The Carnival was to mark the completion of 2yrs since GHAC’s inception. Its also to declare that GHAC is around 2400 members strong and completed around 220 adventure events.

The event began with a dance performance to mark the Independence day, proceeded to a first of its kind adventure wear fashion show and over to a presentation by an Rajiv Trivedi, Additional Director AP police academy, about his adventure activities (marathon running, long distance swimming, power paragliding for some!).

The head of APTDC (which was a sponsor for the event) announced that they would be more than willing to partner with GHAC to organize adventure events in Hyderabad. That’s great news folks, we could do paragliding and rafting/sailing in the Hussain Sagar as a beginning!!

Two more dances and another round of fashion show later, sumptuous dinner was served. I liked the Salami Murgh more than anything else on the menu!

Well after dinner GHACians hit the dance floor and jived to the tunes of the Hyderabadi rock band ‘The Strangers’.

Then was the moment I’d been waiting for, the official launch of the GHAC Carnival Edition Magazine. Oh! I happen to be the Editor and this time I’d a committee to help me write, edit, design, proof read, go around printing presses to get the best deal to print a few copies.

So what’s interesting about the magazine this time? We’ve

• A dozen event exciting event descriptions.
• Four brand new features

1. I can still hear it…about Doodhsagar trek by one the GHACians
2. Bitter Litter on why we should not litter around
3. A 1000Km along the Himalayas another adventurer’s experiences on a trip to Manali Leh Ladakh Srinagar Kargil
4. Buying a Sleeping Bag that guides on buying what an adventurer has to have, the sleeping bag!

• An exciting new look and design featuring the GHAC Carnival theme.

Please find your copy here:

Click for your copy in pdf

The GHAC Carnival ended for me with some prizes and gifts to the best of its people.

A few photographs from the event:

Taramati Badradri fort, the event was held in the resort right beside

The inagural dance on ARR's Maa Tujhe Salaam!

By a dance group on Jai Ho!

Fashion show with the 'adventure gear' theme

Hyd Roc band - The Straingers

The Carnival Organizers with the chief Guests

Fashion show with the 'sailing gear and more ' theme

GHACians can sing too!!

My Organizer-badge though I'm just the newsletter editor!

This was my another attempt at writing and editing a club news letter. The GHAC News Letter.

Please click on this Image for your copy!

Thanks to GHAC’s organizers to have thought of me as suitable for this assignment.

I discovered through blogging on my website that I’m quite interested in writing. It is the fillip from you friends readers that is driving me to check out other writing/editing avenues.

Thanks a ton for your encouragement.

Please leave your comments/suggestions/opinions in the comments section. That would be great help!!

For your copy of Niche Notes, click on this image!

PS: Its another privilege that I’m also the Editor for Niche Notes – TCS Maitree

Toastmasters Magazine. Lucky me!

I went to an ISHA meet after really long. This one was not a Satsang but was a meet for the volunteers to discuss about the parikrama project.

Wanted to share what I could grasp from the meet.So, here’s what.

Sadguru envisioned this Praikrama project ever since the Dhyana linga was consecrated 12 yrs ago.

Parikrama is to my knowledge, all the infrastructure that would be needed around the Dhyana linga, in such a way that a visitor is prepared by just passing through the various facilities, to receive what the Dhyana linga can offer. One such a facility (or you could use a better word) is the Theertha Kund thats already around. A dip in the theertha Kund prepares our senses to calm down to be able to meditate and be receptive to whats available from Dhyana Linga.

So the Prikrama project at hand is to create one more theertha kund and several other such facilities. The project is estimated to cost around a 100 crore and is planned to be completed in the next 4yrs. This meet was to say that we could contribute in terms of money or any other form we can.

There were three excluisive videos of Sadguru that described the project and several Qs abt gathering the resources. Sadguru says, this facility at the ashram is here to stay to benefit people for thousands of years, and we’d contributors to something larger than human imagination could ever figure out.

I’ve registered to pay some amount per month via ECS direct debit. This might be meager money but its is some!

If this sounds good to you, I’d suggest you get in touch with any volunteer you know.

He: Hay wassup? What thinking?

He:…Wish I could imagine what she’s thinking…

She:…Now what would I have to say?

She:…No. Why would I have to talk first? I wont!

He: Oh cummon.. listen, lets talk, or i’m gonna jump off this..
She: I don’t want to listen nothin, it must be one of your tricks.

Okay, what have you to say? ha?

Now that isn’t the way…you don’t seem to want me around anymore…

O’ Oh! I did not mean it that way… okay now come closer…

Lets say and listen later…

Now what are you fellows looking at? Go do something with yourself…

As I was busy clicking at them, the college principal came around and threw light on why my presence there did not disturb the birds. The glass I was looking through was one-way. i.e. I could see the parakeets but they couldn’t see me!

