Trenchant

Toastmasters trip to Nellore Audishankara college of engg & tech.

When I joined Toastmasters club in my office half year ago, I had no idea on what was in store. I thought that there would be TM sessions once in a while and may be a few things more. But my past six months have been far more eventful than I’d imagined. After elections, club level & area level contests, visits to other clubs, the recent mega event – Reverberations, this Toastmasters trip to Nellore was so much fun and unique in every single way.

I had no idea of what the agenda of the trip was since I had been missing TM sessions for quite some time. Soon as the agenda was announced, I knew this would be fun.

The Team: Jaydas, Bharat S, Siddarth, Manasa, Neha, Antas, Ritesh, Puja, Sandeep, Moumita, Prajay, Pranshu and of course Me.

The agenda was to arrive in Nellore on Saturday the 19th of Dec, check in at a hotel and head for Audishankara college of engg & tech. Then there would be some introductions and a regular TM session and then lunch. Later in the day we would visit the Krishnapatnam port and towards the end of the day, some time at the beach and then back to the hotel, dinner and head home overnight.

This sounded simple, but less did we know that the trip would be such interesting and so much fun filled.

The fun had started already soon as we hopped on to the bus on Friday evening. The mood was set when Puja announced that there was a surprise planned. It was to be surprise, so soon every one settled down thinking they’d catch some sleep after Friday’s office. Except for Manasa, Jay, Sandeep and a few others none of us could sleep well. It was this AC 2-by-2 semi-sleeper bus. So it was obvious that we’d to only semi-sleep!

We arrived at the three-star Hotel DR Uttama. The hotel was far beyond what we’d expected, cosy rooms, hot showers, electronic keys et al. The food was especially yummy. We were to freshen up, wear the TCS-Maitree Tshirts and assemble for a buffet breakfast at 830 AM so as to reach the college at around 10AM. A few bread toasts, boiled eggs, juice glasses later, we got into two cars accompanied by the college’s ‘placement officer’ and one another gentleman.

Audishankara College of Engg. & Tech. is located some 20KM south of Nellore, right by the NH5.  The college displayed a very festive mood, a tent was erected and a red-carpet laid. I thought that they were waiting for some VIP to arrive at the event. So I got down and stood aside. But to my bewilderment, the carpet was to welcome us, Toastmasters.

Wait, that was not all… rose bouquets, Mangala Harathi, Students on either sides throwing flowers on the carpet as we walked in. I was at a total loss of words at that moment. Personally, I felt it was embarrassing, we were just a bunch of techies and not folks who won the Oscars. That kind of a welcome was too much for me to take.

After a short discussion in the Principal’s office, we arrived at the hall where the event was hosted. After the welcome speech by the principal, Jay and Siddarth opened the session with a short presentation on TM and its activities. It was announced that Audishankara would be the first college in India to have a TM club of its own.

TMOD Pranshu took over and introduced the theme of the day, ‘living in the moment’. Neha the Master evaluator, introduced her team of evaluators, Siddarth, Moumita and Manasa. While I had to be the Grammarian, Ritesh was the timer, Antas the Ah-counter. Puja gave her prepared speech to start with, then Bharat S tried to sell kittens in his ACB speech, then Sandeep shared his dream of being a millionaire.

After the evaluations, it was time for the most interesting part of TM sessions. The Table Topics. Prajay had filled several sheets of paper as a part of his preparation, and finally decided on a few very interesting topics. He set the mood saying ‘its worse not to try than to try and not succeed’ . He invited the students to join him on stage and while they hesitated, Manasa chose to show by example how to talk impromptu and how much fun it is. Then came one brave engineer-to-be and talked on ‘five things he’d take with him to another planet’ . Then came another and then another. When Siddarth gestured to windup as it was time, there was another lady who wanted to talk. This was wonderful to see. I was never so confident to talk on stage.

There was another surprise towards the end of the session. We were called on stage an felicitated with a shawl and a memento. I again thought we were just a bunch of ordinary people and why so much of…

Another surprise… this one was for the students of the college.  Srikanth Surampudi, the regional head HR@TCS, called in on phone and wished the students a very warm ‘All the very best!’. This was every bit as inspiring as the TM session itself. Later when Jay called on stage all the to-be-members of TM Audishankara, there was a crowd, believe me!

In all the TM session was rocking as always though the backdrop was new and the audience was larger than ever. After the group photo, Jay called for three cheers, and all of us huddled up for a hip hip hurray!

Sumptuous lunch was served thereafter. And we were shown around the campus. I was taken down memory lane when I saw those electronics text books in the library. Towards one corner of the library, there was something really romantic going on. You’d definitely have to see The Parakeet saga.. to know more.

We left the college and hit the road to reach the Krishnapatnam port. Its seems, the port is the biggest of its kind in south Asia. Coal and Iron ore was being loaded into huge ships. While photography was prohibited, I was told that only after I clicked these:

While we traveled away from the port and towards the beach, there were antyakshari and stories of ghosts to keep the fun on. More than half hours drive later, we reached this unexploited beach near Gudur. Water makes us all kids and so did we turn out to be. While some thought they’d better stayed dry, the others thought it was now or never. Ten minutes later all of us were wet all over anyway!

We played, we ran, we kicked and some acted as though they were swimming. What I would remember for a long time to come is the experience of returning to the hotel in wet and soiled clothes on a winter evening. What was more memorable was the amount of sand I discovered in my pants once we were back at the hotel!

We were to board the bus soon after dinner. So I and Prajay quickly browsed through the photos we shot through the day. We thought this was a trip we couldn’t afford to miss. We even shared the feeling that it would perhaps be great if we could go on more such visits in the future. Jay, are you reading?!!

We had had our dinner by the time the ladies arrived at the restaurant. You know when the ladies say fifteen minutes, its for certain that they meant fifty minutes!

Once on the bus I thought these TM folks are tired after a long day of fun, but they wanted more. It was time for Dumb-charades!

In all, I thought this TM trip to Nellore was more fun than any trip after my college.

Many thanks to Jaydas and all those who contributed to making this event such a wonderful one.

Thanks for reading. Please share your views in the comments section.