Our 199th meeting was enriched with words of wisdom and advocated ‘The Middle Path‘ as the secret to building world-class relationships with people (in your home or outside your home).

The theme for the meeting was ‘Tact Is The Art Of Driving A Point Without Making An Enemy’, and the word of the day – Tenacity.

SAA Toastmaster Annie calmly took the stage and told us the tale of George Bernard Shaw and how he was born timid.

To overcome his timidity, Bernard Shaw enrolled himself in a Debate Club and how through his newfound courage, he eventually went on to influence & shape Western Theater, culture & politics.

Just like the legendary George Bernard Shaw, we too have our struggles with timidity and low self-confidence. To overcome this, some of us choose Toastmasters.

Then came the Presidential Address from TM Shashidhar Hedge who took us back a few centuries and introduced to us the man who discovered gravity – Sir Isaac Newton.

He also spoke about the well-known 3 laws of Motion and drew a correlation with Toastmasters.

Soon, Toastmaster of the Day Anindita Sengupta took center stage and unveiled the mystery behind the theme ‘Tact is the art of driving a point without making an enemy’.

She shared that most people tend to lead lives in either of the 2 extremes:

– Being very nice and pleasing to people

– Or being critical of everything

And then told us that we live in a world where we need to follow Tact and advocated the ‘Middle Path’.

A CC2 by Toastmaster Sharanya soon followed with a beautiful speech about the importance of language, it’s chronological evolution and how it is just a tool to communicate.

As Hunger is to Live, Language is to Communicate is the one lesson that we can take away from this speech.

Then came the CC3 speech by Toastmaster Ramesh Anand.

An international poet by profession, Toastmaster Ramesh took center stage and spoke about the importance of passion in our lives.

In addition, he also shared 2 interesting stories – one of which involved his friend who is now an International Level Cricket Umpire associated with the BCCI.

Then came a captivating, engrossing and frightening speech from Toastmaster Shree Nidhi (a CC4) which spoke about spirits and their existence.

The title of her speech was ‘Man & Mystery’ and it certainly sent chills down the spine of many Toastmasters who were gathered.

To add to the engrossing Prepared Speeches session, we had an ACB4 speech by TM Sunil Raghavan which was a captivating tale about Vasundhra, a sportsperson & how she qualified for the National Level Championship.

Toastmaster Muzib Ahmed took center stage as the Table Topics Master & delivered a crackling session filled with laughter.

Seasoned Toastmaster Dr. Chaya took over the proceedings as General Evaluator and shared her wisdom on how we can improve as a club.

Her role was well-supported by a tag team consisting of Timer TM Shruthi K, Grammarian TM Anish & Aah Counter TM Ajmal.

In addition, individual evaluators Toastmaster Harry Ramsay (for Sharanya’s speech), Toastmaster Ajith (for Ramesh’s speech) & Toastmaster Jane Placid (for Shree Nidhi’s speech) provided constructive feedback points on how each individual can improve as a speaker.

As a new practice, the Vice President Education Baburajan introduced Panel Evaluations for all Advanced Level Speakers to go from Good to Great.

And today, we had our first Panel Evaluation for Toastmaster Sunil Raghavan’s ACB4 speech.

The panel consisted of Seasoned Toastmasters DTM Geetha Prasanna, TM Baburajan & TM Prakash Francis.

Sunil Raghavan’s speech was broken down bit by bit and a comprehensive evaluation was provided for him to work on it and make it great.

TMOD Anindita handed over the proceedings of the meeting to President TM Shashidhar Hedge who declared the winners and his concluding address.

Winners:

1. Best Speaker – TM Shree Nidhi from Mount Carmel Toastmasters Club Bangalore (CC4)
2. Best Table Topics Speaker – TM Ajmal from Mount Carmel Toastmasters
3. Best Evaluator – Distinguished Toastmaster Geetha Prasanna (ACB4 Evaluation)

This was then followed by networking over snacks under the mango tree 🙂

Keep Going!

Sincerely,

Talkmagic Toastmasters PR Team

PS: To see pictures from our event, please visit our FB page.