I was writing down my script for the Humorous Speech Contest and it was very uncomfortable writing and delivering humorous content for the first time. It is harder than the usual prepared speeches and contemplating this, I went a trip down memory lane.

Existential Crisis || Not So Happy Days

After a moderate EAMCET result and admission to a TIER3 college in Hyderabad, my 1st year of undergraduate was spent between half-hearted preparation for BITSAT and adjusting to a boisterous college life. This was after 2 years of time at an all boys Narayana College.

Daily commute to college was a pain as I only had the senior bus as an option and I was being ragged for the first 1 year (though they later became great friends). There was also an insecurity in not knowing much about computers and not playing computer games at all especially when I was in Computer Science branch.

Being a bit shy and not being well versed with any musical instruments or any extra-curriculars or any special talents didn’t help either. My childhood was mostly spent playing in my apartment complex especially football, a couple of summer camps for swimming and football, guitar, etc but nothing over long stretches of time to hone any skill.

Microsoft Student Partner Program (MSP) || Chance at a Change

And by the end of 1st year, I was not that particularly good at Competitive Programming; I hadn’t yet gotten a laptop yet. The first year just passed by without the desired rank in BITSAT, nor good grades in 1st year exams with a backlog and good amount of regret of being a donkey.

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Somewhere at the start of 3rd semester at the end of 2015, I got to know about the Microsoft Student Partner Program. Apart from other criteria, the selection process involved recording a short video clip. Though there were a lot of failed trials, I felt really good making the progress from first couple of attempts to the final submission. That was when I kind of discovered my knack for public speaking and speeches.

Once selected in MSP, it introduced me to a lot of meetups, communities and interesting-driven people. Meetups used to be held almost every other Sunday and the senior members of the program used to walk us through various tech. All these significantly boosted my confidence.

MOC 2016 || A Goal had been set

Somewhere around this time, I heard about a public speaking competition by the name Master Orator Championship from my friend. I registered myself into it but I couldn’t attend the qualifiers. I still wanted to know what the event was all about and I was surprised to know that Vishnu Varma, one of schoolmates was in the finals. ISB being the venue for the finale meant not missing it at all.

I took 3 tickets and went along with my parents. I love going to events such as these. Perspective hits you hard, showing the level of competition and talent there is outside and how much you need to hustle.

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Fun N Furore 2016 || New Horizons

Later, I got an invite to Fun’N’Furore and strangely when I attended the meet, I was probably the only one from MOC there. There’s a usual stereotype that adult life is kind of boring. Fun’N’Furore hits that with a ton of bricks. Most of the people there must be above 30’s and all of us were having a lot of fun.

There were standup comedy performances and amazing guest speaker sessions, speech evaluation contests and mainly, the humorous speech contest. I won my first money there; a 100/- cash prize for the best caption. I also took away a lot of things from the meet, be it the structuring of speeches or adding humor or diving the stage presence.

The Transition || Take Your Time

In the one year between MOC’2016 and MOC’2017, there was more active participation in things around me be it with the college literary club, anchoring chances at fests or elevator pitch competitions.
Lot of business and entrepreneurship books and podcasts were consumed. Especially the Tim Ferriss Show which was really a game changer. I used to cycle on my Razorback on the weekdays and join the Hyderabad Bicycling Club on the weekends listening to podcasts on the way.

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There were two significant learning experiences in Mar-Apr’2017. First was my solo trip to Rajasthan for the annual Student Partner Summit where the exposure was at another level and immediately following was me captaining our college football team through a great tournament till the semi finals. The tournament taught me lot of leadership and communication after multiple mistakes and learnings.

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I captured all of this transition in my blogpost from 3 years ago. And right before MOC’2017. I did my first 200 km Brevet. And failed! I finished late by 7 mins over the stipulated 13.5 hours target.

MOC 2017 || Qualifiers and Semi-finals

After registering, I miscount the competition dates and missed the event in Hyderabad. With the goal already set, I had no option but to go to Vijaywada. And I didn’t have a 3 minute speech ready yet for the qualifiers 🙂
During the bus journey, I ideated a couple of topics but something hit me. What better story than my recent Brevet experience. I made a good speech and practiced in the morning on the day of qualifiers. I made it through.

