Project # 4 - How to Say it -- "A Cloudy Day"

Have you ever seen the fire suppression system in a gas station or experienced it?. If no, then let me tell you what it is and what my experience was.

On the 5th of September, I travelled to Boston with my family - My mother, Father and Sister. We rented a car and set out on a road trip. The 5th was a Thursday. It was one of the most beautiful days. We saw Boston, had a good dinner and went to sleep. In the morning we decided to visit Cape Cod. I have always heard how beautiful it is. So we started out at around 10 AM and on the way, we stopped at a gas station. I got out of the car, paid for the gas, selected the grade and as soon as I was about to fill in the gas, there was a loud noise pppphhshssssssss noise and there was white rain. Something like this

During my speech because of technical problems I could not show this video so I described it. But I meant to show below video

video from 10 seconds to 35 seconds

As soon as it happened, within a second, there was sheer panic. Without even thinking my instant reaction was to run away from the gas station, but it was futile. I ran around 50 steps as fast as I could but could not see the end. I opened my eyes, and there was a very thick, dense white cloud everywhere. I could not see anything, I could not hear anything, and I could not breathe. Now I am going to stretch these few seconds to describe all my thoughts and feelings for a moment. My first thought was that I am in heaven. I was excited to be in heaven, phew !!!! `But then, as my body gained consciousness, the second thought that came to my mind was if I am in heaven, why is it hurting so much. Isn't heaven supposed to be a calm, serene, and soothing place to be, where you have angels coming and taking care of you? Why don’t I see or hear anything? Why can't I breathe, and why is my skin feeling irritated? And along with these thoughts, the most important thought that came to my mind was what happened to my family? I left them in the car. But the dust rain was so dense that I could not see or hear anything, not to mention, my eyes were hurting bad and I was not able to breathe. For a minute, I was relaxed thinking that my folks are in the car so there will not be a problem, but soon I heard my sister’s voice shouting my name. It sounded like she was in a panic. I asked her to stay in the car, but did not realized that it was too late since she had left the car door and window open, which let all the dust inside. Luckily, I heard the loud voice of a man calling everyone to safety. It was coming from the other end. I used his voice as a rope and took my chance and started running towards it, which got me to safety. Even after I was out of the dense cloud, I still had problems in breathing and I was coughing out powder. My eyes had soo much powder in them that I started seeing everything foggy.

After a while, everyone was called inside the convenience mart in the gas station and employees at the gas station offered us water and directed us to the restrooms to get ourselves cleaned - wash our faces, eyes, etc. Inside the gas station, when an employee called 911, that’s when we came to know that all the chaos that happened was because of the fire suppression system that was set off accidentally. Once the fire department arrived, they inspected the gas station for any possible fire that may have triggered the fire extinguisher. After a half an hour of inspection, they did not find anything. They also confirmed that the powdered discharge was not harmful. After a while, they called an ambulance to confirm and get acknowledgement that we do not have any problems.

Today, when i looked back and think about the incident, I feel glad that no one was hurt. This would be the first time in my life that I went through a big incident like this and i did not even feel scared. May be the visualization of heaven calmed me down. I was not afraid of dying, as a matter of fact, after all incident, I emerged as a strong person. I had to take care of my parents, and sister and make sure they are alright. This taught me what “responsibility” means.

I would like to give you an analogy. Have you seen a bird’s nest in the trees? If not, I have seen many birds’ nests, and during hurricanes, storms or rains they often break or fall down. Many times all the eggs in it break and the baby birds die. But even after this, from the very next morning, these birds will start rebuilding new nests. In this incident, a lot of our things were damaged. But instead of mourning about damaged or lost things, we reconciled everything and decided to focus on getting our lives back on track as soon as possible.

To be honest with you, I did not get any settlement from that gas station, although I did ask for all the incurred expenses, like cleaning the rental car. I am glad and satisfied to know that no one was hurt and everyone is safe. Now every time I encounter any incidence like this, I will know that there are many more things in life to look forward to than to regret past tragic events.

Thank you

Project # 3 - Get to the point -- "Stress Free is the way to be !!"

How many of you are stressed at this time? There’s not a single person who doesn’t know what stress is. It’s one of those words that needs less defining, and more experience to understand.

