Public Speaking

Hello friends and respected teachers today I’m going to discuss about the most annoying and difficult topic for us all students I.e. giving speeches. The idea of delivering a speech without a scruple leads us to the unnerving thoughts of stage fear.

Usually students wear their feet of dancing crazily, became the mellifluous nightingales or flaunt their talents at others. these acts win the reputation of a celebrity within the bounds of our school but when it comes to speaking in public most of us fall to paces, our senses go halting off, the picturesque screen of our mind all of a sudden clears itself of all that vivid scenery and we start to simper and stammer.

The root cause behind this strange instinctual behavior is fear.  It is a humanly desire to want others to concur with our own opinion. if that doesn’t happen we start doubting ourselves and in worst cases we even tend to condemn ourselves. the chef cause of this stage phobia is the fear of disapproval if the audience doesn’t find the speech interested or if do not appreciate the dint of the speaker’s toil, he-the speaker finds himself stuck in a thick soup.  Henry Ford, I’m sure he needs no introduction, said “whether you think you can or you think you cannot, either way you are true!” The fear of disapproval that I have touched upon is basically baseless! It all depends on our mental disposition; If we believe we can, we definitely can! But mind you here’s a word of caution; If you think you cannot you won’t be forsworn! the optimistic people often miss out on this complementary truth and then lament till the oceans start to flood the continent! Armed with this ultimate understanding one can never allow his audience to take charge for which he himself is responsible. This is a wide world.... I hope you discerned the euphemism involved! And for those who didn’t, well its wide substituted for wild. So coming back from this little comic digression I would like to assert that one must keep doing his duties without being affected by the ‘wide’ opinion. When all of them seeps into one’s head they drive even the sanest of the man nuts! The golden rule to public speaking is to leave the spectators at bay and to focus on our own hunches!

My dear friends please do forgive me for biting so acridly at the world of my fellow mates which in our case happens to be you – the spectators. I, standing at this podium, am simply trying to boost the morale of my friends who would be speaking just like am.

Speaking makes you ready to face challenges. It expands or narrow horizon and gives way to a broader and clearer version of the otherwise distorted reality. Also speaking in a particular language, English in our case, improves our fluency. to be able to think and express oneself in a given language is an art which we imbibe through constant practice. Almost every school’s norms insist upon the students conversing in English. This is a preparatory phase for public speaking.

Having shed light on a rather intimidating subject I leave you all pondering – in a pensive mood- the one in which Wordsworth found himself as he looked at the daffodils! I hope you would challenge your own biases for the good!

Thank you!

Success

Striving towards success is a life-long journey for there always will be times when the loftiest of the successes will grovel low in the marls of the earth! From time immemorial success speeches have been tirades and harangues accentuating the principle of unflinching endeavors and recounting the tales of the glorious past! I'm not here to tire you of such clichés, for I believe that brevity is the soul of wit (Shakespeare's quote). Hear my sonorous bell billow this hall with applauses unabated - that is what real success consists of, quotidian theories stand no chance against the live demonstration that you are just about to behold!

If I am to cite my own example, I would say that my first success was in overcoming my fears.

I was an introvert person and thus did not like to get involved in crowds. I couldn't mix with people. Although it may seem contrary to the much conceded to opinion, I was a girl who lived in her own cozy figment of imagination, aloof from the perils of the working day world. When I had to interact with people I felt as though I was lost in a thicket, hapless and foreboding! For instance when I has to climb upon the podium to address a bunch of people, just the way I'm doing right now, my brain went numb - as if it were put in a cold storage! I would have found myself floating in the zero gravity of the infinite universe, ransacking it for every little shred of courage and hope!

But today the sky has changed. My world has turned topsy-turvy I must say. Now I cherish getting on the stage. I enjoy the company of my friends and foes alike, for there is none of the latter category! I'm free of the necessity to have the world's approval at one's disposal. I don't care whether you love me or loath me. But one thing is definitely true that you won't be able to ignore me! Try it if you will! That is the power of a charismatic personality!

I'm not a sybarite; neither am I haughty, pompous or supercilious as you might have perceived from the previous description of me. It only serves to illustrate the point that success not only consists of awards, money and fame. If it were so Dhirubhai ambani, Bill gates or Steve Jobs would have been merry as a bird with no woes in their life. It is sufficient to point out that the Bollywood scams, the shocking revelations and suicides committed by celebrities are evidence to the fact the success has to do with the inner most core of men.

Swami Ram has the habit of calling himself an emperor. Upon being asked by a ruffian the reason he used to call himself an emperor despite having the beggar's bowl in his hands, he replied "Don't look at my things; look at me." And in that moment even Akbar would have looked pale in front of Ram!  It is not the external things that dictate our lives, indeed it is the peace of my mind and the euphoria of the soul that matters the most. William Wordsworth in his poem, Daffodils talked about the bliss of solitude and the beauty of the flowers that induced a state of trance in him.

The blind man groping in the dark will be startled to death if he finds himself, out of the blue, beholding the rainbows! Like a kid will he hop about, dance and sing till the bashful maiden earth kisses the bowing horizon at stretch! The sudden burst of ecstasy will unfold the childlike luminosity that was earthed beneath the sheaths of treason, woes and a million eerie mountains that should have been molehills that could be crumpled dust unto dust!

