The ICE BREAKER- TM project 1

The journey of a Toastmaster begins with Project 1 where he is to deliver his first speech in front of his fellow toastmasters. Below is my speech. I drafted it today and would present it mostly by the end of April. The allotted time for the speech is 4-6 minutes:

Standing at Pune station waiting for my local just a few days back my eyes rested on a weighing machine. I am not a health freak (well you can make that out looking at me I think) but then once in a while curiosity about my well being gets the better of me and so I decide to get my weight checked. The thing about these weighing machines which amazes me is that on the card that comes out there is your fortune written on the reverse. So you look at your weight start worrying and then you turn the card and there it is printed, “Today a beautiful girl will ask you for a lift”. And you start looking out for that elusive beautiful girl. So hoping for the best, I push the rupee coin in the machine and out comes the card. I am not going tell you how much I weighed but this is what was written on the back of the card. “Get ready, very soon you will need to introduce yourself”.

And today that prediction has come true. Good evening fellow toastmasters and guests I am Toastmaster Advait standing in front of you to talk about myself.

A farmer’s son set out from his home because he wanted to study further. He made the cut for the Indian Navy only to be rejected at the last hurdle because his eye sight was not up to the mark. He had watched a partial solar eclipse using a tainted glass during his childhood, unaware that this mistake would cost him his carrier. He finally retired last year as the Head of the English Dept of the most reputed college in Nashik. That is my father.

She deftly managed her kids and work and presently serves as the Head Mistress of a Govt aided school in Nashik and it is a pleasant coincidence that even she teaches English. She smiles knowingly when somebody comes to her and complains about work-life balance. That is my mother.

Both my parents teach English and this fact has been a source of many funny moments in my life. My friends and people around me have always felt that I have a command over the language; reason being both my parents teach English. To tell you frankly I am no Shakespeare nor am I Churchill, in fact I don’t remember my parents breaking their heads over my English studies. And somebody please tell my friends that knowledge is not transferred genetically :). Then there was this person who once approached me and asked, “Are you Professor Borate’s son?” I said “Yes”. He very innocently enquired, “Don’t get me wrong son, but tell me do everybody in your house talk in English?” I couldn't control my laughter.

Parents who are teachers are a bit tough to handle especially for an adolescent and more so for a teenager. Teachers are known to everybody in a radius of 25 kms from their residence and more often than not their workplaces also fall within that limit. Teachers make it a point to admit their kids in the same institutions in which they are teaching. Though my school, St Xavier’s High School was not were my mother taught but then a few of my teachers in school had been my father’s students. Everybody knew me and if they did not then hearing my last name they always wanted to know me. Imagine this, you bunk a lecture in college and instead of the lecturer asking you, your father would ask you the reason for the same. A tight situation you would say.

Then there was an identity crisis. They did not know me or did not want to know me as Advait, they wanted to know me as Prof Borate’s son or Madam Borate’s son. All this seems funny now but I remember I used to storm in the house and narrate this to my parents.

After my 12th I got admitted to the Govt College of Engg Pune. New city meant nobody knew me and nobody wanted to know me. I was eager to explore my new found freedom and the 4 years in college I enjoyed like anything. I studied whatever was required to take me through the exams comfortably. That was where I learnt the significance of effort saving.

From my first salary I bought myself a black 2GB Ipod Nano. Thanks to the Nano I can indulge in my hobby of listening to music. My job gave me the courage to fulfill two more of my wishes. I got an eye brow pierced and a permanent tattoo on my right forearm. I couldn't get this done during my engg. Imagine the impression you would make in front of an external examiner during your orals with this stuff. I love reading and bored of American paperbacks am recently exploring the works of Indian authors.

Together with my Ipod there is one more thing which is precious to me and that is my Bullet. I am a rider at heart always looking for anything that would make me hop on my Bull. I have roamed quite a few places around Pune, and Hyderabad. Its amazing when you just leave everything and go out riding in the horizon with no worries on your mind. It’s my dream to someday ride upto Leh-Ladakh.

I am a person who is more into the present than the future or the past. I worry of what is happening right now than what will happen next because it is our present that shapes our future.

Don’t let that make you think that I don’t believe in fortune cards especially the one which come out of weighing machines.

I am still looking for that elusive beautiful girl who is going to ask me for a lift!!!

Back to you Mr. Toastmaster