Looking Through A Creative Eye*

Friends, when I heard about this seminar, I had thousands of butterflies in my stomach. What on earth could be a good topic for me to speak on! But then to find the solution to that problem, I became a bit creative. Didn’t look at the world around for a topic. Instead, just peeped into my mind to get a topic related to my ownself. And then the word that yelled out is nothing but CREATIVITY.

Creativity is simply making your aesthetic sense speak out your imaginations. Girls, if you wanna look gorgeous, go get the best dress that suits you, not the costliest one, but the unique one that matches with your mental hues, that reflects your aura. Guys, if you wanna impress your girl, just take a small piece of matchbox, pack it with a black chart paper, break matchsticks into small pieces, and stick them on the box writing the name of your ladylove, encircled by a lovely love sign. And who knows the very moment she will be yours.

On 5th of September next year are you planning to buy your teacher an elegant fountain pen from parker and a musical Archie’s card? Well you will be happy to spend some money on them, to show respect to your beloved teacher. But your teacher will be happier and highly pleased to see you cut out a black-board shaped piece of cardboard and write two lines on it – not a literary excellence, but just the correct use of grammar and damn simple words that comes straight from your heart – just two lines, that’s all, nothing more than that.

You love your mom, and wanna make her enjoy her birthday in style? Don’t think about the yummy delicacies from the best restaurants of the city. Don’t think about any INN, think what’s there IN you. Just make a dish on your own as simple as sojne phool-er bora, and serve it hot with pudina chatni garnished with tomato slices, and I assure you, she will be more than enthralled, no matter if you have added too much of salts and pepper in that or a little less than required.

Creativity is not a hard-to-create thing. It’s something God has already created in you, and you don’t recognize it so far. We all are gifted with certain amount of creative skills, but we take too much time to unwrap that gift and make use of it. So the next time, a big occasion or just an usual Sunday morning, be creative and decorate your house with colored papers for your mom’s birthday or cook your own recipe for your dad. And let the magic happen.



* A write up on a seminar topic for my fellow classmate

CATaclysm

The evening at Belurmath reminded me this word. When I was a kid and was learning this wonderful language called English, I used to spend a lot of time learning new words. A red color hardbound lexicon popularly known as “SAMSAD ENGLISH TO BENGALI DICTIONARY” was my most favorite companion when I used to mug up those difficult-to-spell words or the tantalizing tongue-twisters. And it was one of those words that were learnt years ago, and forgotten almost at the same time. But someone said, using words helps you learn them effectively. You remember them more than you would have by just searching for the meaning of them in an age old pillow-shaped dictionary. And I was actually enjoying my last evening before hibernation. The winter has just arrived in Kolkata, and I am feeling the need to hide out in my niche - not because of winter actually, but because of something that every winter brings along to aspirants like me - the CAT exam. I left my job 2 months ago with plans of being bookworm and locking myself up in my 8ft x 10 ft abode studying hard for the common admission test, but only to roam around the city in the end - with friends, girls, girlfriends. I had been to all the happening places of the city – pubs, malls, the expensive cinemas, and places where gluttons and gastronomes gather (restaurants, in simpler language – it’s not that every time I aspire audaciously to alliterate - am recently reading another red colored half-pillow-sized but paperback book - Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis – I really can’t help using those newly learnt G-words – and the best learnings are those that you acquire by practical use – I have introduced the philosophy already in the first para above). Money was being wasted as if water – if I just translate the sentence that my mom would use in Bengali to scold me for wasting money, it would have been – I am letting money flow out of my hand as if it’s water. But that day I went to a place where water is actually flowing – from an oblivious age. I went to Belurmath – the pilgrimage where Ganga is flowing. I knew I am going to hibernate for next one month till 30th November – the CAT date for me. And before that I wanted to have my last evening spent with fun and frolic. I decided to cross the Howrah Bridge to go to the other side of the river. I wanted to bridge the gap between me and Poms[1]. And when I reached there I was sitting idle on the lawn near the ghat (the steps to the river) till the time she arrived. I was occasionally looking at pairs who were busy doing chit chats and things that young couples usually do at places like this far from their home and amidst green and serene atmosphere. And then I concentrated on an earthworm that was just inches away from me and was trying to push a maggi-like mass of mud up by its tail (or mouth, or whatever! They both look alike). But I was getting bored and tried to read few more pages from my recent companion of all outings (Word Power Made Easy). But then the girl, sitting just next to me ogled at me with a weird look. I guess she was not impressed with a guy sitting at such a serene place looking at a placid book. So to make her happy or to make myself feel more impressive to her, I closed the book, and put it inside my ALSTOM-marked-black-bag. And I looked at the serene shrine in front of me – the holy Ganga. And my eyes were fixed on a middle aged women clad in saree, hindusthani style[2]. Her appearance suggested she was from a lower middle class family and the mother of two at least (or three or more – the lower middle class families in India usually have more children than they can really afford, and their rich counterparts despite having so much of wealth have very less number of people to inherit that – completely my personal belief though – or may be even misconception – nobody should be offended). She was offering pranams to Ganga Maiya with folded hands touching her forehead just below the veil. I guess, she was praying for the well being of her kids just like how I often pray for my success in this year’s CAT. She came to Ganga – the river that embodies affluence, abundance, fruitfulness – a deluge of all the good things in life – a cataclysm of happiness. She threw a coin (it may be a one-rupee one, but I would strongly believe it was a five-rupees coin, as I know the lower middle class are so theistic that they spend more at such religious places than they can reasonably afford – they are so devoted) to the holy Ganga just like how, my mom believes, I ‘pour’ money in water.

