INDEX

SR. NO.	UPCOMING TOPICS	DATE	LABEL
1	Certification		Youth
2
3
4

LABEL	FROM A GUEST TO A DTM
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	Prelude	Published	Continued
2.	The story of a story teller	Published	Continued
3.	The story of Arvind Srivastav	Published	Continued
4.	The story of Santosh John	Published	Continued
5.	The story of Rajeev Pillai	Published	Continued
6.	The story of DTM George	Published	Continued
7.	The story of DTM Sushil Agrawal	Published	Continued
8.	The story of DTM Safare Mohamed	Published	Continued
9.	The story of Jaman Al-Ghamdi	Published	Continued
10.	The story of Hareesh Bhargawan	Published	Continued
11.	The story of Javed Ansari	Published	Continued
12.	The story of Waheed Lateef	Published	Continued
13.	The story of DTM Jagdeesan Kumar	Published	Continued
14.	The story of DTM Peri	Published	Continued
15.	The story of DTM PGR Nair	Published	Continued
16.	Coming to a halt	Published	Over

                    

LABEL	MENTORING
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	In search of one, who…	Published	Continued
2.	The story of Madhu Suraiya-1	Published	Continued
3.	The story of Madhu Suraiya-2	Published	Continued
4.	The story of Durga Datta Tripathi	Published	Continued
5.	The story of Sudhakar Devangodi	Published	Continued
6.	The story of Anupama Shetty	Published	Continued
7.	The story of Hema Hareesh	Published	Continued
8.	The story of Amatul Saafi	Published	Continued
9.	The story of Sreeja	Published	Continued
10.	The story of Samridh	Published	Continued
11.	The story of Samina Mazher
12.	Mentoring as I saw it
13.	Mentoring Toastmasters

LABEL	LIFE
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	Life is what we…	Published	Over
2.	What is life?	Published	Over
3.	The story of Indu-1	Published	Continued
4.	The story of Indu-2	Published	Continued
5.
6.
7.
LABEL	EXPERIENCE
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	My village then and now	Published	Over
2.	Turbulence-1	Published	Continued
3.	Turbulence-2	Published	Continued
4.	Groundnuts here and groundnuts there	Published	Over
5.	Facebook, you and him	Published	Over
6.	Copying-1	Published	Continued
7.	What’s up?	Published	Over
8.	From hiccups to ha, ha, ha	Published	Over
9.	What goes around comes around-1	Published	Over
10.	What goes around comes around-2	Published	Over
11.	The story of Neha Patel	Published	Over
12.	The story of Naresh Iyer	Published	Over
13.	Reaching the office	Published	Over
14.	Leaving the office

LABEL	IN LIGHTER MOOD
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	Facebook, you and me	Published	Over
2.	Copying-2	Published	Over
3.	I love you-1	Published	Over
4.	I love you-2	Published	Over
5.	Having an affair	Published	Over
	Update and Likes-1
	Update and Likes-1

LABEL	YOUTH
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	The story of Ganesh	Published	Over
2.	The story of Binal Kotecha	Published	Over
3.	The story of Zia
4.	The black beauty I met

LABEL	PARENTING
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	Beginning	Published	Continued
2.	Generation gap	Published	Over
3.	SIP-1	Published	Over
4.	SIP-2	Published	Over
5.	Glimpses of love	Published	Over
6.	Glimpses of understanding	Published	Over

LABEL	RELATIONS
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	A girlfriend becomes a wife	Published	Continued
2.	Why doesn’t a wife become a girlfriend?	Published	Continued
3.
4.

LABEL	THOUGHT
Sr. No.	TOPICS	STATUS	REMARK
1.	Love far and near	Published	Over
2.	Emergence	Published	Over
3.	A tribute to ladies, an appeal to men	Published	Over
4.	Reaching the destination	Published	Over
5.	Love within and love without	Published	Over
6.	Direction	Published	Over

PRELUDE: FROM A GUEST TO A DTM

At the terminus the train is completely vacant, few moments later before it starts off, it gets sparingly populated, the compartments are almost empty. Slowly and slowly  as the train commences, passes-by station after station, the influx of passengers is on the rise. The vacant seats get occupied; and you have someone sitting beside you, may be a man not relevant to your profession, not in line with your likes, a man not belonging to your state or a man with a different dialect. Every man has something to share and something to say. The journey of the person sitting beside you may end up in between. and then you have someone else occupying the sit beside you. He may have something different to say and share. It is this difference, it is this diversity that adds to your enrichment of knowledge base, experience and storehouse of stories. The suburban trains of Mumbai are breeding grounds of numerous story. It is said Mumbai is a city always on the move. It is also said Mumbai is a city which never sleeps. It is estimated that everyday around twenty five families come to Mumbai in search of livelihood, they settle down, make Mumbai their home and never go back.