You see in the long run, we go through lots of things that put us outside our comfort zone. Then we keep on thinking about it and our mind starts playing its tricks. Now there are two possibilities: Either our mind looks up, gets confident and says, “Yes, we can do it.” Or it looks down and says, “Sorry buddy, I don’t think we can do it, you are screwed.” That’s when we start thinking of all the possibilities of how things can go wrong and how we will fail. This creates sheer panic and we get stressed. Now the funny thing is our mind does not let us forget these things which create stress.

Madam Toastmasters, fellow members and dear guests: There are many ways of reducing stress and every single one of you might have your own way of relieving stress. But today, I will share some of the simple things that I implemented in my life to reduce stress and will help you in reducing stress as well. All of you might know these things, but they’re sitting in the back of your heads. I will try get it from here (back of your head) to here (forehead) using my examples.

1. Keep work stress at workplace Work stress is a major reason for stress in everyone’s life. Do you guys agree? Yes or no? You have horrible bosses or piles of never ending work or assigned tasks which might not be possible to finish in s given time? Everyday when I leave the workplace, I leave all the stress, grudges, envy, and incomplete work, in the office. It took me some time to get used to it, but I did. I have a work phone provided by my company. When I leave work, I switch it off and put it in my bag, that way I will not have access to phone or emails that I get out of office hours. I keep my work laptop at work, this way I will not be tempted to work and even if someone gets a hold of me, I have a reason to not work from home :). If I think, I have to finish work, I take extra time at the office, finish it, and then leave.

2. Meditate everyday In many cultures, meditation has a very high importance. It helps you to clear your mind, and explore yourself. I get up early and try to meditate for at least 15 mins. The way I do is as follows: I sit quietly with my eyes closed, clear my thoughts and try to think about nothing. Yes, you heard me right: Nothing. Try it and tell me how hard it is. Now what I do is, I start by not thinking about anything. But this rarely happens. But then,instead of getting drowned in these thoughts, I start organizing my thoughts one by one. How can I manage my work properly. What can I do to make everyone's life easy. What can I do to make people around me happy. If I think I have made some mistakes how can I fix them. This way, my mind becomes clear and organized about what should be done next. Thus, meditation helped me not only in organizing my thoughts but also in managing my anger.

3. Get my heart pumping Everyday for sometime, I make sure to do some heart pounding exercise. This way I can take out all of my frustration, anger and stress, leaving me with clear and calm head. Often, many days I don't get time to exercise, So I get off a few subway stations before my stop and brisk walk home. When I travel for work, I have to use a car to get to work. In that case, I park my car as far as I can from the building gate. This ensures some mandatory walking. On weekends, I try to get involved in outdoor activities, like jogging, swimming, and tennis.

4. Take a Break One of the big mistakes that I did in the past was not take any days off. Most of the companies often provide employees with paid days-off. If my vacation days are not approved, I call out sick. I take this time to catch up with my family, friends and other activities which get ignored because of stressful work. Many times I sit at home and do nothing. That also helps. Recently, my company has asked me to travel a lot. I take this opportunity to see new places, yes alone, by taking a few days off after my work is done. Often, I run out of my paid vacation days but even then, I take unpaid days off. It is worth it, because after relaxation, my body and mind is fresh and it gives me more productivity.

5. Give speeches in Toastmasters One thing that I have experienced and that has really helped me in overcoming my stressed life and anxiety is giving speeches at Toastmasters. Giving speeches in front of so many people takes so much adrenaline and stress that I feel other stresses are nothing and I can easily handle them. Also, preparing speeches, and listening to other speeches forcefully clears your mind, takes me out of my work setup. No matter what happens, I try my best to attend toastmasters meetings.

So, after experiencing some ups and downs in my work and personal life, I decided to leave my stress at work, meditate everyday, get good workout for the body, take time off and try to give as many speeches as possible in toastmasters. Implementing these 5 things have made my life a lot smoother and I am still looking for more ways of make it better :).

