Toast Master’s Area 11 Contest Held in Abu Dhabi

By Wilson D’Souza, Team Mangalorean UAE
Bellevision Media Network

Abu Dhabi, 03 March 2012:  While it was a week-end for many, it was serious contest for the contestants of Area 11 of Division H. Having won the preliminary contest at the club level it was time for the contestants to test their prowess at the Area Level.
In a packed hall at Gasco Al Rimal Club, Abu Dahbi, another Toast mastering success story was written! On the 2nd of March 2012 Friday, Area 11 under Division H of Toastmasters International conducted their much awaited “Area Contest 2012” to select champion speakers who will be compete at the Division Level of Toastmasters.

Energized Communicators, Visionary Leaders and Enthused Audience even after a heavy Buffet Lunch; collectively they brought out the best amongst “Prepared Speakers, Evaluators, Table Topics Speakers & Humorous Speakers” under Area 11 which consists of four clubs namely “Al Jazira Toastmasters, ETA Ascon STAR Toastmasters, TDIC and Spectrum Toastmasters”.
With the Call to Order by Chief Sergeant At Arms TM Prabhu Dayalan, the annual contest was started and after reading the “Mission of Toastmasters”, TM Prabhu invited the Master of Ceremony TM Anil Pinto to start the show. With his usual Super Charged way of presentation, TM Anil initiated the event and invited Division Governor DTM Dr. Nasef Dhafari to address the audience. In his ceremonial address, TM Nasef detailed the achievements of Division H and informed the attendees that under District 20, this Division Leads in terms of all Educational and Leadership achievements. This announcement was received by thunderous applause. After his address, the Area Governor was invited to open the Annual Event. TM Ramanath S. Annavi, the Governor of Area 11 addressed the audience briefly and declared the session open.

 

With that, the turn of great events unfolded and TM Anil Pinto invited the first Contest Chair Person Madam Toastmaster Joseph Xavier Latha to conduct “International Speech Contest”. MTM Latha took over the Lectern and the show put forth by Spirited Toastmasters under her time control stunned all who witnessed the speeches, by its great level of quality and style of delivery. TM Sivapal, TM Vijay Subramaniam, TM Anoop O K, TM Ashfaq Khan & TM Derick D’Souza were the Five contestants who put the Judges under Chief Judge TM Pradeep Rao under tremendous pressure to choose the best among them.
Upon timely completion of the first Session the MC invited Contest Chairperson of “Evaluation Speech Contest”– TM Ramaraj Laxmanan. After reading out the rules, TM Ramaraj introduced all Six contestants to the Judges and invited TM Mustaba Ali, the target speaker who was a suspense until that moment. TM Ali delivered a wonderful prepared speech based on which the watching evaluators were asked to prepare their evaluations. Once the Target Speech was over, one by one, the evaluators TM Shoukath, TM Sivapal, TM Anoop O K, MTM Sherin Thomas, TM Derick D’Souza and TM Sohail Pedari delivered their Evaluation Speeches putting all those watching into great dilemma of choosing the best.

After Ten Minutes of coffee break, TM Muneeswaran, the Contest Chair Person was invited by the MC to run the “Table Topics Speech Contest” session. One of the three topics brought in by the Chief Judge in closed envelopes was chosen and was given to each contestant to comment upon. All the Six Contestants; TM Mohd. Al Amin, TM Anoop O K, MTM Sherin Thomas, MTM Sharada Ravi and TM Sohail Pedari explained their views on the given topic. Audience were glued to the imagination and delivery method of each speaker. The session in which the test on the capability of a Toastmaster’s presence of mind and impromptu speaking skill went on smoothly and ended with great applause.

Finally, the turn to laugh came in. After warming up the audience, TM Anil Pinto invited the well known Madam Toastmaster Dr. Shuchita Udas, the contest chair person for “Humorous Speech Contest” session. Fastened their seats belts to laugh deep tummy, audience were presented with Five great humorous speakers. TM Derick D’Souza, TM Ashfaq Ahmed Khan, TM Vijay Subramaniam, TM Ajith Aboobacker and TM Shoukath Bhattacharjee.  Providing a literal feast to brain and mind, all these wonderful speakers drove audience through a channel of humour and laughter and they managed to end the session making everyone cheered.

It was time to see the results and contest chairs announced them one by one:
International Speech Contest: First Place - TM Ashfaq Ahmed Khan (Al Jazira); 2nd Place – TM Vijay Subramaniam (Spectrum) & 3rd Place – TM Derick D’Souza (Al Jazira)
Evaluation Contest: 1st Place – TM Sohail Pedari (Al Jazira); 2nd Place – MTM Sherin Thomas (Spectrum) & 3rd Place – TM Derick D’Souza  (Al Jazira)
Table Topics: 1st Place – TM Sohail Pedari (Al Jazira), 2nd Place – MTM Sharada Ravi (Al Jazira) & 3rd Place – MTM Sherin Thomas (Spectrum).
Humorous Speech: 1st Place – TM Ajith Aboobacker (Spectrum), 2nd Place – TM Vijay Subramaniam (Spectrum) & 3rd Place – TM Ashfaq Ahmed Khan (Al Jazira)
All these first place winners will go to Division for the next level of contests.

Among the distinguished attendees were Past Division Governors TM Sudha Datta, TM Farrukh Ali & TM Abraham Raju, Past Area Governor TM Anil Akkineni, Area Governors TM Santhosh Shetty and TM Sunil Kottarathil, Club Presidents TM B.S. Mony, TM Sivapal & TM Anoop O.K. Also attended and instrumental in the success of this event were MTM Ana Maria Paler, TM Aldwin Cosuco, TM Joseph, TM Bhojraj Mane, MTM Nandini and TM Prakash Mehta.

TM Abraham Raju, the Mentor of Area 11 honored the Judges and distributed Certificates to all Role Players. Upon the completion of all felicitations, the MC, TM Anil Pinto invited Area Govenor TM Ramanath S. Annavi for closing the conference. In the closing address he thanked everyone who was a part of this wonderful show, especially TM Derick D’Souza (Asst. Area Governor) and MTM Shuchita Udas. Also he thanked TM Marwan Abdulla Shayea and the Gasco Al Rimal Club management for their wonderful support. By the time he declared the Conference is closed, the clock and Agenda was in uniform indicating the same time. Area 11 can boast of having a great level of Time Management and as usual, that’s what one of the key elements that Toastmastering teaches.