Starting a Toastmasters Club

The following is an addition I've made in LinkedIn in the District 82 Toastmasters group discussion titled "What are the best strategies to start a new club, which shall not die irrespective of circumstances ? Share your thoughts"

Hi guys! I now feel like an idiot after reading many good strategies.. we started a club in TCS Gurgaon in April 2009 and have literally lived through the phrase "Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread" ! We were just 2 junior-level employees committed to "the cause" - myself being the only one who had any working knowledge of "this TM thing" - all of 4 months and 2 or 3 speeches (!!). All I knew at the time was the roles in a meeting. Every week from April through June we held a demo meeting, and we'd get 2 people signing up and 1 backing out because of on-site or off-job (the good guys usually leave!).

After lots of stumbling and frequent guest appearances, encouragement as well as outright scolding (very helpful!) from the area, division and district governor, we accumulated a good enough number of comrades to call ourselves a "club"!. In June 2009, we told 23 people, individually, that 19 others had already signed up to be charter members and we just needed one more (everyone is so reluctant!) And it worked!!

Even after charter, it was hectic just getting the meetings on (including scraping the HR and Admin week after week for venue and having several last-minute dropouts), but once we were into one, the sheer experience just propelled us forward. I served as Vp-Ed and then President. We went through times when only 1 or 2 or 3 EC members would be around. But fortunately the intrinsic value of TM kept attracting more and more people (and sending a good number to onsite, MBA and job hops as well so it was net neutral!).

Over the course of a year, I learnt a valuable lesson as a club leader : We have to let go, put our faith in others and trust that things will work out. Planning helps a lot but it can never cover all the corners as effectively as faith, optimism and on-the-spot thinking can.

I'm proud to say that we've come a long way and achieved many awesome things out of sheer trial and error even though they seemed impossible at the outset. We've even hosted area and division level events and were able to give back to the fraternity. After an year+, I am now an un-involved past member, have left TCS and our club is being run by brand-new TM's who are taking on the leadership roles enthusiastically. In fact, club performance has improved AFTER I've left. (which proves the argument that governments and diapers should be changed frequently, and for the same reason!)

I'm not sure if what we did would work elsewhere, but for me, here's the strategy to start and run a club that won't die out:

1. Lead by example.
2. Learn by doing.
3. Learn from others' examples. Attend other clubs.
4. Take baby steps and then the occasional leap of faith.
5. Be persistent and optimistic with tasks, but patient and neutral with people.
6. Any idiot can do whatever you're doing, so delegate away!
7. Planning helps, but never get religious about sticking to it. Let things be dynamic.
8. Never discriminate between members. There is no difference between a novice and an advanced speaker/leader during a meeting. Treat everyone equally.
9. Share all knowledge and decisions with everybody. Don't keep a critical dependency with any 1 person, including yourself.
10. Enjoy the journey with all its roadblocks. Don't worry about the destination.
11. Believe that the Toastmasters concept can carry itself forward, you just have to pass the baton and get out of the way.
12. Do not let permissions, authority or limitations hinder the club. (esp for corporate clubs!). You can always find a workaround.
13. There is always a plan B, even if you haven't thought of it yet.

Family Tree

I'm using Geni to create an online family tree - since it's virtual, it's flexible, I can keep on adding people as I find them and my family members can join in the process too!

Here's an embedded view of my family tree:

Lateral thinking 101

Problem 1: A malnourished potted plant, suffering for lack of regular watering in the summer heat.


Problem 2: A leaky cheap AC we rented for the summer. It drips water off the extremity constantly while running, making pools of filthy water in the balcony.

Solution: Put the plant below the AC's leak spot!

 

A month on, the plant's thriving! We gave the fella DRIP IRRIGATION - that's even better than simply watering the plants :)

Story of a person living without money

I received this in an email from my friend Rima who's an avid writer.

Dear all,

Recently I read about a person called Mark Boyle. He has published a book named The Moneyless Man- A Year of Freeconomic Living. This person lives in Briton, in a place called Bath. This man grows his own food, so he does not have to spend money shopping, uses a mixture of cuttlefish and fennel seeds for toothpaste, and prepares washing detergent by boiling foraged soap nuts. He powers his laptop by solar power and has a hole in the ground for a toilet. He occasionally rummages through supermarket bins. According to him, you can find anything you want in super market bin and it is symbolic of the world we live in.

Mark was once a student of economics and now he lives a life in a caravan, as he saw Mahatma Gandhi’s film in the fourth year of his studies, which left a deep impact on him. So he began to read as much as possible about this Indian leader and his principles and quotes influenced him greatly, especially the quote, be the change you want to see in the world. After completing his studies, Mark worked for Organic food industry, but he realized that the industry suffered from the same problems of excessive packaging, uses a lot of plastic, massive food  miles and big businesses buying small one. He also realized that money disconnects people from what they are consuming and till the degrees of separation between consumer and consumed is decreased, nothing would change. Boyle has been living TV free too, as he realized that TV wastes a lot of man hours. (Recently when I was in India, I was talking to a young girl about her T-Shirt and I just mentioned that the work on it is beautiful, whoever has done it, must have spent a lot of time, she immediately told me that he was paid for it, without realizing that the person has really put in a great effort.) Boyle is saying in his book that he wants to reduce administrative work and want more people to work in primary industries such as farming. Recently he hosted a party for 700 people and 90% of the things came from supermarket bin. He found 700 jars of chocolate spread, which costs 2000 British pounds, but just because it had expired, they were thrown out. But no one understands that it would have not gone bad till 2020 because of its sugar content. He has found out from official sources that an average American throws 40% of his food in the bin, where as in Britain, it is 35% and he feels that when millions of people don’t get one square meal, wasting so much food is criminal. He says that as recycling was not a good word ten years ago, food wasting should also be seen in the same way, it has to be a cultural change more than the law changing it. He has published this book and whatever money he gets from selling this book, he will buy a land, where he will train people on how to live without money to live sustainably. After that, he will build a project for charity.

I really liked the idea. I don’t know how much we can implement it, but it is always good to see the other side of the coin. Let me finish this mail here.  Hope all of you are fine there.

Regards

Rima

I found more info on this article: http://dontgiveupworld.com/short-essays/the-moneyless-man-how-did-mark-boyle-spend-a-year-without-spending-a-dollar-submtd-by-sandeep-rajbhushan/

In the narrative, Boyle talked about getting so many of his things for free on freecycle. Well, if he can, then so can we!
Here is the Freecycle group in Pune: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freecycle-Pune/

Here's another nice site mentioned: http://www.justfortheloveofit.org - use this to share skills in your community for free.

Random Ideas : How did the critter cross the road?

I have read in some places about the effect that a road has on a land it cuts across. Basically it splits the place in two. I'm talking from the small animals' perspective.
The survival of many species in particular areas depends on their ability to move across the territory. When a road cuts through a place, animals like squirrels, snakes, insects, etc are put into immense danger. In the article I read, it talked about how many snake species in the western ghats in India are being threatened because they get killed regularly by vehicles while crossing roads. Poor things can't even be seen by the incoming cars and trucks, and you can't really blame them for being so short that they can't see the fast incoming vehicles in time to dodge them.

Maybe making small drains / tunnels below the roads at various points could help. Just a simple pipe that's put across the road, before laying it on. And the ground around those places could be leveled in such a way as to channel the critters to the pipes. Such channels below the road are probably used at places for handling rainwater flowing downhill. But we probably need to enlarge them to accommodate the animals as well.

Electric Cars - the potential of source independence

This is an extension form my previous post about Idea for Selling Electric Cars

I got this idea while watching a youtube video of a test drive of the Nissan Leaf - a really hot up-and-coming electric car.

Premise : Source
Instead of focusing on what comes out, let's focus on what goes in. In a fuel-powered car, we're using a chemical energy source which is fixed - within a given range of parameters, there's only one type of fuel we can use. This creates source dependence. At any given time, even if you have an abundance of energy in other forms, you'll still need to go to a gas station to power this so-useful machine. That sucks!

What sets the electric vehicle apart:
The electric vehicle gives source independence. You can convert just about any source of energy into electricity and store it in the electric vehicle's batteries.
ANY source : Solar, wind, nuclear, thermal, hydro, chemical (fuel cell), and.. mechanical!

The Story of the Roma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11080315 : BBC News - Sarkozy vows to continue expulsions of Roma from France

The story of the Roma, in 11 short points:

1. The French government have taken a decision to get rid of the Roma. Nobody really knows why, they just want to.

2. Their argument is that the Roma are harmful, lawless and dangerous, detrimental to the proper functioning of the state. They've cited a few one-off incidents and pronounced all the Roma guilty.

3. We know the Roma are not harmful or lawless. A few one-off incidents and circumstances cannot be used to pass judgement like this, besides, a little closer investigation into the actual facts shows a different reality than that being portrayed by the government. There is clearly no intent among the Roma to cause any harm or harassment to the French State or its people.

4. The Roma are just a bit different from the mainstream population. They are gypsies - nomadic; they don't own property and live a down-to-earth lifestyle and their way of life gives them have a slight repulsion to authority and conformity. This aspect may have made them different from the regular French citizens.

Story : The King and the Well

Scene 1: Prologue:

Once upon a time, in  land far, far away, there was a princely state having a beautiful capital town which was very prosperous and had a generous King.
This state and its neighbors would hold gatherings every four years, with the venues being rotated among the states. Now was our King's turn to plan. He wanted to showcase something great, something brilliant, to all the other states. So, he sent out an edict : On the chosen Day, the main well in the town (now dry and unused) was to be filled with milk!

All the milk sellers in the town were at first worried, because understandably how could one produce so much extra milk when they regularly didn't. But their fears were allayed when it was announced that they would all receive the necessary funding from the royal treasury for the same. It was a matter of national honor - no compromises were to be made.
Strangely enough, the town had got an extra dozen milk-sellers registered in the main market just days before the announcement, so there, everybody was happy. A well full of milk! Wow, that would Really psyche the visitors out! This town, and this state were on the path to become legendary!

Scene 2 : 6 months to the Day:

It seems the treasury was indeed very generous - to facilitate all the world-class requirements of the milk suppliers, no expense was spared; on the contrary more were regularly added to the whole, in bits and pieces, that is! Right from imported grass to special medicines for the cows to the latest preservatives and refrigeration technologies- everything had to be world-class! It was a matter of honor! Some people did point out that the combined budget was going over 10 times the initially planned one, but it was all taken in good spirit.

Scene 3 : 1 month to the Day:
Everyone was now gung-ho about it! The checking commission decided to inspect the well. They were all expecting a treat. What they got was a shock.

Should a person who exposed the truth, get prosecuted?

Lots of stuff going on on the international scene regarding Wikileaks and its sensational disclosure of confidential US army data, that blew the lid off some very questionable acts committed in Afghanistan.

Rather than looking into the matter of actually prosecuting the people behind the atrocities, there is a debate ranging on whether Wikileaks and its founder/spokesperson, Julian Assange, should actually be prosecuted! The Pentagon is said to be seriously looking into how best to get him incarcerated or worse, killed.


http://opiniojuris.org/2010/08/21/can-the-us-prosecute-wikileaks-founder-sure-if-they-can-catch-him/

My opinion:
If a law, when interpreted in a certain way, allows you to commit a crime, then it is the law or its interpretation that is wrong. Either an exception must be made in its application in exceptional circumstances, or the law in its present form, must be struck down to be replaced by a better one.

But following a law despite knowing that doing so violates a bunch of preceding laws and also defeats the main purpose for which the law was created - to protect the country and its citizens - would be more illegal than the original act.

Social Entrepreneurship : Why the government is best when not interfering

This is my addition to a brilliant post about social entrepreneurship in India on:

http://aartishrivastava.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/social-entrepreneurship-in-india

The part at the end about the Indian Government helping by not doing anything to stop - is actually very good news.
To expect governments to take care of each and every aspect of society is to put the powers of a God in the hands of fallible humans. We know how that venture has ended. The profit-centered capitalist system then went on to put those powers into private individuals' hands, and even that model seems to be collapsing.

The best bet, in my opinion, is to allow the people to help themselves.
I have observed that we have big heartless profiteering that harms the BOP - Bottom of the Pyramid, only in places where there is some or the other regulation, licenses, rebates, sops or other such artificial barriers or stimuluses. However noble the intentions may be, the top-down model seems to screw up something or the other everywhere.

Maybe not taking sides, maybe letting go and giving true freedom - Swarajya - is what we need to do.
I can see social entrepreneurship expanding into evermore sectors in the coming years. Hope I can be part of this wave as well.

Related stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6a9549ZeqQ - American constitutionalist Ron Paul explaining the easy pitfalls of pretending that government should be taking care of this and that part of day to day life, and clearly, factually, explaining why minimal government is the best bet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9Pe2y0GBE -  My speech titled "Let Go" (now I'm just bragging!)

Parody : Bomb Iraq

[This was in the 'letters to the editor' section in Arab News, back in 2003 when the Iraq invsion was just beginning. Back then I'd found it hilarious and noted it down - and even now, after all this time, it's got a truism to it that's hard to dismiss!
Sung to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands"]

If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are Saudi
And the bank takes back your Audi
And the TV shows are bawdy,
Bomb Iraq.

If the corporate scandals growin', bomb Iraq.
And your ties to them are showin', bomb Iraq..

Poem : Give Peace a Chance

Blast from the past! Just came across this poem I'd submitted for our yearly magazine when in Final year of engineering!

Give Peace a Chance
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” - George Santayana

Let's make clear everyone realizes the price we pay for war
The way humanity takes a back seat as tempers soar
The way we forget what's really important in this life
It's the love of loved ones, not a land in strife.

There are more bullets today than the world’s population
Yet for a fraction of the cost we could rid it of malnutrition
We’ve made nukes as a deterrent to wars
But yet our defense budget soars.

While we spend billions guarding our so-called borders
The people, stuffed with xenophobia, are dying from inside
What we need is more friendship, openness and respect
Not ‘enemies’ getting fried.

You say we’ll beat terror with the force of bullets
But tell me, when was the last time you fought fire with fire?

Featured Software : Opera Unite

Opera Unite

Last night I shared 200+ MBs of pics with a friend without having to upload / email anything. I just enabled the File Sharing in my Opera browser, set my folder and my friend was able to copy over everything directly!

Direct computer to computer file sharing, no restrictions or limitations, and the other person can use any web browser - you don't have to have Opera installed!
For my web browsing experience I still prefer Firefox, but this new feature of Opera  - Opera Unite - has got me floored. They've brought the true power of the internet to the end user : It's not just file sharing; I can host photo sharing, chat rooms, games, ....

Choose your destiny

Greedy CWG officials play with nation’s reputation

This might turn out to be the Biggest foreign relations disaster in our independent history. It may sound difficult, but it is our moral and ethical obligation to suspend/postpone the 2010 CommonWealth Games (CWG) and open full investigations, preferably call in someone from outside Delhi, as they did for the Metro, seeing the fact that practically every govt agency in Delhi is in on it. What we need here is a leadership that chooses to be accountable rather than convenient. Choosing to keep going ahead with the CWG in the name of pride, keeping the fraudsters in the driving seat, will only cause more disaster. After all, you should never put a criminal in charge of the crime scene.

Appeal to Delhi Government:

Here is a different take on the issue and a solution for you that will ensure your long term success.
You are worried about what is happening. That's understandable. The Commonwealth Games were supposed to be the hallmark of your tenure. The jewel in the crown. The showcase to the world. But step off the clouds and look at the ground for a moment. It's covered in ...

Fools rush in...

Fools rush in, where Angels fear to tread

 ...And so the Fool can go ahead and live his life, whereas the Angel stays above, away, proud, haughty, untouchable, yet scared and lonely.

I believe the "fool" and the "angel" referred  to here aren't how we see them from the outside, but rather how we see ourselves, from the inside. Let's analyze the two, shall we?

1. The Fool
If we accept that we are but fools, then we will not fear to do the things in life that can change it for the better. We will be open to change, rather anxiously awaiting it. Another popular book's title comes to mind : "Stay hungry, Stay foolish".
A person who considers himself/herself as a fool, recognizes that there are things to be learned, wisdom to be gained, from all the people around them.
So we venture forth.
We make new friends.
We build bridges.
We learn.
We grow.
By treating ourselves as but fools, we make it possible to do the things that were once considered impossible.

Look around you. Could our entire world of today have been possible without some fool somewhere rushing into hitherto unexplored territory? At some point, while others saw things as they were and wondered why, our fool saw things that never were and wondered, why not?

2. The Angel
If we consider ourselves to be the Angel, then we think too...

News that makes me think

With the onset of televised news coverage, I feel that we have stopped perceiving. We start seeing all events and happenings as disparate dots. But wouldn't intelligence require from us to connect the dots?

Their implications extend beyond the disparate events themselves; I advise you to read them with insight of what happens before and after - maybe then we can begin to see a pattern emerge and possibly predict a future trend?

Russia scientist fears arrest over Olympic warnings -
Decisions made by the top order sitting in Moscow, and implemented with an...

You judge too soon...

When others commit a blunder, it's a mistake. When I commit one, it's a crime.
When others think for themselves, it's being independent. When I do so, I'm being selfish.
When others act irrationally, they must have their reasons. When I do so, I must be insane.
When others follow their feelings, they're being romantic. When I try to, I'm called a pervert.

People, please start treating others as you would treat yourself.
Please try to understand more than you judge.
Please learn to discern the mountain from the molehill.
And, most important of all, Please grow up.

Facebook posts on the blog

Check it out!
New page: Facebook links

I usually share the nice webpages / articles / videos I see on facebook .. here I've embedded an RSS reader into the page that will bring all my posted facebook links out for all the world to see!
So now I only have to share stuff on facebook, and the same will be shared on my blog too ;)

My 20th Speech : Split Civilization

Friday, 18h June 2010 - Today I finished my 20th speech in Toastmasters... YAY!!

Best part : I've recorded it and put it on youtube! Click on more to check it out!!

My Contest Speeches

Expand this post to see the Videos of my contest speeches :)

What an idea!

How fruit trees in Indian village save girls' lives

What an amazing concept! Poverty, female foeticide and global warming all dealt with in a single blow!
Read this story about a village in Bihar where they have a tradition of planting 10 frut (mostly mango) trees when a girl child is born... by the time daughter's grown up, the family's rich!

Plus, they've written that this village stands out with its dense tree cover amidst an otherwise arid landscape - REFORESTATION!
Wow, what an idea!

Brute strentgh Vs Flexibility

He looked at the tree and thought, "enough time spent on that thing, I want something flat and square and rigid where no one else trespasses!"
So he built a house - broad, flat, with lots of room and off limits to all but Him and his family. It was better, more luxurious, easier to get into and out of.

He built them across the Earth, got used to thinking that this was the only possible way of living. The tree became a disdainful thing, probably just good for oxygen making but to heck with any other uses - he had his House for protection!

Then the rains came a little too much, the rivers jumped the banks and flooded His streets and cities and inundated His house, pillaged everything. In some places His house was washed away, in others destroyed. Then came an earthquake and his Oh-so-strong house crumbled under its own brittleness. Then came the tsunami and in one fell swoop cleared the shore. Then came the hurricane and the tornado and hit his House's walls at an angle they couldn't withstand, lifted His roof of and pillaged his oh-so-strong House again.

While he was rummaging through the debris and wading through the floodwaters, he saw the rough, slender trunk of the tree - it was still there. Up top, the branches and the leaves were still there. Some were lost, but most were still there. He didn't take any time to think, shrugged and moved on.
And then the tree thought to itself : "What an idiot. Everyone knows that the key to survival is not brute strength, but flexibility."

Read between the lines...

Would anybody be interested in this flip version of 3 Idiots??

Read this article. It's very short; please read it full:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/101240/India/iithyderabad-sacks-gay-professor.html

Analysis:
Their next ad for the now vacant post should read, "Only qualified heterosexuals need apply. All other qualities like competence, integrity, talent, intelligence etc etc negotiable. Candidate subject to live test in front of screening committee. Bring own supporting materials and/or personnel." ;) 

And the next headline : "Left handed prof sacked for trying to promote left-handedness through obscene and unconventional display of left arm usage in all day to day activities, and encouraging open discussions on the same"

Guys, read that article again and try to perceive what's going on behind the outside.

BP Oil ERUPTION case in 20 points

Chat conversation with a Friend (name changed!) where I had to explain in short the BP oil "leak" case. Why the quotes used... because that little vocabulary error is partly responsible for the entire mess.

chalo, let me cut this very very short:

Friend: ya ya

Nikhil: 1. A methane bubble blows up the DeepWater Horizon oil rig incinerating 11 workers.

Friend: :O

Nikhil: 2. The accident leaves the pipe open at the bottom of the ocean floor, 1000s of feet below sea level.
3. BP gives all placatory and "we are in control" statements which are 100% false, later exposed by actual photographs

In defense of the Bloom Box

This one's for my favorite rocket scientist!

My comment on criticism for K R Sridhar's Bloom Box
(read the article here)

The other fuel cells cannot be used. This one can and has been, by actual customers to run their actual buildings. Walmart, Ebay and Google have testified that this thing works, physically demonstrated the equipment which is out there for the whole world to see and verify. We don't need something that's magical - we just need something that works. The "revolution" lies in bringing a lab concept to the home and making it practical and economical - something that these skeptics have been failing at and are now taking digs at the people who have succeeded. Please ask them to furnish their own products before publishing this sort of criticism.

The article linked on top serves as a great example of negative publishing - the publishers themselves knew they didn't have anything concrete so they worded the heading like they wanted to whereas the actual text reveals there's very little but silly complaints equivalent to "Daddy, not fair, I wanted to see magic. This thing is scientific!" ... and in the process completely downplayed the actual potential of this product. Bad publishing, Bad!

For the uninitiated, here's something about the Bloom Box...

Ready-made Vs Customized

It's a wonder how the best ideas come only when you're walking to the market, or defecating. Or in some cases, both.

Ladies, this one's for you. You will not like it, because of the validity of the following proverb:

The one thing that a woman hates more than a man who lies to her,
Is a man who tells her the Truth.

But you are most welcome to prove me wrong. It would benefit humanity in more ways than one ;)
This post is to do with your opinions in choosing a life partner.

Recently a friend was very excited over a match on a wedding portal, wherein she was approached by a CFO of a certain company for a match. FYI, it didn't work out eventually. Why, will be discussed further. That suddenly brought me to a possible fact that we all love to hide : With our purchasing choices, even our expectations have become ready-made. Ladies, we look for success - financial and social - in a potential life partner. He must have this-and-this, and be so-and-so. Naturally, conventional wisdom dictates this for the family's well-being. A match is made - everything's picture perfect, we're all happy.

Fast forward. Something happens. I'm seeing so many people in these picture-perfect weddings having miserable marriages. Love, trust, bonhomie, fidelity - you name it and they lack it. "Where did we go wrong?"


Hmm, well. This is going to take some time.

Centurions fan comic

This is a must-see for every fan of the CENTURIONS !!

OMG, it's so Funnyyyyyy!!!

http://xero0ne.blogspot.com/2010/05/webcomic-tryouts-power-x-treme.html
Hats Off!

Why I hate hanging around with most people

Quoted from Cynical Cyanide by xero0ne.blogstpot.com :

We love criticizing others to hide our own shortcomings.
We contrive faults in them, find excuses to mock them, conceal our hypocrisy as tafri.
We feed on their misery to make ourselves feel better.

If sitting in a group and speaking foul about those not present is what having "fun" in Social circles is all about, I despise You.

 And my comment there:

AGREED!
Another bone of contention : They keep repeating the exact same things again and again!
Understandable that nobody's really listening and they're all just there to look cool, because they laugh at the same crap the next time it's said as well.

AID Gurgaon

Featured website : Movavi

Wow! Free video conversion online -- That too, it does what all the softwares I'm trying have failed to do -- it COMBINED 2 videos into one!