Let’s Expand Our Horizon

(Speech )

There was a tennis coach in my school. An amazing tennis player, his name was Lovligen. One fine day he sprang a surprise on all of us. An article on him along with his photograph appeared in all the leading dailies. This tennis coach had found a formula concerning planetary motion. There was also a session in which he explained the students his findings. I couldn’t understand anything he told. I asked my physics teacher what it was all about and her face went red. Then for sure I knew the findings were complex. This tennis coach decided to expand his horizon beyond his constrained job path and in the process contributed to the complex field of physics.

Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests, good evening…
Most of us stop learning after we exit out of college. For us the only focus would be that small segment in which we got our job. The rest of the fields will be beckoning us, our aptitude will want us to go and explore that. But still we are tied; tied by our own reasons. The reasons are aplenty; the major one being time and the consequent worry of not meeting the current job and family expectations. Sir John Lubbock a banker, politician, naturalist and an archaeologist said “In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.” Well, of course time flies is a bad news but the good news is you are the pilot.
The second reason which prompts the people to think in the negative is a thought like “If I mange to have more time, then I should spent more time with my friends, family and for leisure activities” .There isn't any need to be sticking around with them all the time to gain their love. Do we love our parents because they are with us all the 24 hours? We should think and do things useful for the advancement for the humanity and make the near and dear ones of us proud. And for the leisure activities they surely will rejuvenate us .But there is no point in continuous fuelling of a car which is never driven.
The third reason which may hold us back is the belief that knowing outside the work profile will never help me us in our career. But, we could always associate whatever things we have learnt to our work. Multidisciplinary areas are the need for the hour. Even the areas of study which we think are totally unrelated may find extraordinary utility in our domain .Those bank officials who studied computer during the nineties are the major officials in the software giants which are offering banking solutions.

After working for several years in the computer field a question struck me -“Do I know any other work if I lose this job”? The answer ‘NO’ was powerful enough to send a shivering down my spine. In that scenario I could imagine myself in a rehabilitation camp with several other techies where other jobs like rubber tapping, hair dressing, are taught. I was certain my worries were not unfound. There were instances in history where an entire class of workers was eliminated. The recent example is the class of workers called typewriters which have become a rarity these days. The cycle of recession that circles over our head can add to this fear. Even if we don’t lose our job we can engage in dual career which has become very popular in the west. The versatile Jennifer Lopez says “On my dual careers in music and film, I don’t feel frightened; I feel challenged.” She was quite successful in her music career but she challenged herself to the new task and discovered herself completely. We may also be challenged by the impending retirement. Once people retire they feel as if they have shed their wings. All of sudden we feel worthless and nothing to do. Why do politicians live longer and healthier? They are always fully engaged. We must also discover the dreams in us and give wings to them; and on retirement we will never find us wingless.But more than the symptoms and signposts that looks threatening isn't there a call from inside for all of us to know and learn about things we never came across. There is a whole lot of knowledge in this world and we don’t even bother to turn our head towards it. This ignorance is cancerous and in the process will engulf us and thwart our learning capabilities. I believe the childhood days were the best for many of us because each day we were able to know about a new thing in this world. And by this knowing a world of opportunities is opened for our progress. But now we learn nothing new apart from our work, we remain monomaniacs and our life has turned monotonous. Learning and expanding our horizon gives us that impetus to unearth a whole lot of possibilities and to be a complete human being.

Michelangelo a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a poet, and an engineer declared at the age of 80’s “I am still learning”.The dire need is staring in front us. And we will decide whether we will be able to cope to the challenges and become successful beings. The steps are to find our aptitudes, find what we can do for that and finally doing it. I went through the introspective approach to recognize my aptitude and it was human behaviour that attracted my interest. As the second step I found what all I could do and decided to get a masters' degree in psychology. I enrolled for the M.Sc in Applied psychology from Bharathiyar university in correspondence mode. Now I have completed this 2 year course and have specific goals in this field to be pursued along. The idea of expanding the horizon had unsettled me. Yet I realized its better to be a sad Aristotle than a happy mud slinging pig.I got the degree.I got the pleasant realization that I am still able to study with the same focus and agility as my college days. Moreover, I got back that wonderful unique thrill that we will have due to the tension on exam days.


Toastmasters, thousands of reasons can rain down and stop us from knowing more of this world .But to leave a legacy of our own to the mankind and to know what we have within us, we always need to sail through the darkest of the valleys and then we will reach the green pastures of self actualization. Let no talent bestowed lay latent. Let’s look inside us and find the treasures of gems that lay within, polish it, and give it to the world which has given us all. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. So, let’s be resolved to know more and no field of study shall be untouchable to us if our mind wants to make love with that stream of knowledge. Over to you toastmaster!!

