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Transcript of Timbre Tunes , Edition 01, 2015 16
1
TIMBRE TUNES
TIMBRE TALKERS TOASTMASTERS CLUB, CLUB # 1540871, AREA 19, DIVISION O, DISTRICT 20
First edition
2015-16
2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
President’s note ……………………………………………..3
Our Ex-Com has to say…………………………………...4
Live each day as if it is your last…………………….6
Seismic shifts in life……………………………………….8
Our journey in 2015-16………………………………...10
TTTM Mightier Pen - Article 1……………………….12
TTTM Mightier Pen - Article 2……………………….14
You will surely find us here……………………………16
Your Sincere Club Officers……………………………..16
Inside this issue…..
Editor’s Note:
It was a wonderful time spent along with fellow toastmasters to get
their ideas, articles and pictures for this first edition for 2015-16. I
thank everyone for their efforts, contribution and support during this
journey. Timbre Talkers Toastmasters Club presents “First Edition” of
TIMBRE TUNES for 2015-16.
“THIS IS IT!”
TM Tanujh Singh
VP Public Relations
3
Dear friends,
It is my pleasure serving as President of the Timbre Talkers Toastmaster
Club for the term 2015-16. The club is celebrating its 5th anniversary on
this 20th October. The persistent achievements of the club have been
noted and recognized on all performance matrices which bear no
repetition. I take this occasion to express the gratitude of the club to all its
leaders (past or present) – DTM Salu John, DTM Praveen Madhavan, TM
Nanda, TM Murali, TM Baburaj, TM Rajshekhar, DTM Anil Lobo, TM
Vishwanathan, TM Xavier, DTM Vinod Raman, TM Alifiya and TM Anand
Pillai. The contributions of each one of them have been unique with one
common denomination of “selfless commitment” and to my mind this has
taken the club where it stands now.
I have no intimate personal knowledge of other toastmaster clubs but my
half gray hair bear witness to my past and continuing association with
multitudes of groupings – social, professional and organizational. My
experience with Timbre Talkers has been unique in many ways which I
enumerate as commitment without apparent reward, encouragement to
everyone to perform, selflessness, constant churning of leadership and
excellent teamwork under a loose hierarchy. All of these qualities in any
organizational set-up are performance enhancers. I am fortunate to work
with the current leadership team which is dyed-in-the-wool in the similar
attributes which the past leadership demonstrated. We assure the
toastmasters fraternity that we will keep marching.
I have a word for the potential toastmasters. Come and experience
yourself. You have nothing to lose except self-imposed cap on your
potential. Your talent will bloom in an environment which is
collaboratively competitive. Believe me you will not regret joining a
toastmasters club. Neither I have regretted nor have I met a person who
has expressed any regret.
(Aftab Alam)
20 October 2015
“My experience with
Timbre Talkers has been
unique in many ways
which I enumerate as
commitment without
appa r e n t r ewa rd ,
e n c o u r a g em e n t t o
everyone to perform,
selflessness, constant
churning of leadership
and excellent teamwork
u n d e r a l o o s e
hierarchy”.
PRESIDENT’S NOTE…..
4
“I have really enjoyed my last one and half
years spent with Toastmasters. It has helped
in unleashing my hidden potential at
leadership front and improving public
speaking skills. It was one of the best decision
I made in life to join Toastmasters club.”
NANCY VIJO , VP EDUCATION
TANUJH SINGH, VP PUBLIC RELATIONS
“Year 2015 16 has been a quite fruitful and
challenging one with a new set of hands in
the Ex-com with a twist of uniqueness and
focus on quality. Looking forward to exceed
TTTM'S good will.”
“It is a great opportunity for me to be a part
of such a dynamic Ex-com of such a
prestigious club. I am eagerly looking
forward for the day when Timbre Talkers
will produce a world champion. I wish all
the success to the club on this 5th
anniversary.”
Our Ex –Com has something to say…..
ANAND PILLAI, VP MEMBERSHIP
5
Our Ex –Com has something to say…..
