Good evening Madam President, fellow toastmasters and dear guest.

On 10th October or the way I call it – ‘Ten – Ten’ at 10 pm in the night an Ambitious, romantic and peace loving Libra was born.

Astrologers told to my parents that their son is born on very auspicious time. I was so special that there was a conflict between the two astrologers’ on finalizing my name. Finally my parents decided not to take sides and I was named ‘Prateek’ – the symbol of eternal love of my parents.

I grew up in The City of Lakes and Garden, Udaipur in a joint family where 20 relatives lived under 1 roof. Living in joint family is fun because you get to have your own small cricket team.

During my childhood, I had only 1 goal – to terrorize my elder sister, Akanksha. I was so good at it that I was given a sobriquet of “2 and half feet terrorist”.

Like most Indian parent, my parents too had a dream that their son should be an IITian . To achieve their dream I was sent to IIT hub of Kota but apart from studying I did everything else

My destiny took me to IIT hub of Kota to IT hub of Bangalore. It was the beginning of an engineering student’s adventurous life which started from Chagrin ragging session to entertaining hostel life where every day used to start with a new incidence There I became famous as Travelling database because I had information about every girl in the college.

But this wasn’t all that I learnt in college. I learned 3 important skills –

#1 Leadership skill by organizing Mass Bunk.

#2 Team work by borrowing internal paper from HOD’s table and giving multiple proxies in the class.

#3 Responsibility by verifying my answers with the neighbor.

Four years went away with a blink of an eye and my hard work as an electrical engineer paid off and I got recruited as system engineer in Infosys Limited.

A new journey began with Magnificent Mysore campus and tutelage training sessions where I made my new enemy, the dreaded window of Dev square but I fought this demon by demonstrating my skills in Mysore too. Which you know were #1 #2 #3 ButI preserved my sanity by getting inebriated and increasing the revenue of a pub, Purple Haze.

Good times didn’t last long, it was payback time and I got the biggest shock of my life when I saw my posting as Chennai DC.

I was devastated and grumbled about my bad luck. After my cribbing ended, I tried to console myself by saying ‘Chennai won’t be that bad’ but I was wrong, it was even worst. Humidity and language problem added salt to my wounds.

To make survival in Chennai interesting, I picked up new hobbies such as seductive Salsa and also became voracious bibliophile. Even now I can read anywhere and everywhere. I can’t rest until I finish the last page of the book.

Soon I turned my passion of reading into blogging. My blog in Word press is straight from my heart.

Finally after 1 year of perseverance, pleading, perspiration and persuasion, I got myself transferred to Pune DC.

Life’s too short. Cherish every moment & Follow your dream. In time I have understood the value of speaking one’s mind and I dream to conquer the art known as persuasion.  I am doing now by joining Infosys Pune Toastmasters Club.

In the words  Of Mark Twain “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore Dream Discover”

Thank You.

prAts !