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Post by Finlip on Dec 31, 2005 18:09:39 GMT 6
I have it typed in my computer at home. I forgot to bring it with me. So, you will have to check back later to read it. I have one file which reviews 2005 for smart club which I will post.
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Post by Finlip on Jan 1, 2006 18:02:56 GMT 6
December 31, 2005
Today's session at the smart club was the 39th. I have now calculated that it was my tenth session and not the 13th as I thought it was then.
I will still call today's session the best that there has been so far. It was great to be there. However unwanted I become, I will just not stop going as long as I am in this city.
Today's pre-decided speaker was Binny. Binny brought a paper with her when she came up to speak. In the beginning it somewhat sounded that she had memorised her speech. But later on, I could see her flow. She took a stand that the party culture is mainly bad. It was a good speech overall. Before the session, I heard her say that hers was going to be like an impromptu speech. It would have been a shame to be a selfdecided speaker and come and say that. However, since she only said that and her speech showed she had actually done enough work on preparing her speech, it is worth a great applause.
The self-decided speaker today was Suman. As always, he failed to keep within the time. Also, the topic he chose today was in one word vague and I would say unsuitable for this club.
The impromptu speaker, Nischal, was given the topic Smart Club in 2005. It wasn't an easy topic at all. But Nischal tackled it well. However, he spent more time in defining and talking about what happens in smart club rather than reflecting on it. He could have talked about the changes it has brought about and other stuff as well. But overall, his impromptu speech was pretty good. Since 2005 was also the year in which it started, defining the club itself wouldn't be any big mistake.
The three commentators were repsectively Parjawal, Ajay, and Dev. I liked Prajwal's comments most. Ajay spent more time wishing us a happy new year than talking about Suman's speech. Dev Kumar was okay in talking about Nishcal. He shouldn't have said that his topic was easy though.
The grammarian (I understand she was given the job at the last moment) was not upto the mark. I think we do need two grammarians working in tandem. Sometimes it seemed like she was correcting something which was grammatically perfect.
The Ah! counter, Sushil, said he got the opportunity to become the Ah! counter with the grace of somebody's absence. In reality, it was because all the roles had not been decided last week.
The time-keeper Sanju, noted down how much time each of the speakers took and it was nice to hear her speak with her very good voice. "Thank you Miss Nepal" was what the co-ordinator said when she finished her speech.
Before going on to the observers' comments, let me write about the co-ordiantor. The co-ordinator Manish Joshi has been showing his devotion to the smart club and he did a fairly good job today. He sounds quite good while he's speaking with a nice tune like his singing a line.
Ironically, the observers in today's session were better than the people who spoke before them.
Prashansha, whom I have known for a long time, was there today and her observations were very interesting. She was there in the first smart club session. As she is studying in India and on vacation, she won't be a regular at least for the next six months.
Anurag was also impressive while he gave his observations. They said he is a very resourceful person and it was interesting to listen to him even more when we had reflections on the first session.
Sameer Ameer Kansakar, was the observer who was observing our session for the first time. I wonder what he would have said if he was here in one of the last three weeks when hardly fifteen people were present every week. However, today, he could see a lot of us go and speak and it was a great environment. He has insight on what points we must take care of. I could see that he was very confident in his speech and it was great having him there.
Robs then gave his observations. This man rocks as we all know.
After all that, it was my turn to come forward and give the critical analysis and then close the session which I did. I could feel like my face was all red when I finished speaking. I wasn't able to say all the things I was planning to say as I hadn't noted anything down. After I said, Good morning and thank you I didn't know anything at all. But then, I slowly took control over myself and with a satisfactory performance, closed the session. It was a wonderful feeling to chair the session attended by so many longtimers.
The roles for next week were then decided. Sushil decided to become the co-ordinator. The last time he chose to become one, he was absent after handing over his role to Binny. Next time, let's hope he makes it. The predecided topic next week is SAFTA and the way forward. All three speakers next week, Prashansha, Astha, and Sanju are female. Rita Thapa is commentator for Sanju Nepal. I remember Sanju was once commentator for Rita. Krishna and Sumit will be the other comemntators. We finally have two grammarians next week. They are Binny and Dev. Time keeper and Ah! counter are Sameer and Anita. Sudeep Gautam will be chairperson in the first session of the year.
