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Printed and published by Deepak Rathi on behalf of Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. Printed at EL-201 MIDC TTC Industrial Area, Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400705 Phone No. 39802200 and published at 506-507, D Wing, Vashi Plaza, Sector-17, Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400703 Phone- 41515700 Associate Editor: Rajeev D Pai

Srishti Shinde lVashi

Although English is the lingua franca in many countries,few people use it correctly. This is understandable, giventhe fact that it is constantly mutating, borrowing fromother languages, adding new words every day to its vast

reservoir.Here, however, is your

chance to speak the languagethe way it is meant to be spo-ken. Fr Agnel TechnicalEducation Complex, Vashi,has taken a gigantic first steptowards helping people be-come better speakers andleaders by starting aToastmasters Club.

The Vashi chapter of theToastmasters Club has beeninitiated under the aegis ofthe Toastmasters movementin Mumbai. A meeting wasorganised to this effect onAugust 9 at Fr AgnelsTechnical Complex, 2012, bydivision governor Brillian SK,assistant division governorArvind Nair, and office-bear-ers of the region comprisingMumbai, NorthernMaharashtra and Gujarat.

Toastmasters is a learn-by-doing programme in whichevery member is encouragedto participate, and is providedwith meaningful, constructivefeedback for improvement.

The first Navi Mumbaichapter of Toastmasters hadseen participation from 26aspiring public speakersabove the age group of 18.These participants belong tovarious nodes of the city Vashi, Belapur, Kharghar,Koparkhairane and Airoli.Each session of the

Toastmasters Club will last one-and-a-half hours, and willbe conducted once every fortnight on weekends.

The striking difference between the Toastmasters Cluband any English-learning course is that Toastmasters is aself-improvement programme where there are no teachers.

This is not one of the English-speaking courses that runin every small institute in the city. It is a very distinct wayof improving your command over the language, along withdeveloping public speaking and leadership skills. Everymember follows manuals provided by the club, preparesspeeches and presents them in every session. Initially,there will be Toastmasters from Mumbai who will workas timers, evaluators and grammarians and then as thecourse advances, American Toastmasters will take overthese duties, said N Sukumaran, the proposed presidentfor the Vashi club.

Participants will be awarded certificates once theyachieve an objective. The first milestone in the course isthe completion of a participants first ten speeches; he isthen awarded a certificate of Competent Communicator.A certification of Distinguished Toastmaster is achieved

after the successful completion of forty speeches. By par-ticipating in the Toastmasters programme, members en-

joy learning and practicing skills in various areas that canimprove not just their social lives, but their careers as well.

ToastmastersClub in town

Brllan sK, dvon governor

Fine Arts Society gives I-Daycelebrations a cultural touchThe Vah ocety organeda dance and muc extravaganzato commemorate independence Day

Richa Pinto lVashi

The Vashi Fine Arts Society (VFAS) celebrated 65thIndependence Day by organising cultural programmes atMarathi Sahitya Sanskruti Mandal Hall in Vashi.

The event began with welcoming the organisationspresident MA Narayanan and paying a tribute to formerchief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. This was followed by atraditional prayer by Carnatic vocalist Janani Shrikanth.

There was a fashion parade by children who were

dressed up as freedom fighters. Surya Maheshwar, a youngtalent on keyboard, enthralled the crowd. The main attrac-tion of the evening was a Bharatanatyam performance bystudents and young artistes of Kala Sadan. Anju Sasidharan,Santini Chandran, Manjari Madanan, Nidhi Bhandari,Shreya Bhagole and Usha Shetty gave an entertaining re-cital.

The programme started with a flower tribute to LordGanesha. Devotional songs were rendered byNarayanaswamy, founder of Kala Sadan, whileNattuvangam, a classical dance, was done by his sonsSriram and Sarada Ganesan; Uma Narayanaswamy playedthe violin, Nataraj Gopal was on mridangam and JanakiKuchelan played the flute. The programme concluded withthe strains ofVande Mataram. The entire event was com-pered by Nandini Ganesan and all the artistes who per-formed were from Vashi centre.

The organisation aims at teaching Bharatanatyam toyoung aspirants and has been successful in its endeavourfor nearly six decades. Kala Sadan has centres in Vashi,Nerul and Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, and in several loca-tions in Mumbai, Narayanaswamy said.

VFAS also dedicated the evening to differently-abledpersons by inviting a few of them from Sharan, a homerun by Father Agnel Charities.