This very unveiling of the true self, radiating like a thousand suns to districts unheard of, and the erasure of the duplicitous self is what I call success. Disappointment brews in the hearts and minds of people when they know that only an insignificant dew drop of elixir has been left for them. What they fail to perceive is the fact that a drop bears the same potential  of imparting infinite longevity as a pot! Extrapolating the analogy to the discussion at hand, I would like to maintain that life like the elixir throws fringes of materialistic success and wails fraught with woes alike. It is up to us whether to grieve about the pot that we did not receive or to sing hallelujah and bless the universe for the drop that we did receive! Like begets like is the prime law working day and night in this universe.

Having said thus and having evinced the supreme law I seldom feel the need to redefine success or to elaborate upon the subtleties that lead to a happy life for the silence pierces deeper than any dagger would!

The place of Religion in today’s India. Share your views

The martian clanks of the distant knolls creates a vivid imagery of the ceremonies of the priestly order. The esoteric psychobabble of the clergy and the puritans often bemuse the greater chunk of neophytes. But nonetheless it also amuses the remainder of the herd. The bizarre equations that reign the scientist’s tomes has it that someday or the other the mysteries would be demystified to the devotee. However the traditional and the partisans of antediluvian world choose not to unveil the curtain and rest in the solace of religion. Thus in two factions, we see India divided into; the religious, the pious and the atheists.

The deep incision made into the flesh of an individual can’t help but ache and torment him until he’s driven nuts! The same analogy can be extrapolated to contemporary India. Mother India has been enduring this affliction since ages and perhaps would have to unto eternity! The pious pundits are so dogged and dogmatic that they are not ready to listen to the modern science. They apprehend that men would be damned by the touch of science. For instance Galileo was penalized for maintaining that the earth went round the sun and not the other way round which was believed to be true according to the Holly Bible. Such atrocities in the society have emaciated even the healthiest. It is believed that the goddess’s wrath is responsible for children suffering from chicken pox. Millions of lives of innocent little beings could have been saved if the religions could only commend the medical science. Religion in its most rigid of the forms is nothing more than a blasphemy!

For the economic development of nation, every niche and nook must be purged from abject poverty, all midgets should be infused with sublime enthusiasm and all the vice should be effaced by the good. Religion through its myths and parables does enthrall a considerable portion of the society. The fear of hell and the yearning for heaven simultaneously keep oiling the otherwise ‘rusted wheel’. Agreed that salvation is beyond the clutches of both the evil and the civil but the seekers of salvation can be numbered in the whim of a minute. Most of the population seems to be at the most either avaricious or gluttonous. In such a place religion sets up a sort of an invisible prison by manipulating the very fears of the prisoners.  Law and order without the aid of religious tenets would be a daunting task indeed, almost impossible. For the fearless will always be a rebellion and if each individual ‘acts and behaves in a manner he thinks is right, it would turn the civilized society into a fish market. (Provided he or she is not highly purified) Thus to give alms to the poor, to help the needy and to abstain from sinning actually reduces the burden on  our judicial system and is thus better able to focus on more redoubting matters at hand.

The religion in present India is evolving and taking new forms. The educated group of people are trying to end the ill-treatment meted out by ‘religious cause’. The film industry now, instead of just focusing upon thrillers and romances, has also started to weave their blockbusters around religion. The classical religion of angry, satanic god is being gradually replaced by a loving fatherly character. Films such Oh my God and PK have evoked a blend of positive and negative responses. On one hand it teaches the lessons of love and self-sacrifice which is lauded by some while on the other hand the ‘sages’ take umbrage at such movies. Now obviously there ought to be two sides but we must shun the murky one! Our mindless rituals and blind-faith have cost us a lot already. So why not accept the truth? Who knows the divine scheme? The 21^st century macho would fain believe in a milkman playing a flute! The lord all mighty may have taken to coat-pants and Jazz to convince us! Who knows? The movies and media may altogether be a ‘new religion’ emerging in India!

A few people would interpret religion altogether differently. They have dropped the world ‘god’ (and thus they don’t find it necessary to capitalize the g of god though the grammar insists it be so) and have cast off the orange robs whether mental or physical. They are the ones who are experimenting, failing and succeeding at times, and moving on. These people make no fuss of religion. They are concerned with something quite perplexing which only they know of! Thus India has experienced a totally unique religion which has touched the hearts of many youngsters.

India has been considered to be a place of religions. People from far west flock to seek religious guidance in India. The place of religion in India is highly disputable, some coin it to be the root of all virtue, the others claim it to be the root of all evil and the blame it for all the ailments and there are the balance like me who wish to remain absolutely apathetic to religion and to its place in India; neither sympathetic, nor antipathetic but Apathetic! It is a rhapsodic experience to have a bird’s eye view but the bird only glances as an onlooker with no investments for it knows that the scene beheld must contain both the prey and the predator alike and that he is ‘neither’ of the two! He is simply the ‘onlooker’ of the motleys in the intriguing circus! A coin must have the obverse and reverse! I hope that these examples more than suffice to establish the place of religion in today’s India!