THE STORY OF DTM PGR NAIR

July 01, 2013, the date Toastmasters International awarded me with a plaque, I was a DTM then. The award as I understand is a certification of completion of prescribed projects along the communication and leadership track and appreciation of the efforts put in by the awardee.

I turned respectable, honorable, saab…and…; but were these addresses relevant or else was I close to those addresses? To look for clues, let us travel back in time.

Project 7 of the CC Manual requires one to research his topic from sources like internet, magazine, reports, published papers, newspaper etc and support them by statistics, testimony, examples and visual aids. Having done so, one is required to deliver a speech in front of an audience. There is an evaluator to evaluate the speech. DTM PGR Nair was my speech evaluator. I had heard a lot about him; he is a gem of a person, he is excellence at its best, he is determination at work, he is an ocean of knowledge and so on.

I was enthusiastic but new to Toastmasters, me a surface swimmer and he a deep water diver. The projects material was there but how to deal with it and to what extent was beyond my grasp. He had a trait of working to the finer details of any thing that he puts his hand on. His evaluation was crisp and clear, nothing more to commend but lot more emphasis on the areas of improvement.

Thereafter we sparingly met. I continued to work on completion of my CC and CL projects. Having learned the basic tools of communication and leadership I started taking advance projects of communication and leadership tracks. Leadership is all about connecting with people, listening to them, helping them and marching along with them to reach a goal. In this process I had to visit corporate as well as community clubs. It was during some of these visits that I happened to meet DTM PGR Nair again and again.

I had a couple of chances to work with him as a grammarian, evaluator, workshop presenter, toastmaster of the day, contest judge, chief judge etc. His comments, advice, suggestion and sermons were well judged and well thought off. At times when they are delivered in the presence of your mentees they add up to your responsibility as a mentor. One after the other as I took them serious and worked on it I could feel the confidence level rising in me, I could sense the ease to tackle difficult task. I could see myself shaping up for a larger role.

I have come across instances when a person approaches DTM, he feels to wait and check whether he fits in to the honor, respect and the grandeur that comes with it or is there something left to be done or reworked.

For me it was like “Awake arise and stop not, till the goal is reached”. Personalities like DTM PGR Nair happen to come across by chance and one happens to be a lucky guy if he could make the most out of those associations. No one knows how long an association lasts. Every relation has an expiry date. Currently he is in Qatar and me in India continuing his legacy of grooming youngsters.