My trip to Madurai – Lucius De Almeida.(2019) Day 2

Readers, I am back with Day 2 which is the most important day of the trip!

My trip to Madurai – Lucius De Almeida.(2019) Day 1 — Click here to know about Day 1

1. Morning Start

I woke up slowly, had a shower, got dressed in my suit and packed a small box of idli’s for my stomach throughout the day. At 8:30 a.m we left the hotel to the venue.

2. The Registration/ Walk Of Honour

We got ourselves registered. I held up a placard along with people from all across India and a few foreign countries for the Walk of Honour. Toastmaster Balraj Arunasalam (President Of Public Speaking 2017-18) and a few other Toastmasters accompanied us!

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3. Welcome Address/ Educational Session 1/Tea Break

The Organising Committee member TM Shyamraj walked onto the stage for the Welcome Address! He was a natural speaker. Everyone was waiting for the Educational Speech but sadly the speaker was unable to come so she conducted a video conference. This speaker was Ramona. J. Smith. She is the world champion of public speaking. In the Educational Speech, she told us about the qualities of a champion. After this, we had a tea break.

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Click here to view Ramona’s Winning Speech!!

3. Educational Session 2

TM Shyamraj came up for another one of his hearty welcomes this time as a story presented with his acting skills. The second Educational Session took place in the morning instead of after Lunch. Ramona gave us an inspirational speech.

4. Semi – Finals!

Basically, there were 2 semi-finals contests namely, Speech Contest and the Table Topic Contest. To save on time these contest were each conducted simultaneously in two separate halls. In the Speech Contest, a speaker has a prepared speech of 5 to 7 mins. In the table topic contest, the speaker’s are given a topic on the spot. I liked the semi-finals because I got to listen to the speeches & table topics. My Tummy Coaster stopped from eating Lunch

5. Getting Ready…./ Keynote Session

After Lunch, everyone was presumed to be tired and thinking about their afternoon siesta but TM Balraj saved the day with his Keynote Session. He gave us a talk about how Table Topics should really be performed, but sadly I missed it because I was busy preparing my Script with the Finalists names.

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 6.Finals of Prepared Speech Contest

My heart rammed against my ribcage just imagining that Tummy Coaster could arise while I was speaking. The lectern was taller than me so a stool was arranged. I enjoyed being in control of the situation and it was pretty fun…… Until I finished with the Last Contestant. Before I could formally get off the stage and hand over certificates, I was interrupted, leaving the audience with a mere Thank You.

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7. Bolt from the Blue

TM Shyamraj came onto the stage and said that Ramona wanted to give us another Session unexpectedly! This time Ramona was standing against a wall that was familiar to me and 2 seconds later TM Rajavalli who was another lady at this event, was standing next to Ramona! We all knew that Ramona had unexpectedly arrived. It all occurred so fast, It was a Bolt from the Blue.

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8.Ramona Session

Ramona quickly settled in a comfy sofa next to other dignitaries and then organisers proceeded with the Finals of The table Topic Session. When that was over, it was time for Ramona to showcase her talent! She came up on stage and held a physical activity for the kids, after this she had a long interaction session with the audience.

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9. Results/ Screen Down

Once her session was over, Ramona and the other guests were called up to hand over the awards and certificates to the participants and winners! It was a long session and everyone was tired. Finally, it ended and TM Shyamraj came up to conclude. Meanwhile, another TM walked up to where I was sitting and handed me a certificate just like that!

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10.To strike while the iron is hot

TM Shyamraj was giving another one of his hearty speeches! I took my dads phone, my certificate and a pen and crawled over to Ramona. I asked her for an autograph on my certificate and then I took a selfie with her! I also got my ID card signed by TM Balraj. It was my lucky moment!

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11. Screen Down

It was the conclusion of the Gavelution 2019, Everyone rushed to Ramona and TM Balraj. It was a huge crowd around them while I walked away calmly😉 munching on my tasty Idlis!

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12. Disaster Strikes

I got into the OLA cab to go back to the hotel, I was sleepy and tired. I took out my tab and messaged my mum and my friends. I dragged myself to the room and sat on the bed. Suddenly after 5 mins of being in the room, I realised that the tab was not with me. The tab was in OLA Cab which was long gone.🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️My dad was going to take me to task.

13. My Dads Adventure

My Dad was flustered and called the OLA driver, who had turned his phone off the moment Dad called him. He tried calling him twice! He went down to the reception and told them about the issue because they were locals. While I was furiously typing away on my laptop for solutions.

14. 2 Men on a Wild Goose Chase!

After that I did the most obvious thing, I started crying. The Travel And Tourism desk manager overheard my dads conversation with the reception and volunteered to help. My Dad and Mr.Rajesh Khanna took off on Mr.Rajesh Khanna’s bike. They tried to get to the OLA service in Madurai, the police station. It was a laborious job for the two of them.

15. Back In The Room

My MacBook was connected to WhatsApp, which betokened that the driver had not switched off my tab. I was messaging my dad and updating him about the tracking websites and apps I found. The worst part is that there was no passcode to the device and all our emails were open there! Suddenly the lights went out! After a while, my mentor came to my door and she told me that we could go up to eat dinner.

16. Dad and Lucius save the day!

Before leaving for dinner, I messaged dad to track the tab using the Samsung Tracker web application. After a while, I heard from my dad that he had indeed managed to lock the tab from his phone using the online web application suggested by me. In an amazing twist of things, it seems that the OLA cab driver realised that the tab was locked and decided to call my dad! Mr.Rajesh Khanna and Dad sped off immediately to the driver’s house and got the tab back! My dad thanked Mr.Rajesh Khanna dearly and awarded him 1500 Rs for his unconditional help.

17. Dinner / Sleep

I had my dinner slowly, I took my medications and hit the bed. This day was a long day reader! I hope you’ll enjoyed reading Day 2! For Now, GoodNight Readers!

I will post Day 3 soon!

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