Club No. 858173

Division C, District 82

Mission of

Toastmasters To provide a mutually

supportive and positive

learning environment

in which every individ-

ual

member has the

opportunity

to develop oral

communication

and leadership skills,

which in turn foster

self-confidence

Images APRIL 2010

So, the long wait is finally over!

Yes, this issue of Images did spend three months in the making and the result is still not a thousand

page epic on the heroics of Sachin Tendulkar.

A lot of important events occurred in these three months, and the most important one of those was defi-

nitely the double ton scored in an one day international cricket match by a little man known as Sachin

Ramesh Tendulkar. Other notable achievements during the course of the three months included the NSE

rising above the 5,000 mark and both Ritu Arora and Nikhil Sheth making it to both the District level

International Speech and Table Topics contests. The bottom line is that if you had invested into the right

stocks you could have made a fortune and if JPKU Toastmasters was listed on the stock exchange, it

would have ―Buy‖ written all over it!

The issue includes, besides other things, an overview of the relevant area level and division level con-

tests, introductions of two members, an IITian‘s ramblings about his skepticism, and the opinion of

members on how to make the meetings more interesting.

So sit back, relax and enjoy the experience. Happy reading!

The Editor’s Note

Newsletter of the JPKU Toastmasters Club, New Delhi

Vol. 3, Issue 2; April 2010

April 2010 2 CONTENTS

Opening Note Page 3

The president speaks about the months that passed by.

—Manoj Kumar

Area C1 contest Page 4

Time to test whatever the club has taught its members. Read

about how the glory was upheld. —Nikhil Sheth

Division C & Division I Contests Page 5

Find out why JPKU totally rocks! -Nikhil Sheth

Know Thy Toastmaster Page 7

Let’s get up close and personal with our very own Vanshul

Know Thy Toastmaster Page 8

Let’s try to get up close and personal with our District

Governor.

Hyde Park Page 9

A glimpse at what our toastmasters would tweak

about our meetings structure

- Nikhil Sheth, Ritu Arora,

Sangeeta Malik & Tejesh Kinariwala

My experiments with skepticism Page 6

A skeptical IITian realizes the importance of the Toastmasters

Club — Nishant Ranka

Best of the months Page 10

Find out our star performers week by week

Club Contact Details Page 11

Acknowledgments Page 12

April 2010 3 OPENING NOTE The President Speaks

Fabulous February, Marvelous March and Amazing April – these three months provided us with an open

storyboard and our enthusiastic members didn‘t leave any stone unturned to write some unforgettable sto-

ries.

Gearing-up for the International Speech and Table-Topics Contest, the month of February witnessed some

magnificent speeches from fellow Toastmasters. Crowning Ritu, Devesh and Aniket, the Club-contest

paved way for yet another exciting event – the Area Contest.

Held at Vivekananda Vihar on 21st March and hosted by JPKU Toastmasters Club, the Area contest saw

best of Area C1 Toastmasters marching towards excellence. The fully occupied hall was perhaps the best

place to be in Delhi. Thrilling performances raised the temperature further and as expected, our Champion

Toastmaster – Ritu Arora came out with flying colors securing her place at the Division Contest. Besides

this, our club received accolades from all the guests/Toastmasters and an appreciation note from the Area

Governor for hosting such a wonderful event. A big ‗Thank You‘ to all of you for making the Area Contest

a great hit!

Carrying on with the success at Area Contest, Ritu conquered the Division Contest and made JPKU Toast-

masters proud once again! On the other hand, our VP Membership – Nikhil Sheth followed the path and

won the Division I Contest! Wish both of you every success at Ovation 2010!

Bidding adieu to the last quarter, let‘s welcome the mighty May and write some unforgettable stories that

we all cherish forever! The best part – Storyboard at Toastmasters is always open and welcoming!!

Regards,

Manoj

4 Area C1 Contests April 2010

On a sunny Sunday afternoon on the 21st day of March in the year 2010,

Toastmasters from all across Area C-1, comprising nearly all the Toast-

masters clubs in New Delhi, congregated at the JPKU Toastmasters

Club‘s venue for what was sure to be one impressive contest, with the

best speakers from all clubs vying for the ultimate prize!

