A Glimpse into My Journey

Though am a confident writer by choice and profession, who is driven by passion, I'm not comfortable facing an audience! Recently, I have joined Toastmasters International (corporate member). Now, I have the motivation to challenge myself and outgrow my limitation. As a baby step, I had to prepare for my first speech called CC1 - Icebreaker(Competent and Communication). Since I prepared a script, I thought why not document it down as a blog too! Herez the script:

Born in a traditionally conventional Sourashtra family on 5th March...during raghu kaalam, whatever the implication might be. Well, I was brought up in an energetic environment and encouraged to do stuff my way. Dad is a business man and mom is an unusual home maker. Unusual, in the sense by the time she was just 18, she had me & my brother who is younger than me by 2 years! But, that didn't stop her from chasing her dream of higher studies. By the time I graduated with a BA in English Lit, my mom had completed a degree in Commerce (BCom), a degree in Sanskrit and Hindi Grammar too! All through my life I have seen that passion was the only driving force her. Speaking about my husband, he is a Metals doctor and because of him I have had the opportunity to travel and live outside India too, which has given me wonderful opportunities. We have a teenage daughter who is in AS levels in an international school, because it his her first time getting education in India.

I grew up with my cousins, and most of them were boys...I enjoyed typical boys activities like climbing walls & trees flying kites and basically I was a ‘tom boy’. 

Applied soft-focus - but you get an idea!

Besides that, I was named as ‘chatterbox’, because I always had a lot to talk, if I was asked to do something, I had to know why and if I was told NOT to do, then I had even more things to ask, why can’t I do and what if I do that! At home, I was banned from using razor blades to sharpen the pencils, so once at school, I think I was in year 3, one of my friends was using blade and he kept teasing me that I don't know how to use it, so I was trying to snatch from him and ended up with hurting myself...well, that gave me an identification mark for life!

Throughout my schooling I was a mediocre student, who loves chatting and being a back bencher, but the trouble was, I was never allowed to sit in the back bench because my teachers knew how naughty I could be. Any noise or distraction, first I would be singled out. This continued throughout my college life as well, so I will just say that I had a gala time for 3 years. 

Well, I have inherited my passion and interest from my mom. Whatever I do, I try to do it wholeheartedly and not just for the sake of doing it. My reading habit too has evolved from comics to philosophy and fiction to factual books. When I was a kid, I was attracted to pictures, so started off with comics like Muthu comics, Mayavi series and from school library I used to get Tin Tin, later moved on to Secret Seven, Famous Five, Treasure Island kind of books and during adolescent, I was more towards Mills & Boon & Silhouette series. During college days, I graduated to reading Ayn Rand, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robbins, Jeffery archer and Robert Ludlum and I was introduced to Chandilyan and kalki too and till date I have a strong attachment to Cholas & Pallavas. Because of this passion, just at the drop of the hat, I drive to Mahabalipuruam just to see the caves & take photos. 

Shore Temple - Mahabalipuram - Our World

 When you do anything, do it with passion, that will be the driving force. From my experience be it my naughty tricks from childhood or preparing for this CC1, I do it with passion. Passion helps you to look forward to things in life and give you the confidence to pursue relentlessly.