I was excited at hosting my first contest as an Area Governor. I had been entrusted with a geographically wide area encompassing clubs from Chennai, Coimbatore, Tricky & Salem. I rightfully named the event “Confluence”. I was expecting it to be an awesome contest mainly owing to the diversity of the clubs but alas God had other plans. It was a day where I experienced a confluence of different emotions most of them on the negative side. If you are a Toastmaster you get to groom your Leadership skills, Communication skills, Time Management, People Management & Event Management skills as well. It was a day when I was groomed in Crisis Management as well.
A day before the contest the first worry came about the clash with the judgement. But planning had been on for the past one month and it was impossible to take a back step now. Like a pack of cards stumbling. if my contest was postponed the successive divison contest dates too will take a hit. I called up the contest team and after a eleventh hour meet with a few of my mentors tooo we decided to proceed with the context. This was hinging on the premise that the judgement wont be a one with a negative shade.
The D Day dawned in nature’s own resplendent beauty. I awoke to the chirping of the birds. The first thing I saw was the trophies, all glistening & ready. The contest chair & the entire team was all set to put up a fabulous show. I started eagerly to the venue IIT Madras Research park and the guests started to come in. Things got awry at 1 AM when the judgement came. A Literal Doomsday awaited us. My chief judge was standing in a corner very sad, list in deep thoughts. I thought she was worried about the contest, but later I came to know she was worried about the judgement. I was not surprised, I knew she was a staunch “Amma” supporter.
The Humorous speech contest & Evaluation contest went well. It was a contest of “High Quality”. While it was this peaceful atmosphere inside the hall, Outside the hall it was utter chaos. The whole of chennai came to a standstill. Thanks to advent of Smartphones the same mood started creeping in. People were looking at me in a manner no less gawky than the judge who gave this judgement. I expected people to laugh like “Genelia” but in turn they were staring at me like “Jenmam- X”Ayas. The results were announced quickly and the contest came to a close. With a Division Governor like Rahul you will be able to face any calamity. Special instructions were given to all fellow toastmasters & guests. We managed to arrange transport for all of them and left last ourselves.
I stayed at Velachery & TM Jai graciously agreed to drop me. We went near Vijaya nagar bus stand and saw that a mob had taken over it. The wily Jai managed to drive into Seethapathy nagar and we navigated the interiors of that area and came near Velachery railway station. I got an auto from there for almost a “Mega Surged Fare” & finally reached home. As I pondered about the turn of events in the day later at my home, I was glad that I was able to come over this situation. It was yet another scene where I played my part as an Area director in this drama called “Life”, stage called ” Earth”. Thats the beauty in this phenomenon called “Life”.
