My icebreaker speech (Toastmasters) - Rui loves Wafers!

Unlike most of you in this room, I managed to get some statistics about me. My first name is placed 2686 in the list of most popular first names in the United States.

Good morning fellow toastmasters and friends. As I put pen to paper to prepare my ice breaker speech, I was able to deftly weave memory with history.

It was one of those very calm and pleasant Saturdays in good old Bangalore, when the Dass household had announced the birth of their Son – and they called him “Saint”. He was to be christened saint until there was consensus with his new god parents to call him “Rui Savio” – meaning Street of saint Savio in Portuguese. With my arrival, the house was complete – Dad, Mom, Sis and I.

I was no easy kid to manage and getting teary eyed, screaming at the top of my voice came easy. It was the patience of my parents and the insistence on discipline that made me get in some order. As the first step, I was inducted into Modern English – a school that gave me the foundation and provided me a platform to perform. Thinking about my intelligence, I must say that numbers came very natural to me – I loved arithmetic and was very interested to see how different degrees of separation work in tandem to give you an answer. My early years of growing up were clouded with constant visits by Mr. Virus.

In the words of Kidrock “If it looks good, you’ll see it. If it sounds good, you’ll hear it, if its marketed right, you’ll buy it. But…if its real you’ll feel it” and in reality that is exactly how I was. When my nursery teacher taught us the rhyme – rosy cheeks, eyes are blue, dimple chin. I would run to the mirror to see where they all disappeared. I remember asking the teacher one day “did your rosy cheeks go away after some time?

In a few years, I moved on from trying to have the rosy cheek to see if there was someone out there who had one? I moved schools – joined St. Johns and was soon liking my first tryst with co-education. Shy at the start but the boy in me took over. It was the very peaceful years of life – education was smooth sailing and I was engrossed in culturals, debates, mathematic fests etc. I remember meeting my first girlfriend in the 10th, and guess what she had dimples, and rosy cheeks…John Lenon was right when he penned down the sentence “You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one”

I completed my education and started my Bachelors in Mathematics from Christ College. This was a fun thing – I first took up Journalism and was beginning to understand reporting, communication when Dad stepped into the scene. He moved me out of Journo and got me into Mathematics. By the way, Dad was a design engineer and most recently worked on the Hansa and Saras aircrafts. I completed my degree in 99.

Along the way, the rosy cheeks came and went….None that this Scorpio could hold on to

My first job was with Infosys Technologies – was taken as a trainee in the HR function and I remember that joy of boarding an Infosys bus. I was there for close to 1 year when I decided my ambition wouldn’t let go – joined Aditi Technologies and truly loved the place…a people’s organization and it was also the foundation of my compensation expertise. From Aditi, I moved on to Federal bank and there on to Covansys– went to the U.S for a year but I couldn’t stay there any longer…was back for good and the story goes on…

I’m here now for close to 18 months and loving it! Before I forget, through these years I managed to get myself a Six Sigma Black Belt certification while in the U.S., Masters in Human Resources. I continue to do my bit of writing and for the last 3 years, the visiting faculty at some of the business achools

Lastly, I’m a pretty honest and transparent person. I figured that if I journaled some of my thoughts and struggles publicly, others might be able to relate, feel a little less lonely, and perhaps even find some help. Unintentionally, this has already naturally happened quite a bit in the past, like when I shared about my addiction to wafers and how I gained so much weight.’ on a chat forum, or when I talked about it to a larger audience. So, I hope my public struggling comes to help some of you as well. If not, at least it will still be an opportunity for me to do some good thinking about why Rui enjoys eating wafers!!!

.