NANDINI NARENDRAN , SECRETARY
“Being a new member to the Toastmasters’
community, I consider it an honour to have
received the post of ‘Secretary’. The systematic
and timely functions that me and other Ex-com
members have to fulfill has instilled a sense of
responsibility in me. I also find immense joy in
completing the duties entrusted to me. Ex-com
2015-16 is different!”
"Before joining the Club, I used to think that
public speaking skills are gifted and cannot be
groomed. How incorrect I was! It has been a year
on this journey of Timbre Talkers Toastmasters
to improve my public speaking skills. Being part
of excellent executive committees, my journey as
the treasurer of the Club since last four months
has been smooth.”
SAGAR DAMANI , TREASURER
PRITHA BANERJEE , SERGEANT AT ARMS
“I consider fortunate enough of being given the
responsibility as ‘Sergeant At Arms’ for 2015-16.
It’s been close to one year as a Toastmaster and I
am enjoying every bit of it. I wish huge success to
TTTM club in future.”
6
Live each day as if it is your last
The purpose of being given a
Life is not fully understood till
one matures, has all perspec-
tives in mind cleared and under-
stood and is able to give his own
sane judgement about what is
right or wrong. We are all born
for a reason and have to go back
from where we came else death would never come to
anyone.
My eyes opened up when I heard a testimonial given by
a Cancer-surviving fighter who is just 27 and a mother
to a 4 year old. Diagnosed a year ago it initiated with a
pain in the thigh and leg which many of us can have and
we shrug it off. After repeated tests and proper diagno-
sis through MRI, it was identified as Ewan's Sarcoma,
something which happens to 2 in a million.
I'm sure the first thing that crossed her mind was "Why
me?" But then, I would have thought it to be "
Wow ! I'm one of the two lucky ones in a million !!! ...
And then when the reality sinks in, I would be dis-
traught, dismal, depressed and all the possible" Nega-
tive D's". No but this lady didn't. She asks : " So now
what is the next step?". She wants to fight this battle
against all odds. She wants to tell her husband, her ba-
by , her family how much she loves them every day, she
wants to do all the whacky things she never did before,
...she wants to live each second of every minute of every
hour of every day.
Of course treatments are on, painful and expensive, but
she will do them to save the rest of her cells from acting
funny too and grow abnormally, she will put on a brave
smile, blog sites, research her illness and teach others
who are suffering a similar fate to fight back. She loves
to write, so she writes her feelings, pouring her heart
out, she encourages others to feel beautiful as they are
women too and have a right to live, nevertheless a short
time, but to start off where they are ending it without
hope. She gives them hope. No, she gives us all Hope !!!
Isaac Asimov quotes : Life is pleasant, Death is peaceful ;
it is the transition that's troublesome. I believe hope,
thanks and a prayer is all you need to live on each day .
It has been my motto to live each day as if it is your last,
as no one is given a second chance. A moment lost is lost
forever. Capture these moments by clicking photo-
graphs for the moment is lost but you have it in
memory and print. Forever again is a relative term and
sometimes you can hold onto those moments, make
memories and live with them. So cherish what you have
today and love those who love you unconditionally so
that regrets are not a part of your life. Transition we
have not seen, but be positive about it too and it might
just be a dream.
If you feel like splurging on something you desired for
long, go for it, for tomorrow you might not have a
chance. We are taught to save for a rainy day, but who
has seen tomorrow ? An only son ( a cousin of mine)
whose parents saved so much so that now they have
lands in their names, houses and flats to live in, bank
balance is perfectly untouched and growing with inter-
est ( pun intended), happiness is galore and him just
when 34, after having celebrated his only son's ( my
nephew) birthday meets with an accident after a
month and does not see another day. His wife and child
don't want to touch any of those savings or properties
which were for him....as the main protagonist in their
life is no more and happiness comes knocking at their
door giving them a second chance to live again in the
form of that child growing , smiling, behaving like his
dad, but who is fatherless and never knew what a dad
could be like !!!
