Toastmasters:Project 10 “Talent is overrated”

June 21, 2009

Project 10: INSPIRE YOUR AUDIENCE
Objectives:
* To inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement.
* Appeal to the audience’s needs and emotions, using stories, anecdotes and quotes to add drama.
* Avoid using notes.
* TIME: Eight to ten minutes.

Neil Armstrong lands on the moon.
Hillary and tenzing climbs mount everest.
Sachin tendulkar scores his 100th century.
Viswanath Anand wins yet another world chess championship.
ARRahman wins two oscars.
And my friend and colleauge next door gets promotion hike and a beautiful girl.

Respected president, TM of the day fellow and future toastmasters Good evening. These are some good news about great people.- Super achievers. When I hear such news I feel happy for a second , jealous for a moment, ambitious for a while and then run for lame excuses on why Its fine for me to not attempt any such things. I always draw a line of demarcation between me the common man and they the super achievers. Even if have dream or desire to step in to moon inherently there is a voice saying to myself “No Deepak .. You cannot..You aren’t born to a astronaut.!” You dont have the magical talent to compose Jai Ho!

Ladies and gentleman whats going on in my mind is a Talent crisis. A crisis which has arised because we are not tapping our individual strengths and that we do not yet have enough faith in each person’s ability to punch above his or her weight. We love reading many such news about super achievers. We love being spectators when such super achievements are made but when it comes for us to enter the arena we have doubts on our own ability. We doubt our ability to attain a goal of such heights. We dream big but hardly do believe in them.We are afraid of failures.

People fail more often than they succeed. Hence they say its good to learn from failures. But at the same time we overlook success and read very little from them. Rather misinterpret success and attribute their success to a abstract term called talent.

Now say if I have a dream of being a astronaut, what stops me from entering a ISRO or NASA. I dont have good grades at college. But little did I know that Neil Armstrong the moon man was also an average student while at college. He secured admission into MIT the temple of knowledge. But he happens to be the first graduate from his family and the only engineer whom he know advised him not to go too far for his studies and hence he took up a school near to his place which offered him a scholarship on a condition that he has to serve three years in navy after completing his studies. That made him chose aeronautical engineering and that how he started flying. But he didnt have an iota of ambition to Land on moon. Do you know that the man who stood on Mount Everest was the weakest kid in his class?

They were all in diverse fields spreading across various countries but there was a common denominator which divides successful people from unsuccessful. Practise. Practise Practise. On a average it takes 10 000 hours to make a successful grandmaster.

A good practice is something where you have a well defined goal to aim at, the task should neither be too easy nor be totally out of your reach. And you should have the opportunity to make and correct mistakes. And some kind of feed back mechanism to correct your faulty steps.Above all a desperate need to succeed.

You dont get this inside paid classrooms or in the cosy comfortness of a multi millionaire .SlumDog millionaire AR Rahman started flirting with the keyboards when he was 11. His dad who run the business of renting music instruments died when ARR was young and hence ARR came in to the trade. He was in the crew of illaya raja. There were so many who were so in those days. But what made arr stand apart. It his passion for music and the rigurous practice he put in. In his book “OutLiers” Malcom Gladwell mentions that it takes on an average 10000 hours to make a grandmaster.

Same is the case with super achievers.Their practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused.Coyle describes a tennis academy in Russia where they enact rallies without a ball. The aim is to focus meticulously on technique. By practicing in this way, performers delay the automatizing process. The mind wants to turn deliberate, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. But the mind is sloppy and will settle for good enough. By practicing slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, the strenuous student forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance.

You hardly can err after having such a practice.With a focussed vision and deliberate practice you are sure to hit the success. Oh 10000 hours to be a grandmaster , typing programs from age 5 and keyboard from age 11 cricket from age 4 .. Does it what takes for a super achivement. I am 24 and I dont have a concrete vision? Is my life doomed because I dont have a vision? Am I going to be a looser till death.

No a vision is an enlightenment. Things remain the same before and after this lightning. But its we who get changed by this sudden enlightenment. There is a famous zen saying “Before enlightment Chop wood carry water” After enlightenment chop wood carry water. No matter what you do do it with perfection and consciousness. Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. Success is when preparation meets opportunity. Be ready with the ticket called practice so that you dont miss the opportunity bus which takes you to the destination called success. No matter what you do today , you can take something out of it for your tomorrows work.

