Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club (#8141): Light it Up

Who doesn’t’ like light? Who doesn’t like winning? Who doesn’t like the truth? I guess I am thinking too much. Do you know that Diwali is India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (Avali) of clay lamps (Deepa) that Indian lights outside their houses to symbolize the inner light that protects us from spiritual darkness.

This festival is as important to Hindus as the Christmas Holiday to Christians. Some interesting information about Diwali in Northern India is that they celebrate the story of King Rama’s return to Ayodhya (Kingdom) after he defeated Ravana by lighting rows of clay lamps. South India celebrates it as the day lord Krishna defeated the demon Narkasura. As for western India, the festival marks the day that Lord Vishnu , the preserver (One of the main gods of hindu trinity) sent the demon king Bali to rule neither world. In all interpretation, one common thread rings true- The festival marks the victory of good over evil. This was one of the most exciting Toastmasters meetings in MM-KL.

We were celebrating the spirit of Deepavali. Everyone’s smile on this evening proved that we stand together and we are committed to help each other to achieve more.We were encouraged to wear Indian ethnic dresses as Deepavali celebrated mostly in India and by Indians (Hindu’s) outside the country.

Once the ASAA (Assistant sergeant at Arms) Yap, Ooi Yee ensured that the meeting can be started. She led the recitation of Toastmasters promises and without further delay she called our club president Competent Communicator Ron Yeap.

Ron, as our club president enraptured the atmosphere and sets the floor with his eye-opening researches about Deepavali. Although he doesn’t celebrate Diwali at home but his words left the entire audience felt touched as we respect and embrace every culture in Toastmasters. He knows that despite most of our members in Toastmaster do not really celebrate Diwali but he still enlighten us the essence of this festival. He lighted up the floor with his wonderful words and opened the floor to the member of MM-KL to introduce themselves. Next, he warmly handed over the floor to the Toastmaster of the evening, DTM, Dr. Thilla.

Dr. Thilla is the one and the only female Distinguished Toastmaster in our club, she took over the stage and begins the meeting with excitement. She introduced all the role players. She called the first table topic master to conduct the Table Topic Session.

This round, I have prepared 9 interesting topics about Diwali based on the theme of the day. However, there were only 4 Speakers that participated due to time constraint.

1. FoongSook Hwa(guest) – Diwali is all about noise and air pollution. I hate it. What about you?

2. Cindy Foon(guest)- What do you like the most in Diwali?

3. Calvin (Guest)- If you were to use one word to describe diwali, what it would be? And why?

4. Kevin khoo(our VPE) –Diwali in India is better than Malaysia, do you agree?

All of them expressed their thoughts very well. Audiences were laughing,feeling touched by some of the impromptu speeches whereby speakers learn to deliver their speech spontaneously without any preparation. Isn’t it interesting?

Next everyone is waiting for project speeches. As for this week, we are excited to have four speakers including an ice breaking speech!

Let me begin with my personal view on the ice breaking. Our new member, Joel presented his first ever speech with the title of “The prodigal son”. In this speech speaker has to say something about himself because it is his first speech. He confidently walked down the stage, took a deep breath and……………………………………………….

Begun with his personal real story, he was not interested in study. He said he used to spend money recklessly with friends and just like to enjoy his life without any purpose. Therefore, his father wanted him to start working in an insurance company to gain exposure about the true meaning of “Life”.

Are you a parent? Do you have any kid? No matter whether you have kids or you are a parent, you need to listen to our upcoming speaker, Foo Fung jiun’s speech with the title of ‘A parent’s night mare’. His speech created Goosebumps while listening through. A real story about how a parent get so worried when his child became unconscious and not responding for few minutes. For your information, Fung Jiun is a father of two kids and he went through this experience and He came out more stronger in his life later after this night mare experience. It was indeed an excellent speech as he utilized a lot of vocal varieties in his speech. Well done !!

Then it was our next speaker, Wendy Sim. The most charming and always-smiling friend. She was ready with her Speech number 7 from CC manual. As per the speech objectives, she managed to demonstrate an excellent research on her topic “Home schooling- A vibrant Explosion”. She collected various information from numerous resources and educated us with her real life story about her own children who are studying in home school and How home schooling could be a better option for some of the parents out there.

Our last speaker DTM, Ken Chan presented his speech number 9 from CC manual Persuade with power with the speech title "Managing your Time". He is one of the senior who always encourage the juniors to speak well. We are delighted once again today as he taught us about the importance of time management with proper practical technique. He drawn a diagram on the paper and explained to us on how to set the priority to manage our time more effectively basing them on urgency and priority. Thanks Ken for your educational speech.

Next, our General evaluator Teoh Chun Ming took over the control of the stage and called each elvaluator to present their report. Finally he also added his recommendations and he said that it was a great evening listening to exciting speech and he was glad to be part of this enrapturing meeting.

Next, our General evaluator Teoh Chun Ming took over the control of the stage and called each and every evaluator to present their report. Finally he added his recommendations and he said that it was a great evening listening to exciting speech and he was glad to be part of this enrapturing meeting.

Finally our President Ron Yeap took over the control to appreciate the best performers.

Concluded the whole session. He wished everyone a Happy Deepawali and Happy Holiday to everyone. Eventually, he announced the meeting to adjourn. Last but not least, I hope all the guests have enjoyed the our meeting as much as I did. See you guys in our next meeting!