Reservation in Private Firms

(This speech was given at the Microsoft Speechweavers Club.7-9 min speech followed by 2-3 min discussion)
Men are made equal but they are born unequal. And as they grow the inequality grows along with them. In India to cut down on this cancerous growth, we need to introduce reservation in private firms for backward class people.

Fellow Toastmasters, a warm good evening.


A 30% reservation should be introduced to the backward class population representing 40% of the population. Currently it has to go along with the existing caste system based reservation till a point in time when the economic state can be rightly determined. Then this can act as the criterion for reservation.

We, who works in private company, would be dead against reservation as we are proud that we got through by sheer merit. Once reservation comes we feel threatened.
Let’s consider this. There are 50 job opportunities and 100 students are vying for it. Assume among this, 30 are very poor people and hence their educational standards tend to be low. Now for the regular students it’s easy as they would easily edge out those 30 poor people in the job contention .Effectively 70 students are trying for 50 seats which give disproportionate advantage to the regular students. What I suggest is let’s divide the seats and students into 2.groups i.e 70 regular students vie for 35 job seats and 30 reservation eligible vie for 15 seats. The ratio is the same as the original 50 seats and 100 students .The undeserved advantage regular students get levelled out in the process. When we play football it should not be like one team’s players have boot and the other players play with bare foot. Let the teams with boots play against each other and the let the teams playing on bare foots be pitted against each other.

There is a general notion that not the eligible one gets the reservation. Till the economic survey is conducted and proper segregation is done based on the economic status the caste based reservation has to go on. But as an immediate remedy we can set an upper limit for wealth like say 2 lakhs per year. Understandably it’s quite difficult to get this working perfectly but striking contrasts can be obviously be screened--- like the son of the chief secretary though he belongs to scheduled caste it can be denied. With the existing background verification of the company it wouldn’t be a big headache to verify the economic claims of the applicant. The provision also helps companies to completely shed the caste based reservation and depend purely on economic status based reservation.

Another prejudice held is that reservation would make the eligible lazy. This argument does not hold since there will be competition within the group eligible for the reservation. The people below the poverty line (BPL) make about 40% of the Indian population and if someone says there wouldn’t be any competition within 45 crores people its hard to comprehend.

People already get reservation during their studies .Then why again reservation for job is a seemingly genuine concern. Given its prior low performance on account of poor opportunities, the backward class will be easily edged out by the regulars. So if the reservation is not given in job hiring the reservation given for study will be rendered a waste As such the country will be successful in creating lots of engineers who don’t have a job.

One of the other vehement opposition raised is that the quality of the organization would go down. And the less eligible people will push the company into loss. Companies involve themselves in charitable activities like raising poor children and age old home. In a way it covers up the Shakespearean Shylock who wanted a pound of flesh from the heart of the person who wouldn’t get his money. The companies should dare to go beyond these social facelifts. If the company is genuine in their verbal exercise let them dare to induct the people who may be little less effective from the rest .This difference will be very less only practically. Think of anyone in your college who passed the course. Won’t they be also able to do the same job as you do given the same step of trainings in this company? I am not denying the uniqueness of each individual and slight performance slack may be expected in the initial years – at the max 2 years and not beyond. I don’t think the same course will produce intellectual elephants and intellectual ants. Difference would be there but that is minute .Only thing is the difference appear magnified for us because of the fierce competition. The margin of selection is very small like in a 100m race. The runner who comes last is not a bad runner by any means.

Examples of people who already have made it big from poor background are often sited. Even without reservation they made it big then why others can’t is the logic. We may want to talk about Abdul Kalam who emerged into the echelons of power from his poverty ridden days in childhood. Anyone would be easily able to give few more examples. But it must be remembered that these are not examples – but exceptions. Because some exceptional people fought their heart out to emerge successful should not be the reason to deny opportunities for backward people. How can we even think of the hard fought struggle of Abdul Kalam and the like as pitfall for the poor and the aggrieved?

Reducing the gap between rich and the poor which is getting widened day by day is mandatory. Reservation is a way to do it. We need to make sure that the each section of the society is carried along with the bandwagon of progress. It will reduce the unrest among the common population and also reduce the antagonistic feeling they have towards rich .It will generate a feeling among them that they too have a chance to make it.

