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

FEBRUARY 2011

There I thought, that I had my share of producing the newsletter but circumstances have prevailed yet again and I have been given another responsibility of bringing another colourful issue of the newsletter. The newsletter is a great platform for those who want to pen down their thoughts even though they are not professional writers. In this issue, Toastmaster Vikas shares his story, Toastmaster Akhil gathers his thoughts on Patience, Toastmaster Goonjan Mall takes his call on love and Toastmaster Sanchit Aggarwal shares his experience of Valentine Mas-querade Party he attended with other toastmasters of the club. I hope you will have great time reading it. Akhil Sood VP (Edu) - JPKU TM

The Editor’s Note

Newsletter of the JPKU Toastmasters Club, New Delhi

Vol. 5, Issue 2; February 2011 Images

February 2011 2 CONTENTS PRESIDENT SPEAKS Page 3

President Vikas Kumar shares his thoughts for the club

— Vikas Kumar

Valentine Masquerade Page 7

An experience of a big toastmasters gathering

- Sanchit Aggarwal

My Story Page 6

The big question is “What is your story?”

Know Thy Toastmaster Page 8

Let’s get close and personal with our very own toastmasters.

Pranshu Arora

Best of the Month Page 10

Find out our star performers week by week.

Club Contact Details Page 11

Acknowledgments Page 12

Patience Page 4

With contests just gone by, a perfect recipe to achieve one’s

true potential - Akhil Sood

JPKU Toastmasters Club

International Speech and Table Topics

Contest Page 9

Love Is In The Air Page 5

A take on Valentines week

- Goonjan Mall

3 PRESIDENT SPEAKS February 2011

Competition is part and parcel of our life and we are competing at various platforms through-out our life. Toastmaster also has it’s share of competitions. In every meeting, we try to better ourselves and compete with other toastmaster in prepared speeches, evaluations and im-promptu table topics sections. Besides this every meeting dosage of competitions, we also have the big bang - Speech Competitions. This week, we witnessed club members trying to outperform against each other in Interna-tional Speech Competition and Table Topics Competition. I would like to congratulate Sanchit Aggarwal and Nitya Ranjan for winning the International Speech and Table Topics Contest re-spectively, Akhil Sood was first runners up in both the contests and Roberto Germani was sec-ond runners up in Table Topics Contest. First two award winners of each contest will repre-sent JPKU Toastmasters Club in the upcoming Area C2 level contest where they shall com-pete with toastmasters of other club of South Delhi area. Also, This month we tried a couple of new things in our meetings to make them more inter-esting. These were special movie and book review sections which helped members appreciate the usage of communication for something that they are passionate about. With all the energy our young members bring in I assure you that learning and fun will grow further. Carpe Diem. Thank you. Vikas Kumar President—JPKU Toastmasters Club

4

I am very new to a rather unknown

concept of a thought magnet but i am

quite surprised to see how it works.

The moment you get some free time at

your mercy, your thoughts start taking

a shape. There is nothing unknown

about this, but the peculiar thing is that

the thoughts zero down in the same

zone every-time. That’s were the mag-

net comes into the picture.

The things you see and perceive remain forever active and ready for any refer-

ence in the subconscious. I have always been alarmed at the ever increasing

rate of breakups, divorces, involving some of my best friends, the people i

have lived most of my life with and yet when i start comparing this efferves-

cent generation with the one that preceded us, the number diminishes. The

magnet has often attracted my thoughts and they have obliged by wandering

in the same direction, What is the attribute that we are lacking in our genera-

tion and our parents perfected in? They possibly haven’t seen and explored the

world as we are destined to but yet there was something that they could hold

on to their partners and knit a merry relationship.

I am aware that none of us graduate with the idea of learning how to get easy

divorces and break up but somehow we do manage to excel in it. The word is

patience. We lack it. Blame it on the young boiling blood or the social stigma

we grew in but we are just a bunch of irritated people, who have been angry

at reality shows and what not and just wait for a golden opportunity to present

and we let go all our frustration, not wondering , what impact is going to have

on the person or the relationship.

Just take a minute out of your lives and think and ponder before you react to

something and do an ever-challenging act of courageousness. Lets make a

pledge and start growing some patience within us. Its not hard to develop it,

there are ample ways but the foremost thing is that you need to be willing to

adapt and initiate a change. Lets change our procrastination into a more posi-

tive patience.

Akhil Sood

February 2011 PATIENCE

5 Love is in the Air

When you are in love, you get butterflies

in your stomach. Things start to look dif-

ferent. You change. Is all this true? Proba-

bly!

