Shout... Shout ... Let it all out!

Heh heh.... Dont go by the title... im not venting here. Its the eve of another review and i just feel a little vain right now. To tell the truth, well this is what I am really good at.

Speaking... Talking.... The gift of the gab. Trust me I could talk you into or out of anything should I want to. Tommorow I gotta convince a panel of Lecturers that my project is worth my weight.. no no jayalalithas weight in gold!
Heh heh Ok lets get all formal shall we? Ahem ahem...
Have you noticed my profile pic on this blog? That pic is actually where it all began. A speech introducing a chief guest at out school sports day back in fifth standard. I can remember so clearly being asked to do it. I can also remember my preparation for that day. I wrote a speech with all her introductions that nisha Madam had given me. Dad came in took one look at it and tore it up.
Yeah, so like i said, thats where it all began! Dad asked me to follow him, i remember sitting in the passage between the kitchen and my room ( my dads zone that was, he would always be serious there ) There he sits me down and begins to teach me what i call the golden rules of public speaking? What the hell, let me share a few.
Rule No one: Your audience can read! So if you decide to take notes up, just xerox them and give it to them instead of speaking. A speech is a conversation except that u have no interaction. I realised how much i loved that rule. For this speech i couldn forgo all notes because i didnt really know who the hell the chief guest was, so i did take notes. But didnt glance down too often. I did try to memorize as much of it as possible.
Rule No two: Talk as if you are having a conversation but remember to enunciate. Hardly needed to go into details with this one....
Rule no three: Look impressive. Yeah its important to look good on stage. Doesnt matter if you are drop dead ugly, looking good simply means looking impressive. Polished shoes, pressed clothes, clean face always goes. But not always necessary. You gotta be creative to make sure they look at you.
Rule no four: GOLDEN RULE! Oh yes this is the granddaddy of all the rules. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. rule no three can be applied here, where u dress for the part. U gotta know how to keep your audience into what you are saying. Its actually very simple. Every single time you go up on stage you always have one advantage.... lol you know what? I have said enough.

Anyway dad took me aside and rewrote my speech for me. He then proceeded to actually speak. Picture an awestruck 8 yr old... or whatever the age was.... well that was me. Both hands clenched into fists and on my cheeks as my eyes were wide open and my mouth partially open. In fact I think I can faintly remember my grandfather watching this...
I spoke that day exactly as dad had said. Or rather i started to. Well, I honestly dont know why I did it, but when I got to that podium, I took one look at my audience and I just knew one thing, I can do this.... I just knew that I was going to nail this. I began speaking. I remember once looking at dad and he seemed so surprised because I was speaking not what he had written, nor following his style. At least not completely. I was much more formal much more precise i think. Dads more aggressive than me on stage. But i do remember applause...
That paved the way for me. I really picked up public speaking after that. Especially for Newspaper in Education ( NIE ) which was started when i was in school, where we would have a volunteer come to class and conduct elocution, on the spot speaking, debates etc. I would so look forward to that. Plus i learnt back then how to tackle a hostile audience. Cause none of my classmates ( obviously ) liked listening! But i found ways to get their attention.
Unfortunately that stopped when i entered high school. Come to think of it I shouldnt have stopped it. But things were happening then that called for my attention.
Then here i came... Now I have mentioned on an earlier post that i was a jackass in my first year. True. But I was dynamite on stage. Yes I am not being very modest but take these factors into consideration, the first speaker at a college speaking fest, the only first year to go to a cultural event, a speaker specially requested by my english department throughout that year for every speaking event. I saw and interpreted topics like nobody did. I will share some of those speeches in my next post.
What followed this was in class seminars. Now trust me when i say this, there is no hostile crowd worse than a local engineering college classroom. Also trust me when i say this, I rule....