There are brilliant people who provided an opportunity can make it really big. Many talents in India are wasted on lack of opportunities. Many more Abdul Kalams are there in the corners of India carrying big boulders on their shoulders. We should help them realize their dreams as India’s dreams will never be fulfilled with their dreams unrealized. I don’t think anybody is sadistic to see more people as poor in the country which already homes one-third of the global poor.

As a point to ponder over, I want you to think whether you would have made into this company if you were born into an impoverished family.

Microsoft has shown many ways in their commitment to society and you are the leaders in it. I call upon all the Microsoft employees to put this case before the management to achieve this glorious milestone .Lets hope a new beginning will dawn upon this country.

____________________________________________________
(The below snippet was delivered after the 2-3 min open house discussion)
The urge and the idea of equality shall remain forever. Let’s help India become a country that offers equal opportunities to its children. Let’s agree to give a helping to those people who are denied all fortunes in life by giving them reservation in private companies.
Over to you toastmaster.

Clues to Cool Deals of Higher Magnitude

(3-4 min Speech.Project 2 of Persuasive Speaking-Making a Cold Call .This 3-4 min speech was followed by 5-6 min role wherein I made a cold call to the President of the Bangalore Toastmasters club to sell a projector to the club)

I still remember the cold stare on my friend’ face when he got a job as a salesperson. He was afraid to make cold calls. A cold chill went down his spine when he thought of instances in which he himself shoed away salespersons. In current circumstances, it’s potentially dangerous to make a cold call. However today I shall suggest a method to make cold calls become cool calls in perspective of making a deal of higher magnitude.Toastmasters and distinguised guests a warm good evening to you.

It’s not rocket science but a simple 3 step approach – Rapport Building, Trust Building, and Value Building.

1) Rapport Building-The first is to be sensitive to the customer. Like barging into the customer room asking for an appointment when he is the middle of something can frustrate the customer. The best to building rapport during an appointment is to start off with a smile and exchanging pleasantries. We must be cautious to keep the time in accordance to the level of the customer and the circumstance we are in. We cannot spend much time exchanging pleasantries with a company CEO. May be for them just a smile is required for rapport building as they are not too much concerned on this aspect.

2) Trust Building-Being open and being knowledgeable are the tools of trust building. These tools of trust building should be used to solve the problem of the customer. Analyze the problem of the customer objectively and never try to fit in your solution to the customer’s problem. The objective analysis of the problem will gain us the customer’s trust and then he start considering you as resource whom he can fall upon to solve his problem. In such a scenario if you product solves the customer’s problem he will definitely trust your product.

3) Value Building- Tell the customer in detail the benefits our product will bring the customer. We should explain in details the specification of the product how it functions and the like. All the facts that are need by the customer should be given to him in this stage.


If we follow this simple 3 step it is highly likely that the deal will be successful. Even if you are unable to sell the product ensure that you sell yourself to the customer.

Over to you toastmaster.

After Effects of Lunch.

I remember one of those days in which I had a very heavy lunch .Oops , I forgot that I had it even today.Heavy lunch can have problems.For instance , our attention span is reduced after that.I vividly remember those after lunch times when my teachers shouted at me as I mumbled irregular syllables when surprise questions were thrown at me.However , this reduced attention span as an after effect of lunch is not all that bad.I used to get promises for my parker pen,cricket bat and the like from my papa when he was in such a state.

Its not that its reduced attention span alone which is caused by heavy lunch.I had numerous instances when my architect shook me awake while dozing off in office chair.Nowadays I even feel proud that my architect wake me up from sleep just to hide to myself the embarrassment caused.Inspite of all these hiccups, I see a positive side for this dozing off after heavy lunch.Give your spouse a heavy lunch and see her sleep.It would be the only time when you would be able to see the innonce in her face.It may noted that night sleep does not provide this spectacular vision.

All in all,lunch is a necessary evil.Having lunch is like having children.We should have children , but we should not have too many.