Project # 2 - Organize your Speech -- "Hindi film industry a.k.a Bollywood"

How many of you have ever seen a Bollywood movie? or know what Bollywood is??
Let me tell you a about bollywood…
Bollywood is the hindi language film industry established in Mumbai, India. It has been around since 1899. In 1913, the first full length feature film was produced and did not have any sound in it. It was just a series of pictures put together and rendered fast to create the effect of a video. In 1931, the first movie with sound was released. 6 years later in 1937 first colored movie was released. This is how bollywood began its life. The term .. “Bollywood” .. was coined from a combination of “Bombay” – the old name of Mumbai and Hollywood – which represents the “film industry”. Bollywood today is the world’s biggest film industry in terms of ticket sales and number of full length movies released in a year. Bollywood produces approximately 1000 movies every year. which calculates to 2 – 3 films produced daily. Bollywood films sell more than 3.6 billion tickets worldwide every year.
Now, how is bollywood different than film industries in any other countries? Let me tell you –
There are three major differentiating factors where Bollywood stands out:
The first is music – and that includes songs and Dance:
Bollywood is well known for including songs in the movie. Songs are used as a bridge between two situations in the movie and move the story forward. The songs are sung by professional singers and lip-synced by actors. Majority of the songs in a movie have dances choreographed to it. A movie in Bollywood is known more by its songs and dance steps than by its story or cast. If you ask me about any bollywood movie right now, first thing I will think about is a song. If I cannot think of a song. I probably don’t know the movie. That’s how significant music is in a Bollywood movie.
Second is Multi-Dimensional Genres:
Bollywood is also very well known for multi-dimensional genres packed in one film. In any typical Indian movie you will find elements of action, drama, thrill, romance and music. if the same story were to be told in a Hollywood movie, you would have to watch 5 different movies.
Bollywood movies are often criticized for their length. The average length of a movie is 2.5 - 3 hours. But if you want to pack all these genres in one movie it better be that long.
Let me give you an example of a Typical Bollywood movie and it will tell you how it have multidimensional façades:
Movie begins with the lead actor’s childhood, where the villain kills/destroys/troubles his parents making him orphan/poor/homeless and child-hero swears to seek revenge someday. The movie shifts to a couple decades later when Hero is shown as a grown up and handsome adult. And any guesses how this journey of 2 decades is shown in 2 minutes … you are right .. through a song!
The hero then sees a girl and falls in love with her at first sight. Girl after some attitude-show will also start loving a guy. That’s where their romance comes in, they become poets and singers and extremely good dancers as well. One fine day the hero encounters villain and recollects all his past and starts looking at an opportunity to get back. Villain then abducts hero’s girl and makes several attempts to kill him. Now in a Bollywood movie, usually the hero cannot die. No matter how many times anyone shoots him, he is just too stubborn to die. In the end after lot of fighting and melodramatic dialogues hero fights with villain, kills him and rescues his girl.
In my given example of a movie there are multiple genres embedded into it. Like romance of hero-heroine, action between hero-villain and melo-dramatic dialogue which also brings me to the next speciality of bollywood movies and that is dialogue!
3. Dialogue:
I don't know how the concept of “dialogues” started in bollywood, but whenever they started it has turned out to be very dramatic over the years. Throughout the whole movie, you will rarely find any dialogues which actor or actresses says in a short and straightforward manner. Some dialogues from famous movies are often the face of the movie like it’s songs and dances.
Some of the examples of the dialogues are as follows: For making your understand the dramatic effects I am translating the dialogues word by word from hindi to english.
In a situation where hero wants to kill a villain, hollywood dialogue is simple and clear:” I am going to find you and then I am going to kill you” but in bollywood hero has to make his voice weird, get really mad and say something like “You Filthy Dog, I will make sure I drink your blood.
Or hero taunting villain “if you have every drunk your mother’s milk then don’t hide and come right in front of me”
A typical dramatic bollywood movie have a dialogue specifically reserved for mothers after hearing a sad news. She has to scream “NOOoooo.... Why didn't I die before hearing this news.....” or “why did I not become deaf before hearing this” or “get lost from here else you will see my dead body soon” and so on...
You see I have myself become so dramatic talking about Bollywood movies.
So to cut the long story short, Bollywood has always delivered interesting movies, melodious music, refreshing dances and wholesome entertainment for its viewers. A Bollywood movie cannot be categorized in one Genre like action movie or romantic comedy. It can fall only into one category - musical melodrama. Bollywood movies always appeal to the sentimental side of the human nature. In a stressed life, when I want an escape from reality and have fun, a bollywood movie is my gate pass.

