Nagendra Bharathi: 2022

But the problem is that I have not even regularly attending Tamilootru toastmasters club meeting. Then how could I become a successful speaker across all toastmasters’ clubs in Chennai.

Yes, making a resolution without having an action plan is the problem. Every year, I realise this only on the first January of next year. That is what happened to me yesterday, the first January of this year 2022.

I don’t know how many of you are sailing in the same boat. But I know that many of my friends make the resolution on 1^st January and break the resolution on 2^nd day of January itself. And the serious part of it they don’t regret for this mishap. They talk about it very jovially. Let me share their experience with you so that we will not repeat that in our life.

This person, a friend of mine is a very intelligent person, who studied with me in college. He was very intelligent to that extent that he wanted to read the subjects thoroughly without leaving any stones unturned or without leaving any lessons unlearnt whatever it may be and so continued reading the subjects along with my juniors and their juniors and completed his degree of three years only after six years. He referred this as ‘double study’, ‘double study’ with lot of pride as though it is a ‘double promotion’ for him.

His new year resolution used to be to complete the subjects on the same year but as I have already revealed, it became the same resolution year after year till he completed the so-called double study, the reason being that there was no action plan, rather only inaction plan until the date of exam. Then how could he complete the resolution. Hence the first lesson learnt here is that we should have an action plan for any resolution.

The second person, another friend of mine was having an action plan. Then how does his resolution become a lesson to be unlearnt, you would be wondering. Let me explain. This person had an action plan to turn his skin color from black to white. He bought bottles and bottles of ‘fair and lovely’, no, not ‘glow and lovely’ as this resolution happened before 2020, before the name change happened from ‘fair and lovely’ to ‘glow and lovely’. When we talk about some historic incidents, we have to be very specific about the period, hence this explanation at the cost of thirty seconds of my speech.

Well, then how this action plan failed, though it was a grand success in the movie ‘Shivaji ‘where the actor Rajinikanth transformed himself from Shivaji to MGR by using the paste. Here is the lesson for us. All the results are not uniform across all human beings. The remedies which are so successful with super stars may not be as successful with us. Why to use the word ‘successful’, let me make it clear, they may be ‘failures’ with us. Blunt truth. Let us accept the fact that all the action plans are not successful unless they are realistic with adequate evidence.

For the third lesson, again another friend. I am really very proud that many of my friends are best known for their failures to teach us some bitter lessons. I also reciprocate the same failures to these friends. That is why we are mutually accepted and adored friends as in our toastmaster’s environment which is mutually supportive as per our mission statement.

This person had an action plan and that was realistic as well. Then how did it fail. Curious to know? I won’t fail you; my friends also won’t fail you; I guarantee.

Marrying a girl of your own choice. Is it difficult, if you have an action plan and if it is realistic? He did not want to marry Cleopatra who was no more at that time or Alia Bhatt who was a child at that time. He just wanted to marry a girl who was co-studying in the same college. We need not use the word co-study as my friend was not good at studies. As you guys already know that the mention of, ‘he being my friend’ vouched for the fact that studies are little bit far off. Also, here, we are not talking about studies. Our focus is on love and marriage. Let me emphatically remind that.

He was a good-looking guy, having sufficient money in his father’s account. She was also beautiful being the dream girl of that class. Then what, action plan was there and it was realistic. They were in the same class. ‘Just meet her, propose and cut the class and go to park together’. As simple as that. , but alas,

There was something else which was very much required in this case. Can you guess. Yes, you guessed it correctly. The acceptance by the other person. That is why the law journal defined the term ‘agreement’ with two parts, Offer and Acceptance. There was ‘offer’ of course by this boy, you can spell it in bold letters, if possible, OFFER, but there was no acceptance from that girl. Her ambition was to complete degree, post-graduation, then doctorate etc., etc. It would go on till her death, who knows.

This boy, of course, a friend of mine though with specific and realistic action plan forgot the ‘Achievable ‘part. That was not achievable as that was not agreeable for that girl.