Once a person came to Bombay totally unknown to its citizens, unknown to the place and unknown to the pace. A stranger in a strange land. He was on the look for an easy-to-catch job and without any delay he found one. The job of shoe polishing; shoe polishing of train commuters. He was good at multi-tasking. Along with shoe polishing he was focused on building public relations. It is with public relations that he managed to climb the ladder of progression. He knew where he was heading for. He was a man from remote area, an area far away from the city. Having managed a family accommodation, his wife joined him. She was amazed and astonished at first by the traffic, by the rush, by the language the people spoke. She was an alien in this strange world. This world did not relate to her world in any way. As the man managed to climb to the position of a CEO in a paints company his wife too took lessons in Spoken English, she took lesson in driving and completely adapted herself to the city. Position did not matter much, he did not forget to travel in the suburban train. 

The Label “FROM A GUEST TO A DTM” is a similar non-fictional journey starting from a scratch on May 10, 2009 and finishing on June 30, 2013. In particular it is the journey of Toastmastering; a journey which starts from being nobody and culminating into being somebody, a journey which starts from being a guest and finishing into being a Distinguished Toastmasters. The hidden emphasis is on the importance of public relations. The journey kicks off with a story of a story teller and is subsequently followed by stories of few eminent personalities whom I met on this journey. It ends with a conclusion. I hope you will enjoy and enrich from it. The very purpose of putting before you this series “FROM A GUEST TO A DTM” is to raise curiosity, to raise questions, to generate impetus and seek solution. Wishing you all the best on your journey to reach the coveted DTM status.

Next time see you with “STORY OF A STORY TELLER” 

LOVE FAR AND NEAR

A clock is a device to mark the commencement and accomplishment of an event. Man made a clock and then progressed to make different version of it; the analog clock the digital clock, quartz clock and atomic clocks etc. God too has made the celestial clock and the biological clock.

The biological clock marks the commencement of different phases in a person’s life. It sets the secretion of body hormones which in turns reflects the change in body appearance, body language and the thought process. There is a change throughout, the body chemistry changes and together with the body chemistry changes the thought chemistry. The world of fantasy soars exponentially and a person sinks deeply in love. The sedimentation of love thoughts consolidates his perception of love.

In my previous office my junior was a young girl in her twenties. She was an open-minded girl. Once during the tea break she opened the topic of love. Being young she was more inclined towards demanding love, commanding love, possessive love. Possessive love is that which expects possession. A line is drawn around me and mine. Often one misses to look beyond the line. Similar school of thought is seen at many place in offices, in families, in societies, in communities, in institution and on the roads.

People settle for small gains and let lose big gains. It also happens when we pray God. We ask for petty things such as getting our children married, getting our children clear the exams, getting job for our children and so on and so forth. In this process we forget to ask wisdom. Earthly things are temporary things. They come, they go. But wisdom stays forever, wisdom can generate earthly things, wisdom can create wealth, wisdom can build healthy relation, wisdom can work wonders.

I remember a story. It were the days of turmoil, the days of civil war. Where in  a youngster whose marriage was fixed, fights with his community to save a young girl belonging to another country and another culture. He had to go through few near death situations. In the end he is able to hands over that girl to her parents and returns back.

Time rolls on weeks after weeks, months after months, years after years and decades after decades. On one end, the youngster had passed away but that girl was still alive. That girl in her old age could not resist, the thought of visiting the youngster who saved her life. “She comes to his village and finds that he has passed away. She meets his wife who welcomes her gracefully. She is told he was a beautiful person and a dutiful husband. He had also talked about her and the way he managed to take her to her parents. She had no words to express but something great to feel. A priceless treasure which nobody can rob. It was all hers. 

Many a times we come across such persons who keep us going even in their absence, their stories and their actions are strong enough to provide us the inspiration, motivation and morals strength to keep us going. Love happens while seeing someone, love happens while listening to someone and love happens while thinking of someone; thereafter, it continues and lingers on, even in his or her absence.

THE STORY OF ANUPAMA SHETTY

Randomness is a game of chance. All games have rules but randomness doesn't have. Often relations emerge out of randomness. Temporary needs are met by randomly asking someone for help. It again remains a matter of chance that the person who helped never reappears or that meeting becomes the cause of a blissful acquaintance. It was out of randomness that a lady approached me and asked me to evaluate her speech even though she had a evaluator nominated for her speech. She was Anupama Shetty.

