Toastmaster - Icebreaker

I gave my first toastmaster speech today, phew. It was one heck of a week, with butterflies in the tummy. And I dint expect so many people turning up for the speech. There were close to 50 people in the audience and I was like a bunny. But I took solace in the fact that there were people who were not able to speak even for half a minute. I was better than them any day. I waited for my turn with batted breath. My only worry was whether I will forget and add some points which will blow the time. I actually prepared my speech for seven minutes. But when I went into the meeting, I found that for an icebreaker speech, it is 6 minutes. I was mentally adjusting myself for the parts which I should be cutting off. My turn came and the TMOD (Toastmaster of the Day) introduced me as a baby, (since I was giving my first speech), which sounded kind of funny because I had that nickname during my Engineering days. I thanked everyone, and started the speech. I asked couple of questions to the audience to keep them engaged and added some funny quotes as well. The speech went well, and at the end of it, people gave me a standing ovation, Can you believe it. I still couldn’t. The evaluator gave me a couple of points where I could have improved and the meeting was done. I am looking forward to the opportunity to be a TMOD in the next meeting. Updates will follow :). Here is the Ice breaker speech.

Hi Everyone Thanks for providing me this opportunity. Not just because I have got this lovely audience to listen to my life story but also because of the opportunity to look back on my 30 years of life. My name is Santhosh, people call me Santa. Before, I get into my Icebreaker speech, just a quick question. How many of us have got a beating from our teachers. (people will show hands). How many of us have got a beating from our teachers for not eating vegetables at home. Yea, that’s funny. That’s one of the many things you go through if you are the youngest in your family and if you have a sister who would be kind enough to tell your class teacher that their brother is not eating any vegetables at home. The teacher in turn will be very kind enough to take that as a license and beat that hapless kid. No don’t get me wrong. I had a wonderful childhood, barring some instances like these (which actually were many). My father was a sr lab technician at the government hospital before he retired in 2007 and my mother is a homemaker. I was the only male child in my family with two sisters. Naturally I was pampered by my sisters and parents.
I grew up in a small village called Kottucherry. For those of you who don’t know where it is, it’s a small dot in the Indian Map and its part of Pondicherry where everyone in the town knew everyone and all of them knew my father. So people took pleasure in watching me over and inform my parents promptly. Like for example, I once rode a TVS 50 to the nearest town with my friend. When I came back home, my father was standing outside the house and enquired me where I went. When I replied, he said, that’s fine but you shouldn’t be riding the bike too fast. Fast? Dad what are you talking about? I was going at 40 and moreover even if I tried it wouldn’t go faster than 40. He said, no no don’t lie to me, Swamy Mama who was there in the town saw you going too fast. Just then I saw Swamy mama emerging from the sidelines with a smile. I was Like . hmm okay. So whatever I did either in school, or outside went to my father’s ears even before I completed doing them.
I studied in a Tamil medium school till my 10th since my family couldn’t afford the fees for the English Medium schools those days. We had only two or three English medium schools in my locality. I was very good in studies always topping the class. I was a school topper in my 8th exams (yes 8th was a public exam for us in Pondicherry). I took a step further in my 10th , topping in the district level. Obviously my family was very proud. Then came the biggest challenge. I had to Join the English medium school for the 11th and the 12th to give myself a chance in the engineering exams. But the switch from Tamil to English was not easy. I even flunked couple of exams in 11th. But my father didn’t say a word. He knew that I will come out of this. Which I did, and was ranked third in my 12th exams. I still consider that as one of my greatest achievements since I not only beat my friends who came from an English medium background but also the myth the people carried that only students from English medium will fare well in 12th. I did my engineering and MBA.
Okay, enough of my education. Let me talk about something which is close to my heart apart from studies. Cricket. I was 7 when my father introduced me to the world of cricket. It was 1986 when the sharjah cup was going on and my father took me to a family friends house. The TV had not made its way into my village big time and all we had was a portable TV with 30 cricket enthusiasts trying to get a view. In those days, the programs in DD1 were not so good and when they decided to start DD2, people jokingly said that they started DD2 because they know that a blade should have two sides to it.
We eventually bought a TV and I became so addictive to the game that it became a part of me. I played a lot and eventually played cricket at the district level. But after a point in time I couldn’t continue since studies took priority. I am a die hard fan of Rahul Dravid. I love him because he was not gifted like Sachin or a Sourav but he made best of use of his talent and continued to work on it. Every time I see him on the field, I can connect with that person in whatever he does.
I joined Deloitte in 2005 which by the way is my fourth company and till now didn’t find a need to be a new hire in some other company. I got married in 2006 and I have a lovely little kid named Sujith Krishna who is 2 and half years old.
I just want to finish by telling you a couple of instances which left a lasting impression in my life. It was 1998 and I met with a freak accident. I should have died then, but was rescued by couple of friends. In 2002, I was again rescued from deathbed by a couple of friends. Since then, I always asked myself, why I am still alive, why god let me live, but I got the answer 6 years later. One of my sisters died in 2008 leaving behind her three year old kid. Suddenly I realized, I am living because there is a bigger design. I should take care of this kid. I am taking care of the kid now. All of us should understand that we have a reason to live, we just need to understand that to give something good to others. Thanks for the opportunity.

Deloitte Cricket Tournament

And finally, I did it. I thought my little career in Cricket was over when I fell from a rather harmless bike and broke my right hand collar bone. So when I decided to participate in this year’s Deloitte tournament, a few eyebrows were raised (including mine in private). But I decided to continue. I started running for 30 minutes in the gym and pulled the roving machine (I don’t know what they call it). I didn’t feel any pain in my hand so I thought it was okay. So the D day arrived. I was there in the stadium at 7’o clock, one hour ahead of the scheduled start of play. When I entered the stadium I saw a young girl in her jagging clothes doing the rounds. The face looked familiar. I instantly recognized the figure to be Mithali Raj (the first woman double centurion for India). But one of my friends told me that it was not her. But my first instinct is always right. That’s how I recognized Sunitha Williams in the JFK airport when nobody else did. My friend told me she was doing her thirteenth round around the stadium. I decided to control my inquisitiveness and continue with my practice. I started doing the catching practice. And it came along well ( I had always been a good fielder you know). In the meanwhile, the lady (who I thought is Mithali, was doing her running between the wickets practice). And after twenty minutes my curiosity over powered me and I decided to go ask her whether she was Mithali. At that point in time, she was done with her running practice and was moving towards the grounds men (yea there were two of them who were setting things up for us for the match). She talked to them in telugu and moved. Me and my friend were almost near her and asked the grounds men whether it was Mithali. They replied in the affirmative. I immediately followed her and said “Excuse me”. She was not listening. May be it was her Ipod which was preventing her from hearing me. It was three times before she finally removed an earplug and turned and gave that look. I don’t know how to describe that but it was not courteous. I just asked her, “Are you Mithali Raj”, and she replied “Yea” with a voice that could have turned even a stalker away. I dint know what else to do. I was so happy that it was her and I could see her. I just turned back and continued with my practice. She went along and continued hers. In hindsight, I think I was being so stupid. I could have told her that I follow Women’s cricket keenly as well and asked for her autograph. At least I could have told her that she is doing a great job and wished her the best. I dint do any of this. Probably I was overwhelmed by the moment. Anyways, it was good to recognize a lady who makes the country proud instead of going behind a cine star. I also think she might have been happy to have known that somebody in India recognizes women cricketers too. :)
Now coming back to the match. We won the toss and elected to field first. I was asked to field in the third man area. After two overs, I said to Atul (my captain) that I will be effective in the inner ring where I can save singles. He obliged and put me in short cover position. Fielding is always fun and I expect the ball to come to me always. So it was not a problem for me. The only question was whether I will be able to throw faster. But I dint require a strong throwing arm to effect two run outs. My reflexes were so good that by the time I dived and stopped those shots to effect the run outs, the batsmen were in such a hurry to cross over that they didn’t expect me to stop them and they ended up shaking hands with each other. So I had all the time in the world to throw it back to the keeper to knock the bails off (err sorry we didn’t have the bails).
We had the opposition under the mat at 31 for 5 and I decided to bowl. People told me to take one thing at a time since they were worried that I might do some damage to the right hand. But I insisted on bowling and they had to relent. I took 13 steps and started to bowl. The first one came along nicely and the batsman defended it. The second one went past the batsman who tried to cut it and edged behind. Karthik took a good catch standing up. I was delighted to have got that wicket. I bowled one more over after that and I felt pretty okay with it. The opposition didn’t do anything special. They stuck it out. But we were giving away too many wides for comfort. I guess we had 25 to 30 in total and they scored 101 in 16 overs. Not a big target. Run a ball and we should be good to go. We lost couple of early wickets and I went to the crease. Couple of inside edges to get me going and I started to feel better when this bowler came along. The first ball from him was a big chucking delivery which the umpire failed to notice. I was at the non strikers end and I immediately told the umpire that I think he was chucking. The umpire didn’t reply. We decided to go on. I lost my partner to a needless run out and Atul came to the crease. I told him to watch out and complain about the bowler. He watched him for one ball and went straight to the umpire to complain. I can tell you the umpires were so stupid that they didn’t even know whether to call it a no ball or not. And the Irony is that I was frustrated at the non action of the umpires and decided to give that bowler a lesson on cricket. I decided to pull that chucker and inside edged the ball on to the stumps. More than losing my wicket, I was so annoyed with those two umpires who stood there like a shopping mall doll. Worse still, we lost Atul and Karthik in the same over to the chucker. The match was virtually over by then. A couple of late bursts from our team members and we went close, but we lost the match by 12 runs. Stupidity. I should have shown more patience and stayed there at the wicket. But instead, I allowed my emotion to take over that lead to my downfall. We have another match coming up in a fortnight’s time. Let me see how I fare.
And by the way, England is losing :)

We all know how great a player Sachin is (and will be for many of the generations to come). But, in this blog I am trying to look at possibly the lowest points of his career and leave it to you to decide how good or bad he is. I always thought Sachin is not a big match player. True that his exploits have helped us reach the finals or semifinals, but when the whole world (especially the Indians) look up to him to deliver, he invariably falters. One of the prime examples of this is the 1999 world where he had a disastrous campaign. Apart from the emotion filled century against the minnows Kenya, he failed to deceive against the big guns. 28 against SA to start with, missed the match against Zimbabwe (which India promptly lost and made it difficult for themselves in the super six stage). In the super six stage one of the most awaited contests was between India and Australia. The pre match hype was so much given what Sachin has done in the sub continental (India and Sharjah) pitches during the 1998 series in which he demolished the Aussies single handedly. But when the ball moved and seamed he was found wanting. Scored a blob against them and 16 against Black caps. Let’s get back to that epic series in 2001 between India and Australia. His contribution in that series was slightly better than Ganguly’s (who had a torrid time). His two half centuries came in a losing cause in the first test. He had virtually nothing to contribute in that epic match in Kolkata (out for 10 in both the innings). Even though he scored a century in the last match, it came after some dropped chances. Also, when it mattered the most in the second innings (India was chasing a paltry 155 and huffed and puffed its way to it losing 8 wickets along the way), he scored 17 and was out. This is not to blame him for all the loses India managed throughout his 19 year career, but to show that he is after all human.

Again in the 2003 - 2004 series against Australia in Australia he had a torrid time often flattering to deceive. In the first three matches, he had nothing to contribute apart from the 37 he scored in the second innings during the famous Adelaide victory. In the fourth match in which he scored a double (241 not out), he looked like a boy lost in a new world. He virtually created an Untouchability rule to the balls even slightly outside off stump. If you see his wagon wheel, 70 to 80% of the runs are scored in the leg and it is no wonder that India needed two and half days to score the 700 runs which literally left no time to bowl the Aussies out twice. That was the most selfish innings I have ever seen him play.

The 2007 world cup is nothing to write about given that India played only three matches; lost two and promptly crashed out.

Of late Sachin’s struggles are countless. In the recently concluded India Sri lanka Series, he required only 173 runs at the start of the series to go past Lara’s record of most runs in tests. But, after three tests alas, he still requires 97 runs to surpass the record. Even though he looked assured against the unorthodox Mendis