Category: Uncategorized

International Speech Contest — Round 2 Speech topic selection

by pulkitgangwal, posted in Uncategorized
Guys,

This is for Round 2 of International Speech Contest to be held on March 10th. As Craig Valentine says — “What got you here wont get you THERE”, I have to improve at every step. I have more than one story telling options, all can be expanded into a classic speech but I would like to know which story touches you the most, or which story creates a curiosity in your head. Following are the brief intro to all of them, please get back to me either by commenting here or by mailing me on pulkit1010@gmail.com. I truly appreciate the time you give for this. Please try to respond by Friday – February 17, 2012.

Thanks

1. From Bye to Hi:

Reaching the destination is not a problem ….. but when you reach there, who all stands with you. Because people with whom you started your journey had their own paths which does not crosses yours any longer. What happened on the way? Why you are not together today? What can you do ? Will you take first step to get back? Will you wait for them to call or will you take a step forward, amend the relationship, express your love? 
This could be developed into a story to inspire people to get in touch with all their old friends. Clear their side of guilt with them. Tell them that they are being missed (I will share any of many of my personal stories to support this.) This could be developed into a humorous-inspirational speech and usually these kind of speeches leaves a good impression.
2. Hope:
I saw this friend of mine so sad today. Taking her hands into my own hands, I started explaining to her that I can read future and started saying –“Your Mars look powerful and Jupiter is retrograde, definitely you are going to bounce back … in less than a minute :)”. Her smile was back.
I can create a scene and transform it to how she stood against the flow once again. And I wont reveal until middle of the story that this future telling character is me (Surprise element !! ). Having two characters in story gives variety and life to words and expressions. This story could amaze people and hidden message of hope should fly. My Dad has good hands in Astrology and for the story I can mention him or something from his experience in the speech.


3. The story which brought me to Round 2: One More Time
A boy sees his father as a perfect speaker. At home he holds remote and imitates his Dad. His first speech “Good Morning Friends, My name is …. and he forgets everything after those 6 words. Failing and trying multiple times — this guy is finally able to complete the speech. In the end this guy turns out to be me. The scene created for this completed speech, the fear and failures on the way won hearts.
The story needs to be brushed up, but being in the speech competition, people could relate to it easily and it would be easy to put humor and motivation in the speech. This will make a good speech, giving me a chance to demonstrate two sides of me — Dull, fearful, afraid of getting up on stage and Boom — a new me, one who smiles on stage and speak his heart out.


4. Coming out of Comfort Zone:
All major transitions came to the people who went into an uncomfortable situation and then got up and faced it. Do you recall how uncomfortable you were at the first day of work you are doing right now, but you kept on learning step by step and today you are comfortable — but don’t stop. Growth is about going from one uncomfortable stage to another, from one failure to another. When you get comfortable – even if you are at the top, you cannot improve ,,, you stay there.

By far this is the best topic I could think of. I could support it with my transition from Wireless Engineering to Business Analysis. Narration of tough moments testing my mettle could help me here.For eg. Talking to mirror and giving inspiring dialogues, waking up and saying some same (inspirational) words daily. Can introduce tragic scenes and make a message out of emotional story. It will be difficult to add humor in this story which is why I am hesitating to pick this one up, but let’s see. Other than that, I can combine Topic 3 and Topic 4 and come out of the uncomfortable zone.

Please pick/vote any of these stories if you can. Pass on any suggestion comments or questions. Your point of view matters to me !! .. 

Facing the Facebook

by pulkitgangwal, posted in Uncategorized
This is the text of my speech on increasing use of Facebook and its effects on society. This was my 7th speech since July 2011. The objective was to research a topic and the assigned duration was 5-7 minutes. Some changes I made up on lectern based on Audience reactions. Comments and Suggestions on the speech organization are welcomed.
  
Facing the Facebook
Facebook is like a jail – You sit around and waste your time … you write on walls … and anyone who comes and goes … pokes you . What has Facebook done to us? Fellow Members, Guests and Madam TM, today I am going to talk about three effects of Facebook – three effect of Facebook on people like you, me and even Tom, Dick and Harry.
Facebook Effect #1 – Controlling your behavior
Facebook has changed the dimensions of Fun and Friendship. Few years back we used to play real games with real friends on real basketball courts , but now, it is all about playing Farmville with virtual profiles and in the Farm which doesn’t even exist . A survey was conducted this year which quoted a term – Facebook Envy. People tend to post happy parts of their lives on Facebook. Happy moments like a promotion, new car, vacation and the list goes on, but nobody ever posts the “not-so-happy” part of life on Facebook. People who are on Facebook start comparing their lives with the “Happy” life posted by their friends on Facebook and thinks that their life is lacking something.  They try to look better, do bigger and post even catchier. People like these are prone to depression and have lower self esteem and this status of mind is what they call Facebook Envy.
May be this is the time to realize who is controlling whom?
Facebook Effect # 2 – A complete … complete waste of time
An average user spends 23 minutes a day on Facebook. Just 23 minutes a day adds to 144 hours per annum. 144 hours – the number of hours you work in the month of February. That means an average user wastes one month worth of Work-life on Facebook, no wonder recession is still going on .
There are 800 million  users on Facebook. 50% of these users, when they wake up in the morning  — Look how Andrea is laughing, she is in those 50% people about whom I am going to talk now. 50% of these users including Andrea  the first thing they do when they wake up is see how many comments and likes they got on their last status message which they updated last night before sleeping. And user updates – I don’t understand why are people interested in knowing which of their friends is taking a nap right now, which of them took “Which Friends character are you quiz?” and why are you so curious to see the picture of what your friend in Australia cooked today.
May be this is the time to check the time you waste on Facebook.
Facebook Effect #3 – Well, I don’t know what to call it, but I know I am more popular than anyone in the room right now … you know why – because I have 542 Facebook Friends
Yep, the feeling the more Facebook friends I have, the more popular I am. 27% profiles on Facebook are fake. And I would like to share an instance related to fake profile which happened with my best friend.  He had a crush on this girl and to his surprise, she added him on Facebook. They kept in touch for few months and then she asked him to meet in a café.  He was excited and happily he went to meet her. Do you all want to know what happened in that café? The girl didn’t come is just one side of the story, in her place three guys showed up and  …. One of them was me. I created a fake profile to fool my best friend . That profile was created with intention of fun and humor, but who knows the intention of million other fake profiles? August this year, in UK, a common man like you and me, not a hacker,  was able to steal money from his neighbor’s bank account just by using info his neighbor posted on Facebook. He shared his DOB, maiden name, Hometown, Family Name etc. Surprised ?? 40% profiles on Facebook have information sufficient to open a new bank account.
May be this is the time to reconsider your friend list, your security settings and your information on Facebook.
Conclusion: Everything I shared with you in last few minutes is just a tip of the ice-berg. If you dig more, you will find more. And definitely, this is the time to reconsider, who is controlling whom?, how much time you spend on Facebook and your security, but more than that its time to realize that …………. You are much more interesting person than your Facebook profile………..  that you are much more beautiful than your Facebook profile picture ….. and that you are much more than just a Facebook profile. Think about it !!