My Ice Breaker Speech: I am an Optimist

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

I was instrumental in bringing up the Philips/NXP Toastmasters club also served as Vice President, Education there. I was totally out of public speaking for more than two years after I left NXP. Now I am a member of Bangalore Toastmasters Club, one of the Bangalore's oldest club with lots of very eminent speakers. It's great to be part of this wonderful club. I gave my first speech from Toastmasters competent communication manual, i.e Ice Breaker. Find below the transcript of my speech, it would be of help to know more about me.

I am an Optimist

No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, I would always love to raise my sight and see possibilities. To my surprise they're always there and I always see them.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters and Guests.

“Humility is like an inner wear, essential, but indecent if shows off”, but people in my home town don’t mind showing it off. This city has gained universal recognition as the leading source of Hosiery and Knitted Garments. It is the garment capital of India, also called Textile City. It is Tirupur in Tamilnadu.

Yes, I was born in a small village near Tirupur to a middle class family whose main occupation is farming. They named me Sivakumar, but I would love to be called as Siva.

Childhood:
Situation at home was not so great when I was young. In spite of all difficulties, when all my cousins were sent to farm fields or garment factories to work, I and my sister were the only lucky ones to attend school. I must proudly say that, today I am standing here in front of you only because of my caring parents and loving sister.

I studied in a wonderful school. Neither I can forget the first day I went school with my grandmother crying all the way from home, nor can I forget the day last day of my 12th standard with tears all the way back to home. We were 6 of us together like a rainbow for 14 continuous years and those were the colorful years in my life.

About my Education:
From my early childhood I was fascinated by electronics. My grandfather had a transistor radio that was very precious to him. He would never miss the morning and evening news every day. One pleasant evening, when Sun was saying good bye to Moon I opened it up out of curiosity to know, what is there inside..?. But, later I realized that opening it up and breaking into pieces is far easier than assembling it together. Somehow with few more screws and wires still remaining, I could make it work the way it was working and that’s a significant accomplishment.

I was totally depressed when I failed to get admission into engineering after my 12th class. There was no one to guide me and not enough money to get things done.

Suddenly this wonderful opportunity came knocking at my door disguised as my father’s friend. When I met him, he asked me “If you are so keen in electronics, why don’t you join a polytechnic...? Then you can very well join an engineering college directly into the second year. It’s called lateral entry.”

I took that as a positive challenge, did my diploma in electronics, passed with flying colors and stood first in my class. Then I went on to study Electrical & Electronics Engineering to come out as a first engineering graduate, in fact a first graduate in our entire family circle.

After a short stint with Wipro and few years with Philips/NXP, now I work for Qualcomm for the past 2 years. My job is to make sure that, your high end mobile phones work even after 10 years from now, flawlessly like it is working today. I do the reliability engineering of mobile semiconductor ICs.

Hobbies:
One of my teachers used to say “Keep yourself engaged in good hobbies, not just for time pass, but something that can be turned into a full time career when you wish or get bored in your routine work”.

My hobbies include reading, writing, listening to music. I read and try to experiment a lot on Self Development, Human Mind and Spirituality. I would love to understand the people around me. I’ve done a Diploma in Counseling Skills last year and I am looking forward for a Masters in Psychology through distance education this year.

Two years ago I picked up Blogging, I blog @ http://www.anbusivam.com. By the way Anbusivam is my pen name with which I used to write some amateur Tamil poems on the last pages of my college notebooks. Even now I used to in some of the lengthy and boring office meetings.

After about 15years I decided to cycle again and bought a new bike last month. Now I cycle 26kms every day, five days a week to and fro between Indiranagar and whitefield. When people ask me “Are you crazy to cycle in this traffic..?” I say, “Yes I am, look into the positive part of cycling. It’s healthier, happier and greener”.

I was happy in life, until I got married 6 months ago. Now with my wife Sangeetha in life, I am happier than ever. She is a home maker, having keen interest in drawing and painting. I am giving in all the support and encouragement to her present goal, which is to expertise in Tanjore Painting.

Beliefs:
I am a deeply rooted spiritual being. But, I am certainly not religious. In my simple understanding: “Love is the one and only universal God”.

I also sincerely believe to a large extent we are the Script writer, Actor and Director of our own movie called Life in this world.

When my friends ask, “How could you take every thing positively…?” I say, I choose to be an optimist, because it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

Optimism is in my blood, I am B+ve. I am an Optimist.

Thanks for Visiting my Blog.

With Love,
Anbusivam