Theme: Make hay while the sun shines, Role: Timer

Role takers for 1 April 2020
MEETING 603
Virtual zoom meeting

Theme: Make hay while the sun shine,

Break an hourglass into sixty pieces.

Pick each one up and see if you've lived them through every minute.

Have you harvested the seasons passing or have you succumbed to the frozen times?

Whatever your calling, join us to know how to make hay while the sun shines.

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On my first day in mysore, I meet a girl. We had a decent conversation which started with we telling our names to each other.  After hearing her name, I had curiosity to know the meaning of her name, which as per her meant “Sunshine”. Few days later, when we were allotted Desktop, luckily she was my partner. Of course, I didn’t remember her real name but only sunshine, which I call her till date.

Good Evening Fellow TM and dear guest!

She had many of her favorite quotes starting with sun shine all signifies different aspect of life. I made those in my quotes bucket list. Those help me in various phase of life. -- If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun” by Dr. A.P.J  Kalam motivates me to work hard. --At times when I am away from my loved ones and lonely, the quote “Sun is alone to but it still shines” keeps me going. At my time of adversity the famous quote “We all will see Sunshine after Moonlight.” Helps me.  But the most favorite which tells importance of time is “Make the hay while sun shines”.  We are always bound by time constraint whatever act we are performing in life. So when sun shines upon us is I believe the time when universe wants us to collect as much hay as possible.  I can go on and on but time constraint won’t allow.

My role is also about making sure the meeting sticks to the time lines. So being a time keeper of the meeting, I would be noting down the time taken by all the speakers in the meeting and will notify the speakers how they are doing with their time.
Usually Toast Master’s take up various project and delivery prepared speeches. We don’t have any prepared speech today instead we have a 20 min activity being conducted by TMOD . For the activity, when 2 min of your allocated time is left I will be displaying the Green Screen. When Last 1 minute is left I will be displaying the yellow screen. A red screen is shown When the time is up. 30 seconds of grace time is given to the speaker after which the speaker must stop

In the Table topic section time duration for an impromptu speech is 2 minutes. When 1 min is remaining I will be displaying the green card. When 30 sec is left I will be displaying the yellow card and red card when the time is up. After this, 30 seconds of grace time is given to the speaker after which the speaker must stop. For the table topic sections if the participants exceed the time limits allocation to them they will not be eligible for the best Table Topic speaker award. 
In the end, I would be presenting the Timer’s report and inform whether they were over the time limit or not. Best of luck to the all speakers.

Wishing everyone a good luck, Participate actively, adhere to timelines and Enjoy the session.

That’s all from me for now, over to you Toastmaster XYZ

Theme: Book-Bound and Role: Grammarian

Role takers for 25th March 2020
MEETING 602
Online Meeting

Theme: Book-Bound📕📗📘📔📚

Pages, words, chapters and more;

Stories and fantasies and knowledge galore;

A friend, a companion and so much more,

Let this book-bound journey touch your existential shores.

Books are a hard bound drug with no danger of overdose. I am a happy victim of books. I received a story book as prize in 1st class. My love for reading books began. Every new standard came up with new books and new stories and that was something I always looked forward to. From stories, interest changed to learning science and history. But books always remained constant companion.

Good evening fellow toastmasters and dear guests.

Reading books may be the number one way you can improve your grammar. When you read, you reinforce correct grammar in your mind. ... In addition to improving your grammar, reading will help with all aspects of your writing, from sentence fluency to increased vocabulary, which will help in coming all future speeches.

<< Role description >>

As the Grammarian and Word Master of today's meet, I would be keeping an eye on incorrect grammar usage, mispronunciations, misplaced words and tenses, and the quality of language usage in general. I will also be noting the good words used and I will throw them open to the audience for the meanings. As the word master, I’d like to introduce the word and idiom of the day.
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Word of the Day 

Garner

- to obtain or collect something such as information, support etc

Example:- All the details that we garnered about his research has been made into a presentation.

Would anyone like to use WOD


Idiom of the Day 

In a heartbeat

-immediately, without hesitation

Example:- Call me if you need any help, I'll be there in a heartbeat.

Would anyone like to use WOD

It is a club practice to show thumbs up on the usage of word and idiom of the day to encourage and appreciate the speaker. I would be presenting a report at the end of the meeting, highlighting the incorrect usage and giving the correct usage.
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<<FOR FINAL REPORT>>

I have divided my report in 3 parts:

1.       Good words and phrases – 4 examples

2.       Incorrect usage and their correct usage – 2 examples

3.       Who used WOD and IOD?

Grammar tip:

Problems with 'highest' or 'the highest'?

Most grammar books will tell you that you need "the" before a superlative like "highest" or "lowest", but this is not always true.