Few days later TM Makarand approached me asking to mentor her. I agreed and thus started the journey of mentoring her. She had already completed her fourth project and we were into the fifth project; a project dealing with body language. I had received her speech and I was required to edit and develop it. I asked her comfort level if the script ran through her college days. With the completed speech in her hands she had few hesitations about the characters in the script. She suggested few changes and thus the script was given final shape. This has helped me understand a lady mentee and her angle of perception. Finally during the speech delivery I couldn't see a mother of two daughter but a college girl at her best. She enlivened the script.

It was 2011-12 she had won at the Elite Toastmasters Club International Speech Contest and was going to represent her club at the area level. When the level of competition rises the energy, time and dedication of both mentor and the mentee also rises.

I had worked on the script opening it with a question; every line, every paragraph, every story and anecdote was made to direct towards a convincing conclusion answering the opening question made at the beginning of the speech.

It was time to start rehearsing, she might have thought that the script would have minor changes here and there. She confidently started off, after a while I stopped her saying “You are much away from the actual content of the script”. She took the script in her hand and having gone through it expressed her inability, she was of the opinion that it would be difficult for her to adapt to those changes.

It is at this juncture that the mentor role becomes important. I have been through many instances when it was time to perform and the mentee sank into depression and ignorance, unaware of his or her potentials and ability. It is the mentor who provides strength, hope and moral support. In the end they walked away with trophies. 

    

I told her don’t start judging yourself, leave that for me. As we practiced, line by line paragraph by paragraph I could see the confidence instilling in her, at time she would raise a question about appropriateness of a  particular word, the sense of a sentence. Sincerity paved the way to receive the trophy, she bagged the third prize.

She was a teacher at the International Indian School, Jubail but when need be and situation demanded the student in her would come alive. Once a student always a student, once a learner always a learner, back home in India she is doing Bachelors in Education. May the spirit and mettle of a student continue in her. Next time I will be there with the story of TM Hema Hareesh.

THE STORY OF SUDHAKAR DEVANGODI

Any action demands something and also does it reward something. If we look at walking, brisk walking demands will and energy and rewards us with toned up muscle and strengthened lungs. Walking is a solitary exercise where in the investor is you and the harvester is you. When something is done with people around, it tends to have different implications. When ability, knowledge, power and position moves to you, public eyes rolls on you. Many eyes watch you and many hearts expect from you.

My Competent Communication level happened to be a ZIP, ZAP, ZOOM, the Advance Communication Bronze another one and the Competent Leadership yet another one. Achievements proportionally raise expectancy. Toastmasters is no exception.

TM Makarand Palamwar, my club president approached me with a request. He wanted me to share my experience and groom two of the club members. One of them was TM Sudhakar Devangodi. We knew each other by name and face. We were not close to each other but this was an opportunity know each other well. I was then his mentor.

The first thing a doctor does to his patient is to observe him. The way he looks, the way he talks, the way he behaves, the way he expresses and the thing that he expects. Mentoring too seems to be an assignment no less than of a doctor; critical, delicate, difficult, demanding and delivering.

Some of the observation that I had made about Sudhakar were, he was less assertive, less expressive and his world lay hidden within him, less exposed to the outer world. I was lucky enough to reach the beauty of his inner world.

He was a complete family man, at times his daughters and wife would accompany him to the Toastmasters meeting. I could sense commitment in his action. He would sincerely and seriously follow any assignment given to him. At times he would come up with creative ideas and thoughts which were reflected in his speeches that he wrote. He was man with a good sense of humor. Such personalities at times need a gentle push to keep them going.

In a mentor mentee relation either the mentee calls the mentor or the mentor calls the mentee, who calls whom, is not important but the very essential thing is the call, in short “The show has to go on”.

At time I would give him a call, ask him about work at the office, health of family members and the last thing would be about his speech. I was never in a hurry. I would suggest him to write a paragraph or two depending upon his mood and time. For him the key to success was “Slow and steady wins the race”. He really made it. He completed his Competent Communicator-10 speech within the expected time frame. He really made me proud; he has given me an opportunity to understand him and unknowingly provided lessons on how to deal with persons of his nature and personality.

While doing the Competent Leadership manual there is one assignment of getting the feedback from one’s mentee. I called him to do it for me. He came to my house and did it. Having done it, he asked me “Why do you do mentoring this way?” I told him, I did not get you. He said “Why so seriously?” I did not reply him for the simple reason I did not have a reply. This question of his has helped me understand what it means to be serious and has showed the road that lay ahead on the path of mentoring. Next time I will be with another story, the story of TM Anupama Shetty.