Session 86

Four great speeches are all it takes to leave an audience speechless. And that's what happened today on a rainy evening at the 86th session.

The SAA TM Suvojit did the usual justice to the kick-off by starting right on time and taking care of all the warnings that are sternly given to the audience. He also gave a mini-inspirational speech by calling our attention to the antics of the ant, its various qualities that are worth emulating.

Stand-in President TM Vidwata told us how important it is to "sharpen the axe", that is to hone our skills through practice, something which is at the core of Toastmastering philosophy. She also took the oath, introduced all guests and called the TMOD on stage.

Today's TMOD Shrradha had chosen as the theme a cryptic set of questions that sounded like a cry for a help: "Why me? Why this? Why now?". She wove in the philosophy of volunteering without question, with her experience at a job interview and revealed gradually how she had handled the different stages of the selection process. Interesting presentation indeeed.

The four prepared speeches were a treat. The first speech was delivered by TM Arijit Das, titled "Face It to Ace It", where he addressed how to handle pressure (squeeze, as he called it) and stand up to it.

The second speaker, TM Sarbadaman, with a title of "Go Crazy", literally did that for a few seconds before embarking on his speech on how to sometimes give the logical mind a rest and listen to the dreaming or crazy mind, for big changes to happen in your life. A very refreshing speech.

The third speech was delivered by TM Sutanu Bhowmick, titled "Leaders on Duty", where he held forth on different leadership styles and their examples from real life. He ended with a call to all leaders to answer the call of leadership, to pitch in wherever needed. Well, seeing as Toastmasters are all gunning to be leaders of some sort or another, it was a very relevent speech.

The fourth speaker, TM Kushal Batabyal, with a speech titled "Voices", acted out for us the travails of people suffering from multiple personality disorders (MDP), with a script that was dramatic and funny and a delivery that did justice to the role-plays. Hope to meet all of you very soon, TM Kushal!

The Table Topic session was well conducted by TM Akash, with topics that were open and easy to speak on and the four speakers said their piece quite clearly. The number of speeches were limited to four due to shortage of time.

General Evaluator TM Rajat Ray came on stage for arranging various types of feedback to the role-players.

Four evaluators delivered their opinion on the speeches. TM Anutosh appreciated the Squeeze gimmick in TM Arijit's speech and lauded his humour. TM Vidwata was all praise for TM Sarbadaman's crazy opening, his flow and transitions and his stories. TM Panna applauded TM Sutanu's interesting lecture on leadership styles but wished he had shared his personal style too. TM Ambar liked the way TM Kushal used humour in his speech (to the extent of brushing aside the unplanned pauses) and lauded his play-acting of the different MPD personalities. A productive feedback exercise.

TM Rajat invited his team on stage for the various feedbacks - Timer TM Abhishek, Ah-counter TM Raunak, Grammarian TM Shaleen and Parliamentarian TM Siddharth - all of whom gave meticulous feedback on the quality of speeches and role-plays. TM Rajat then concluded with a role-wise evaluation of the total session and individual feedbacks to the four table topic speakers.

Stand-in President TM Vidwata called a close to this interesting session after announcing the awards:

  • Best Role player (aux):       TM Raunak (Ah-counter)
  • Best Role player (main):     TM Rajat (GE)
  • Best Table topic:                 TM Abhishek Mitra
  • Best Evaluator:                   TM Panna 
  • Best Speaker:                      TM Sarbadaman
  • Most improved speaker:     TM Sutanu


See you on 5th Oct 2019. Happy Dussera to everybody.

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