Representing our club in the International Speech contest were Devesh

Trivedi and Aniket Bose and in the Table Topics contest, Ritu Arora and

Aniket Bose.

A lot of preparation went in for the day and the Contest master - Vinay

Jain, Chief Judge - Paul Homes, and the hosts from JPKU including

Manoj, Malkiat, Nikhil and other members of the club, as well as mem-

bers of other clubs ensured a flawless event. The audience of over 40

Toastmasters from across the National Capital Region was treated to spell

-binding speeches and great, imaginative table topics by the contestants.

The Judges surely must have had a hard time discerning the best out of

the best!

In the end, the winners were declared to jubilations and applause.

The results were as follows:

International Speech Contest:

Winner: Ritu Arora (New Delhi Toastmasters)

First Runner-up: Ashok Ashta (New Delhi Toastmasters)

Second Runner-up: Sugandha Tiwari (GenOrators)

By Nikhil Sheth

Table Topics Contest:

Winner: Ritu Arora (JPKU Toastmasters)

First Runner-up: Abhinav Dutt (South Delhi Toastmasters)

Second Runner-up: Aniket Bose (JPKU Toastmasters)

Congratulations to all the contestants for an amazing perform-

ance! The first and second place winners go on to represent

Area C1 in the division C competition on Sat 3rd April 2010.

5 Division C & Division I Contests April 2010

Toastmasters International‘s District 82 Division C comprises over 30

clubs located in New Delhi, NOIDA, Punjab and adjoining areas. On Sat-

urday, April 3rd, 2010, representatives from almost all Division C clubs

gathered at the auditorium of APIM in New Delhi and where the best

speakers from not just across Division C, but also the best in the District

were contesting, amongst whom was JPKU's own Ritu Arora, participat-

ing in both the International Speech and the Table Topics contests.

It was a fabulous event, with the hosts putting up a grand stage for the

contests. The attendees were treated to great speeches during the day,

which was topped up with the opportunity to network with toastmasters

from other clubs and make new friends.

After the contests and ceremonies came the much-awaited results, and

there were no surprises when Dr. Ritu Arora won both the contests! Dr.

Ritu will now represent Division C at the District 82 International Speech

and Table Topics contest scheduled to be held at Chennai on May 23rd,

2010. Here's wishing her all the best!

By Nikhil Sheth

Right after the Div C contest, the Division I contest was held on Sunday,

April 4th, 2010 hosted by TCS Maitree Gurgaon Toastmasters club. Even

in this contest, JPKU had a foot-print: our VP Membership, Nikhil Sheth,

was representing the TCS Maitree club in both the International Speech

and Table Topics contests. Even this contest was a delectable feast of

speeches which was followed by delectable food as well. After a harrow-

ing (for contestants) as well as entertaining (for the audience) wait, the re-

sults were announced and they were as follows:

International Speech Contest Winner: Nikhil Seth (TCS Maitree Gurgaon , Area I-1)

1st Runners up: Amanpreet Singh Marwaha (Fluorators , Area I-1)

2nd Runners up: Saborna Kumar De (Toastmasters Commune Burdwan

Club, Area I-5)

Table Topics Contest Winner: Mandeep Bagchi (SKIT, Jaipur, Area I-3)

1st Runners up: Nikhil Seth (TCS Maitree Gurgaon , Area I-1)

2nd Runners up: Danish Banerjee (BE@T, Area I -2)

Good news for JPKU again! Nikhil won the International Speech Contest

and was adjudged runners-up in the Table Topics one.

So it will not just be Ritu from the JPKU Toastmasters club contesting at

the District 82 International Speech and Table Topics on May 23rd in

Chennai, Nikhil will also be there representing Division I.

Division C Contest Division I Contest

April 2010 My experiments with skepticism 6

By Nishant Ranka

The sudden insurgence of IITians (read ‘geeks’) from across the street into JPKU TMC has had a very noticeable change in

the environment of the club. But surprisingly not all of them like to only talk about technology and its impact on human

loneliness. This future consultant, despite being the skeptic he claims to be, decided to attend one Toastmasters meeting

and became a member for life. Here’s his story...