The logical self that I have tells me that there is a necessity of atheism. But the emotional one is more devoted to God. It makes me believe in divinity. And when I am at such divine places the later one always gets the better of the former. And I don’t know why I joined my both hands in the same manner that the poor lady had done moments ago. I prayed to the holy Ganga to give me the go – to go and vie for victory. I prayed to her to bring in my life the cataclysm – the deluge of happiness – not the one that one derives after getting an MBA degree and the associated affluence – but the one, one enjoys to one’s heart’s content – the happiness of achieving something – the fruitfulness after doing something difficult – the abundance of satisfaction on cracking CAT.

Only a month left! I need the deluge of determination to make the CATaclysm happen.



Footnoes

[1] – my half girl-friend; go through my last blog entries to know more about this.

[2] – the non Bengali women especially those from neighboring state Bihar do not wear sarees in the same manner that Bengalis do. And this is one thing which helps us recognize a woman whether she is a Bengali or otherwise.

Beats in the Heart

Toastmasters are fanatics. They harp on the same string, - communications, communications, and communications, - how effective your message can reach your audience is how better you are as a Toastmaster.


Speaking about communications, this early morning calm and the arcane silence remind me of one person, who, I think, can be called as one of the greatest toastmasters of all time. Gurudev Rabindranath Thakur. It was he who fostered a new trend, a culture that embodies modernity and richness. Just for the last few hours I was listening to one ordinary Bengali song that took me to an extraordinary height – where the mind felt no bondage. It takes my mind to a journey to a distant place – a journey to nowhere – where I would feel the charm of serenity – the solitude that helps people rediscover themselves. A century ago, one scattered words as if they were pearls, and made garland of songs and now, in the age of 3G mobiles, palmtops, and YouTube, people adorn the same ornament as the décor-de-soul. Time, space, all bounds – are effaced by the appeal of the songs, nay the hymn of hallowing. Should “effective” not be the apt adjective for this sort of communication? And Tagore was a true toastmaster who had toasts of songs for all the occasions in life, be it soothing or saddening.

Amalo Dhabolo Paale – legechhe mondo modhuro hawa. The gentle breeze has pushed the bright white headsail. And Tagore’s creations pushed the headsail of the canoe of this community in the sea of creed and culture. Tagore Songs, however, are not just gentle breeze but the gust of gale; it will keep on pushing, even in its serene and tranquilizing vocal forms, not with the instruments that add impurity to what is, to me, the music straight from the core of our heart.

Nudging a nudge

The above usage might not have been proper, but am feeling the nudge to use this word more and more, and just checked my desktop WordWeb[1] to ensure that I can dare to use the word once as a verb and then as a noun in my latest blog title. I felt the nudge from two persons in last two days. Yesterday we had a discussion with part of our EC[2] and few KTM advisors. And in that meeting KTM Kunal used the word at least 4 times. He might have been nudged by the book Nudge[3] that he had recently read. But it was he who nudged us to learn this word. Nudged ‘us’ – means not only me, but there are more people who are feeling the same spree. I heard Abdul Bhaiya discussing about Kunal’s using the word too often in yesterdays meeting, and now, today we heard KTM Amit using the same word again in today’s usual toastmasters’ meeting, which for this week, was unusually scheduled on a Thursday. The reason is, tomorrow is someone’s birthday, our VP-Ed Ankit’s – along with the ‘father of the nation’s. We won’t have our meeting venue open for tomorrow, a holiday. Calcutta Chambers of Commerce will be closed. Holidays are galore for last couple of weeks, festive season is in progress. No doubt, everybody is happy for it.




