My Toastmasters role script: Table Topics Master

567th meeting 

[Go to the lectern; shake hands with the Toastmaster]

[Start with a Sanskrit Shloka about Rashi]

....... ॐ .......

न कश्चिदपि जानाति 
किं कस्य श्वो भविष्यति ।
अतः श्वः करणीयानि 
कुर्यादद्धैव वुद्धिमान् ॥
No one knows what will happen tomorrow. So, wise people do today what should be done tomorrow.

Thank you, Mister/Madam Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters, and welcome Guests! 
Today, I will be your master Astrologer aka Pt. Omkar Nath Shastri!

Unlike horoscope, the topics in this session are impromptu. The table topic round will help you go beyond your stars and shine as a lucid orator. You have 1 to 2 minutes to prove your destiny as a natural speaker. Toastmasters and guests – all are invited. If nobody comes, you will called on the astrologer’s wish

I request all the TT participants to use the word of the day.

I will invite speakers based on the horoscopes.

12 signs, 12 topics.

Mister/Madam Timer, did all of our participants qualify?

Mister/Madam Grammarian, did all of our speakers use the Word of the Day?

Now, take this time to vote for your favorite Table Topics Speaker using the ballots on the tables. (Give a recap of all those who qualified and what they spoke about)

I now return control of the meeting to the Toastmaster.

Mister/Madam Toastmaster

Topics

1.       Mesha (A, L, E, I, O)

Aries (Mar 20 – Apr 18)

^

I was non-believer in Astrology until I met a girl/ boy of my life.

2.       Vrishabha (B, V, U, W)

Taurus (Apr 19 – May 19)

_

You can’t change what is written already on your forehead/ palms.

3.       Mithuna (K, CHH, GH, Q, C)

Gemini (May 20 – Jun 20)

`

Suppose, you are a Mangalik (a Vedic Zodiac sign defect). In order to save the life of your future spouse you have to marry a dog. How will you propose a dog for this cause to marry with you?

4.       Karka (DD, H)

Cancer (Jun 21 – Jul 21)

a

What is the likelihood that 1/12^th of the world’s population is having the same kind of the day?

5.       Simha (M, TT)

Leo (Jul 22 – Aug 21)

b

Practicing Astrology in this digital age is a ‘giant leap backward’.

6.       Kanya (P, TTHH)

Virgo (Aug 22 – Sep 20)

c

Should we not condemn astrology as a form of bigotry(bias)? (Isn’t it discrimination by birth date?)

7.       Tula (R, T)

Libra (Sep 21 – Oct 22)

d

If astrologers are so good, why aren’t they rich?

8.       Vrscika (N, Y)

Scorpio (Oct 23 – Nov 21)

e

Convince your parents to allow you to marry a girl/ boy you love with whom your Kundli(a zodiac chart) says otherwise.

9.       Dhanusha (BH, F, DH)

Sagittarius (Nov 22 – Dec 22)

f

Will you wear your zodiac color(Red/Black/Green) on your first blind date for assured success?

10.   Makara (KH, J)

Capricorn (Dec 23 – Jan 19)

g

Suppose, your Astrologer says that you have life threats from ‘fire’, ‘water’ and ‘height’? Is he true? If yes, how to handle these threats?

11.   Kumbha (G, S, Sh)

Aquarius (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

h

In your childhood your Astrologer said that you would get a beautiful/ handsome spouse. So, should you stop trying?

12.   Mina (D, CH, Z, TH)

             Pisces (Feb 19 -  Mar 19)

                    i

How will you handle your manager and subordinates by taking cues from your zodiac sign?

||इति गोलमेजम वार्तालाप: सम्पूर्णम ||

Yours Sincerely,
Signing off
TM ShastriJi :)

Thank you!

Prediction

You all have an adventures life ahead!

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My Toastmasters role script: Sergeant At Arms

SAA Role: Ghost protocol

#DeadSergeant

Good evening insidious Toastmasters and dreadful guests. Welcome to the 566th hell meeting of Infosys Toastmasters club Bangalore.

