ToastMasters's Speech - Project 1 (Introduction)

I gave my Project 1 speech for ToastMasters today. For people who do not know what ToastMaster is all about, they should definitely visit the link - http://www.toastmasters.org/ at least once. I am happy that I got to be a part of Toast Masters as every session is a unique learning experience for me. Not only do I get the privilege of talking to like minded people but also get to learn a lot from each and every one of them.

Talking about my P1 experience, it was really great. Even though I am not new to public speaking, having participated in a lot of debates/elocution contests in school, yet I still could feel my stomach churning right till the moment my name was called. As I walked to the podium, I could feel my legs shaking and had to take the support of the table placed infront of me just to maintain my calm. But as I started and went on I became more comfortable and began enjoying my speech. I knew, I got this.

For interested people here is my ToastMasters P1 speech. I know there is a lot of scope for improvement and although I have completed P1, I'd still welcome any and all reviews.

Project 1 (Introduction Speech)

“No Regrets, One life to live” is my motto for life. I believe in living in the moment and doing whatever I want to do at that moment. I am always on the lookout for learning something new. Good Afternoon Toast masters and friends.

I am Ankit Rastogi, from Meerut, U.P. I am an only engineer born into a family of doctors. I completed my B.E Computer Science from BITS Pilani. I am an amalgamation of values and experiences accumulated from living in a lot of cities all over India. Till now I have never stayed in a city for more than 4 years. Maybe that is why I have an inherent wanderlust, a thirst for adventure and a curiosity to know different cultures and people. It’s either that, or my dislike for cricket which makes me run from place to place. God has a wicked sense of humor. So he decides to make me an Indian, born into a family of cricket maniacs, in a place like Meerut where cricket is the way of life, blesses me with terrible – terrible hand eye coordination and just for the heck of it, decides that yours truly shall abhor cricket. Seriously!! Are you kidding me? You cannot imagine what I have to go through everyday. Well I have managed to live 24 years with it, I suppose I can manage another 24 hopefully.

One thing, however I am grateful to be blessed with is my love for reading. I vividly remember reading Pride and Prejudice, an innocent kid in 5^th standard and not understanding a word of it. It was sometime later and with some experience and lost innocence, I realized the reason for this. Jane Austen was a girl. Anyways, it created in me a passion for words and gave fuel to my imagination. I must admit that this child like passion still exists in me every time I pick up a new book. I suffer from self proclaimed Obsessive Compulsive Reading Disorder. Not only do I read feverishly but for the duration of the book, I live in that world. I can recall this one incidence when I was still reading the Harry Potter series where instead of applying my bicycle brakes before colliding head first with a car, I kept on repeating “Impedimenta”, “Impedimenta”. For Harry Potter illiterates, this is a spell to slow down a moving object. But this being damned reality, the bicycle didn’t slow down obviously and I still met with the accident.

I cannot complete my introduction without discussing about my passion for teaching. I started teaching underprivileged kids as a part of NGO called Nirmaan during my time at BITS Pilani, and it is this experience above all else that makes me who I am. I learnt more from those kids and from teaching them what little I could, than I have learnt from anything else till now. “Joi de Vivre” – I learnt the true meaning of this phrase from those kids. Even if they didn’t know where there next meal was coming from, they never gave up on smiling. My best accomplishment till now is teaching one of them how to write his name. I am currently working for Samarthanam an organization for disabled children.

To sum up, I am a reader, a poet, a thinker, a renegade, a philanthropist and in the future I want to add a social entrepreneur and an established writer to this list. I am enjoying being all that I am.

The past is past, the future is ..but the present..
And living in the moment is all I have..
So let me fill this moment,
With all the vibrant shades..
For the dots are mine, as are the colours
And as are the choices I make.

On this note, I’ll take my leave. Hopefully you know me a bit better.

 P.S. - Although this in essence is the speech I delivered, I made quite a few Impromptu changes and additions in the speech, just to engage my audience even more.

  

Why I Think Harry Potter Is One Of The Best Books

One fine day I logged into my Goodreads account, out of the blue, and was surprised at the number of books I have read till now – over 120 (which is quite a lot ‘cause I keep reading the same book multiple times – I’ve read Pride and Prejudice over 14 times * now). That’s pretty huge coming from me even though I suffer from a self proclaimed Obsessive Compulsive Reading Disorder (hence referred to as OCRD).

Anyway, it was on this day that I decided to embark upon the tiresome task of compiling a list of 5 best books I’ve read so far. The list is done now, finally, but it was the process that really intrigued me. As I kept on going over the list adding/deleting names, arguing fervently with myself over the merits of each, one name however remained constant. This is a name which I have often had to justify to a lot of my friends who I made privy to my list.

Well the name is Harry Potter. Yes the entire series and not one in particular. Yes, you are allowed to laugh/ mock/ ridicule me all you want, but for me it really is one of the best books I’ve read.

I remember reading the first 6 Harry Potter books over a span of a week (hence the claim for OCRD) and being so lost in Harry’s magical world for a long time after that, that I kept on blurting the spells from those books subconsciously. I vividly remember this one instance where I was on my bike, speeding down a slope and was actually about to crash into a car parked there and instead of applying breaks I kept on repeating “Impedimenta” (the crash still happened though, one more realization of damned reality). Not only this, I kept trying to scare away lizards with – “sssaayahaa sssiheth”. Never mind that lizards weren’t snakes but their being reptiles, was reason enough for me to practice my “Parseltongue” (for Harry Potter illiterates – that’s snake language) on them.

I know, a lot of Harry Potter fans will vouch for similar experiences, but the fact is, these developments were very important for me. I considered myself a mature reader then (a laughable and debatable thought now), having read Ayn Rand’s - “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” multiple times – and an ardent believer in her theory of “objectivism”. I had first brushed off the Harry Potter books as “kiddish”. These developments were, let’s just put it mildly - enlightening.

