lalithas nursery rhyme

Minutes of the Meeting
Chennai Toastmasters Club
Ruby Hall, Presidency Club, Ethiraj Salai, Egmore, Chennai—08
Date: 22 December, 2013
Meeting No.: 421
Word of the Day: Enrapture (v) - Captivate / to fill with delight
Theme of the Day: Believe to receive
Role Players of the Meeting
Toastmaster of the Day
TM Shankar
Timer
TM Rangaraj Raju
General Evaluator
TM Harish Katariya
Grammarian
TM Vignesh Ramachandran
Table Topics Master
TM Pradeep Unnikrishnan
Ah-Counter
TM Ramkumar Krishnamoorthi
4 PM
4:04
PM
The Sergeant @ Arms for this meeting, TM Ramkumar Krishnamoorthi, explained the mission and the code of conduct at club meetings.
Then, he introduced the President of the club, TM Sakthi Prasanna, and
invited him on stage.
President, TM Sakthi Prasanna, declared the 421st meeting of CTM
open. Here are the highlights of his speech:
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He spoke about the festive season around us.
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He spoke about two old men who played a very important role in
our country—Mahatma Gandhi, our revered freedom fighter, and
Anna Hazare, our modern day crusader against corruption. With
these examples, he urged the audience to follow their dreams and
bring a change in the country as age is just a number.
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Then, he introduced the Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD), TM
Shankar, to the audience.
TMOD Shankar explained the different sections of the Toastmasters
4:10 PM meeting to the audience. He then introduced the audience to the Word
of the Day and the Theme of the Day. He invited the General Evaluator,
TM Harish Katariya, to explain his role to the audience.
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General Evaluator, TM Harish, explained his team’s role. He spoke
4:14 PM about the purpose of evaluation and introduced his TAG (Timer + AhCounter + Grammarian) team to the audience. Each of the team members briefly explained their role.
4:18PM TMOD Shankar begins the ‘Prepared Speeches’ section.
PREPARED SPEECHES
Speaker #1: TM Monisha Ramadevan
Mentor: TM Vignesh Swaminathan
Evaluator: TM Kush Tripathi
Project:Competent Communication #3
Project Name: Get to the point
Time: 5—7 minutes
Speech Title: They make a lot of difference
4:20PM
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TM Monisha spoke about her best friend, her 2 year old pet dog, Mickey.
She vividly described his behaviour and appearance.
She explained how he would always make her smile, no matter, what her
mood, and demand cuddles from her.
She also explained how his naughtiness would often put her in embarrassing
situations, like when he tore up her Oxford dictionary, or pulled her .
She revealed that one of her favourite qualities about him was his forgiving
nature—he would forgive and forget everything without any hard feelings.
Finally, she explained the various benefits of keeping pets and how they
would change our life.
Speaker #2: TM Noorain Mohammed
Mentor: TM Bharath Raja
Evaluator: TM Sakthi Prasanna
Project:Competent Communication #4
Project Name: How to say it
Time: 5—7 minutes
Speech Title: Our best friend
4:27 PM
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TM Noorain spoke about failure, its influence on our life, and how it makes us
feel like our existence does not matter.
She urged the audience that if they would look behind the disguise of failure
and start appreciating its good points, we would want it to be our best friend.
She gave the example of a master and a beginner—stating that the master has
failed more times than the beginner has ever tried.
She gave the example of Walt Disney who had gone through failure many
times in his life, but he was successful because he worked hard.
She urged people to accept their failures and keep trying hard at what they do
because failure was only a small change from the direction of their dreams.
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Speaker #3: TM Sabareeswar B.
Mentor: TM Bharath Raja
Evaluator: TM Aditya VS
Project:Competent Communication #4
Project Name: How to say it
Time: 5—7 minutes
Speech Title: Thoughts at a park
4:33PM
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TM Sabareeswar began his speech with the lines by poet, WH Davies —
“What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”
He spoke about his experience of going to a park when he was accidentally
locked out of his room.
He vividly described his surreal experience by defining the psychedelic patterns of flowers and stating how they combine the beauty of a woman and the
wisdom of a saint, the cacophony of birds’ sounds that resonated through his
heart, and the beautiful sunset that revolted against nature with its colours.
He spoke about his exchange of smiles with a 2 year old girl in the park and
wondered what she saw in the eyes of a stranger.
He ended his speech by stating that the best thoughts arise in your mind
when you stand and stare at nature around you, and do it for no reason at all.
Speaker #4: TM Harini Srinivasan
Mentor: DTM Srinivasan Karthikeyan
Evaluator: DTM Lalitha Giridhar
Project: ACG #8
Project Name: Keep them laughing
Time: 5—7 minutes
Speech Title: Problems with positivity
4:41PM
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TM Harini spoke about her ability to find positivity in every situation, no
matter what.
She shared her experience of going to her school in her home town,
Chidambaram, after many years. When she met her Math teacher who was
relieved after finishing his class, she asked him why was he so tired of teaching his young students? To this, her teacher makes her the Second grade’s
Math teacher for one period.
While Harini was excited on hearing this, she soon realized her fault when the
mischievous students had smart repartees to all her math teachings.