But even I am in a holiday mood already. I have been dating different gals for the last three days. And today when I was on a date, I was practically nudging a bit. I am not doing an uphill task, nor have I done any significant contribution to the club till date, but am terribly enjoying my role as VP-PR. Everyone who speaks out in front of me is being nudged to step forward towards joining the toastmasters club, or at least towards attending a meeting as a guest. I met a chat friend today. We know each other from long ago, since our college days, but only virtually. Banglalive.com, a few emails, Google-talk and all – these were by far our dating venues. And we met just today. We had lunch together, we watched a movie, and all these while I was trying to impress her. I was trying to do so, as the VP-PR in me was nudging me from within, to try and persuade this girl to attend today’s toastmasters meeting. I even could afford a pickup and drop facility by ‘hired taxi’ for her so that she is enough nudged to be there at the meeting and don’t worry about the hectic travel to and from Park Street. We reached there half an hour early, we entered the attached CCD outlet but the jam-packed hall nudged us to leave CCD and resort to the KFC on the other side of the road. First, we ensconced ourselves in the red couch at KFC, and then while I was enjoying a delectable bite from the Kentucky-fried-chicken’s crispy golden leg piece, I was praying to almighty, may the KTM’s meeting for today is enough fun-filled and it maintains the high quality that it has benchmarked for itself. It was necessary for my guest to feel the nudge. And at the end of the meeting, when we were returning, and we were talking voraciously, I felt, that she felt it. The small bite of KTM experience that she had today is enough to make her hungry for the coming days. And am sure, she will return to future meetings, if not the very next week. She was speaking volumes about how Ankit was nodding and encouraging her to keep on speaking while she was on stage for the table topics, how Kunal’s eyes were so attentively fixed on her when she was talking, how graceful she felt about the way Abdul bhaiya evaluated Stacey. In short, she was spell-bound, she was mesmerized, and she was marveled. She liked the people, she liked the meeting, and she loved the toastmasters’ style. My nudge was nothing but successful today.


Nudge can and will always be successful if you nudge from within. No matter how difficult the task is, or how distant the goal is, it’s the nudge which seems like a tiny push apparently, but itself is a big step in your own success story. Constant nudging will ensure the tryst with your coveted destiny.


So, keep nudging, don’t settle! :)




Footnotes:

1. A very handy windows application for dictionary cum reference, and I suggest you to get it installed on your machine.
2. Short form for Executive Committee. In any Toastmaster club we have to form this committee with few officers who will take care and govern the club for certain tenure.
3. You can have more info about this book at http://www.nudges.org/

Of Relationships, Love and Lust

Relationships, according to Bengali contemporary art films, are the most confusing subjects in the world, one of the most confusing words in dictionary. They not only confuse those who are engaged in them but also those who are surrounding those direct victims. Relationship is given different names, such as Father-daughter relationship, mother-son relationship, boyfriend-girlfriend relationship and so on. But in almost all the cases it comes from the basic NEED, primarily. I need a girlfriend, and that’s why I, in my surroundings, will look for girls who can be my friend and can cater to all my needs that can be fulfilled by someone who is a girlfriend. Need is the base of all relationships, this can not be supported by people who will try to remind me, that when my dad and mom love me, they do it for no benefits or gain. They do it because they love me so much, and the relationship with my mom and dad is depended entirely upon that love and no proper needs. I agree to them in the point that they love me a lot, they definitely do so. But just think about it the way am doing it now – they love not me, but the guy who is their son. Now, am I not sounding more confusing than the word relationship? I am. But the fact is they love the son in me, and not me in particular. Had I not been their own son, they wouldn’t have taken care whether I am getting my meals properly, whether I am shivering in cold in the month of December, or whether I am learning the right things in life. They needed to love their son, and they are doing their bit. Purely biological needs, I should say. I just happened to be their son incidentally. They needed a son for two reasons, - one, they needed to carry forward the generations even after their death, - two, they wanted to find a prop in their wards who they believe would take care of them in future. Now, don’t think that I am telling all these things about my parents. I am just giving an example to discuss my theory, the scope of application of which is as vast as universe is, i.e. any other species of animals or plants might be doing the same on the other end of this earth, and who knows, on some other planet in this universe.


I loved a girl for many years. And she, to me, was the cutest and the most beautiful girl on earth. (I hadn’t seen enough of this earth by that time though, :)) And I kind of love her till now, even though she is happy with some other guy, who, I suppose, is able to fulfill all her needs more effectively and efficiently. I love her because… I can not complete the sentence. How deeply may I ponder over it, I will fail to find out one real reason with which I can logically establish there is a justification. Only thing that therefore now I can guess is, she was just the one I found out first in my life. There could have been many, but fortunately or unfortunately I couldn’t find any one of them before I found her. There was a fill in the blank question. And I had only one option (only one person) left for that blank (for that need/relationship) to be filled up. And just like the brilliant student that I was in my childhood, I filled up that blank and got full marks then. But now I find someone has given me the same question with the word in that blank deleted once again, and left with no optional answers (Pick a word / name / person on your own from the passage, oops your own life).


Lust is one more biological need that caters to both love and relationship needs. Lust is what is needed for the next generation to be created. Lust is what is necessary to make the so called love long-lasting. It’s the lust because of which we fall in love, we make love, we create relationships, and we spread relationships. It’s the reason why god or the anonymous superpower made the 22 pairs of humane chromosome similar whereas, the last (23rd) pair different for men and women.


