How do I improve my English communication?

First and foremost thing is believe in yourself.
Believe that you can speak in English.
Dream like you are speaking in English in front of people.
This is the first step.
Next thing is to speak with whatever English you know. Don't care about grammar. Don't care about what other are thinking. 90 percentage of them won't even try.
“It is better to try and fail because you will learn something. Most people will give up even before trying”
The fact that you requested this question means you have taken that first step. Don't give up now.
Speak in front of a mirror if you are shy. Do this for a week or so. Then try speaking to the people.
Most of the times, your friends make comments about your bad progress or hey he/she is speaking English etc..
Don't care about them. Speak n fight.
It is about your dreams.
They will laugh or comment till you achieve your goal. After your dream becomes reality, the world will bow to you. Those commentators are bull shit.
Fight my friend by speaking in English. Achieve your dreams.
All the best.

A Small Dream

It was Dec 23rd, 2011. Kiran is traveling to her home town Faridabad. Dec 24, she would reach her home town to celebrate her birthday. Still half an hour to go, She fastened her backpack to shoulders and sat near the door. Two miscreants pulled her back jumping on the platform. Kiran tried to pull the bag back, but was herself slowly pulled towards the door. In this process, her left leg got stuck in between the moving train and platform. Kiran woke up after a day only to realize that she can’t feel her left leg. She cried over and over but none, not even GOD cared. She still can’t feel her left leg. But then, news of 2012 Paralympic Games caught her attention. She decided to run. 

In 2014, Kiran ran her 6-Km Dream Run at Mumbai Marathon with one leg and one blade. She became first women blade runner of India. Till now, she ran half Maratahns and Pink Marathans. She is now preparing for 2020 Paralympic Games. One of her dream is to run and win a medal for India. 

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work – Said by Colin Powell. 

Fellow Toastmasters and friends, 
I believe, as children, we visualized either becoming of mathematics teacher on children day or to play cricket without knowing nighty-gritty of cricket. I too, as a young kid wanted to compete on an Independence Day speech contest in the school. Till 8th class, I never attempted a speech on any occasion. When I first imagined myself, attempting and winning the speech contest, it was an amazing feeling. On that day, when I walked on to the stage, I could see 100 odd curious faces looking at me. My heart started pumping more blood than usual. More blood consumed my words that I am about to utter. I didn’t know what I spoke on that day.
Boom… Everyone is laughing at me and I just ran away from the stage.

The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.– Tom Bradley.

Yes, it is true. I never attempted a speech in the school or college after that embarrassing moment. From that moment on wards, I was afraid of giving speeches and never gave. To eliminate that fear, I  joined Toastmasters in 2013, I got to know about different speech contests. That incident still haunted me and I always said to myself “I am not ready” or “I need more time” or “I don’t have a story”. 

In 2015, with my area governor Sneha push, I attempted impromptu speech and failed.Next month, when I attended the area contest after my failure, that contest had one guest speaker. She came onto the podium and said I ran 6-Km Dream Run at Mumbai Marathon. She was none other than Kiran. 

That day, listening to her speech,I cried. Remembering that quote “The time is always right to do what is right ”, I wrote my International speech contest speech for 2016. I started giving the speech in different clubs and took feedback from different toastmasters. In Feb, 2016, I attempted the same speech after lot of improvements in my Accenture club International speech contest. I won the Accenture club contest. That day, my dream came true. The Dream, which I dreamed in 2003, became a reality in 2016. I won a small battle. But to win the bigger battles, friends, first we need to win these smaller battles. 

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work - Colin Powell. 
What is your Dream my friends? 

Presented the speech at Quest Toastmasters, Hyd and Elan Toastmasters in Mar 2017. This is my final CC10 Project. 

Pic credits: Elan Toastmasters meeting, Mar 2017

         
               
                                                                            

Tough times never last but Tough People do

It was Dec 27^th, 2014. Results of Common Admission Test for MBA were out. I, who scored 97 percentile in last yer CAT, screwed up. I was devastated. I called mom and started crying. She tried to console me but I was broken and could not come out at that moment. My dream to become an entrepreneur through MBA are shattered just in one day. I could not sleep that night.

