Today on February 16, 2014. I gave my 7th project
in Toastmasters.
It took me a long time to deliver this speech (my last
speech was in…. hold your breadth march 2013)
Needless to say. This long gap did not do me any good. It
was almost an Icebreaker (my first speech of Toastmaster).
To top it all. One, I could not prepare it well due to hectic
office schedule. And Second, I went way over time (timing device malfunction
involved) and have to cut down my speech abrupty.
But more about that later. For now here’s my speech draft
below -
I was ecstatic. Riding on the wave of euphoria, I felt
like I was part of divine consciousness.
The Feeling was all powerful like I have attained Nirvana.
………And then….. All of a sudden I heard
“Ashiiiiiiiish, wake up now (Louder). You’re getting late for
school. Just look at the time.
In that golden age, I just can’t wait to grow up so that I
don’t have to wake up so early. I mean it’s so unfair that the grownups office
starts at 9 and our school starts at seven in the morning.
But alas, growing up comes with a wife ….. I mean price.
Even after all those year. Now I have to wake up early as my
daughter’s school starts at seven.
Even now, in my present situation had to do a comprehensive
study on Benefits of sleeping that I’m going to share with all of you.
Let’s define sleep first. It’s a physical state wherein a
person is very still and relaxed. Totally silent apart from some
incomprehensible sound uttered from time to time. Now this is very important.
Relaxed is the main keyword here because the other parameters; silent with
incomprehensible muttering are classic signs of normal behavior of any married
man.
In fact jury is still out on whether a married man is
relaxed even while sleeping too.
Since time immemorial. Sleep has very prominent place; even
in our ancient texts. In Hindu mythology. Out of the holy trinity, the great
god Vishnu, god of sustenance is depicted as reclining on Sheshnag in the holy
ocean known as Sheersagar. Sleeping has been a form of meditation in our
culture. In fact we interpret it as meditation but actually they were
emphasizing the power of sleeping. My childhood was spent in state of Punjab,
And back in our village. We don’t had any temple. So we used to go to the
Gurudwara and ask our demands from Babaji. What I still remember is that Babaji
was always smiling and looks like sleepy.
In fact spiritually also it’s very difficult to feel any
negative emotion like anger, frustration etc. while feeling sleepy.
Even our elected leaders also tried to draw on this ancient
wisdom and to utilize this benefits of sleeping, they try to catch a nap time
and again in the parliament. But as a part of a larger conspiracy. The scheming
media-persons don’t allow them to do it.
With the advent of science. Even researchers all over the world
are also reconfirming the benefits of sleeping .In a recent study, researchers
at NASA showed that a 30-minute power nap increased cognitive faculties by
approximately 40 percent! Tests carried out on one thousand volunteers proved
that those who continued working without rest, made lower scores in
intelligence tests like the IQ test. More importantly, their capacities to work
and memorize decreased in comparison to those who napped after lunch.
Some people says that sleeping leads to procrastination. But
if you analyses closely. Actually sleeping enables you to complete your target
in very short period of time. The Japanese concept of just in time also owes
its origin to sleeping.
We owe many of our great inventions to sleep. Had Newton not
been in sleepy state one fine morning, taking a short nap? We would not have
discovered gravity.
Even in our corporate world,
Speed can help us in many hidden ways. I’ll recount a short story to illustrate
this point.
It happened in the graveyard…..
shift in our training session. Just after the fullsome free lunch. We
experienced that all of sudden, gravity in the room has increased manifold. Our
head started deviating towards ground. Just then we are jerked awake out of our
sleep. Something unimaginable has happened. Rubbing our eyes in dis-belief . We
just realized that someone has actually asked a question. Giving dirty looks to
new favorite of bosses or rather our new bosses. We failed to realize the
secret. Friends I going to tell you his secret. His secret was Somniloquy or
talking in sleep.
We are obsessed with speed and crossing milestones – However
useless they might be.
The hour hand got this anxiety that it’s not moving as fast
as the minute hand even its movement carries much more weightage than her.
The minute hand wants to compete with second hand. I mean
look how slim and fast it is.
Caught in this meaningless rat race. Nobody has the time to
take a step back to look at the broader picture. If they could pause and look
back. They could realize that they are moving in circles and this frantic race
will not take them anywhere.
In the hindsight I would much rather prefer to waste my time
in sleeping than running in circles in this mad rat race.
As you can see above. It was a long speech at around 900
words. There’s no way I could have finished it in 7 mins. My speed as I’ve come
to realize is 100 words / min. Originally this speech started at around 700 words
but some late minute additions swell it to 900 words.
But what is even sadder is that even after that ,the transitions
and conclusion were up to my satisfaction.
Summary of evaluation comments as below
1) Transitions
could be better
2) Lack
of emotional comment with audience
3) Lack
of pauses
4) Face
totally flat (without emotions)
5) Clasped
hands
