Udupi: A Toast to the Women of the world, was the theme of the Multi-Club Toastmasters meet held on 8 March 2015 at T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal. To celebrate Woman’s Day, club members from the Toastmaster clubs in the area i.e. Winners Club, Manipal Udupi Toastmasters, Infosys Toastmasters and TAPMI Toastmasters came in together for an interactive session. Dr Anjali Rao, KMC Professor(Retd)and a Social Entrepreneur, was delighted to be the Chief Guest for the occasion.
After opening the meeting by Sergeant at Arms TM Prachir and Area Governor TM Shashikanth M, the members and guests were introduced by President of TAPMI Toastmasters TM Peush. The theme of the day was then formally presented along with the layout of the events, sequenced as prepared speeches, Table topic impromptu speeches, Evaluation speeches, and finally with a feedback session. The participants and the audience enjoyed the artistic twist each Toastmaster brought up to the dais. TM Shristhuthi Shetty, TM Thangamma, TM Pradeep and TM Kalpana presented speeches related to their speech plans connecting it with the Women’s Day theme.
The word for the day was ‘Enigma’ which characterises the nature of the womankind. Many chose to capitalize on supporting the upliftment of women in the country, when a few carefully positioned the word of the day ‘Enigma’ in their speeches.
The table topicsmaster Mr. Aditya gave volunteers from the audience extempore topics which were unique and challenging. The evaluators TM Shivani Baliga, TM Shrikanth Prabhu, TM Jayakrishna, TM Prachir evaluated the presentations with precision. TM Divya, the timer of the day, kept a track if the participants adhered to their timings. Grammarian TM Brian Fernandez gave feedback on the use of good grammar and areas of improvement of each speaker.President of Winners Club Savitha Salian who had presided over the evaluation session gave feedback on the general conduct of the meeting.
The audience enigmatically found a new level of energy upon the arrival of the ‘Active Listener’s Quiz’, where one gets a bar of Chocolate for the right answer to the quiz questions based on the content the speakers delivered. The chocolates found their deserving claimers in no time.
Area governor TM Shashikanth delivered the closing address, along with the chief guest, Dr Anjali Rao, who gave special emphasis to the maintenance of hygiene, in order to avoid getting infected by contagious diseases. Dr.Anjali also briefed the audience about her pet project ‘Sneha- sanitary napkins’. The project serves a dual purpose of encouraging rural menstrual hygiene among rural adolescent girls at low cost and provides employment opportunity to rural women.
The chief guest ardently appreciated all the participants by using the delivered bits of the latter in her own speech, the most entertaining high point of the day.
At Toastmasters, every participant is a winner! Yet the best presenter from each category was selected among the audience by a process of voting. The winner of ‘Best prepared speech’ was awarded to TM Thangamma, Infosys Toastmasters Club; winner of ‘Best Table Topic speech’, TM Sridhar, President of Manipal Udupi Toastmasters Club; and finally the winner of ‘Best Evaluator’, TM Srikanth, Manipal Udupi Toastmasters Club.
In conclusion to the events of the day, all the toastmasters rose to take an oath administered by the chief guest to protect the women of the world from all incongruities placed against her and to appropriately act when she is in danger. A smile was visible on each Toastmaster, as they exited the premises together, laid testament to the fact that the Day’s message was delivered to each one of them.
(Inputs from Area Governor Shashikanth M)