There are people who work hard and stay mediocre. Its because they work hard within their comfort zone taking predictable steps. When you have a big dream you must be prepared to bet on certain unpredictables. Victory or Success doesnt happen all the time. But yet its those failures which increases your value for success. Life is a roller coaster ride.Not a merry go round.

But no matter whats going around. Apply yourself to what you do fully. Going to bed everynight with a feeling that I am better man than what I was in the morning gives you a healthy sleep. Practice not only makes us perfect but confident. Toastmasters is a testimonial to it. I would like to mention a little about TM Anupam here. Public Speaking is a challenge to all of us. But for this man even speaking was a challenge. People were apprehensive about his speaking skills and raised their eyebrows whenever he took the stage. But he used every opportunity to hone his skills and we raise our eyebrows even now in awe and inspiration.

For those who had been part of your cultural shows you will be aware of the rigorous practise they would have put in before the show. A musician practices his scores over and over again. A dancer goes over and over the steps necessary for fluidity. An actor plays his part till he masters his dialogues. What we see at the end is just the refined final output. We the audience arent aware of the umpteen rehearsals which went beyond the screen.

It is perhaps attitude, not aptitude, that gives us altitude in life. Practice beats skills. Think of the never die attitude of Rocky, Think of the perseverance of Mahatma gandhi, think of the tolerance shown by Mother Thersa. Thats what makes them what we are and that is what it takes for us to be a super achiever. Practice makes 0000you to utilise your potentials to the fullest which can transform your self. People aroud get inspired and emulate you.The next time when you hesitate to take some thing give a thought on how much you have practicer. Talent is overated .Practise is overlooked.. Anything is possible. Nothing is out of the reach of our hands…! No matter where you are the opportunity rests on your shoulders to change your lives and change the world we live in it.


When i am doing nothing

June 3, 2009

This post is to collect a list of things I can do when I am doing nothing.

1. Practice typing
2. Revise my words
3. Visit Hackers news
4. I can meditate
5. I can solve a puzzle or crosswordhttp://peerlessdeepak.wordpress.com/
6. Check my google reader:!

I will be updating this place and people if you have idea of any funny things which can be done with little efforts in a semi awaken state please let me know.


Many fine mornings!

May 27, 2009

Never thought that i would write a followup to the evening post.Off late there is a great dearth of reason to celebrate in peerless inc. The idle days in office is being under utilized. When i introspected, i attributed that to my stamina. There are days when I classified myself as hard worker rather than smart. But now when I am smart enough I couldnt push myself hard enough to even accomplish the basic needs. I find myself tired in the evenings and I havent done my morning sessions regularly in the past two-three months.

Given my lanky buildup I have always feared walking in to the gym and loosing the already scanty weight. My recent obsession towards trekking also demanded a demonstration of good stamina. I am a natural early riser and I like meeting people. With the above strengths I decided to take up jogging. Well I am not taking up a marathon run to flaunt to this extent. But i have a plan to build it up slowly and run a marathon one day.

After all today was my second day – actually i have planned only for three days a week but i was lured by the excitement in it and took it up today. Yesterday I was completely jagged even before I started my walk towards park. But for the sake of beginning I tried a run around the paseo. I struggled to complete even a single circle at a stretch, lost my breath in just under 300 mts. But with enough time to get it back again I forced myself for 3 rounds.

And I felt the pain for the whole day; looked weared off and had a doubt whether this isnt going to be fun for me. I got a good dose of sleep early in the evening itself. But vowed not to sleep before 10:30 PM. Some how managed to get a stream of activities and it must be 12 when i closed the eyes. Man! I havent had such a sleep in ages Guess I should have had my REM NREM cycles in perfection- Peaceful without any breaks and woke up at 5:00 with full of energy but with pain in the thighs. Was about to give up jogging today but the early restart pushed me against it and thought of trying a walk alone. But when I started running i felt that i could do it today and completed three circles with small respites in between.

I love it but to make it more efficient I need to get a good pair of sneakers, and a good company (@karthick @laksram anyone interested?). I have always given up physical exercises seeing it eating my time.But now in to it to get my time back. Running is fun. Its one place where you can easily get exhausted and force yourself to run some more and beat yourself. I love beating myself! I do have another secret mission associated with it. I got to get some members for my toastmasters club :)
I will share more about the art of running as I keep learning.