(Project 10 of CC)

School Education In English Medium A Must

(Speech)
Born in a remote village, born in an average family, born with average intelligence, I stand here now with a respectable social status. There were no godfathers, there were no cheatings, there were no miracles. The only reason which makes me stand here is that I got the advantage of English- I was lucky to be sent to an English medium school as my father thought that is the best. Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests, good evening.

I attribute my success to English medium education in school because I am aware of many individuals who are wonderfully gifted who could not even make it to my level. They could not put across their idea in English effectively. We cannot disagree that India could successfully savor the fruits of globalization as we are better educated in English. But even now the progress is hindered by the teaching of subjects in the vernacular especially the science subjects in schools. Imagine a student is taught in the vernacular. He will be taught the word ‘thricon ‘for triangle in the vernacular. Later, on college education when the medium of instruction becomes English, he will be introduced to the word triangle. Hence now he has to associate with the idea of triangle, the word in the vernacular for triangle and the word triangle itself. Things are simply complicated here. There is no point in learning that specific scientific word in the vernacular. There is huge waste of effort. And from there the children educated in English gets jobs easily and they get the global exposure. Moreover the language of English provides a genuine advantage to the Indians as a common language. As we know, people hate when some other languages are forced on them. But as English has an economic eye this aspect wouldn’t come into play. It really acts as the unifying force in the diversified culture of India.

We know about these advantage English offers.That’s why most of us send our children to English medium schools. But with the adamancy to teach in the vernacular in the state run schools the governments across India is determined to make it difficult for the poor children. But some governments are also determined to make it equally difficult to the rich as well by moving the court to ban English medium schools. How retrograde the thinking is. Local history and local art forms and the like should be taught in the vernacular only but all the subjects with global perspective should be taught in English medium. The major argument the proponents of the vernacular medium raises is that we are getting westernized. If something is good there in the west, what is the problem in imbibing it .Every civilizations have grown in that way. Let me ask those people whether they will avoid a bypass surgery as it was not part of Harappan and Indus valley civilization. We should not be diminutive in thinking like the tribal people who are still hesitant to wear clothes fearing cultural disintegration.

Don’t you want to see people from my economic background and lower to come up to you on equal footing? My father sacrificed many pleasures in life to get me that English medium education. If the government schools taught in English medium, couldn’t that situation be avoided? Well, I do agree that sacrifices make success, but is there a need to make some unreasonable hardships? If we want to see the people around us in good living conditions, we need to put our voice to our governments to impart education in English. Moreover, being the members of the ‘Toastmasters’ which aims to promote speaking abilities particularly in English, we need to be the apostles of this idea to impart education in English. Let’s evangelize this idea by using the best talents we have ,speaking and writing, with all might to open the eyes of the people and hence the governement. Lets us go back to Bengal, let’s go back to Tamil Nad, let’s go back to Bihar or wherever we are from and spread this message. Let the world be known, that the apostles of progress are coming to transform this nation into greater heights.Over to you toastmaster!!

(Project 9 of CC)

Ordinary To Extraordinary

(Master of Ceremonies-- Toastmaster Meeting on Theme 'Ordinary To Extraordinary')
There happened on Oct 2, 1869 a very very ordinary moment. A kid was born that day—a very very ordinary happening in India. But as the wheel of time turned around that same ordinary moment became extraordinary.That kid born on that day, yeah,our won Gandhiji made that moment extraordinary by his life long efforts .Yes that moment which could have gone down as yet another ordinary moment is now written in golden letters in the annals of history. In April 2003, our club witnessed an ordinary moment. A person came as a guest in our club meeting. But today as he walks in, to give a speech that will make him the first ever DTM of this club, he will make that ordinary moment in April 2003 an extraordinary moment, a historic moment. What made this dramatic change? It did not happen on one fine day when sun rose in the east. It happened by the persistent efforts of this TM over the years. Toastmasters and guests today will have this wonderful opportunity to witness this glorious occasion. But not before this ordinary guy, currently ordinary, introduces you yet another ordinary moment which became extraordinary later. Ralph C Smedely, a great visionary in 1924 in the basement of YMCA Santa Anna California made an ordinary gesture. He along with his friends started toastmasters club. Now through his efforts and efforts of lot many, toastmaster’s movement is spread across 110 countries benefiting millions of people. That moment in 1924 which could have gone down as an ordinary moment is now symbolic of success. Our future action determines whether our present step is made historic. Our Guests, you might have made an ordinary step by stepping into this room but we have extraordinary plans for you in this session like any other toastmaster session.