One Step Closer

(Infosys Pune Toastmasters Club (IPTMC) wll be celebrating its 100th meeting on the 12th August 2009. As a part of this occasion, an Inter Club Speech Contest is organised for which speakers will be invited from the different TM clubs across Pune district. To represent IPTMC in this competition a prelim was organised where the top two speakers selected to carry the banner of IPTMC. I was one of the selected two. Below is my speech. The theme for the 100th meeting is "One Step Closer". )

On 28th August 1963 one black man, not very imposing but resolute, stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and thundered:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

That man was none other than Martin Luther King Jr. The “I have a dream speech” delivered that day brought not only the American-African community but all the other colored races “One Step Closer” to the hope of equality and redemption.

Mr Contest Chair, fellow toastmasters and guests a very Good Evening. I stand before you to take you One Step Closer to “One Step Closer”.

I must admit that the theme “One Step Closer” appeared to be vague to me at the outset, but then as I gave it a thought it became clear that it was anything but vague. In fact, I would go on to say that “One Step Closer” is not only a mere expression but it is so powerful an arrangement of words that I am forced to call it a concept, an idea, An idea that can very well change your life”. …

“One Step Closer” is more psychological than anything else. Imagine a rabbit chasing a carrot dangling at the end of the treadmill. The rabbit is running with all its might; all it can see and smell is only the carrot which is dangling in front of him. It is running but somehow it cannot get closer to the carrot. The rabbit is hungry; and it is not intelligent enough to understand that it will never get to the carrot until the treadmill stops. But then, why does the rabbit continue to run? If you ask me it is not just its hunger but its feeling that “with each leap I am getting
One Step Closer to my goal” that makes it continue to run until it faints out of sheer exhaustion.

When you realize that whatever efforts you are putting in are taking you closer to what you want to achieve, you don’t mind putting in extra efforts to get there. Remember when you were in school, how a mere pat on the back from your school teacher or even words of praise from your mother made you stay up all night and complete that math exercise which normally you would have ignored. Well that pat on the back, those mere words of praise were nothing else but an indication that “Son, carry on you are One Step Closer to completing that exercise”.

14th February is a very important day at least in my calendar. It was my first Valentine’s Day in college when I saw her some 6 years ago. She was not exactly a show stopper, or somebody for whom heads would turn but she was what I had always dreamt off. I still remember the last time I looked at her that day; she had smiled a smile which was careless yet measured. Her smile told me that I was “One Step Closer” to falling in love. I need not ask you whether you have had such an experience or not. Am I correct?

Failures can also take you One Step Closer to Success. You just have to take a peek at the lifes of great inventors and scientists to understand that each failure made them learn how not to approach the problem at hand and thus brought them One Step Closer to their invention or discovery. Thomas Edison brightened our paths not only with the bulb he invented but also with his famous quote, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Each failure which Edison encountered showed him how his approach was wrong. Each failure which Edison encountered, took him “One Step Closer” to the light.

It is rightly said that everything in this world is relative. A glass of water can either be half full or half empty, similarly one can either be “One Step Closer” to glory or “One Step Closer” to annihilation. And it is the latter which the cynics amongst us would root for.

Maybe this is the reason why I have always been in a dilemma whether or not to celebrate my birthdays. Doesn’t each of my birthdays take me “One Step Closer” to the inevitable ?

The concept of “One Step Closer” has so many implications, so many different aspects to it, right from your life’s dream to your life’s love. It is both surreal and simple at the same time. Surreal because it makes sense to both an optimist and a pessimist and Simple because it makes me realize that even as I speak I am getting One Step Closer not only to the end of my speech but to the fulfillment of a dream.

Yes, even “I have a dream” and that is to don a best fit blazer and represent my Club in the Inter-Club Speech Contest.

This speech is nothing but a humble effort to get “One Step Closer” to realizing that dream.