Rauf Khalid (1957-2011) – A Tribute

I never imagined in my wildest dreams, that one day I would have to write an obituary piece about late MR Rauf Khalid. During my years of acquaintance with MR Khalid, I had never met a person, who led a fuller life. He was always bubbling with energy, full of excitement, for his existing and future projects. Whenever I met him, which was sometimes after very long intervals, he always greeted me with his radiant smile and warm embrace. He drank from the cup of his short life to the dregs, and achieved so much in such a short life span.

Late Rauf Khalid’s achievements in life are many, from a civil servant, to a pride of performance winning artist his accomplishments are known to all and sundry. In this short piece I would like to dilate upon his efforts, as an educationist, and a great motivator of the youth of our nation.

During the last phase of his life, as vice chancellor of national institute of cultural studies (NICS); MR Rauf Khalid’s burning desire and aim was the building of character of our youth, and preparing them for leadership positions in the future. It was his conviction that the future of our nation lied in the hand of our youth. He was always busy in providing motivational and capacity building forums to young people, to bring out, their full potential. I had the personal honor, to jointly conduct leadership, and public speaking classes with him, which were arranged, free of cost for young men and women, from different walks of life. Just before his tragic, and untimely death, MR Khalid had arranged a very successful youth leadership conference, which was attended by hundreds of young men and women, from all over Pakistan.

On a personal level, I was also a beneficiary of late MR khalid’s magnanimity, by being a member of the Islamabad Toastmaster’s club a pubic speaking, and leadership forum. The toastmaster’s club has been using the facilities of NICS, free of charge, in conducting its weekly meetings for the last four years. Many young people have benefited from the ITC, curtsey MR Khalid’s love of imparting knowledge and desire of capacity building of our youth.

On the very sad occasion, of his tragic demise, my condolences and prayers are with his wife and three children. It is a great pity, that this great life was cut short, by the cruel hand of fait, in its prime. I am certain had MR Rauf Khalid lived longer, he would have achieved more of his lofty goals. I am sure he died with the satisfaction, that he had lived his dreams, and had tried to provide a correct direction to the youth of this country. May his soul rest in piece.

by

Akbar Jan Marwat
(Past President)
Islamabad Toatmasters Club

 

The 163rd Meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club

The 163rd Meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club (ITC) was held on Tuesday 22nd November, 2011 at 1830 hours at ITC-NICS- Lok Virsa Gate No.5 Islamabad. The meeting was called to order by reciting the mission of Toastmasters and motto of Islamabad Toastmasters Club by the TM Imran-ul-Haq.

President ITC TM Sajjad Ahmad welcomed the guests and members in meeting. He introduced the theme of the meeting “Success against Odds”. He asked the guests to briefly introduce themselves. TM Sajjad Ahmad handed over the control of lectern to TM Sahban Zafar Ali as Toastmasters of the Evening for further proceedings of the meeting.

Toastmasters of the Evening (TME), TM Sahban Zafar Ali brought the meeting on track with putting light on the theme of the “Success against Odds”. Further, He introduced the format of the meeting by explaining the objectives and importance of the three segments of the Meeting 1) Table Topics Session, 2) Prepared Speeches and 3) Evaluations. TM Sahban Zafar Ali introduced the Table Topics Master TM Usman Gulzari in a zealous way to take on the Table Topic session.

Table Topics Master (TTM) explained the purpose of Table Topics and reminded the members to use the word of the day “Doctrine” meaning set of guidelines or principle. TTM invited DTM Akbar Jan Marwat, TM Javed Iqbal, TM M Siddique, TM Waqas Ahmed, TM Tariq Mehmood, TM M I Asad, TM Mohsin Iqbal, TM Imran-ul-Haq and a honorable Guest, and gave them variety of simple and easy topics to speak. All Table Topic speakers responded very soundly to the topics given. Table Topic session ends with voting for the best table topic speaker.

After the short break of 10 minutes, the meeting was re-commenced by TME, TM Sahban Zafar Ali with the introduction of Prepared Speeches segment. First speaker TM Sajjad Ahmad delivered his speech from advance manual with the theme of Press Conference by Power consultant which was done wonderfully. TM Mohsin Iqbal was the second speaker on the board, he delivered his third project from CC manual on topic of “Information Technology”. Having completed the Prepared Speeches session, TME asked TM Waqas Ahmed to take charge of meeting as General Evaluator.

