Club No. 858173

Division C, District 82

Mission of

Toastmasters To provide a mutually

supportive and positive

learning environment

in which every individual

member has the

opportunity

to develop oral

communication

and leadership skills,

which in turn foster

self-confidence

and personal growth

DECEMBER 2010

At the outset, I will like to wish each one of you a very happy new year. Hope you all

have the most amazing time and attain everything you set yourself for.

In this issue, Club President Malkiat Bindra shares his vision for the club, DTM Ritu

Arora shares her expertise on what not to do while preparing a speech . Secretary Sangeeta shows the best dress

code possible, SAA Vikas Malik talks about the resolutions which do not change every year. In the ‗Hyde Park‘

section we invited some thoughts on having a separate tabletopic evaluator. Read about a brand new toastmaster,

Sushant Kakkar, in the ‗Know Thy Toastmaster‘ section.

I will also like to inform the members that our club has completed five years of existence this month and a certifi-

cate for the same has been also displayed in the newsletter, I will always be open to feedback (if any). Hope you

have a great time reading it!!

Akhil Sood

The Editor’s Note

Newsletter of the JPKU Toastmasters Club, New Delhi

Vol. 4, Issue 5; December 2010 Images

December 2010 2 CONTENTS

PRESIDENT SPEAKS Page 3

Presindent shares his thoughts about the club

The Da Vinci dress code

Page 5

-- Sangeeta Malik

Know Thy Toastmaster Page 10

Let’s get to know the latest addition to our family

Sushant Kakkar

The Hyde Park Page 11

Improving the attendance in the meeting Vikas Malik,

Sanchit Aggarwal

Best of the Month Page 13

Find out our star performers week by week.

Meeting Theme Of The Month Page 7,8&9

Toastmasters of the month and meeting themes - DTM Ritu Arora

-Aneesh Jain

-Akhil Sood

Club Contact Details Page 14

Acknowledgments Page 15

Gone in Five Page 4

On yet another checklist before speaking

- DTM Ritu

The Resolution Page 6

-- Vikas Kumar Malik

Certification Of appreciation

Page 12

--Malkiat Bindra

3 PRESIDENT SPEAKS December 2010

I hope your holidays are going good and you are having a gala time with your family.

Not long back, I was pretty nervous about the job I had taken up; President of JPKU Toastmasters

club. Am I good enough? Will I be able to stand on all the expectations people have from me?

Will I be beneficial for the club? These were some questions which were banging in my head.

Well, I did not get the answer of those questions above, because life doesn‘t provide you answers,

but provides you with experience and the sense of achievement that you did not mess it up, that

someone gained from your presence. I walk away with that experience and that sense of achieve-

ment.

Now, six months after taking up that job, I see someone else being haunted by the same set of

questions. He also has the same goal in sight, just different members in the EC to help him realize

that goal. Yes, it is the new President, Vikas Kr. Malik. The time to change is here. The term of

old Executive Committee is over and the new EC to step in is here. I wish them all best of luck :)

It was a pleasant experience working with the EC I had. There was a lot to learn from all of the

members. Aneesh Jain (VP-Ed), Jyoti Narula (VP-M), Kanushree (VP-PR), Vinay Jain

(Treasurer), Sangeeta Malik (Secretary) and Vikas Kr. Malik (Sergeant At Arms). All of them per-

formed their role exceptionally well. I was blessed to have such an EC working with me. Also,

where else can you find 2 of your bosses work on even basis as you?

Malkiat Bindra President, JPKU Toastmasters Club

4 Gone in Five!!!

How many times have you been a spectator at a

contest and thought, ‗hey, I could have done

that‘ or ‗I could‘ve won‘. Most people fall in

two categories, winners and losers, mostly and.

Jokes apart, here are the sure shot tips of losing

any contest. In my 4 year stint with toastmasters

I have made a sort of a record of losing contests.

No, I don‘t think I qualify for the Guinness

Book of World Records yet, but I have lost more

contests than most people, and here‘s what I

know.