The speech for semi-final needed to be 5-7 minutes. I combined my earlier Brevet story with my MOC journey and I felt it was really solid and was pretty confident. Within a week, we got our results.

MOC 2017 || The Finals

The finals went really really well. I had a very confident and stoic approach all throughout. Read more about it here. And also the fact that I knew most of the Toastmasters there made me really comfortable and not a tad bit nervous.

Though, I still think about parts of my speech like the conclusion which others mentioned was not solid enough. But I am really happy that Devayani killed it with her speech.

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The Impact and Speaking Gigs

The winning got a lot of hype in college with an article being published in the local newspaper. I also got a couple of chances to speak as a guest speaker at Vignan College for their literary club inaugaration, for one of Guntur Toastmasters meets and also a couple of sessions on technology at Telangana Model School.

I regret not leveraging this enough but that’s a story for another day.

Toastmaster Meets || Finding Fear Again

I wanted to immediately join Toastmasters but my Super Randonnuer Series was clashing for 2 months . I tried to make it to as many events and meets as possible. Furqan went on to become the 2nd Runnerup in Season 3 btw 🙂

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ADP Toastmasters

Once I got placed in ADP, among other things I couldn’t wait to join the ADP Toastmasters Club. It’s been one of leading corporate clubs. But, I somehow couldn’t maintain consistency with clashing work meetings in the evenings. Sundays coincided with my longer endurance rides and I didn’t make it to the community club meetings too.

Nevertheless, I did a fair bit of informal anchoring which I am not really good at, with my colleagues Gayatri and Aakanksh passing on some titbits here and there.

Fun and Furore 2019

Between 2018-2019, there was a good gap with Toastmasters and Fun n Furore 2019 was a great place to get the vibes back. Meeting long time buddies Furqan among others felt really good and seeing familiar faces since the past 3 years really proves the longevity and the close knit community toastmasters is.

I also noticed how there was a stark growth in leadership and public speaking ability in the participants in MOC who joined Toastmasters right after.

An attempt at a new start

Like me, my mother has always been having the drive to improve her english and public speaking skills. We both planned on joining the same Toastmasters community Club and help each other out. We went for 3 consecutive meets just before the COVID Crisis and there ended our journey.

As all of the meetings were just online now, I didn’t delay it any further and started consistently going to the ADP Toastmaster meets and finally, I am chartered member of Toastmaster now.

My First Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest

And that’s how I ended up at the contest, doing one of my favorite things- writing and delivering it. And the meeting went great 🙂 with good standing in both.

Way Forward

It only stinged for a moment after the results were out because more than the result, it was me taking the steps that was important. The progress might be slow but I am looking at 10-15 years down the line when all these incremental gains will make a huge difference then.

MSP and MOC always remind me that though I caught up late there is still a lot of untapped potential waiting to come out. Consistency and Commitment is the way forward.

“Riding a bike is everything to a cyclist. The friendship and camaraderie you have with other cyclists… to a cyclist, it was the be-all and end-all of your life.” — Tommy Godwin, English long-distance cyclist

Ever wondered who might be the people you spend the most time with? I’m pretty sure one of your cycling/running buddy would be in the top 5, if you train regularly. Spending anywhere between 30 mins to 3 hrs, this camaraderie I feel is unadulterated and without any ulterior motive but simply for the joy of sport you both share.

The cycling community of Hyderabad has been very special to me in rejuvenating the childhood love for cycling and Hyderabad Randonnuers has consistently provided the platform to push my limits in endurance sports.

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It’s been 1 year since we all had an amazing experience trying our hand(or legs) at the pinnacle of randonnuering, the Paris Brest Paris 2019 and our Hyderabad Randonnuers go down the memory lane and recount their experiences 😀

Raja Sabareesh

1. Short summary of your time at PBP
   It was a wonderful experience, tests more of your mental abilities and team collaboration than personal fitness. Its all about how well you plan the ride and stay together with your group.
   