Need is the word. Need is there, and love will sustain, relationships will attain success. Need is not felt, and umpteen number of divorce cases, ditching by one’s bf/gf, break ups and all happen. It’s very tough to sustain a relationship and tougher is still to be in love in that relationship. Because the toughest task is to make somebody feel that you are needed.


(For all my readers: Wish you a need-full life ahead!)

Just another Bong movie…

Antoheen – Endless… that was the film title. After a long time, after an endless wait I could watch a Bengali movie and relish it to my hearts content. I actually saw it a month ago, when I was enjoying my separation blues. I just had left office then, was having no job other than lazing around. And then I resorted to YOU… youtube, that’s like my cinema hall since I have reconnected my PC with the cyber highway, thanks to the ORTEL broadband connection and its 512 kbps speed which is making streaming superfast all the time. Bengali movies are not so great these days, that’s the common comments you can hear if you are in the crowd that comes out from the exit of any Bengali theatre hall after a show of contemporary commercial movie. That’s why people love to be happy with art films. At least, they are not boring, though people somehow associate boredom with art films. The only problem that I find in art films, and more specifically, in recent Bengali art films is that they always try to focus on human relationships… before marriage, after marriage, extra marital … all sorts. It’s always ok sometimes, but too much focus on extra marital affairs is taking a toll on public, I feel they don’t try to depict newer ideas, innovation has taken its wings. But here is one movie, a bit different in its style, a slightly different in conveying its message. Yes it’s also about relationships, the point of view that some relations are not as simple and as predictable as people can think of. But this didn’t have that escapist attitude, i.e. if you are not happy with what you have you ought to find happiness somewhere else, in someone else. It actually shows the joy to bear the glum of unsuccessful love. In fact success of love can be best defined not by how long people stay together, or how well people are settled in happily married life, it is actually is measured by how much one misses his/her love partner. Abhik missed brinda so much, but she is not there in this world any more. And it’s too miserable to see that Abhik could know this only after she left this mortal world, that this is the girl he had regular chats with, and whom he fell in love with. Too unhappy and saddening an ending. Still it depicts the central idea too well. Endless wait – that’s what we are compelled to do sometimes in life and you really can’t help it.


The movie, I am sure, must have had a great fan following in the modern Bengali youth. The way of showing things, the lifestyle of characters, the habits of people, trends – everything is so close to today’s young generation. People love to see the movies showcasing the way people communicate these days with text messages, yahoo messengers, internet chatting and all. They love to see CCD in the backdrop of a conversation over a cup of coffee. A lot can happen over a cup of coffee. Truly, so. And these days the movie makers are cashing on it. Coffee is doing its bit in popularizing things. And the subtly shoot scenes where the movie performed the promotional acts of its sponsors were so intricate and interesting. I loved the banner that was floating in a gust of air. It was showing the picture of air blowing gently. At the same time spice jet ad spiced the scene of this modern film, the prop is actually good enough to show that this is not a story of an endless wait of two lovers in Saratchandra’s classics. Similiary I liked all of them, the Compaq laptop, the reliance communication network, the popular Bengali news channel Star Ananda. This is marketing at its best.


Now, sorry to mention issues of marketing in praising an artwork of class. But frankly, I liked this movie so much I don’t have much word to say about it. The adjective ‘indescribable’ would best suit it. And I am sure it would, as myself have seen it third time in three weeks. After all I liked this movie because, who knows, like the light that fell on the Frida Kahlo’s self portrait in Brinda’s room, there isn’t also a beam of light that’s falling on my own portrait… who knows, it’s not showing the endless wait in my life as well. Now don’t make a question mark on your face. That’s a long story, and this blog is too small to tell you that tale. So let it be some other time. And indeed, “Certain things are best left unsaid.”

Rising in Love

The spirit behind choosing this topic for today’s blog comes from two things – firstly because Abdul bhaiya, in his P10 of CC manual delivered his trademarked-graceful-elegant speech with the same title and made me feel that sometimes it’s not just falling but actually attaining a higher elevation in terms of happiness, content, optimism, and what not, when you “fall” in love, – and secondly because I was literally feeling like ‘rising’ in love for the first time in my life, after falling in the same on numerous occasions.

