Up up and awayyyyyyy…

It is like a typical classic old Indian school. I was seated in the 4th bench towards right side from the black board. It was my turn. I was waiting for my name to be called by the Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD) Rajesh Kannan. My breathing went high and was more nervous but was confident. With lots of doubts about me that I might forget the sentences in between my speech. With all these emotions I stepped towards Mr Kannan. “Toastmaster Yashaswi, Up Up and Away; Up up and away, Toastmaster Yashaswi” he said with a firm handshake.

I had practiced this speech with facial expressions and voice modulations. But I began with a nervous and firm voice.

“Screaming like the superman, I jumped from the sewing table. My sister was following me but I didn’t hear the same scream from her. When I turned back, I saw that her skirt had got stuck to the machine and she landed right on her face. She was screaming and her face was full of blood. My parents rushed her to the nearest clinic. It took her 1 month for complete recovery. Jayakumar and Manasa wanted to see their children be successful in life, so they named them as Yashaswi and Vijetha.

Good evening, Toastmasters & guests. I am Yashaswi, standing in front of you as a new member of your club, trying to break the ice. I would rather consider this as breaking an ICEBERG!

Serving for 36 years as chargeman in KSRTC, my dad is enjoying his retirement life. My mom, a BA graduate from Udupi is taking care of her grandchildren while being a role model for her children since 36 years. That superman incident made me stop doing all kinds of dangerous activities in childhood.

A long pause! I got stuck. Unable to remember where did I stop and what comes next. It was my story but my mind was more on the script. I took almost 10 seconds to remember the next word. I continued…

I always used to see the pros and cons of any activity and analyse the risks before doing it. I loved to stay in my comfort zone but was ebullient to take any kind of risk if only I am involved in it. So that the consequences from that risk should not affect anyone else.

During childhood, my sister and I spent most of our time with colour pencils & sketch pens due to which we turned out to be decent artists. I was so passionate about drawing that whenever I held a pencil, time would freeze.

Learning and speaking English was very easy until I completed 10th standard. During my diploma, my classmates always preferred to speak in Kannada. Those 3 years, “Eno maga full minching ivathu…” gave me more comfort than “Hey bro, whatsup?”.

In 2010, I married a beautiful and gorgeous Engineer from Mangalore, Divya. She became my soulmate for the rest of my life. I did BSc in Visual communication and MBA in correspondence. God blessed us with a beautiful lovely girl, Diya. She is as innovative as her father! Followed by another precious gift from the Almighty, a strong baby boy, Aditya. He is as funny as his father!

Since I was an artist by passion, I turned it into my profession. I started earning at a young age of 19. My English speaking skills were inadequate. My success was from all other aspects except communication. At this point, I accepted that everyone will have a flaw and my flaw is communication in English. I then decided not to bother about it much so that I can progress by concentrating on all the other areas. Every appraisal feedback in the past 16 years was only to improve my communication. Now, I am in an early stage start-up, surrounded by IIT/IIM graduates. They are all good in their areas of work and they know how to speak, whereas I am weak in communication.

Now should I worry and do something about it? My mind said “Yes, you fool. You should have worried about it during the initial stages of your career itself. Better late than never. Do it now.”

If…

WHAT THE HECK! Again I got stuck, but not with right words. I know what should I say but unable to pick the right word. With mixed words I continued…

If I want to reach the peak of my career then communication has to be mastered. But I didn’t know where to start. Then my sister, Dr. Vijetha who is an Radiation Oncologist, came to my rescue. She is the same sister who tried to be Supergirl and ripped her lips in childhood. She is a toastmaster in Sunshine Toastmasters club in RT Nagar and she advised me to join a Toastmasters club nearby.

Now that I’m here, I will make the utmost use of it. I will always keep butter and jam to make the best and tastiest toast you have ever tasted. Next 25 years of my life will be decided more on my communication and I will become as Yashaswi as possible. Like the superman, I wish to fly, “Up up and awayyy!”.

Thank you!

I got the standing ovation from all the people, who were in classroom. It is a tradition that every speaker when he attempts to break the ice with his 1st speech, they would get a standing ovation from everyone.

I didn’t win the best speaker of the day though. But, I felt happy that after 35 years I gave my best speech till date.

Thanks to Toastmaster Keerthan Bhat for editing the language and supporting in preparing my speech.

More to come. Stay with me!

by Yashaswi J