THE STORY OF SANTOSH JOHN

May 24, 2009, Venue Al-Jude village time 07.00 pm, my heart pounding fast. There I stood on the stage and in front of me were people sitting, men and women, young and old, some of them wearing a smile, few among of them  appeared eager and the remaining patiently curious. Within few seconds I was in action delivering my maiden speech “A long span of life finished in a short span of time”. With the completion of the last sentence, I was relaxed man.

At about 09.15 pm the meeting was adjourned. TM Santosh John the president came up to me and said “If you really want to learn, if you really want to grow, do not complete all of your speeches in your home club, go to other clubs, deliver in front of different audience”. I don’t know what made him make that remark. Neither did I understand its significance then.

A spark is enough to generate a wild fire and a word of wisdom is enough to change your life. A word of wisdom has ample motive force to set you in motion. Once in motion, day in and day out you strive to be a different man, you strive to think differently, you strive to do things differently. I am reminded of Shiv Khera’s words “CHAMPIONS DON’T DO DIFFERENT THINGS BUT THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY”. God has blessed all men with 24 hours a day. Me, a rich man and a pauper all are equally rewarded. All of us have an inborn quest to rise in life. But how does this happen. From the depth of my consciousness rises a voice “UTILISATION OF TIME”

I used to play cricket till 2009, I like that game a lot. In cricket it is said “CATCHES WIN MATCHES”. It is all about grabbing the ball before its falls on the ground. The same holds true with opportunities. I grabbed any opportunity that came my way, I never used to say no. It was just a matter of time. I could be seen at all functions and forums of Toastmasters. Meeting, greeting and treating people brought me a name and a place in the Toastmaster’s Fraternity. At the time of writing this article I feel myself rich, rich in terms of experience, rich in terms of knowledge, rich in terms of public relation, rich in term of confidence, rich in terms of thinking ability rich in terms of public dealing.

A person’s life has a continuous inflow and outflow of people, many disappear and few reappear and some stay there forever. They continue to stay forever in your minds. I call them beautiful people. The learning that came through and continues  to date, I owe it to these beautiful  people whom I met on this ever rewarding journey of Toastmastering. Santosh John is one of them. See you next time with another story; A story of Rajeev Pillai.