Yes, I say it without any hesitation that I fell in love on so many occasions, first with that bubbly little pinkish girl of my 1st Standard who always snatched from me every little craftwork that I would make to make my creative and innovative skills speak out my aesthetic excellence, and then with that epical girl riya, who’s as far as galaxies are to me at this point in time, and all this while with those ephemeral glances of kohl-lined eyes behind sparkling spectacles, ready-to-burst-out figures behind those trendy lavish dresses at Park Street, the shy-looking-salwar-clad intellectuals in BBD Bag minibus. But, today it was different! “Today it was different!” can be the most frequent reaction after a lovelorn lass-loving lad dates with his latest lady-love. But trust me, today it was different… in the sense that this time I was dating with not my gal, not my would-be, not with any future prospect. I was with Rahul’s girlfriend all the time. Now, like inquisitive blog readers you must be wondering who’s Rahul. To tell you the truth, frankly, Rahul is the boyfriend of the gal for whom I happily and readily bunked today’s toastmasters’ meeting which on the other hand was like another girlfriend cum time-pass cum motivation till I last relinquished my hope of getting a gorgeous girl to spend Friday evenings with.

I love making websites, I love designing invites for party, I love making layouts for newsletters and that’s why I loved when they elected me to be the Vice President – Public Relations for our club. Now I have a little bit of regret that I missed today’s meeting and missed one important announcement that was to be made in order to make sure we meet our September quarter newsletter target date. But I loved this girl equally so much so that I resort to the management mantra that life is always some kind of trade off in some way or other, and you can’t help it. In this case, I traded in my responsibilities as a PR officer of a Toastmaster club for few more hours with HER in the constringed seat of the dingy stuffy bus that travelled through the narrow stretch of NH-2 clogged by scattered men and women out on pre-puja euphoria and waded through cacophonous din and bustle of the once-so-growing and now-breathing-its-last industrial areas of Howrah.

It was our 4th date overall, and 1st with none other but HER. We had few outings, but going by the lingo of software professionals, they can better be termed as team outings. We had a variety of people in our group, English first year, B.Com graduate searching-for-job, a would-be-getting-married-soon who’s as if enjoying her last few days of freedom, a pair of love-smitten students. And amidst that commonplace group of ours, we had regular exchange of glances, enjoyed a little pat at my back, slight touch of HER swaying hair, HER gorgeous grinning, chocolaty chortle, false frowns and all other fugacious phenomena that others were not interested in, but I would always be eagerly waiting for.

But today SHE was all mine. I felt like a king holding the hand of the empress, and enjoying the charms of HER Highness. HER soft hands were not cold like the other day. They were lukewarm, just as warm as it should have been to imply that our relationship is going to be a warm one. Used tissues which were lying here and there over the floor of my empty room, were reminding me of HER again. The folds in those paper balls resembled HER palm-lines. The bolster that bore HER touch marks resembled HER (at night). I was missing her, terribly.

I didn’t make out with HER, I was in no mood to do so. The only thing that I could make out from the experience that I had with HER, SHE is just like a bud, petals are still unfurled. And I would eagerly wait till the time, when it will be in full bloom, slowly but steadily, and spontaneously, and I won’t be the one like the guy in that book I gave her today to read. I can not be as desperate as Deb was, in fact I should not be. SHE is too innocent to be treated otherwise. A pearl or two rolled down HER cheek, smudging the kohl eye liners. It’s too precious to be wasted again. I am becoming a good guy suddenly. I am thinking about all the good things in life. I am just thinking about how carefully god crafted HER, so unique, yet so simple. “Of course I love you, till I find someone better” – was the title of that book. But don’t know why, I feel I can’t find someone better for me. Just like how Deb was rising in love with Avantika, I am rising for the first time in half-love, – half-love, with my half-girlfriend.

Born Again!

…experience of a newbie toastmaster

24 years ago, when I was lying in a hospital cradle beside my mother’s bed, I must have cried a lot, and I guess, that was the beginning of something - my own way of communicating with the outer world. I cried for anything and everything that I wanted to express to others.


Days have gone by. I learnt how to tell my mom that I was hungry. I learnt how to tell my dad that I needed a new toy car. And I learnt how to say the answers to questions asked by my teachers. I was happy that I could speak, speak up and speak out my mind.


I was communicating. And I was communicating well; people around me could understand me properly. But poor me, I never knew there was a climax waiting. And as I grew I met with new people who were not so similar to me, in the sense that they didn’t use the language that I was accustomed to. Oh dear! I met the demon called English. I was frightened. I was down. I wanted to escape. But then to my utter dismay I realized I really can’t let loose. And that demon is not really a demon but the way I look at it – and that can be even a genie that can help me to reach out to people, beyond the boundary of my province, beyond the border of my country.


I met with a teacher when I was in standard IVth. And he started with a conversation which at that time I really couldn’t make out. But ever since I grew up as a high school kid, I could understand the meaning underlying his first piece of words to me. He said something like this: English is just like your own mother – a beautiful lady covering her face with a veil on it – but she is always calling you in – I will help you to reach there – but it’s you who only can unveil her face.


And I was on my way to unveil her, and he always guided me in that path. But I grew up to pass out from school, left the hometown to join college. I joined job, I changed places, and all throughout I missed him.