When Chendil shoved me into my first toast-

masters‘ contest, he asked me ―What have you

got to lose?‖ I didn‘t know the answer then, but

now I am wiser. The contest to begin with, but if

you wait until you definitely win, you will never

enter. The best way of getting better is to be bad,

besides you get a lot of sympathy, popularity, and experience. You also get to be Ar-

nold Schwarzenegger, and can do your best ―I‘ll be back.‖

Here come 5 golden rules, a list of things you can do to ensure you lose the Contest,

the trophy and a lot of body weight, by crying mostly:

RULE 1: The Sieve Principle:

What the audience hears is not what you meant. What gets sieved through is com-

pletely different. The message you want to convey gets lost because of information

overload, too many parameters and an absolute lack of transitions. This is a must. No

one must know what you intend to say. Never have a clear message and resist the urge

of repeating your message.

RULE 2: The Jargon Principle:

Jargon will make you feel included, and your listener feel excluded. It‘s like a private

joke with yourself and the audience has no clue. It also proves you are the anointed

brethren, an excellent opportunity to show off, and confuse the audience.

RULE 3: Avoid Recording:

Do not let anyone record your speech, and do not attempt to record it on your own.

Even if your new mobile phone comes with a 12mp camera and a brilliant recording

feature. Are you kidding me, by recording, you are giving people an opportunity to re-

view your speech and help you improve it. Also, you get to see how you did, your key

strengths, and your weaknesses and points of improvement. Prime rule of losing a

contest, recording is a strict NO!

RULE 4: Hijack:

Never use your own stories or experiences to make a speech. Plagiarise; hijack some-

one else‘s story/ experience or material. Something you read recently on the internet, a

common joke, they work wonders in getting you disqualified. Even if no one protests,

rest assured some of the judges will have heard it before and you will lose marks for

originality.

RULE 5: Humour Leads to Tumour:

...especially when you want to lose a contest. It‘s okay to have a bad sense of humour.

You see, humour gets your audience hooked, so avoid being punny. Even if you are

naturally funny, avoid it like plague, and yes never smile or laugh.

One person wins the World Championship of Public Speaking every year, the rest fif-

teen thousand contestants lose, so you‘re in good company. Learn how to lose a

speech contest in 7 minutes by following these 5 golden rules. See you at the

next contest season, I‘LL BE BACK !

DTM Dr. RITU ARORA

December 2010

The Da Vinci dress code 5 December 2010

―Why not?‖ said a young man, ―Do we all dress up appropriately to enhance our

appearance and personalities? Do we give ourselves that extra edge to make our-

selves more effective? Dressing right is more than just putting few pieces of cloth-

ing together.‖

―Saying that dressing well is not important is just like saying a good birthday cake

does not require the icing?‖Another young girl added.

Well, I have often asked this question “Do clothes make a man?” We are all

aware that all that glitters is not gold. It is the inner personality that matters …the

outer appearance, jewels and diamonds may attract for a few seconds but the inner

strength, character and personality matters the most.‖ But can you imagine Ami-

tabh Bhachan sitting in Kaun Banega Crorepati and wearing the casual rugged

jeans with ragged appearance, a faded unkempt shirt and bathroom slippers …

dragging his way up to the platform?

On second thoughts I do agree that clothes do send a powerful message about

our economic status, occupation and values. Above all, they affect the way others

perceive us and the way we feel about ourselves. .

Clothes that don't fit well can make a person look uncomfortable, unkempt and

disorganized.

Clothes are overtly casual, worn or wrinkled, may make others think that one does-

n't care enough about himself or herself. It leads to a thought that if you don't care

enough to look professional, you won't do professional work.

People with good clothing sense generally reflect more confidence and capture at-

tention easily.

Dress well to feel good. The days when we dress up in clothes and colours that we

perceive as suitable to us, we not only feel but also exude confidence.

So what does it mean to be in a dress code at

Toastmasters?

A well groomed appearance that is comfortable with a

professional feel about us.

Spotless polished and an immaculate look.

