Every day is a new day

I spent my childhood in the historic city of Cochin in Kerala. The Arabs, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British have used Cochin as a port for trading, and have left their imprint upon the city. A significant event in my own life also took place in Cochin.  It was compulsory for all students to learn Malayalam, unless one was studying in a Central School. Since my mother tongue is Marathi and not Malayalam, I would get butterflies in my stomach, every time the exams came near. I used to dread the Malayalam exam, as much as I dreaded a visit to the dentist! It was not the fault of my teacher, Miss Elizabeth. Miss Elizabeth was a dedicated teacher, and made sure each one of us understood our lessons. She would occasionally use the cane, but only as a last resort. It was not the fault of my parents. In fact, my mother learnt Malayalam, in order to help me and my younger sister learn the language. There was nothing wrong with my comprehension of the lessons. The stumbl...

Good evening Toastmasters and guests! The author, speaker and entrepreneur Jim Rohn once said: If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles. Each one of us is on the path from just getting our message across, to working miracles through effective communication.  With this in mind, I participated in Crescendo '25, the Annual Conference of District 121. It was a 3 - day conference, which began on Friday, May 16th. The Conference began in the best possible way! Our District had invited DTM Dhananjay Hettiarachi, who had won the World Championship of Public Speaking. Dhananjay conducted an educational session on Friday evening. DTM Dhananjay spoke with power and conviction. He described the hurdles that he faced, when he took the difficult path from being one among the many, to becoming the World Champion of Public Speaking. Further, Dhananjay spoke about what it takes to keep the spark alive, after entering the spotlight. My takeawa...

  Jeevan was a middle - class Bangalorean. He had spent his adolescence and young adulthood in Bangalore. That was the period in which the city saw a boom in real estate, and expanded rapidly in all directions. The city planners could hardly keep pace with the city's growth. For years, buses were the sole providers of public transport, and could hardly meet the needs of the residents. Most of the residents chose to buy a scooter, a motorbike or a car to be able to reach their workplace on time. Paradoxically, this resulted in a drastic increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, and made the daily commute slower than before. Unfortunately, Jeevan had not made himself accustomed to riding a scooter or a motorbike in the new scenario. He had had a bicycle during his college days, when the roads were relatively calm. After his studies, Jeevan got a job in a software company. The company provided buses to employees, and Jeevan was one of those who chose to make use of this. After ...

The India men's national field hockey team embodies the saying 'Success is not final, failure is not fatal'. The history of hockey can be traced to 16th century Scotland. There, players played a game that they called 'hokie', hitting a small ball around with small sticks. Some time in the late 18th century or the early 19th century, the British developed the first version of modern - day field hockey. During the British rule of India, the game made its way to our country. The first hockey club of India was formed in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1855. However, the Indian Hockey Federation was formed in 1925, a full seven decades later. In 1927, the Indian Hockey Federation applied for membership of the International Hockey Federation, and obtained membership. The Indian team enjoyed a dream run for over thirty years, from 1928 to 1959. The team participated in the Olympics from 1928 onwards. In the 1928 tournament, India beat Austria, Belgium and Switzerland on their wa...

 About a hundred years ago, there lived in the town of Wai, on the bank of the Krishna river (in Satara district of Maharashtra, then known as the Bombay Presidency) a jeweller named Shyam Saraf. He lived with his parents Narayan and Jayabai, his wife Surekha and their children Govind and Kavita. Narayan had inherited the jewellery shop from his father, and had run the business for over forty years. As a boy, Shyam spent much of his spare time at the family's shop. By observing his father at work, Shyam learnt the art of making ornaments, presenting finished ornaments to customers, valuing jewellery pieces that people brought for sale, and the other finer aspects of an enterprising jeweller. When Narayan felt Shyam had enough experience to run the business on his own, he retired from the business. For the last few years, Shyam had looked after the shop. He earned enough to cover the family's expenses, and also to save for a rainy day. In those days, it was a custom for every pe...

 If the rainy season starts when the saplings of planted crops are tiny, it may appear to be beneficial to the saplings.  Farmers do not agree. They want the plantlets to send roots deep down in search of moisture. If the plantlets find plenty of moisture near the surface, they tend to grow shallow roots. This means that the plants grow into fragile shrubs or trees, vulnerable to storms and rain. If saplings experience dry weather early in their life, they send roots deep into the soil. As a result, they can withstand strong winds when they are grown. Dr. Phil McGraw, host of the talk show ‘Dr. Phil’, once said, "Everybody at some point is going to have adversity. I think if we don't learn from that, then it was just a penalty. But if you use it, then it becomes tuition."  At meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, participants recite the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the courage to change what I can, the strength to accept what I can't, and the wisdom to know the dif...