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By Laila
Nasry Standing on
a box he would render them with aplomb to whoever would hear him
- most often his family’s male domestic aide, also his only
competition, the two of them drafting separate political speeches
in Sinhala. From the debating
team at Royal College to winning oratorical contests in Palm Beach
Junior College, Florida, where he went for his higher studies, public
speaking, which started as a childish pastime soon grew to a well-mastered
art and today, Dr. Dilip Abayasekera, 51, a qualified industrial
scientist stands as a professional speaker, trainer and speech coach
and the first Sri Lankan to become 3rd President of Toastmasters
International. Living in Missouri
at the time, his wife by chance had spotted an advertisement in
the newspapers with details of the local toastmasters club. The
decision to join it came easy but unlike most of its members the
reason being not to improve communication skills but to have a captive
audience. "Public speaking cannot be learned from books, you
must have your speeches evaluated," he says. With successive
speeches his passion for public speaking grew. Working as a scientist
in a chemical company, he was instrumental in setting up a Toastmasters
programme there. Lunch breaks were devoted to conducting seminars
for his colleagues on effective presentation skills, speech craft,
creative thinking and mind mapping. Soon requests came from his
boss to coach scientists and engineers on how to make better presentations. Just a year
later, he won the District Competition which had representatives
from 87 other clubs. Sights were set on the World Championship of
Public Speaking. "It was like preparing for the Olympics. I
watched tapes, spoke to past champions and practised hard,"
he recalls. But lady luck did not favour him that time around nor
in the two attempts thereafter. Learning from
the experience Dr. Abayasekera says, "A speaker must give something
of value to the audience. He speaks to them and not to himself."
Thus he says, "It's necessary that you dig deep within yourself
and discover what you can present on your own that would be of value.
That's what I needed to discover. I was an orator until then." At his fourth
attempt in 1992 after a two-year break, he bagged second place. Generally his
topics are of inspirational value. "People need someone to
inspire them. It's not preaching but sharing." Thus it's important
to keep it simple. But as to what captivates an audience he says,
"Enthusiasm is the key. If something excites me it's bound
to catch on to those listening to me", a principle, which he
strictly adhered to as a graduate teaching assistant in the past
and current resource person conducting seminars. However he states
that one cannot reach each and every person in the audience. "They
all come with some sort of baggage. Prejudices, bad experiences,
personal opinions… but what is important is to connect with
them and them with you." He says that the response from his clients is overwhelming. Recalling one such occasion at a seminar he had conducted in New York, he says, an elderly couple had come up to him at the end and said, 'Your speech was a spiritual impetus for us to go on. We wish our son could have heard what you said. Can you please send us a tape of your speech.' Such response he says "…and I'm floating up near the ceiling." After 17 years
in the Toastmasters Club, during which as President he led his club
to number three position in the world, later as District Governor
heading his district to fourth place worldwide and elected to the
Board of Directors in 1999, Dr. Abayasekera is convinced the Toastmasters
programme works. Recounting
its success in the Baltimore Youth Detention Homes where the residivision
rate (rate of one-time offenders returning to prison) fell below
five percent subsequent to the programme being carried out there,
he states much of it is about people beginning to see themselves
and their world differently. The programme
itself, which includes both communication and leadership, is a self-paced
learning process and according to Dr. Abayasekera people learn best,
when they actually do it and not merely read about it, in supportive
atmospheres and when they are having fun… three prominent features
of the Toastmasters programme which contribute to its success. As an "Accredited Speaker" of the Toastmasters and conductor of regular seminars, Dr. Abayasekera says, "I've seen people go from closed buds to an open flower… and that's the story of the Toastmasters Club over and over again." When Lankan waves reached the summit By Upali
Salgado According to
Sir Edmund, he heard a distinct voice saying Radio Ceylon, advertising
Bushell's kopi (coffee). Bushell's Coffee was a well-known trade
name at that time, like Nescafe today. Radio Ceylon had been gifted
a very powerful radio transmitter by the British after the conclusion
of World War II, on the intervention of Sir Geoffrey Layton, Commander-in-Chief
of the Forces. There was also
a raging controversy at that time about reaching the summit after
a gritty and risky climb. According to Sherpa Tenzing, "The
rope that joined us was thirty feet long, but I held most of the
loops in my hand, so there was only about six feet between us. I
was not thinking of ‘first’ and ‘second’. I
did not say to myself, ‘There is the golden apple up there.
I will push Hillary aside and run for it.’ We went on slowly,
steadily, and at last, we were there. Hillary stepped on top first,
and I stepped after him." Tenzing says, in his book Man of Everest, "I unwound the four flags from around the axe. They were tied together on a string, which was fastened to the blade of the axe, and I held up high the axe, and Hillary took the picture. The order of the flags from top to bottom was the United Nations, British, Nepalese and Indian.”
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