My Toastmasters Journey.
Pathways ‘Presentation Mastery’ in
100 Days.
Come and Share my little world!
I am not a born speaker leave
alone being a leader. They are definitely all around me though. In the
community, at work, at school. Speakers and Leaders are everywhere.
A little background –
I did not speak till I was four
and half years old and my parents took me from the sleepy little village in
Bihar all the way to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to have me seen by pediatricians.
And luckily, they all said that I was just fine. I finally began speaking
before I turned five. But I would seldom speak. I would stay to myself most of
the times and hardly utter a word even if it meant my doom. As I grew older, I
found happiness in books and there was one particular book I fondly treasure
the memories of; it was ‘lots more tell me why: answers to hundreds of
questions children ask’. I would read it and just go into a world of amazement.
As I grew older, I started finding
interest and amusement in Louis L'Amour, Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham, Jeffrey
Archer, Ernest Hemmingway and many more. These were apart from the academic
lists we had to run through at school on William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, Charlotte Brontë among others.
Books and reading are an amazing source of happiness and the instrument which
lifts the curtain in the morning so that you can see a fresh bright sunny day
ahead of you.
I went to Calcutta to pursue my
studies. The 'City of Joy' completely overwhelmed me; for I was suddenly
plunged into a city from a sleepy and dirty old little village in Bihar. While studying, I
landed myself a peculiar job. Back in the day of no computers and smart phones
and advanced technology, many old fogies would hire school and college students
to read the newspapers to them. I was recruited by a Mr. Samir Ganguly who was the
ex-president of the Bar Council of Calcutta and was then an arbitrary lawyer. I
read the newspaper cover to cover for him for three straight years and in the
process enjoyed every bit of it. I began speaking, I began airing my opinions,
my thoughts, my views, my side of the story, my intuitions, I began debating issues,
I began speaking like I wanted to. I loved those days and loved every bit of my
reading job.
As time went by, I finished with
the little that college could educate me on and moved out of Calcutta. I went
to Kathmandu for a year as volunteer teacher and then headed straight for Delhi. Ever since and not until very recently; not a day passed where the
thought of going back to reading and speaking didn’t prick and pick my
conscience. But work and commitments and a ‘Corporate Life’ took its toll till
I finally hung up everything in the year 2012 and went back for six years to my
sleepy village to teach English and learn English and just do a little farming
of sorts.
I’ve just returned to pursue one
dream and that is to get back to reading and to speaking. Toastmasters is a God
sent concept for people like us and I am looking to make the best of it and
enjoy this phase of my life where I return to reading and more importantly speaking. Come and
share this journey of mine. I want to be
the speakers and leaders I saw everywhere and before I could give myself the
opportunity to become one, I went of the road on a different journey
altogether.
I want to be where these speakers
and leaders are – the heads of families, coaches of teams, business leaders,
mentors, organizational decision-makers, CEOs and boardroom honchos and
even the guy who pompously
makes it known to others that they are the Boss. I admire these leaders; all of them
have something to teach us from the noble to the unscrupulous. They’ve
influenced me and I am on the path of learning and becoming what these speakers and leaders are. Whatever
they do professionally or personally or how they become what they become; I
aspire to emulate their footsteps.
And, so, I’ve committed myself to
becoming one. Finally, it has dawned on me. It isn’t just what speakers and leaders
know that enables them to lead. They have a voice. They can tell their story.
They can listen and answer. They don’t just accomplish, they communicate. (This
is something I lacked tremendously in the early years and when I started
gaining and learning from these skills, I realized there were miles to go for I was still learning; I wanted to start
applying them.)
So, I’ve set out to find my voice; to learn to process information on my toes; to learn to listen; to learn to
give feedback and accept it; to organize, plan, deliver and follow up among many other things. I
needed a place where all the ingredients were there, and someone would guide me
along the way.
I’ve found that place; I’ve found
a community of learners and the path to leadership. I am going to be a
leader—and I will be made.
Toastmasters International – Where
leaders are made.
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