THE STORY OF SAMRIDH

When difficulties come; they come not single, they come in hordes. This saying turned out to be a reality for Venkat Devrajan, the chief coordinator of YLP. It is only the chief coordinator who bears the brunt when an unwanted or an undesired circumstance is encountered. Disregarding technical difficulties and resource shortfall, handling around 30 youth leaders is a challenging job. A job that can send one’s night sleepless and one’s stress escalated. Absence of a mentor increases one’s worries double fold. One more mentor had to leave the kingdom on emergency reasons. Time and tide wait for none; any shortage of resources hard or soft had to be met. A mentor had to be arranged for youth leader Samridh.

Apart from Toastmastering I and Venkat were good friends, I already had three mentees, but there was no other way left. I was asked to help Samridh; I consented.

Generally elders put big ideas and tall talks before the children. They forget that the person to whom they are talking is not big as they are, as big as them in experience, as big as them in thinking, as big as them in ideology. Every child is different and each one needs to be dealt differently. One can get a thing done from a child but the other child perhaps needs a different way to accomplish the same. Certain traits of person are inborn or habitual. Say for example accent, proper pronunciation is essentially important in the delivery of a speech. A slight variation can alter the meaning of an idea or can confuse the listener, one has very little control over it and overcoming it may require a long time. Accent has its roots in the family he belong to or to the region he is from.

The same day Samridh and his father visited me in the evening. He had brought along with him his speech. No sooner did we settled down he expressed that he didn’t like the speech, he didn’t enjoy the speech and it would be difficult for him to deliver that speech.

I asked “what is the thing that you like the most?”, he replied “Cricket”, I continued how if your speech starts with cricket that too with a climax scene. He immediately agreed. Leaving the speech with me the father and son went home wearing a smile, the father with satisfaction that his son’s worry was gone and the son with an assurance that I will be doing a speech of my liking. 

The next day we started rehearsing. I would explain him the pace of word, and the instance to raise and lower it, the emotion expressed by the pace. I also would explain him the importance of pauses in a speech and how they added value to the speech, instilled confidence in the speaker and casted an impression on the audience.

Some children involuntarily happen to be themselves, they would listen to you but when they perform you can’t see much difference in their later performance and the previous performance. It is not that they don’t want to but it simply doesn't happen. The best solution is to give time and work persistently. 

Samridh happened to be himself. Working with him, I liked his commitment and the contentment that he carried while he performed. He did complete his project successfully. Irrespective of the quantum of learning. I know all children learn but with varying pace. For me it was an opportunity for understanding Samridh.

THE STORY OF SREEJA

Learning, teaching and facilitating are the three phases of life and the same happens in the Toastmasters too. As a speaker you first learn the basic tools of communication, you implement them in the advance communication, teach them during evaluation and later on facilitate teaching by conducting a Youth Leadership Program or a Speech Craft Program. This is one of the requirements of the Advance Communication Gold and the person who conducts this program is the chief coordinator.

YLP is a series of 12 events spanning over 3 months being conducted every week and during these period come numerous problems, expected and unexpected. Some of them are manageable and some beyond ones control. Around 25 to 30 school children ranging from standard 8 to 12 are selected. There are approximately half the number of mentors who assist these children with their assignments. 

Youth Leadership Program is a very tight-scheduled program. A participant cannot afford missing a single session; Sreeja a youth leader had fallen sick and was diagnosed for chicken pox; she had missed 4 sessions but timely medical attention helped her recover soon and she wished to pursue the program. Venkat Devrajan the chief coordinator of the program was a worried man. Sreeja’s recovery was a point for him to rejoice but he had an equally opposite point to regret. Sreeja’s mentor had to leave the kingdom on an emergency leave; the big question was who would guide her? She required special attention and more guidance without further delay.

It was Friday afternoon, I received a call, Venkat was on the other end of the line. He continued: I have nothing to say but a request to make, can you help me out? I agreed. He asked if I could mentor one more child. I accepted. He explained me the case of Sreeja and expected me to act fast, he wanted me to reach him at his house and from there we together would visit her house.

