Thursday, October 18, 2012

Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 1 - "My Very Own Sky Fall"

Having chosen "The Entertaining Speaker" manual, my first project is called "The Entertaining Speech". The objective is to use vividly descriptive language and entertain the audience with a topic they would be interested in. 

Date: 15th November 2006

Place: A private airport near Dallas Fortworth

Time: 11 AM CDT

A 90 pound version of me alights from the car shivering in the 11 degree temperature with four other, equally anxious men. A big burly man, who must be in his late fifties, greets us at the entrance, looks at me expectantly and says, “You’re gonna jump?”, I nod and he is visibly elated. He says, “Well, you’re gonna jump with me then!”

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters. You guessed it right, I am talking about the day I did something purely for myself, for the experience, and for the satisfaction of having dared: the day I sky dived.   

The big burly man’s name was Larry, who had an experience of about 4000 tandem skydives. So we entered the hangar, and I, being the youngest and the only female there, was given the privilege of selecting my turn. I thought, well….before I lose my painstakingly accumulated courage and start freaking out, let’s get this over with. And I volunteered to go first. Larry said, “Great! Sign these papers please.” And there was this questionnaire in front of me..do you have any heart related disease, any lung disease, whether you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, blah blah. This was all routine..the real shocker was the undertaking – “I hereby declare that I am doing this activity of my own accord, with complete knowledge of the perils involved. If anything unseemly occurs, I take total responsibility.”

And then it dawned on me. There could be accidents, one can even die – how stupid of me to not consider this before? Suddenly I wanted to run away, but something, maybe pride, made me stay and sign.

What happened afterwards is a flurry of events, which are kind of blurred in my memory. I was asked to put on all the gear - jump suit, goggles, helmet, gloves and the works. I haven’t put on more layers of clothing till date. In a daze, I suited up, stepped into that airplane, with four people, the pilot, Larry (the tandem guy, saver of life and opener of the parachute), John (the photographer), and Keith (an experienced diver).  Larry said, “Ok girl. Off we go, now you cannot back out.” Sometime during the ride, my and Larry’s gear was tethered together for the tandem jump with me in front. I swear to God, I have absolutely no recollection of it. When i came to my senses at 11,000 feet, the door of the plane opened and a mad gush of wind came in that chilled me to the spine. Everyone said, Jump! But I could not…my ears heard their voice, even carried it to my brain, but my body was frozen at the spot. I wanted to scream, but my vocal chords did not obey. A tiny part of me also wanted to jump, but my hands wouldn't leave the door and my legs wouldn't move, and I held on to Larry for dear life. And all this while, my rational mind was shouting like crazy....why did you  do this to yourself??

You must have heard how adrenaline rush makes things move in slow motion, well, I experienced it. Finally, someone tore my hands away from the door and someone gave a push and I was airborne, falling under gravity. With the sky below my feet and the chilly wind in my lungs, I was a bird for 50-60 seconds. John and Keith had also jumped after me…while John clicked pictures, Keith, in a span of second tried to explain to me with gestures how this is so beautiful and how this moment will never come again, and how important it is to cherish and live it. So I let go, attempted to smile even when the high speed winds were as if tearing my skin away, and looked all around the amazing landscape. Then the parachute opened and brought us in a vertical position..Floating like a feather, I distinctly remember having said, “Larry! I am a bird!”. I imagine he must have smiled then.

These three minutes of my life are, needless to say, among my most treasured memories. The day I was pushed into realizing one of my crazy dreams. Isn’t that all we need sometimes, just a gentle push?

This speech took 7:34 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for choice of topic and language. However, more preparation could have been done, and expressions can be improved.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Book Review - Atlas Shrugged


“I swear by my life and the love of it, that I’ll never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

This oath, taken by the protagonist of the book ‘Atlas Shrugged’, beautifully sums up the theory of Objectivism founded by its author Ayn Rand and all that it stands for. The book is not just a work of fiction, but a representation of the virtues of rationality and self esteem that the movers of the world possess. Through its strong characters such as John Galt, Dagny Taggart, Francisco D’Anconia and others, and the interaction between them, the reader is slowly engrossed in not merely the story, but also its striking similarity with the world around us. The ultimate question is, what if the ones who carry the world on their shoulders shirk their responsibility and say that they can no longer be subordinated by the ones who don’t? What happens when all the innovative brilliant minds decide to go on a strike and build their own Atlantis somewhere else?

All this and more is covered in this tome of a book which does not shy away from asking difficult questions. The language is so simple, the characterization so vivid and the dialogues so deeply intense at times that the reader gets the feeling of being an actual part of the saga. While the only put down might be the 1000 odd number of pages the book goes on for, but that didn’t stop me from reading it twice!

This was overdue from long time ago....finally wrote it for a competition. And won.