EDITORS DESK...

TOASTMASTERS
EDITO RIAL TE AM
Editor Srinivas Tripurari Assistant Editor & Gayatri Gouda Graphic Designer

he efforts and number of follow ups to get this newsletter to this stage seems to be funny, when I imagine how a daily news paper is made ready in just 24 hours of time. A daily news paper contains number of pages with different sections. How on earth they complete a newspaper in such short time!! On weekdays most of our time goes for our job (8-10 hrs), travel to office and back to home (1-3 hrs), rest of the time to daily chores, eating and sleeping. Now, the only time we get to spend some time for other personal work is during weekends. But are we really able to make something good out of our weekends? Mostly we wake up late on those days; by the time we get ready and finish our breakfast, its already afternoonalmost at lunch time. We either watch TV or spend time on social networking sites like orkut/facebook. Some of them are really good; but it depends on how exactly do we make use of it. On top of it, during weekends we need to take care of the shopping/entertainment needs of our loved ones. The only day they get OUR quality time is on weekends. What about meeting friends? You never get time to meet your friends. Friendships often break just because we do not keep in touch with them. Pitiable situation to be in if you have so less time and so many things to do, and on top of it if you have to prepare or contribute to a newsletter like this. How on earth a CEO of a company manages his/her time. They dont get more time than anyone of us, so the only way they must be able to manage might be because they love what they do and they use their time wisely.

CLU B O FFICERS
President Mr. Mahesh Reddy Pathigari
+91 98859 25664 +91 99899 25763

Mr. Shivakumar Keskar VP Education Mr. Naga Ravi Vasamsetty

+91 99639 02275

VP Membership Ms. Gayatri Gouda

+91 98851 64693

VP Public Ms. Parul Jindal Relations +91 99660 06482 Secretary Mr. Srinivas Addala
+91 99499 90390

Treasurer Mr. Kiran Kumar Elaprolu

+91 98490 07620

Sergeant-at-arms Mr. ShaileshDadaji Tikhat

+91 99080 16253

CO N TEN TS
Editors Desk... P2

From The Presidents Desk P3 Giving Back! Moment of Truth! Cakes On The Way... Know TM Anoop! Toasting a Toastmaster! Mind Your Thoughts! Success Mantra Assistant Editors Desk... Photo Gallery P4 P5 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P10

When we want something to happen and put our best efforts we will come out with flying colors, or at least we hope so. Putting our best efforts is whats in our hand and that is what we tried to do for this newsletter. As Rabindranath Tagore said The butterfly counts, not months, but moments and has time enough. Hope you all have few minutes to appreciate the valuable efforts, our TMs have put in, to make this first CSC TM newsletter. Special thanks to TM Gayatri Gouda for joining the editorial team and designing our first newsletter in such a wonderful fashion. Editor Srinivas Tripurari

CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters

Page 2

FROM THE
P R E SI DE N TS

DESK

elcome to the first issue of the CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters Quarterly newsletter! On-site visits, appraisals, family issues - the list goes on. Each one of us wishes we had more time to catch up with all that and more. And in that melee we tend to miss whats happening in the world of Toastmasters. However, as all of us have that constant urge to stay in touch with the Toastmasters movement, we present you this newsletter. We bring to you the latest news, tips and articles in the form of this newsletter. I congratulate the Editorial team Srinivas Tripurari and Gayatri Gouda, for their efforts in bringing this up. 2008 - was full of changes to Org. Chart of CSC. Well, CSC Toastmasters too had many changes in its own club movements. As the 2009 approached, with the help of some of the senior Toastmasters - Janaki Prasad Pattanaik (JP), Jayan Narayanan, Sridhar Arun Kumar; we could help our club to be recognized by the Learning & Development department of CSC. With the arrival of 2009, we got the good news from CSC Management that 75% of the membership fee would be sponsored by CSC and rest of the amount by the individual Toastmasters. Now, to align our club name with all other clubs in CSC India locations, we did the reincarnation of CSC Toastmasters club to CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters club. The contribution of each and every member, their value addition to each meeting is one of the key to our clubs success. You could hardly see any fear in the eyes of Toastmasters as they have led themselves as better communicators and better leaders. Just CSC club - thats not the end. We visit other corporate clubs like - Deloitte, IBM, Infosys, Synopsis, Amazon and many more. We also attend the meetings of community clubs, thus, getting a chance to meet people from different background; leading people from various groups. Where else do you get a chance like this?