I am your dead Sargent Otto Skorzeny at arms, came directly from the dead world of 2nd world war, after a special exorcism performed by SAA team to make sure you all pass the ghost protocol today.

Ghost protocol is a Toastmasters attempt to touch our inhibitions towards darkness. It also signifies the brute force we often apply to defy the law of nature. It’s an allusion for the activities, methods and events that largely remain un-detected.

Even if you are dead, you have to follow the rules of the hell. Similarly, at Toastmasters we request you to follow certain rules....

Live walk in and dead walk out only when there is shivering applause. Please refrain from doing any activity while the ghost speaker is on the podium, or you may lose some limbs.

There is a dreadful device like this in your pocket? Take its life out or you will get a ghost ping in your device.

Please refrain from talking about the things that we ghost hate the most- Sex, Politics and Religion.

Lastly for the guests not the ghosts who are interested in joining the club or getting mail about club activities. We have a sheet placed on the first desk. Drop your mark there, the ghost members can use their right toe to do the same.

With that I'll like to call on stage the presiding officer, the first lady ghost for Today’s meeting, toastmaster Yeshwanthi.

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My Toastmasters role script - MOC (theme, Casino)

MOC Script Toastmasters meeting #564

Theme: Casino, MOC: Toastmaster Mithilesh Kumar

Introduction

How many of you have heard about the word Monte Carlo?

Casino has touched human imaginations multi ways. There is a world famous casino in Monaco, named Monte Carlo. It was part of the plot in a few James Bond novels and films. It has been depicted in many books like Busting Vegas.

The casino has made Monte Carlo so well known for games of chance that mathematical methods for solving various problems using many quasi-random numbers—numbers with the statistical distribution of numbers generated by chance—are formally known as Monte Carlo methods.

About Toastmasters

Another question, how many of you have heard about the great gambler Ralph C. Smedley?

While Casino industry was maturing in Europe and America, a guy named Ralph C. Smedley took a chance at public speaking and founded a not-for-profit organization, Toastmasters, on October 22, 1924, at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, United States. Throughout its history, Toastmasters has served over four million people, and today the organization serves over 332,000 members in 135 countries, through its over 15,400 member clubs.

Today’s meeting has three sections – 1) Prepared Speech sections in which only members are allowed to participate, 2) Table Topic section in which anyone can participate including guests,  and the 3) section is  Evaluation session where all the speech evaluators will submit their reports to general evaluator.

Today’s theme ‘Casino’ could be metaphoric for taking chance/risk in life. I request all the speakers to go full Monty at your chance of gambling with your voice and become a master speech gambler at the

end of the day.

Role takers for 564^th Meeting

GE: TM Gurmeen Singh

“He believes, complete life is a game of chance and opportunities. Only thing a mortal, like us can do is to exploit it at the right moment.”

 Timer: TM Parimal

“He believes that everyday of his life is gamble with a hope for better tomorrow.”

Ah-Counter: TM Sundar Shankar

Grammarian: TM Priya

“Toastmaster Priya believes that if gamble revolves around luck then she definitely believe in game of chance, she often experiences that”

 Section 1

When your life depends on losing... the last thing you need is…???  Lady luck. J J J

Let me take you all to the Los Vegas of our casino club toastmasters, i.e., prepared speech round.

Speaker1: Toasmaster Ramakoti

The first speaker of the day is Toastmaster Ramakoti who is attempting his competent communicator manual’s project 6. Toastmaster Ramakoti believes that life is full of choices, today is result of yesterday’s choice and tomorrow would be today’s actions, so choose carefully. His Speech is, “Mentors make difference”. I request the speech evaluator, Toastmaster Anushree to read out the manual for him.

Let's rotate our hands’ slot machine and welcome our first prepared gambler of the day, Toastmaster Ramakoti.

…

Inspiring speech!

When good luck is a long shot, you have to hedge your bets.

