256th Meeting

By Kasun Samavath Mallawarachchi

Rarely do we get the opportunity to have a Distinguished Toastmaster participate in a Gavel meeting, and the 256th meeting was one such rare occasion. Toastmaster Srianthie Salgado, who had been a great pillar of strength for us even during the Speech Olympiad IX, not only graced this meeting with her presence, but also enlightened us through her thorough and useful evaluations.

Hasindu Siyambalape was the Toastmaster for the day and he began the round robin session with a vivid and boastful description about his European tour during CIMA Global Business Challenge. The round robin topic was ‘A journey by a train’, where everyone spoke about their unique experiences in train journeys.

In the table topics session, as usual our president Vibhanu Arachchige took the lead as the first speaker. His speech topic was indifference, and he spoke about the differences between men and women, saying that it is those differences which make the world beautiful.  He also added humour to the speech by saying that no one would like to date a girl with heavily muscled arms or a boy with extremely feminine gestures. Then Chamanthi came and gave a wider view of indifference, saying that we can always be satisfied if we endure everything with indifference.

The third speaker was Samavath. He started with his frequently used opening of marketing his novel, and moved on to speak about having to wait for the right moment in everything. He also ended humorously, by saying that this was the ideal moment to buy his book. The next speaker was Sandaru, who spoke about the degradation of human qualities along with the emergence of new technology. He ended by saying that mobile phone was the greatest drug of this era, which left something for all of us to think about. The next speaker was Rochelle, whose message was ‘It’s not about you. It’s about making the world a better place’.

Supun was the next speaker to take the stage. His speech topic was ‘Being posh’ and he started by narrating one of his numerous experiences regarding girls. He ended by saying that being posh and changing your original behavior in order to date a girl is never effective. The next person to speak was Malith, whose topic was ‘Dance like no one is watching’. He spoke about his futile efforts to learn dancing or to deliver dramatic speeches like girls, giving the message that we have to be satisfied with who we are. The next speaker was Hasindu, who started by saying Chamanthi once called him ‘Prince Charming’. As we all wondered what it was about, he said that it was during a speech contest. He told that his expectations of a perfect girl had risen during his Europe tour and according to him a prefect girl would have French lips, a Russian figure and a Sri Lankan heart. He concluded by saying that since such prefect girls do not exist in reality, he decided to focus on the most important thing, which is the ‘Sri Lankan heart’.

The final speaker for the day was DTM Srianthie, whose topic was ‘Going against the tide’. She spoke about her father, who had the courage to go against the tide and avoid consuming alcohol even when all his friends were drinking. It was a fabulous speech which was an example for all of us. At the end of the session, DTM Srianthie also gave some wonderful evaluations and speaking tips for the speakers.

Role players for the day

Toastmaster – Hasindu Siyambalape

Table topics Master – Praveen Kumarasinghe

Timer – Supun Madushan

Ah counter – Malith Jayaweera

Grammarian – Chamanthi Jayaweera

TT evaluators – Samadhi Poornima and DTM SrianthieSalgado

General Evaluator- Samavath Mallawarachchi

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