A week before this incident, I was elected as President of Accenture Toastmasters Club for Jan - June 2015 term. When I took over in January, the club had 13 members. It was a struggling club.

After the results, the personal situation is worse. The next weekend, I sat down to understand myself. When I was in my college, I enjoyed teaching kids in an NGO called Karthavya.It works for Slum children education. So I decided, I wanted to teach because I enjoy that. I Joined Mahita NGO, which works towards underprivileged girls in Mehadipatnam. I started spending 6 -9 hours per month starting from February.

When I wanted to become an entrepreneur, I should become a strong personality so that my team should believe in me. I took struggling Accenture Toastmasters as an opportunity and wanted to add 5 members by March ending. Because I felt giving up is the easiest thing to do on this earth. I wanted to fight.

When renewal time came, only 5 people renewed out of 13 including me. By March end, I added - 8 members to my club instead of +5. I felt 3 months effort should not go in vain. By the end of April, 5 members joined because of my team effort from last 3 - 4 months. And also, for guest attendance increased. I spent around 1 hour with each new member understanding “why they joined Toastmasters” and explained how Toastmaster is going to add value to their personal and professional life. These conversations made a strong bond with the members and 7 more took membership by the end of June, 2015. I followed same pattern for these new members as well.

In July, I was re elected as president for next term. I was also into Division club extension team. With more responsibilities,I was marching forward.

By Aug, I had to made a tough decision between  volunteering at Mahita, NGO and Logistics chair for National Public speaking conference as I could not accommodate both. I choose Logistics chair and left Mahita.

One mistake I did in first term as president is doing multiple roles. In Second term, I started training people on various roles so that by the end of next term my successor is ready.

As a club extension team member, I used to travel a lot. In that toastmasters year, we were able to add around 8 clubs like Roots business school, Druva college, Persistent systems etc. The first semi annual conference was a big success. The conference saw more than 650 + audience and a lot of take away to them.

In these 3 roles, I learned some lessions that I am going to share now

1. Never give up. Giving up is the easiest thing to do. Hardest thing is to fight with a hope.

2. More than success, struggles make you stronger. Eventually, you will become successful.

3. When there is a choice to make, always look at the bigger picture. As a Mahita Volunteer, I could add value to around 100 underprivileged girls. As a logistics chair, I am adding value to 600+ Toastmasters, who are definitively going to uplift unprivileged people. So I choose Logistics chair over Volunteering.     

4. Always build a strong team and be ready with a successor. This is because, you dream should not die with you. It should reach more people even with out you. Even though I am not there in Accenture, the club is growing.

5. Always ask Why questions? Rather than how and what questions? Why questions give pain that one person is facing. Once you address that pain with heart, you build something called trust, which lives on forever.

All these lessons profound impact on me. These led to me to take strong decision of my life. Quit Accenture and start addressing the pain of students in education field. So Joined Conuiraonline.com, an educational start up, which helps students to chase their Dreams. I Speak to lot of students and I give motivation speeches.

It is been 9 months and I am enjoying what I am doing.

Hope, my Journey inspires to dream big.    

Presented the speech at S2Tech Toastmasters, Hyd in Jan 2017. This is my initial CC10 Project. 

Pic credits: Area F4 and H4 Joint Conference, 2017

My Best Friend

It was a Sunday morning. I was sipping coffee. In front of me, the cook was chapping some wood for morning breakfast. Soon, a stranger came from the main door of the house. The cook was not facing the main door so he couldn't see the stranger. While approaching the cook, the stranger took an Axe which was resting to the wall. In front of me, the stranger chopped the head of the cook.  The head of the cook rolled over before coming to halt.

My Dear Toastmasters and Guests, I believe in” Knowledge is power” quote. In 2008, I joined IIT Dhanbad, Jharkhand for gradation.  The journey from Hyderabad to Dhanbad in a train is around 36 hours.  The only way to pass time is either sleep or play rummy, like my friends.  I couldn't do either of them.    