General Evaluation Segment was initiated with the concise introduction, objectives and proposed method of Evaluations at Toastmasters. TM Waqas invited the TM Tariq Mehmood to evaluate the Table Topics Speeches and TM Tariq evaluated each speaker in person according to the criterion. TM Javed Iqbal was invited to evaluate the speech of TM Sajjad Ahmad and TM Imran-ul-Haq evaluated the speech of TM Mohsin Iqbal. At the end of evaluation segment, TM Waqas Ahmed evaluated the overall meeting in general and asked the reports from Timer: TM Javed Iqbal, Grammarian: TM Akbar Jan Marwat, Word Master: TM Muhammad Siddique, Ah Counter: Guest

The meeting was ended with the awards distribution by President in coordination with Vote Counter TM Mohsin Iqbal. As per the results the awards went as Best Table Topics Speaker TM Muhammad Siddique, Best Prepared Speaker TM Sajjad Ahmad, Best Evaluator TM TM Imran-ul-Haq, and Big-3 TM Usman Gulzari.

The 162nd Meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club

The 162^nd Meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club was held on Tuesday 15^th November 2011 at 1830 hours at ITC-NICS- Lok Virsa Gate No.5 Islamabad. The meeting was called to order by reciting the mission of Toastmasters and motto of Islamabad Toastmasters Club.

President ITC TM Sajjad Ahmad welcomed the guests and members in meeting. He introduced the theme of the meeting: CHASING YOUR DREAMS. He asked the guests to briefly introduce themselves. TM Sajjad Ahmad handed over the control of lectern to DTM Akbar Jan Marwat as Toastmasters of the Evening for further proceedings of the meeting.

Toastmasters of the Evening, DTM Akbar Jan Marwat brought the meeting on track with putting light on the theme of the day CHASING YOUR DREAMS. Further, He introduced the format of the meeting by explaining the objectives and importance of the three segments of the Meeting 1) Table Topics Session, 2) Prepared Speeches and 3) Evaluations. DTM Akbar Jan Marwat introduced the Table Topics Master TM Nangar Soomro to take over the lectern for further proceedings.

Table Topics Master explained the purpose of Table Topics and reminded the members to use the word of the day REVERIE meaning day dream. TTM invited TM M. Siddique, TM Javed Iqbal, TM Saira Pervez, TM Mian Ramzan, TM Asad, Guest Anjum and Zunaira and gave them variety of funny proverbs to speak.

After the short break of 10 minutes, The meeting was re-commenced by TME, DTM Akbar Jan Marwat with the introduction of Prepared Speeches segment. TM Imran Pervez was requested to deliver his ICE-BREAKING speech which was done wonderfully. TM Mian Ramzan presented his speech from Technical briefings Manual and TM Sajjad Ahmad simulated the interview for Talk show as a requirement of an Advanced Manual. Having completed the Prepared Speeches, TME asked TM Bashir Khan to take charge of meeting as General Evaluator.

General Evaluation Segment was initiated with the concise introduction, objectives and proposed method of Evaluations at Toastmasters. TM Usman Gulzari evaluated the Table Topics Speeches and Speech of TM Mian Ramzan and floated few recommendations. TM Muhammad Siddique was invited to evaluate the speech of TM Sajjad Ahmad and TM Sajjad Ahmad evaluated the speech of TM Imran Pervez. At the end of evaluation segment, TM Bashir Khan asked the reports from Timer: TM Javed Iqbal, Grammarian: TM Muhammad Siddique, Word Master: TM Imran-ul-Haq, Ah Counter: TM Mian Ramzan.

The meeting was ended with the awards distribution by President in coordination with Vote Counter TM Imran Pervez. As per the results the awards went as Best Table Topics Speaker Guest Mr. Anjum, Best Prepared Speaker TM Sajjad Ahmad, Best Evaluator TM Usman Gulzari, and Big Three DTM Akbar Jan Marwat.