Fifteen minutes later we were at Sreeja’s house, her family seated around hoping their daughter to get back in action. I was expected to help her with the International Speech. I asked if she had done some preparatory work on it. She replied in affirmation. Having talked with her to know her wish, hopes and commitment I asked her to send me the script. I would develop it and send it back to her. The next day we would be starting the rehearsal, by then she was asked to memorize it. 

That day, I worked till late in the evening and sent her the developed speech with a note to see her tomorrow evening at 05.00 pm. The next day at her home when we started the rehearsal, I found her facing difficulty in pronouncing certain words in the speech. Every person carries the dialect of his or her mother tongue. Very few are exceptions to it Sreeja too had the same problem. I decided to replace the tougher words with tougher words with softer words. I corrected the words and sent the speech to her.

The next day when I went to her house for the rehearsal, she continued with the tougher version. I asked her the reason. She simply said, she would prefer the tougher version. with everyday practice, the difficulty started disappearing and on the final day she made it; she was selected as the best speaker. Without bothering about the results all she knew was to believe in herself, believe in her mentor and give her best, the rest she left to GOD. See you next time with the STORY OF SAMRIDH. 

THE STORY OF AMATUL SAFI

It was May 2010, YLP mood at the Jubail Toastmasters Club. Venkat Devrajan was the Chief Coordinator. I was asked to mentor two children one of which was Amatul Safi the daughter of Mr. Mahmood and Mrs. Tahera Mahmood. Amatul had a younger brother who was a karate kid and his watchfulness seemed to me a trait of it. The family belonged to the state of Orissa in India.

As soon as the mentors were fixed, like every caring mother does, I received a call from Mrs. Tahera Mahmood so that the family could have a formal talk and get introduced with each other. Children are often shy when it comes to talking to a stranger and especially when it is a girl child. A girl child would always insist her mother to take the lead and set things right for her; the same was the case here. Mrs. Tahera, when she found that I was well versed with Hindi, she was happy for the reason that the communication during mentoring would not be a concern of worry.

The rendez-vous at their house started with a warm welcome. As we all settled down, Labeeb, Safi’s younger brother sat beside me. I gave them the primary explanation of what was Youth Leadership program. What were the phases Amatul we would be going through. There were four things to be done, first the ice-breaker speech, second the international speech, third the evaluation and lastly table topics.

The ice-breaker is a collection of memorable glimpses of one’s life. It is a self-introductory speech of 04 to 06 minutes. She did it well. Generally children find it easy to write about themselves but the real difficulty appears in writing an International speech; an international speech is a persuasive speech, a motivational speech or an inspirational speech.

One fine day I received a call from Mrs. Tahera asking me to help her out. As I inquired about the problem she told me that her daughter was complaining about not paying attention to her needs and that she preferred younger child Labeeb over her. Amatul wanted her mother to help her select a topic and a plot for the international speech; both were confused. I suggested why not consider the current scenario in the house for the speech content. I asked Amatul to write her feeling in whatever way she can. She eagerly wrote it and I meticulously developed it.

The story starts with a girl (Amatul) having preconceived thoughts, it revolves around an elderly character. At first she questions herself “What does a girl of 17 have in common with a man of 57?” she ignores this elderly figure who is her father’s friend whom she had never seen before. Few remarks from the elderly figure interests her and is drawn closer, later on she gets transformed and takes the right path. The story line was much closer to Amatul’s heart. I could she her best come out through her body language, command over English and well rehearsed delivery. She bagged the best speaker trophy. 

During the rehearsal Labeeb, Amatul's brother was a keen observer, and very much into it. He kept guessing about the elderly character (His father's friend); how come Amatul knows him and he doesn't? To quench his curiosity he surfed the net many times but couldn't get the answer. Unable to resist, he finally asked my "Who that person was?" I replied "it was me". The whole house bursted into laughter.

See you next time with THE STORY OF SREEJA.