Professional/conservative shoes do add a class to a per-

son.

Even casual clothes jeans and T shirts worn with a taste

of aesthetics add a special look to your personality .

Not to forget… a big no to strong perfumes, co-

lognes….and of course a bigger one to body odours as

well.

Minimal jewellery ladies…nothing worse than dangling

earrings to distract the attention from your speech.

How do we dress up?

Dress up for your own for individuality, with an individ-

ual expression, create your own style, and give yourself

an extra added cache.

Dress up for success. You will never get a second chance

to make the first impression.

Dress up for professional touch. Whether we like it or not

40% of rejections in jobs are due to the outward appear-

ance.

Dressing well also includes good grooming. ..Clean

hair… hands with nails cut…fresh breath…

And don‘t forget an important positive image to go along with your attire.

Most importantly,

You don‘t need to spend time but a thought to dress up well.

Clothes don‘t need to be expensive but need to enhance your persona.

Also, you don‘t have to follow the brands but you should be a brand in yourself.

By Sangeeta Malik

Resolution 6 December 2010

Resolution to renew all my old resolves,

And add a few that are new.

Resolution to keep them as long as I can,

What more can I do?’

The tradition of the New Year‘s resolutions is ancient and goes all the way back to 153BC. Janus, a mythical king

of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar. With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and

forward to the future. Janus is the ancient symbol for resolutions and first month of the year is named after him.

At midnight of December 31, Janus is looking back at the old year, its mistakes, its shattered promises, joyous

moments and simultaneously is looking ahead at the new upcoming year with the hope to get over all past short-

comings and starting with a new beginning.

New Year's Time is a time of celebrations and a time to make promises - promises to myself. But we are not

strangers to these resolutions; actually we make them on daily basis. The urge to 'do better next time', is always

there and in all those broken resolutions, it is only this urge which is constant.

But, there is a way out for making quality New Year resolutions. I discussed with a friend how to make sure that this year I shall stick to my resolutions. Here are few tips:

1. Be Specific: Vague goals like better health will not help. Resolution must answer better when? Better how? And most importantly better why?

2. Don't go over the roof: Most resolutions fail because we dream too big. Rather, if we dissect those big dreams into small baby steps with timelines attached with each of

them. It will look more achievable and hence more effective.

3. Don't overwhelm with thousands of resolutions: Dont' try to do EVERYTHING all at one time. Rather make it a commitment to focus only on top 3 of your long list of

to-dos. Commit yourself to your plan for at least 20 days (3 weeks) to make it part of your habit or daily routine.

4. Don't give up: The day we miss on our resolved commitment, we give up on it and put it aside for the next year. Rather take it easy and restart it again tomorrow .

May this New Year bring you many opportunities your way, to explore every joy of life and may your resolutions for the days ahead stay firm, turning all your dreams into re-

ality and all your efforts into great achievements

By Vikas Malik

MEETING THEMEs OF THE MONTH 7

Dr. Ritu Arora DTM

December 2010

Reverberations 2010 was behind us, but JPKU Toastmasters was still reverberating, the reflections continued even on Saturday

the 4th December 2010. This was surprising, for one would associate a club with ―Always Ahead‖ as its slogan to be associated

with pre-echo, rather than reverberations, but that was the order of the day. The meeting began with the Toastmaster talking about

the recently held Semi- Annual conference.

The suggestions from the Hyde-Park section and how they reverberate i.e. are incorporated into the meetings and general func-

tioning of the club, formed the high point of the meeting, and this was brought into the limelight by the two pillars of the club,

President Malkiat Bindra and VP Education Aneesh.

The previous meeting had seen only three members and a guest, and with something as interesting as videos planned, it had been

quite unexpected, the SAA Vikas sobbed. It was interesting to note that two of our ―ild ka chand‖ members (read as I make a

guest appearance once in a while so that you know I exist), namely Deepak Dewani and Rahul Soni were not only present, but at

their roaring best during the meeting.

