Hello Everyone,
Today I am giving my Icebreaker speech. Title of the speech is "I, Me, Myself". The word icebreaker
actually has its origins from shipping industry where vessels with reinforced
bows were used to break the ice in bodies of water to keep the navigation
channels open. Hopefully this speech allows me to do the same here about my
life here.
My life has been like a book and now after a few sessions of
Olam’s Toastmaster’s Club, I feel glad to start a new chapter with you all.
I would start with sharing the cover page with you first. It’s
about my name. No offense to Shakespeare when he said “a rose is a rose is a
rose”, but name does matter. Dehradun is the city where I was born and also
where my parents were posted back then. As I was born premature, my parents
struggled to initially find a name for me as they hadn’t thought they would
have reached to this question earlier. Well, they did name me Rachna. I was
just under two months old when at a picnic to Dhanaulti, my father saw an
advert of a vegetable oil on the cover of a scooter’s stepney and he liked it
so much that he named me Ruchi. But before you think I was named after a
vegetable oil and hence, “fry up” those around me, let me clarify my father’s
version – he like the meaning of the word Ruchi!
When I was two, the family moved to the joint family home in
Delhi. Though only child of my parents, I have grown up with cousins and have
my amazing share of childhood memories. While we had our share of friends, I
actually grew up with my cousins Vicky, Manika, Reena, Himanshu, Meeta and
Anoop.
The Mother’s International School was my first school and in
class 7, was sent to boarding in Dehradun. Well, actually it wasn’t as if I was
sent alone to boarding as some sort of punishment, we all cousins went together
– the boys to the Doon and the girls to Welhams. This has been the most
memorable chapter of my life.
Practically, we cousins have been practically inseparable,
still living in the same house with respective families.
My grandparents have ensured that all kids in the house work
to earn their college degree. So my work life and college life have actually
begun together. Difficult to imagine in hindsight really, but the experience
has been rather exciting and practically bringing in streaks of independence. As
I enrolled for Honours degree in English Literature at DU’s St Stephen’s
College, I also began to intern as a Reporter with The Indian Express. Well,
the job helped to not just pay the college fee, it also helped me entry into
varied events at the North Campus, including the late night fest cultural
nights where possibly my parents wouldn’t have allowed. Three years of college
and I moved to take a full time job at the newspaper and this led me to the
most exciting and memorable chapter of my life. I was the first kid in the
family to not look for a government service. It was quite odd really for the
family but they seem to have taken it quite well.
I covered varied segments here from art to business, and
crime to war. 43 days in the Afghan war was truly memorable and actually built
perspectives which have lasted me till date. The most invigorating person in my
life has been my first boss,. What best possibly would describe him
is Taleb’s The Black Swan.
His most valuable lesson to me has been that it is not
the fall that matters; rather it is the vigour,
the mind set and the speed with which one can stand up back on one’s feet!
Post journalism, I went for my Masters at LSE and Sheffield, followed
an interesting analytics and trading career in commodities where you find me at
Olam today. From a science student at school, a degree in humanities to a
commerce post- graduation, I seemingly have enjoyed it all.
An aspect which have been continuous in life since I can
remember and which makes me “me”, has been the excitement for the new. My love
for reading, food, art, music and travel actually comes from that and leads to
the optimism that I live my life with. Beatings of the life may cast a blow but
don’t keep me down for long ever. Resurrection happens and always, with a vigour.
My life motto has been Zindagi
Gulzar Hai; that is, life is a bed of roses having its share of the thorns;
I believe my life has been so and will continue to be so. I believe in the
“Universal Law of Attraction” -- that is, you get more of what you think about
and feel strongly about. So if you believe, that good things are on their way,
they will soon be there for you!
After being nominated for Toastmasters and wondering where it
will help me, I would repeat myself in saying that it is opening a new chapter
in my life. It’s been quite reassuring to hear “if you got up, said something and sat down, you have
succeeded!”
I thank you all to be part of it and adding onto the memories
I soon will be making. Over the last few years I’ve had more and more people
looking to me for guidance and leadership. I’ve realized it’s just not
something that comes all that naturally to me. But I do believe it is something
that can be learned, and that’s why I’m standing in front of you here today! After
all, it is only the inner growth that changes reality.
