people from all

over the world and other parts of the

country in large numbers. It has been a

gathering ground of several ancient

cultures and civilization, evincing interest

of great historians, eminent scholars,

travelers, poets and writers throughout

the ages.

Enclosed by mountain ranges, Kashmir is

the largest valley in the lap of highest

mountains in the world. There are

various lakes and swamps spread across

the valley which bears the testimony to

the fact that it was once bed of most

glorious lake in the world. According to

Sir Walter Lawrence “The valley contains

everything which should make life

enjoyable, there is spot varied and

excellent, there is scenery for the artist

and layman, mountain for mountaineer,

flower for the botanist, vast field for the

geologist, magnificent ruins for the

archeologist”.

Dr. Samira Khan

The Spotlight

Construction Works - Civil, Mechanical and Electrical

Plant Shutdown works

Specialized Cleaning Works

Frond End Civil Works

Road Asphalting Works

Steel Fabrication and Erection

Concrete Works

Tank and Pipeline works

Coating and Insulation works

Fence/Compound Wall works

Import of tools and machinery

General Manager,

Eastern Region

Mr. Mohammed Ashraf,

B. Tech, MBA

Mobile:- 050 481 4283

The Spotlight

LLL - Life Long Learning

World is passing through worst kind

of recession in the history of mankind,

with following major impacts.

a) Millions of People are losing their jobs

b) High inflation rates

c) Illegal migration is on its height.

A general perception about this great

problem of joblessness is that, "there is

no solution to it".

I totally disagree to it. I strongly believe

that solution to this Problem is, “Life

Long Learning (LLL)".

LLL is "use of both formal and informal

learning opportunities throughout

people's lives in order to foster the

continuous development and

improvement of the knowledge and skills

needed for employment and personal

fulfilment."

According to a research, 42 % of college

graduates never read another book

again after their graduation.

We usually talk to each other about low

earnings & poor life styles, but we are

not putting additional efforts to get rid

of this menace

Famous trainer Jim Rohn said that, “Go

to work on yourself harder than your

job. Working on your job makes a living,

but working yourself makes a fortune."

This means is that your current skills can

only give you very little. For bigger

income & a Fortune you must

continuously upgrade your Skill sets.

The question is, “How do we apply LLL in

this 21st Century?.

We are all overworked, stressed out.

Time is as scarce as water in a Desert.

But I know that, where there is a

Difficulty there is always a Hidden

opportunity. Current era is called the

"Information Age". The world has

become a Global Village and entire

Gamut of Knowledge is at our finger tips.

Thousands of audio books & lectures

from world renowned universities are

available at you tube.

There are no limits to how much you can

change your life, only if you have the

determination & hard work. The illiterate

of the 21st century will not be those who

cannot read and write, but those who

cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ”―

Alvin Toffler

Sohail Siddiqui

The Spotlight

My Son asked me a Question!

I was driving my car when my son Ali

Redha asked me a question.

- What is the meaning of EPIC?

-“Where did you read it?” I asked him.

-He said: “I was playing Sony PlayStation.

It was fighting game and I had to select

the type of the battle”

-Me: Yes, sounds good, what else?

-Ali Redha: there are fighters and heroes.

-Me: EPIC means: battles, fighters and

heroes

-Ali Redha: Thank you dad. Can I asked you

another question?

-Me: yes! Sure, asking questions are the

key to learn new things!

-Ali Redha: what is the meaning of EPIC?

-Me: O no! I already explained it to you. I

am driving my car now, please do not

disturb me!

When reached home, I opened the

dictionary and fetched for its meaning.

"a long poem, typically one derived from

ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds

and adventures of heroic or legendary

figures or the past history of a nation"

In this definition, two things inspired me:

First, it is long. Second, it has got

adventures.

This gave me an insight about a speech.

Does it have these two aspects? Long and

adventures?

The speech in Toastmasters is very short

and does not necessary contain

adventures!

BUT! When I look closely, yes I can see

that TM speech is very long and contains

lot of adventures! How?

•The speech is a final product of a long

journey of one's life.

•Adventures: Education, personality,

background, tradition, experience,

preparation, age, gender ….etc. inside this

journey.

A picture contains more than 1000 words!

Similarly a speech contains tons of

information about the speaker! Is a TM

speech considered symptoms of all of

what I said?

