Why You Should Read Harry Potter - A ToastMasters Project 4 Speech

I completed my ToastMasters P4 speech this week. This was a memorable speech for me.

The objective of P4 is - "How to say it", and I tried very hard to come up with a good speech satisfying this topic. I even tried converting my experience of cooking pasta into a speech however, the speech turned out as dreadful as the experience itself. In the end I decided to give a speech on a topic which is very close to my heart and which I have already addressed in the blog before.

Here is the video and the speech. Please feel free to give me any feedback.

Why You Should Read Harry Potter

In the summer of 2006, I made one of the best and the worst decisions of my life. It was that fateful time when I decided to finally give in and read Harry Potter.

Good AfterNoon Fellow ToastMasters and guests.

Why worst you ask? My relationship with Harry Potter is like an addiction. I suffer from a self proclaimed Obsessive Compulsive Reading Disorder. I invariably end up reading any one of the Harry Potter books every other month. When I read these books I literally live in that magical world. I remember reading the first 6 Harry Potter books over a span of a week 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. I was on my bike, speeding down a slope and was actually about to crash into a car parked there. Instead of applying breaks I kept on repeating “Impedimenta”, the spell to slow down moving objects. 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”- that’s snake language on them.

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.

What is it about these books that is so enticing? Today I am here to answer that. I hope after listening to me some of you decide to try these books. Now I sound like a salesman.

Aside from all the magic and the promise of the uncharted, unknown and unforeseen, there are three main lessons I learnt out of Harry Potter books.

Open Mindedness – This may sound ironical but once upon a time I was among those people who used to hate all fantasy books treating them as meant for children. But Harry Potter changed that. Not only did these books force me to adopt an open mind and but also to not reject anything as downright ridiculous. I noticed a very visible change in myself. I became more accepting of other people’s views.

Team Work – The protagonist of these books, Harry Potter, is an ordinary wizard. There is nothing exceptional about him at the outset, but even then he manages to courageously confront and conquer all the hardships presented before him. Harry manages to accomplish what he does because at each and every step he has the support of his friends and loved ones. They tackle each problem as a team making the best use of each other’s strengths and compensating for each other’s weaknesses on the way.

Take Action -“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” 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 the author J.K. Rowling chooses to emphasize through the actions of her protagonists and host of other characters that make the books what they are. I for one can vouch for this. I had been contemplating joining Orators ToastMasters club since early 2011 but one fine day I decided to join it and today I am standing infront of you. You can see for yourself the change in me because I chose to act.

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? But Harry Potter books are much more than just magic. Not only does J.K. Rowling force us to abandon our predefined notions of what is acceptable but she also makes her characters impress upon us the importance of teamwork and converting our thoughts into actions.

So take a chance and read Harry Potter. Who knows maybe someday you may be giving the exact same speech as me.

P.S. - This was the first time I gave a speech in another ToastMasters club. I give my sincerest thanks to the HoneyWell ToastMasters club, for hosting me and making the environment very comfortable for me. It did not occur to me for one moment that I was giving a speech in another club.

My evaluator, Mr. Murajith Menon helped me a great deal his insightful evaluation. 

Dekhiye To Lagta Hai

Dekhiye to lagta hai,
zindagi ki raahon mein,
aik bheer chalti hai,
sochiye to lagta hai,
bheer mein hain sab tanha,

Jitne bhi yeh rishte hain,
kaanch ke khilone hain,
pal mein toot sakte hain,
aik pal mein ho jaye,
kon jaane kab tanha!
Dekhiye to lagta hai,
jaise yeh jo duniya hai,
kitni rangeen mehfil hai,
sochiye to lagta hai,
kitna gham hai duniya mein,
kitna zakhmi her dil hai.

Woh jo muskurate thay,
to kisi ko khuwabon mein,
apne paas paate thay,
unki neend tooti hai,
aur hain woh ab tanha!

P.S. - One of my absolute favourites by Javed Akhtar. 

