Posts

Billion Dollar Baby

My third Toast Master's speech: Mr. Toast Masters, ladies and gentlemen. The moment you hear the name Bill Gates, the thing that comes to your mind is the image of a shrewd entrepreneur who became the richest man of the world through unethical business practices. Very few of us realize the human side of him and fail to recognize the immense work he has done to reduce inequities and improve lives around the world. In the poorest countries, every day is as deadly as a hurricane. Malaria kills two African children a minute, round the clock. In that minute a woman dies from complications during pregnancy, nine people get infected with HIV, three people die of TB. A vast host of aid workers and agencies and national governments and international organizations have struggled for years to get ahead of the problem but often fell behind. The task was too big, too complicated. There was no one in charge, no consensus about what to do first and never enough money to do it.The challenge of
Post a Comment
Read more

Disposable Planet

My second Toast Master's speech... Opening: The French scholar Sebastian-Roch Nicholoas said, society comprises two classes: those who have more food than appetite, and those who have more appetite than food. Madam ToastMaster, ladies and gentlemen! · According to WHO, nearly 800 million people, or about 13% of the world's population, eat less than they need. · According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America , including 12.9 million children and it is actually getting worse. · At the same time USHealthCare industry spends about $118 billion annually towards addressing ailments resulting from over eating. · According to the Department of Health, in the United States , about 47 million metric tones of food is wasted every year. That is about one fourth of the food produced every year. · Most Americans waste about 300 pounds of food every year. An average American famil
Post a Comment
Read more

Ice Breaker

Transcript of my first Toast Master's speech. Opening: For those of you who do not know me, I was on the cover of the Time magazine as the Man of the year. (I had the Time magazine with me and showed the cover to the audience). (Time's Person of the Year: You) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen. Like most of you, whenever I have an assignment to do, the first thing I do is to Google the topic. So when it was time for my icebreaker, I did the same. Unfortunately, the only hits that Google returned on the topic, which is I , were a few questions and answers that I posted in some Java user groups. Since I am certain that nobody would like to hear about them, I decided to tell you the things that I know about myself rather than asking Google. My name is Pratheep and I work as a Software Architect at Siemens in their Soarian Financial suite of products. I have a wife and a six-year-old son. Needle
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ghost

It was a dream come true for Jay, when he finally landed in Chicago as a consultant for an Information Technology firm. It was mid November and wintry weather had already begun. Even though he had considered heavy leather jackets from India, the wind chill was getting into his bones. Well, winter was fun as long as there was good distillate on hand to keep ones spirit elevated. And there was no shortage for that in downtown Chicago. Once he was done with all the formalities with his employer, he was all set to travel to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania where his actual client was based. The transition from a swarming Chicago to more rustic Pennsylvania was obvious. The cold was definitely tolerable. Before the company provided accommodation came to an end, he sought to measures for some long-term shelter. Since his assignment was initially meant to last for only three months, Jay did not want to lease any apartment as they were asking outrageously high rent if the agreement was un
Post a Comment
Read more