Involve Yourself

{ Below is the text of the initial few minutes of the speech as Master of Ceremonies in Bangalore Toastmaster Club.The text may vary from the actual speech given :) }
Centuries ago, a bow and arrow session was going on.A model of bird was made and kept on top a tree .As each disciple took aim to shoot down the bird, the master asked “What do you see?”.The answers were like, the bird, the tree, the sky beyond...But for Arjuna, the answer was “The eye of the bird only”.Needless to say, he was the only one to hit the target.Arjuna was focused; he had no consternation, only concentration.This is the way we too ought to involve ourselves.

Having come into this room in Brigade road surpassing theatres, coffee days and pubs, I would consider us as involved.But is such bare minimum involvement sufficient so as to just reach our aims? In 1924 in Santa Anna California, in the basement of YMCA, Ralph C Smedely started toastmasters movement.His aim was to make his fellow members in YMCA raise toast better.But as the wheel of time around, this movement spread across 110 countries and millions of people benefit from it.Ralph would not have, even in his wildest dream , hoped so. But as he was fully involved in the activity it took an amazing growth.Same case applies here for us in Bangalore Toastmasters.Our slogan may be to improve our comunication and leadership skills.But we should involve to the highest degree as possible so that we can attain even unprecedented results.Cant we become the powerhouse of idea generation which this country badly needs.This is the prefect place where the intelligentsia of the city should get groomed. This should be the place where the rest of the people should look for inspiration and innovation to flow from.Yes, we should be the powerhouse of idea generation.Its not that such a thing is tangible.Almost all radical changes the world have witnessed happened through committed people who met and exchanged their ideas. In the 1960s, the French cinema was rotten by the cliched movies.Then a group of men met together- their initial intention was just to see movies and pass critcisim.But this group evolved to bring about the most radical change that ever happenend to the field of movies.They gave rise to the French New Wave cinema.Our case too is not much different.We have the platform of toastmasters.We can and should become the powerhouse of inspiration and innovation which our countrymen need.

The first step in attaining any noble aim is to get the basics right.Let me tell you how this toastmaster meeting would be so that you can be fully involve.First would be the prepared speech session, where you would get the inspiration and innovation we all need.Next would be the table topics sessions in which we have to think on our feet and speak im promptu.Finally we will have the evaluation session when each participant in the meeting would be given constructive feedback.Today to lead the evaluation session we have a gentleman,who mesmerizes us with his overwhelming presence.A man with dove’s heart but today he shall be around here with hawkish eyes.Lets put our hands together for Arun John Mathias.

Clues to Cool Deals of Lesser Magnitude

(Project 1 from Persuasive Speaking,Advanced Communication Manual--Selling a low cost product to a customer in a store.This 3-4 min speech was by 3-5 min roleplay wherein I tried to sell a book to a customer in a bookstore)

We have two ears and one mouth because we are supposed to listen twice as we speak. Let it be known that God made no mistake in the case of salespersons, too.
Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests, good evening.

I shall bring here today a 3 step approach that can be successful in a store selling not so expensive products.
1:Building rapport with customer
2.Understanding customer needs
3.Radiating credibility

Building rapport: The clichéd golden rule in rapport building, a warm smile, remains omnipotent till date. The effect is enormous and you should welcome the customer with a customary smile. In rapport building, another essential thing is matching the customer in behavior. For instance, you should not speak loudly to a customer who speaks softly. You can even engage in small talk. Of course it should not look plastic-Like you should not straightaway ask a customer who comes into a bookstore “Hey, how is the weather”

Once the rapport is created you should focus on understanding the customer need. Surely, you need to ask questions. Here too brevity is a must.Nobody would want to tell their entire family history and office stories just to buy a book. Ask relevant question and value the customer’s time. The questions asked should elicit detailed answers and not in monosyllables. Questions formed by what, why, how are ideal to get detailed answers.