"The Aero-Drama" - ToastMasters Project 3 Speech

I finally managed to deliver and clear my P3 today. After the disaster that was my last speech, I was really nervous before delivering this speech. More so because the another speaker, Mrinal was delivering his P10 today.Let me put in a word for Mrinal, an absolutely mesmerizing speaker. He has the capability to grab your attention and take you on an emotional ride with his words. I have never heard someone like him before in person.

So you can realize what a nervous wreck I was, when I was walking to the podium. I was invariably gonna be pitted against this stalwart speaker, but as Randy Pausch says in "The Last Lecture"- "Brick walls are not there to stop you. They are there for you to climb over". I took a deep breath and delivered my P3 to much applause and appreciation.

Here is my P3 speech for those interested. As always any and all reviews are more than welcome -

The Aero - Drama

 “All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players”

One fine day while I was reading Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” on board a flight, I was intrigued by what Mr. Shakespeare had just proposed and decided to test his hypothesis and try to identify what characters do people play. But due to the humble origins of my brain and my limited access to the vast resource called “Intelligence” very much unlike Mr. Shakespeare, I had to settle for a much smaller sample of available test subjects – the people on the airport. On that fateful day my friends, I created, consolidated and coined the “Aero Drama”.

Good Afternoon my fellow Toast Masters and guests.

“Aero-Drama” is the drama that enfolds everyday at the major airports in this case the Bangalore International airport. As with all stage productions “Aero Drama” has its set of props and the backstage crew. But what makes “Aero Drama” really special are the various complex characters and the stellar cast that gives life to those characters with perfection and such élan.  Trust me they will pique your interest as soon as you see them.

So without further ado let me introduce you to these characters or rather categories of characters due to the sheer number of people playing them.

1)      The New Born: This category was inspired by Mr. Shakespeare. Not that these people retch and howl like newborn babies, but because they look at everything with wide eyed wonder. It’s as if they are seeing everything for the first time. I once saw a woman pointing out the Café Coffee Day counter to her companion with such wondrous excitement  as if she had never seen a Café Coffee Day before in her life, that too in Bangalore where you find a Café Coffee Day at a stone’s throw away at every nook and cranny. And God forbid you sit next to one in a flight. I once had the misfortune of sitting next to one and the poor fellow kept bending over to my side of the window so much that I offered him my window seat, for the fear that he may cramp his back out of his sheer curiosity. And once the airhostess brought the trolley it was the other way round.

There is a nervous energy around these people and they are either at the verge of tears or are ready to snap back because they are either too late or too early.

2)      The Young Adults: These are the people who are now accustomed to the general routine of the airport. You will see them going around the airport as if it is their daily business and with a perpetual smirk on their faces.  What is really noticeable though is the way their faces contort in disdain when they see the newborns uh! Despicable species them newborns. So to avoid any such confrontation these people are mostly seen spending their time at the various shops at the airport. Nothing seems to ruffle their feathers except a flight delay/cancellation announcement, a foreigner or the rumor of a celebrity landing on the airport. On one occasion I had just arrived at the airport, and found the entire place in mayhem. Rumor was that Priyanka Chopra had landed on the Bangalore airport for a hush-hush soiree with her friends. Poor Newborns were just left crying as the Young Adults went berserk.

3)      The Old Observer:  In my opinion this is the classiest and the most dangerous category of characters at the airport. These are experienced veterans having earned their fare share of King Fisher miles, though of what use they are now only they can tell. Nothing seems to have any effect on them as they have seen it all and then some more. You will mostly find them carefully observing each and every nuance of people on the airport from behind their laptops, their Victorian classic romances or while pretending to doze off. Nothing misses their eye, talk about taking a leaf out of Sherlock Holmes. This is the category that is the most interesting and terrifying at the same time. They give you that creepy feeling on the back of your neck when you are being watched.

If you look at them closely enough, the characters of “Aero Drama” though specific to the airport bear a more than general resemblance to the characters we encounter in our everyday lives. We can all identify some aspects of “The NewBorns”, “The Young Adults” and “The Old Observer” in people we meet everyday.  Well  -“All men and woman merely players”, Mr. Shakespeare rightly said. Hypothesis hence proved.