We use "the" when there is a noun after the adjective e.g. the highest number, the highest proportion.

When we put the noun before, we don't need "the" e.g. the number was highest, the proportion was highest.
So, compare these 2 sentences:

- The UK had the highest rate of unemployment.
- The unemployment rate was highest in the UK.
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Theme: Moments

MEETING 596 for 12th February 2020

Theme: M.O.M.E.N.T.S

Down the memory lane as our thoughts fly

Memories of the moments which made us feel low or high.

Some inevitable,

Some inseparable,

Yet, so memorable.

Moments! are perishable,

Yet so cherishable.

I believe, Moments are cyclic. If you are having a bad day, you will also have a happy day, similarly if you had a good day, you will have a bad day. It usually happens to me, I remember school days were good when in college and college days were good when I am working. However, everything has a fixed time, one can’t leave the moment again other than in ones memory. Nevertheless, Memory is deceptive as its colored by today's event. Let seize these moment as Moments are cyclic.

Good evening fellow TM and dear guests

In lot of moments there are few moments in our routine, especially in IT profession where the widow is taking time to load, or browser is connecting, please wait a moment pop up or most vital desktop is hanged.  We have these moments every day, we don’t want though. Similarly, in our speeches there are unintentional pauses, filler pattern and ah counts which we are use to while speaking but can’t be ignored as it distracts audience. Here comes my role as an Ah counter in today’s meet, I will be monitoring the usage of Ahs, crutch words, filler patterns and unintentional pauses, both long and short. I’ll be keeping a record of the Ahs which are sounds like Ah, Um, Err, Hmm etc. Crutch words and filler patterns are words used to fill our thought process and include words such as ‘you know’, ‘I mean’, ‘actually’, ‘like’.A short pause is a pause up to 3 seconds and a long pause, over 3 seconds. So let’s try to have pauses as rightly-timed as possible and aim to minimize the use of unintended pauses, Ahs and filler words in our speech.

I will be presenting my report when the general evaluator calls for the report and would also be mentioning the perfect articulator of the day.

A perfect Articulator is the person who would be using minimum ah counts and filler words. Best of luck to the all speakers. Lastly, also there are some courageous moments when we do stuffs out of our comfort zone, especially for first timers. Please avail the opportunity and participate actively.

Theme Camouflage:Role Ah counter

'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'

Concealing the hidden virtues and vices,

To camouflage the society's biases.

Adapting in order to become one with the crowd,

Instead of being the one around

Do you lose yourself in the quest of acceptance and adjustment or stand out and shine?

A ninja using smoke screen or a piece of cloth alike the wall to hide behind, as a child fascinated us. Concealing our abilities and focusing on just studies has been most part of my school days. We loved sports more than studying but that part washed-out in race to score good marks. Extra curriculum was always extra in our education system and never prioritized. As a grown up, we aspire many things at a time and miss opportunity. Famous quote by Thomas Edison says “Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls & looks like work.” 

Good Evening Fellow TM and dear guest

Camouflage has been always around us, also in our speech. there are many hidden elements which makes audience distract and prevents them from paying attention. Here comes my role as an Ah counter  in today’s meet, I will be monitoring the usage of Ahs, crutch words, filler patterns and unintentional pauses, both long and short. I’ll be keeping a record of the Ahs which are sounds like Ah, Um, Err, Hmm etc. Crutch words and filler patterns are words used to fill our thought process and include words such as ‘you know’, ‘I mean’, ‘actually’, ‘like’.A short pause is a pause up to 3 seconds and a long pause, over 3 seconds. So let’s try to have pauses as rightly-timed as possible and aim to minimize the use of unintended pauses, Ahs and filler words in our speech.

I will be presenting my report when the general evaluator calls for the report and would also be mentioning the perfect articulator of the day.

A perfect Articulator is the person who would be using minimum ah counts and filler words. Best of luck to the all speakers.

<<Handing over control>>

Over to  Toastmaster XYZ.

<<Report >>

I have divided my report into 3 sections.

-               People who have used less than or equal to 5 ah counts and crutch words.

Mention people name [ eg. Tm Ravi, TM Prachi, TM xyz ]

-               People who have used more than 5 ah counts and crutch words.

[ Don’t tell the names.

Just say the rest of the people have used more than 5 ah counts. I encourage them to use less crutch and ahs in their upcoming meetings.

]

-               Name of perfect articulator.

[ You can choose what according to the report and you the best articulator was in the meeting. ]

Timer role in TM Theme: Exploring the colors of India.