  

In my first return journey, while sitting in my seat, I saw a magazine named “Front line”. I bought it and started reading it. It covered everything from politics to entertainment.  I especially liked the middle pages where Nature articles were written.  Magazine reading become a hobby to me and I loved the magazine.  Till then, I never read magazines or books with that enthusiasm.  This continued, until 2012, when my junior gifted me “Immortals of Meluha” by Amish.  With little hesitance, I started reading the book. I could imagine the big mountains, the 6 feet shiva, grandiose  architecture etc. I never thought I had that extravagant imagination.  This fascinated me and I started reading more books. In Dec 2012, in HR interview, I told reading books as my hobby. When asked about latest book read, I spoke about “Chanikya’s chant ” for  more than 5 mins.

To experiment and understand, I moved from fictional to all time reads like “Animal farm”, “How to kill a mocking bird” , “ The guide” , “ The alchemist”. Every book that I read gave me a different perspective and this made me mentally strong.  To quote an example, in 2014, I was hesitant to move to a hostel for CAT 2014 preparation from my room. At that time, I was reading “who moved my cheese”. The book deals about positive effects of a particular change that we are afraid of. After reading the book, I shifted to a hostel near CAT coaching center. This change helped me to prepare better for CAT 2014.

Now I read a book on monthly basis. Every book is a journey of thoughts or Imagination of author of some part of his/her life. You can experience them through reading a book.  You can travel to middle earth or be with crime detective to understand the logic or be in your fantasy world where you can imagine everything just by reading a book.

The story which I narrated in the starting of the speech is from the book “And there were none“. Raise your hand if you want to complete this book by coming weekend. Hand over the book to interested. Over to you, Toastmaster of the Day.  

Book will be used as a prop.

CC9 Speech given at BOFA Toastmasters, Hyderabad in Dec, 2016.

Pic Credits:  Tale Tellers Troupe India.

The Burning Platform

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters. As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice. He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behavior. 

Till 2013, I was standing on a platform too! The platform where my friends, my career and personal life are there! The freezing water was Public speaking! Fear of public speaking is what stopped me from jumping into it! But when my professional and personal life was going down then the platform began to look like a burning platform! And hence came the push! From that burning platform I jumped into the freezing waters (The big Toastmasters Ocean)! Now I am swimming a journey of Public Speaking. It’s been a wonderful journey from last 2.5 years in Toastmasters club. I was rescued by Mentor to prepare my speech, by evaluator to improve my next speech, VP-Education to achieve my goals. In this journey, I have seen TMs completing Competent Leadership and Competent Communicator certification in the club, which inspired me to give my best. On this occasion, I want to thank all of you for contributing to the AreaF4 in one way or other. Looking forward to see you all participating in Club contests, organizing contests and growing together as a team of Area F4.

This article is orginally written in Accenture Toastmasters Newsletter and Area F4 Newsletter in the year 2015.  

Image Credits: https://pixabay.com/

What Happened to Bose?

It was afternoon on 18^th Aug, 1945. A man in his khaki uniform boarded Mitsubishi Bomber along with his close aids.  Bomber was picking up on the runway and soon it was in the air. A few minutes in the air, one of the engines broke swinging the bomber to the right side. The pilot tried for a balance but failed. With 100 feet per sec, it was falling. With more than 300Kmph, it hit the ground and pierced some of the land before coming to halt. This made one of the fuel tankers to catch fire. When ground staff started approaching the broken plane, they saw two people, while one of them had become a human torch.

Friends, curiosity takes us to next level. Sometimes, we accidentally become curious.  Last year, I played Secret Santa in my office.  Raise your hand if you have played Secret Santa?  

As you know, we gift something to our child in this game. I always gift books and I gave a book to my child as a gift. Surprisingly, my Santa gifted me a book too. This book I did not open until this November.  And that is “What happened to Netaji” by Anuj Dhar. I accidentally opened the book and became curious. The book deals about the 3 beliefs persisted about Bose Death.

Belief 1: Bose was badly burned in the plane crash in 1945 and died in the early hours of 19^th Aug, 1945.  After the cremation, the ashes were sent to Renkoji Temple in Sep, 1945.