Come February, all that’s there in your

mind is – Valentine Day.

Everyone has their own reasons.

For those who are in love – you have to think about your plans for the val-

entine week. And you are worried about the gifts you have to get. Aren’t

you? I am!

For those who are not yet in love – you are probably waiting for the per-

fect one. You are looking out for Mr. Cupid to fire his love arrow right

through your heart.

And finally, for those of you who are still waiting for an answer, valentine

is the perfect time to propose. Just imagine – you down on one knee, a

red rose and a box of chocolates. And… the answer is yes! Wouldn’t that

be the best moment of your life!!!

Well, as they say, being in love is the best feeling in the world. Go on. Ex-

perience it!

“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around

Love is in the air, every sight and every sound

And I don't know if I’m being foolish, don't know if I’m being wise

But is something that I must believe in

And it's there when I look in your eyes”

- Paul Young

Goonjan Mall

February 2011

6 My Story

We all are part of a story

We all are the lead in a tale

And if we don’t do what we are told

We all are bound to fail

Its high time we took control of our story

And started living life with a well deserved Glory

Everyone has some story to tell, actually lots

of stories to tell. But when one faces the

question- ―What is your story?‖ At first al-

most all blank out and then they start what

has been going through our heads these days.

The first few lines in the answer to this ques-

tion are very important because it gives a

clear view of the present mental state of the person. It clearly stats the most

important idea going through the mind of the speaker these days.

When this question was posed to me by one of the board members of my or-

ganization, my reaction to speak about my background. To this answer, he

commented that the reason I am still giving my background to this question is

because I am still stuck with my background. I am too proud of the same and

don’t want to move ahead from that glorious past.

It indeed was an eye opener and later when I thought about my story, there was

no clear answer. There were lots of hazy pictures but no clear indication of the

path ahead. Following lines clearly describe my story these days:

I strove to leave my footprints in all the paths I had

trodden

Only to realise that it is the path that had left its foot-

print on me.

I took for granted my shadow that I had dragged along

with me all this while

Only to discover a trembling self find solace in the shad-

ows that I had given birth to.

I searched for a glimpse of me in the image in the mirror

Only to find it peering back at me with unrecognizing

eyes, in a quest for itself.

I watched in awe the shadows dancing to the tune of its fire

Only to wonder if the origin of light is darkness itself.

I wanted to leave my footprints in all the paths trodden

But sometimes it's beautiful to let the path leave it's footprints on my heart

Never to be washed away by the waves of time.

What is your story??

Vikas Kumar

February 2011

7 Valentine Masquerade

I am relatively a new member of Toastmasters Club.

To me Toastmasters club means ―A place to provide a

mutually supportive and positive learning environment

in which every individual member has the opportunity

to develop oral communication and leadership skills,

which in turn foster self-confidence and personal

growth‖, (I am not being a nerd, I am just the Sergeant

at Arms of JPKU club).

Till 20th February, the only social gathering I had attended was OTP – Officers Training

Program. To be honest, till I got the invitation email of Valentines masquerade party by

TMWD, I didn’t even know that Toastmaster clubs can host parties. But it was only after

some time, I got know that this was one of the biggest parties ever hosted by any Toast-

masters’ club.

I was at the party very well on time, and by ―very well on time‖ I mean I was only half an

hour late, which is frankly very good by Indian standard, because it was raining heavily

and it was not easy to reach on time. But to my surprise, most of the people were already

there. I guess the first rule of Toastmasters is very well ingrained into all of us, ―To be

punctual‖.

The party was a delight right from the start. A great venue was selected, both in terms of

approachability and space. As I entered, the first thing that was offered to me was a mas-

querade mask, which was again one of a kind. The food, the ambience and the decora-

tions were simply brilliant.

The ceremony was initiated by Mr. Harish Gupta, Sergeant at Arms of TMWD club. It

was then taken over by Arpita and Rajan, who were the hosts of the party. I must admit

that no one could have done this job better than both of them. The energy they demon-

strated was just mind blowing.

The highlights of the party were the perform-

ances by Tatva Band, Gunjan and Swati Jain. I

don’t think that there is any doubt about that. Mr

and Madam Toastmaster was icing on the cake.

Really nice performances by the people of all age

groups. I guess that’s the beauty of Toastmasters

club; people are not distinguished from others be-

cause of their age or experience; they are re-

spected for their desire to learn and their desire to

improve themselves.

