Why should we stand & deliver a speech?

Imagine Hitler in front of 20,000 people in Munich, sitting on a couch with his legs stretched and delivering his speech. What is wrong with this description? Aren’t you pondering “Why isn’t Hitler standing?” Have you ever wondered why an orator is expected to deliver a speech standing?

Is it a custom because Demosthenes (Father of Public speaking, sculpture shown in picture) used to deliver all his speeches standing? Is it due to the fact that the speaker would be visible if he is standing? Then why don’t orators sit on a chair on top of a podium and deliver their speech.

May be it is a way of showing respect to your listeners. But who made the rules? A lot of saints in India do sit down and give their sermons. Everyone would agree that there should be a scientific reason behind it. Today we just follow it without knowing the purpose behind it.

It seems brain’s information processing speed increases 5-20% while standing. This was discovered during a study conducted by University of Southern California. Thus a speech would be delivered better while standing than sitting. People may have realized that the flow of thoughts was smoother while standing and thus the custom. That could be the reason why Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill, all stood not only while delivering speeches but also stood while working.

Shattered Dreams

Life is like a wine glass. You could be holding it in your hand admiring the serene beauty of life & enjoying every sip of wine. You start to believe that you are the connoisseur of wine and wine glasses.

Contended with what you have you start moving to cover higher ground. You simply enjoy the high you are in, not realizing the value of the wine you’re sipping.

And at the next instant it could happen that the wine glass slips away from your hand break into a million pieces spilling all the wine around. The inertia and the smell of the wine intoxicates you and makes you want it back.

If you are blessed you may be successful in mending the broken glass. In most cases things are irreversible. Always remember "Don't take failure to your heart and don't let success get to your head". No matter what happens you have to cover higher ground.

Cest la vie

Today I miss playing tennis so much. I fail to spot a valid reason to have stopped playing tennis in the first place. Injuries is a reason in which I could find solace in before, but today I believe I was down right lazy.

But somebody who was not lazy and made an impression every time he was on court was Pete Sampras

The most emotional moments of tennis, should undoubtedly be when Pete Sampras retired from professional tennis. Salutations to the man who made tennis look so classy and effortless.

Introspection..

I have goals to achieve in life. What if I am not able to achieve my goals ethically, will I do things unjustly to reach my goals? What is more important in life, to have a piece of mind or to achieve what I aim for?

I have never tried to deliberately hurt anyone, but in the bargain I have had to sacrifice and bleed so much from within. For the well being of someone else, is it worth hurting myself and losing out on my goals?

Yes, I have seen people getting what they want unjustly. I have seen them hurt others directly. I don’t see them repenting or regretting at this point of time. Nor have I seen bad thing happening to them.

Then why is it that my conscience does not allow me to take the wrong path. Is it because I fear the existence of heaven and hell? Is it because cycles of life and death might exist? Is it because I fear my near and dear will be hurt because I’ve not been ethical?

What ever be the case no god will accept my excuses if I do not achieve what I have set out to achieve. As Ralph Waldo Emerson says “all sensible people are selfish”. I am not telling I will be unjust. I am telling I will prioritize myself before anything or anybody else. Nobody is going to help me if I don’t help myself. If I am not successful in today’s world it’s my fault not the worlds.

Conspiracy Theory

I am no Ralph Rene to write a conspiracy theory. But I have a theory of my own. I am not a cynic but I have my doubts.

Today the times are very uncertain for any government in India. Every political party is trying to do something to make them selves the obvious choice of the people. The one government that strikes peace accord with Pakistan is the winner of this race. Governments have come and gone, each one has tried one a shot at it.

There have been quite a few rendezvous between the two governments. Now the Pakistan’s Tour of India has been used to get political mileage. I believe that the cricket series was compromised just to get Musharraf smile.

• A couple of reasons why I fear what I say is true because
• Musharraf is invited to witness a cricket match. I’ve never seen Bangladesh or Australian Head of State invited to witness a cricket match.
• Why was the venue Delhi despite construction still going on? Was it because it was easy for all politicians to meet?
• Venue was fixed with help of government funding and push.
• India did quite well in the first two matches. Why did they start playing terribly after Musharraf accepted the invitation?
• Why did Saurav not play in the 5th and 6th one day though ICC allowed him to play?
• Was the team under pressure from the government to lose the series? Was it because this would make Musharraf happy and this would start a new chapter in Indo-Pakistan relations?

These are young governments but the wounds are old. Let the government be reminded, Pokhran did not stop Kargil. What is a Cricket series?

Deja Vu

Last month was very hectic for me. Organizing the School Reunion was a humongous task. I consulted and coordinated with my friends to get the show on the road. The phone never stopped ringing. There was always something to be done. The excitement of seeing old friends and wanting them to have a good time kept me going on and on and on.

It is said "there is always silence after a storm". It is so true. I could feel it after the reunion was over. There was nothing much to do. There were no phone calls to be made or to be received. There was a silence.

This peace took me back to my past. During school days I would wait for the exams to get over. Once the exams were over, there was no quantifiable limit to my boredom. Because of the transition from days where there was no time to think to days where there was nothing else to do but to think.

There was an astounding similarity. It was like Deja-vu (the impression of having seen or experienced something before). Thanks to this reunion, I not only met my old friends, I also got a chance to re-live one of my long lost feelings.

Camaraderie...

True friends walk into your life when the rest of the world walks out on you.

I have begun to realize that my colleagues in office can never be my true friends. We are competitors. We are constantly trying to outsmart one another to get on top of the success ladder.

I have begun to realize that my friendship with my classmates was devoid of any egoism, competition, differences. We were friends because we wanted to be friends.

