Speaking Sultans

Yesterday was one of finest evenings I had in Infosys. I was attending the 125th meet of the Infosys Toastmasters Club (ITMC) in the corporate block. The only thing that I had heard about the toastmaster’s earlier was that, one of my friend Kanishka Agiwal was the youngest toastmaster in the world. I never asked him in detail about what exactly happens there apart from having a vague idea that it is some sort of a speaking forum.

Apart from just a speaking forum it’s a wonderful platform to interact with people from diverse backgrounds that transcends across all the age groups. I met a toastmaster who is currently running a Bakery business here in Bangalore but he attends all toastmasters meet because it’s his passion and the same guy also won the third prize for the story telling competition yesterday. He said business is not his cup of tea though he does that to earn his bread and butter and he wants to be a motivator but the society in India does have a bias. “The people of India have a notion that a motivator should generally be 40+ “, he said. Hope he will be able to be amongst the very few lucky people in the world who get the opportunity to do what they want to do. There were many gentlemen who did not belong to the software fraternity and the toastmaster club jelled together doctors, businessmen, housewives and so many from other wakes of life.

It was 125th meet in Infosys Campus as well as the installation ceremony of the new office bearers. It all happened one fine day five years back when the ILI (Infosys Leadership Institute) took the initiative to have a toastmasters club in Infosys. Today ITMC is a chartered club and one of the most distinguished clubs in the toastmasters capital of India which has approximately 26 odd clubs. This year, it not only won the most distinguished club prize for the second consecutive year but also was awarded with the founder’s prize for expediting the launching of a toastmaster club in Infosys, Chennai.

It is not the gala ceremony that I was impressed with nor with the quality of the speakers there but what I liked the most is it provides a great ambience to trigger thinking. Leaders are not born and similarly leaders are also not made simply because of the power of language they possess. Leader is made when he makes people believe in what he does and he makes them to follow. That is when a true leader is born and that’s only possible when he has clarity of thoughts.

ITMC is not just one secluded speaking forum in Infosys. It’s interlinked with so many other clubs and does many more things apart from just helping the members improve their communication skills. One of the speakers yesterday made an interesting point and actually made a humble request to the toastmasters to look into the case of unemployed engineers. The colossal Indian education system churns out approximately 4,25,000 engineers a year but the industry is only interested in absorbing around 40000 of them. What happens to the rest of the Junta? Quite a challenging issue for the entire nation. I myself would be quite interested to be a part of this case study.

So many clichés, jargons, proverbs were spoken. So many dignitaries made speeches, out of which some of them were very good communicators, some very good leaders and some both. But yes one thing is sure that communication and leadership goes hand in hand. From the very first time I heard about a toastmaster to this date there was a continuous battle raging between my conscious and the conscience mind whether I should join the club or not. I gave myself so many excuses and as rightly said-“Your potential gets reduced by the number of excuses you provide”. But yesterday was the day which acted as a catalyst and drove me to join the elite club of “Speaking Sultans”, which also is the name of the ITMC newsletter.

The Three Musketeers

Hang on guys!!!!By coining the title as “The Three Musketeers” I am not referring to the legendary trio of Gullit, Rijkard and Van Basten, the three great Dutch Footballers nor am I pointing to the three fictitious characters of “Five Points Someone”. It’s the story of the three guys of Ramaiah hostel, the time they have spent together and the friendship all of them have cherished. The trio was so conspicuous that sometimes they were called “The Three Musketeers”

Keshav, a very shy and reserved guy till the 4th sem, generally loved to be on his own and a great lover of music especially the Hindi classics and oldies.Nitin, also a shy creature but not quite reserved loved to do everything apart from studies. Also crazy about playing games (cricket, volleyball, carom).And last but not the least myself, the most outspoken amongst the three loved imparting “Gyan” to all the Hostelites.Loved to be with Keshav when it came to imparting the so called “Gyan” on all matters and with Nitin when I had to freak or watch cricket or almost everything where fun and frolic was involved.

Spent quite a long time with Nitin as I had the longest association with him from 2nd to 8th sem,be it in hostel or college or Exam Hall(since we had roll no. 115 and 116).Fantastic guy to be with and always full of energy. Both Keshav and Nitin were quite reserved when it came to talking to gals (mind you that was only till the 4th sem) though the dynamics changed in the latter half of engineering.

Special was the association and friendship in many ways….!!!! The ideas, feelings , pulling each others legs(especially keshav…..bechara bakra) still makes me quite nostalgic.5th June, a very special day for Keshav in many ways, me and Nitin were gazing at Keshav’s face which was dead like a dodo. I still remember Keshav’s statements (Aisa kaise ho sakta hain……J)

Gone are those days and gone are those hostel mastis…..!!! All three of us now in different companies, busy with the crapy work (at least for me, if not for them) but still miss one of those finest times of my life.