Prisoner Of Your Own Fears

My Toastmaster Level 5 Speech Video and Content.

Friends call him a live cricket encyclopedia. And why not, Shantaram is a diehard cricket fan. Today is the day he was waiting for a long time. India v/s Australia final. After witnessing India’s bowling performance in the first half, Shantaram was quite sure India will be lifting up the cup. While watching the Indian Batting in the middle overs, he left his seat to grab a cup of coffee. When he returned back, to his dismay, he noticed India lost a key wicket. “Look at those crazy fellows. One good chance they have got to beat Aussies and they are beeping[sound] it up.” He said angrily to himself. This sequence continued a couple of times. Every time he left his seat, India lost a wicket. He got desperate and fear of losing started grappling his mind. He decided not to leave his seat until the match gets over. With more ups and downs, however without losing any wicket, India won the game. Shantaram was probably the happiest man in the world; however, he became a victim of one of the most incomprehensible phenomenon of the world. Any idea what phenomenon am I talking about? Toastmaster and guests, yes this phenomenon is called Superstition, which has gripped millions of people around the world centuries after centuries and has force them to believe in something which can never be explained using normal equations of cause and effect. Today, I'm going to talk about how it influences people in a subtle way and how we can take a small step towards curbing it.

Most of the superstitions are usually harmless. Wearing your lucky shirt, lucky tie on your interview, writing an exam with a lucky pen. So what exactly is the problem with being superstition? Superstition is so powerful that it leads you to attribute your successes to something outside yourself. This essentially means that you are held back from unleashing your own inner strengths and abilities. Loss of confidence. First problem!!! Next is even if something negative happens one is not going to attribute the failure of the outcome to the superstition. The person will start blaming other factors and not the superstition. I happened to witness a perfect example of this in the recently concluded Indian Premiere League, IPL. Match after match, Mumbai Indians kept on losing, however, Mrs Neeta Ambani was not willing to give up her superstition of having sit Zaheer Khan and Praveen Amre beside her for the entire match. One never kills his/her superstition and because of this the pile of superstitions keeps on increasing and then we graciously pass the baggage to our children who follow these superstitions blindly. Second problem !!!

Superstition is a part of the very being of the humanity and getting completely away from it is next to impossible. Even the great philosophers, famous scientists, engineers were and are superstitious. So how we get rid of it? Well, we can make a brilliant start to challenge our superstitions by start taking risks for not so important tasks where failure does not hamper us in any way. And then increasing our risk appetite slowly. For example, in case of Shantaram, if India had lost, he would suffered a setback momentarily. But not for ever. I remember when I was in 11^th standard preparing for a competitive exam, my obdurate mind would instruct me to do lots of stupid stuffs. “kapil, hold your breath for 45 seconds or else you will not score well in tomorrow’s exam”. In a day I don’t remember how many times I did this thing. So I decided to take risk, not do such stupid things and spend more time concentrating on studies. The risk paid off and I started believing in my abilities. Since then, I’ve tasted both successes and failures many times, but every time I savor success I know it’s only myself that I need to congratulate. This gave a boost to my confidence and allowed me to softly, slowly, steadily kill many of my superstitions.

To conclude, I would like to empasize that these little rituals of magic are so much part of our culture that we question them, forget questioning them, we dont even notice them. I appeal everyone sitting here to not allow yourself to become prisoner of your own fears. Don’t let superstition rule your mind and wreck your life. Instead, try hard, reaaaal hard, to overcome your fears by inspiring confidence in yourself, inspiring authority in your decisions, inspiring trust in your actions. You will then realize and enjoy the person who is truly you and not someone like Shantaram.

WWE: Perfect Entertainment

My Toastmaster Level 4 Speech. Don't have the video, hence, posting the content.

The talking has stopped, the action has begun; this is going to be a one night of hell in a cell. One second, you see a fiery fist, like a ton of bricks, smashed on the opponent's skull; the other second you witness a monstrous insurmountable body flying through the air and striking the opponent's body. Yes, I knew the fights were scripted and choreographed. I knew that the brutal blood bath in the middle of the ring was planned. However, I loved watching these fights. And my love for the game continues even today. Imagine two iconic players engaged in a fearsome battle just to entertain the audience. Imagine an arena where use of metal casket, metal chair, and sledgehammer are legal just to entertain the audience. Imagine a billion dollar industry that has got no mission but just to entertain the audience at any cost. Wow. It’s a perfect entertainment. And that’s what WWE; World Wrestling Entertainment is all about.

Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and guests, today I'm going to step into WWE arena and punch out reasons for watching WWE fights even today.

Well, WWE is a simulated sport that combines acting, theater and wrestling. Among the three, I've enjoyed the acting part of WWE most. Not only the wrestlers act, but also the Chairman, the management committee members, the commentators and you are not going to believe it, even referees. Let me paint a picture of how a referee brings an element of entertainment in a WWE fight. Sometimes during a match, a wrestler will knock down the referee. And to emphasize the boldness, the braveness, the brazenness of the wrestler, the referee will act as if he has lost consciousness. After sometime, when the wrestler has done all the damage on the opponent, the referee will spring to life. But wait, he wont stands up on his legs. Instead, to further dramatize the situation, he will crawl slowly towards the center of the ring, inciting roaring crowd's enthusiasm, excitement and exhilaration. With all energy left, he will tap 3 times on the floor. NOW that is articulation and acting at its best.