So the next time you are at the airport try identifying these characters for yourself and see which one are you. And for those of you trying to guess which character am I? well I wrote the speech, go figure.

P.S. - I got a video recorded. Will post the link here as soon as I have it. I added a lot of anecdotes at the spur of the moment and changed the order of a few of the ones mentioned here.

ToasMaster's Project 3 Speech - What's in a Face?

Here is my P3 ToastMaster's speech. It didn't really go as planned. For once I forgot my speech mid way and was forced to look at my notes. From there it was a road downhill. I made a lot of mistakes which I would have otherwise avoided and my voice modulation was not at all as I had practiced  Might be because of my lack of confidence due to my initial blunder.

Many thanks to my fellow ToastMasters especially my evaluator Suman, for their encouraging feedback and also for telling me my shortcomings. I am planning to give this speech again after incorporating their comments.

What's in a Face?

“Nice to put a face to a name.” It’s a phrase that we hear very frequently and which probably makes sense socially but think about it – professionally? I reckon in the work environment, this phrase is at least a decade past its expiry date. Good Afternoon fellow ToastMasters and guests.

All right so it might be mildly satisfying to find out how your colleague in the US looks like when all you know about him/her is through emails or phones. Nice, yes in the same way you get a clue right in a crossword. But essential? I would beg to differ. Let me tell you a few reasons why.

For a start, not meeting removes all manner of possible discrimination on the basis of age, gender, weight, looks or even the clothes. Operate mainly by phone or email rather than in person and you are more likely to be judged on the value of your work and not on the firmness of your handshake, the stiffness of your shirt and a 100 other visual nuances that help people form the much valued – “first impression”. Tell me who are you more likely to do business with – a shabbily dressed man with bright orange hair, green side burns and a perpetual drool on his face or an immaculately dressed fashionista? It would require a considerable effort on part of the former to convince you of his skills even if you somehow manage to get past that appearance.

Perhaps the most valuable contribution of remote working to the corporate world and to human kind in general is in reducing those awful meetings. Of course, we now have to endure more conference calls, but the sunny side is that everyone wants to get them over with as quickly as possible rather than the face to face meetings which drone on and on. You are no longer forced to take your clients or bosses for lunch and pretend to be friendly. It is way easier on the company’s resources and your mental faculties to just talk to them on phone. You can still be effective and create a personal link in a lot less time. And if they are a bit rude, opinionated you can choose to rise above – quite literally, well that is if they are not sitting in front of you. You can always choose to stand up and take the call. It gives you an extra bit of confidence over the other person.      

The benefits of working over emails cannot be overestimated. When you are involved in negotiations over fees, one side will often feel cornered. But not so over the email, where each party has considerable time to think over their replies and come up with all the supporting data to corroborate their arguments. There are far less chances of things getting ugly, trust me. And what about when your manager sends you an umpteenth email asking you to go over a 100 page report that you have already gone through and found no error. In person, it would take an extremely strong minded person to not snap back or at least show his frustration. But over the emails you can always say – “Sure, will have a look and get back to you.” You can still curse all you want but he doesn’t have to know.

This is not to say that face - to - face communication is not useful anymore. Of course when you are brainstorming perhaps or when you are just more comfortable expressing yourself in person. But if working remote means  improved cash flow for the organization, less time spent in travel and meetings and fewer interpersonal conflicts, then maybe the secret of success today is keeping as low a profile as possible or not putting a face to a name.

P.S. - Inspired by a post from Reader's Digest Oct'2012.

And Then The Curtains Fall

Some shared moments,
Some cherished memories,
A few hearty laughs, 
And a few idiosyncrasies,
Is all that you can glean
from the time you spent away.

And then the curtains fall,
The candle snubbed and darkness prevails.
Smoky eyes and a misty face
Is all that remains.

Some shared moments,
Some cherished memories,
And then the curtains fall.
You realize it is already too late...

P.S. - Dedicated to my late friend Vivek whose untimely demise has left us all baffled. Time may have drifted us apart "Bhoyaa" but you will always be remembered and missed. It is true that the only true gift you can ever give a person is your time and I am privileged and honored to have been gifted with your time.