Not only that, we attend the Division conferences where we get a chance to meet TMs from India as well as from Sri Lanka. With 18 participants from CSC at OraFest 09 - the division conference, we feel proud to say that Anoop Ramanathan and Naga Ravi Vasamsetty have become the winners of International Prepared Speech Contest 09 and Humorous Speech Contest 08, at the Area level. Also the contributions from Sridhar Arun Kumar, Gayatri Gouda and Shailesh Dadaji Tikhat have made significant difference in conducting the conference. I am happy to announce that we are already a Distinguished club in Hyderabad. I congratulate and thank Parul Jindal, Sridhar Arun Kumar, Anoop Ramanathan and Gayatri Gouda for their significant milestones in the Education of Toastmasters. Soon we will have our new Employee Committee (EC) installed. Thus, I thank the current Club Officers and also thank the special contributions of Lateef Ahmed Khan Mohammed, Rajan Kumar Patel and Archana Singh. Without this team the club would not have reached to its place where we stand today. Lastly, my sincere advice to all the Toastmasters is to strictly follow the Toastmaster principles. Use the manuals put into execution and the only possible result would be Successful Communicators and Leaders. Happy Reading!!! President Mahesh Reddy Pathigari

Our new TM meeting schedule is from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM (every alternate Wednesday).

The future is much like the present, only longer. ~ Dan Quisenberry

CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters

Page 3

By Sridhar Arun Kumar, CL

GI VI NG BACK!

When you want something bad enough, the whole world conspires to make it happen. his is a saying that I recently heard in a Toastmasters meeting. I can see how that is true in CSC Hyderabad Toastmaster Chapters case. A couple of years ago we were struggling. Thankfully, by an interesting twist of circumstance, we were blessed with a strong EC and a good mentor. A little after that, we were looking to institutionalize the club-make it a part of the CSC scheme of things. Thats when CSC acquired Covansys. As luck would have it, Covansys had a very strong Toastmasters movement which was supported by the Covansys management. Now those same benefits have been bestowed upon us! As I said earlier, when you want something bad enough!!

FY10. If you are interested in becoming a Speech Craft trainer, please complete your CC ASAP and give a ring to President, TM Mahesh. One of the modules in the Advanced Speaker series is about motivating a Sales force. Motivating a sales team is not a simple thing. As some of our members progress along the ACB/ACS path, we will need to become competent enough to understand the CSC sales process and be able to motivate sales teams. CSC spends lakhs of rupees every year in hiring external trainers to do soft skill courses on various topics like Interpersonal communication, Leadership, Public speaking, Motivation, Team building etc. As we move up the Communication and leadership track, we need to prepare modules on these topics and be able to deliver it in place of the external consultants. This will help CSC control its training budget, especially in this recession period. These are just some of the ways we can give back to an organization that has supported us so much. CSC has given us the venue, the financing and the backing to achieve our goals. It is now time to give back! Thats what is next for CSC Hyderabad Chapter!!