Hence my dear friends, let me not bring my other friends to prove the other areas for consideration like measurable and timely for any action plan or any goal. Yes, you got it. We should have smart goal as new year resolution. SMART in capital letters as abbreviated form -S for r Specific M for Measurable A for Achievable R for Realistic and T for Timely. Let us take that SMART resolution for this year.

I want to be a successful table topic speaker in Tamiloottru Toastmasters Club. Is it now SMART resolution for me for this year TMOD? Over to you

------------------------------------------------Nagendra Bharathi

My Poems in Tamil and English

Friday, January 28, 2022

Mask Your Face, Mask Not Self -Speech at Toastmasters’ Club

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(L1 P2 Speech – Visionary Communication -Evaluation and Feedback – Tamilootru Toastmasters club ,(Tamilootru Chennai Solvendharkal Manram) Chennai)

Thank you TMOD, My dear Toastmasters and Guests

Mask Your Face, But Mask Not Self

We are created by Nature with unique features and characters. Let us not duplicate others. There is a saying that imitation is a form of flattery. Why should we imitate and flatter others while we ourselves are better than others? Let us not lose our originality.

Let us accept our weaknesses as they are and try to remove them. Meanwhile let us expose our weaknesses to others. Generally, people are willing to help us in that venture. Take the simple example of our toastmaster journey. Many of us join this organization to remove our fear of speaking. Fear of speaking is of course a weakness which we accept and organize our efforts to remove that by practising in front of our toastmaster friends. They in turn help us by encouraging with their claps and evaluation. Is it not? In the same way if we remove the mask to hide any of our weaknesses and show our interest to work towards removing that, the people around us are sure to help us, if not all.

Mask the face, but Mask not Self

Take the example of these popular people

Amitabh bachan who was worried about his extra height(6.2ft) in the initial stage, but what happened after his persistent efforts. He became the Super Star of Bollywood/

The opposite agony of being short suffered by Charlie Chaplin(5.7ft) made him to put more efforts to come out of that feeling to become a great entertainer in the world

They have removed their masks and shown their originality and that originality made them to reach greater heights. Yes. Greater heights irrespective of their own height.

Hence Mask the face but Mask not self

TM Soundararajan who was imitating Theagaraja Bhagavathar in the initial stages, after removing that mask and showed his originality, became the master of voice in Tamil cinema for several decades.

Same was the case with Mohamed Rafi who was mimicking Talat Mohamed in the beginning, turns towards his originality with the help of Naushad, the music legend and became the heartthrob of youngsters during sixties and seventies in Hindi cinemas.

Hence Mask the Face, but Mask not Self

I can go on and go on quoting several examples. But let us stop here and take an inward look and think about our own self.

Let us do a SWOT analysis on ourselves. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats, let us be frank and open in coming out with the result of this exercise. Let us face the truth whether it is bitter or better, and let us strive to organize our efforts to remove the weaknesses and threats and work on improving our strengths and opportunities.

So, Mask the face, but Mask not Self.

Success is not far away. But definitely, the path will have thorns and flowers. It will not be easy to accept the weaknesses and threats. As I have explained earlier all the great people who walked this path encountered similar situations and overcame all the hurdles and reached their place in the history.

Why not we. Let us Mask the face, but Mask not self.

Failures are definitely the stepping stones to success. Let us learn the lessons as we learn the lessons from the evaluators here and reach the goal.

The destination is always there for us as per our wish. That destination is a unique one, that destination is reserved only for us. That is not for any other fellow being. That destination is designated only for us as per the wish of the Nature.

Hence Mask the face, but Mask not Self.

Let us identify our goal first after doing that SWOT analysis and start the journey only with the mask on our face, but not on our …, not on our …

Yes, Mask not our Self. The Success is there awaiting us. All the best. Thank you all for your patient hearing.

Over to you TMOD,

----------------------------------------------Nagendra Bharathi

My Poems in Tamil and English

Monday, January 3, 2022

Resolutions - Prepared Speech

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Tamilootru Toastmasters Club meeting on 2/1/22

Resolutions - You Tube

My Poems in Tamil and English