Speaker 2: Toastmaster Karan

The next ticket-in for today's Toastmaster's slot machine is Toastmaster Karan who is attempting his competent communicator manual’s project 8. Toastmaster Karan strongly believe in the game of instincts and always follows his instincts and gambles in life. His Speech title is- “Robotics”

I request the speech evaluator, Toastmaster Krishna to read out the speech manual for him.

So, ladies and gentlemen let’s rotate your hands and welcome Toastmaster Karan!

…

Wow mechanically perfect speech!

Well, technically Karan was a Robot todayJ !

Speaker 3:  Toastmaster Rohit Sharma

The third speaker of the day is toastmaster Rohit Sharma who is attempting his Advanced Communication Bronze manuals’ project 8. Even though he is not a great believer in chance, he believes that what we call chance is only the manifestation of our hard work and Karma. Today he will take chance at roasting willful roasts. I request the speech evaluator DTM Raj Kumar Bansal to read out the manual for him.

So guys! Let’s pinch your salt with rotating hands and welcome Toastmaster Rohit Sharma.
…

Wow! This is called, “How to Steal Half a Billion Dollars, In 3.5 Minutes by a toast?”

Speaker 4: Toastmaster Rohit Sharma

I guess Toastmaster Rohit sharma is still left with some written bucks in his pockets and wants to roast more. He is now taking chance at his ACB project 9. I request the speech evaluator DTM Raj Kumar Bansal to read out the speech manual for him.

Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for the Pawn, the Con, The Bond, Toastmaster Rohit Sharma.

…

Wow, what a roast!

Rohit Sharma has turned into “Bet-on-anything guy who happily discovered something called a "winning streak." “

Section 2: Table Topic Round

Don't Push Your Luck. Winner loses all.

Let me take you all to the Macau of the casino club Toastmasters, i.e. Table Topic Rounds. To get the ticket and take the ride, let me introduce you Toastmaster Rakhee Sihna. She is a calculated risk taker, she has taken risks where she knew that she would win or learn the winning Matras. Please welcome table topic master Toastmaster Rakhee Sinha to take the center stage.

Ask for vote: Pick a card, any card

Section 3: Evaluation session

One announcement, ”Those who stay till end will get sweets from me  J ”

If you stay in the game long enough, you'll see everything, win everything, and lose everything.

Today's winner gambler of Los Vegas round i.e., prepared speech round is --- of Casino Toastmasters

Today's winner gambler of Macau round i.e., Table Topic round is --- of casino Toastmasters

Today's best role player of the day is --- of casino Toastmasters 

Footnote: I was awarded best role-taker for this J

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My Toastmasters role script Grammarian

Theme - Foodilicious 

Date- 22/05/2016
Mr. Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and dear guests good evening,

They say, "There is no secret ingredient."

"To make something special you just have to believe it's special."

Like here in Toastmaster, to make a great speech you have to use your instincts and follow the basics of Grammar.

To make sure, that you must follow the basics of Grammar Today, I will be your master chef Grammarian.

As the grammarian of the day my job it is to keep track of the incorrect as well as interesting usages of the English language.

To connect with the theme of the meeting we have a word of the day.

The Word of the day is

Ambrosia

1. The food of the gods

2. Something very pleasing to taste or smell

Usage: The tea was ambrosia after the slop I’d been suffering

Like a delicious dessert as an orator you might ask,” what is the appropriate uses of a word?”

I would say, "Surprise me!"

I encourage all of you to use it as much as possible and surprise me.

I will present my report to the General Evaluator during the evaluation session.

Wishing all the speakers the very best.

Over to you Mr. Toastmaster.

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Fear in Stephen King's eyes

 Let's talk, you and I. Let's talk about fear.


The house is empty as I write this; a cold February rain is falling outside. It's night. Sometimes when the wind blows the way it's blowing now, we lose the power. But for now it's on, and so let's talk very honestly about fear. Let's talk very rationally about moving to the rim of madness. . . and perhaps over the edge.

