Professional Toastmasters Club, Karachi: Just five more minutes

Our meeting was on October 27^th, 2011 at Beach Luxury. The theme of our meeting was Justice. Meeting was called in order by our Sergeant-at-Arms, Madam TM Neel. Madam TM Dr. Avan was the Presiding officer. Toastmaster was TM Shahrukh and Topicmaster was Madam TM Dr. Avan.

With respect to the theme of the meeting, Toasmaster tried to explain the concept of Justice. He shared sayings like “justice delayed is justice denied” and “Justice hurried is justice buried.” He also mentioned about the 15 years of court battle of (late) Elouise Cobell for her people.

General Evaluator of the evening was TM Panjwani. His team included TM Ibad as the timer, TM Neel as the Vote Counter, TM Tauseef as the Grammarian and TM Tahir as the Ah-Counter. TM Jaan was the Word-Master and word of the day was “Imposed on.” Madam TM Neel was the Table Topics Evaluator and TM Ibad was the Speech Evaluator.

In Table Topics session, every participant was asked to pickup a colour pencil. He/She was then assigned a country. The participant was supposed to draw that country’s flag in one minute and then tell us something about its language, culture and people. This was to test our general knowledge.

TM Jaan was assigned USA. He told us that all the lawful food of USA is good and WWE’s headquarter is also there. TM Haris was assigned Bangladesh. He successfully drew its flag. TM Ibad was assigned Germany. He drew its flag upside down. He told us that English was driven from Greman language. He said, “Ik ben IBAD en je bent? (I am Ibad and you are?)”. Iran was assigned to TM Tauseef. He couldn’t completely draw its flag. He compared its culture with that of Saudi Arabia. TM Hammad was asked to draw the flag of China. He drew it and shared loads of information related to Sino-Pak friendship, China’s technology and Chinese food. TM Farid was asked to speak on Bangladesh. He drew the flag and shared with us the similarities between Bangladesh and Pakistan. He also mentioned that Bangladesh is the member of SAARC. TM Tahir was asked to speak on Australia. He couldn’t draw its flag completely but mention about the two legendry cricketer brothers, Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh. He also said that an Australian will wake up in the morning, go to work, earn a living, and come back to his home and family by the end of the day, just like us.

In Prepared Speeches session, there was a prepared speech by TM Adnan. He presented project nine from the Competent Communicator manual. The title if his speech was, “Just five more minutes.” His evaluator was TM Ibad. He shared a story of Arslan and Asiya. Asiya asked her mother to let her play for only five more minutes. He explained to us that those five minutes were not for Asiya to play but they were for her mother to see her play. This is the time for her which will not return. He said in the conclusion, “we must not count every moment but should make every moment count.”