CSC spends lakhs of rupees every year in hiring external trainers to do soft skill courses

What next for us? I humbly submit before you some thoughts I have had for a while. All of usthe EC and the members- need to recognize the fact that when CSC invests resources into our chapter, it becomes our responsibility to give something back to CSC. But how do we give back? Simple! By being good Toastmasters. By attending meetings regularly, by giving our projects on time, by improving the quality of our speeches, by helping new Toastmasters prepare for their speeches, by participating and winning in contests, by organizing area and division events, by helping the newsletter editor etc. As we do all of these activities, our skills, abilities and confidence improve and thats exactly what CSC expects! By being good Toastmasters, we are helping CSC achieve results. But thats just the 30 of our members who benefit. What about the other 4000 employees at CSC Hyderabad? What are we doing to train them? How are we helping CSC secure new business? How are we helping CSC reduce its training costs? Here are some ways that we can help CSC: By running Speech Craft programs to nonToastmaster CSC employees. Speech craft is a crisp 4-8 week program on public speaking. It will help our employees-both senior and junior- face the customers or participate in conferences. It will help them become better internal trainers. I hope our chapter runs a Speech Craft program in

Think of giving, not as a duty, but as a privilege. ~ John D. Rockefeller Jr.

CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters

Page 4

By Rajan Kumar Patel

epressed, Dejected and Downhearted werent sufficient adjectives to describe my mood a month ago. It happened first time in my life that I suffered few personal setbacks and hit professional ceilings. It was so severe and painful that I started questioning every decision of mine. The mind preoccupied with past, filled my present with sorrow; and it looked all dark from whichever direction I tried to look into my future. Just then my confidant reminded me of who was I and where I am going. True to notion of cosmic connection, Diyanath Ali, a friend and fellow toastmaster, showed up on Gtalk. I asked him about his next adventure trip to Himalayas and he promptly referred me to: http://www.meetup.com/hyderabadadventurers. This group planned preparatory trek at Ananthagiri Hills, Vikarabad. It became a God sent opportunity to set the things right in my life. I was unable to sleep the previous night in sheer excitement of going to trek. Our convoy-3 cars started journey at 5.40 AM and reached Vikarabad at 7.00 AM. The weather took us by surprise. It was drizzling and the Sun was on leave. The conducive weather did let us trek two scenic hills of Ananthagiri. We had

our lunch at picturesque Naga Samunder lake. After we returned to Hyderabad, I had a sense of regaining my vigor; I could recall my own heroism and achievements. I reminded myself, in life, direction of thinking should be forward and not backward, however painful the past is. Whenever I feel de-focused in life, I take solace in lines of Lord Byron: There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not man the less, but Nature more P.S: This story would have never been known to you, without the relentless and egoless pursuit of Chief Editor, TM Srinivas. Friends such as him, make it worthwhile to live in pretentious world ;-)

MOME NT
OF T RUT H!

After we returned to Hyderabad, I had a sense of regaining my vigor.

Fall seven times, stand up eight. ~ Japanese proverb

CAKES ON THE WAY... Name
Ms. Archana Singh

e-Mail ID
asingh215@csc.com

Bday
01 May 30 May 20 June 23 June 11 July 20 July 22 July 30 July Page 5

Ms. QamarSultana Mohammed qmohammed2@csc.com Ms. Divya Priyanka Sinha Ms. Mudita Rana Ms. Anu Suthakaran Mr. Somnath Bose Mr. Srinivas Tripurari Mr. Kaustubh Vivek Khole CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters dsinha2@csc.com mrana4@csc.com asuthakaran@csc.com sbose3@csc.com stripurari@csc.com kkhole@csc.com

By Gayatri Gouda, CL

KNOW TM

ANOOP!

ow did you come to know about Toastmasters? Toastmasters is something that I have been introduced to when I was in my early teens. I was brought up in Bahrain and we had this special Youth leadership program there. It was started by a Toastmaster from India. That inspired me to know more about TMI, even when I was a kid. When did you join CSC TMs club? I joined CSC TMs club in 2006, just year after it was founded by Arun and his team.

