A ‘Prestige’ous Story

It’s a known thing in the town that ‘Smedleys’ and ‘Fun’ are synonyms. Living upto it’s fame, Smedleys thought of doing something different on a meeting, we conducted meeting at one of it’s member’s residence!
Toastmaster Amit, and his better-half, soon-to-be toastmaster Priya, graciously came forward to play hosts. No. 437, Prestige Palms, Whitefield is the lovely nest of this newly-married couple; but on 7th of October, this home-sweet-home witnessed a different day. A day filled with laughter, emotions, and of-course… lots of talking.
Why this change of venue? You might wonder. Though Smedz don’t need much reason when it comes to celebration, we had good reason to do break the norms on that Sunday. One of our members, Amanpreet, was relocating to Chandigarh to find marital bliss. So we thought of dedicating the day to this Punjabi kudi; making it as colorful, vibrant, and fun-filled as Aman is.
Agreed. Whitefield isn’t a good place to hold meeting when you think of the traveling involved. But it’s not so when smedz come together (literally)! The whole gang was transported to Prestige Palms easily, the mantra was pooling. Members who own cars and bikes generously agreed to offer rides to others. Thus we reached Prestige Palms, though a bit late. When we all finally got there, it was as if we got together for a party. While Smedz got busy exchanging pleasantries, Sergeant-at-arms Shankar Dev had to remind them that they were there for a toastmasters meeting! He set the right tone for the meeting with his opening address, and called it the ‘Prestige Palms edition’ of Smedleys meetings.

When President Francis Gama got up to speak, he had a customized gavel in his hand! After his short-but-great address, and the round-robin where all the members get to speak on the theme, the meeting was handed over to the MC for the day, Malora Fernandes.

When Malora starts speaking, Smedz not only listen, they are all ears, as if they are hypnotized. It’s cliché to say that she has a way with words. As she unfolded the meeting, it only got more and more interesting. We had four speakers that day. Of them, Tasneem Nakhoda went on with a little serious note, in her project 6 speech. Latha did ample justice to her icebreaker speech titled ‘I, Me, and Myself’. Rohit took us on a journey as he narrated his experiences of a trekking expedition. Last but not the least; Hemant had his audience on splits when presented a tall-tale. He showed us that he is the master when it comes to humor. To add to the excitement, he had won an inter-club speech contest with the same tall-tale.
After these four speakers made their audience listen, listen, and listen more, it was time for them to speak as well. Husna, table-topic master for the day, had all the ingredients to make the session successful. Next in turn was the general evaluator for the day, Kalyani. She had able assistance in the form of individual evaluations by Francis, Ramya, Pramod, and CK. Then, it was time to talk about, and bid farewell to Aman. It was quite an emotional affair. Love and affection Aman has got in the club was clearly showing. Hosts Amit and Priya handed over a gift to Aman on behalf of the club. We had Nitasha, one of our founder members, with us in the meeting. We enjoyed her presence; it made the occasion all the more special.

We also had Ramya’s husband Pratap as a special guest. Funnily, Priya was being addressed as a ‘guest’ in her own residence because she is not a toastmaster yet.

Lunch followed the meeting, and lots of informal talking too. After good lunch, we called it a day and dispersed. Few lucky members stayed for a little longer than others; settled themselves in the bean-bags, lazed, and relaxed. They were treated with nice-hot adhrak-chai from Priya.
Bonding and camaraderie are definitely buzz-words at smedleys; it was a memorable day for them, and a day well-spent.
-Shrilatha Puthi
[written on November 14, 2007]