Look to this: a doctor needs few drops of

blood and other samples to analyze and

diagnose your illness then he can

prescribe the suitable medicine. Likewise,

one sample of 5 to 7 Minutes of TM

speech is fairly enough to show who you

are! Evaluators in TM are those who are

talented to see and analyze TM speech “I

called it symptoms of your life which is full

of adventures “to either enhance or

pinpoint to strength or weaknesses

Could I approve that a TM speech is an

EPIC?

Speak and you shall be known, you are

hidden under your tongue!

Ahmed Al-Muslem

The Spotlight

Physical Exercises

It is well known that a healthy mind

lives in a healthy body. If a man is not

physically fit and healthy, his mind

cannot be sharp and active. Human body

is very much like a machine. It needs to

be maintained and looked after properly.

Physical exercise is of immense help in

maintaining good health and fitness.

Physical exercise is widely recognized as

the best way to keep the body health

and active. Neglect of bodily health can

be disastrous for us. It causes several

physical and mental problems. Slowly

our body becomes vulnerable to many

harmful diseases. His energy and beauty

is lost early. He grows old early.

Strength, stamina and power of

concentration decline. So physical

exercise is necessary in our school for

increasing our concentration and to build

stamina in our body.

Physical exercise is of different kind.

Different people have different choices

and preferences. Many people enjoy

morning walk. Some find pleasure in

cycling and jogging. Several people like

to do gardening or swimming. Many

people find it easier and convenient to

spend an hour or two in doing work out

in a well-equipped gym. Skipping is also

gaining popularity. They are easier to

practice and highly effective in keeping

one fit and healthy.

Regularity in exercise is imperative for

the preservation of good health. It is a

good source of energy, stamina and

strength. Consistency adds to the good

result. So we should be very regular and

consistent in physical exercise.

“A wise man once said Physical fitness is

not only one of the most important keys

to a healthy body, it is the basis of

dynamic and creative intellectual

activity. John F. Kennedy”

Physical exercise is a form of discipline. It

means self-control and sincerity. We

need to neglect our idleness. Physical

exercise helps in character building. It

makes our mind sharp and active.

Therefore we should exercise regularly

to be fit and healthy.

Sahan Salian

The Spotlight

My Visualization of the world 100 years from now

I visualize things in my mind before I have

to do them. It's like having a mental

workshop which kindles to recall the

famous quote of “The more boundless

your vision, the more real you are.”

The most dramatic changes look to come

in not just how we live but where we live,

with science opening the door to homes

underwater, underground and holidays on

the Moon and Mars after we have

colonized Space extending to other

galaxies

Instead of building skyscrapers up into the

air like seen in Dubai , we look set to

reverse them down into the earth,

tunneling huge structures 25 storey’s deep

where people can live and work.

Oceans will be extensively farmed similar

to Back Bay reclamation at Mumbai with

buildings and not just for fish. .Kitchen

Ovens will be replaced by 7D printers,

where users can download dishes by

famous chefs and print a cordon-bleu

banquet at the touch of a button.

Stealing of human brains will take place

where the intelligent people lose their

ownership and brains will be sold as

commercial intangible product by

surfacing the same in web link.

This will lead to new human race which

will hunt for 1000 times faster than a

normal unenhanced human does.

70% of all languages spoken in 2016 are

no longer spoken. Toast master will be

soon viewed as stress relief therapist cum

leaders by public and will be in great

demand as they are the only speakers in

market and others lost their speech due

to increase in chat messages

Schooling cum employment will become

obsolete. Teachers will become facilitators

and students will learn themselves.

Antarctica will be "open for business as

Free Trade Zone” and Deserts will become

tropical forests. We will soon be able to

control the weather.

The things which the science will still

hunt to discover is , uniqueness of finger

print for each human existence cum

control server of supreme power to know

unidentified galaxy movements in

universe

Ultimately our environment, the world in

which we live and work, is a mirror of our

attitudes and expectations.

Hence don’t lower expectations to meet

the performance, instead raise level of

performance to meet expectations

Visualize world that could be in future

years, Think it, feel it, believe in it and

make your blue print to begin to build.

P.S. Kesevan

The Spotlight

Talk to Yourself

"Talk to yourself like you would to

someone you love" -Brene Brown

When all your hope crashes down, when

nothing seems to go right, when you

have just nobody's shoulder to cry on,

we are left with ourselves. What goes up

there in our minds? We start thinking

negative. We blame ourselves for what

happened.

Well, you're not alone. Many of us face

these kinds of situations in life. As a fact

this is a sign of low self-esteem.

