Below are two speeches of mine – during the brief period I
had become involved with Toastmasters recently.
- First one is the prepared-speech CC1-Icebreaker speech ‘Introducing myself’.
- Second one is the prepared-speech CC2- ‘Books Books Books’
Text of speech
SPACE ….The Final
Frontier. These are the voyages of starship 'myself'
My ongoing mission to seek
strange new places and countries…… To understand new ways of being, cultures
and civilizations. And to boldly go where my heart beckons me to flow !
I have borrowed a life’s
framework from Dr. Kalam’s latest and unfortunately his last inspiration: ‘Ignited
Minds’. Life is explained in four stages: A- Athlete, B- Brutal Warrior, C - Cool
Big Brother & D - Dignified Self-Realised Stage.
Without further ado – let me jump
into the A – Athlete stage:
A for Athlete – This is the stage of building and tuning and
honing one’s toolkit of education – formal and informal, skills – on and off
the job - abilities for life’s
sustenance. I am a Mechanical Engg, MBA-Finance & Systems, over 2 decades years
of excellence…experience in – Financial
Services, Credit Rating & now IT industries.
At this stage where I might have
well passed my halfway mark - I am still an athlete – am peaking on my running,
skiing, and lets see how I am doing on this Public Speaking skills now.
It is my personal experience that
these 4 ABCD stages are not watertight, firewalled independent compartments……..but
rather are all freely mixing up all the time into a heady concoction that’s the
spice of life !
So - with this Athlete well armored…….lets
attack, assail onto the -
B, Bahubali,
Brutal Warrior stage– Proving superiority over others with Ego as the
driving force is the hallmark of this stage. Theme of this Stage is attainment
of goals/achievements.
I think I had my share of this during my education and work
life. Luckily for me – I had learnt early in my career from a wonderful senior colleague
I had worked with who had so much drive that he would everyday end up taking
the load of 5 people …and then would also end up doing the work of our boss so
that the boss just needed to endorse his proposals at end of the day ! I
realized that such hunger would naturally place one at the steering
wheel…..anywhere the guys goes – heads turn to him.
C for Cool Big
Brother – Maturity of the
achiever has tamed the ego by now – and one takes a benign view of the world
and is now willing to help others get better giving them a helping hand.
Thanks to my colleague in the
earlier stage – I have been able to have clear focus on the goals and so kept
my head over the troubled waters of avoidable politics. While my present age –
I think I would grow more and more into this calm big brother role..
D for The
Dignified Self realized soul – Here one has realized one’s true essence.
This planet belongs to all….and everyone has a share of rights and
responsibilities to make it a better
place for living for all.
I had my share of trials and
tribulations in discovering my purpose in life: to be a ‘spirit of positive
action’. Knowledge helps in finding the true path and goals…..but without
actions that will remain a dream. A single action is better than a million good
intentions. On the other hand a lifetime
of action without any definite goals would lead one nowhere. So this goal of
mine for positive i.e. goal-based action.
Now that we covered the ABCD of
my life: back to BASE now….
Press the Special
Button
While I am preening myself and singing paens on like this ……my
three year old son is egging me on – DAD….Run fast………But I was totally tired since
I am carrying him on my shoulders. But he is relent less and is prodding me to
move on……and when I say I don’t have any more energy: he then lets me into his
own trick which he uses in his races with his friends: press the special button
daddy ! From then on in any runs I participate, or issues I am stuck in – when
I feel I don’t have more energy: I take inspiration from my son and press the
special button !
Such a thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Ladies and Gentlemen – I present you this joy. This special
button can be used by youo when you need energy so that : for the right cause,
all the elements of nature come together, conspire to conjure up this
conception giving you DIRECT access to the Boundless energy from all over the
Universe !
May the Force be with
you !
CC2- ‘Books...Books...Books’
Once upon a time….long ago…… I was young …..And foolish …………..Enough
to
keep wondering about the worst
things that can happen in life: for me this is life-time imprisonment !
Possibly this was due to an overdose of Dostovosky / Alexandre Dumas / Maupassant books whose rich and dark classics have this running theme of prison life.
Be as it may- here I am,
imprisoned for life - fed 2-3 times a
day, edible food, good enough for me. Enforced daily physical labor – which is
not a bad thing since it ensures that the body and muscles do not just waste
away ! But most importantly – all the guards, the entire prison infrastructure
will diligently work 24 / 7 to absolutely ensure one thing : MY SOLITUDE ! So that
nothing…. Nothing…. will come between me and my book ! Wow….what a blessing ! My worst case scenario is indeed my best case scenario!
