RaadheKrishna!

So, its really been incredible for the response that i got for my first blog. Some of you even took the pains to write a comment(including my guru). One common thing in the comments that i received was that, people are actually waiting to read my next blog. So, the inference which i draw from this is bi fold:

1. My first blog has evoked people's interest and I have made a decent venture in to the world of blogging.

2. People are curious to know to the manner in which I have improved my communication skills, which further makes me feel delighted for the simple reason that people now actually believe that I possess good communication skills:)

After the sanskrit oratorical competition debacle, nothing phenomenal happened. I continued to see people who possessed these abilities with a slightly more analytical angle. I used to ponder over questions like whether they are born with these skills or they certainly make it a point to work at each and every stage...But still, i couldn't give myself a convincing answer. To make things worse, I never discussed about this to anyone. This happened till my schooling career.

The breakthrough came in my college life. After managing a quite decent score in 12th Board exam, I joined Vivekananda College Chennai. The course was Bachelors in Corporate Secretaryship. My class had a strength of 65-70. During the management class, pricncples of management were being discussed in length. An open-ended question about Mr.Henri Fayol's principles was put before the class. At the top of my voice, I managed to speak at a stretch for 10 minutes elucidating all the 14 principles. It was a shocker to me, the class and of course my professor. There was a silence for 2 minutes, everyone pondering about my answer..I enjoyed every moment of it. I knew that I gave an answer which will surely have an ever lasting impact.

From where it came......Was it because of my strong foundation which the school had given me, or was it the eagerness to make an impression or was it finally the awakening of inner self....I think its a perfect proportion of all the 3 components. After that class, I saw people talking among themselves about the answer which I gave. Needless to mention, all of them were really impressed. I took that incident in a very positive manner. I thought this could be the perfect stage from where i can carry on.

So, i started to bridge my impression at each and every walk of my college life. I could very easily analyse the difference. The confidence level was growing in a comprehensive manner. There was no looking back from there on....I had developed good communication skills.

This was the analysing part which i had mentioned in my first blog. For the realising part, wait for the next blog which will include further incidents which made my stronger. That will be the final episode on communication skills.

Regards

O S Mukundan

PS: Continue giving your valuable suggestions........................

RaadheKrishna!!!

So here I come..It is an enlightened feeling that i have started blogging today.I feel like something as if I have won some award:) It really has been a long wait. I usually procrastinate things and this one comes with no exception. Before i start, i have to profusely thank 2 people who have been a real source of inspiration for me to start blogging.

1. My maternal cousin Sruthi Muralidharan, who is doing her PhD in US. I am a huge fan of her blogs. She brings life to each and every composition. I see each and every blog of hers as a composition. Its a virtual treat every time. So, she is my first guru of blogging!!!!!!

2. My school friend Amith Nag who is currently working for IBM in Bangalore. His blogs are incredible. His way of developing a plot is amazing. Some of his blogs are really hilarious.

So, thank you so much for being the inspiration. Please keep up the good work going.

And dear readers, most important thing...While reading my blog, do not have expectation of any sort. I am sure that I will commit at least a dozen of grammatical mistakes and thanks to the spell check, i can avoid spelling mistakes. The post might be totally irrelevant or might not suit your taste. Hence, am cautioning you people in the beginning.

As I earlier said that I usually procrastinate things, but usually find a reason to justify the same. The reason why i prolonged the decision to start blogging is, I could not find a topic where I shall be comfortable. There would be millions of ideas which would pass through my mind, but none would be convincing enough. Finally, I came to a conclusion that for the first time I would write about something which i personally analysed and realised simultaneously(don't ask me how) couple of days ago.

I was very very poor at my communication skills(especially verbal communication) during my schooldays. I sometimes used to wonder on how people could speak so efficiently in oratorical competitions. For some of them, it literally used to be a cake walk. Give them any damn topic, within minutes they would come out with gazillion points. Sadly, never I had the curiosity to improve upon it.

When i was in sixth standard, I had taken sanskrit as my second language. My school frequently conducted oratorical competitions in as many languages as it could. Can you imagine an oratorical competition in sanskrit?? Read further to believe it...

One day, we heard an announcement that there is going to be a sanskrit oratorical competition. There was an open entry system. My friends wondered whether the competition would attract even one entry. Since we had taken sanskrit as our second language, it was compulsory for us to remain as an audience through out the tenure of the competition. So, it was all set. The judges took their seats. The comparer announced the first name(who happened to be my classmate). He did a great job. Obviously I could not understand even a single word. But his body language, confidence and clarity impressed me.

Now, the comparer after giving a few words of appreciation about the previous speaker called the second participant. The name which came out of her mouth was O S MUKUNDAN. I am not able to put any adjective here to describe the feeling which i underwent. I felt terrible and shocked to say the least. My initial thought was to fight with the school administration who didn't even ask whether a person is willing to participate in a competition. But, I thought I would reserve it later. I still remember the walk from my seat to the stage. I think there were some 200 million steps which i took. I went up to the stage and stood before the mike. That's it folks...I was dumb stuck for 2.5 minutes. I couldn't even utter a word. My mind was blank. Even if somebody would have asked my name, i wouldn't have recalled. One of the awful moments of life ....the judges were shattered. One of them, actually went out of the auditorium:) Finally the judges rang the bell indicating that the time was over. I rushed back to my seat. Some of my friends even gave a small clap:) After the competition, I ran to the authorities and asked them how could they include my name when i had not given my intent to participate. The reply that I got, is that since there were only very few entries, they made it compulsory for all sanskrit students to participate.

The worst part is that i could not learn a lesson out of it. Even if I had a reasonable amount of communication skills, I would have managed at least something. At least I would have spoken something in English:)

Now, where is the part of analysing and realising(which i said in the earlier paragraphs) here.

WAIT FOR THE NEXT BLOG......................

PS: Please give your valuable suggestions. I will be more than happy to receive criticism irrespective of being constructive or destructive.

Bye for now....

O S MUKUNDAN

01.07.2009