I missed him, and I rambled here and there, completely lost in my way. And then I stumbled over the door of Toastmasters. And the door, I discovered, is leading to a way, the one that my first English teacher showed to me years ago.


Being a commonplace Bengali guy, and having studied in Bengali medium till 18 years of age, I really found it hard to cope up with the need of English speaking in my personal as well as professional life. But I had the will to conquer that fear. Where there is a will, there is a way. And in this case, the toastmasters became that way for me.


When I came to deliver my first prepared speech (the project 1 of Competent Communicator manual), the first thing that I left behind was my fear of failure. When I spoke on the first table topic in the Salt Lake Orators club, I didn’t pay heed to time limits and I feel something instilled in me the courage to keep on babbling for 3 minutes and 23 seconds! When I am burning the midnight oil to jot down this entry for the club newsletter, something is inspiring me to keep on writing. Something’s snatching the sleep out of my eyes. Something’s benumbing my senses against the feeling of tiredness. Something’s doing all such magical things.


Once in one of our club meetings a veteran speaker of our club was given a table topic where he needed to speak about a stone that has got magical power in it. He spoke about the club itself. Compared it to the stone, enunciated how the club does the magic and turns us on to be more courageous, confident and cogent in our approach to speak in public. Now I am feeling the same magic. And I agree to each and everything I heard from him that evening. That was one of the absolute moments of truth.


After every speech in toastmasters, we are given helpful evaluations. When I was in school, I used to get a report card after each of my exams. But a few days ago, an evaluator for my speech that I gave in the previous week, called me up and told, he couldn’t tell this in front of all that I needed to improve on the subject matter of my speech! How often have you heard schools giving two report cards? - One with less number of red marks on it, and so that you can show it to your mom easily, but along with the other one which is more helpful to assess yourself in a better way. God! People here are so considerate.


In regular toastmasters’ meetings, when I see a fellow toastmaster looking at his mentor every time he speaks, and at the same time his mentor putting ‘Thumbs up’ to him to boost his confidence up, I feel where else could I see the same kind of bonding between two people who do not belong to the same family. I always thought I have only one elder brother. But recently, like that fellow toastmaster I have found out that I have one more, who is actually like a bade bhaiyaa (an elder brother) to me too – A mentor, but more like a lighthouse in my dilemma. ‘Toastmasters’ is indeed a second kind of family, where we are members not by birth but by our desire to learn, to share and to grow, individually as well as collectively.


I owe toastmasters the motivation that helps me stand tall after every time I stumble. I owe you the confidence that evokes the smile of my face even at the most nervous situation. I owe you the courage that I muster before every single word I speak.


Until I joined toastmasters, I never believed in the theory of rebirth. But now, being a part of it, I have started to believe in the same. If it was the first time that I learnt how to cry in that hospital cradle, the next is this one, in the Kolkata Toastmasters Club. It inspired me to begin a new life. A life enlightened by the company of toastmasters.

Anything under the sun! - My Project 2 Speech

(Dramatically,…) Oh! This perspiration! And still it’s better in this air conditioned room. But just step out in the afternoon and look above… the cruel and angry ball of fire is bubbling in ruthless ire. – Scorching heat, sunburns, and this sultry summer – Ohh! Life’s hell under the sun, --- Mr. toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and guests, if we are thinking in this way, we are, for sure, taking a lopsided view of the mighty Helios – the heroic sun god. Have you ever imagined what would have happened to us in the absence of sun?


(Pause)…Well to even answer the question which I have just asked, you must need to mull over it, and for that you need your brain, but for the brain to be working you must be alive, i.e. you must have life, but life thrives on earth only because there is something called the sun.


We human beings are so proud about ourselves, as we are the mightiest and the most brilliant of the species living on earth, but do you know? - even we‘ve have been developed over a long time, slowly and steadily, from just a single celled organism. And that cell was created as an effect of complex chemical reactions. And for those reactions to take place there was a need of energy. And who catered that? – the sun.


Life on earth – well that’s something which the sun has done. But what about the earth itself? Geo scientists say that even earth is a small part of sun that got detached from the solar star many many years ago and cooled down over time to take the present form. So had there been no sun, there won’t have been something called earth!


There are other neighbours – Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune – they are the bigger planets – many many times bigger than the mother earth, still life never thrived on them, because, sun has never been so kind to them.


But he was kind to earth – whenever she needed him. He was kind to her because he loved her! And it was he who always came forward to rescue her whenever she was in a peril. Like, there was a time which historians call the “Ice Age” – there was thick crust of hard frost all over her body – things got frozen on earth – and survival became a difficult thing. And then there was the amorous look of the sober sun that acted as the ‘Ice Breaker’ – broke the crust of earth – removed her pale-gloomy-white widow-like dress, and dressed her up again in a new attire – the lush green foliage.


