Nepal: A Sorry State

Nepal is currently witnessing mass protests against King Gyanendra. Millions of people are defying curfew orders and rallying their support for the reestablishment of democracy in this Himalayan Kingdom. The whole world is watching the developments very closely because Nepal is strategically located between two growing powers: India and China. I have read several articles on this revolt here in the US and I am surprised as to how quickly people forget the history. I think, history is not what happened in the past but what winners then wanted the future generations to remember. But is five years really history...is our memory comparable to that of a goldfish?

In my opinion, in June 2001 Gyanendra staged a perfect coup d'etat and overthrew his brother King Birendra to become the next king. He mercilessly killed the king and all his family members including the prince. There was no independent investigation of the incident conducted. The "official story" that came out later was that the prince shot his own family in a fit of rage. The reason: his parents did not approve his affair with an Indian princess.

I still remember that morning when I read this news. I was in total shock and disbelief. I could not believe this could happen in the 21st century only 400 miles away from where I grew up. I wished the Indian Government would do something about it. But soon the new King dismissed the parliament and declared an emergency rule. The democratically elected prime minister was put in jail and free press was banned. All this less than five years ago.

And today Mr. Leon Weil, US ambassador to Nepal (1984-1987), wrote an article in the WSJ saying "In 2001 King Birendra and virtually the entire royal family were murdered by the drug - and - alcohol - crazed crown prince, son of the monarch. Gyanendra, the sole surviving brother of the king, inherited his reign under the most difficult and trying circumstances". He continues to say that the steps being taken by the king are "...welcome first step towards diffusing the political crisis". I am once again in total shock and disbelief. I only hope King Gyanendra will be brought to justice. In the book "Night" Elie Wiesel, Nobel peace prize winner, gives words to my emotion very clearly when he says that he has a "moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory".

MacGyver: My Childhood Hero

Last week I got a chance to relive my favorite childhood memories: watching the TV series "MacGyver". It was a hugely popular TV series from 1985 to 1992. Back then in India there was only one TV channel "Doordarshan" with popular programs such as Ramayan, Mahabharat, Hum Log and Buniyaad. My favorites were Karamchand, Byomkesh Bakshi and Johnny Soko and his flying Robot - the Japanese action show.

With limited shows to choose from, kids in the North Eastern part of India would climb to their roof tops and add boosters to their TV antennae. This would help in receiving transmission from the neighboring Bangladesh of programs such as Knight Rider, A-Team and my favorite "MacGyver". Even though the reception was poor, I would wait all week long for Wednesday nights and be glued to my black-and-white TV to watch my hero "MacGyver" (Color TV was introduced in India in 1982, but we bought it much later).

MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was an ex-special force agent who solved toughest cases without using guns. He was an expert in making weapons using everyday materials. He used paper clips to shortcircuit a nuclear missile, camera strap to hold high voltage power lines, magnetic strip in credit cards to randomly change traffic lights to create traffic jams, cigarette smoke to detect laser beams and Hershey bars to stop acid leaks. He would solve crimes in exotic locations all around the world. In the first three episodes of season one, he solved crimes in Mongolia, New Mexico, Budapest and Burma. After watching these episodes yesterday, I realized that this series had such breathtaking stunts that it would easily overshadow the modern shows like "24" on Fox. The camera shots were great and he had beautiful girls, as associates, in every episode just like 007 did.

I talked about MacGyver in one of my toastmaster speeches, and a lady came up to me and told me that it was her favorite serial too. I am sure there are other people who loved this show. If you are interested you can get DVDs of the show from the movie rental company Netflix or you can download it from Google Video for $1.99/episode.

Raising a glass to Toastmasters

I have been an active member of Toastmasters International since May 2005. In this article I will talk about this club and how I have gained from it in such a short time.

"Toastmasters International is the undisputed world leader in public speaking training, with over 10,500 clubs and more than 211,000 members in approximately 90 countries". In US you can find several toastmasters in every town and city. Similarly, it is very popular in other countries all around the world. I am a member of a toastmasters club called "Super Speakers" that has been consistently ranked in the top 1% of all toastmasters clubs. We meet every week and accomplish so much in an hour because of rigorous planning before the meeting.

For every meeting there are several positions that are filled weeks in advance by the members of the club. These positions such as sergeant at arms, exhortationist, grammarian, timer, "Wizard of Ahs", general evaluator and the president have defined roles. For example "Wizard of Ahs" counts the ahs, ums and other "crutch" words for all speakers and presents a report at the end, which forces everyone to reduce their filler words to a minimum.

In every meeting there are three impromptu speeches and three prepared speeches delivered. The prepared speakers usually speak for 5-7 minutes each on the topic of their choice. Experienced members of the club evaluate these speeches and provide improvement tips. These evaluators volunteer much in advance and usually meet the speakers before the meeting to find out if the speakers want them to focus on anything specific.

The impromptu speech section is led by the topicsmaster. He/She randomly calls on 3-4 members and asks them to speak on the given topic for 1-2 minutes. At the end of the meeting everyone votes for the best speaker (both prepared and impromptu) and the best evaluator.

There is no limit to the number of speeches one can give. There are members in my club who have been speaking for over 20 years. One gets recognition after every 10 speeches (also called projects). The speech topics, though chosen by the speakers, have to be such that they show certain qualities as the speakers advance in their projects. For example, the third project focuses on the organization of the speech. By the fifth one the speaker should be using appropriate gestures and body movements to enhance the speech. By the eight speech the speaker should have a good vocal variety and should be comfortable using visual aids and props. Thus with every speech, one should build upon the things learnt before and by the tenth speech become a "Competent Toastmaster". One can then go for the advanced toastmaster track.

Speech contests is another useful feature of toastmasters. There are speech contests such as prepared speech, impromptu speech, story telling, humorous speech etc going on all the time. The winners at club level advance to area level to division level etc and can go all the way to the world championship of speaking. I have seen DVDs of several world championships and they always make me prepare more enthusiastically for my next speech. I have given speeches in front of 30-40 people at work and plan to speak in front of larger audiences in the future. I am also planning to speak in professional institutions such as ASQ (American Society for Quality) and IIE (The Institute of Industrial Engineers). I will keep you posted on how that goes.

I am giving my seventh speech in 2 weeks. I still have butterflies in my stomach everytime I go in front of a large audience but I think I have come a long way. I will strongly encourage everyone to join toastmasters. Effective public speaking has several advantages and there is no better place than toastmasters for learning the tricks and getting speaking practice. It is almost free to be a member since all the positions are volunteered by members of the club (You may have to pay nominal fee for the manuals etc). If you are interested in improving public speaking visit the website www.toastmasters.org for more information.