Life Etc Etc

It's hard to be a casual cricket fan, there are so many things you don't know when you don't watch cricket regularly. I watched a grand total of half a cricket match in the last one year ( the Indian Chase in the ICC Cricket World Cup for Women ) before watching the last three overs of today's final . The last ball six revived my interest in the game and here are some of the most important things I've learnt about today's cricket in the last few hours since the final: Washington and Sundar are one and the same person . Suresh Raina has not retired and still plays occasionally for India.  ' DK ' is the superhuman alter ego of mild mannered Indian wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and when he's in full flow he can hit sixes about as easily as Vijay Shankar can miss them. Vijay Shankar is not a relative of Indian sitar stalwart Ravi Shankar even though I almost felt he was using a sitar to bat after missing the number of balls he d...

On a bright May afternoon I found myself on the Stanley Park Seawall in Vancouver facing the Pacific Ocean . This was the ocean hike that I was most looking forward to. Now before I go any further you might ask me. What is the Seawall? There you go, the picture below should answer your question very well 👇 Stanley Park Seawall (Courtesy: Tourism Vancouver) How did I get there?  Simple via public transport ( TransLink ). In front of me was a 10 KM hike right next to the Pacific Ocean and I was grossly unprepared (didn't even have a bottle of water with me). But water or no water I wasn't about to back out from exploring this beautiful waterfront trail . My first pit stop allowed me to take in the sights of Vancouver downtown along with the  docks . Vancouver Downtown Vancouver docks and the Pan Pacific Hotel Pan Pacific Hotel from the top (Courtesy: BC Ferries Vacations) The next sight to behold my attention was the 100 year old Brockton P...

It's international speech contest time in Toastmasters and yours truly who once talked about what not to do as part of a speech is now back to discuss how to put a ' good speech ' together (although my examples would be geared more towards Toastmaster speeches, almost anyone can use the points below to formulate a good speech). Before I proceed any further let me clarify what I mean by a 'good speech'. A good speech in my opinion has five vital characteristics: Interesting Premise Logical Flow Accurate facts, believable examples, credible anecdotes Rational arguments Clear conclusion Now how do you go about constructing such a good speech. Here's a five step plan:  Pick an idea, a story or a thought which inspired you or affected you or has been bothering you. It doesn't matter if you pick a single line of thought or a story as the basis for your speech. The extent you are convinced about your pick is all that which matters. Now analyz...