The Pink Glow

Back home, my folks always used to look forward to a video recording of the speeches that I give at Toastmasters. And further, that 6 minutes clip used to fetch me their feedback. But what I always wonder is, does that video clip capture the energy, the audience, the presence, the environment of the room? Does that clip ooze the happiness I get when my audience hums, smiles and sways just at the places I expected them to? I am not sure.

This speech, I took the third step towards being a 'Competent Communicator' as per Toastmasters International, along with, my family witnessing me speaking. It must've been a tiny part of the entire trip to have them visit the office campus, be with me as I took my 3rd speech; but there was something more special that added beauty to all of that. At Toastmasters, praises usually are showered like flowers at you. But I couldn't help contain my happiness when I had a couple of people coming up to me and telling me about the best moment of the evening. The moment when they caught my Mom smiling, beaming with pride, applauding along with the audience as I finished my speech. Her eyes spoke volumes. Aren't there some moments in life, when you feel just right? Aren't these the moments we live for? The tiny, bubbly moments that give you the pink glow when ever you fondly look back at them.

Anyway, here's a copy of what I spoke!

"When I was a little girl, I was always fascinated by the small, fancy pictures of the journalists published in the newspapers. Print media was like a distant dreamy bubble for me. It was when I was in class 7^th, I got to taste this happiness. I took the newspaper copy in my hand with my first ever article published and I jumped with joy. It was just a small piece of writing in one of the newspapers. But back then, it mattered to me so so much. The kick I got, seeing a tiny picture of mine along with my name in print, inspired me to write more. Send more. And get published more often.

Fellow Toastmasters and dear guests.

Good Evening.

Have you ever taken up a hobby or an interest for the sheer benefit of satisfying your curiosity? Just for the kick it gives you? It’s like when we venture into a new hobby or anything new, it’s a human nature to doubt every action, every step of ours. Doubting its relevance to our future. But some small steps. One step at a time.

Jumping to year 2012. When I had just graduated from college and was jobless for a while before joining Infosys; rather than throwing the customary curses at life, Infosys, my career, my college and else, I had to figure out what to do with the newly found free time. Following the formal procedure of applying to one of the newspaper publication, I stood in front of an intense interviewer in a studio room. The room oozed of fame and power; wealth and opulence; journalism and print media. I felt ill at ease. I was used to college corridors, classrooms with graffiti on walls and a place of free spirits, where you could escape questions. But on the contrary, I couldn’t just skip answering here. To add to my dis-comfort, the interviewer asked, “Have you ever written anything?” Now, this was the first ever interview in such a domain. To add to this, I had no formal degree to save me. Weighing my chances, I mentioned a few things. My blog that I had been maintaining for quite some time and of course those articles from my childhood that had got published and were now pasted in a kiddish manner in one of my scrap books.

He kept flipping pages, my heartbeat kept on gaining momentum. While he kept on reading the articles, I tried hard to hold onto the pillar of hope. Holding onto it, doubting myself. Doubting myself, losing almost all the hope I had walked in with.

Suddenly, there was turn of events, he smiled. He nodded.. And he uttered, “You’ve already done a good job.” He seemed impressed. I sighed!!!!!!

Unexpectedly, those kiddish articles had become my dark knight that day. My savior. One of the reasons behind my bagging this job. The job as a journalist. The job that gave me so many chances to get the fancy pictures that journalists have with their articles published in the newspaper. The bliss was back again. The happiness and joy of seeing my name in print.

Now, how did all of this happen? Of course, connecting the dots backward, I could place how the path was like. Our lives are like walls. You cannot randomly wake up one day and say, I’m going to build the most beautiful wall that has ever been build. It can only happen with one brick being put most perfectly at a time. Brick by brick. One step at a time. Sooner than you can imagine, you will have your brightest and the most beautiful wall with you.

Did you know, Steve Jobs had taken up a calligraphy class out of sheer interest; spending his time learning about varying amount of spaces in various types of fonts. Now, none of this had even a hope of any practical application in his life, back then, while he was in college. But ten years later, when the first Mac was designed, it was the first computer with beautiful typography. If he had never dropped in on this calligraphy class, then personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do today.

Of course, it was that “one” brick that fell into place while looking at the wall of his life. It’s always one step at a time that you take. You maybe unsure but down the line things fall into place almost like you might have never imagined.

You will want to stop. Don’t.

It took Messi 17 years and 114 days to become overnight success.

One step at a time to becoming an overnight success.

So while I was writing my speech, I had asked the same question to a couple of my friends about something they would want to accomplish. I got series of answers ranging from ‘Learn how to play a guitar’ to ‘I’m an engineer but I want to learn psychology’. These answers varied from person to person.

Maybe writing that code or say, joining toastmasters isn’t making sense to you right now but you have to trust in something- your gut, your interests, your destiny. Anything. Anything. But just take one step at a time. "