2. Toughest moment/s at PBP
   => Riding alone in those sleepy nights and crashing multiple times.
   => Chilly nights and not finding any place to take rest
   
3. Most memorable moment/s at PBP
   => The U-turn point, was a wonderful bridge most beautiful place and a happy feeling that i finished half of the ride.
   => Every CP was memorable seeing the huge crowd cheering on the road and the nights with wonderful music & snacks from locals
   => And the finish point, even though i reached after cut off – seeing my friends and lot of people to cheer was awesome feeling.
   
4. 2-3 tips for futureAdvice for future PBP aspirants
   => PBP is not a ride that you have to do it alone. So form a team and practice riding together.
   => Managing everything together – when u have a good team share your activities at every CP.
   => Dont waste time at any CP, eat small quantities and stack up rest in the bike and start quick. If you are taking rest at a CP then you need to get a good sleep, again it has to be whole team together.
   => Groupset, Carbon / Aluminium, carbon wheels or stock wheels none of this matters in such a long ride. Only thing matters is your comfort so make sure you carry everything that makes your comfortable.
   

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Prithvi Krishna

1. Short summary of your time at PBP
   => I had an amazing experience in PBP It was a dream come true for me seeing such a nice country and people.
   => Views were breath taking . People of France are so good that even at midnight they were cheering on roads
   
2. Toughest moment/s at PBP
   => Weather was most chilling
   => Climbs were too big than I expected
   => Lack of food for vegetarians . I just had to survive with bread
   => I gave up at Loudeac due to an knee injury
   
3. Most memorable moment/s at PBP
   => Views of France
   => Hospitality of people in that country
   => Going to MacD and asking for French fries 🍟 like we do in India and people at store laughing at it
   
4. 2-3 tips for futureAdvice for future PBP aspirants
   => Take proper clothing for cold
   => Take some supplements of food
   => Practice well for climbs before you attempt

Sanjay Yadav

1. Short summary of your time at PBP
   => PBP was splendid. Right from the moment we left our accomodation till the time we crossed the finish line, we were always on our toes.
   => Each Night was colder than previous. Managing food was a huge task. Apart from a couple of checkpoints, there were hardly any choices for vegetarian folks.
   => My partner in crime(Prithvi) had to drop at Loudeac, so I kept looking for a peloton or a fellow rider with whom I could ride.
   => While all of this was happening, I was thoroughly enjoying downhills and at times I loved climbing.
   => Post Dreux, we sort of had a race to the finish line which I think was icing on the cake.
   
2. Toughest moment/s at PBP
   There are 2 distinct events that i would term as the toughest.
   
   => Firstly, I somehow lost my base layer and jacket near St Nicolas-du-pelem checkpoint. This meant I had to ride through the night with a single layer of clothing. I suffered badly that night.
   I remember checking mercury level with one of the fellow cyclists around 2AM. His Garmin showed temperatures between 1-3 degrees. According to him, PBP 2019 was colder than PBP 2011 and PBP 2015.
   
   => The second occasion, on the return leg riding towards Mortagne-au-Perche, I had very little energy left in me probably because I couldn’t find anything to eat except for a couple of croissants and a coke at Villains-la-Juhel. I couldn’t pedal any further and had to stop.
   My Mom had given me a few laddus in case I got hungry. I barely managed to hide a couple of them from Prithvi as he attacked anything that was related to Indian food. They saved the day and I somehow crawled to Mortagne-au-Perche.
   
3. Most memorable moment/s at PBP
   => Hands down, Hospitality of French people.
   => I was a bit scared while riding alone through the forests between Carhaix and Brest at night. The reason, I was hallucinating a lot that night. Was asked to join a peloton of Brazilian riders.
   Despite language barriers, their group leader communicated that I should lead the peloton during downhills. We had a different rider to lead when the road was flat, another when we climbed. I rode with those folks for a good 100-120Kms.
   => Sleeping under the dining table at checkpoints.
   
   
4. 2-3 tips for futureAdvice for future PBP aspirants
   => Keep food supplies for emergencies. There is little or no support at Checkpoints after cut off times.
   => A lot of cyclists will be faster than you. Do not worry and have faith in your training.
   => Practice riding uphills as much as you can.
   => We are not used to extreme temperatures that one experiences during PBP. Keep yourself covered up and carry good quality thermal wear.