The real delight was to see new members taking up roles, doing the talking, incorporating what they recently learned, and put it

to make their speeches better. Akhil Sood, our home grown Harry Potter had a wonderful take on Project 8, that worked like

magic and mesmerized the audience. Pity, it mesmerized Mr.Potter himself as well, and here someone ran out of time. Perhaps he

should try the ‗rabbit in the waistcoat with a pocket watch‘ next.

Table Topics Master Vikas had lovely topics up his sleeve, which everyone was able to speak on for atleast a minute or so. The

General Evaluator Malkiat Bindra, for those of us who know him, and for those of us who dont, was both seen and heard.

The toastmaster ended with the remark that the human touch Toastmasters has to offer makes it a wonderful place to be in, and a

tremendous opportunity to touch lives. You only need to attend a meeting to know. Let the reverberations continue...

Dr.Ritu Arora MDS,DTM

MEETING THEMEs OF THE MONTH contd.. 8

December 2010

Aneesh Jain

The moment, I sat down to write this article (as always at the eleventh hour), every word I spoke during the meeting on December 11,

2010, came back to haunt me. Unsurprisingly, the preacher was not one of the followers. All the talk about planning and sticking to

time-lines, seemed like useless mumbo-jumbo, and all that remained was yet another ‗last minute scramble‘.

The preparations for the meeting on December 11 started perfectly on time. Most of the meeting roles were taken up in the meeting

on December 4 and a few others were auctioned off in the following couple of days. Life seemed to be moving as per plan, but who

would have guessed this was only the lull before the storm? The first scheduled speaker backed out the day the draft agenda was

floated. The other three followed suit within a span of two days. By the day before the meeting, despite all the planning, all the sched-

uled speakers had cancelled their speeches, the Toastmaster was still not ready to face the crowd and the Table Topics Master had

gone missing, and thus began a last minute scramble to find the role players for the meeting with the theme – Last minute scrambles.

Somehow, by some divine intervention, everything fell into place at the last moment! Two members stood up to deliver speeches, the

Toastmaster gained enough confidence to face the crowd and a Table Topics Master was found…

We do not live in the most punctual nation of the world. Delays are a common sight and last minute scrambles for meeting strict

deadlines are an accepted reality. Wedding ceremonies usually run late by two hours, while business conferences by only half an hour.

Construction of roads and bridges usually takes ten years more than the allocated time, if in case they ever get ready. We as a nation

have learned to accept these minor delays and take them in our stride. It helps that as individuals we don‘t have much faith in plans

and even lesser in ensuring their implementation, so either we are extremely comfortable extending deadlines or taking part in last

minute scrambles, burning the midnight lamp and somehow getting the work done.

Some might argue that these last minute scrambles make the entire process of working more interesting. I couldn‘t agree more! Some others

might argue that these last minute scrambles test your attentiveness and intellectual capabilities to the limit. I totally agree! But what about

getting the work done on time? Or what about delivering work of a certain minimum quality standard?

The last minute scrambles cannot be totally done away with, like in the case of getting the role players for the December 11 meeting, but

certainly better planning and sticking to time-lines can ensure that the construction of roads and bridges doesn‘t go on forever.

We had two speakers – Sushant and Ritu, during the meeting on December 11, and both of them were equal to the task. Akhil tried out a

nouveau Table Topics style, forcing the speakers to debate on the impact of last minute scrambles. Akhil also doubled up as the General

Evaluator for the meeting. In the end, both Ritu and Sushant were voted the best speakers, Aneesh was voted the best Table Topics speaker

and Ritu walked away with the award for the best Evaluator.

MEETING THEMEs OF THE MONTH contd.. 9

December 2010

Akhil Sood

I was a sixth grader and my geography teacher had cut one mark in my first term examination because I had invented a new spelling of

mountainous. Such was the focus on using the correct language and spelling that even a geography teacher could reinforce her superiority

over English. Today, it seems as if a hundred years (if not a thousand) have passed since that precise moment. Those were the times when a

mobile phone was the most ultimate symbol of luxury. We all understand the fact that we have got busier than ever before and there is no-

one in the world who can be slightly as busy as we are and that unsatisfied desire to save time along with the invasion into the luxury pro-

vided by a mobile phone has invented a new language ―SMS- lingo.‖

How do you feel when you are looking to recruit and the person answers a simple question

Q) How did you come to know about my company?