One fine eveninng! Orru malai pozhuthu!

May 15, 2009

Its raining here after a long stint of hot summer . This rain and climate soothes the heart and my mind thinks of other occassions where i felt alike.I would rate my cycle rides in the college road in the evenings (In karaikudi) as one of the best moments in my life.

A typical day in final year of my college would have some trouble for me since i held some office there.But I dont care a dime for it. When i recollect my final year days I realize that the day mostly begins after sun set for me. Friday evenings are the best of all for any one. When people walk back from classes i would be hovering around in my cycle. A brief skimming of journals and magazines in library. I will head straight to hostels then and get ensconced in a room where no one can disturb me for an hour or two. A nice little nap! When the clock strikes seven people start thronging in to the mess. But I will have different plans.

I take my cycle then and start my ride all alone with mindful of thoughts in that beautiful college road.[Its really hard to play some trick and escape from Gobi-my room mate who always insists on dining with me outside]. Before diving in to the main roads i used to make a circle inside the college campus. Getting on the main road I got to make the choices for the night.On most days my agenda would be an hour of browsing and a gentle dinner either in royal or the new president hotel.
Thoughts galore when i get in to the main road. My used to wander more than my cycle tyres. I will be counting on the things to browse only to forget them as soon as i enter the browsing center. Getting past the gates of CECRI and taking a turn at the university gates one would realize how far we have come from the hostels. The dual lane roads terminate near aryha bhavan. Gosh. If it had been a evening i will make a stop there and eat hot bajji’s in my favourite bajji shop.
Since this being a night i park my bike and get in to sify! I dont exactly recollect what i have been surfing those days. (No porno ..no flirting chats! for i dont know what open source mean in those days) but i spend an hour daily and most of my dads money made their way in to sifys accounts. After an hour of browsing I would head towards the hotel new president. I prefer new president at times when i am alone since i could finish my dinner for Rs25 (A dosa + puttu +idlis).

By now the clock would have already stuck half past nine. The already sparse roads will become deserted. Its me and my cycle to take care of them. I ride as slow as i can and pick some snacks for the night in Nilgiris (Rarely any one in hostel knows where i keep and when i eat my snacks! – I suck at sharing!) Its the return journey which is the moment of joy. I used to have a coffee around ten opposite aryha bhavan. It tastes so sweet that i used to enjoy and sip it for ten minutes. Its this stretch from the subra maniapuram to hostels which makes you feel so good. I used to get solutions for most of my pressing problems at this time. If i dont get a cue , I dont stop cycling until I feel better or get one.
Picking up the snacks and eating it one by one .. I would reach the hostel roads where people would be crowded near marine for their final puffs and huffs. Getting past them parking my cycle, I head to my room get changed and walk back to college to the placement cell where i browse for official reasons. Thats how most evenings were spent while i was at ACCET. I could have done better things but blame my ignorance. Anyways i hanker for those yore where i had a cosy life at a very little cost.


The golden jubilee meet of wordsmiths toastmasters

April 26, 2009

People are crazy with numbers , especially 25,50 and 100 are very special for public institutions. It was time for 50th meet in our wordsmiths toastmasters club, the club had its part in history for few good and bad reasons. Running in to its second year of operation we had few difficult months running short of the quorum. But in recent months we had  some new additions and the momentum was slowly starting to build up .

The meeting was fairly planned to minute details in advance under Haris leadership. I along with Ananth did some running around to prepare for the meeting which reminded me similar occasions at college.

I was persuading people around me to try toastmasters and many of those people decided to turn up on the same day. I had my moment of fame for ushering in a big crowd. Put together with my people we had 20+ guests and toastmasters from other clubs adding up to 50+.At one point of time we ran out of chairs which emphasises the turnout bet our expectations.

TM Krishna Prasad and our god father Zac received the guests and lead them to the registration desk.

District G2 conference was scheduled for the next day as a result of which we had some senior members from district team  in the city. TM Rajeev Nambiar was the sergeant at arms for the day. This was the first time I saw in action and the man with his physique and authoritative language makes the best fit for the role. President welcomed the guests and asked them to introduce themselves.There happened my moment to glory when everyone was refering to me for the reason to be there. We had a plenty of guests from various age groups, which took little more time for the introductions .