Still. . . let's talk about fear. We won't raise our voices and we won't scream; we'll talk rationally, you and I. We'll talk about the way the good fabric of things sometimes has a way of unravelling with shocking suddenness.

At night, when I go to bed, I still am at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blanket after the lights go out.

Fear makes us blind, and we touch each fear with all the avid curiosity of self-interest, trying to make a whole out of a hudred parts, like the blind men with their elephant.

We sense the shape. Children grasp it easily, forget it, and relearn as adults. The shape is there, and most of us come to realise what it is sooner or later: it is the shape of a body under a sheet. All our fears add up to one great fear, all our fears are part of that great fear - an arm, a leg, a finger, an ear. We're afraid of the body under the sheet. It's our body. And the great appeal of horror fiction through the ages is that it serves as a rehearsal for our own deaths.

(Taken from Author's one of the classic's preface, compiled for the theme promotion of theme- Ghost Protocol, Infy Toastmasters)

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Darkness: Short poem

A sort poem by me on Darkness:

It's vast, it's Immeasurable, 

It's endless, It's darkness.

It's unlit, it's unfit,

It's bottomless, it's darkness.

Life's boat sways in it

It's life-some, it's darkness.

(Written for promotion of Infy Toastmasters' theme "Ghost Protocol")

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Tolkien's ghost protocol

Before the new dawn lit the unlit, let's shiver together one more time under 'Ghost Protocol'...

The real depiction of barren world and it's 'Ghost Protocol' won't be complete without a special mention of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and his legendarium.

Morgoth, The 13 rings,  Mordor, Sauran, Saruman, Gandalf, Gholam, Bilbo, Frodo, Sam and the eyes of Sauran-  each character shivers our inner self to its core. How can one forget the dreadful Orcs, goblins and dwarves.

Tomorrow, we will see the Arda(the flat earth) and it's two lamps on two towers, the period of darkness, misty mountains, Gondor, Blue Mountains, Grey Heavens, Isengard, mount of moria, the shire, Rivendell, great forest of Merkwood, Erebor, Rohan and Minas Tirith -everything will come alive.

(Written  for the theme promotion of theme- Ghost Protocol, Infy Toastmasters)

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Anandyana 10k run, a gospels for runners

With great Bobby and Santhosh

Another Sunday, another run and I had a healing fun. This was special run as it was best organized, with toughest terrain, happened under clowdy, chilling, heavenly weather. And I flew with my fever.👣🏃

Run started at 6:26 pm on jammed packed track, had runners of all age groups, came from all the corners of Bangalore. The volunteers were competing with runners while cheering. At every station, I saw volunteers on their toes with water and bannana in their hands, clapping and shouting, " Bravo! Just few stations more." Literally they were transfering their energy to us. 👍✊🏃

I paced beautifully amongst colourful crowd. Initial 2k, took my 9 minutes,

5k 27min. After 5k, I started shivering and first time I realized that I was ill. I brought my pace down, walked for few meters. While in pain, I saw many kids, ladies pacing me behind whom I left kilometers behind minutes back.  After 6k, I recollected my energy and started accelerating. In my last 2k lap, I was on the top of my pain and I was flying.✌👏🚀

My final reading on runkeeper is as under:

The more I say, would be less for the host place Sneha Care home, a Jesus orchid, Lord's gospels in Sarjapur Bangalore. The place lies in the country side of Bangalore which still proudly owns it's mystic jungles.

The roller coster run ended with healthy and delicious breakfast followed by participatory dance session under the spell of local band of runners. Yo man our hips were lieing on the tunes of 'Hotel California'. How can I forget the closing Kanada song 'Santosh Anna' that moved us in respect for the great Santhosh

The musical cool down was miles soothening than Sampath's plank position and Aakriti's commondo crawl. 😂😇😀

We all settled down by the cooling of dance and soothing of music. And I carried home some lessons:

1) Get enough sleep before run

2) Get medication days before run, don't worry antibiotics will not eat up your stamina

3) Bring along your buddies, great company will reduce the distance by miles

How can I gorget the great Santosh who today completed his maiden 10k sub 55.👍

Adios till my next flight on the road,

Ascending Mithilesh.