I am one of those skeptical guys who do not believe in anything at the first sight. It was

probably in August of 2009 when Ayush, my hostel-mate, told me about the Toastmasters

Club and my first reaction went something like ―not for me‖. At that time I had already

spoken a few times in front of a large audience during seminars and I felt that it had given

me sufficient public speaking experience. A couple of months later, two more friends:

Aniket and Tejesh joined the club, but I still refused to budge from my opinion about the

club.

The year 2009 was quite hectic due to job placements and the rest, but after I got placed in

a consulting firm and the time-crunch reduced, I thought of giving the Toastmasters club a

try. Finally, after much persuasion by Tejesh and Aniket I went to my first Toastmasters

meeting as a guest. I don‘t know whether it was JPKU Toastmasters Club‘s charisma in

particular or whether it is common across all Toastmasters Club, but my first meeting just

blew me away. I immediately realized that this was indeed the place for me.

The experience so far has been no less than amazing! If there is something which I like

about the club most, apart from the positive environment it provides, is feedback! Evalua-

tions by an assigned evaluator as well as the little chits which go around in the meetings

are the best way of judging how well did one speak and the aspects one needs to improve

upon.

Initially I did not take the specifications given in the module too seriously, but right after

my first two speeches I realized that it was very difficult for me to focus on all parts of

public speaking at once. The CC manual provided me the framework to plan my speech

and as a result I started focusing on one thing at a time, starting from the structure of my

speech to giving examples to using gestures to modulating my voice. Even today when I

focus on modulating my voice my movement on stage becomes random but it has im-

proved since the time when I used to pace up and down the stage 50 times during my

speech!

Once I got to know about Toastmasters, it felt like everyone I

talked to knew about it. My sister who is living in Singapore

called me up to ask if she should join Toastmasters there; my

friend living in Pune said that his institute has recommended

him to join the Toastmasters and so on. Infact, after I published

some of my speeches in a blog several people became curious

about Toastmasters. I am currently heading an organization in my institute and I really felt that Toast-

masters is necessary for people who will lead the organization once I have graduated, and hence I am

planning to bring them as guests. Hopefully they too will enjoy the experience and become members.

JPKU Toastmasters club has completely changed the world for me. It has given me a space of my

own and further it has given me the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone, my institute and

meet new people and listen to their stories. In its own special way, the JPKU Toastmasters club has

made the world a touch brighter for me.

You can read more about Nishant on his blog - www.nishantranka.blogspot.com

April 2010 KNOW THY TOASTMASTER 7

This newest member of the JPKU Toastmasters club blew everyone away with his very first prepared speech, aptly titled “The ice-breaker”. When he narrated his childhood experiences in third person, everyone listening became sure that they had just witnessed the birth of an extraordinary public speaker. A few speeches down the line, the view of the audience is still the same, but they barely know this Toastmaster up close. Here’s our attempt to break the ice on that front...

We know very little about this new member. We know what he used to

do as a kid from his Ice-breaker, but what is Vanshul up to these days?

Currently I am interning as an engineer trainee at an MNC as part of my

college curriculum. I am majoring in the electronics and telecom discipline

which aims to develop pragmatic applications for various equipments rang-

ing from complex RADAR and networking devices to simple everyday ap-

pliances such as a microwave-oven.

What or who led you to the JPKU Toastmasters club? What impres-

sion, if any, did you have of the club before you attended your first

meeting? Has it changed over time?

I once used to attend gavel club meetings back in school and was really pet-

rified by public speaking. I eventually stopped attending the meetings after

giving my ice-breaker. After my third year in college, I heard about Toast-

masters and realized that life does not always give you second chances, so I

pounced on the opportunity and here I am!

The philosophy of Toastmasters really stimulates me. It‘s not every day that

you come across a platform where one can freely coin their thoughts and

express them in their own indigenous way. This philosophy is the soul of

the Toastmasters program and it will always be, which will help people be-

come more competent and comfortable in front of an audience.

What is the role and significance of Toast-

masters in your life?

