This post is about my journey in the Art of Public Speaking… and how i once forgot to keep learning.
When I was 4 years old, my mom made me first enter a poetry reading competition. Since then, every year during Durga Puja festivals, she would drill me to speak out the Tagore or Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol Bengali poetry poems and I used to recite it out during the competitions.
She would train me in throwing out my voice, in expressions, pronunciations and even pauses. I would be very nervous speaking in the public, but every time I always won these competitions. That was my childhood. During my adolescence, I was again very frequently asked to enter oratorical contests in primary and secondary schools. I can remember winning contests within my schools. But something happened when i reached the university… either because of laziness or my self-ego, I decided not to do anything. I was quiet, passive and the skill was becoming forgotten… almost forgotten until i entered my post-grad studies and I had to deliver 3 speeches within a span of 1 week.
I spoke for the Speaking skills workshop, the Business case workshop and also for the Creative Crew meeting. The experience was great and I had loads of encouragements. And then it finally hit me that no matter what skill you once had, there’s nothing more inspiring and interesting than to keep up with it. I need to keep learning, unlearning and re-learning and meeting people who inspire me in that skill. So, a couple of days back, I finally decided to go for my first Toastmasters meeting in school. It was simply euphoric.
I loved the people there, I loved the speeches and evaluations given. And I decided to re-learn everything about public speaking and start with the Competent Communicator project. I truly hope, i would be able to deliver my first speech for Project 1: Ice Breaker by this year and when that happens, you will know :) And if you also want to learn/re-learn public speaking, do find a club near near you and start having fun!
I would want to end with 2 compelling thought / questions in my mind right now: > When was the last time you did something for the first time? When was the last time you unlearned something to re-learn it? I just did :) Thank you mom.