Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Live Life King Size- By Living It For Others

Project 3

Objective: Get to the point



If I have to ask you, the kings and queens, “what would you do to live life king size? What is the whole meaning of living life king size?” what would be your answer? Think…
One of my good friends questioned me on the same. This question played ‘ring-a ring-a roses’ in my mind and towards the end, when ‘assha bussha all fell down’, I came up with the following answers:
For me a king size life would mean going all the way to London to my private beautician just to get my eyebrows done for 2000$ like the way J Lo does! Or having your photos replacing the King and Queen in a pack of cards! Or having a perfume brand launched in your name just like Shilpa Shetty and Amitabh Bacchan or living life just the way Vijay Mallya does- drinking and dancing. Living life king size could mean a lot, lot more! It could be custom-made gadgets- the mobile phones, laptops, i-pods, bikes, cars- all of them, instead of saying “made in Germany, Japan, Swiss-made” should say “Made for Namitha!” or imagine a full-time fashion designer working just for you and only you- you wouldn’t have to repeat a single dress the whole of your life-time. Phew!
Living life king size means a lot. There would be infinite number of ideas running in your minds too. But I guarantee you that all your ideas are individualistic. At this moment you are thinking only about yourself. Do not worry Your Majesty, the whole of your kingdom- this world is a little bit selfish. Aren’t we? After all why shouldn’t we be selfish? Why shouldn’t we think of ourselves? Yes, it is our life- only OURS!

But Your Highness, don’t you think that a king is recognized only because of his subjects? He is recognized only because of what he has done for his subjects. At the end of it, a king is also a human- he is no God. Then how can we forget that as humans we have to display humanity. In this fast- paced life, we have all become self- centered. You, the royal kings and queens, have to free yourself from the clutches of self- centrism. You have to reach out for your subjects. You have to be ready to help those who are in need of you. Remember, a king does not push away his subject who has come to ask him for help. He doesn’t ignore the person on the street who is begging for alms. So shouldn’t you do the same? Shouldn’t you show some humanity towards them? A king shouldn’t discriminate among his subjects. As kings and queens you must treat all your men equally. You must follow the foot steps of a king to be a king so that towards the end you are the leader. If all of us live this type of life being “good” kings and queens then the world would truly become a heaven to live. After what I said now, you will be able to:
- sympathize with the down trodden
- stop discriminating between your friends
- you will not find it difficult to be thankful and be sorry from the bottom of your hearts- after all a king also makes mistakes
- obey and help your peers
And yes, not to forget learn to be a good human by displaying these traits of humanity and thus be a great king!
When I say “king” the first picture that comes to your mind would be that of a big, fat man with a royal coat, a huge crown lying on a hammock eating grapes- luxurious, isn’t it? But you must not forget that the king is a responsible person. He is a king because he can take up responsibilities. Thus, you must not run away from responsibilities. Learn to shoulder your responsibilities so that you could be a leader of your own life and lead the way of others as a true king.

My good friend up there has been really selfish. You know why? He has just given us one life. Let’s play ‘tit-for-tat’. Let’s show him that we can live this one life “king” size by living it for others in the manner I said. Be a good human to be a great, greater and greatest king. And then, later live your life the way you imagined in the beginning :)

To conclude my talk, you and I together will rephrase this punch life. Instead of saying “one life- live it” we shall now say “one life- live it king size!”

The Three Types Of Brothers

Project 2

Objective: organize your speech.





Have you ever wondered that while it’s nice to have a sister with whom you could share clothes or gossip or even have a cat fight but it’s a different feeling all together to know that when you have a brother, you are sure that you always have a strong shoulder to cry upon when you are low or even give him a tight hug knowing that he’ll never let go of you because you mean the world to him. He’s that person who will come running in the middle of the night to rescue you if you are stranded in the middle of nowhere. He is the person who will always defend your honor and hold you as his pride. I firmly believe that the bond between a brother and sister is quite ironical. Because “there is always a little boy inside a man who is my brother. How I hated that little boy yet it’s surprising how I love him too. Isn’t it a strange relationship and yet a wonderful one?

The first type of brother, the one who is younger to you, I would like to describe him as the one who is your baby and also a complete brat! He is your darling but beware! He can also get annoying and get on your nerves. When your friends come home, they pull his cheeks and say “chooooo chweeeet” and you reply “oh really?” having a younger brother can prove to be disadvantageous. Firstly, because he’d steal the show when your friends drop in and secondly, being the younger one he is the most pampered at home. You get blamed for all his mischief and always held responsible for the 101 reasons he cries! He is a “complain box”. Remember the day you did not help him do his mathematics homework or for that matter you didn’t share your chocolate with him, he went straight into the kitchen with all his melodramatic crying to mummy and complained exaggerating the issue, blowing it up 360’. And then, again, once again you are caught by your neck and almost strangled till he is convinced by hearing that “sorry” from your mouth! This monster can get you to do anything! But this monster suddenly turns into an angel of a person when you see this adorable and ‘o so sweet’ kid lying down so cutely, fast asleep and then, you, deep inside thank God for giving such a brother and start taking care of him like, as I said, your cute little baby. Sometimes his innocence touches your heart and you almost melt when he becomes possessive about you saying “you are only my didi! How can you go out with some other boy?” this is when he sees you with your boyfriend ;). But of course, the differences still prevail when you both are fighting for the remote control when he wants to watch nickelodeon and you are looking for your next episode on M TV!

Talking about the second type of brother, the “dude” who is elder than you. This character is unpredictable! You wouldn’t know in which category you should fit him. Is he the hunk of the college, the perfectly “chilled”? or is he your father? Till he belong to the former category you have almost “nil” problems. But once he starts acting like your father, then, again, once again, you are strangled. You start wondering “isn’t one person enough to boss over me, that even your own brother has to come in between to tell you what is right and wrong? While he roams around, painting the town red, with his girlfriend it’s perfectly cool for him. But if he sees you doing the same thing with your boyfriend, then that’s it! Then, it’s literally your day. You would have to bear a gruesome, torturing lecture the whole night long! And in case you come back home late at night, you wouldn’t even want to imagine what the situation would be like. Describe his as boiling milk or erupting volcano! Imagine it the way you like! (dislike). But having an older brother has it’s advantages too. He is great at helping you with your assignments. He is a live weapon when you are walking on the streets no more being afraid of those letchers. And yes, not to forget, he’d surely buy you gifts with his salary and thus even load your pockets on rakhi! He even comes handy as a transportation facility because he can do the ‘pick and drop’ work for you!

Now the type three. The one who is almost your own age. This character confuses me. Is he my best friend? Or is he my worst enemy? He is the one with whom you can share all your secrets and, trust me, he even keeps them. But when you start fighting, you both are no less than cats and dogs and the only person who could rescue you from him is your father because the mother would anyways support him. He is like a “good” boy with whom you can exchange help. You can blackmail him, you could go shopping together because both of you would be spending your own cash and not be dependant on each other. Good for him! ;) You can share your notes with him, uses his mobile phone. I personally feel that having this type of brother you would have fewer issues. Ironically enough. Remember, he could be your worst enemy too! Since my own brother falls into this category, I have an incident to show how he could be an enemy and yet a good friend. One day on a fine and “not so fine” morning my brother and me had a serious fight on a very silly issue. We both were getting late to our respective colleges and neither of them found an auto. And the fight was for the activa. None of us wanted to compromise. But later my sweet brother dropped me to college not worrying about him being late. Two people had this quarrel were suddenly sitting on the same vehicle! Brothers are unpredictable, aren’t they?

Now that we know the different types of “bhais”, we are quite sure that though we hate them, also love them, and sometimes even confused whether we should hate or love them, we just can’t ignore them. They have formed an indispensable part of our life. (fortunately or unfortunately). This 50-50, sweet and salty relationship is to be cherished, because a sister is what she is just because of her brother.

Ice Breaker

Project 1

Ice breaker

Objective: Introduce yourself to your club



Namitha. Namitha means ‘namaste’. Namaste to my senior and fellow toastmasters.

Walking down the memory lane, I see crystal clear images of me playing with my grand parents whom I consider my first parents. After being born in Rajasthan, my parents had to leave me and they went to Manipur. Therefore, since I had my early childhood days with my grandparents, which were the best days of my life, they undoubtedly are my first parents.

But it is my parents who have moulded me into being what I am today. I have learnt a lot from my father. All thanks to the experience he has in various fields. He says that I am his reflection in terms of attributes and others say I am his mirror-image as I owe my resemblance to him.

The first day I stepped into Mary Immaculate High School, I held someone’s warm and soft hands. That very hand has been my support. Those hands have sculpted me, carefully chiseled me. Those hands are that of my mother’s whose heart is forever overflowing with love. Oh, how I love her lap till date and also the head massages which puts me to a good night’s sleep.

My world till class ten was limited only to family, friends and studies. Little did I know about the outside world. But being the house captain of my school has definitely given me a strong base and has prepared me for the present world. Being the eldest daughter in my entire family has imbibed in me the leadership skills which are considered as a disadvantage by my brother and sister who keep complaining about me not sharing the chocolate with them and also giving them lengthy lectures!

But it is because their wish and desire that they wanted to see their ‘didi’ in the newspapers and fill our showcase with trophies that I continued my interest in Basket Ball for 6 years and played at the national level as a captain of the team. That indeed is an achievement in itself and a bigger achievement for me as I have fulfilled the desire of my siblings.

The previous 2 years of my life which I spent at Christ Junior College, were the fastest moving. Being a true nature lover, time passed by as fast as a jiffy amidst the sprawling campus. I spent most of my lunch breaks in the bird’s park and in the tree house. Those memories stir my imagination. It was in Christ Junior where I learnt that “love” has 1000+ definitions. But I just stick to one of them. “Love is just giving someone your last chocolate”. Talking about chocolates, I must say that I am a true chocoholic. My mouth goes drooling at the very sight of them and I also make it a point to see that my refrigerator is not running short of them. I love chocolates. There are a few other things also I love. Topping the list is ‘tickling people’ which indeed is my favourite pass time and a hard time for the others. My other pass times also include ‘counting money’. I wish someday I’ll have loads of them. I make funny conversations in my head. I can never be bored because of this weird activity. There are some things I hate too. The list includes: the smell of eggs. I get nauseated. I hate the cruelty involved in the killing of animals. I am a true animal lover and yes, I also hate the new pepsi advertisement. It is the most annoying commercial I have ever seen. I would also like to talk to you about my weird theories. Till class 7, I believed that all of us lived inside a big ball called the earth. And not ‘on’ the earth. Another theory which I hope none of you will laugh at is that babies were put inside the mother’s womb after marriage in the hospital and they were kept in till they learnt good manners. The biggest shock of my life was when I discovered the truth an till date I laugh at this stupid thought of mine.

Indeed life has a lot to teach us. If you let only the good things happen to you, you would have missed the sweet taste of life which we get only after retrieving from a downfall. Some say “life is like an ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts” ever wondered how true it is? One slogan that is constantly running in my subconscious brain is the punch line of the brand ‘Camel’ which says “one life. Live it!” and I firmly believe in it because life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster men, but in the end the man who wins is the man who thinks he can!