Ans Threw mah cosin who told me abt u

The person meant through but he has been using threw in sms and he had never been corrected. Its his fault, yes but he has been soaked in an

environment where language and grammar are unheard of and its going to ruin the generation unless we keep a check on it. The incorrigible

youth have to be made aware of the flaws and dangers they are creating for the language in general and the only feasible way is to dissuade

them form using such kind of languages or atleast stop the practice of getting this lingo to more formal modes of communication.

The theme of the meeting was decided to be SMS lingo and Akhil Sood was the toastmaster for the meeting. As toastmaster was late to the

meeting, his role was taken over by President Malkiat. There were three speeches during the day. Sushant talked about preventing disasters,

Sanchit guided the audience in choosing the right mobile for them and Akhil convinced them to donate blood. DTM Ritu Arora brought in a

new face of table topics as she gave a famous name to the speakers and the speakers had to give it to audience by describing the works of the

person they impersonated. Akhil walked away with the best speaker, DTM Deepak Menon got the best tabletopic speaker and Ritu Arora got

the best evaluator award.

December 2010 KNOW THY TOASTMASTER 10

Sushant Kakkar was born and brought up in Delhi and did his schooling from LPS, Hauz Khas. He pursued Bachelor‘s

in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and graduated in 2007. He is working as a field man-

ager in Schlumberger Ltd, an oilfield service company and is currently on a leave of absence and preparing for MBA ex-

ams. He developed an interest in traveling after joining Schlumberger, and has visited almost the entire North East, and 5

more countries in the last 3 years. His hobbies include embedded electronics, traveling, watching cricket & enjoying the

latest movies.

Q1: How did you react when you first heard about toastmasters and

how do you react now?

My first reaction was not at all an enthusiastic one. I thought of toastmasters

as just another club where people meet to discuss their problems etc. But

my first meeting was an eye opener. Toastmasters is an excellent platform

for anyone trying to get rid of the stigma, the nervousness & the low confi-

dence he or she experiences while addressing a crowd or handling tough

situations or speaking impromptu.

Q2: What is Sushant passionate about?

Well, you may call me a nerd, but my passion, though affected by many

other activities that have taken up my time in recent years, was developed

during my engineering days. After successfully developing a few buzzer

systems for quiz competitions during college fests, I found a huge interest in

embedded electronics. I lead a team to develop a joystick controlled elec-

tric wheelchair with 1/4th the cost of the one available in the market. I held

several workshops to promote interest in students on embedded electronics.

So, if you have a microcontroller giving you a problem, I will be more than

happy to help.

Q3: Finally the guy had the courage to present the rose on the last day

of school!! Share some more courageous acts you had.

Haha. Well except for the rose, almost all my so called ―courageous‖ acts

have happened because I didn‘t have any other choice.

One particular incident, that made me realize what all one can achieve by

just acting courageously in the face of disaster, happened in early 2009. One

of my client‘s oil Well had become unstable. We were

called in and I was the lead engineer responsible for the

operation. I was scared as hell, but my job required me to

set up protocols of safety measures and use explosives to

control the well.. Well after around 10 hrs, the well was

brought under control and the field was saved. This inci-

dent made me stronger as a person.

Q4: What are the goals that you want to achieve through toastmasters?

My primary goal through TM is to become a competent communicator. I have long realized

the importance of being able to deliver a perfect speech

Q5: Any suggestions about the general procedure of meeting and what else would you

like to change?

I really like the current TM format – prepared speeches, table topics, joke/word of the day,

evaluations etc. After delivering only two speeches, I feel I have already overcome many of

my fears.

If I were to suggest some change, I would like to see a section on ―prepared

acts‖ by two or more people. This may help them improve on their Voice

modulation & body movements, which I feel are the most challenging to

overcome.