TM Rohaina Tanveer
“I believe hope, thanks and a prayer is
all you need to live on each day . It has
been my motto to live each day as if it is
your last, as no one is given a second
chance. A moment lost is lost forever.“
LIVE EACH DAY AS IF IT IS YOUR LAST
7
Create an aura of positivity around you; if you glow
with happiness, all around you do. Act like you want to,
within limits of course, hurt no one with harsh words,
feel the beauty around you, fall in love if you have to,
dance to your favorite music , sing your heart out, lis-
ten to people who need to talk to you, go on that
dreamed holiday destination, sit on the beach with
your favorite music and book, surf the seas, take that
paraglide to see the world from above , or rather fly
kites to see how high yours goes, appreciate the life
given to you, Don't take anyone for granted, and grow
each day in mind, heart and life. Each moment you
should Thank Him and feel the bliss of living again.
Don’t worry about tomorrow for Tomorrow will come.
It's not that I'm afraid to die,
I just don't want to be there when it happens.
LIVE EACH DAY AS IF IT IS YOUR LAST (continued…..)
8
SEISMIC SHIFTS IN LIFE
How many have
experienced an
earthquake or a seismic
shift?
So does anyone know
what does a cow
produce in an
earthquake? –
MILKSHAKE.
What did the ground say to the earth?- you crack me
up.
On January 26th 2001- GUJARAT a state in India was
affected by this natural calamity- EARTHQUAKE.
A magnitude of 7.7 recorded on the Richter scale, one
of the worst earthquake mankind had ever seen.
Parts of India and Pakistan were affected . 3 major
towns of Gujarat- Bhuj, Anjaar and Bachchav with
many villages were affected. The effects of the
earthquake were so severe in Bachchav that within
seconds the entire town was in ruins. Not a single
house stood erect.
As a part of my Profession I was privileged enough to
go on the rehabilitation team to render my service to
the needy people there. Since Bhuj was easily
accessible in terms of transport and other facilities
the rehab department by the government was set up
there.
I got to treat many patients, and every patient had a
different story to tell. Some emerged as heroes
themselves and other to cope up with the destruction
while others had surrendered themselves to the
situation what life had out them into.
The most unique amongst them was this young
teenager kid- SAMEER. This boy always had a smile
on his face and a positive vibe around him.
On the day of the earthquake except his mother and
him all his family had traveled to the nearest big city
to celebrate India’s national holiday as 26th January
was India’s republic day. At 8:46 am in the morning
the heavy tremors of the earthquake woke him up,
before he could understand anything he was buried
alive under the ruins of his house. Unfortunately he
lost his mother but he fought his way out alive
through the debris. Though he was out but his right
leg was caught in the ruins. He tried frantically,
patiently to free himself but he just could not . There
was so much of physical destruction around that no
physical help could reach him.
It took a few hours till a recuse team arrived in a
helicopter to free him. But that too was not
successful.
After withstanding 3 days and 3 nights of severe cold
and being fed by a few morsel of food sent by the
rescue team via the helicopter this boy did not give
up the zest and zeal for living. When all ways and
means to set himself free were exhausted the only
choice offered to him was to CUT HIS OWN LEG
WITH A SAW. Sameer accepted this last solution to
live. There after he was lifted up by the helicopter
and taken to the near medical centre.
When I treated him he always showed a willingness
to do all the exercises as his goal was to play and run
like before. Once I asked him “did he ever regret his
decision ? or how difficult was it for you to take this
decision?”
He looked in my eyes and said – “I wanted to live, if I
had not taken this chance I would have not been able
to live my dream. I was not ready to die a painful
slow death”
Life too has offered us a paramount situation where
we had or have to make a tough call. We too have
been put through devastating, difficult and
disoriented situations.
Is finally up to us how we come through it- Victorious
like Sameer or surrender by saying “I quit” .
TM Alifiya Lakdawala
SEISMIC SHIFTS IN LIFE
9
Sameer decided to seize the opportunity what life of-
fered him. If not he would have been forgotten, unre-
called and gone. But he decided to emerge as a gusty,
grandiose and a gallant human.
Sameer’s courage and motivation helps me too move on
in my life- no matter what obstacle life offers me. I urge
you all to remember this great heroic child and move on
persistently toward your goals no matter what hurdles
come.