Plants came first, and the animals followed, and then we came to rule rampant. And we flourished on earth; we did so as we got the food and drink timely. Plants made the food for us, but to make that food, what did they feed themselves? It’s the light – the warmth of the sun rays. But that’s not all, Sun did cast his rays on oceans too, and vapours rose up in the sky, rumbled in the form of cloud, and showered back on earth - And we quenched our thirst.


For household activities, industrial operations, or even for day to day conveyance, we use so much of fuels and substantially fossil fuels – we use the energy that are pent up in coal / petroleum / wood – and it’s the sun who along with his last longing lingering look of the evening casts the soothing sunbeams, that are raw form of energy, which in the process of energy transformation, are stored in what we call, the fuel that drives our civilisation.


But these days, the environmentalists and the green people are much more concerned about the puzzling problem of rapid energy depletion. And they worry about the amount of fossil fuel still left in the planet earth for human beings to live on. Well, that’s indeed a problem and we must try to tame other forms of nature’s power which is available in abundance… And we must promote the use of renewable and non-conventional energy resources. And when we talk about a non-conventional and plentiful source of energy what can be better than the solar power? So, just look up and get the idea. Eventually, only a few days back Bengal witnessed the setting up of a 2MW solar power station in Asansol area. So things have started to move the solar way. And it’s a good indication that the human beings are being more intelligent and efficient in terms of usage of energy.


So we see that the story of sun is an epical one. The sun created the earth, reared her up, and it provided a solution whenever she faced a problem. So to sing the saga of the soothing sun that enamoured us for millions of years, mere few minutes is not enough, and this talk can go on and on, but to conclude, I must reiterate that this beautiful earth is a magical wonder – and the magician sun spells its golden rays – which in my imagination, are the sparkling magic wands. And upon earth, life begins with sun. Life gets food, life gets fuel, life gets the go to move on – for there’s sun. We play, we talk, we sing in joy – Anything’s possible, just under the sun.

The Ice Breaker - My Project 1 Speech

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and guests, this world is so big, and this guy, standing in front of you, is so small, yet a long memory he has been carrying for the last 24 years of his life… And he, through the next few minutes, would take you through an unknown alley… the oblivious memory lane of his yester years.

Even I am, quite naturally, oblivious of what happened on the world environment day in the year 1985. But I am pretty sure that on that very day there was an unnecessary burden on the world environment as this innocently looking fellow took birth on this mother-earth and increased the already exorbitantly growing population.

I was born in a middle class Bengali family in Durgapur, and to my parents - dad, currently a retired school teacher and my mom, a simple and sensible housewife all throughout her life. Three and a half years before my human incarnationJ, there came a little guest too in my family – my elder brother, who is now settled in Bangalore and working in an MNC on telecom.

And now about my own childhood, well I can not tell you more, as I hardly remember what sort of things I did, what type of intelligible phrases I used to babble, or what kind of rap music would I create when I used to cry those cacophonies to express my feelings. But as I remember, despite an effacing effect of time and age, I was a guy, bit shy and reserved. But I was not quite an introvert. I guess, the correct word would be ‘ambivert’, i.e. talking on specific occasions or in a specific group of people, and simultaneously keeping mum else where. I was quite often so quiet, that fellow students in my class who used to have fun and enjoy in the most childish ways of childhood, must have imagined me the leader of the opposition. I was such a disciplined guy, until, one day when the breaking news was that I have beaten a fellow girl of my class with my umbrella. I hope that was the beginning of my becoming a not so good boy. But I continued doing good during my school in academics. I completed both my Xth and XIIth from a Durgapur school. I got the taste of an achievement for the first time when the Xth board result was announced, and I could know that I have been 2nd in my hometown and 24th in the state board. I was on cloud nine. Until then, I never dreamt big, but it was really one of those very few memories when I felt great for what I have done in my life. I never felt the same joy further. Because I never did something like that in my life ahead. And when I was in college, I screwed up my grade points big time, much the way the guys did in the “5 point someone.” I got eight supplementary papers in my 4 years’ B.Tech. course, and I struggled a lot in my final semester to come out of my coveted institution with due dignity. NIT Kurukshetra bade me good bye with two handsomely looking jobs as well. And the next month, I joined one of them, ALSTOM – a French MNC dealing in EPC in the power sector. I was relieved as I got a secured path in my life, through which I could traverse the distance called life and at the end of every month I could bring home some money. But friends, by now I am nearly 24 and I have gained something that I can safely call “An Experience” and that tells me two things –

1. I need money
2. But in a way which suits me better.

Now you must be wondering, what am I going to tell, its nothing, but just the fact that very recently, even in the amidst of this recession period, I have left my job and haven’t applied for any. I am searching for something new, something unique that suits me better. I want to do what I feel I should do, and what my company pays me for not doing.