The moderation session due to be held this week has been postponed to next week. Mr. Dev will moderate that session and I am the second paper presenter after Sagar. I hope they don't cheat on me and apply an alphabetical order for the presentation. But then again, it might be easier to present first up and make the second presenter sound like he's saying nothing new. I have a feeling that I won't do a good job. Sudip and Suman will be giving comments on that session next week.
Today, we decided that the impromptu speaker shall be given his/her topic just before they start speaking. Anurag had proposed this and Parjwal was also one of the advocators for this and it was almost unanimously passed. On the week when I was co-ordinator, I had given Prajwal his topic after calling him up go give his speech. When we had discussed it after that, he had the view that impromptu speakers should be given the topic at least five minutes in advance. He took a stand on what he was saying on that day as well as today. However, I'm happy that what I said, and the point I was trying to make has finally got into his head. Sometimes, who says something becomes more important than what is being said.
I have no idea why we need this but a decison to have general and executive members was done today. A competition has been organized among us to make a logo as well as a motto for the club. Every one has also been asked to chose three topics each to for a pool of topics so that we can talk on these issues. There was also a decision to limit the number of memberships to 40. The idea of maybe splitting in case there are more members seems really sound to me but then there will be complications of that as well. However this wasn't decided upon. There was also a decision to have a membership fee of Rs. 150 for the next six months which I will find from somewhere and pay. I hope I don't have to go out of Kathmandu during this time.
Since there was a decision to make an executive committee of seven members, we also had an election today. But, it started and was over in no time at all. I decided to be one of the twelve self-nominated candidates for the election. Robs was the self-declared Election Commissioner. When he read out the results, he named the seven elected candidates in alphabetical order and gave us no clue about the votes each of the candidates received. I think that was one thing he really should not have missed. I was surprised not to be one of the elected candidates. Robs was going to name the winners in alphabetical order and when he said A for Apeckshya, my chances were nil but I didn't lose hope until Sagar's name was announced. Apeckshya, Bijaya, Binny, Dev Kumar, Manish, Prajwal, and Sagar were elected. Congratulations to the winners. All of this was held at short notice and there were a few notable absentees. I have no regrets and it is nice to know something that I had feared. On top of that, six months of dedication may have been a difficlut thing for a lazy person like myself. Ajay, Bed, Krishna, and Sudip were the other losers, I think. There were a few other active members who didn't take part. So, my first ever election ended in defeat. And there is one thing that will always be a thing to comfort myself with. The majority is not always right. I am still gracious in defeat. I will keep on going to the smart club, speaking when I can, and then coming back and typing about it.
We had both tea and coffee along with a cake today, at three different breaks. There were some awards handed over. Giving Mr. Suman one of the awards was probably like making fun of him. He was given the award for most punctual or something like that. I hope he can use that and start coming in time as well as finishing his speeches in the given time frame. Prajwal and Apeckshya were jointly given the Most Encouraging Person award. Astha Joshi won the game of muscial chair that we had in the end beating Sagar Dev Bhatta in the final.
One more thing we must do is to start the session at eight o' clock regardless of the number of people that are there. Everyone should make it a habit to be there at least fifteen minutes in hand. I have been there an hour before time on quite a few occassions.
The only thing I want from this smart club is to be able to speak things freely however unreasonable and useless they are. But there is always this fear in me, which I see as a very difficult opposition. I have this fear because I don't like being criticized. But I'm not helping my cause by staying quiet. I might be feeling that things would be worse if I start speaking more.
I hope that in 2006, Smart Club can take me to heights I have never reached before.
I would like to end on a humorous note. This is a sentence from Binny's speech on Party Culture. First of all she siad that it was only the Eastern (Shouldn't it have been Western?) cultures that we have been following instead of our own. One line, verbatim, from her speech will end this article.
"Have you ever had a party on Janai Purnima or Maghe Sakranti? I HOPE you have not."
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