Finally concluding by saying- a quote by APJ Abdul
Kalam- “ Waves are inspiring not because they rise and
fall; but because each time they fall they never fail to rise
again.
Life too has offered us a paramount
situation where we had or have to make
a tough call. We too have been put
through devastating, difficult and
disoriented situations.
SEISMIC SHIFTS IN LIFE (continued…..)
10
OUR JOURNEY IN 2015-16
Meeting # 120 Meeting # 119
Meeting # 123 Meeting # 122
Meeting # 121
11
OUR JOURNEY IN 2015-16 (continued…..)
Meeting # 125
Meeting # 124
12
TTTM MIGHTIER PEN CONTEST—ARTICLE 1
ABSTRACT IDEAS
Throughout the History
of mankind, there were
many great people who
have contributed a lot-
whether it is in Politics,
Science, Literature, Arts
and Sports. They changed
the course of human
existence in many ways.
What would have been the fate of our world without
some of these great people? This question is highly
hypothetical but it will be interesting to spare some
thoughts in this regard.
We will talk about two such great people in history.
Mahatma Gandhi- Indians call him Father of nation. For
the world, he is the symbol of non-violence and
peaceful protest.
He was in the forefront of the Indian independence
movement and many believe he got freedom for India.
Without Gandhi, India would have ever achieved
Freedom from British?!
The answer is India would have still achieved
Independence though bit before or after 1947, but many
events which followed would not have happened:
Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela could not have
accomplished what they did. Both of them have credited
Gandhi as a source of inspiration in their struggles to
achieve equal rights for their people.
Gandhi’s greatest achievement was in motivating and
mobilizing the masses of India across the states,
regardless of their differences in language, religion,
caste, creed and sex, to come together and fight for the
cause of freedom in a peaceful manner. Human history
has not seen such mass movement before.
Remember, Gandhi managed to achieve all this when
electronic media was practically non-existent; most of
the Indians were illiterate, most of the Indians were
living in villages where even Radio and Newspapers
were seen as luxuries. How did he manage to do this? It
was through his technique of participatory management
that he appealed to one and all to see it as their
campaign rather than his. Simplicity, sincerity and
clarity of thoughts were the hallmark of his
communication. His philosophy of non-violence and
peaceful protest make Gandhi relevant even today.
Albert Einstein Said of Mahatma Gandhi after his death:
“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a
person in flesh and blood ever walked upon this earth”.
That summarizes his greatness.
Now we will see another great person in history.
Time magazine named him as The Person of the 20th
Century.
He touches our everyday life, even without us realizing
it. The GPS system in our cars guides us safely through
the traffic. Our purchases in the supermarket are
registered by a scanner cash register. And we take our
holiday snaps using our new Digital camera. The
inventions of these items are based on theories of one
man-Albert Einstein.
One of Einstein's theories states that time is not as
constant as the light is; the time goes slower as one goes
faster, even though the one does not feel anything. In
addition, Albert Einstein accomplished world’s most
famous equation, E=MC2. It explains the links between
the energy and mass. He showed that the mass of atoms
contains enormous quantities of energy. It is widely
believed that this equation was the basis for developing
nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
He also came up with the special theory of the relativity,
stating that light is constant, and that it is impossible to
go faster than the speed of light. Many of present-day
inventions have Einstein’s influence.
Without Einstein's achievements, it would be hard to
believe that the world would be the same place as it is
right now.
After Hitler’s rise to power, Life for Jews in Germany
became extremely difficult. Being a Jew, Einstein moved
to the United States.
TM George Joseph
13
TTTM MIGHTIER PEN CONTEST—ARTICLE 1 (continued…..)
Einstein, after the settlement, sent a letter to then US
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to suggest
that the United States must develop an atomic bomb
before Germany did. The letter later contributed to
Roosevelt’s decision to fund what became the
Manhattan Project which developed Nuclear Bomb.
The Second World War came to end with the Nuclear
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
Just Imagine Hitler with a Nuclear Bomb! History
would have been something different today.