Well, I am here to talk about my life, and not about my future plans, so better I start sharing with you some more in depth knowledge of the specimen standing in front of you. I have been an enthusiastic and optimistic person from childhood. I am a hard worker too, especially when I like what I am doing. I have two good hobbies, both related to some sort of creativity. The first one of them is web designing. I have been a passionate internet surfer like many, the difference is, I felt that I should not be restricting myself in just logging on to others’ websites, but also should create webpages for others to view them. The second hobby that I have, is of making craftwork, I really feel an indescribable joy when I see scraps turning out to be showpieces or some utility in the process of value addition as well as beautification.

I feel good when I listen Tagore-songs, I love to eat chicken curry and I like Satyajit Roy, the person he was… the list is so long, I am not going in to much details. But one thing I must mention, I am not quite a movie freak, nor do I watch English movies that often. But every time when I watch the last few minutes of the movie “Shawshank’s Redemption”, I literally shed tears in joy; yes I pronounced the word correctly – JOY, because it shows me the victory of two things, against all odds. – the Dream and the Hope. Inspired by the movie, I have cherished a big dream in my heart, and I have high hopes too, to fulfil them in near future. And I wish, to get all your wishes, wishing me, my wishes come true.

The Religion Called Cricket

The IPL Season 2 is just over and the T20 World cup is on its way. The cricket mania or rather, the T20 fever has broken out large. Yes, its just another game. And in comparison with football, this is too trifling a game, played by hardly a dozen countries in this world. It's chastity was hampered with events like "body line bowling" or "betting scandals." It has offered big money to already-so-rich cricketers and never invested anything substantial for the country's growth. It has been made extravagant over the decades by Cola companies which in turn has looted gullible public by selling them a mere mixture of water and carbon-di-oxide at an exorbitant rate. It has made our once-so-hallowed national game the backbencher. It has so many charges against its name.

But in India, a country with diverse diversities, it's nothing but a religion, preached by people of all other religions. Games and Sports have always urged people to get together at a single venue and share the fun, joy, and excitements. But Cricket has done something unique in this country. Football might have made Bengalis and Goans form the Mexican wave in stadia, people might have been frenzied in parts of Punjab with Hockey. But when Ganguly lofted a ball to the mid off boundary for a six, its not only the Bengalis, who have been enthralled and nor the Marathis alone, when Tendulkar's bat started roaring in high pitch. Cricket had rubbed off the provincial boundaries in India. I say that emphatically as I remember, I felt an indescribable pain when noble cricketers like Dravid or Kumble fought well but finally couldn’t clinch the prestigious IPL2 trophy, and I being a Bengali had no real reason to support a Bangalore based sports team. And I am sure all of you might have had similar instances when you rose above your provincial disharmony and supported team India just because you are Indians. I honestly confess few things here, I haven't cast my vote a single time, I don't usually attend Republic day ceremonies, I forgot when I last uttered the words of "Jana Gana Mana." But when the next time I will have India taking on some other country, Indian ness will be bubbling out from my heart for sure.

Election is just over. And we have seen vote bank politics ruling rampant. Political parties have nominated members with a target to capture votes from a special community or a specific religion. In a SECULAR sovereign democratic country, we all have done mockery of the terms that we use in our constitution to describe our motherland. But have you ever thought of the fact that we never judge their religion to cheer for Harbhajan or Zaheer. Have you ever wondered how many is the percentage of players who are SC/ST/GENERAL or OBC? We never judged, we never divided people on the basis of ancestry or skin colour when we followed this wonderful game that spelt its wand much in the way one contemporary Digital TV ad shows. In that ad, the magician magically turns two remotes to a single one. And in India, Cricket has done the same act, made people unified. And hey presto, "unity in diversity" is no more a vague phrase to use!

The booming economy of India has achieved great heights in eradicating poverty. The country has made numerous plans and programmes to uplift the people of lower strata of the society. But there have been umpteen number of news when people in India starved and died, shivered in cold and slept at footpath never to wake up again. India still, considering the majority, is a poor country. And here we have been accustomed to discrimination on the basis of wealth. The poor and the rich have made boundary walls around them. Their habits, traits and tastes have been dissimilar. And now think of the summer of 2007, India and Pakistan, the archrivals have decided to confront each other once more. Yes, it's the first T20 World Cup Final. 6 runs needed of the last 4 balls, and Yogindar Sharma pumping in with the ball in his hand, and look at that, you can see a sophisticated young lady in the VIP stands of Wanderers, Johannesburg, chanting a prayer to the God. And now look at the rickshaw puller at Burrabazar, Kolkata keeping his pocket radio tight to his ears and praying to the same God. Can you really differentiate between the two pictures? Can you even discriminate the happiness each of them got after the next delivery was bowled? I am sure, you never can. As I said it earlier, Cricket is a religion, preached by ALL. ‘Discriminations’ is a forgotten word.

Cricket has done a lot, and it will do so forever. Nothing can stop it from being the panacea of this strife torn country.