Another interesting fact the principal revealed was that the pair has been coming there ever since the library was built. Interesting choice the birds have made.

Hope you liked the narrative. I would be pleased to see your comments.

So nice to see you around.

Please feel at home here, you could go around the place at your will. Please don’t hesitate to ask me for any thing you might need in this space. Links to the right would show you around with ease. I have shipped in all my articles from my rented apartment at http://bharathreddyt.wordpress.com/ to here.

I’m working on the footer and the side-walk to make it a lot more easier for you walk about.

Meanwhile, If you were looking for something specific, you could ask my search assistant.

Wondering why did I move here? You know how it is to move into a new home. Here are my reasons.

Please let me know if something did not look well or if you thought needed improvement. For, I’m a beginner at both architecture and writing, your suggestions, criticism and advise would be valuable. Your words would be a great source of encouragement. Please share your views in the comments section.

Cheers!

Bharath

PS:

I had also tried my hand at photography, and I still have my gallery in a rented room out there at http://photopic.wordpress.com/

My old address:

http://bharathreddyt.wordpress.com/

And in fact there were errors like:

Remote file error: Remote server did not respond.

and

Remote file error: Remote file is incorrect size.

I then tried to debug the import mechanism on  wordpress-2.8.6. I found that there was not much of a problem with it.  The problem was actually with the export mechanism.

Here are my findings:

Post attachments are mentioned in the XML within the <wp:attachment_url> tag. The URL for one such picture attachment was something like:

When I tried to put this URL on the web-browser, it redirected to:

While the latter URL seems to be more direct form of accessing the attachments, the problem could be with resolving the relative URLs in wp_get_attachment_url() of wp-includes/post.php

The work around for now would be to perform a replace-all for files.wordpress.com with files.wordpress.com in the exported XML file. I have made sure that only the <wp:attachment_url> tag has such entries.

Hope this helps.

It was my third(of the 10) speech at Toastmasters today. I messed it up in a very big way. Though the topic had great depth and the concept was to suit the objectives of the third speech, I could not deliver. I was mum and blank and confused on stage. I was in a crisis and I’m out of it losing.

It happens to me sometimes. I go completely short of words, even to express some thing like “I’m hungry”. This was one such occasion.

I could not remember the words I wanted to say – prompts at lack of adequate preparation.

It did not reflect the passion with which I wanted to enact on stage. I could not animate my body, could not modulate my voice. Transition from idea to idea was shaky. There were unnecessary pauses. I could have done most of it well had I completely remembered the sequence of ideas I wanted to present.

All in all, the speech was a mess. I decided to take it up another time. I’m not in a hurry to complete my 10 speeches and apply for the CC (Competent Communicator) certification. The aim I have is to learn how to speak before the audience; Present my point with persuasion and grace, at the same time keeping it fun to listen to. I’ve a long way to go, I realized.

I’m not publishing the speech here yet. Excuse me for that. I’ll update this space after I redo the speech to my satisfaction. Till then, please read my other posts, I’m sure they’re not as dry as this one was till here.

The topic of the speech was ‘EXPECTATIONS’. On giving a little thought I discovered that all most every thing in life seemed to be based on expectations that we have. Small and big, easy and tough but we have hundreds of them lurking in our heads. Expectations play a major role when it comes to relationships.

Initially when I thought of writing a speech, I felt this was a rather serious topic. I had doubts in my head whether a serious topic like this make sense to the audience. In fact we were conditioned in the last few weeks that speeches should have a bit of humor, it makes the mood lighter and audience would enjoy it.  Anyways, I wrote the speech, I kept the examples simple, I tried to be humorous though.

The duration of the 2nd speech is TM is 5 to 7 minutes. When I practiced for the 1st time, I took 11minutes. Then I edited, practiced again, and then again. It came to about 6.5 minutes. I was okay. I prepared an 8 slide presentation too. What I thought was good about the presentation was that I would not have to rely on it when talking; I could manage well enough if it were not there at all. But the presentation would run in the background and add to the content of my speech.

One more thing,  don’t tell anyone,  I’ve secretively recorded my speech on my phone.

Listen the speech –OR–   Please download Are you Expecting.mp3

You could follow the speech reading the script and the Evaluation follows soon after.

Here comes the script of the speech:

(Slide 1)

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. Are you expecting? Madam, are you expecting? Sir, are you?

As a matter of fact, we are all expecting, we have been expecting all through your lives and we would continue to expect.

(Slide 2)

Toast master of the day, fellow toastmasters and my dear guests, today I’m here to discuss about my little theory on ‘EXPECTATION’.

(Slide 3)

Expectation, by definition is a feeling/anticipation that something is about to happen.

Expectations are very powerful. They are a source of so many emotions within us. The affect the way we work, the way we think and talk. They control the very way we exist.