Belief 2: Bose faked the Air Crash and escaped to Soviet Union through China to seek support for independence movement from Stalin. According to Bose, Soviet felt British as their enemy.  But Bose was captured and killed in a prison of Seberia because Nehru ordered the execution.

Belief 3:  Bose took sanyass and lived in Utter Pradesh until his death in 1985.    

Anuj, who accidentally got curious about Bose mystery, wrote his first book on Netaji in 2005. Since then he published more books about Netaji collecting factual information.  He is also founding member of Mission Netaji foundation. He, in his latest book, confirms Netaji did not die in the plane crash and but lived as Bhagawanji until 1985.

Three commissions have been set up on Bose Mystery. First is Nawaz shaw commission, lead by Congress MP, Nawaz Shaw in 1956. Second one in Khosla commission. Both the commissions concluded that Bose died in the plane crash. Third Commission led by Justice Mukarji was formed in 1999. It concluded in 2006 that Bose did not die in plane crash. Anuj, with facts shows how Bhagawanji was in contact with most of the political leaders in his latest book.

Whatever might have happened to Bose, he was never given that position Gandhi or Nehru or Patel has taken.  He was a brave Patriot, who lived and died for our country. He indeed freed it from the shackles of British Empire. Some might forget it. We do not. His Legacy lives on. Let us give a standing ovation to Bose for his patriotism.

CC7 Speech ends after Standing ovation and over to Toastmasters of the Day.
Speech given at CAMP Systems Toastmasters, Hyderabad.
Pic Credits: CAMP Systems Toastmasters, Hyderabad. 

Raajan..

  The Sun was rising in the sky. First few rays from the sun touched raajan; those were like a spark to him. It was early June. Though heat was down, still all were waiting for first monsoon. As he woke up, he came out in his Dhoti and half shift to see the early town activities. The Town is located East South, 300kms away from state capital. As one enters from west side into the town, one can see school building, which goes back to British era. The building structure is massive as one can see a combination of both West and East culture. School produced legends, who travelled across the country and even far West too. Road stretched from West to East, connecting another Town, which is 13Kms away from Rajayelle. Once a politician promised to get an Asphalt concrete road, if he was elected to assembly. But none came. People are still surviving on half broken, peculiar concrete road, which creates a dust cyclone, when a vehicle passes by. After 100 meters, one finds bus-stop on right side of the road. It was like a small shelter, where passengers can rest for few hours and Also home for homeless. Supported by 6 medium sized pillars, roof was half naked, providing full light to the shelter. 

  On both sides of the road, so many small shops occupied. From bus stop, 3rd lane will lead to Old rajayelle. As one goes deep into the lane, in the middle, it hosted a statue of Mahatma, on 4 junction road. 4 lanes stretched far deep, making a big enough crowd of 10,000.  On west side of that statue, a few blocks away, located municipality office. Municipality office was located in big area, surrounded by different trees. Opposite to MO, a large playground was created to play different games. From the statue, Deep South hosted a small park, where small play stations are occupied different locations in the park. East side of the statue, small homes stretched. After 5 blocks, on the right stood raajan house.  Poyl was speared before entrance. Raajan came out of the house and sat on the poyl. He got his daily newspaper and started reading until his face shirked on reading the second page.

Wrong Linking..

Inter linking of rivers: Connecting the rivers or uplifting the rivers in India, so that drought areas can get water and water can be better utilized for irrigation and drinking.

           It started in 1972(Still under scrutiny), when irrigation minister proposed agenda to interlink rivers in the Himalayan region. In 1976, another proposal came up with South Indain rivers. Finally, in 1984, because of all these proposals, they founded The National Water Development Agency to scrutinize  the positives and negatives of Project and document the same.

