November 21st, 2014, Crowne Plaza, New Delhi, Resonance
2014. Semi-Annual Conference of District 41, India. The stage was set, the lamp was lit, and the
MC invited me to the stage, with a wonderful introduction. As I stepped up to
make the 1st speech to the District as the District Governor, the
entire hall waited for the opening address I was to deliver, and bham! I
tripped and fell in front of an audience of 250 people from all across India.
If the world turned it’s head sideways, it would say the guy
in love with me was apparently a Mr.Murphy, who stuck by me through thick and
thin. ‘When everything should go right, and you have everything planned, it
most certainly will go wrong.’ Mr.Murphy
will ensure it.
Finally leaving a country, where no one speaks your language
(Beijing, China, in this case), and bham! The flight will get cancelled,
leaving you stranded at the airport, where the staff says, “solly, no Engleesh(sorry,
no English).” Going up on stage to deliver the best speech of your life, and
bham! The collar mike falls off leaving you with a tail at about 45 seconds
into the speech. Going for a division level table topic contest and bham!
Someone else starts speaking on a different mike, apparently testing it out,
leaving behind very confused judges, and an ever more confused you. If you
think these are improbabilities, or better yet impossibilities… think again,
these are real life situations that have happened to me. Oh, here was another opportunity
Mr.Murphy had shown up in my life… the opening address, remember!
My mind reeled back to a recent Masterchef Class that I had
attended. As the Celebrity Masterchef, the very good looking (he prompted me to
say this ;)) Kunal Kapoor stepped up to start teaching us, folded his sleeves
and put on his mike… bleep, bhahhh, bham… the mike started malfunctioning. 50
of us participants sitting there, were startled. I could sympathise with him,
mike bloopers are something speakers are familiar with. After about 5 minutes
in which he, his cameraman and assistant struggled with the mike, I started
laughing. It wasn’t a smile or even a girly giggle. It was a full blown laugh.
The audience stared at me, his crew stared at me, Kunal Kapoor himself stared
at me! He finally raised an eyebrow and asked, “you find it funny, do you?” I
smiled, and replied back, “Does the mike blooper define how well you cook?”
P.S. the snacks he taught us how to make that day, were amazing!
Often we are faced with situations where things don’t go
according to our plans. Do we give up? Do we sit down and raise a hue and cry?
Does that really define who we are and what we can do? Do we let it define us? Something went wrong, so
what? It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, so what? You made a mistake,
so what?
21st November, I slipped and fell, and I got up
and went and delivered my message to the waiting audience. I have yet to thank
the people who got me first aid post that. What defines us are not our circumstances
but our ability to deliver despite the circumstances.
What defines you?