Let’s see an example: Appraisal time, I prepare a perfect self evaluation and think, no doubt about it, my boss is going to have no second thoughts, and he would give me a 5. Okay, at least a 4. But my boss perhaps has different plans altogether. He thinks all that I do is just expected. He gives me a 3. I’m disappointed.

Another example: We expected that we had a meeting room arranged for TM session today. It has been, thanks to the Sergeant at arms, here we’re a happy bunch of people, learning to talk.

When we expect, it’s like we toss a coin. We’re happy if we win, not happy if we lose.

So what now?

(Slide 5)

Let’s delve a little deeper: According to me, expectations can be classified under three broad categories:

1. Expectations from self, and those from others (people, situations etc.)
2. Conscious and sub-conscious.
3. Realistic and Unrealistic.

Lets see these in that sequence.

1. From self and from others:

Usually expectations from one’s own self are pretty simple. For example, I want to be honest. I want to stay healthy and wealthy.
But expectations that we might have from others are complicated and often lead to disappointment. Farmers in India currently are dying to see rains. It rained this time last year; It rained this time three years ago, It did ten years ago; so, it has to rain this year too.That is an expectation that came out of experience and memory.


In case of expectations from people, say for example from friends & family. We expect them to behave in a certain way. You thought that guy was your best friend and when you really needed him he just was not there. Perhaps you expected too much, perhaps he never had never been that committed. It’s only you thought he was. This expectation came from your subconscious.

This brings us the next category of expectations.


2. Conscious and subconscious expectations:

We form conscious expectations when we are fully aware of the situation we are in, our capabilities and the amount of confidence we possess. If you are a shooter, like Rajyavardhan Rathore, you would expect that every bullet you shoot hits the bull’s eye. This would be a conscious expectation from you. You are prepared, you’re aware that 7 out of 10 times you shoot, you succeed. You’re in control of the situation. This is a conscious expectation.

But you send your kid to the exams. You might not have expressed it to anyone that you expect him to score a 95 in every exam he writes; but you generally expect that in your subconscious. You do not know how well prepared your kid is, you do not know if he even likes his subjects. You are not completely aware of the situation. You don’t have control beyond a point, but you still expect. Isn’t that an unrealistic expectation?

So, the next category.


3. Realistic and Unrealistic:

Most consciously formed expectations tend to be realistic.


Now, I’m giving this speech here, if I expect you to understand every bit of what I say, approve of it and appreciate it, how realistic an expectation would it be? How much more unrealistic can I get?

So what’s the bottom line?

We expect subconsciously, uncontrolled, we tend to make unrealistic expectations.

(Slide 6)

What do we do?

Simple! We could get conscious of most of the subconscious expectations we have. How? Easier said than done. Isn’t it?

Say you’re disappointed about something today. I’m sure it is because of an unmet expectation. Think about that expectation. Think about what lead to that expectation. Dig deep you’ll know more related expectations. Make a list of those. Remove the unrealistic ones in the list; I’m sure if you’d feel lot better. And not just that, you’d be prepared to learn from the situation.

(Slide 7)

From all that I said here, expectations seem to be bringing us sorrow. Are all expectations are like that? No. There wouldn’t be hope, goals and ambitions if there were no expectations. Hope is good. Isn’t it? Goals and ambitions are those that drive us in life. In fact we can’t live if we stop expecting, well both ways!

Keep expecting – but do it consciously.

(Slide 8 )

As you might now expect. I end my speech!

Over to you toast master.

————————————————————-

I did not really notice when the Green flag (after 5minutes of talking) was shown. I was shown the yellow flag (means I was 6 minutes through) when I was saying “Now, I’m giving this speech here”. My heart sank, I’d under a minute to conclude. I couldn’t really realize how fast words flew out of my mouth. It was good but I doubted if the audience thought I was too fast. “It was the Red flag (reached 7minute limit) when I was saying “Are all expectations are like that?” I quickly concluded. It was 7 minutes and 7 seconds. I was on the verge of getting disqualified.

Ah it was over. A big sigh of relief came out of me.

I had a mixed bag of feelings after wards.

I did not quite know how well I did, did it make any sense to the audience, did they enjoy listening the least bit? Expectations, you know!

Evaluation:

What was good: I was well prepared. Content was researched and organized. I used a ppt. Good examples. Use of alliterations and a few usage elements. I did not really mumble, I sounded clear.

What was bad: ppt could have had pictures. Transitions between ideas could have been supplemented with appropriate movements (body language). Connotations (might have meant different meanings to many people)

What I thought was bad: Aaghh, 830 words in all, should have been around 600-700. I was nervous (not apparently though). The topic was rather serious. I couldn’t modulate my voice much, especially when I was supposed to sound ‘funny’. The content was lengthy, not allowing room for ease of expression. I looked serious, as ever.

