DTM Bharathi Shevgoor installed as PTAT Club President

The Port Town Advanced Toastmasters Club (PTAT), an advanced toastmasters club, an offshoot of the Toastmasters international organization, in the port town of Mangaluru, held its investiture ceremony of its office bearers for the year 2017 -18 (July to June) at the Pacific 4 Hall of the Hotel Ocean Pearl Mangaluru on the 1st of July 2017 at 7.00 PM.

It was a grand and entertaining ceremony, built around the theme music (if music be the food of love, play on!), and was naturally peppered with musical interludes and subtle humor that kept the audience comprising of District Leaders (District Administration Manager, DTM Anita Corderio, Division Director, Sagnik Biswas and Area F1 Director Molly Choudhuri, Presidents elect of other Toastmasters Clubs and of course the distinguished members of PTAT and their families engaged throughout its one and half hour duration. Indeed it was so engaging that even the aroma of the sumptuous buffet laid out, and rumbling stomachs was not motivation enough for the audience to leave their seats at the end of the program!

The ceremony was emceed with verve and precision by TM Shivani Baliga and TM Savitha Salian. Their opening remarks set the tone for a higly engaging evening. Dr Chandra Kumar Ballal rendered a meaningful invocation. A heartwarming and witty welcome followed from DTM Veera Katpitia. DTM Urmila Shetty, a veteran of the movement, welcomed the very shy and unassuming, but highly talented chief guest, Dr. Shourjya Banerjee of the Dept of Radiology and Onclology of the KMC Hospital in the City, who she revealed, is not only a brilliant oncologist, but a compassionate one too. In addition the audience learnt that he is a western classical violin virtuoso. A rare combination. Dr. Banerjee is trained at the Trinity College of Music and The Royal School of Music, London.

After the dignitaries took center stage, the formal ceremony took off with the presentation of the previous year’s report by the outgoing secretary, TM Vidya Shenoy. Her presentation was a treat for the audience both visually and verbally as it was peppered with her inimitable wit. This was followed by a short farewell speech by the outgoing president of the Club, Brian Fernandes, who also sang a song at the end of his speech to complement the theme. Following this Dr. Malini Hebbar introduced the new office bearers alluding to the attributes of various musical instruments to explain the six office bearer roles. She did it with panache and wit.  

Dr. Molly Chaudhuri as the Area Director of the area F1, to which the PTAT club belongs, then installed the new office bearers in a brief ceremony in accordance with norms of the TMI. After the new office bearers accepted their roles, Dr. Bharathi Shevgoor, delivered her acceptance speech, commencing it with a song and then going on to promise the best for the club on behalf of her team.  

The Chief Guest, Dr. Sourjya Banerjee’s address revealed his compassion for his patients, and was full of both wit and pathos. The compassionate physician urged people to welcome literature, art and music into their lives, because it humanizes the individual. Sharing his experiences of dealing with patients suffering from terminal illnesses, Dr Banerjee quoted Tagore to say that any ray of sunshine that enters our lives has to be welcomed since it is only positivity that supports us in our daily struggles. The virtuoso violin player added that it was his music that motivated him and gave him cheer and much needed solace in the face of great suffering. “Music is the voice of the universe and the human soul responds to it without barriers of race and religion. It is uplifting and helps us communicate better to our brethren,” he opined.

At the end of his address he treated the audience to a master class on the violin rendering an Italian chord progression that kept the audience spell bound and earned him a standing ovation. He was later presented with a painting by the President’s husband, famous artist Vishnu Shevgoor.

Maria D’Costa inducted new members Sophie Zacharias, Krishna Prasad Adappa and Roshan Satya Sai, who were introduced by Suresh Mathias. Samina Nayak entertained the gathering with a fun quiz on music that was participative in nature and enjoyed by all. 

Area Directors Tanuja Maben, Divyashree Gatti, Presidents and representatives of various other Toastmasters clubs of the region, Shwetha D’Souza (Winners Toastmasters), Kamaldas (Infosys Toastmasters), Praveen Shetty (ProAct Toastmasters), Shariq (Mangalore Toastmasters) and Amitha Shetty (Milagres Toastmasters) felicitated the new officer bearers.  M. N. Pai, Educomm Director of Toastmasters District 92 urged the Toastmasters of the region to help set up new clubs.

About Port Town Advanced Toastmasters

The Port town Advanced Toastmasters Club was chartered three years ago, and is among the more successful clubs in Mangalore because, as its Charter President and incoming treasurer, Dr. C. K Ballal said, it has stuck to its vision of enabling speakers to pursue higher levels of speaking skills. It draws its membership from among those who have completed their basic speaking manuals from across all the other nine clubs of Mangaluru, and is therefore a melting pot of excellence, he added.

Public Speaking originally started with the ancient Greek orators, and while society, culture and technology have evolved the process tremendously, the foundations of public speaking as a form of communication to a group of people remains intact. A good speaker can deliver a bad message well, and an advanced speaker can do it very well…while an average speaker can manage to remain unnoticed despite a great message. Naturally the purpose of chartering an advanced club was to create good speakers, but good speakers with a good message, and in that the Port Town Advanced Toastmasters club, a community of self-driven highly motivated individuals with common goals, has done very well for itself he added.

The outgoing president Brian Fernandes, highlighted the benefits that had accrued to its members in the three years of its existence. These included “stronger evaluations, innovative spots that bring out the talents of members, diversity in membership, that bring their parent clubs culture to the melting pot, a self-driven sense of purpose, where the drive for goal accomplishment is from within and there is no pressure but to improve, and most important of all higher and tougher standards”. He said the camaraderie of the members when they meet and the social support system it creates endears the club to him.

The outgoing and incoming office bearers for the year 2017-18 are as follows: