P3: Get to the Point

What happens to those who do not Bend?

To those who are Rigid and do not adjust themselves according to the circumstances.

A few say they survive while the others say they succumb.

Good morning fellow toastmasters and my dear Guests.

Today Let us learn to bend , because sometimes in life the people who do not bend-Break.

As humans we have three major things to manage in our lives:

1)Surroundings

2)Responsibilities

3)Relations

And to our dismay these things change and they change persistently.

The best way we can survive the change is to change ourselves accordingly.

Yesterday it was 6^th June, Today it is the 7^th.

5 days back the exchange rate was 55.64,today it is 56.95.

The climate,stock market ,groceries rates and hundreds of other things change every day.

Our attempt should be to accept and adapt to these changes and not to crib about them.

The people in Mumbai are the best evidence who show that the strength lies in adapting to the situations .That the people who survive are the one who adapt.

Nothing stops them from doing their routine duties.Not the traffic jams,Not the Strikes,Not the 2005 Rains nor the  26/11 Terrorist attacks and the most frightening of all the crowded locals. There is a lot to learn from the Mumbaikars.

Just as  the surroundings ,the society around us also changes.

To keep a pace with the society one should be open-minded. We should  not stick to the old traditions just because they are followed since ages. We should bring in new things to the society ,move with the society and  eventually we will grow as individuals and  also as a nation

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.

Different stages in life shower us with different responsibilities.

From being  the Prince and Princess at home to joining school where we are just one among the others. From being told what to be done by our  teachers  at school to being left alone to decide what we have to do with our lives at college and from  the most amazing years we spend at our college to being thrown out open in the wild to fight for our survival.

We compete,we fight,we adapt and we Survive.

Rahul Dravid- The Wall as he is called but the most flexible wall I have seen.

He taught me to adapt to situations that life has to offer while fulfilling my responsibilities

He batted in different positions; donned different hats,He was always there when the team needed him and today he is aptly called Mr.Dependable.

The most difficult change in my life has been the one from the carefree student at college to the robotic Employee at office and  as of now, adapting to this environment is the only solution I have found to be happy and to survive here.

We come across so many people in our day-to–day life.

Let me know if any of these thoughts sound familiar:

When I was a kid,  My mother used to understand me better  but Things have changed.

I used to ask Dad for pocket money as and when I wanted to but Things have changed .

My wife/husband is no more a good listener and does not love me as before,Things have changed.

My friends do not meet me or call me more often ,Things have changed.

Not only family and friends we tend to judge various people around , by comparing them to the person they were in the past.

Do not hold grudges against people just because you think they have changed.Instead forgive them because it is the law of nature,things will change.

Just bend a little in the relationships,for the people whom we cannot live without else one day we might just lose them.

And as it is said

"The weak can never forgive.Forgiveness is the attribute of the Strong"

 An Origami act at the end:

This was  life for me, when I was born.(Hold a square origami sheet)

Make folds while speaking

I realized that

1."Change is the only thing constant".

2.“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” 

And gradually as I mature I realize each day  that the times that  I adapt/bend are the times I become stronger. And today when I join all those dots  I can undeniably say

(The folds made result in an Origami Flower)

“Life is Beautiful”

P2:Organize your Speech

Balancing the Apples

A for Apple was the first thing that we were all taught in school.

What comes to our minds when we hear the word Apple??

Steve jobs ..Technology..Health..Newton...

Isn’t it  amazing that ,one of the first words I learnt to speak as a kid is my speech topic for today.

A very Good morning to  fellow Toastmasters and dear Guests.

I S for Surabhi am here to talk about my experiences on when and why I decided to balance the  two most prominent apples.

You all must be wondering what are the two apples I am referring to.

I define:

The First Apple ,As Steve jobs introduced it to me. The fascinating world of technology.

The Second Apple ,which is many times overlooked because of the first one,My health.

One day I fell ill due to,lack of sleep.Thanks to the no. of hours I spent with my phone and laptop.

After blaming them for a while I began wondering how different life would have been if I did not use the numerous things that technology has to offer.

I wished for a day without technology and voila...

The wish was granted.

I woke up next morning, got a moment to take a deep breath, as I did not have to reply to any unread messages or missed calls.

I said my prayers unlike the other days where the day starts with Linkin park and ends with listening to Sir A.R  Rahman’s Music on my iPod.

I had breakfast with my family and surprisingly had so much to talk to them about various things happening in my life ,instead of making dinner plans with friends on Whatsapp.

I could concentrate on things I was doing as did not have distractions of buzzing messages or ringing calls.

I was about to leave home when my mom showered me with her where,when,why list of questions.

Where are you going?

When will u return home?

It was soon that I realized that The place where I work did not  exists,technology being its foundation.

With no options available to while away time,I planned to go shopping.

I was  not allowed to stay out for long as I did not have a mobile phone to keep my mother updated about my whereabouts.

I planned to call my friend for company and had to search the telephone directory for her contact no. it was definitely a tedious job.

As we had no maps/ navigatorsto refer to  it took us more time to reach our destination

I ran short of cash while paying for the dress I purchased.

I had no debit/credit card that I could use and neither ATM’s to withdraw money.

Thanks to the No-Technology day,I had to come back home without buying the lovely dress.

I faced so many other issues while living this wish day.

No Internet

No facebook

No booking of online tickets for travel and entertainment.

No skype

Are few of the hundreds and thousands of inconveniences I faced.

The day finally ended and I slept peacefully.

I breath a sigh of relief next morning when I woke up and  saw my phone at the bed side.

I realized how easy has my life been with the help of technology and it gets better day by day.There are so many things that technology offers us which we take for granted.

Another thing I realized that morning is if a day without technology was this bad, then I guess a life without a good health would be worse.

On the wish day,I found a lot of time to relax  and lot of time for my hobbies too.

I got to spend time with my  family.

I decided that the time technology helps me save in my day to day activities should be spend without technology.

Did I forget to mention??

That morning when I woke up  myQuotes app prompted and it read:

” I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

From that moment I fear more of proving Einstein right and so have decided to try and keep a balance between both the Apple worlds.

P1:The Ice Breaker

A Particle on the Pale Blue Dot

 "From a distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different.

On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”-Carl Sagan

I Surabhi Kinariwala 1 of the 7 billion people on earth, 1 of the 2 lakh 50000 employees at my company 1 of the 8000 engineers who graduated from my University, 1 of the 200 students of my batch in school ,1 of the 16 people in my family,–am here to introduce myself to fellow toastmasters and guest.Good Morning and a Happy ‘Oye its Friday’ to everyone present here.

22^nd December 1990-an infinitesimally small baby on the pale blue dot was born to the most beautiful and compassionate woman on earth and the journey called life began for me.
Just as the earth is-- in the milky way, so was I to the outside world - A mote of dust in the vast galaxy of the world. But I had my family to keep me in orbit. A place to call home. The place where I have a Universe of my own

My Father-My Hero!
My Mother-A God sent Angel!

My Elder Brother-My inspiration!

My family –The Kinariwala’s -A gujarathi business family settled in Nagpur is very similar to the joint families they portray on Indian television.

Home is where I have learned to pray, care, share, love,to fight for my rights, so what even if it is to get my favorite Harry Potter stationery box,a place where festivals are celebrated with enthusiasm even today, a place where everyone loves me for the person I am and they assure me each day that I might be some small particle on this earth but one of the most important particle in their lives.

My first cosmic collision was in school, where every individual I met, had a galaxy of their own, with a family like mine to orbit around them.

A few of the memories of childhood and school life that I cherish are Learning to ride a bicycle,Learning to play a keyboard,Summer Holidays with cousins,To hold the Responsibility as the School Blue House captain,Lunch breaks,School picnics,Group Studies with friends,The Christmas celebrations at school and the Last day of 10^th board examinations.

I am sure everyone here has similar memories of childhood like mine for you are in your own - little galaxies.

The next two years after Std 10^th were spent mostly in studying and preparing for exams and trying to get into a good engineering college.

Now imagine a cataclysmic event, like the earth being thrown off the orbit. Metaphorically I am referring to the event where we all leave home for however brief or detail the time.

I did my Bachelors of Technology degree from a renowned university in Chennai.
My interest in Computer Logic and Mathematics lead me to choose Information Technology as my area of interest.

The best and the most amazing Practical Exam of my life,that is how I define my hostel life.

I am one of the lucky ones who get to enjoy the hostel Life.
Yes! Lucky is the word.
Whatever I had learnt in theory both at home and in school was applied when I stayed at the hostel.

And we very well know which is the best way of remembering our lessons. Reading them in theory or learning from the mistakes we commit during our practical exams?

One of the cherished lesson learnt is Decision Making:As a kid I was taught that there are  two ways of doing things the right and the wrong.

I always had this question in mind on how to find out which one is the right way.
and staying away from home helped me discover that what makes me happy and doesn't bother my conscious is always the right one.

I believe we are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.”

Yes! I found them and my friends are the ones who give me confidence to travel without the fear of getting bewildered and faith that I will find them around whenever I need them.

So that was the earth and my life in a synchronous orbit.

The present status of life being the ‘Work, Earn and Enjoy’ phase.

Now, how does that bring me here to toastmasters?

Let me put it as the ‘Big Bang’ - Where worlds collide. We all lived in our own little niches. But common interests and rational thoughts have entangled our paths. Like the earth you would just see me as a mote of dust in a sunbeam from the farthest corner of the room. True isn't it. This speech was to lend you a telescope to find out who I am?

I hope you all remember me
As a girl who is an optimists, a hard worker, a literature lover, a music addict, a trained dancer,a girl who wishes to see people around her happy.

As Surabhi Kinariwala – The Girl with the Galaxy.