Winners All The Way

We Smedz have always been active in the various Inter-Club Contests conducted by  Toastmasters International . Catch  a  few glimpses of these ' Amazing Moments ' !

Pramod Shankar , one of the founders  of Smedleys  was the winner of the Cook-up-a-speech contest held at Infosys , Bangalore .

Alex Jacob was the first runner-up  of the International Prepared speech contest at the Area level hosted by Area B5 , District 82 .

Vinutha N was the first runner-up of the Impromptu Contest conducted by Division B , Toastmasters International .

Nivedita Kamath stood first in the Area level Evaluation contest hosted by Area B5 , Division B

 Vinutha N , Winner Impromptu Speaking contest conducted by Toastmasters International.

Way to go , Smedz !

USD Challenge pics uploaded !

The inaugural edition of the USD Challenge Table Topics Contest to commemorate the memory of our dear U S Dev was conducted in style at Hotel AJ International.

All the pics have been uploaded at the Smedz album

www

And if you thought 'world wide web', you are wrong!

We at Smedleys conducted a speech contest for all the lady smedz on the occasion of international women's day. The topic for speech was "What women want". While all the ladies went the wordy way to express what women really want, Malora Fernandes went the poetic way. She had penned down this nice poem.

* * * *
What women want

Women are shallow
Women are vain
Women, men feel
Are often a pain.

Now if that’s true
What’re you to do?
I must ask then
What’s a woman to you?

A mother, a wife;
Or a sister beside
Here are some women
Men walk alongside.

We say we are equal,
We say we are strong
Truth of the matter is;
We are rarely wrong!

What do we want?
You ask us today,
Will you ask again tomorrow?
What happened to yesterday?

Are you ready to listen?
That list runs long
No expense necessary
But you must be strong.

We want love & respect
Not be spoken down to
Some understanding & compassion
For the work that we do.

We play many roles
We try not to hurt,
We pretend to be strong
Whenever you are curt.

We say we are equal
We say we are strong
Truth of the matter is
We are sometimes wrong.

We want to be cherished
Thought of as wise
A compliment from you
Will be really nice.

Treat us sweet
Treat us kind
Treat us like Queens
We don’t mind!

Be nice to a lady
For how lovely she is
Her smile & her warmth
Is one you will miss.

Buy her some flowers
A trinket or two
A bar of chocolate
And she’s closer to you.

A call in the day
‘Hi! How do you do?’
A hug in the night
To say ‘I love you’

Hold our hand
Please make us laugh
Listen to our woes
They will divide by half

Let me end my rambling
Let me stop this jaunt
I have answered the question
Of what women want!

- Malora Fernandes

ET: The Extra Terrestrial

I may not be the most famous person on earth but certainly the most famous on Mars. Don't believe me?? Well.. then wait till the NASA discovers some life there. Anyway as I stand here today, I promise that you are part of history, listening to the most famous Martian.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine died. I am very happy that he did. As kids we had decided that we will share our achievements in life. He betrayed… and took the throne of Iraq himself. His name was Saddam Hussain. Now I know what you are wondering about… our age difference... but I have an answer for this. Big people grow up faster!

I was born in a place not considered very different from Iraq by Raj Thackarey, but better known as Champaran where Gandhiji started his first satyaagraha. Being a Bihari, I was a gifted hard worker but used this talent of mine very economically throughout my life as my father is a banker. I had to be a good cook as my mother is a housewife and one of world's best cooks. I am a born role-model for my two younger sisters and a brother, Anamika, Abhilasha and Amod; though I am the only one who thinks so. As a kid, I displayed my ability for being a biggest gangster of my area by learning most abusive language in shortest possible time. As a result, I was thrown into a boarding school named Vikas Vidyalaya at Ranchi.

They said boarding school is heaven, and good for my future. It was a strictly-vegetarian, all-boys residential school and the only thing responsible for me not having a girlfriend till date. Eventually it turned out to be heaven. It was here that I was introduced to cricket, poetry, public speaking, table tennis, hockey, acting, direction, script writing, tabla, singing, etc. It was my decision to take up all of them at once, and so I ended up being 'jack of all, and master of none'. It did not mean that i did everything in my school days, there was one thing I did not do – studying. God knows how I passed my 12th or maybe the guy who was sitting next to me in the exam hall would know better.

Then, my engineering life at Cochin University of Science And Technology was a different story altogether. Due to my 'economical' hard work in my schooling, I was the last guy to be admitted in my class. Then I decided to try studying. Later, my friends used to say that I had the keys of the university library and the job to open and close it everyday. I also had my share of fun. Once I did a lead role in a play, and acted so well that people could not even realize that I had forgotten my dialogs, until i said 'shit!'.. I got great friends there; one of them even forgot his father's name once... now you can make out how crazy me and my friends were!!! Finally i completed my engineering somehow and got a decent job at Cisco, and came to Bangalore.

I always wondered how Julius Caesar saw only things he could conquer. I tried seeing science in this way , and thought of being a scientist, but turned out to be a poet. I tried to see myself as Sachin Tendulkar, but ended up being 12th man. Now, if you think that I was the team owner 12th man as ShahRukh khan is for his IPL team, you are wrong. I was the 12th player of the team.

This is the story of my happily unmarried tiny little life. One of my dearest wishes was to take part in world war and have a shot at Hitler. I am confident I will have my chance when I get married. I wish to travel the world at a time when every single person would recognize me. I want to live life in such a way that if I were to be born again, I would like to be born as myself. I want to be one of the immortalized mortals. I want to conquer planet earth in such a way that people here should get to know that people as good as me, are not breed of this earth; they are E.T., the extra terrestrials.

* * * *
This is the first speech (called Icebreaker) of Alok Shankar, one of our new members. With such cool attitude, I guess Alok makes an ideal smedlian!

Santosh.. Animated..

During his speech on 30th March, 2008.

Prescriptions for Living

Theme for meeting last Sunday was 'Prescriptions for living'. I was the MC for the day, I asked members to come up with their own prescriptions and write down those things in a sheet of paper. I asked them to make it very prescription-like, the way doctors write their prescriptions, and even prefix their names with the title Dr, and suffix with degrees as they please.

And... I was amazed by the response I got! All of them got creative, donned doctor's hat, and came up with such good prescriptions for living! I am sharing some of them here.

--------------------------
Dr. Priya Kansal, MD

Rx.

Eye tonic - cut lots of onion and see lots of hot boys
Sleeping pill - lots of kisses
Headache - listen to rock music and dance to it
Cough Syrup - shout loudly

Additionally, have large quantities of love & give more to others.

------------------------------------
Dr. Sandeep Ganapathy
FRCS, MD, ETC, ETC.

Rx.

Blood transfusion
B+
10 litres

----------------------------------------
Dr. Adnan Nakhoda

Rx.

Go dancing 1 - 1 -1 x 365 days
Water tonic 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 x 365 days

----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Rohit Raman

Rx.

Vitamin ' B yourself' tablets

--------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Pankaj Upadyay
[Doctorate in Funology & Specialist in making people happy]

Rx.

A big stretch with a big smile 1 -1-1
- before and after breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Heavy dose of Hugs every 2 hrs.

-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Monica Pereira

Rx.

Happy pill - 1 - 1 -1
Rest pill - 1 - 1 -1
Sleep pill - 3 pills a day
Enjoyment pill - many
Chill pill - as many as possible

-------------------------------------------
Dr. Bhavana Hiremath

Rx.

2 dosages of comic strips in the morning - Blondie, Dennis the Menace, etc.
Side effects: A smile on the face and it's worth it.
1 big dosage of work at office
Side effects: Laziness, dizziness, tired feeling - but try it out. In the log run, you'll be cured of lots of diseases.
A dosage of listening to music with a book in the had in the evening - this is like giving chocolates for eating bitter medicines the whole day

-------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Pramod Shankar, MD
Consultant Gastro-Enterologist

Rx.

Tab. Sunshine 500 mg 1 - 1 - 1
Cap. Laughter 1000 mg 1 - 0 - 1
Tab. Love 500 mg 1 - 1 - 2
Compassion syrup - one tablespoon daily

* * * *
It was real fun reading all these prescriptions.

-Shrilatha Puthi

'Clicked' Together

Do I even need to say anything about this shot?