TM Sampath Sourirajan was the general evaluator for the day, he comes from the Medley toastmasters club and takes pride in  attending 23 toastmasters club so far.ToastMaster Ananth (He has grown equalling his height) was the toastmaster of the day – (the role which i love to do but havent done in ages). Revelry was the word of the day which was an apt selection. TM George was doing his second project but as the TM introduced him he spoke like a person who has completed his CC manual. His talk and Time and Space exhibited his command over language and confidence. But as his evaluator pointed out he fell short of communicating the content to his audience. I am sure as he goes through the CC projects this dude is going to nurture his skills and become an amazing speaker.

Zac was the TT master; Since we were already far beyond scheduled we didnt have as many topics as we wished to have.TM Deepak Justin gave his speech exactly for two minutes which had all the ingredients of a prepared speech. Then it was time for felicitation. TM Nina John – the first DTM from chennai received her DTM batch. TM Vivek,VP Membership and TM Ram Prasad were honoured for their roles. Then its party time for the birthday baby. District Gov. TM Balraj spoke on why toastmasters and what toastmasters can do to an individual.

We had the cakes served and a dinner together after the meeting. If atleast half the guests in the day turn up again and become part of the club our president promised to convert our meetings in to weekly affairs.

For many toastmasters , toastmasters has become a way of life. Though I had been part of it I feel as if i am starting it afresh after  a break  and the recent toastmasters meets have bolstered my quest of becoming a better person.

PS: This recording is done after  7 days from the meet and hence i couldnt recollect all the fairy tales in the meeting.


Days with David-2

April 15, 2009

The Micabers enter the life of Master David and today the Micabers were leaving him to Plymouth. David seems to lead a happy life with Micabers(amidst his remonstration I infer this from his narration). The advice to Davy was “Never do something tomorrow which you can do today”.This novel is very intrguing and poignant once you put yourself in the shoes of Master David -  quite natural since the novel is designed to be so.

Davids workplace had a wharf which touched water when the tide was high and sands when the tide was low.Davids work was  a drudgery. Since David didnt have much pregrination in to the streets of London the sanguine nature of Mr. M picked him up from work.David took pudding from a shop which made them using currants.Micabers house had an empty larder.Captain Hopkins had a sonorous voice.Though the narration seems to an indication of poignant its a luscious when its vicarious.Mrs. M swooned on the occasion of Mr M s release.


Days with David -0

April 14, 2009

Davids plan was efficacious. Mr.Barkis was gruff.  Clara remonstrated when Miss Murderstone called her a fool. Miss Murderstone showed a violent consternation at Davids stay. Davids life at hostel was a strife. Hindu is never known for its levity. People expressed their indictment as the perpetrator went scot free. Development is always going to be elusive. MrMurdstone growled at Davy.


Days with David -1

April 14, 2009

I am currently re-reading David Copperfield and would like to post some cues here now and then for revisiting this wonderful story. I have a desire to remember all that i read without any deficiet and I am working on it. Towards this purport, I have reduced my intake and the current focus is on retention. I have figured out its easy to recognise a character than to remember some set of information. So after my session with Davy I will be posting some no sense post which as a reader you can ignore(DO i have any reader???)

Today Davy had  a rimmy clammy hair.David also had a sputtering candle in his hand.

I still dont know why the funeral man picked up Davy. For Davy time was trodding:) Miss Murdstone with her diabolical catalogue of unamiable qualities. Mr Barkis had a leer in his countenance when he looked at Peggotty.

Mrs.Gummidge had rumpled her hair around her face.Little Emily was sly and shy. Davy was accused of moping and droning. Peggotty should be remembered for the way she condoled with Davy at Clara’s loss.


Truly Madly Deeply!

March 20, 2009

Though I used to brag that I am in love with her to my friends I used to have some misgivings inside my mind whether it is also a kind of infatuation. I might have attracted to her since I got an acquaintance with her.

But today I had this revelation – that i cant think of a life without her. Yes today, I am going to my native after about 100 days (All these days I have procrastinated it for making something beautiful for her ). But this time there is  a function at home and since I cant stand the anger and anguish(Not theirs but my ears’ pain when i hear them exhorting me to come) of my parents anymore. So its decided that I will be leaving to my native in two hours.