After World War II, Einstein was offered the
Presidency of the State of Israel; but he declined the
offer. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921, and
is known as the most influential scientist of the 20th
century.
There are many great people who influenced and
changed the world. The world you and me are living
today is the result of contributions of many great
people in many ways. Let their stories inspire us to
make little difference in our own way to improve this
world.
14
TTTM MIGHTIER PEN CONTEST—ARTICLE 2
THEISM, ATHEISM & WHY I MAY
BE AGNOSTIC Science has always tried
explaining how the universe
came into being through
various theories, especially
the “Big bang theory”,
“Pulsating theory” and
“Steady state theory”. If one
examines closely, the starting
point of all of them is a
‘possibility’. The “Big bang theory”, for example,
explains that the universe began as very hot, small,
and dense, with no stars, atoms, form, or structure
(called a "singularity"). Then about 14 billion years
ago, space expanded very quickly (thus the name "Big
Bang"), resulting in the formation of atoms, which
eventually led to the creation of stars and galaxies. But
how it happened, we don’t know. According to the
“Pulsating theory”, the universe is supposed to be
expanding and contracting alternately i.e. pulsating. At
present, the universe is expanding. It is possible that at a
certain time, the expansion of the universe may be
stopped by the gravitational pull and it may contract
again. After it has been contracted to a certain size,
explosion again occurs and the universe will start
expanding. The alternate expansion and contraction of
the universe gives rise to a pulsating universe. The
“Steady state theory”, on the other hand, is a now-
obsolete theory and therefore, does not have to be
detailed here. Basically, to sum it all up, all Scientific
theories that ‘explain’ how the universe came into being
are based on ‘hypotheses’ and could not be explained
without them as a starting point. Having said this, I
personally feel “Atheists” have failed explaining this
using Science.
Part of the reason why I believe atheists have their
belief is the inherent notion that ‘God’ is an entity that is
present to fulfill every wish of man the moment he
wishes for them. But in reality, we see that this entity
does not work that way! So a group of the population
chooses to dismiss this idea as ‘irrational’, ‘ridiculous’ or
‘incomprehensible’.
“Religion” is another term that is relevant in this
context. The world has seen crimes take place in the
Middle East and other Asian countries in the name of
‘Religion’. Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion.
The people who cause religious wars and crises in the
Middle east are religious fanatics who misunderstand/
misuse their holy books by ‘reading between the lines’
in order to allow themselves the ‘permission’ to fulfill
their individual interests. And guess who finally takes
the blame for such actions of man; poor ‘God’! Well, by
just the indifferent ‘atheists’.
The communal riots that took place in Gujarat, India in
the 1900s and then in 2002 is also another example of
the tensions ensuing among people of different religions
and fights to gain control over landmarks to establish
their own religion as ‘supreme’ over the other.
Hinduism, one of the most ancient religions of the
world, is in fact considered to be a ‘way of life’ and not a
‘religion’ in the first place! So is Islam. If we chose to
look at these two ‘religions’ as ‘ways of life’ instead, a
lot of misunderstandings/misconceptions will already
be cleared for good.
Revered books of either religions like the “Bhagavad
Gita”, “Mahabharata” or the “Holy Quran” all teach the
same things. They explain how an individual can live an
‘ideal’ life by fulfilling his responsibilities in the different
roles he plays as a member of his family, society and
country.
A “theist” is a person who believes in ‘God’ as the
creator and ruler of the universe. Every ‘theist’ follows a
certain ‘religion’. What is a ‘religion’? A dictionary
defines it as “the belief in and reverence of supernatural
power/powers, regarded as creating and governing the
universe and a particular variety of such belief, esp.
when organized into a system of doctrine and practice.”
Where there is a group of people who must be brought
under one roof, it will have a set of rules that everyone
who is part of the group is expected to follow. Thus, in
simple words, we can say that a religion is a ‘following’
of ‘theists’.
“Theism”, however is not to be confused with
“Superstition” which is an irrational belief that has ‘God’
to do absolutely nothing with it.
TM Nandhini Narendran
15
TTTM MIGHTIER PEN CONTEST—ARTICLE 2 (continue…..)
