Can’t believe, I am actually doing this. After planning for long time, I finally got courage and opportunity to write a blog- “The Blog” my Maiden Blog…. This is the fruit of joining Toastmasters. I would really like to thank one and all for all your support, encouragement, trust & confidence, and finally for providing me this platform & opportunity. This Blog is also the result of my speech in the last meeting (speech No. 6) titled “E for Efforts not Excuse” which self motivated me to stop giving excuses and finally write this blog as a part of my duty of being a VP Public Relations. So friends here I am with all my efforts and no Excuse (wink;)).
It was almost 2 months and I was due for my speech no. 6, I remember my last speech was delivered in the Humorous & Evaluation contest on 4th Sept organized by Hj. Naburi. And both myself and Paul Tan made MMKL TM club proud by meeting the expectations of all our supporters.
It was such a wonderful moment when they announced that both the champions are from Money Mastery KL toastmaster club and we would be representing the area G1 in the next contest…..
That was the last time I saw Hj Naburi that day, unfortunately I could not participate in that contest as I had my prior commitments and I was in my home country India for a long vacation with my friends and family
After I came back, it really broke my flow and I really got busy with work, I started giving all the excuses of not coming to the TM meetings but it was Victor’s dedication and persuasion that I finally planned to deliver my speech no. 6. It was not easy for me after this break and I was already planning all the excuses to avoid it. It was then when I remember this line which always helps me choosing the right path at the time of confusion. “E for efforts not excuse” and I realized there could not be better audience to present this topic. Well that was it; I was ready with my speech and reached the meeting room well in time.
It was really wonderful meeting all the Toastmasters after a long time, I was lucky, people still remembered me. There were few new members as well and couple of guest as usual. The session started well on time, thanks to our Time Keeper of the day Daniel. Throughout this blog, you will find lots of pictures clicked during the session on 9/11
After our president gave a motivating speech, it was time for the most awaited moment- Gean Lau- Our Gorgeous TME started the proceedings, Invocation session was handled very well by Victor which was followed by Table Topic Session conducted by Siew Yin
and the topics were well connected with the theme of the day- Long Weekend (Deepawali), she got enough support from the volunteers. After Haji Hashim delivered his 2 minutes speech during this session, it really inspired me as well and I volunteered as the last table topic speaker of the day, the topic given to me was really close to my heart so I could get enough material to talk about, in my speech I also mentioned how Haji Hashim always inspire me and many like me. 
I also cleared the doubt of Ginny who got to know from her aunt that in India you can’t choose your own spouse and after that she was happy to know that you are free to choose your own wife or husband to get married…. Well that was the end of very well conducted Table topic session which was followed by Humor Session. Haji Hashim volunteered to be the first one to start with a joke and from there onwards the flow went towards little dirty jokes (which was later pointed out by GE) but they sounded nice to us Shiva Das and TM Chan Chee Keng also followed the suite.
Rest all sessions went very well too and the evaluation as usual was awesome, had real fun and we ended the meeting with
celebrating the birthdays of November babies. In the end I made a comment which I would really like all of us to know. I was doing pretty good before my break and had completed my 5 project speeches and also one humorous contest speech but when I came back and delivered this speech no 6, I really felt I am back to square one, I felt the nervousness, I felt my voice was breaking,I felt I have moved down couple of steps back and have to put lot of extra efforts to come back to where I left last time, so I would advise all not to commit the same mistake I did, please be regular to the meetings don’t take a long break, keep practicing and there is lot to learn from our mentors there. This particular meeting boosted my confidence and I felt very energetic after the session. I am ready with my speech no. 7 for the next meeting. See you all there.
It was really wonderful writing my first blog, I really felt great and I m looking forward to write more and more blogs in near future, you all are also free to write your blogs and can post it here. If you guys really like this post then please post a comment.
Signing off….
Jitin Girdhar