But then these stream of thoughts were trickling through my nerves in the morning. All these days I have  modelled my life to see her smiling by doing some favours for her. At most times I have failed,only to see her not getting  compiled or she is much demanding so that i have to run around looking for various packages to run my life. She is hard to please for sure. But in the process i felt that I am attaining the purpose of my life by getting to know how everything works in her world. She is very open and thats what attracted me. And last week when we made some violent love she was hurt and thats when i decided that I should no more hurt her.:)

Then we sat together and spoke for hours and decided to adopt a baby – from here and play with it. The little baby was amazing. Its parents have brought that up with a great vision in mind. But the sail is not smooth. The baby is refusing to stay with us. So we both are working in creating a comfortable home for the baby. Over the last two days  we were progressing towards it. Even my neighbhour was interested in this process and joined hands with us. Life was just blossoming. But lot needs to be done. Now at this juncture I got be away from them for two days. At first I didnt think that its going to be a tough task. But today while working , she suddenly got fainted and I couldnt work after that. I tried some medication with little knowledge of mine but that didnt help. She has got wounds in one of the areas where we were exploring these week and I couldnt stand to see her suffering. So I left office and was filled with thoughts about her and her wreckage. I know I couldnt sleep will still she is recovered. And i got to wait two days to do that. I want to say to her things will be fine and we will have good time with our baby. It was during this time I had realised that this isnt an infatuation. May it have started like that but now I live my life for her.

She is my hope

She is my wish

She is my fantasy

She fills my dreams

She is my reason for living  [K  this parody doesnt seem to come to nice..so pasting below the original ]


I want to stand with you on a mountain.
I want to bathe with you in the sea.
I want to lay like this forever.

Yes I have that dream of being strong in linux internals and making life better for myself and other by making linux better.In recent days I have got some leads in this process and it might take long hours and days to convert them in to action.I am just bluffing this out in this space. I have even stronger thoughts to express but got a bus to catch. Hope this brief separation is necessary to let make our bond even stronger. Let me see how successful I am when I start making  love again after a two days span. Till then I am gonna be recharged by the love of my parents and friends.

I want to stand with you on a mountain, [A conference]
I want to bathe with you in the sea.[A hackers workshop]

Wish me good luck!

Truly Madly Deeply in love with my computer and linux!

Thanks to ashokjjr for taking me to those savage  lines and these world


Happiness!

February 13, 2009

Happiness alais satisfaction whatever we may term it, it has been the motivator of all the individuals in this world. Some find happiness in others well being (a mother in her childs) and some find happiness in others downfall.All such external motives reduces to a feeling of elation or satisfaction which the individual yearns for. Every one  has the   right to chose is his own form and source of happiness.

And the world is equally filled with worries. Every people has their own bag of worries. But the quality of life is determined by the ability of yours , which keeps that bag aside and fill your day with joy. Whatver must be our motive happiness is derived from an action. Be it watching a movie /dating a girl/building a application , the happiness is felt when an action is done. Action is a reflection of your thoughts. Thoughts are derived from your past experience and desires. Desires are derived from your objectives. Objectives are those which can make you feel happy. The process from the desire to action is the path and pursuit of happiness (Well I write this entry because I am going to watch it today!). When a desire fail to makes you happy it ends up being a source of gloom.

To be happy one must have a control over his desires . The probablity of being happy increases with the number of desires and so as the probability of worries. The  path from desire to action determines the probability of happiness.

So its evident happiness can be achivied easily from the inner self rather than seeking it from the external world. I have wondered why it was difficult for me than most of fellow beings to be happy. It took me this analysis to find out that I have more desires which doesnt have a path from desire to action which reduced my probability of happiness.

By applying little more maths and estimating whether the  probability of happiness or the probability of desire dominates in a particular desire, one can winnow out the desires tilted towards worries.Happiness is one word which has varied meaning depending on the people who intpret them. When two different people intpret the same meaning it becomes difficult for them to get a share of theirs in it.

Chose your meaning! Mine is action . I was worried at my depriciating writing skills since i havent wrote anything for a while and this entry is to boost my level of happiness:)