I joined Toastmasters last year, as I always wanted to work on my public speaking skills. The first speech in the Toastmasters club is an Icebreaker, where you introduce yourself and it can be more informal than the other speeches. Here is what I prepared for mine:
As a kid, I wasn’t known to be cooperative, used to steer clear away from any sort of crowd, dominating folks (everyone seemed dominating to me for some reason), or loud talkers. More importantly, I was known to cry at the slightest higher pitch of voice, or forget even that - just make me stand in front of 4-5 people and see me cry for no apparent reason.
Born in a small town of Chhattisgarh, then Madhya Pradesh, I had not seen much of this world, until I went to Pune for a job, and for that reason, I was always programmed to Cry and not to Try.
Storytime - 5-Year-old Saurabh had 6 Rupees in his hands and he was walking towards the school. The class teacher had mentioned that you could only get the Class Group Picture if you pay a 6/- fee. Lost in his thoughts on how 2 minutes of crying convinced the mother to give 6 Rupees, all of a sudden, a big tall boy snatches the money out of his hands and runs away. And what does Little Saurabh do? The only thing he knows - Cry! Didn’t try to run after him or shout to attract the attention of the crowd.
By the way - I was out sick on the day the photograph was clicked. I understood only after a few years why my mother didn’t want to give me the money.
Cut to 14-year-old Saurabh who went to a small Carnival on nearby streets, with his little brother. My brother wanted to ride the not-so-giant wooden human rotated giant wheel. I reluctantly agreed, being always scared of it, but who wants to be the crybaby in front of their siblings. After barely 3-4 rounds, I shout - “Stop the wheel - I dropped my money!!!” After a few shoutings, the guy stops it and asks “How much did you drop?” - 20Rs I say and start crawling away from their acting as if I am trying to find something on the ground.
What was the difference between the last 2 stories? In the first one, I cried, In the 2nd one I cried too, but I tried. The frequency of trying just kept on increasing and that is how I overcame the frequent fear of people, crowd,s and new things.
My usual icebreakers before this have been very forceful - but fruitful. My first speech as a host to a college event - I didn’t even know until the previous night that I would be auditioning - my friends just put my name in there. Outcome - the whole hall was clapping at the end of my audition (primarily because compared to others who were reading from a paper of prewritten script).
Similarly, until 3 years into my first job, I didn’t know that I could sing, until my colleagues put in my name for a competition, since they really liked me humming songs at my desk. That is another story that people felt I had fever or fits because I was shivering during my first song on stage.
I have only been adding more such stories to my pack with every passing year, trying something new, overcoming fears, leading sessions with 100s of professionals, and especially stopping a whole train for 30 minutes when a thief snatched a purse out of my cousin's hands and riding one of the Scariest Rollercoasters in the world, sitting in the front seat.
That is one of the reasons I am here today my friends, knowing that we can always cry, but with some initial fear and encouragement from friends like you, we can instead choose to Try!