“[T]o me it doesn’t matter whether it’s raining or the sun is shining or whatever:
as long as I’m riding a bike, I know I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” Mark Cavendish, British pro racer

Skip to the bottom if you want to the WHAT, WHY & HOW of the IMPOSSIBLE LIST!!

 

But before that, you can scroll down through my *incomplete* “IMPOSSIBLE LIST”

 

 

 

WORK

 

Skills

• CodeChef Certification for Data Structures and Algorithms
• Intermediate MS Excel Skills
• Digital Marketing Course (Before May 2018)
• Machine Learning Course (Before June 2018)
• Cryptography Course
• 60 Words Per Minute Typing Speed

Financial Independence

• Earn money outside of Income 
• Increase money earned by at least 50% each month
  February
  March

  
  BLOGGING
  

• At least 2 Blogposts a week from March 2018
• 1 Subscriber for Blog 😛
  10 Subscribers for Blog 
  25 Subscribers for Blog
• 500 views in a month
  1000 views in a month

 

        YOUTUBE

• Post at least 2 Videos in March 2018

 

WORKOUT

 

Fitness Goals

• Do a Handstand
• Do a Wall Flip
• Do a Back Flip
• Develop 2 pack abs

Sport/Endurance Goals

• Jog to college which is 40 kms away. Kind of a Full Marathon ( Before April 2018)
• Complete a 10K Run (PB 58min)
  •  Improve Personal Best to under 45 Mins
• Complete a Half Marathon (PB 2 hr 25 min)
  • Complete Half Marathon under 2 hours
• Complete a Full Marathon
• Become a Randonnuer
• Become a Super Randonnuer(SR)
• Complete a Double SR
• Complete PBP
• Complete LEL
• Complete Spartan Race
• Complete 1/2 IRON MAN
• Complete FULL IRON MAN
• Play a 90 minute Football Match
• Make a clean dive

 

PERSONAL

 

Habit Goals

• Meditate daily for 20 minutes
• Maintain Daily Morning and Evening Journal
• Daily 30 minute workout

Creative Goals

• Early Morning Writing. At least 25 mins for 30 days
• Take part in a Drama
• Take part in a Dance performance
  • Take part in a Dance performance which is not in a Sangeeth
• At least one Theatre/Play performance
• Solve 3×3 under one minute
• Publish a Book (Before July 2018)
• Learn to play Mouth Organ
• Give a stand up comedy performance

Random Goals

• Give a speech in a filled auditorium
• Memorize If poem
• Learn to cook the basic everyday meals

Family and Relationships

• One family trip every six months
• Adopt a child. (Inspired by my friend Swathi Peddi)

Travel Goals

• Go on a road trip with my School friends

Places to Attend

• SpaceX Headquarters
• Venice

Events to Attend

• CES- Consumer Electronic Show
• Unleash the Power Within- Tony Robbins

Fun or Insane

• Climb a building
• Bungee Jumping
• Sky Diving
• Off Road Trail Biking
• Deep Sea Water Diving

Book Reading List

Movie Watch List

 

CURRENT PROGRESS

Loading … 

 

WHAT, WHY & HOW

 

The What

So, you must have got a rough idea about what an Impossible List is about. A thought,  that it’s a effing bucket list or just another name for that.

Kind of! But not completely.

In the month of February, I was consuming content from College Info Geek and I came across this wonderful piece about the Impossible List. That was an inspiration for me to create mine.
Quoting Thomas Frank himself, the man behind College Info Geek- an Impossible List is  “put simply, the impossible list is an ever-evolving list of experiences that build upon each other, help others as well as yourself, and implore you to take action. This is mine, which is, of course, ever-evolving.”

I pretty much implemented the same format as Thomas’ for my list but the only change was that I divided my Goals into three sections – Work, Workout and Personal, a format inspired from Noah Kagan’s.

