Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club (#8141): Meeting #393 Deepavali: Light It Up

Light it up! Light it up! In conjunction with the Diwali celebration, our meeting was in jubilation. Our 393^rd meeting had made a few records. We had most of the members in their Indian costumes attending the meeting and we had the most number of guests visiting our club. Thank you to each and every member’s effort in bringing our club to a reputable mark. We had a record of 31 members and guests attending the meeting!

The scene looked busy and joyful during the fellowship session. Members and guests had some good chats while enjoying our signature nasi lemak; while some of us were getting the venue ready for the meeting

The meeting was kick started by our Sergeant At Arms, Shain Anand, who led us in reciting the Toastmasters Promises. As many may see this as a routine, it serves as a constant reminder to our members.

Our Madam President, Competent Communicator Wendy Sim, with her beautiful smile and shining saree costume, officiated the meeting. She gave her opening speech to light up the meeting, with our theme of the day: Deepavali: Light It Up! Wendy is getting more comfortable in front of an audience, becoming more confident and improving meeting after meeting. Keep it up, Madam President!

The word of the day: Jubilation, was introduced by our VPE, Chitirra.

We were honoured to have one of the senior Toastmasters, Distinguished Toastmasters, N. J. Singam to be our General Evaluator.

Advanced Communicator Bronze, CP Lau was the speaker for the invocation presentation. He reminded all, that besides the lights decoration at our houses, it is time to also light up the lights of knowledge and the lights of truth within us. It is time to reflect and admit our bad habits and wrong doings. With the arrival of the festival of lights, it is time to transform to be the better us. He ended his speech with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change, to change to a better world”.

Our handsome Toastmaster of the Evening, Competent Communicator, Manish Jha, in his favourite costume, took over the control and led us through the rest of the meeting.

The ever fun and exciting table topics session was led by our charming and calm Table Topics Master, Advanced Communicator Bronze, Serena Kong. To be inducted new member, Shelly Sim took on the challenge to be the first speaker of the session. That had triggered the interest from the audience and we had 3 guests who stood on their feet and challenged the topics from Serena Kong. Well done everyone! This the platform provided and that is the attitude to take on the challenge!

Our first assigned speech speaker of the evening, Mandy Chan came on stage during the second session of the meeting. She delivered her 5^th speech from the Competent Communication manual, on body language. Her speech title was “Never Ending Voyage!”. It was her experience of her pre-wedding photography shoot in Europe. We had a Europe trip and witnessed how beautiful the couple were in their poses for the shooting. Such a romantic trip! We look forward to your wedding ceremony invitation, Mandy Chan!

Our second speaker, Yap Ooi Yee, attempted her 9^th speech from the Competent Communication manual, To persuade with power. It was convincing in her speech that, everyone is going to die one day, so let’s “Have a Meaningful Life”. What are the list of “things” we would like to do before we finally “call it a day”? Ooi Yee had persuaded and encouraged us to have a bucket list. In life, let us prioritize our plans and execute them one by one, diligently and satisfactorily and we shall have no regrets when we leave the world one day. Well said Ooi Yee!

Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva and Srikant Marakani delivered their second speech on the Pathways education system.

Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva’s speech titled “The Time is Now!”, had shared with us the journey of her career. It took a lot of courage for her to move out of her comfort zone. With that courage and determination, she is what she is, where she is today. She has even authored books. Fellow members, look for her for advice if you desire to do something different, something big! Seek her advice if you also have plans to author your book. She is going to be a good dictionary for all of us!

Srikant had done a research and delivered a speech on his research, “Why Is The Night Sky Dark?”. He had provided some scientific explanation on this matter and it changed our “normal” perception of why the night sky is dark. Well done Srikant and we look forward to listening to more great speeches from you!

The “talk” continued during our break time. It was in jubilation that we had so much to share and to learn from each other. Our Sergeant-At-Arms had to ring the bell several times before he could gather everyone to continue with the meeting.

We always say, “Evaluation is the breakfast for champions”. Leading us in sharing the nice and good “breakfast” in the late evening, was our beloved General Evaluator, Distinguished Toastmaster, N.J. Singam. He is one of the very sincere and honest General Evaluators that we ever had. There were lots of sharing from him as well as good tips from him in helping us to bring our club’s standard to a new height. Thank you very much Distinguished Toastmaster, N.J. Singam.