In the end, I must say that Arpita, Rajan, Gunjan, Harish ji and Swati Katariya did an ex-

cellent job at organising, marketing and hosting one of the best parties I ever attended,

and I hope to see more events and parties coming from TMWD, because they simply

ROCKED this one!

Cheers!

Sanchit Aggarwal

February 2011

February 2011 KNOW THY TOASTMASTER 8

Pranshu Arora is a new member of the club from Faridabad. He is pursuing his Engineering from local engg col-

lege. Besides studies, he is very passionate about Guitar and speaking. He is a professional teacher for Guitar and to

take care of his other passion speaking, he joined toastmaster.

Q1: How did you come to know about toastmasters and how

have been your experience till now?

I came to know about toastmaster from my PDP trainer in my col-

lege, her name is Mrs. Garima Arora. She told me that if you really

want to improve your skills you should join this club. Now I can feel

that she was evincing in her words. My experience about toastmaster

is really very positive as this is the platform which can lead my life to

live my dreams. Really want to thank Vikas and Akhil was making me

realize what is toastmaster.

Q2: What is Pranshu Passionate about?

I am Passionate about lots of things in life .My life is full of adven-

ture I love doing things that make me energetic and crazy my life is

towards marketing as this is the only field where I can meet new peo-

ple every day and it’s not a static job. I am also passionate about mak-

ing presentation just because it’s an easy way to sell my ideas. And

how can I forget MUSIC IS MY LIFE.

Q3: You mentioned about your love for guitar in your ice -

breaker speech. Can you tell something more about it?

Two years back I start learning guitar, while I was learning I came to

know that music is path to express you and my love for music is just

to express myself. I don’t learn

just playing guitar I love to make

my original compositions. And

know I have even become a mu-

sic teacher now and my dream

is not ending end unless l open a

music school where every child

is free to express his thoughts

through music.

Q4: What are the goals you

have set for yourself vis - a -

vis toastmasters

I have just one goal set in my mind that I want to become the best speaker in our

club.

Q5: Any suggestions for the Toastmaster meeting in general and for fellow

toastmasters of the club?

You guys are great as its such a spectacular way of learning new things

in life. No suggestion because everything is perfect over the club the

member, evaluation, methodology, everything is perfect.

9

JPKU—International Speech & Table Topics Contest (Feb 26, 2011)

February 2011 CONTEST TIME

International Speech

Contest Table Topics Contest

NITYA

RANJAN

ROBERTO

GERMANI

AKHIL

SOOD

SANCHIT

AGGARWAL

AKHIL

SOOD

February 2011 BEST OF THE MONTH 10

Here come

the

results!!!

5th February: Rahul Soni 12th February: Sanchit Aggarwal 19th February: Rahul Soni

5th February: Shraddha Nakra 12th February: Akhil Sood 19th February: Akhil Sood

5th February: Goonjan Mall 12th February: Nishant 19th February: Pranshu Arora

Here come

the

results!!!

February 2011 CLUB CONTACT DETAILS 11

Our Executive Committee

Vikas Kumar: President

vikask.malik@gmail.com

Akhil Sood: Vice President, Education

skhil.aood@gmail.com

Shraddha Nakra: Vice President, Membership

Shraddha.nakra@gmail.com

Sameep Taneja Secretary

sameeptaneja@gmail.com

Vinay Jain: Treasurer

toastmaster.vinay@gmail.com

Sanchit Aggarwal: Sergeant-at-arms

sanchit31@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 queries, please contact:

Vikas Kumar: +91 9560690622 :;vikask.malik@gmail.com

Akhil Sood: +91 9810820409; skhil.aood@gmail.com

Shraddha Nakra: +91 9899010 702 shraddha.nakra@gmail.com

Sanchit Aggarwal +91 9810906089; sanchit31@gmail.com

Sameep Taneja: +91 9810053909; sameeptaneja@gmail.com

February 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 12

Club No. 858173

Division C, District 82

Always Ahead…!

Copyright JPKU Toastmasters Club, 2011

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 jpkutm@gmail.com.

To be honest, I am doing this on behalf of Vikas, since he is the

one who had worked over time to make this issue possible and

not derail the train of newsletters yet again. I would like to ex-

tend my gratitude to everyone who contributed to the newsletter.

Thanks to Vikas and Sanchit for their support. Finally, I would

like to specially mention the names of Pranshu, Goonjan for their

prompt contributions.

Images is published on the last day of the month. All contribu-tors are requested to send in their entries to jpkutm@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/