A book is of course a man’s best
friend for life…. for women also: but a distant second after diamonds is
what I understand ‘’as per popular opinion’’.
People shy away from talking about
their weaknesses and I admit I have as many weaknesses as the number of great
authors whose books I have read. And I pray for an opportunity to talk about
any one of these weaknesses. Give me a PG Wodehouse and my knees give way and I
am almost on the floor bursting and roaring and rolling with laughter at the
EXTREMELY hilarious stuff that only Wodehouse can scoop up and dole out. May be
it is the complete contrast between the elegance, elan, etiquette and exquisite eloquence of Jeeves compared to
the absolutely stunning stupidity of Bertram Wooster. And by the way as we get
into the thick of things – we realize that we are no better than Wooster
actually ! If Wodehouse is the epitome of subtle humour then
Action & Adventure
For Action and Adventure is there
anything that comes even remotely close to Alistair Mclean ? ‘Where Eagles Dare’ , ‘Guns of Navarone’ ,
‘Fear is the Key’ , ‘Ice Station Zebra’
… Read any one of them and I promise you - you are hooked for life.
Hook,
Line, and Sinker.
Beeauty
The beauty of the thoughts and
the divine stuff that comes out of Frederique Nietsche‘s ‘Thus Spake
Zorathustra’ ……makes me overwhelmed and I cry with rapture and ecstasy so as to
become the honey bee that is so overladen with honey that it cant move any further
unless it lets go of some of the honey. So too must I let go of this sweet joy
onto others before I can go on with my life !
Cosmos - 3
Cosmos, Space, Science-Fiction –
No need to go further than the Gurus ‘Isaac Asimov’ and ‘Carl Sagan’ who would easily
teleport us 5000 years right into the future – into a distant binary star system or into a Gargantuan Blackhole!
The ‘3 Rules of Robots design’
are now part of the Robotics sciences and also are part of our popular culture
now thanks to the popular series Terminator, Robocop, and now i-Robot which is
actually a book of Asimov in which a robot becomes ‘emotional’ ! So is the case
of Jules Verne whose designs of submarines from his classic book ’20,000
Leagues under the Sea’ laid out the foundation for the actual design of
submarines – and this includes the most visible contraption of a submarine: the
periscope!
Dream world – Virtual Reality
In one of his brilliant pieces on
future - Asimov discusses about a futuristic Virtual Reality machine. It is so
advanced that it sends a chill down your spine as you enter a dark and deep
cave, makes you almost smell the bats hovering around, and gives you the
sensation of the creepy crawlers moving all around. After describing such features
at length – Asimov tells us in the last para that this contraption is actually
already available to us here and now. It is a well written book – and our mind
is the most advanced virtual reality
machine possible ever when combined with a great author !
Edward De Bono
If logical thinking is your thing
– then Edward De Bono’s books ‘6 Thinking Hats’, ‘Boiling Frog Syndrome’ etc
are your sine-qua-nons.
Foreign Forever Travellers
And if you are a Nomad at heart
and an eternal traveler like me – then yearly re-reads of ‘The English Patient’
are an absolute must. Travelogues of Paul Theroux are a delight: absolute
nuggets of gold ! Takes on various cities of the globe by ‘The Global Soul’ Pico
Iyer are real gems.
And if you have migrated for a
decade or more and miss your home country / culture - then you need to report
to the Supreme Commander of the migrant psyche : Sir VS Naipaul.
‘Galt….. Who is John Galt?’
The answer will unearth why the
invincible ’Atlas Shrugged’ and open up the ‘Fountainhead’ to the philosophy of
Ayn Rand.
The speeches of ''Francisco Domingo
Carlos Andres Sebastián d'Anconia''...Oooh what a mouthful name and pronounced with such a flourish typically preceding or after one of his brilliant speeches that you would cherish them for a life time. So much so that you just wish you could exchange say a lifetime to just make one of those speeches before an, at the same time outraged and overawed, audience….including us actually, for the first time in our lives would have understood the meaning and definition of MONEY and see the very essence of our being translated into thoughts and then words and with such flair and finesse by this charismatic character !
Heady rush
Even as I am talking about all these
books – I can sense the adrenalin levels rising and becoming capable right now
of bursting the seams of all the hearts, minds and temples here with this excitement!
But I am going to rest my case
with this quote from ‘The Dead Poets Society’ -
"We don't read and write because it's cute. We read
and write because we are members of the human race filled with passion.
Medicine,Engineering, IT, Job are
noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But books, poetry, passion are
what we stay alive for."
Carpe diem. Seize the day.
Carpe Libellus. Go Grab the Book.
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