So, Human Networking - motivates you to be a part of Toastmasters? A big Yes. You tend to learn a lot from the people you socialise with. You are a CC now and have won the Club level and the Area level Prepared Speech Contest. How do you feel about it? There are two people who are behind these successes. They didnt let me sleep; they made sure I won the speeches. The CC, the awards belong to those people more than me. That's why I was pointing towards the human networking. Now, you already know who they are. Right!! I can hear you giggle. Well, the credit goes to all the TMs including Mahesh and Gayatri who gave me constant encouragement and support. Tell us something about your participation in International Speech Contest, oraFest09. It taught me a lot about speaking on stage. I was pretty cool just before the contest began. As my turn was coming, I started feeling more and more tensed. I discovered that even after being a TM for more than a year, audience still excites me. No matter how many years you speak, how many audiences you charm there are still new audience that make me sweat. I want to work on this; I want to expose myself to variety of audiences. I feel its a right time for me to visit all other clubs in Division F. Any Message for the New Members? To the new TMs - TM is more than stage for you to speak up. It is a platform for people to interact and to learn from each other, to be open to different ideas and opinion.
Thank you Anoop for your time and for the wonderful interview. It has been a pleasure to know more about you. Signing off Gayatri

Winner at Area F2 Toastmasters Area level - International Prepared Speech Contest & Club level - International Table Topics Speech Contest.

What are your expectations from Toastmasters? Even today after being an active TM for about a year; I feel there is a lot to learn by giving a speech, by entertaining an audience, by grabbing the audiences interest and I want to improve more on that. You were away from TM club in Hyderabad for almost a year in CSC TM. How did you manage to continue Toastmastering? I have been to Copenhagen, Denmark, for about an year because of work commitments. However, after I settled there, I searched for TM clubs; and luckily I could find one. They met once every week and every alternate meeting was in English / Danish languages. How has been your experience with Toastmasters till now? The most beautiful part of my Toastmastering is in seeing how it has changed in these two years. We started the club as Old Boyz club and now what I see is completely different. Structured; Well-organised; Contests; Division Conferences are the words to describe it. The old days were like few guys in the room; no females (giggles). Now I see energetic TMs driving the club and setting higher standards. How do you feel being a toastmaster? For me the most valuable take away from TM is, the people that I meet. After I became a part of the club, I have met/seen a lot of people, have interacted with many friends. When living with your roomies, away from your family, the one thing that keeps you mentally stable is socialising with people. The human networking is the biggest asset of TM.

For me the most valuable take away from TM is, the people that I meet.

CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters

Page 6

By Shivakumar Keskar

orporate Toastmastering is not a straight and easy game. There is always this urgent work that pops up at the last moment and stops you from making it to the TM club meeting. Very surprisingly this phenomenon stands its ground in spite of the toastmasters philosophy,

has become a mantra that everyone has caught up with. The club has come a long way today. CSC is counted as one of the best corporate clubs in Division F. It would not at all be an overstatement to say that Arun has a lot to do with that. So what are the key takeaways for other toastmasters from Aruns experiences? Take initiatives to do a job well, dont hang your effort on the payback From organizing meetings to finding the right people to drive TM awareness in the company Arun has gone out to do all of it without waiting to see what is in it for me. That attitude sure pays immensely. Ask when in doubt In spite of all the leadership responsibilities and achievements including a well earned CL, Arun never carries the know-it-all attitude. Approaching the neighboring clubs for help was a powerful move. It sure made a difference to him, but it also changed the club for good forever. There are several more things to learn from this toastmaster if you could work closely with him. Arun is truly living what he once said to a veteran toastmaster about his passion for Toastmastering, I want to be a Toastmaster for life.

T OA S T I N G
A T OAS T M AS T ER !

Your potential is limited only by the number of excuses you have. There are very few corporate toastmasters who have made their mark in their respective districts. What sets them apart is a burning passion for Toastmastering and their determination and perseverance in pursing Toastmastering in the face of all work place challenges. Sridhar Arun Kumar from CSC is definitely one such Toastmaster. Arun, a TM since April of 2006, is one of the founder members of the CSC TM Club at Hyderabad. Today, almost three years later, Arun not only continues to be an active member but also constantly raises the bar for the overall performance of the club through personal example and mentoring. In its initial days the club ran meetings with very little guidance from outside. There were no experts within the club to guide the members and therefore the quality of meetings ranged from poor to average. For the year 2007-2008 Arun was chosen the president of the club. In a short while Arun took on the challenges that were hogging the club at that time. He started going out to the other clubs in the area and meeting with some of the veteran toastmasters there. His acquaintance with TM Dr. Prasad was not only a turning point for himself but also for the club. With constant reach-outs from the office bearers TM Dr. Prasad visited the CSC TM club several times and gave the club some real honest feedback. Arun and his team took these very constructively and worked diligently towards the quality of speeches and evaluations. Mentorship CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters

CSC is counted as one of the best corporate clubs in Division F.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. ~ Winston Churchill
CSC TOASTMASTERS - OTHER CHAPTERS Location Contact Person

Hyderabad Chennai Bangalore Noida

Mahesh Reddy Pathigari (mpathigari@csc.com) Janaki Prasad Pattanaik (jpattanaik@csc.com) Dharmendra Saxena (dsaxena@csc.com) Sumit Kumar (skumar77@csc.com)

Page 7

By Deepika Kadel

MIND YOUR THOUGHTS!

ou might have heard people saying Mind your behavior, Mind your language. Have you ever heard them saying 'Mind your thoughts? Well, I say - Mind your thoughts!!. Your thoughts are the carrier that carries everything whether it is positive or negative inside your brain. Once it is processed it is accepted and information is stored. You become what you think and it is indeed true.

the way you anticipated or some one suddenly overtook you in the traffic. This never ending cycle continues because the source is not addressed properly and we are trapped in infinite loop. It takes a lot of hard work to pretend that everything is going well, however deep inside you know it won't take longer for the issues to creep up and negative thoughts to replace the positive ones. Is there any solution for this? Yes. Every problem has a solution. Your thinking process can make life much easier. What you think, is how you act. Your thought becomes your action, and your action represents you. So if you want to change yourself, change your thoughts. Your body follows where your mind takes it, so instead of leaving it on chance, better program it towards positive way. Its fun to be around positive thinkers. No matter what happens they will not let even a single negative thought to enter inside their mind. Avoid the company of people who always complain. Avoid complaining about anything and everything. Look for positive thinkers - people who see opportunities even in failures. I am sure your world would be much better than what you have now; your thoughts would be much clearer than what you have now.

Life is not always fair, I accept, but that is why we call it Life!. Everything is unexpected here. One should not expect anything from life. When you don't expect anything from life, every moment becomes a surprise; and surprise brings Happiness. You can only learn from your past, if you are willing to. It is Over and - there is no reason in weeping over it. No one has seen the future; You can do whatever you want, with your Present only. But one thing is there - your future will unfold to its best if You constantly build a powerful foundation of positive present for it to rest on.

Your thought becomes your action, and your action represents you.

A positive mind anticipates health, joy, happiness and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds. It is quite common to hear people say, 'Think Positive!', to someone who is feeling low. Most of the people do not really take these words seriously as they don't know what it means, or they don't consider them useful and effective. In order to turn your mind to positive and constructive side, inner work and training is required, because a person's attitude and thoughts don't change overnight. It is said that we are never given a wish without the power to fulfill it. Each person is capable of programming his own mind to achieve what he desires. But the question arises, why is it easy to be a negative thinker than a positive one? What is inside all of us that generally pull us to negative side of things? We attend seminars on positive thinking, read books, purchase CDs and life seem to go on a right track for a while and then suddenly something happens that sends us back to land of negative thinking. It doesn't have to be a major, catastrophic event to send us back reeling all over again. It could be simple thing such as - your day didn't go

Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching? ~ Dennis and Wendy Mannering
Page 8

CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters

By Gayatri Gouda, CL

ere I share the story of a small frog. When I was a fresher, this story shaped my thoughts and my career. How it did? - Ill not it reveal now!! There was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a climbing competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high telephone tower. Some of the frogs preferred to be spectators. No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. The competition started. The spectators started shouting, Oh, way too difficult!! They will never make to the top. Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high! Some of the frogs began collapsing by hearing this. The crowd started yelling, It is too difficult!! No one will make it! Some more collapsed. Some of the frogs reached higher with their fresh tempo.

