Me and Toastmasters

Flashback June 2004
It would have been one of the days in the hot and humid month of June when a handful of people would’ve conceptualized the idea of Toastmasters at TCS Mumbai.
Most of us would have been in schools and colleges and not even aware of toastmasters international let alone what changes it is destined to have in our lives in the years to follow.


June 2015
Four years with TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club and it is an inseparable part of my life now.
It is indeed one of the paramount activities in the lives of everyone associated with it. I know many of you who don’t have friends outside toastmasters and who work for or attend events of toastmasters even on weekends: D What binds us together is not the lack of people from the other world but the common passion for improving and learning.
Speaking of 11 glorious years , there is a multitudinous array of people who helped the club be what it is today but let me mention a few people who embarked on this journey and stepped on this ship when all it needed was ; capable soldiers.
I might have not met you in person but Parthsarthi Suresh and Jayesh Madhapara need a special mention for being the pioneer driving members.
Mohammad Fadhel : the dashing President of the club , Adit Paul : the rockstar and first DTM from our club, Shabbir and Mangal : The flag bearers of TCS TM at TCS Nortel , Nikhil Kapadia : the person who brought the club at TCS Malad , Anurag Sinha : who brought the club back to life and who is the reason I and a lot of others joined and continued in TCSM TM , Sanil Shanbagh : the diligent toastmaster mastering the art of public speaking from the art of living, Sreejith Gopalan : the impeccable evaluator and my 1st evaluator , Saurabh sharma and Yasha Nanda : people who kept the sessions going effectively at Malad , Ankit Chaturvedi : the person whose impromptu speeches were better and entertaining than the prepared speeches of a lot of people . I hear lots of girls started attending club meetings because of him :D, Anushree Pandey : who brought life to speeches with her unmatched expressions , Rajiv Perumal : a multitasker and truly the master of all trades from being and ex-com ( for various roles at one point ) to arranging club meetings to participating in speech contests..………..he’s done it all,
Rohit and Rashmi : people who introduced TCS Powai to Toastmasters , Atrayee and Swathi : Enthusiastic toastmasters who came all the way from Seepz to attend the sessions. Atrayee continues to hold the Mumbai flag high at TCS Kolkata Tostmasters ,Surabhi Shrivastava : The assiduous toastmaster from our very own club who is now at TCS Pune and continues to do well in that club too Indrajit and Vanshika : people who took the Powai sessions to a whole new level . Indrajit in his tenure as the President set example for a lot of us to follow ranging from the idea of Club newsletter to chartering a club at TCS Pune , Mohit Chhabra : who worked as a catalyst and infused a new life in the Club in 2010, It was indeed TCS Maitree Toastmasters 2.0 , the bigger and better version , Chinmaya Dave : the young and restless Toastmaster who challenged the status quo a lot of times and expanded the horizon of the club beyond TCS members , Parakh Kukreja : the bundle of energy who stands by the Club and its members always , Surabhi Kinariwala and Pramod Mohandas : who have worked tirelessly each year by guiding the new members and ex-com ensuring that the club lives upto the name and laurels it has earned in the past
There is a huge list of others to mention but how much can I remember from 4015 days :D
Thank you TCS Maitree Toastmasters Club…….you are more than just a club ; you are a phenomenon which has touched and changes many lives.