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Where leaders are made…

By Zahid H Javali

Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? That’s something you will have to explore by yourself or better still, join the HSR Toastmasters Club. This five-year-old club associated with the 90-year-old non-profit organisation, Toastmasters International, is over 50-member strong and counting. Much of the membership ranges between 20 and 40 but the professions run the whole gamut: IT, marketing, HR, finance, business and so on.

After attending a couple of weekly sessions, I can conclude that it’s a club you should join if you want to stay positive, competitive, and learn. Here is where you get to stand up in front of a discerning audience to humour them and be humoured. To be evaluated and to evaluate others. To be a success at communication and leadership skills and inspire others to follow the same journey.

As Club President Jatin Sapra puts it: “We learn, grow, and have fun together. We are not just a club, we are a family.” Right, indeed. For many youngsters, the ultimate happiness lies in getting into that dream college, landing a dream job or reaching a dream travel destination. They become so obsessed with the goal that they forget to enjoy the process of reaching there. At Toastmasters, you will enjoy the journey… and it’s a never-ending one, if you choose it that way.

Some of the topics include: how to load humour into your life, the fear of failure, the art of communication, the language of leadership, the power of truth, and the magic of persistence, among others. Not to mention, story telling contests and impromptu speech contests based on visual cues.

If you want to see the spark and know the thunder within or understand why dreams don’t work unless you do, drop by. Remember, there are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or to be the mirror that reflects it. Want to know how you can spread light in the community? This piece is a big shout out to those of you who want to realise your true potential and see through the fog clouding your life’s journey.

The HSR Toastmasters Club has weekly sessions that you can make the most of as a guest.
They usually meet every Saturday at NCR Arcade, 580/B, 3rd Floor, HSR Layout from 4pm-6.15pm. But post-Covid-19, they meet online here every Saturday from 4pm-6.30pm.