To summarize,

• An Impossible List is a collection of your Goals which you want to be accomplished in your life time. It’s not a bucket list which you do when you get some time away. An Impossible List reflects how you should be using your daily time.
• You can divide into sections and sub sections for more definite structure but nevertheless you can invent your own format.
• In an Impossible List, the goals keep evolving. Once you complete a goal, you cross it off and then set forth a new goal.
  Ex: After completing my Half Marathon, my new goal looks like this.
  • Complete a Half Marathon (PB 2 hr 25 min
          * Complete Half Marathon under 2 hoursEnjoy your victory but get back in your race buddy. Race against time. Just kidding! No pressure

 

The Why

So, why to make an Impossible List.
I have three strong reasons as to why I prepared mine.

• You’ll have a Vision:We have a tendency to drift through life when we don’t have a proper system or structure. When you make an Impossible List or rather do any goal setting excercise,1) You get a clarity. You set forth some goals and to achieve them you have to put in daily effort. Small gains daily get you there. It’s not a one day-get all scenario. You got to build up the momentum.

  Ex: I can’t complete a full marathon on a whiff. There needs to be a daily preparation, weekly goals to be met and give my best when the opportunity presents itself ( or better, I make the opportunity).

  2) Whenever an opportunity comes, you won’t fail to recognize it. or Maybe the Law of Attraction might work for you.

  Ex: When you plan on doing a trek to himalayas, you start noticing price drops in airlines, or discounts on the trek gear. These things used to happen but you start noticing now.

  And when you make your Impossible List public or share it with a couple of your friends, these two things happen.

 

• You’ll be Accountable:You’ll have that positive pressure on you, now that you made a commitment which isn’t private. You can request your friends to give that kick in the butt whenever you slack.
  Ex: Maybe make a pact with your best friends that if you don’t complete (this), (this ) and (this) in (this)  time frame, you owe him a treat. He’s gonna watch you now!

 

• You can Collaborate:After you make your list public, a couple of interested friends or individuals might help you in your pursuit.
  Ex: They might call and drop by with some popcorn whenever you want to watch the movies on your Watch List, or help you by lending some books or maybe guide you with their experience in things which you are still a beginner. You never know.

 

The How

• Make a ListFirst things first, just make a list.
  Take a 10-15 minute break, write a couple of things down which you always wanted to do. Visit some lists and borrow stuff that resonates with you. No restrictions. Just keep writing. Need not be a one time thing. Add stuff whenever something strikes you.  Make a List in either Evernote or Google Docs. Share it with your close friends or you can make it public on your Social profiles.
• Revisit It ( and maybe update *winks* )
  
  Sometimes you forget you made a list. So, make it a point to revisit the list at least once a week (Bare minimum). Add things. Remove things.

and lastly,

• Put some effort so as to reach the point of striking out things in your list.

 

Ending with a quote-

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Robert Heinlein

 

It’s been 2 months since the start of a New Year. If those two months drifted away just like that, let not the other 10 drift the same. Do a goal setting exercise and make a list. And better yet, leave a link in the comments below so that we all can keep each other accountable.

And hey, do follow my blog, and help me cross one of the items on my list.

Gracias!!! Have a great year ahead

 

Toastmasters International is an organisation which strives for improving your public speaking skills, communication skills and most importantly, your leadership skills. It has member clubs all over the world and if you would like to change your life in a positive way, Toastmasters is one such great platform.
There are member clubs all over the world and you can find one nearest to you on their website.

I recently participated in the qualifiers of Master Orator Championship 2017 – a public speaking competition organised by the Toastmaster clubs of Telangana and Andra Pradesh, two South Indian states.
Quoting directly from their website :

Master Orator Championship is a hunt for the best orator in the college circuit of the two states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Nagpur and Raipur cities. The students are sieved through multiple rounds of selection starting from qualifiers to the finale where 10 contestants across colleges deliver 5 to 7 minute speeches that are mentored and evaluated by a panel of experienced Toastmasters.

This was my speech for the qualifier round and it got me through 2100 participants to the final 150 for the semi-finals. I later went on to final 10 for the finals.

NOTE :

Every BOLD word illustrates the stress on it.

 

MASTER ORATOR CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 – Qualifier Speech