               Interlinking of rivers is not an easy task. It involves huge costs for building dams and for  diverting original river flow, so as to manually control the river canals. By doing this, we can easily transfer water to drought effected areas in the country. NWDA (The National Water Development agency) divided the state into two parts. The upper one is called 1. Himalayan Interlinking and  2.Peninsular Interlinking . In the Himalayan river bed, we have Gangas and  Brahmaputra. Here, we have to share the water with nepal and bhutan.  In Peninsular river bed, we have Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri. Main objective is to shift the water to  deeper south and west by linking these rivers by canals. Though, On pen and paper, it seems like good but not reality. Because the project has positive benefit. But in a contry like India, where the corruption is high at higher level , most of budget is eaten before implementing itself. And government will change in the mean time.  Corruption a side, let us look into social and environmental issues.

       As we are going to build dams and canals, we need Land. how we are going to get it? As usual, grab it from near by farmers and tribal people for better India. As we know, already Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are fighting for Godavari water. They went to supreme court too. As drought effected areas shifting to sugar production in Maharashtra, They need more and more sugar mills. These sugar mills consume lots of water. As most of the opposition parties are alleging that congress is shifting the water basins to favored politically influenced mills so to  maximize their production. This is leading to drinking water problem in some districts. As states are not ready give water or they want reservation before distributing the water to other states. But supreme court warned the states saying that It be nation first then the individual states. But some states are favoring the proposal and some others are opposing for it.  Coming to Environmental impact, how we are going to build the Dams and canals? we have to sacrifice some forests and lands of poor farmers and tribal people. As experts say it is like building vision with out base. Most our rivers have surplus water in monsoon only. Comparing data with last decades, Yamuna's surplus has been decreasing in the last few years, a study said. As Brahmaputra flow is very high, only 4-5 percent is diverted during monsoon. And here we have to resolve the issues with other countries first. Coming to peninsular area,  The states are already arguing with center to clear the dispute about these water issues.

            Country like india needs more and more food to next Generations. So, we need more irrigation land in our country. As of now,  our irrigation land is 140 million hectors. To meet the requirements in 2050, we need 160 millions hector irrigation potential. And This is indirectly pointing to economic situation of India. As directed by experts and geologists, we need to  look into this issue before implementing.  This project as NWDA points if implemented, increases our country's  irrigation potential by 35 million hectors. As experts say we need more scrutiny for this issue. As of now, surplus is not effective, when implemented. Though we need irrigation potential, we need more observations and facts. Let us face the facts and wait for some more time.

Indian Foreign policy

Where do I start? Oh!.. BJP(RSS) announced it's PM candidate as Narendra Modi.. so India  changed.. ok i will come back to this arguement later..
Let's have a look at Indain Foreign policies..What is FII and FDI?
In simple terms: FII: you go to a country,  make some analysis on some factors and you buy some shares hoping that company or sector management is good.
FDI: you to a country, you purchase the land and you start a company from scratch utilizing all the resources in that country.. or you go to a country,  you will do some analysis.. you will collaborate with existing company pushing your management in to that company..

Why FDI over FII...
Let us consider the situation of India.. we went liberal in 1991.. and IT was booming  and  contributing to foreign reserve.. FII's sees India's IT boom and invests in IT companies.. and in one day Stock market can pick up heights.. now after few years, Satyam scam came out.. they loose faith in IT.. they shifted to Communication sector.. there was a boom in Mobile/data usage and call charges were down.. spectrum scam came out.. Again they lost faith in communication sector( Have you ever wonder why now mobile/data charges going up? while it was 1p/sec in 2009-10-11..).. then came coal.. coal scam.. minerals ..  Mineral scam.. they lost faith in so many sector.. they take their money and can run.. stock market can go below 10,000 in one day.. because of FII's..  now From last few months,  Still FII's are down.. a question was raised in industry meet though we are free of scams from few months, why FII's backing?
MD of some company from European union  answered ' In a country, where they can't respect their own women, how can they respect  us'


Now Coming FDI, if they are buliding the company from scratch, they can't run away in one day or one month.. so there is a possibility of stability in the market compared to FII's. As compared to last year , China has 10 times more FDI inflows compared to india... China is growing fast with FDI's..