I have an expressive personality and often like

to share my ideas and philosophies with others.

Toastmasters will really help me in building the

confidence to face a larger audience and also in

developing key skills that one needs to capture

the attention of the listeners. Moreover, it is a

great place to meet an assortment of people

Where do you see yourself one year from now - professionally and as a Toastmaster

(although both might be highly correlated)?

The future is always unpredictable but nevertheless I see myself competing in various

Toastmaster competitions. It will be a great opportunity to learn from the great masters

like Peter Coors of Coors Brewing Company or even Tom Peters, management expert and

author. Their speeches have always been the cynosure of various international competi-

tions.

Do you think that public speaking training should be made compulsory in all schools

and colleges?

Yes absolutely! Students should be given a platform to develop them-

selves irrespective of the costs involved. This is as important as studies

or sports or even both combined. Public speaking will help greatly in

their career. They will be able to tackle all opposition and ride their way

to success!

April 2010 KNOW THY TOASTMASTER 8

Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji was fondly referred to as the Grand Old Man of India. We never got a chance to interview or meet him, but nevertheless we shall be compensating for it by (re?) introducing the Grand, but not so Old man of JPKU Toastmasters Club. Mr. Deepak Menon is the District Governor of District 82 and is one of the founders of the JPKU Toastmasters club. Let’s get to know him better.

We all know Deepak Menon, the Toastmaster and the Chartered Ac-

countant. What else are you passionate about? What keeps you busy in

the time you get, if any, after playing these two roles?

Toastmasters does take up a lot of my time and its rare that I am able to find

time for anything else! What I really enjoy is reading. I read anything and

everything, though I have a strong preference for fiction (and that is no fic-

tion!).

You've been a Toastmaster for a long time. Do you still remember your

first speech? What was it about?

The first speech as a Toastmaster is always the Ice-breaker speech and I cer-

tainly remember that speech as if I delivered it yesterday! It was my life

story narrated as a regular Bollywood potboiler! And I am not going to re-

veal any more of it!

When you look back and remember yourself before joining Toastmas-

ters and compare that Deepak Menon to the Deepak Menon today,

what do you think has changed the most?

I think I have become more confident and assertive compared to what I was.

But there are many more things that have changed about me. I am a whole

new person thanks to Toastmasters and some special mentors and friends

who helped in that transition!

Every organization should evolve over time.

Continuous improvement is essential for the

survival of any entity. How has Toastmasters

evolved over the duration of your allegiance?

Where do you see the maximum scope of im-

provement in the organization?

Toastmasters International has evolved signifi-

cantly in the last eight years since I have been a

member. The best thing that happened is

being implemented from 1 July 2010 when the entire Toastmasters world is being divided

into regions giving Toastmasters across the globe an equal representation on the Board of

TI. That has made Toastmasters truly international! While TI recognizes and accepts that

Asia is the fastest growing market for the movement, we do need to have better and less

expensive access to the manuals and materials that we need to purchase from TI.

What would be the one tip you will give every Toastmaster to help them get the best

out of this experience?

In the words of DTM Helen Blanchard, the first woman President of Toastmasters Inter-

national, "If you get out of Toastmasters everything that you can get out of Toastmas-

ters, you will never get out of Toastmasters." The best way to gain from the Toastmasters

experience is to be ready and willing to attend every meeting and ac-

tively participate in every role that the club offers. Toastmasters is a life-

changing experience provide you are willing to change!

April 2010 THE HYDE PARK 9

The Hyde Park in London is famous for its Speakers’ Corner, which allows anyone and everyone to speak on a topic for as long as they can unless the police finds it offensive, and the Hyde Park police has had a history of being of-fended very very rarely even on sensitive issues. As a salutation to the freedom of expression, we bring Hyde Park from London to our newsletter, and invite everyone to publish their comments on a certain topic, which for this month is: “How would you tweak the Toastmasters meeting structure to make it more interesting?”

Introduce a new supplementary evaluator named "trait

watcher". S/he would be responsible for observing a par-

ticular trait throughout the meeting, as decided by her/him

and revealed to the members during the role introduction,

much like the Ah-counter keeps track of the various ahs,

fillers and pauses during the meeting. Some examples of

traits could be high points of various speeches, stage us-

ages, number of times people clapped in a meeting, etc.