I asked my teacher, difference between Independence day and republic day? He reminded me of the difference, but also added something new in knowledge. He said "there is difference between speeches given on this days. One reminds of our glorious past while other gives glimpses of future which we are headed towards".This is the land of sages, land of peace and land of solidarity with world. We had our days of struggle, longings and violence. Today is not the day to talk about it. With the beginning of new decade, new hopes and new energy. My colorful, colorful  country, full of colors. Colors of India is its languages, food, spirituality, cultural heritage and architecture, various religion and traditions and faith.

To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.- Martin Luther King Jr.

Have you ever had a conversation with a foreigner about India.By just answering few of their questions, one will see surprise in their eyes to know about your story and you.
This makes us so proud of our country.

Good Evening Fellow TM and dear guest!


When we talk about our motherland, i can go on and on but due to the time constraints i can't share more.We all know that how much we respect our time, so being a time keeper of the meeting, i would be noting down the time taken by all the speakers in the meeting and will notify the speakers how they are doing with their time.


<<For Prepared Speeches on the day>>

For the prepared speech section The time limit is based on the project you are taking up. Time Limits for the prepared speeches are  5-7mins. When 2 min of your allocated time are left I will be displaying the Green Card. When Last 1 minute is left I will be displaying the yellow card. A red card is shown When the time is up. 30 seconds of grace time is given to the speaker after which the speaker must stop

The time duration for evaluators is 3 minutes. When 1 min is remaining I will be displaying the green card, when 30 sec are remaining I will be displaying the yellow card and red card when the time is up. After this, 30 seconds of grace time is given to the speaker after which the speaker must stop, the same follows for table topic section which is of 2 minutes.

In the end, I would be presenting the Timer’s report and inform whether they were over the time limit or not. Best of luck to the all speakers.

Wishing everyone a good luck, Participate actively, adhere to timelines and Enjoy the session.
Over to you TMOD Shruti.

PS: Will always start my speech with a question from the past.

Kafan

Summary: Kafan by Munshi premchand, is yet another story which makes you sad. One will feel wretch for the people in this story. A must read.

The story is about a father and his son. They are from the poor class of society. They are also addicted to consuming alcohol, smoking and drugs. As story proceeds, we come to know they are looking for work, however people know they are addictive to smoking, deinking, also they are very lazy.

The sons wife is pregnant, but they don't have money to pay to maid. She is in tremendous pain, the father question son, why the hell u married, The son replies, u also got married.

In a scene, they rob stuff, justifying it as protecting the dharma of the owner as dog has sniffed the rope. As soon as they sell the robbed stuff, they go to nearest Tadi shop to drink and eat gram  mattar. However, they had bigger plans to eat kabab and kaleji, and drink orange flavoured costly drink.

The pregnant wife hadn't eaten anything for days, she is in tremendous pain. The father and son are praying for her death. If child gets born, they hope they may get some money from people around. The wife is no use to them. The son is not ready to go near his wife as she is in tremendous pain, he can't see her in pain. They chit chat useless stuff about things that the father eat once, meanwhile the wife keeps on shouting in agony. The son doesn't bother to go near her.

Next morning, the pregnant women dies with her child still in womb. They as soon as come to know, they start sobbing. The go and beg for money all round the village, for her dead ceremony they also get some wood to burn the dead bodies. Now, only shroud(kafan) is remaining to buy, they have collected 5 rupees already. 

The price of kafan is 1.02rs for 1 yard. They need 3 yard. They decline considering it as very costly. They argue between themselves as she use to wear torn clothes when alive, now when she is dead what is the point of having this costly kafan(shroud) on her body. That also will be burned with her.

They roam for some while till it's evening, and then they reaches wine shop. Their they buy the expensive orange wine, and then kaleji with the money collected for her death ceremony. Now they discuss, no point in buying shroud and also now we already spent that money. Rich people can buy those stuffs, n do cremations ritual. While drunk, the son questions his father “when we die, will also go their in sky, and there she will ask why I was not given shroud, what will i answer”. His father convinces him that she will get kafan, the dead body when will start to decay, this people who gave us money today, they will pay for her shroud. Wait, I will bring something more to eat, your favorite kaleji. Meanwhile, the father notices a man looking at them. He asks him to join. He also says to him, bless my daughter-in-law as it’s her earning what we are eating now.

--It just so painful, so see how cruel this father and son are. No love for a human being that also one who is pregnant.

--Addiction is worst, they only want to eat and drink, nothing else matter to them.

New beginning

It had been an era now!!

I was suppose to close the gap between me and my dream, It never happened . We got drifted way like a person sinking in a pool. Don't know why and how. Just going in and in. I have all the capabilites, to make it true. Their is no fear, all resources are with me. Just stepping up and achieving it. It is my dream, still i am not on it.

I need mentoring, Nope i need dedication and full focus on that one thing that's it. Let the world go hay why. I want to just do this one thing only.