When she shares her experience with her mother, her mother tells her that
there was a difference between being optimistic and realistic.
She still didn’t learn her lesson but she decided to be practical by marrying
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4:50
PM
TMOD Shankar thanked all the speakers and asked the Timer if there
were any disqualifications. With there being no disqualifications, the
TMOD then introduced the audience to the next section of the meet-
TABLE TOPICS
TT Master, Pradeep, keeping the festive season in mind, decided to play
Santa Claus. He shared some interesting nuggets of information on
4:53 PM Christmas with the audience. Before inviting the TT speakers and giving
them their topic, he shared fascinating facts about Christmas and Santa
Claus that were related to the topic. Here are the highlights of the
speeches of the TT speakers in this meeting:
TT Speaker #1: TM Guruvayurappan
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TM Guruvayurappan asked the audience what they wanted for Christmas and
as Santa, he would give it to them.
With the audience asking for many funny wishes, he said that if he was Santa,
he would abolish the TT session for the day.
He also said that he would make the TT speaker speak on all his topics and
make him entertain the audience.
TT Speaker #2: TM Ramesh D.
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Topic: If I was Santa...
Topic: If you could change Santa’s costume...
TM Ramesh said that if he could change the colour of Santa’s costume, he
would change it to green.
It was because the colour green, besides being his favourite colour, reminded
him of prosperity, the Green Revolution and Punjab.
Also, since people believe in receiving from Santa Claus, green would be the
right colour for his dress.
TT Speaker #3: TM Thanigeas- Topic: If there were no nursery rhymes...
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TM Thanigeaswara said that if there were no nursery rhymes for kids, kids
would end up in nursing homes.
He explained the benefits of rhymes, saying that rhymes help kids speak well.
Also, music played an important role in the growth of kids.
Finally, he requested the audience members to spend more time with their
kids and teach hem nursery rhymes.
TT Speaker #4: Aishwarya
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Topic: What is happiness without sadness
Guest speaker, Aishwarya, explained that happiness without sadness would
be meaningless as you would not be able to distinguish between the two emotions.
Finally, she said that in order to feel true happiness, you need contrasting
feelings.
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TT Speaker #5: TM Premkumar Topic: All work and no play makes Jack dull
TM Premkumar connected with the topic by stating that since childhood, he
never participated in sports.
He explained to the audience that sports would help you stay fit, and improve
your presence of mind.
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TT
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Speaker
#6:
TM Naga Topic: When we give joy, we renew ourselves
TM Naga Reddy told the audience that ever since his college days, he believed
in giving.
Under the NSS, he asked his friends to volunteer as a teacher to teach underprivileged students.
He saw how happy his friends felt by giving to others.
That’s why he urged the audience to give happiness to others.
TT Speaker #7: DTM Karthik Srinivasan
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DTM Karthik left the audience in splits by stating that smart and Karthik are
oxymorons.
He also said that he was allergic to the word— ‘work’.
He explained to the audience that you can either work hard, or work smarter,
however you liked.
If you have lots of energy, then you can work harder. But if you aren’t much of
a hard worker, then you can work smartly by delegating tasks.
Topic: Faith moves mountains
TT Speaker #8: TM Prasanna
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Topic: Work harder, not smarter
TM Prasanna started his speech by stating that faith was a quality that everybody should possess.
He gave the example of kids of learn to stand and walk because of faith.
Citing CTM, he said that it had given him so much, and his faith in the club
had helped him improve himself and make a lot of friends.
Finally, he concluded his speech by stating that if you push the ‘I’ in faith, you
would go a long way in life.
TT Master, Pradeep, then invited the TT Evaluator of the Day, TM
Bharath Raja to give his evaluations of the speakers, which are as follows:
5:20
PM
TM Guruvayurappan
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TTE Bharath loved his enthusiasm.
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He said that the speaker had pulled the audience and TT Master
into his speech, which showed his connect with the topic.
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He suggested that he could use better words to make his speech
even better.
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TM Ramesh
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TTE Bharath liked his connection with the topic.
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He also praised how the speaker had associated the colour green
with Punjab, the Green Revolution, the Timer’s green light, and so
on.
TM Thanigeaswara
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TTE Bharath liked the speaker’s usage of facts in his speech.
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He suggested that the speaker could use transitions in order to
avoid the usage of fillers.
Guest—Aishwarya
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The TTE applauded her for using the Word of the Day and the
Theme of the Day in her speech.
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He suggested that in order to make her speech even better, she
could speak to the audience and not just the TT master.
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Also, he advised the speaker that she should avoid saying she was
nervous on stage as that would just draw attention to that.
5:20
PM
TM Premkumar
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TTE Bharath appreciated the speaker for bringing a personal connect to the topic.
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He also lauded him for smiling throughout his speech and brought
out facts that he had used in his CC#1 speech.
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He suggested that to make his speech even better, he could avoid
using fillers.
TM Naga Reddy
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The TTE appreciated him for immediately connecting with the
topic.
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He suggested that he could avoid taking time in his speech by
wishing good evening to all those around him as it would give him
ample time to word his speech.