December 2010 THE HYDE PARK— Tabletopic Evaluator 11

The Hyde Park in London is famous for its Speakers’ Corner, which allows anyone and everyone to speak on a topic for as long as they can unless the police finds it offensive, and the Hyde Park police has had a history of being offended very rarely even on sensitive issues. As a salutation to the freedom of expression, we bring Hyde Park from Lon-don to our newsletter, and invite everyone to publish their comments on a certain topic, which for this month is: “Shall we have an assigned tabletopic evaluator?"

Vikas Malik

Sanchit AgGarwal

―Tabletopics‖ is the wonderful section which re-

quires one to think your feet and speak whatever

crosses one‘s mind. We don‘t know where did we

go wrong or what could we have said. This needs

to be evaluated thoroughly to give a clear picture

to the speaker of his/her speech. Therefore, I think

that there should be a separate tabletopics evalua-

tor, who can concentrate only on Tabletopics and

provide the speaker a better evaluation.

We should have a Table Topics Evaluation section in every meet-

ing. It could be played by an assigned evaluator or by General

evaluator depending on number of members present in a meet-

ing. We could have this as a more interactive section, where

other members who didn't speak on a topic can contribute their

ideas about the same topic. This will enrich all members with di-

verse ideas (content) related to the topic

December 2010 Certificate for completing five years 12

December 2010 BEST OF THE MONTH 13

Here come

the

re-

11th December: Sushant Kakkar and Ritu Arora 18th December : Akhil Sood

4th December :Nitya Ranjan 11th December: Ritu Arora 18th December : Deepak

4th December: Rahul Soni 11th December: Aneesh Jain 18th December : Deepak Menon

Here come

the

results!!!

December 2010 CLUB CONTACT DETAILS 14

Our Executive Committee

Malkiat Bindra: President

malkiat07@gmail.com

Aneesh Jain: Vice President, Education

aneeshjain@gmail.com

Jyoti Narula: Vice President, Membership

jyoti@jpku.com

Kanu Shree: Vice President, Public Relations

kanushree84@gmail.com

Sangeeta Malik: Secretary

sangeeta.malik@gmail.com

Vinay Jain: Treasurer

toastmaster.vinay@gmail.com

Vikas Kumar: Sergeant-at-arms

vikask.malik@gmail.com

Venue of Meetings

Vivekananda Vihar, Opposite J.P., Kapur & Uberai, Chartered

Accountants, LGF C-4/5 Safdarjung Development Area,

New Delhi—110016.

Time of Meetings

Every Saturday, 12:30 p.m.

Whom to Contact

For all queries, please contact:

Malkiat Bindra: +91 9811064605; malkiat07@gmail.com

Aneesh Jain: +91 9971119361; aneeshjain@gmail.com

Akhil Sood: +91 9810820409 skhil.aood@gmail.com

Sangeeta Malik: +91 9818051336 sangeeta.malik@gmail.com

Vikas Kumar: +91 9560690622 vikask.malik@gmail.com

December 2010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 15

Club No. 858173

Division C, District 82

Always Ahead…!

Copyright JPKU Toastmasters Club, 2010

No part of this newsletter maybe printed or reproduced

without intimating the JPKU Toastmasters Club. All enquiries

and requests should be directed to the club‘s public relations

committee at jpkunews@gmail.com.

Curtains, not only to the newsletter, but also to 2010 and also to

the editor. We will have a new editor from next month but my

job will never be complete without saying a word of thanks to

Shreeja for managing the information while I was away and to

Malkiat, Aneesh, Vikas, Sanchit, Sangeeta, Ritu and Sushant for

valuable contributions. A very Happy new year!!

Images is published on the last day of the month. All contribu-tors are requested to send in their entries to skhil.aood@gmail.comby the 25th of the month.

Important Links: JPKU Toastmasters: http://jpkutoastmasters.bravehost.com Division C members: d82Cmembers@googlegroups.com District 82: http://www.t82.org/