What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is the

belief we have in ourselves. It is that tiny

voice in your head that says "yes, I can

do it" when the entire world says you

can't.

Here's a fact about Steve Jobs:

Steve Jobs was booted from his own

company.

Steve Jobs is an impressive entrepreneur

because of his boundless innovations,

but also because of his emphatic

comeback from an almost irrecoverable

failure. Jobs found success in his 20s

when Apple became a massive empire,

but when he was 30, Apple’s board of

directors decided to fire him.

Undaunted by the failure, Jobs founded

a new company, NeXT, which was

eventually acquired by Apple. Once back

at Apple, Jobs proved his capacity for

greatness by reinventing the company’s

image and taking the Apple brand to

new heights.

If you've got a low self-esteem, here are

some tips that will help upgrade your

self-esteem:-

1. Say: stop your inner critic

2. Use healthy motivation habits

3. Take a two minute - self appreciation

break everyday

And most of all, be kind to others, even if

they aren't to you.

Haters don't really hate you, they hate

themselves because you are a reflection

of who they wish to be.

And when there is a thought of giving

up!

Remember this at that time:

When god pushes you down to the edge,

trust him fully, because only two things

can happen. Either he's going to catch

you when you fall or teach you how to

fly.

Emaan Hameed

The Spotlight

The Spotlight

He is genius and intelligent but sits in one

place and provides various information

desired. He works day and night and still

does not feel tired. The lucky guy named

“Abraham” is on his life journey to achieve

success after completion of his studies in

year 2003. His best friend who is a genius

kid supports him in every moment of his

life. Abraham named his computer “genius

Kid” as he starts his career with him, and to

date at age of 32 years he is working along

with him climbing a ladder of success. He

has been so excited about the success

journey that all immaterial desires are

slipping away from his grip.

The first he planned to convert his

imaginations into a realistic shape, and he

gave shape to his virtual ideas in form of

various material things. This feat has been

accomplished by “computer aided

designing“& by producing the ideas into

finished product seems he lived his dream.

After working in passion for 10 years, he

realized that there are many other

“Abrahams “slipped into this unknowing

world of material desires and hopes less

success for future. The Journey continues

until he got a job in Abroad where he is

been tested on his creative abilities and

finally accepted to perform best as planner.

Every person has a different path in their

life journey, but the ultimate aim is success.

Living a passion takes more patience to

achieve success & material desires will limit

a person from knowing the unknown.

Every moment is a journey towards success

as taught by “Genius Kid”

If somebody ask for advice about

writing, just give him Succinct and

precise. These are two aspects of

effective writing. Succinct is short and

precise is straight to the point. I

remember I read these two words in

magazines since more than twenty-three

years ago. I was developing myself to be

the best.

Writing is an art and it is classified into

three categories: inform, persuade and

entertain.

The informative writing is giving

information about a subject with all

needed descriptive names to the point

across. An example of informative

writing is about describing Makkah. The

second type of writing is persuasive. It is

about inducing your audience to do what

you say. If you promote a new company

product, you ask your readers to buy it.

The last type writing is to entertain like

writing a horror stories. There are

techniques that can add flavor(s) to

attract the reader and make him tense to

your story. Moreover, jargon and too

much information are boring and the

reader might lose the interest to

continue reading.

Finally, the key to successful writing is to

produce it in succinct and precise

manner

Succinct & Precise The Genius Kid

Ibrahim Dhawi

Faisal Shaikh

The Spotlight

OOPS! OH NO.

We need to learn from our mistakes so

that we do not run the risk of repeating

them. Learn, it’s what we do from the

moment that we’re conceived. Mistakes

are inevitable. Wouldn’t it be wonderful

if we could be at ease with them? We

have a history of handling mistakes and

failure in an unpleasant way. Since each

of us carries our human history with us,

it can be a challenge to overcome the

fear of making mistakes. If we can

embrace the reality of mistakes, we can

free ourselves to be more creative in our

lives and dig up some interesting

insights. Fortunately, there are many

things you can learn from making

mistakes like reveal a nuance we missed,

help us see what matters and what does

not, teach us to value forgiveness, can

hasten change, and the list goes on and

on. We have to expect them as a part of

the process of growth and development.

You’ve got to take the good with the

bad, smile with the sad, love what you

got, and remember what you had.

Always forgive, but never forget. Learn

from mistakes, but never regret. MOVE

ON. It’s just a chapter in the past. But

don’t close the book. Just turn the page.