and effort. Lets join others! And they stopped moving up. The other tiny frog, unaware of whats happening, kept on moving ahead. The rest of the two frogs started yelling, Hey, You! Come, lets go back. You are wasting your time. What will you achieve by doing this? Come on!! There was no reaction; the other frog still moved up. And finally he reached to the top and took a view of the entire area from there. It was nice to be in top of every one. He looked down and saw the other frogs clapping and waving. He came down and when asked what kept him motivated to reach the top, there was no reaction. Finally it was found that the frog is a DEAF!! Now, this story was told to me by my senior Anchal Agrawal, when I was selected to work on Lotus Notes technology. I was worried for how would my career shape in. She made me realize that, It doesnt matter what kind of job you do. What matters is how well you do that job! You may be assigned a sculptors job, however, do it in such a way that even the Lord says, heres this sculptor who created me out of the rock! People would say that, You wont be able to do this work. This job is not your cup of tea! But believe me, even the CEOs were Freshers one day. So strive for your goal like that deaf frog. Way to go!!

SUCCESS MANTRA!

After a while some of the frogs got tired and said, I am too tired! I dont think I would be able to do it any more. I withdraw. And they retired back. By seeing this some more too said, They werent able to do; how can we do? Not possible! Lets go back. And they too withdrew. Now, there are only three frogs left. Two were too tired and were discouraged by the act of others and they too started blaming themselves for why they participated in this. Its waste of time

Even the CEOs were Freshers one day.

We are on the web now! http://1clickideas.co.uk/toastmasters.html

Some useful links for Toastmasters:

To know some statistics about TMI visit: http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/2009/02/11/toastmasters-who-what-when-where-why-how/ A website which can help you improve your vocabulary: http://www.tfd.com/ CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters Page 9

Until Next Newsletter.

ASSISTANT EDITORS DESK...

Welcome to the world of energetic, enthusiastic speakers and leaders. A world where the energy is so contagious that it doesnt let any scope for laziness or boredom in your life. Ask the Toastmasters how do they spend their time on weekends. The answer would be, its hard to be away from Toastmasters, so I steal sometime to visit the clubs other than my own. Now, I wish that the amount of effort every Toastmaster has put in to bring this first edition of Speakers Pen!, would help you savor some good thoughts, some valuable information. This is the first step we have taken. Theres more to

W elcome to Toastmasters World!!

step ahead. I thank Emily R Cooper for helping me refine this newsletter as per the CSC Brand Guidelines. I thank Srinivas for the constant support and help. We believe in - delivery and then feedback about what we delivered. We have already delivered you this. Now its time for the Feedback. We would love to hear from you about how we could make this newsletter even better. If you had a nice time reading this newsletter / if you want to share your views/suggestions, please drop an email to: Srinivas (stripurari@csc.com) or myself (ggouda@csc.com). Signing off!! Assistant Editor Gayatri Gouda

Feedback is the breakfast of champions ~ Ken Blanchard

PHOTO GALLERY

2 5t h

Me et

i ng

tm T oa s

as t e

ri n g

W in n L ev e rs o f el C o n t A re a est s

MISSION, VISION, VALU ES

M ission

Toastmasters International is the leading movement devoted to making effective oral communication a worldwide reality. Through its member clubs, Toastmasters International helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership potential, foster human understanding and contribute to the betterment of mankind. It is basic to this mission that Toastmasters International continually expand its worldwide network of clubs, thereby offering ever-greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from its programs.

Toastmasters International empowers people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams. Through our member clubs, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change.

V ision

Toastmasters Internationals core values are integrity, dedication to excellence, service to the member and respect for the individual. These are values worthy of a great organization, and we believe we should incorporate them as anchor points in every decision we make. Our core values provide us with a means of not only guiding but also evaluating our operations, our planning and our vision for the future. Page 10

V alues

CSC Hyderabad Chapter Toastmasters