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.