Project # 1 - Icebreaker Speech -- "The Rising Sun"

Hello everyone. I want to begin by thanking everyone for providing me with this opportunity to introduce myself and break the ice. My name is Aditya and I am from Mumbai, India. Aditya is a Sanskrit word. Sanskrit is one of the world’s oldest languages. My name means “the sun” or “celestial light.”. Towards the end of my speech, I will tell you the significance of my name, but first, let me tell you about the experience that changed the direction of my life forever.

Before coming to America, I was living a very comfortable life in India. I never had to struggle for anything. I was living with my parents. Although that may sound weird to you here, in India, we have a family culture, which means that children stay with family even if they are independent. I never had to worry about earning money, food, housing etc. Everything was taken care of by my parents. It was really an easy going life. I never really thought of leaving my country and staying outside for such a long period.

But in September of 2005, my dad got an opportunity to work in NY. After a lot of inquiring and taking advice from people, I decided to leave my college in India early and move along with my parents. I never realized that as soon as I would land in the US, my series of struggles would start. After landing, I felt like my life was reset. In hindsight, it was all for the best.

My new life in NY began with applying to colleges. I wanted to continue my education. But I never thought that it would be so challenging for me to get admission here. For the first six months, I applied to college after college, seeking admission. But all the colleges denied my application because of missing and incomplete set of documents. I did not have the documents that colleges asked for to transfer credits from India. It became really frustrating to be at home, not being able to do anything and get only news of rejections. So you can imagine how happy and relieved I was when I finally got admission to a college. But even after getting admission, I was faced with a new struggle- not being able to continue from where I left off in India. After a lot of re-thinking and in desperation, I decided to start all over again, with a new major.

I moved into a dorm and soon found work on campus. After I got my first paycheck I was really happy. Why wouldn’t I have been happy? It was my first step towards growing up and becoming independent. This was for the first time that I had ever lived away from my family and I worked and earned money. But I hadn’t become completely independent yet, as I was soon to learn that my parents had to relocate back to India. It became really hard for me because from then, I had to manage everything for myself, for real. Before, I had my parents to remind me about almost everything (including my exams, assignments, laundry, etc.). It was like having a personal assistant, or rather - several.

After a year and a half, I graduated, but I faced an obstacle yet again, as I had graduated when the US was deep in recession. Somehow, I managed to find a job in a very small firm which barely paid anything. This motivated me to get a better position in a better company. I remember days when I would survive on a cup of noodles or PB&J (peanut butter and jelly). I felt lucky to have a steady paycheck when people were losing their jobs. Finally, after 900+ applications, I landed a decent paying job. Once I started my new career path, I started thinking about my future and became more serious about life.

When I look back today, I see how the struggles and down times I went through helped me in a good way. They gave me confidence to make my own decisions and changed me from being a kid to an adult. When I came to this country, I was forced to be outside my comfort zone. I had to take on responsibility and as a result, I changed as a person. I was able to grow up, for real. I found my interests, strengths, and weaknesses. I found new motivations and new goals. I learned that the opportunity to come here made me who I am today and I found new meaning in the saying, “There’s always a sunrise after a sunset.”

As I said earlier my name, Aditya, means “the sun.” I feel like I lived up to my name because when I came here, the initial struggles I faced made me feel like I was surrounded by darkness. But now that I look back, I see that I “rose” up like the sun, and am now ready to face the new dawn, which is the rest of my life.

Why this blog?

Hello World! My name is Aditya and I am member of Manhattan Toastmasters Club in New York. I am starting this blog to post all my speeches delivered at toastmasters meeting. You can follow this blog, read my speeches and please feel free to comment on them and suggest improvements while delivering the speech. I know it is impossible to imagine how I deliver my speeches without actually seeing me in action, but I like to try out new things and I would consider your suggestions and try to incorporate it in my next speeches and post comment as how it went.
Thank you.