By Mohamed Athif
293rd Gavel meeting was held in the ENTC PG Seminar room at 5.15pm as usual. The meeting started off with the national anthem led by Kithmin Wickramasinghe. An enthusiastic Gavelier and an outstanding speaker, the Toastmaster for the day was Kasun Ranasinghe.
It was clear from the Round Robin session itself, that this meeting would be no ordinary one. Kasun had brought his award winning author Grandfather’s ink pen, claiming it’s an invaluable gift to him. Then he gave a mischievous laughter and told the house the truth, that he just bought the pen for 50 Rupees from a shop on the way. Now the challenge was for the house to come up with the craziest story about this pen. The same pen went through a spectrum of roles when it was passed from one hand to the other – from a Nobel laureate’s pocket pen to a bioweapon of mass murder and all sorts of darkest conspiracies that could ever be conceived in human mind
Following the Round Robin session, the Table Topics Master Warunie Adikaram introduced the topics for the day, encouraging the members with a dash of enthusiasm. The well balanced set of Table Topics consisted of 8 topics in different areas. Gavel members eagerly shared their magnificent views on different topics.
Ushani Sureka revealed her secret for success: a prediction from a fortune teller that she would drop out of school and elope with a man. Now Ushani wanted to prove her mother that this was all nonsense. She studied hard and obtained entrance to the university to share us the message that hard work is the mantra of success.
Kithmin took the stage to share with us why we need to take a step back and think of what we are doing, when things appear to be discouraging. Dinuka Salwathura who always has a few interesting stories up his sleeves,, didn’t fail to enlighten us this time either. . He described how much of hard work good memory takes, sharing the story of the person who had the world record for solving the Rubik’s cube.
Timal Mohan creatively came up with how juxtaposition of strokes, dots and symbols create meanings – pointing out to the cursively written letter Z on the topics board. Innocently breaching the traditions, the Table Topics Master Waruni took up the stage and shared her story of A level education. She explained how hard work with tight schedules and unbearable difficulties only end up in something positive, like the very fact that she is now a cheerful university student.
Mohamed Athif shared with the house how he learned to appreciate the hard work of others in their success because it is never easy to imagine how hard they worked to achieve that success. The only person not to speak during the Table Topics session – except the Evaluator Rochelle Silva, who insisted she would not speak, no matter how much we persuaded her to – Gimhani Punnyasoma did the most impromptu speech ever. She did not know what she was to speak even when she started to speak! Creative Gimhani however ended the speech asking the house the three questions (See the topics!) “Why me, Why this, and Why Now?”! The Table Topics session came to an end after this magnificent spin-off.
The Timer’s report and Ah counter’s report were delivered following the speeches. The evaluators Dinuka Salwathura and Rochelle Silva provided insightful evaluations encouraging the speakers further. The control was then given back to the Toastmaster. The Toastmaster was delighted to have a cheerful and colourful meeting.
During the Grammarian’s report, some grammar mistakes made in the speeches of the day were pointed out and corrected by the Grammarian for the benefit of all the Gaveliers. The General Evaluator made some comments on the meeting in general on improving the time management and role fulfillment. The control was given back to the Vice – President Timal Mohan. Bidding goodbye to the fellow creators of a cheerful Gavel meeting, the members dispersed with renewed enthusiasm only to meet again in a weeks’ time.
Role players for the day:-
Toastmaster – Kasun Ranasinghe
Table Topics Master – Warunie Adikaram
Timer – Chinthana Wimalasuriya
Ah counter – Kithmin Wickramasinghe
Grammarian – Gimhani Punnyasoma
Table Topics evaluators – Rochelle Silva, Dinuka Salwathura
General evaluator – Sameera Harshana
Word of the day:-
Extravagant
Table Topics
- Get up, stand up
- My mantra of success
- When you love someone
- It was never possible
- Go hardcore or go home
- Juxtaposition
- Nothing, but makeup
- Hard work beats talent
- Mindset is everything
- The three questions that I need to ask from you.