Now coming back to the topic, where i started, if People are not satisfied with UPA, they can go with NDA.. but is Mod's figure as PM candidate will impact NDA stand in 2014?  now it is not going with Ayodhya issue unlike in 1996?
Even people asking if not BJP then who?. Next election is going to determine the face of india.. if people go with modi.. Modi won't sit clam to  Pakistan.. what is his stand with Foreign policy? How is going to deal with China?  is he going to accept the fact that he is human or is he going to take the side of RSS?
Though he is projecting the gurajat as growing state? is it scalable to India? and there are some constituencies, which are not satisfied with modi in gujarat itself? .All these questions are debatable  .. let's wait for another 6 months to see, what will happen?

Feel The Nature..with peace of mind

When i was in the bus, i was excited because after long time, i am going to my home town. My face was jovial.  When i took my baggage to get down, conductor whistled to allude the driver to stop the bus in the village. As i am out the bus with baggage,  the bus rattled along the road. It’s been days since i visited my village though my parents are staying here. As i am walking on the road, which like black vulcanite spread over gray earth. Then it came my memory, the day foundation stone  laid  local politician. I was kid then. Then came a memory, We were deliberately playing on black road which was just completed few hours,  to make our small marks so that we can be proud of what we did  in front of our friends.  As someone was shouting from distance, i clasped my brother arm and ran to my home.

      I am back now. How can I describe the change in my village? They got liberal too expect the caste which is widening every day with the day to day politics. Which side am I on?  Definitely not like them. As i am walking to my home, there is no tea stall, which used to here for uncountable years.  Change, whether good or bad, on what terms should i have to decide?. A mobile tower stood in the middle of Village.  It was like tech lead of natural mountains, which are part of my village territory from the last century. They are like guardians of my village. When i reached my home, my mom and grandparents welcomed me with peculiar questions.  I stayed there for a few days.

     Next morning, I woke up early to catch a walk with grand pa to our fields, which came to my grandfather from his grandfather , to him from his grandfather, and story goes on. As I was walking with him, i observed a few shopkeepers were already up. We were almost out of village. A small water stream, flows in between, dividing the village into unequal parts.  And it was 30minute walk from my home.  He showed me the boundary of paddy lands, which came to as part of blood. Then i was at a abeyant shelter, which used to be for cows and buffalos. it was made up of rocks, in unprecedented manner .

     As new crop is going to start in few weeks, The next day was a celebration in the fields. The whole family assembled and blabbering about what dishes to make in the tomorrows offerings. The whole night, they discussed about their families and other things with frivolous purpose. 

     Next morning, i woke even too early. When i came out, the sky was painted with whitish dust, which came from burning of forest wood.  We, as part of a ritual, we should sacrifice something to goddess of nature. She protects the farm from evil forces. We all started in a group to a place, which is away from the village. As we reached there, it was fine-looking place. The rocks are scattered in the whole fields, like someone dropped it from heaven. They made the whole field into small parts. They are like huge steps, carved out in different shapes. We moved on and we finally settled in front of a mango tree.

       As part of ceremony, some were cooking in the red pots, using small white rocks. They were turning into black colour because of smoke, which was emanating from the forest wood fire.  They cooked raw rice and meat differently.  The whole area,  a smart of land was wet as if watered yesterday. The Land was levelled called as tillage and is primarily done to reduce water wastage. In that land, a small area had germinated seeds. This is called as transplantation technique, which is widely used in Asian counties than direct seeding. So this small area was nursery. My grandfather, with the help of me,  we bought germinated seeds to the mud. My  grandparents and others offered prayers to goddess to do well and protect us from evil. They implanting the seeds into the levelled land. It was over in few minutes. Though , it is a back- breaking work, they love it. We just eat rice and we don’t know how much effort they put up to get the edible rice. We waste food, without thinking.

        They offered food to the implanted land and it was few minutes before completion. We sat there for evening though there was miniature rain. The whole sickness of mine was gone. It was nice vacation with no more boss around, no more reporting to do. With air breezing, we can enjoy perfect form of life for few days. I suggest everyone to go on this type of vacation.

         It was day of return, my father dropped me in the bus stop. Something is missing in me and i feel like i want to stay here for few more days. but you know , here I am sharing my experience with you. Over to you, i wish everybody enjoy these, after reading my blog.

Bottom line:  One should experience it  and it is awesome.