TEJESH KINARIWALA

1. Record a speech and play it back during the meeting, to let

the speaker himself/herself evaluate it.

2. Introduce instant evaluations for table topics - As soon as

the TT speaker finishes, get a member to evaluate him/her.

This will enable members to give feedback on the go.

3. Play TED talks and other inspiring speeches at regular club

meetings.

4. Organize theme meetings where people are encouraged to

dress up according to the theme of the day.

Ritu arora

1. Introduce a new role: Fact Master to present the

news or fact of the week

2. Celebrate the birthday of members who had theirs in

the preceding week

Nikhil sheth

Include an idiom, a proverb or a moti-

vational quote in every meeting. Over

time this will enrich the language of all

members.

SANGEETA MALIK

April 2010 BEST OF THE MONTHS 10

Here come

the

results!!!

6th Feb: Aniket Bose 20th Feb: Aniket Bose 27th Feb: Nikhil Sheth 6th Mar: Ritu Arora 27th Mar: Nishant Ranka 10th Apr: Aneesh Jain 17th Apr: Nishant Ranka 24th Apr: Vanshul Arora 6th Feb: Ritu Arora

20th Feb: Ritu Arora 27th Feb: Nikhil Sheth 6th Mar: Ritu Arora & Manoj 27th Mar: Paul Holmes 10th Apr: Tejesh Kinariwala 17th Apr: Ritu Arora 24th Apr: Ritu Arora

6th Feb: Deepak Menon 20th Feb: Ritu Arora & Aniket Bose 27th Feb: Ritu Arora 6th Mar: Ritu Arora & Manoj 27th Mar: Ritu Arora 10th Apr: Neeraj 17th Apr: Ritu Arora 24th Apr: Ritu Arora

April 2010 CLUB CONTACT DETAILS 11

Our Executive Committee

Manoj Kumar: President

manoj.k8@gmail.com

Malkiat Bindra: Vice President, Education

malkiat07@gmail.com

Nikhil Sheth: Vice President, Membership

nikhil.js@gmail.com

Aniket Bose: Vice President, Public Relations

aniket.bose@gmail.com

Chandni Kapur: Secretary

chandni20002000@gmail.com

Neha Kapoor: Treasurer

nh_kapoor882000@yahoo.com

Aneesh Jain: Sergeant-at-arms

aneeshjain@gmail.com

Venue of Meetings

Vivekananda Vihar, Opposite J.P., Kapur & Uberai, Chartered

Accountants, LGF C-4/5 Safdarjung Development Area,

New Delhi—110016.

Time of Meetings

Every Saturday, 12:30 p.m.

Whom to Contact

For all membership and PR queries, please contact:

Nikhil Sheth (VP, Membership): +91-991-147-9900; nikhil.js@gmail.com

Aneesh Jain (Sergeant-at-arms): +91-997-111-9361 ; aneeshjain@gmail.com

April 2010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 12

Club No. 858173

Division C, District 82

Always Ahead…!

Copyright JPKU Toastmasters Club, 2010

No part of this newsletter maybe printed or reproduced

without intimating the JPKU Toastmasters Club. All enquiries

and requests should be directed to the club‘s public relations

committee at jpkunews@gmail.com.

I would like to extend my heartiest gratitude to everyone who

contributed to the newsletter, especially for the overwhelming

response to ―The Hyde Park‖, making the section a grand suc-

cess. Thanks also to Malkiat and Manoj for their unending sup-

port and constant nagging and to Aniket for so painstakingly de-

signing the template which I have so conveniently used here :)

No trees were cut during the publishing of this newsletter, but if

any emotions have been hurt, my sincerest apologies for the

same!

Images is published on the last day of the month. All contribu-tors are requested to send in their entries to aneesh-jain@gmail.com by the 25th of the month.

Important Links: JPKU Toastmasters: http://jpkutoastmasters.bravehost.com Division C members: d82Cmembers@googlegroups.com District 82: http://www.t82.org/