OBJECTIVES

• To begin speaking before an audience.
• To help you understand what areas require particular emphasis in your speaking development.
• To introduce yourself to your fellow Club members.
• TIME: Four to six minutes.

Welcome to Leena for Dummies!

In this session, I hope you’ll learn all you need to know about me, at least what can be conveyed in 4 mins.

I’ll start with a little background information. I was born in Kerala. When I was about 6 months old, my family shifted to Delhi. I’ve resided in Delhi NCR since then. I did my schooling from St. Thomas’s, Mandir Marg. I graduated in Economics from Sri Venkateswara. Right after college, I started my first job as an abstractor. Then for a few years I worked as an instructional designer, and finally as technical writer in Cadence. I’m married and I have a son.

Moving on to the qualities that make me “Me”. I think when God was putting me together, he packed in some powerful super strengths. Then he probably thought, hey this girl is getting too good to be true, so for every super strength, he counterbalanced with two weaknesses. Or maybe it was vice versa, he started off with the weaknesses and then threw in the strengths as compensation. Let me illustrate with an example. God gave me tremendous will power. When I set my mind on something, I can really make it happen. If it needs hard work, I can work like crazy. If it’s something that needs time, I can be quite patient while still remaining focused. Even things that are seemingly beyond my control will fall right into place to make what I want happen.

With that kind of strength, you would think I’d be going places. I should have been at least the Prime minister by now. But that’s where my weaknesses kick in. The crucial ingredients for making what you want happen are a) that you are clear what you want to happen and b) you are really passionate about it. Unfortunately, it’s very rare that both of these conditions are true for me. I can see pros and cons for each alternative and justify each one of them. This is useful when dealing with people because I can empathize enough. But not useful when taking decisions. Then if by some miracle I do decide in favour of one alternative, I feel what’s wrong with the way things are. I’m reasonably happy, why rock the boat.

Moving on to likes and dislikes, the easiest way to make me happy is to give me a book. And my pet peeve is when someone borrows a book but doesn’t bother to read it. I don’t mind if someone returns it with smudges or food stains. I don’t mind even if you enjoyed it so much you don’t return it all.

That’s me in a nutshell.

Categories: Speeches

Tagged as: icebreaker Toastmasters

Leena T Pandey

I have been reading voraciously since the age of five when I first discovered the joys of reading. I would lap up anything in print. Unrolling an emptied newspaper cone with one hand, stuffing roasted peanuts in my mouth with the other, all the while devouring the printed content on the cone with my eyes, was one of my first experiences in hedonistic pleasure.
In fact, sometimes I feel that I am on an adventurous journey through the secret dreamworld of other people's imaginations, interspersed with occasional visits to my own life to attend events like graduation, first job, marriage, and so on.
As a true-blue reader, I think I am uniquely qualified to comment on and critique other people's works of labour. I can tell exactly what puts the average reader to sleep, what sets their pulse racing, and what has them salivating for more.

Write to me at leenatpandey@gmail.com.