Apart from that, the worst part was that I had 7 long pauses (>3 or 4 seconds). This happened when I tried to recollect what came next.

FILLERS: I’d 10-ah’s  (you can hear from the speech), 1-You know, 3-now. there were 4 repeated words.

I had quite a few leanings: For the next speech, I’ve to prepare better. Less content than this so that I can breathe. I should choose a lighter topic, or audience will hit me. ppts are supposed to add color. I should practice body language. And there’s a lot more, I’ll know as I do more speaking.

If you have read till here, you have a lot of patience. Please leave your comments as to what you felt about the speech (or any aspect of if), your advice is welcome.

Ciao!

They say, you have to give your 100% while working on something and never bother about the results. They actually mean to say, you derive satisfaction from having given your best to the task and that the results will come any way. Even if the results were not as desired, you would have at least had the compensation of having done it right. I completely agree.

Results are one thing, acknowledgment is another. Especially so, when you are working in a group, when you do something for the larger benefit of the group, and you’re aware you won’t gain any thing personal in doing it and you put your heart into it, you also manage to get the right results; it is only natural to leastwise expect an acknowledgment from the group, or a word of thanks for courtesy’s sake. When you miss it, you miss a big deal. It is a sensitive issue, but it means a lot.

When I say acknowledgment, I do not mean it should always be a – ‘yeah, you’ve done an exceptional job buddy’. A true acknowledgment includes comments, suggestions, betterment, praise, critical feedback etc,. When I receive these, I derive a greater sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction that ‘yeah, people took notice of my efforts’. Whether they like my work or not is a different issue. Nevertheless, an acknowledgment makes my day.

My personal experience says that appreciation often comes from the most unexpected of the corners. You would have done something exceptionally, yet, people whose responses could mean a world to you might just not take notice and pass it on as though nothing really happened. But at the same time, you might have done a certain piece of work and never thought or expected any one even to notice it, and suddenly a big guy comes to say, ‘Dude, great work, you were stunning!’, and later you learn that he was all praise for you in your circle of people. That is an overwhelming feeling.

So, what is the bottom line? Put in your best even when you are doing the most mundane of the tasks. Keep expecting words of credit and acknowledgment. They might not come as per your timing, but they will come to you for sure.  In addition, do acknowledge what others do, especially when they do it selflessly. Do appreciate if you like their work, appreciate even if the result isn’t as good as you might have desired.

Awards, recognition and benefits are what you get for the results that materialize from your work. Appreciations and acknowledgement are what you get for the process of the doing. If there are immaterial matters that are as precious as bliss and love, they are words of acknowledgement and appreciation.

There are all kinds of speakers. Some are pleasant to listen to, some have great content to talk, some bore you to death, some stutter, some make you feel you want to listen more. This post intends to talk about those of us who use too many – ah, aa, you know, well, hmm, basically, and, actually, but, so, etc. – fillers they’re called. We tend to fill our sentences with these words and phrases, usually when we change idea to idea, and most often to keep the talking going while we think of the next part of the sentence. This might not be much of a problem as long as we think its okay! But think again, won’t we sound better and clear if did away with these fillers and used the right words? Yes, that is going to require a lot of effort and conscious practice. As an example, let us compare these two sentences:
“This morning aa I’d been to this place, mm, you know the supermarket round the corner, so, things were thrown around basically all over the place, I was actually stunned.”
“This morning I’d been to the supermarket round the corner. I was stunned to see things thrown all over the place”. The second sentence was not only precise and clear but also left an impression that I knew very well of what I wanted to say, as I was saying it.

I happened to play the ‘ah-counter’ today at the Toastmasters Club at my office. Ah-counter is someone who makes note of the ‘fillers’ (like the ones in the title of this post) that the participants use as they talk during the club’s session. Ah-counter doesn’t just count the fillers but also notes down the instances where the speakers repeat words and phrases to fill gaps between parts of sentences they speak. “I was standing at the counter, and …and I saw this person approach with an axe in his hand.” The ‘and’ was repeated.

Towards the end of the Toast Masters session, the ah-counter reads out the report. The participants wouldn’t otherwise realize that they usually use so many ‘unnecessary’ words to form sentences while they talk. The aim of pointing out that they use fillers is mainly to bring  awareness, so that, the next time they talk, they would take care they would have to ‘ah’ a little lesser. What does the ah-counter get? Toastmasters.org says this role is to improve listening and observation skills. But I feel there’s some more. The ah-counter also becomes conscious of his/her own fillers. After all the ah-counter can’t commit the mistakes that he/she pointed out. And also, after all, isn’t it easy to find mistakes?!!

What do you take away from this post? Next time you talk to someone in English, try to figure out how many fillers you use. Its funny, there will be quite a few. Its fun too.

What else? Hmm aaa.. well.. you know… that is all!