Attendance:

1) DTM Akbar Jan Marwat, 2) TM Sajjad Ahmad, 3) TM Muhammad Siddique, 4) TM Nangar Soomro, 5) TM Usman Gulzari, 6) TM Javed Iqbal, 7) TM Muhammad Bashir Khan, 8) TM Mian Ramzan, 9) Imran-ul-Haq, 10) Saira Pervez, 11) Imran Pervez, 12) TM Asad, 13)Guest Mr. Anjum and 14) Guest Ms. Zunaira

The 161st Meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club

The 161^st Meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club was held on 1^st November, 2011 at 1830hours at ITC, Lok Virsa Islamabad. The theme of the Meeting was FLY HIGH and word of the meeting was ZENITH meaning top, apex, and pinnacle. The meeting turned to be very interesting, funny and humorous when every participant enjoyed the meeting with the using different terms and jargons FLYING, FLIGHTS, AIRLINES and Aiming High in order to reach at zenith of one’s career.

The 161^st flight (meeting) of Islamabad Toastmasters Club took off on right on time when Sergeant at Arms announced the opening of meeting. He started the meeting with motto of ITC : For better listening, for better thinking, for better speaking, We learn by doing. Toastmaster Muhmmad Siddique being a Senior Captain of the ITC flight presided over the meeting and welcomed members and guests. He emphasized the importance of flying high and aiming high. (It is worth mentioning that President of Islamabad Toastmasters Club TM Sajjad Ahmad has taken flight to Malaysia last night on business trip and is now above the actual altitude of Islamabad Toastmasters Club). TM Muhammad Siddique introduced the Toastmasters of the evening and invited TM Soomro to take the flight to the speaking destination.

TM Soomro started the session with his inspirational story on EAGLE, CHICKENS AND FLYING HIGH. The opening remarks on the theme set the stage for all the toastmasters to be more energetic, lively and vibrant during the meeting. TME introduced the different segments of the meeting Table Topics speeches, Prepared Speeches and Evaluations. After brief overview on segments, He asked his Cabin Crew: Role players to introduce themselves and how they would be serving the members/guests like passengers on the board. TM Umar Farooq was controlling the words signals and played the role of Grammarian, TM Haleema was Word Master of word Zenith, TM Tariq Mahmood was controlling the traffic of Ahs, Ahms and crunch words as Ah-counter, TM Imran Pervez with different lights was guiding the pilot, captain and all the participants/passengers to manage time, TM Imran-ul-Haq was distributing and collecting the voting slips as Vote Counter to reward best performers.

Further, Vibrant and Dynamic TM of ITC, TM Muhammad Bashir Khan took over the control of the flight as Table Topics Master and amuse/entertain/give challenge of different topics to the toastmasters. He covered 12 TM under the challenge of table topics i.e TM Usman Gulzari, TM Muhammad Siddique, TM Haleema, DTM Akbar Jan Marwat, TM Ms. Saria Pervez, TM Imran ul Haq, TM Waqas Ahmad, TM Shan Muhammad, TM Tariq Muhammad, TM Umar Farooq, Guest Asad and Guest Usman. All the speeches were very enlightening and vivacious specially speech of Guest Usman who spoke on “Godforbidden, If you have one day before you die, who will you prefer to meet first and why”. Maintaining the tradition of networking and light refreshments on the board, TME announced the short break.

TM Soomro resumed the segment like connecting the flight towards destination of Prepared Speeches. There was only one prepared speech by a debut speaker TM Saria Pervez. She broke the ice, in very impressive and wonderful way by grabbing the attention of audience by sharing about herself, her inner power drawn in result of her zodiac sign Gemini. It proved as  striking opening of her speaking travel towards the destination of Competent Communication. As there were no more prepared Speakers, TM Javed Iqbal shared some thoughts on importance of Ah-Counter by referring the article in latest Toastmasters Magazine. TM Muhammad Siddique played the role of humorous of the meeting and shared a role on funny travel by an American, French and Pakistani. TM Mian Ramzan was inspiration master and shared the story behind benson & hedges success. He seemed very inspired and loyal to brand also by showing Benson & Hedges packet very dramtically taken out from his pocket of jacket.

Than it was time to pack and conclude the session with very fruitful Evaluation Session. TM Sahban Zafar deserved praise as he shared instructions and importance of Evaluations helping every member to land safely and happy. He evaluated overall meeting in very professional way and took help from TM Javed Iqbal to evaluate the Table Topics Session. It seemed very though for TM Javed Iqbal to evaluate 12 Speakers in 2 minutes but he did it efficiently. One and Only DTM, DTM Akbar Jan Marwat evaluated the speech of TM Saira Pervez very effectively and wished her to fly high on the journey of public speaking. Finally members of cabin crew/all the role players shared their reports along with findings and recommendations.