(Written in the cozy ambience of Kempegoda International Airport on my way to Delhi)

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My first quarter as runner

It all started when it was discovered that my life was imbalanced on certain metabolic quotients. To fight with the new disproportion, I had to change my lifestyle by infusing physical activity in it. I started with jogging, brisk walking, Yoga and ended with running.

Running is outshining the real fighter in me. So far my score on runkeeper app for this quarter (Feb 2016 -May 2016) is about 400 km.

In my first three months as runner, I have completed more than twenty 10k runs, including 2 official 10k events. My personal best is 10k in 54.5 minutes. I try to run a 10k on each alternate day and nimbly participate in any running event happening in the city on weekends.

Earlier in 2014, I felt the same zeal and fire within me, when I started rigorous gym and swimming that continued for 10 months and discontinued due to the role and location change. This time, it's different. It is in the open and on the ground. Last time, I was gaining muscles and abs and this time, I am containing my muscles and fats.

Last week, one of my office colleague while staring at my ID card, asked, "When did you get this photograph clicked?" I replied, "this is one year younger me". He smiled, "It looks like 5 years older you. :) "

My meteoric rise as runner would not have been possible without unflinching support that I get in Infy Running club, HappyFeet. Specially my mentor Sampath and co-runners Aakriti, Hari, Santhosh etc. Every day when I walk in the ground, I meet my 15 years of me, Argo and Industrious.

Most of my new buddies at Infosys often ask, "How do you manage time to do so many things, so efficiently?" Most people, don't know that this is my second life, I am doing everything again in my life. And that too starting over from a startup bed. So, I know what not to do better than most of the people I am seeing these days.

On the same lines, my emotional connections with my past setbacks helps me conquer physical pain on the tracks.

The rediscovery and conquering have just started in my late 30s and that shall continue till the day I play with my grandchildren.

Adios
Flying Mithilesh.

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Infosys Toastmaster 567th Meeting, theme:Astro-Logic

TM Meeting 567th
Live commentary from the Heaven
--------😯------😁------😡------😊--------

With the mark of the 31st day of May in Gregorian calender, the above the earth, the full house, Toastmasters celestial buddies' heavenly meeting, started with the rule elicitation by the guardian star, sergeant at arms TM Iftikhar.

The guardian star handed over the control  to the sun of the day, MOC TM  Ruhi who showed the path through his light of knowledge and wits to all the planets and stars to maintain their perfect astrological positions.

In it's first sol, i.e., prepared speech section the shining star TM Vedprakash broke his ice by emitting his solar energy from his inner core. Next we saw a shining moon in TM Anushree who audaciously displayed her love for sugar not a star with well traversed celestial research path.

The divine meeting rose to it's apogee in 2nd sol i.e., Table Topic round, that started with enchanting of Sanskrit Shloka, chanted by Leo TTM TM Mithilesh aka Pt. Omkar Nath Shastri. The zodiac sign based topics triggered both logical and mythological thinking of audience to their Galactic Core.

The third sol was well within its harmonic chart due to the precision measures taken by the Saturn of the day i.e., General Evaluator TM Priyadarshini who came along with her three moons Samaya aka Timer TM Sundar, Ketu aka Ah Counter TM Vivek, Rahu aka grammarian TM Santhosh who controlled Samay(time), Vani(voice), Niyam(rules) respectively with full star dignity. Saturn's other brother planets in the role of speech evaluators, TM Vignesh lauded TM Ved for escaping his inner space of fear on stage in his CC1 while TM Karan in his CC7 evaluation found sync with TM Anushree's sweetness. Particularly the positive involvement of TM Vignesh and TM Karan in commending the speakers was certainly out of this galaxy.

