By Lihini Dinushika
The smell of victory was in the air as President Vibhanu Arachchige began the 261st gavel meeting with the pleasant reminder of Kaushalya Gayan Batawalas’ victory at IUBS. As usual the proceedings started with the national anthem which was led by Kaushalya. Then Vibhanu managed to bring some grimaces to the faces of the role players for the day as he shared the advice he got from Channa Gunesekara, one of the past presidents of the club, about making speeches out of the presentation of the role players.
The control was handed over to the Toastmaster of the day Kaushalya, who began his role by welcoming the newcomers of the day and by introducing the role players. He initiated an interesting Round Robin session with a story: “At Katubedda junction a girl and a guy got onto a bus acting like they didn’t know each other…” The story continued with some interesting plot twists. Next, the toastmaster made the day even more interesting by making the members guess the table topics master of the day among the two Sandarus of the club.
“Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.” Vibhanu broke the ice as usual providing his typical relationship advice for the guys. Then the new champion of the club, Kaushalya, left the members with something to think about as he recollected his experiences of a road accident he witnessed. Athif spoke about his experiences in the new department.
Chamanthi got some frustration out of her mind talking about how successful people never genuinely reveal their insecurities on their path towards success.
“Life is not permanent. You won’t escape. So do your duty to your loved ones”. Samavath shared his wisdom with the club as he spoke. The superhero of the club, Sandaru Suranjaya, came up with some valuable insights as he showed that it’s okay not to win as long as you find the superhero inside you. Merl Chandana brought up a different perspective on making judgments pointing out that we have to make smart judgments in our life.
Lihini spoke about the wonder of seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Yasoda’s dramatic speech on how crushes do motivate was later contradicted by Praveen who showed that we shouldn’t jump into decisions just because of a crush.
“I feel like a celebrity being surrounded by so many friends”. Chathuranga ended his speech on the life of a celebrity with a happy note.
“Media as fun as it can be, can also ruin lives”. It was Insaf who pointed out the responsibility of social media bringing up recent events that were blown up unnecessarily by them. After Nuradha’s interesting twist to a story on her happy drug: smile of a small child, Ravindu brought the table topics session to an end with words of wisdom about how we should embrace and enjoy our lives.
After the reports of the evaluators and role players of the day the meeting was adjourned with a quick reminder of the upcoming Gavel conference.
Role players of the day:
- Toastmaster: Kaushalya Gayan Batawala
- Table Topics master: Sandaru Seneviratne
- Ah counter: Chathuranga Amunugama
- Timer: Praveen Kumarasinghe
- Grammarian:Yasoda Gamage
- General Evaluator: Wimali Galgamuwage
- TT Evaluators: Vibhanu Osanka Arachchige, Samavath Mallawarachchi