My First Seminar

It has been quite a long time since I gave a public speech or a paper presentation or any other stage performance. My friends would be surprised if I said I danced for an Assamese folk dance on stage when I was 12 as I am normally perceived as an introvert and a shy guy. The 'Seminar' is a part of course curriculum which is compulsory for all the students. So groups of 4 were made and my group consisted of myself and my friends Arun Bhakuni,Anmol Prakash Gautam and Ashish Joshi. I was in the group because these guys believed I would coolly handle my part in the seminar thanks to my 'chatterbox' image. I talk too much that guys have to shout at me to shut up which I normally don't do. Our seminar was scheduled on 12 September 2008 and we planned to prepare for it the day before. Even though I had downloaded the material long before and handed it to my partners we guys simply browsed the pages and no proper plan was made on how we gonna present it and we put it off to the day before the seminar. As luck would have it, there was no power supply on the 11 September right from the morning to 9:30 in the evening. I prayed hard for resumption of power supply. By 7'Oclock I was frustrated at the turn of events and was really cribbing at my hard luck. Then someone said you should have prepared earlier and I could not control my anger and shouted at him. By 7.30 we decided to go to ccf after dinner to get our slides prepared. Members from other group were talking about a mass bunk but it was a strict 'No No!' as we did not want to earn the ire of our seminar incharge Dr. H.L.Mandoria. There was already a mass bunk a week before. After lot of persuasion I got the guys to get to ccf by 9.30. As soon as we reached ccf we got a call that power supply had resumed in the hostel and everyone was on their way back to the hostel.I and Arun stayed back to look for some more material and get some pictures downloaded for the seminar. We were back at the hostel by 10.30 only to find Anmol and Ashish playing counterstrike much to our disappointment. However by 10:45 we got to work on the presentation. It was decided that Ashish would take up the introduction, Arun and Anmol would handle the technicalities of the topic and I would wind up with applications and commercial viability. Once the objectives were set we went back to our rooms to prepare the slides seperately which would be clubbing the next morning. I started reading the material about the markets and applications and I realised my presentation would be over in 2 min. I went down to find out how others were faring and the story here was the same. Then we decided to fill in everything we had leaving no space for queries. Somehow by 3 in the morning I managed to make 14 meaningful slides. I woke around 8 in the morning and enquired how others were faring. Anmol and Arun said they had put together 28 slides and Ashish had 5 slides ready with him. He assured us he would manage to speak around 7 or 8 min. I went back to my room after breakfast and dozed off till 11:30 am. By 11.45 we clubbed the slides and started rehearsing. Ashish had prepared his part quite well but Arun was shaky and his voice was I must say wobbling.He was looking tense and watching him made my nerves go weak. My confidence level was below ground 0 and refrained from rehearsing. I drank lot off water to cool down but to no effect. We reached the Seminar room by 2.15 pm and waited for another 15 min for everyone to assemble. Then started our hour long wait to get the projector working.Most of the students dozed off. Even butterflies in my stomach had settled down. I was no longer interested in carrying on with the seminar but my friends insisted on finishing it off the same day.So our seminar started at 3:35. Ashish started off well only to be interrupted by another technical snag. I think it disturbed his rhythm but somehow he presented his part well. Then came Arun with his technical specifications and he too gave the presentation better than what we expected of him. Well I think he was better than any of us.Anmol started off well with his continuation of technical specifications and passed the baton to me.Butterflies again...I was on the stage and people at the back were making me laugh. I grinned looking at them and knew the damage had been done. I started off with my part and as I looked around I found a funny audience. Guys at the back were waving their hands, poking their fingers and doing all sort of things to distract me but i was quite used to it. Gals at the back were either sleeping or reading some novel or preparing for CAT showing no interest in whats going on. Then I decided to liven up the audience with some mirch masala which started off with Mr. Saurabh Jalal(i) who was waving his hands to some rock music I think. Then I brought a dead man alive and some live examples. I was speaking quite fast and gasping for breath. I felt I finished of my slides in 4-5 min. I felt really relaxed after the seminar as if relieved of some great burden. Some complimented us, some complained it was too lenghty. Then only I came to know I had spoken for about 12 min. I myself couldn't believe it. But the feeling was nice as I stood there for 12 min. without shaking or any butterflies doing the rounds and I felt my voice was quite clear too.