DTM Karthik Srinivasan
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TTE Bharath appreciated the speaker for giving a spin to the topic.
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He also lauded the speaker for his humour and voice modulation.
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He suggested that a smoother flow of thoughts was required to
make his speech even better.
TM Prasanna Venkatanarayanan
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The TTE lauded the speaker for his voice modulation.
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He also appreciated him for painting a picture with his words.
Finally, the TTE handed the stage over to the TMOD.
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5:36 PM TMOD Shankar plunged into the ‘Evaluations’ section of the meeting by
inviting the various Evaluators on stage.
EVALUATIONS
Evaluator #1: TM Kush Tripathi
Speaker: TM Monisha R.
The highlights of TM Kush’s evaluation are:
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He stated that TM Monisha’s speech fulfilled its specific and general purposes.
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Her speech also gave the audience a vivid description of her pet through good
word usages.
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He appreciated her for smiling throughout her speech and for maintaining
good facial expressions and eye contact with the audience.
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He also lauded her for not using notes during her speech.
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TM Kush suggested that TM Monisha could make her speech even better by
using smooth transitions in her speech.
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He also felt that her conclusion could have been better as it seemed rush.
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Finally, he also advised her to avoid pacing around the stage as it conveyed a
sense of nervousness to the audience.
Evaluator #2: TM Sakthi Prasanna
Target Speaker: TM Noorain
The highlights of TM Sakthi’s evaluation are:
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TM Sakthi congratulated TM Noorain for successfully completing her project.
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He appreciated her for her language skills and pleasant tone of delivering her
speech.
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He mentioned that her speech was relatable and her vivid words helped people connect with her topic.
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He advised her that in order to make her speech even better, when she forgot
her lines, she could move on to the next point instead of pausing.
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He also urged her to practice more in order to avoid any signs of nervousness.
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Finally, he said that she could have chosen a better topic to take the audience
on an imaginative journey with her words.
Evaluator #3: TM Aditya VS
Target Speaker: TM Sabareeswar
The highlights of TM Aditya’s evaluation are:
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TM Aditya appreciated TM Sabareeswar for painting a picture in the audience’s mind with his speech.
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He stated that although his speech had a lot of content, it was very vivid and
descriptive with his poetic words.
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He suggested that in order to make his speech even better, he could could
eliminate jargon.
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Also, he could repeat tough sentences again for the benefit of the audience.
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Finally, he lauded him for his brilliant speech that formed an instant connect
with the audience.
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Evaluator #4: DTM Lalitha Giridhar
Target Speaker: TM Harini
The highlights of DTM Lalitha’s evaluation are:
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DTM Lalitha appreciated TM Harini for getting her basics right—her clarity,
confidence, body language and voice modulation.
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She stated that since her project required her to use self-deprecatory humour
in the beginning, she should have used a joke on herself instead of using it on
her spouse.
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She also suggested that instead of using stand-alone jokes, she could have
weaved jokes into her story.
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She appreciated the speaker for holding the audience’s attention all throughout the speech.
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Finally, she suggested the speaker could have ended her speech with a joke in
order to end it strongly.
5:48
PM
TMOD Shankar got back on stage and invited the General Evaluator,
TM Harish Katariya to submit his report.
TM Harish Katariya asked his TAG team to submit their respective reports.
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The Timer stated that there were no disqualifications and mentioned everyone’s individual speech time.
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The Grammarian gave a detailed report of the good usages and not
-so-good usages of the various speeches.
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The Ah-Counter mentioned the Ahs, Umms and pauses that were
used in the speeches.
Finally, the General Evaluator appreciated the club for beginning the
meeting on time and displaying the board with the Word of the Day and
5:50PM the Theme of the Day on it. He suggested that the Sergeant @ Arms
could display an ‘Entry’ sign so that guests could know where the meeting was happening.
For the Evaluators, the General Evaluator suggested that they could use
the ‘sandwich approach’ of giving evaluations. Also, he urged the
Evaluators to main eye contact with the audience and not just the
Speaker while delivering their evaluations.
The General Evaluator also appreciated the TAG team for their excellent job. He suggested that the Timer could also flash his cards, instead
of just flashing the light at the appropriate time.
Finally, he invited the TMOD on stage.
5:54 PM TMOD Shankar handed the baton over to President, TM Sakthi
Prasanna.
5:55 PM President, TM Sakthi Prasanna, invited DTM Lalitha Giridhar, DTM
Karthik Srinivasan, Editor—Noorain Mohammed Nadim, and Subeditor—Kush Tripathi, to unveil CTM’s December issue of ‘Speak Out’.
Lastly, he announced the winners of CTM’s 421st meeting:
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Best Speaker—TM Sabareeswar
Best Evaluator—DTM Lalitha Giridhar
Best TT Speaker—TM Prasanna Venkatanarayanan
Best Role Player—TM Vignesh Ramachandran
5:59PM The meeting came to an end and the President invited everyone for
High Tea.
Dear Toastmasters,
May your holidays
Be happy days,
Filled with love
And laughter!
And may each day
Bring joy your way
In the year
That follows after!
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