About myself

A very good morning to the toastmaster and to my fellow members of this club.My name is Nikhil.Today I stand before you to deliver my first prepared speech on myself.I am so glad to get this topic because I love myself so much like all of you love yourself. Not sure if you agree that you are your favorite. when I was in my 10th std an external trainer visited my school to conduct a workshop. He asked the crowd who they love the most in their lives and many answered mother, father etc. But then, he asked again that if we ever got a photo of us in it who would we look for first. The answer was obvious, isnt it. Yes, we unknowingly search for us. That was self realization and I accepted that.

That incident taught me to love myself even more ever since. I was born and brought up in kodungalloor, kerala. After completing my school, I joined a good college in Kerala for Business Administration. Even though I was not good student I got admission there through sport quota. I was really anxious and nervous as I couldnt study in my local language. Completing my schooling in malayalam medium , the sudden transition to an english medium was harsh on me. First of all my mother tongue itself was a big burden for me, then acquire another foreign language is something beyond my capacity. My friends and relatives encouraged and supported me to join for BBA. But it was this one person , who did it for me . He said , ' Even the illiterate in England speak English, so then why cant you?'. It was an absolute inspiration. Ever since then, I began taking up any challenge that came my way. Since I was a sport quota student it was my responsibility build a good team in college. I was a Kabadi and Handball player. Always my university matches came along with my semester exam. I never had option to quit both. It helped me to manage two important things at the same time. More than I learn my management lessons from text books, I have learned management via this experience. My sport life also taught me to work towards a goal, hold the tension and evaluate myself.

Post my graduation I came to bangalore in 2002 to do my PG which posed yet another challenge to me. I had not only to write and study in English but had to communicate in the language. But immediately after my PG I got placed in Reuters in 2005.It was later that I came to know through my brother that my father had plans to get me home to help him run the family business. When I think of it now, I really miss that opportunity because I love my native place dearly. When I began my career here, I had an impression that I was the worst guy they could ever get , considering my poor English .I also had a stiff competition as my colleagues were all experienced so I was really burning the midnight oil.I never realized I was moving up the ladder until my team leader showed me that my performance metrics had topped the whole dept. That was when I realized I could acheive much more with hard work. When I got the team leader job, I grabbed the opportunity because I knew I had got a chance to learn something new and I genuinely love people; but I came to understand that we needed to build up a model to bridge the gap between the team members and the task to be done.

In the year 2009 I got married and we had the blessed addition to our small, happy family in 2011. She was born on International womens day; March 8th. Right now I am enjoying fatherhood with my 15 month old daughter, developed new hobbies to match family requirements, cooking and kitchen gardening. I have come a long way this 7 years in Thomson Reuters and have acquired some intangible skills but now I want to specialise in some specific domain. My next plan is to master some tangible skills, and one of them is to become a good speaker . So here I am. Thank You all.