As the saying goes ‘Your best teacher is

your last mistake.’

A father asks his daughter:

Study? Why should you study? I have sons who can study. Girl why should you study? For my dreams to take flight, I must study Knowledge brings new light, I must study For the battles I must fight, I must study Because I am a girl, I must study To fight men’s violence, I must study To end my silence, I must study To challenge patriarchy, I must study To demolish all hierarchy, I must study Because I am a girl, I must study To mould a faith I can trust, I must study To make laws that are just, I must study To challenge what I must, I must study To sweep centuries of dust, I must study Because I am a girl, I must study To know right from wrong, I must study To find the voice that is strong, I must study To write feminist songs, I must study To make a world where girls belong, I must study Because I am a girl, I must study

GIRL’S EDUCATION

Sidra Muneer

Mistakes

Ahmed Muneer

The Spotlight

Life’s Like That!

“What? Abbu is retiring? No way!

This can’t be true. ’’

I almost blurted out the first train of

thoughts that were starting to numb my

mind. I felt completely speechless. Like

something fogging my senses. How could

this be? My abbu is retiring at last? My

abbu had been talking about his

retirement since I was in tenth and my

siblings & I never took it seriously until

NOW…

The news hit me like a strong tidal

wave hurling me off the ground. I had to

brace myself. Life is not always about

picking the sweet smelling roses from

their roots without ever being pricked by

their stinging thorns. After my father

delivered the shocking news, maybe I

reacted too wildly or perhaps I was

overwhelmed with emotions, but the

flashback of memories made me

dumbstruck. No coming to home around

maghrib after a long day at work? No

more phone calls from office buddies

asking something technical and my dad

solving intricate problems as easy as

breathing?

I wondered how much I had gotten

used to my father’s daily routine so that

imagining it all stop so quickly made me

nostalgic. Although forced retirement

was the rule, and there must be a

waiting list of budding employers praying

to get the chance of their life when the

seniors finally

say goodbye, still logic & reasons don’t

always convince.

Yet life has a habit of teaching us the

most basic lessons when we are just not

ready to learn them. Parents get old too.

It’s a difficult fact to swallow, choking

you now and then, but after exerting

themselves for their whole lives,

pursuing those dreams they had dreamt

for you, shaping your future, supporting

you through thick and thin, nurturing

you physically and mentally, comforting

your worst fears at night but never

complaining how much their bodies ache

when they lie down on their beds, it’s

finally time that they are officially

declared as unproductive and old.

Truth to be told, everything is so

transient in this world that it’s foolish to

attach one’s heart strings to something

perishable. Trust in Allah and a focused

objective to succeed both in this word

and the hereafter should be the main

goal of a believer. Therefore, despite the

apparent hardships, it’s surely not

worthless to hope for ease.

A timely lesson to be learned for the rest

of my life…

Yusra Muneer

The Spotlight

My Favorite Teacher

A teacher, as we all know, plays a very

important role in every individual’s life.

We also know that a teacher is known as

a child’s second parent. The status of a

teacher is no less than that of a child’s

parent because a child spends a

considerable amount of time at school

and it is the teacher who assumes the

student’s responsibility and looks after

him/her like his/her own child and shows

the child the right path, guides them,

educates them and instills in them, good

values.

I truly believe in all this as my favorite

teacher had all these qualities in him

which made him a perfect teacher.

Mr. Prem Kumar was my Hindi teacher

who taught me in grade 6,7,8,9 and 10.

He taught me for 4-5 consecutive years.

He was one of a kind. I never had any

issues with him. There was not even a

single thing about him that I disliked. I

always obeyed and respected him and

never in those 5 years did any conflicts

arise between us. There was cooperation

and mutual understanding between us.

He used to teach everything perfectly

and always encouraged me to perform

better, if my performance went down

anytime and always appreciated my

positive points and if there were any

negative points, he would explain me

about them very kindly and politely;

unlike some teachers who just keep

complaining about the negative points

and don’t appreciate much about the

positive points. The thing that I liked the

most about him was that he was very

kind-hearted and polite. It is very difficult

to find such teachers these days. I never

took him as my teacher, but as my

mentor, my guide and as a good friend.

So, one must always respect their

teacher and treat them like their own

parents and should always be grateful to

them for guiding them to the right path

and being their mentor and should

always take their blessings.

Ahmed Mohammed

The Spotlight

spotlight - speech craft edition

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