If ‘atheism’ is the result of rational thinking of man,
‘superstition’ is the result of his irrational thinking.
‘Atheism’ is based on fearlessness because if you are
affiliated to no beliefs, you are also free from the conse-
quences of those beliefs and that is supposedly, a mark
of ‘maturity’ or ‘intelligence’. ‘Superstition’, in my opin-
ion, is the exact opposite of ‘atheism’. It is nothing but
extreme fear, sometimes more on a psychological level
that deludes one into thinking ‘if you don’t do a certain
thing, you will be punished by God. If you don’t give
Him the respect He deserves, He will cause your death,
misery or deterioration of health.’
God is seen as someone that is out to
get you, when in fact, this is not what
‘God’ denotes. This faulted thinking is
because of the notion that ‘God’ is a
supreme power, the strongest of all in
the universe that plays man like a pup-
pet in one sense. “Religion” and
“Theism” is certainly to blame for this
representation of Him. Therefore, I am
not a complete ‘theist’. I do believe in
the existence of ‘God’, but not in the conventional rep-
resentation. So the other part of me supports
“Agnosticism” which says that the truth validity of cer-
tain beliefs such as whether or not there is a ‘God’ can-
not be explained or known. If the theist argument that
‘God’ is a supernatural being who created the universe
and all living and non-living beings is true, then He has,
by all means, the right and ability to destroy everything
in the blink of an eye because that is what ‘supernatural
beings’ do! If that were the case, the world would al-
ready have ended millions of years ago. And if ‘God’
knew every one of His creations were not going to obey
Him, He may not even have caused the ‘Big bang’ or any
similar event that caused the existence of the universe
as we know it. Why, only to destroy it later? Or at least,
there would not have been a single ‘atheist’ living to-
day! So we end up with the only rational point that
‘God’ is not a ‘superhuman being’ and as far as the crea-
tion of the universe is concerned, how it all started can-
not be known.
Every living creature is actually part of a cycle of births
and rebirths. The activities one does in a particular life-
time can cause ‘good vibes’ or ‘bad vibes’. Thus, the in-
dividual influences the future of that individual. Good
intent and good deed contributes to good ‘karma’ and
future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed con-
tribute to bad ‘karma’ and future suffering. ‘Karma’ in
the present affects one's future in the current life, as
well as the nature and quality of future lives. So expect
good only if you do good. A few verses
from the ‘Mahabharata’ explain this
clearly; “Happiness comes due to good
actions, suffering results from evil ac-
tions, by actions, all things are obtained,
by inaction, nothing whatsoever is en-
joyed. If one's action bore no fruit, then
everything would be of no avail, if the
world worked from fate alone, it would
be neutralized.” Our ‘fates’ are to blame
for all the miseries we face in our lives
because of karmic deeds in past lives.
“Atheists” don’t believe in this either as they are people
with no beliefs except that there isn’t any belief!
Now finally, the big question is “how do I define ‘God’?”
It is a ‘consciousness’ that is within every individual
and the power of the word “I am” as explained in the
Hindu Vedic texts. In fact, the ‘Vedas’ themselves are
considered to be apaurus eya, which means "not of a
man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless". Man
could do wonders with his mind if he tapped into the
potential of what is inside him. There is infinite power
within us that can be awakened by reaching closer to
‘God’. ‘God’ is also ‘love’ because most of us experience
immense joy when we help the homeless, the sick or
the dying. Deep in our hearts, we all know it to be true
because no one is born an ‘atheist’. And everyone’s an
‘atheist’ till the airplane starts falling!
16
YOU WILL SURELY FIND US HERE…..
Your Sincere Club Officers………………...Your Sincere Club Officers………………...Your Sincere Club Officers………………...
1st & 3rd
Tuesday of
every month
7:15 pm to
9:15 pm
www.timbretalkers.toastmasters.org
TIMBRE TALKERS TOASTMASTERS CLUB
AND OUR ROADMAP IS………………………….
TIMBRE TALKERS TOASTMASTERS CLUB, CLUB # 1540871, AREA 19, DIVISION O, DISTRICT 20