The holistic gathering culminated to its ingress as it elected TM Anushree as its Empress who  outshined as SuperMoon among prepared Night-Stars and  TM Suhas as Jedi Knight in the non predicted fight i.e. table topic round in which both the inner-planets (toastmasters) and outer-planets (guests) participated.

The congress decided to crown TM Mithilesh as Jedi master Yoda aka best role taker as he controlled the 'force within' most of the time during the meeting.

While decreasing in light, the magnum opus, the 567th TM meeting of Infy TM got its full eclipse by remembering its invisible planet Toastmasters who has converted themselves into dark matter and with the theosophy of Juno TM Yashwanthi.

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Toastmasters Icebreaker Speech, CC1- A letter to all my fellow Toastmasters

As it happened, I gave my Toastmasters' competent communicator manual project 1 speech on 17th May 2016 at Infosys Toastmaster Bangalore. This was not the normal speech but a well prepared one. In fact it was the best effort I have ever put for any speech in my life. I have made more than 20 edits that brought script to 658 words from 1578 words. It also includes more than 200 dry runs in front of my mentor, family members, and friends.

Initially, I was stammering, fumbling and clutching, later I discovered my rhythm. When I heard one of the recordings of earlier dry runs, it sounded as if I have 'Laddoos' in my mouth :) . To difficult to comprehend. It might be due to my very long break from such activities. In the end, I broke my ice emphatically.

However, I rushed a bit and missed best speech prize from few votes. The takeaways is that there is never too late to break your ice in Toastmasters.

You can have a view here:





Audios,
Toastmaster Mithilesh Kumar

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Infy Toastmaster 566th meeting, theme:Ghost Protocol

Let me report on the behalf of VP Ed Arijit.
Today's ghost rider meet,  started well on time with thunderous start by the dead sergeant TM Mithilesh in the insidious presence of Toastmasters and dreadful guests with a formal introduction by the madam president and the first lady Ghost TM Yashwanti...

The dieing baton was horrifically passed on to the MOC of the day, TM Priyadarshi who impressed all the ghosts with her conjuring and cajoling.

The prepared ghost riders TM Vertika and TM Raghavendra took us to Ladhakh and Kargil to have glimpses of the dead valley in there creatively terrifying CC2 journey.

TM Ganpati was horribly correct in depicting the mountain man Manjhi with his moving the mountain Ghost spirit.

The guest ghost TM Vidhi did a resident evil while breaking her menstrual taboo aghast-ly.

The real sergeant and horrific presenter TM Gurmeen impressed the Deadmighty with his creative ghosts. His table ghosts were dead flesh.

In the end, Ghost rider  TM Raghavendra and Guest  Tapash won the prized bones in prepared and on the table categories respectively.

The general ghost evaluator TM Ajay now the ghost forever, did a dreadful job in his one of the last ghost appearances.
His parting speech scared the ghosts out of us. We will miss you in all our deadly assignments.

The individual ghost observers really did a manly job by listening and commending the fellow ghost TM which we ghosts dislikes the most.

Specially, TM Anikesh who took double pain in listening the taboo and the mountain ghosts.

The funny ghost, TM Vignesh was at his horrifically best in commending the ghost of Kargil.

The another double trouble, ghost Gurmeen found bonhomie in the lady ghost TM from Ladakh.

In the end, our ghost Republic had decided to give a jaw-dropping gesture to the first leady ghost, TM Yeshwanthi for giving chance to our parting ghoul, the patriarch, ghost TM Ajay George.👹👺👹

A special mention to the role takers ghost TM Ved who dared to teach grammar, and ghost TM Sundar who taught how to make foul cry with appropriate pauses, crutches and repetition.

Finally the ghost timer, TM Tara who dreaded to meter our time with his three horrific, colorful brooms.

This is how we ghosts met in our hellish den. Now, it's time to dine together in hell.
Have some flesh!🍤🍖🍗

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Darkness

It's vast, it's Immeasurable,
It's endless, It's darkness.

It's unlit, it's unfit,
It's bottomless, it's darkness.

Life's boat sways in it
It's lifesome, it's darkness.

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