Having understood the buyer’s need, focus should be in solving buyer’s problem. This where your knowledge on the multitude of products available and the special features of each product come into picture. More or less you are making a decision for you customer. It’s a challenge for a salesperson to live up to the ethical standards. If you feel that, a product does not suit a customer don’t try to convince him otherwise. You may lose a sale but you will win your buyer’s trust, confidence and who knows may be his daughter as well. You would be able to radiate your credibility only if you have thorough knowledge of the product and its counterpart. Also the communication skills you hone at toastmasters also come into play. If the customer is agreeable to your suggestion you should not hesitate to push the deal. If you don’t ask for a commitment, you may not get it. Once the deal is done you can reinforce your credibility and customer’s belief by assuring him that he made a good choice.

Hence, a successful deal is a result of a 3-step approach:
1:Building rapport with customer
2.Understanding customer needs
3.Radiating credibility

In all these steps, we should not be so talkative like an overzealous football player dribbling with the ball. We should be intensively listening. Remember, God has made no mistake in the case of salespersons too in giving two ears and one mouth.

[In this project, this speech is followed by a 3-5-role play (spontaneous) in which I play a salesperson selling Roget’s Thesaurus and prospective buyer is called from the audience. This role-play is followed by a 2-3 minutes discussion with audience on how the role-play went]

So, salespersons, if you follow this simple 3-step approach, your customer will say weeping to you “Its such a great deal. I don’t think I am worthy of it”.

Over to you toastmaster.

Missing and Messing Inspirations

(Humorous Speech 5-7 min)

“Come out of your comfort zone. Break free from the chains that shackle you.” These were the inspirational words of a Toastmaster one Friday evening. What a coincidence.I had heard those words before.In fact I heard them every morning when my roommates were begging me to come quickly out of the washroom.Out of comfort zone to wash room.Far, far away.

Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests, good evening.
I bring before you 2 major aspects by which you can miss and mess an inspirational speech. 1) While the speech is being delivered-our thoughts can misguide us away. 2) The superficial energy we derive immediately after listening to an inspirational speech can make us muddle headed.

Let’s see what can happen while a speech is being delivered. I was listening to a very motivational speech urging us to realize our dreams. But all the while, I was pulling at my hair searching for ways on how not realize the dream I had that morning. A ferocious street dog was biting me.

My thoughts took me away from the inspirational message.
Once a speaker said that we should be bold enough to say “so what” in the face of adversity. He boomed “You may fail if you try; so what. People may laugh if you fail; so what. My defensive system boosted me to think, “Oh, this speaker is speaking so well; SO WHAT”.
My thoughts deceived me away from the inspirational message.

There was a speech titled “Treasure Hunt”. As the speaker went on, my thoughts were on a ring I had lost that morning. I was hopeful of finding it. Suddenly the speaker revealed the secret—the treasure is within you. I had a strange feeling that I had swallowed my ring. I felt a bit reassured. My ring might come out tomorrow morning.
My thoughts fooled me away from the inspirational message.

Let’s move onto the time period immediately after an inspirational speech is delivered. This is the time where you will be itching for action and can potentially jump into trouble.

One day I gave a talk to my roommate and impressed upon him the need to be more responsible in life. The next day, he was the first to reach home and he found that only our house was without electricity. He swung into action, found that the electricity bill for the last month was unpaid; traveled 10 kms; paid the bill and got a lineman to restore the connection, after paying him a bribe for good measure. They reached home and when they came to the main switch box, the lineman gave a sarcastic laugh showing all his yellow teeth and two brown ones. As my friend looked on in disbelief he casually switched on the main switch .Our house was flooded with light but my friend’s face was gloomy. Seconds later it also lit up, when he saw me coming from the provision shop carrying 2 mosquito coils, a match box and 4 candles.
At the recent judges training, I was inspired to finish off my speeches quickly and get my DTM. When I went home my mind was on speech topics, opening, body, conclusion, content and delivery. My friends were noisily chatting away and I was getting distracted. Out of habit, I yelled at them “Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests, why don’t you keep quite”.
The superficial energy defeated me.

So, we must listen to speeches attentively and should give some time for the inspiration to sink into the bottom of our heart to bear fruits. At least if you do so, immediately after an inspirational session to be courageous, you may not go propose to any strange lady and get beaten by her husband. Or when I ask you to be straight as an arrow, you may not think “Arrow? He looks more like a bullet.”

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)