So what was it about these books that made me change my outlook? Was it the spells? the characters? The myriad fantasy creatures? Of course yes!! But I had read and admired Lord of the Rings long before I read Harry Potter books so it is safe to say that this world wasn’t new (and Mr. Harry Potter had mighty big shoes to fit in and so did J.K. Rowling). When I think about it, it wasn’t so much the magic, that enchanted me but the subtle links to reality and the way the author chose to establish them that really pulled me in.  

Magic, kudos to J.K. Rowling for plucking at that chord in all our hearts, for deep within don’t we all want to believe that it really does exist? Haven’t we at some point or other in our lives wished for a miracle or a magical solution for all our problems? Harry lives in that world. And you know what the best part is – neither he nor any of the other great stalwart wizards have a magical solution to his “Voldemort” issues. This is why I love J.K. Rowling’s books. On one side there is the promise of magic, the unknown and unforeseen and at the same time, the realities of life still pretty much remain the same. Pretty much because we still find descriptions of love potion, immortality etc. (Oh come on! it is a world of wizardry and it has to make some impossible things possible by magic!).

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” These words from Dumbledore truly form the gist of Harry Potter. The books may on the surface be about the more generic idea of good vs. evil and an orphan boy’s taking up the mantle against evil. However it is the importance of these words that Rowling chooses to emphasize through the actions of her protagonists and host of other characters that make the books what they are. Harry for instance never had enough to eat, was made to wear his cousin’s old clothes and in general was maltreated by the Dursleys. However, at the first opportunity he had, he chose to share whatever he could afford with Ron, a stranger he had just met (Book 1). It would have been perfectly understandable if he chose not to but he didn’t. There are multiple such incidents spread across all the books like when Harry had the choice to get Peter Petigrew killed for betraying his parents resulting in their death, but he chose not to(Book 3). Or when he chose to share information about the dragon test in the Triwizard tournament with another rival because he only thought it fair (Book 4) and last but not the least he named his son Albus Severus Potter choosing to acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices of Severus Snape (one of the most hated characters, well until the end of Book 7) in his victory. These are many of the various such incidents that left an indelible mark upon me. No discussion about Harry potter would be complete without Ron and Hermoine. These two characters epitomize the meaning of true friendship. They made several choices throughout the story choosing to stick with their friend through thick and thin even if it meant risking their lives. I mean erasing all your memories from your parents’ minds is a pretty big sacrifice and shows the strength of the character. However again, it was Hermoine’s choice to do this and it would have been understandable if she didn’t.

So in essence, Rowling talks about all the things that would tug at your heart and would definitely establish an emotional connect between you and the characters, love, kindness, friendship, loyalty, but it is the choices she has her protagonists make to demonstrate these traits that really pull you in. I mean even her protagonist is not an extraordinarily gifted wizard. He manages to come out the winner from all the situations because he is helped and supported by the people who love him. Tell me how many of us have not depended upon the strength of someone we love in times of distress? And Rowling chooses to emphasize this fact that however difficult the times may be, you can handle them with your loved ones on your side.

So yes, I love Harry Potter books, the characters, the magic, the world, but most of all I love that even though they are all wizards, they are still humans.     

* I say over because I have read the end innumerable times.

P.S. - I am back :)

P.P.S - This post has been long in the making. But I couldn't help it.Every time I started working on it, I ended up reading the books or watching the movies again. So in the end today I just decided to get it out of the pipeline. So the post might feel a little rushed towards the end.

Sayonara

LO! my friend ..I am on..
set my boots firmly on,
let's see whereto this road gets..
what new days, the journey begets... 


On this note began my affair with this "not all is lost". We've had an on and off relationship of sorts. Well frankly, me and my infidelity is to be blamed for this. This blog has been my faithful companion in times of melancholy & distress, whereas has remained woefully forgotten in happier times. I think that is unfair and hence I have reached the decision to discontinue this blog. I'll miss it.


Maybe in the future I'll continue this blog or start a new one or maybe just return to the comforts of my good old diary. But for now it is time to bid farewells..
Sayonara...
Love you and Miss you...


P.S. - To all my reader (if any) love you and miss you too.

Charge of the Light Brigade

Some events transpired today which immediately brought this poem to my mind and also Michael Oher's essay on the same from the movie "The Blind Side".
Poem - http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html
Here's the essay  - 
“Courage is a hard thing to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or a mistake, but you’re not supposed to question adults, or your coach, or your teacher because they make the rules. Maybe they know best but maybe they don’t. It all depends on who you are, where you come from. Didn’t at least one of the six hundred guys think about giving up and joining with the other side? I mean, Valley of Death, that’s pretty salty stuff. That’s why courage is tricky. Should you always do what others tell you to do? Sometimes you might not even know why you’re doing something. I mean, any fool can have courage. But honor, that’s the real reason you either do something or you don’t. It’s who you want to be. If you die trying for something important then you have both honor and courage and that’s pretty good. I think that’s what the writer was saying; that you should try for courage and hope for honor. And maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some, too.”
One of my very close friends, taught me the actual meaning of these words to me today. Until now I was living in an illusion I had created for myself, but hearing him brought me back to reality. 
I know it is going to be a tough road ahead for you, but I will always be by your side. Thank you for showing me the true meaning of both Courage and Honour. You are both personified and it has been a privilege to be your friend.


P.S. - Thanks Hostel. You were right. I'll always remember today's lunch  but for very different reasons. 

Random

Read this somewhere - 
"At some point of time you have to realize that some people can stay in your heart but not in your life"...
I think I get it...somehow I do..