My Life - CC#1

This was my first speech in my Toastmasters club. It is the ice breaker speech where I try to introduce myself to the audience and discover my speaking skills.

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There is something soothing about the monsoon. Scorched by the summer heat, everyone looks forward to the cool monsoon breeze. The monsoon brings with it the promise of joy, life and hope to all.

38 monsoons ago, I was born at a place called Cuttack in Odisha. I was welcomed by my grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts and elder sister just as early monsoon rain is welcomed by all.

My father was in a transferrable job. After a few years at Cuttack, he was transferred and we moved along with him. I stayed in various towns where he was posted. Due to the frequent moves, I had to adapt to new friends, new schools, and new setting every couple of years.

My mother was and still is a loving, but strict disciplinarian. So, life was quite regulated.  I got up every morning, had breakfast, went to school -It was routine like clockwork. But after school hours were quite interesting. When the clock struck 4, a strange feeling used to come over me. Friends would be on their way to the play ground. While going, they would call me to come out. And I could not resist that. It was like a calling from the wild. We played whatever was the flavor of the season – football, cricket or hockey. We played till our legs could no longer carry us, or we could no longer run see the ball, or somebody was badly injured and bruised. Most of the evenings, some elder from the one of the house would come looking for us and herd us back to our homes. Back at home, I had to study for 2 hours in the night. Then it was dinner time. I used to be totally exhausted by then. Legs used to pain almost daily and it was a struggle to keep the eyes open. That was the daily life! But, life was fun!

I came to Bhubaneswar to attend college. It was the 90s. India was getting liberalized. There were host of new cars, bikes, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, music systems and a wave of consumer products sweeping Indian middle class families.  The atmosphere was also politically charged. Agitation against the Mandal commission was in full swing.  That was the time for dreams. I sometimes dreamt about becoming an industrialist. Some other time I dreamt about becoming an activist – an idealist who would save the world! Life was a dream!

By the time I completed my studies, the dreams were shortchanged with the hard truth of reality. I had to take up a job. I joined Polaris software at Chennai. With that I became financially independent.  I was learning new things, going to new places and meeting new people. But, there was absolutely no routine in life. No regular time to go to sleep, no fixed time for food. Life was a chaos! But I was enjoying it.

To mitigate my lifestyle, my parents got me married to Priyanka. It brought in some stability to life. 3 years ago, my daughter Sharanya was born. That was a life changing event for me. For the first time in my life, I felt really responsible. I realized that life is a gift and it needs to be taken care of. I actually sat and wrote down the priorities in my life. I set up goals and objectives around it. And now, I am working towards that.

So, this is my life. I see it as a work in progress. My life has been happy, regulated, fun, chaotic and stable. But it is never always the same. It keeps changing like the seasons in the year. In spite of all changes, I want to be like monsoon. Just like the monsoon which quenches the thirst of the parched earth, I would like to bring - joy, life and hope to all. 

SNOS - III

So, this is real original stuff. Cartoons. Tried my hands at designing these. These too were part of the PR campaign for our Club. I think they came out pretty well. Tell me what do you think. They are in a series with a story line. Check them out in sequence.











Well after doing all these PR campaign, I got very good feedback. Many people commended me for the hardwork and creativity. But there were some who were spiteful as well. There were people who said, I did more publicity for myself than I did for the Club. But I took it in my stride. It is said, you know you are on the right track only when some people are against you :) 

SNOS - II

Well, SNOS ? 
SNOS = Some New and Original Stuff. 

Here are some of the posters that I designed for the Keynote speaker, Deepak Justin, who spoke on "Speak like a Rockstar".  They were released in Facebook, one after the other, in sequence on alternate days.

These  posters do not introduce the speaker in an academic way, but portrays the speaker as rockstar with the related elements of music,metal, fire and graffiti. The first two posters just mentions that there is a star attraction in Elan's 150th meet and that rockstar will be there. It does not reveal the name though enough clue is given as to who it is. The last poster reveals the name of the speaker. 

Created for Elan's 150th Meet
Rockstar Poster 1

Created for Elan's 150th Meet
Rockstar Poster 2

Created for Elan's 150th Meet
Rockstar Poster 3
Again, these were created using www.postermywall.com.
Do let me know how do you like these?

Some New and Original Stuff

So, Its been a long time that I have posted anything here. Infact I am guilty of not posting in my blog for quite some time now. Mea Culpa. Though I am not going to promise that I will be regular, here are some of the things that I tried recently. 

As a member of the Elan Toastmasters Hyderabad, I was busy doing the PR activities for our 150th meeting and 5th anniversary celebrations. I tried my hands at making a few posters to publicize the event, that were posted in Facebook. Here they go again. 






These were created using a online tool at www.postermywall.com . It is a fabulous site that helps you create posters online. You can also download them for free or purchase a print quality poster from them. Since I was operating on zero budget, this site came really handy. For me, it was the first time that I was trying anything creative. I do not have any background or training in creative arts. So, tell me what do you think of these.