the speech

How do I feel about public speaking?


Confused.

The first time I participated in a speech contest, it was a story telling contest, and I managed to rattle it. I was in second standard then.

Then came a long a break, till standard ten, when our English teacher Mrs.Elivira D’souza had a Saturday activity class, one activity was delivering a speech, she used to have our science teacher Mrs.Indira Rao as the judge, me along with other smart Alec friends used sit at the last bench and ridicule the speakers. After one such achievement, Indira Rao turned to me said if you really have the stuff come up and speak.

She had thrown the perfect bait, the age was of testosterone kings, adrenaline high was on too, I walked up and spoke. After that speech it was interhouse, intercollegiate taluk level, district level and finally the state level. Of course my speech’s were not researched nor were they rehearsed it was just one adrenaline high.

Out of school, through college, and twenty years later public speaking had become a forgotten act. Until I joined Toastmasters international, I now learn that adrenaline has slowed down, so it’s time to work. Believe me after each project I realize I have three speeches’ the one I prepared, the one I delivered and one that I wish I had delivered.

ಪ್ಲಿನ್ಕ್ಯ್ ನನ್ನ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಭಾಷಣದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯ ಬಯಸುತ್ತಾಳೆ.

ಎನ್ನನಲ್ಲಿ?

ಮೊದಲಭಾರಿ ಎರಡನಯ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಥೆ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದೆ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಥಮ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಭಾಷಣ.ತಿರುಗಿ ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕಳಾದೆ ಭಾಷಣ ಭಿಗಿದವರಗಿಂತ ಎಷ್ಟು ಚನ್ನಾಗಿ ನಾನು ಹೇಳಬಲ್ಲೆಯೇನುದು ಕುಳಿತ್ತಲ್ಲೇ ಕೊಚ್ಚಿದೆ.

ಹತ್ತನೇ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ, ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಕಲಿಸುತ್ತಿದ ಎಲ್ವಿರ ಟೀಚರ್, ಪ್ರತಿ ಶನಿವಾರ ಉಮೆಧವಿದ್ದ ವಿದ್ಯರ್ಥಿಯರಿಂದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಭಾಷಾಭ್ಯಾಸ ಮಾಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದರು, ನನ್ನ ಹಳೆ ಚಟ ಮಾಸಿರಲ್ಲಿಲ. ಒಮ್ಮೆ ತಿರ್ಪುಗರತಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನದ ಟೀಚರ್, ಇಂದಿರರವರು, "ಅಷ್ಟು, ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯವಿದ್ದರೆ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ವ್ಯಸಪೀತದ ಮೇಲೆ ನಿಂತು ಭಾಷಣ ಕೊಡು"ಅಂದ್ರು. ಪ್ರಾಯದ ಹುರುಪಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಷಣ ಬಿಗೆದೆ, ಅದೇ ಮೊದಲು, ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ, ಶಾಲಾ, ತಾಲುಕ, ಜಿಲ್ಲ ಹಾಗು ರಾಜ್ಯ ಮಟ್ಟದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಹಾಗು ಹಿಂದಿ ಭಾಷಣ ಸ್ಪರ್ದೆಗಳನ್ನು ಗೆದ್ದೇ. ಮತ್ತೆ, ಸುಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರವಿಳಿದೇ ಮೇಲೆ ಬಂದಾಗ ಇಪತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳು ದಾಟಿದವು ಆತ್ಮವಿಶ್ವಾಸವು ಕುಂದಿತು.

ಈಗ ಅಂತಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ Toastmaster ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ ಸೇರಿರುವೆ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಷಣದ ಮೊದಲು, ತಯಾರಿ, ಅದರ ಅಭ್ಯಾಸ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಲಿಯುತಿರುವೆ.

ಸಾದಾ ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷಣವು ಮೂರು ಪ್ರಕಾರ, ತಯಾರಾದ ಭಾಷಣ-- ಹೇಳಿದ ಭಾಷಣ -- ಹೇಳಭಾಯಸಿದ ಭಾಷಣ.

tinil-battali-paper

28th June is the day that honours the fake lore hero called Paul Bunyan? He is a giant lumberjack. His minimalistic life and lumberjack tales have become folklore.


But he could never take the place of Johnny Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed the pioneer environmentalist who introduced apple to Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. He was also a missionary.

The legend has it that this environmentalist wore a saucepan for a hat and wore rags for he gave away better clothes. He threw apple seeds to create an orchid.

Somehow Johnny Appleseed reminded me of the bent old man who used to collect trash from the trashcans of Manipal I wonder how many of us remember him from our childhood. We called him “tinlbattlipaper” after his Yodelling call for tins-bottle and paper that were to be thrown away. Many of our mothers gave away old clothing.

He used to quite often followed by the dog Jimmy who had adopted all of us.

world envoirnment day

Is like the earth day, it is supposed call political attention and public action towards environmental issues. The theme for 2011 is Forest-Nature at your service with one third the earth’s land mass being covered by forests and 1.6 billion people dependent on it for their living.


The various sites suggests

• Talks,

• Exhibitions

• Bicycle rally

• Tree planting

• Green concerts

• Recycling

As ways to celebrate the environment day.

We see NDTV and other channels talking of greenathons and whatever is this where our responsibility ends? The celebrities who run these greenathons have houses round the world; this is definitely eating into the forest space to make space for habitation. I see flats in goa closed for the entire year except for that one week during the Christmas to new year, this is again a strain on the resources. Of course there are people who claim that these holiday houses give employment to the locals that is the local yokels/fisher folk housekeep for the owners.

Let’s not talk about others, are we willing to give up cars and bike to take public transports?

We have no college or even a vocational course that will allow us optimize our forest wealth without damaging it. We have architecture colleges, we have civil engineering courses that teach us to build buildings depleting land resource, polluting water resources and demolishing forest resource. We already massacred the wild life.

Maybe we the middle class citizens need to look at ourselves before chase the urban dream.

The great indian tamasha

There is a lot of reporting going on TV about corruption, Anna Hazare’s fasting, Baba Ramdev’s fast.


The ridicule of a Yogi’s political ambition is also there. Well that is his trip though his agenda sounds fine. If we call patriotism a religion, dedicated to the nation with the National anthem and flag being its symbol why not a Yogi with a political agenda. From chankya to Vivekananda, Sri Aurbindo have all being spiritual men with political idealisms. Of wanting a country that has achieved its potential. Yes Chankya too.

But let me get to what is bothering me, when say corrupt politician we need to see who is corrupting them?

My maid I have not changed her name because someone might take up this cause—Amina is a migrant worker at Goa from Dandeli. Her husband came first she followed him then the rest of the family. Fine enough nothing wrong, in a sense my husband and I are migrant workers too.

But what is interesting is she has an uncancelled ration card at Dandeli so does her family. They have paid Rs.5000/- per card and got new cards made here. This allows them twice the ration and twice the facilities. She and her family are very particular when it comes to elections exercising franchise both at Goa and Dandeli. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Most migrant workers have this dual ration card. Most of them I am sorry to mention and sound communal but are Muslims.

The issues are many, how many of us have the moral courage to stand up and say this is what we believe in, we don’t because the great Indian dream is to go the whiteman’s land and slave it out there. So we ridicule our Baba Ramdev, and protest about racial discrimination in the Land of Oz