Toastmasters Demo Meet

Public speaking is among mankind’s greatest fears – second only to death.

From sweaty palms to cracking voices, speaking publicly can be terrifying, but there’s absolutely no denying that it is a crucial skill to have in this day and age. The Toastmasters demonstration conducted last Sunday addressed this issue by promising to help students overcome their stage fright, thereby assisting them in enhancing their leadership skills and face the outside world with a more positive and confident approach. Toastmasters boasts of being a world renowned non-profit organization known to produce confident public speakers and strong leaders, along with bearing a brand name that has a huge impact in any job interview or assessment that one might be facing in the near future.

The 19th of Feb saw a gathering of a considerable number of students, eagerly anticipating the event. The objective of this meeting was to educate students on the benefits of this association, and to hopefully start a branch in Manipal exclusively for the students. It was initially addressed by our very own director, Dr. G.K Prabhu who is known to go out of his way to create such initiatives for his students, after which the ‘Toast Master of the Day’, Mr. Sridhar Kamath set the tone for the session. He called upon the speakers and requested the grammarian to give the word of the day, thereby initiating the demo session.

The first speaker, Mr. Krishna Devate working in Infosys fashioned a new nickname for himself called “Glass wala Gunda”. He then went on to give a rather entertaining speech about how he received that particular nickname, by having had some unfortunate incidents involving himself and glasses. The second speaker was Mrs. Debora Lobo, who moved the audience with her captivating speech on discovering herself and finding the motto “I can”, which encouraged her to overcome all the hurdles in her life. This was followed by a speech from Mrs. Deepa Bhandary, who used visuals to create a vivid as well as a humorous soliloquy about her family and her grandchildren who she evidently adores.

The speeches were then followed by Table Topic discussions which were undoubtedly the most eventful part of the entire meeting. Five volunteers from the audience were given a topic each, and were asked to speak for a minute without any preparation – a feat most people would consider their worst nightmare! Not so surprisingly, all the volunteers delivered speeches that were both eloquent and mature, and rendered all the representatives heavily impressed. The second half of the meeting was dedicated to the Evaluators, the Timer, and the Grammarian who respectively pointed out both the highs and lows of all the speeches.

Glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking is something that takes a toll on most people’s self-esteem, and leaves them without confident while walking around in the outside world. It is the mirage that exists before one enters the stage to face his dark demons, and perhaps the biggest achievement of an organisation such as this one is its fierce attempt to shatter that mirage completely. It gives people the confidence to lead a positive life, and the college’s initiative on addressing the matter is highly commendable.

– Marziyah Husain, for MTTN