TM Muhammad Siddique distributed the awards to the best performers with the help of Vote Counter TM Imran-ul-Haq and declared Guest Usman as Best Table Topics Speaker, TM Saira Pervez as Prepared Speaker, DTM Akbar Jan as Best Evaluator and TM Soomro as Big-3. The Guests Asad and Usman shared their overall comments about meeting and Guest Asad took the boarding card for ITC and became the regular member for onwards.

Finally, a voting was done and was decided that the Meeting on 8^th November 2011 (Tuesday) would not happen due to Eid Holidays. The meeting ended with advance Eid wishes and vote of thanks to and from the TM Muhammad  Siddique, VP Education.

 

The 160th meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club

The 160^th meeting of Islamabad Toastmasters Club was held on 25^th October 2011 at 06:30 pm. The meeting was attended by 13 members and 3 guests (Attendance is given under). The theme of the Meeting was “MANNERS” and the Word of the day was “POLITENESS”.

Seargeant at Arms, TM Bashir Khan started the meeting with the mission of Toastmasters International and motto of Islamabad Toastmasters Club. President TM Sajjad Ahmad welcomed the distinguished guests and fellow toastmasters in the meeting. He emphaised the importance of Manners and its special relevance with Toastmasters. The role of Master of the Ceremony was played by TM Waqas Rajab.

Toastmaster of the evening opened the meeting with quite impressive remarks on Manners by linking with life of Steve Jobs and Mahatama Gandhi. Further, Toastmaster of the Evening explained the three segments of the meeting and introduced the assistants/role players for the meeting i.e Grammarian:TM Imran pervez, Ah-Counter: TM Haleema, Timer: TM Bashir Khan, Vote Counter: TM Javed Iqbal.

TME handed over the control of the meeting to TM Umer Farooq for conducting Table Topics Session of the meeting. He briefly touched upon the significance of Table Topics and guidelines for the TT speakers. TM Umar Farooq invited TM Bashir Khan, TM Usman Gulzari, TM Nangar Soomro, DTM Akbar Jan, TM Haleema, TM Imran Pervez, TM Waqas Ahmad, Guest Mr. Ibrahim and Guest Mr. Athar. The topics were relevant to theme of the meeting and had interesting touch like one speaker spoke on HUSBAND, WIFE and MANNERS. The table topics session ended with voting for best speaker and meanwhile the announcement for light refreshment was done. At refreshments, Seargent at Arms most of the time was busy in arranging the TEA which was successfully arranged.

Toastmaster of the Evening, Waqas Rajab resumed the meeting with Prepared Speeches segment. He introduced the segment and first speaker for Ice-Breaker Speech. TM Sana Naseer delivered her Ice-breaker in very inspiring and impressive manner. TM Javed Iqbal delivered the speech on Body Language: Use of Gestures, DTM Akbar Jan Marwat presented speech from Story Telling manual having characters like Frog etc. At the end of Speech session a Video Speech from Toastmasters International Competition with title Grandma-live fully – lessons of life was arranged and enjoyed by the audience.

As a third Segment of the meeting, TM Nangar Soomro conducted General Evaluation Session. He introduced the Evaluation and its importance at Toastmasters. After that, he invited panel of Evaluators to evaluate the different speeches such as TM Saira Pervez evaluated Table Topics, TM Waqas Ahmad evaluated speech of TM Sana Naseer , TM Sajjad Ahmad evaluated DTM Akbar Jan and TM Bashir Khan evaluated the speech by TM Javed Iqbal. Having completed individual evaluations with Commend, Recommend and Comment methodology, General Evaluator asked the reports from the role players i.e Word Master, Ah-Counter and Grammarian. The general evaluation took place with positive remarks about the meeting, appreciating duties of members specially SAA in arranging the room, banners, trophies etc. General Evaluator asked the members and guests to bring more guests to the meeting in order to spread the benefits of toastmaster to maximum people.

TM Sajjad Ahmad along with Vote Counter TM Javed Iqbal conducted the moment of truth session by awarding Guest Athar for best table topics speaker, TM Sana Naseer for best prepared Speaker, TM Sajjad Ahmad for best evaluator and TM Waqas Rajab as Big-3. The meeting ended with the remarks from the guests and appreciations for the club.

Note: It was decided that Table Topics Competition would be held in Last Week of November.