The next part I enjoy about WWE is smartly anchored stories, ie the theatrical part. Every fight of WWE is superbly written and executed. WWE fight stories are like forest where if one loses the track for few episodes, he is bound to get lost. One week you witness two wrestlers teamed up and fighting against another team and then few episodes later, they would be feuding against each other. WWE would project a wrestler as a haunted spirit, who has got magical powers and resides in the dark valley of Bermuda Triangle. They would even stage death of a wrestler and initiate a fake FBI investigation. The investigation further would heat up equations with numerous other wrestlers and the story ends up creating catchy drama and much awaited high profile fight. Gosh!!! Too much creativity and I bet if anyone doesn’t laugh watching such episodes.

Now the wrestling part. WWE is not a professional sport; therefore, the wrestlers have to be very careful while executing their steps. One wrong step can end a wrestler's career and may be even life. Jumping off the rings, slamming on the floor are not very simple moves. I say these are not simple moves because I experienced it first hand. I remember I had an ugly fight with my schoolmate on the basketball court. After exchanging few heated words, I galloped in the air and performed a stunt of my favorite wrestler. My entire body was in the air, horizontal. And just when I was about to execute my final act, ie hit him with my legs, my opponent tricked me. He simply moved one step back. And here I was suspended freely in the air. I cycled my legs, but nothing happened and then the gravitational force took control of my body. I landed, no crashed, on the cemented floor, hurting my hand and chest badly. This incident led me to believe that how difficult it is to stage a fake fight that looks real on camera. I respect wrestlers for bringing out such a kind of entertainment to audience while hurting their own body.

As a kid, I never understood, why the concept of fake fighting works. Why do WWE producers think that the audience would believe in their masterly modulated fights or stories? Well, the answer is simple. WWE works as a Magic where if one can fool the audience, even for a second, then you get to see something really special... it is the look on the audience faces. Audience knows the truth but still can’t believe what they have just witnessed. It’s a perfect combination of acting, theater and fight that entertains the audience. And that’s what WWE is all about. Entertaining the audience.

ToastMaster Advancement

I've been enjoying Toastmaster sessions since I joined and have made couple of Advancement in the Communicator series. My 2nd level speech was based on Comics and 3rd level on New Year Resolutions. Fortunately, I've videos of both the speeches.

Level 2 Speech:



Level 3 Speech:


More speeches to follow in coming time.

Aah, Umm

An advantage of joining ToastMasters club (I'm sorry for too much posts on Toastmasters these days, but I'm getting so much involved that I can't resist talking about it :) ) is that there are people who would evaluate you and give constructive feedback. One of the feedbacks that one receives is the number of times speaker utter filler words such as 'Umm, Aah, annnddddd ...'. During my prepared speech, I didn't utter a single filler word. This probably happened because I was prepared and didnt forget anything during the speech. However, during all my impromptu speeches, I got a feedback that I say these words close to 4-5 times. Impromptu speeches last for only 1-2 minutes and so much usage of filler words would definitely wont categorize someone as a good speaker.

Nowadays, I take a lot of care while speaking English with my teammates during meetings or conference calls. But then one day, while talking to my family on phone, I realized that I falter as well as stumble while speaking in Hindi as well. This is a good realization as I now believe that without getting this corrected first, it will take a lot of time for me to gain expertize in English. I believe that the path would be much more easier and glib this way rather than jumping into the English territory first.

So, I'm gonna try this first and get my basics right.

First ToastMaster Meeting

How well can you think on your feet? Can you go on stage and speak on a subject/scenario without preparation? or lets make life simple: How well can you deliver a prepared speech?

I cannot. Thats why I joined my company's ToastMaster Club. I heard about this club around 1 year back and immediately concluded that it is a cool platform to improve upon public speaking skills. Unfortunately, i was so messed up with my application and office work that I didnt attend any meeting. Number 1 mistake !!! Anyways, after recent happenings at office, with lots of boredom and free time, I thought about attending the meeting and did that last week.

The format of these meetings is pretty simple. There will be 2-3 prepared speeches of about 4-5 minutes each and 5-6 impromptu speech lasting about 1-2 minutes each. I loved the impromptu part the most. It actually tests how far your imagination can go in just 5-10 seconds.

When I last attended the meeting, I didnt speak on any topic. There was a slight change in the impromptu speeches this time. Usually only one speaker speaks on the given issue. The host gave us a situation where there is a discussion going on between a vendor and a buyer. Buyer faces a problem and comes to the shop to discuss it with the vendor. The host then asked 2 of us to take up any role. It is up to the buyer to choose any type of problem. The host asked me if I want to take up the vendor role. I said yes, though reluctantly. I didnt have any clue of what I would be saying/asking on the stage. The other guy was smart. He described the situation as: I bought a shoe from your shop sometime back and after sometime the shoe has started biting me. What do I do now?

The room burst into laughter. On the other side, I was blank. I had never been in such a situation before and not even a single thing was clicking in my mind. The other guy was well prepared and was throwing one problem after another because he had faced this problem sometime back. I said something that I dont remember to continue the conversation, but I was sure it wasnt up to the mark the audiences were expecting. Eventually it finished.

Though I couldnt say much, I got to know about my weakness. It always seemed trivial to me after hearing other's speeches, but I couldnt say a meaningful sentence at all. I'm happy to learn about my weakness and I see an opportunity to work on that as well.