I have begun to realize that the fun I have is artificial compared to the fun I had in my younger days which was untainted, wholesome and pure.

I organized a reunion for my classmates from school. Organizing the reunion was not a simple job, because none of us had much contact with each other for 8 years. But I really believe we managed to pull it off because we were dying within to meet each other.

I hope this reunion was not just a get together, or a fun party. I really hope this reunion revitalizes of our friendship.

Exercise your way to a great speech!!

Every sport has warm up exercises. The warm up exercises are different for different sports. In tennis, the coordination of hands and feet are important. So the warm up exercises concentrate on
increasing flexibility of hands and feet. In swimming, inhalation and exhalation is the key. The warm up exercises also demand breathing exercises. To be a good sport person it is very important to warm up. I have come to believe that there should warm up exercises even for public speaking, which should be done everyday.

It is known that a good speech has the following components (according to importance):

• Body Language - 56%
• Voice Modulation - 37%
• Content - 7%

To give an impressive presentation we cannot be stiff like a rock or a piece of log. We need graceful movements. Our complete body is an instrument of expression. Loosening of body is possible only with a jog, stretching exercise and relaxation of facial muscles. Stretching exercise and jog will make the body supple. Relaxation of facialmuscles can give us range of expressions during a speech.

Our voices may be good enough for conversation on phone or to another person. We need to project our voice to an audience. Depending on the length of the sentences we need to take either a deep breath or a shallow breath. Breathing exercises are required, because breathing is involuntary and controlled by our brain. This also helps controllingpitch, timbre, tone etc.

The way the content is organized is also important. One way to improve that is to write one's personal dairy or a blog (dairy on the internet). You can see your style of writing improve as the days progress. "Writers block" is very common for a novice writer. The only way to get over itis to start writing.

With each exercise, the speaker learns a new style in speech delivery. This increases the ways of delivering a speech. Now, there is a wide variety of choices to use to write and deliver a speech. The speaker can use the most appropriatebody gesture and facial expression for the speech he has written. And thus deliver a good speech.

I've been touched

There are some people, who touch your lives in a special way. But we don't get to tell them how indebted we are. Its a hollow feeling I have been living with for long. Because thanking them is just not good enough. Our desire within drives us to do much more, and suddenly we may be thinking of doing a little too much. We completely stop doing what were doing for them with the fear what these special people may think of us. We eventually dont do anything. I wish I could reach out to the special ones, give a hug and explain how special there presence has been.

Why is today the begining of a new year ?

I met a learned man today. This is the conversation between me and him (My questions are in BOLD, and his responses follow).

Sir, if today is the beginning of a new year, what was it 4 month ago?

He said "Our year is based on PRINCIPLE and not PERSONALITIES. For us time begins with sunrise and not sunset. We are BHARATIYAS (bha=Luminous Light & ratiya=one who plays with it)

Sir, what is UGADI?

He said "UGADI = YUGA + ADI". He said it was important to describe the concept of "time" according to bharatiyas. I have given the gist (look at the picture for reference)

• There is 1 immaculate, immutable, impersonal, omnipresent, unchangeable PARAMATMA
• Even the gods are the creation of paramatma
• The highest portfolio in paramatma's domain is held by Brahma, followed by Indra and later by Humans.
• 1 day of Brahmas life = 14 Indra's Life span.
• 1 Indra's Lifespan = 71 chaturyugas (i.e. 4 YUGAS). WE are presently in "KALIYUGA".
• 1 year of Indra = 360 Human Years

ADI is the beginning of everything, even before the yugas, i.e. the PARAMATMA

So UGADI is the celebration of "remembering" the PRINCIPLE that existed even before the yugas; the immaculate, immutable, impersonal, omnipresent, unchangeable PARAMATMA.

Sir, Why two ugadi's, one today and one last week?

Today is Suryamana Ugadi and last week was Chandramana Ugadi. Suryamana Ugadi takes SUN as the primary factor for calculations but in Chandramana Ugadi even the moon is given importance in calculations.

Conciousness....

CONSCIOUS experience is the most familiar thing in the world and the most mysterious.

There is nothing we know about more directly than consciousness, but it is extraordinarily hard to reconcile it with everything else we know. Why does it exist? What does it do? How could it possibly arise from neural processes in the brain?

From an objective viewpoint, the brain is relatively comprehensible. When you look at this blog, there is a whir of processing: photons strike your retina, electrical signals are passed up your optic nerve and between different areas of your brain, and eventually you might respond with a smile, a perplexed frown or a remark.

But there is also a subjective aspect. When you look at the page, you are conscious of it, directly experiencing the images and words as part of your private, mental life. You have vivid impressions of the colors and shapes of the images. At the same time, you may be feeling some emotions and forming some thoughts.

Together such experiences make up consciousness: the ojective & the subjective, inner life of the mind.

Quarter Life Crisis

I first read this article called "Quarter Life Crisis" in 1999. I remember reading it out to a good friend who was quite upset. The intention was to comfort her and tell her that what she was going through was quite normal.

Now, approx 6 yrs later I met her again. We were recollecting the stuff we used to speak about. So I looked up on the net for the same article and found it. While reading it out we realized we both could still relate to it.

Excited that everybody could relate to it, I read it out to my sister and her hubby. But they could not relate to it. So I guess its only for a certain age group. Maybe between 18 and 23. If you are in that age group, you would be amazed how somebody could write exactly how you feel. So read on -- Quarter Life Crisis.

Levitation lost

When you are in love it seems like you are levitated. But when that euphoria is gone, your whole world comes crashing down . You seem to tell the person of your dreams:

Oh, when I was in love with you,
Miles around the wonder grew
How well I did behave.

But now the fancy passes by
Everyone around say that I
Am quite myself again.