Dubai Metro

After making its presence felt in the world in various fields, Dubai is now on its way to create another landmark, Dubai Metro!





















Way to go...

Minutes of Sept. IUAD meeting

Message is the purpose of communication; not the words in the communication.

Dear Friends,

Are you able to recall that statement? The chances are high if you had attended our last IUAD Alumni meeting which was held jointly with IU Toastmasters Club on Sept 2 nd, 2007.

The registration process started at around 7.30PM and members and guests started coming even before that time. It was nice to see the overwhelming crowd coming for the meeting. It included both the IU Alumni and Toastmasters members and also fellows Toastmasters from different clubs like Abu Dhabi Toastmasters, Millennium Toastmasters and Abu Dhabi ICAI Toastmasters to name a few.

Well, the meeting got started at around 8PM by the opening address from the President Mr. Sudha Datta. He welcomed the audience and assured that we are going have a very exciting meeting. Which ofcourse, we did have! He then introduced Mr. Raman Kumar to conduct his Meditation and Relaxation session.

Mr. Raman Kumar briefed us on what meditation and yoga is all about and lead us through a beautiful 10 mins of meditation session. It made us all calm and relaxed so that we can enjoy the rest of the meeting with a peaceful mind. Big thanks to Mr. Raman Kumar for conducting the session on a very short notice and conducting it wonderfully.

After the meditation session it was time to introduce the speaker for the night. Though, the introduction given by me was very short, but in a way it opened an opportunity for the speaker to introduce himself in a perfect manner. J

Before, the speaker Mr. Maaney Paul, starts his session Madam Shazia presented a bouquet as a token of love on behalf of IUAD.

The stage was all set, flip chart was on place, audience were sitting with keen interest and in complete silence, the speaker started his introduction by sharing how he evolved to be a motivational speaker and trainer. He then mentioned the subject of his talk "Being an Effective Person". Let us now see some of the gems from his hour long interesting talk.

• Personality is an area which belongs to infinity.


• Three things are involved when we communicate with others, words (5%), body language (55%) and tone (35%). Use all of these in right proportion to make the communication effective.


• A good communication consists of confidence and concern.


• Concern is to see things from others perspective.


• Emotional beauty is much more important than the physical beauty.


• Every single word that we utter has an equal reaction going in our body.


• Lack of confidence can take the physical beauty out of the person.


• With money/post/beauty/ youth/heart as the factor we cannot communicate confidently.


• Be people with people i.e., be human with human.


• Fear, which exists with us, is the reason what we are today. It is the phobia that we have to remove which exists at our conscious level.


• Message is the purpose of communication; not the words in the communication.


• Mind can recall on what it was concentrating.


• When the eyes lock with an object, even mind locks with it.


• Hearing is the weakness that is acquired by a person unknowingly.


• While you are hearing, imagination doesn't work. If you are listening then you can imagine what you are listening.


• In excitement the time appears to shrink whereas in pain it appears to expand, as if it is not moving. And finally…


• Become a loveable person.


• Change the attitude and make a comfort zone for others.


• Hate the persons' deeds not the person.

After that wonderful talk, he was so generous to accommodate a few questions from the audience to clarify any doubts that they might have. Few members took the opportunity and have their doubts cleared.

After his session, he was presented with a memento by Mr. Anil Kumar.

The meeting ended with the closing remarks by the President but the second interesting part of the meeting has just begun – Dinner with the IUAD family members and guests!

As always, the food of Foodlands was delicious, mouth watering and finger licking. There was Aachar(pickle) , papad, salad, curd and Dahi Wada to start off with. Seems like Dahi Wada has won the permanent place in the menu list – good sign for a food lover! Then there were variety of chapattis, veg fried rice with two curries, ofcourse one veg and the other non veg – paneer and chicken. For the desert we had tasty fruit salad, which was in much demand that the waiter had to refill it twice or thrice. In all the food and the time spent together with the like minded people was truly admirable. Well, if you think that I wrote a little extra about the food, you can imagine I am fasting! J

With Love!

Abdul Lateef

Digital Enemies

In today's world most of us are living two kinds of life everyday! One with family, friends, colleagues....and the other with the most invincible "E-Box" - the computer.

And how we have someone poking in unwontedly in the real world, here too, in the digital world we have someone called Digital Enemies coming in unwontedly and trying to destroy our beautiful world. The following presentation is to make ourselves aware of these enemies and how can we be safe from them.























Together Towards A Safer Tomorrow

things happen when u least expect them to

A few months back i was desperately looking for a coffee mug...any shopping mall i visit this was the first thing i would search for...but i didn't find any mug for which my heart says "yes, this is what i was looking for"

one fine morning, Abdurrahman, my colleague came to me and said "this is for you"...i looked at him with my eyes wide open and with a surprising smile on my face...he was standing in front of me offering a cool coffee mug...thank you, dear Abdurrahman for your wonderful gift!



Filled with hot coffee!


And when it is empty!

News letter article

A very Happy Independence day to all our members.

Dear Members,

Freedom of any kind is only possible when we struggle towards achieving it. Struggle here means fighting back against the forces which are denying our own freedom. And many a times we see that the true struggle is not against the external forces, it is actually against our own self – yes, against our own beliefs, perceptions, and self ego. A country might get the freedom due to the struggle of their freedom fighters, but what if the citizens are still under the control of their self ego? To be called as a good citizen of our nation and the world as a whole one should be free from the control of his self ego. It is then we can give our best and be a valuable asset to the nation.

In Toastmasters, we learn the same concept of freedom. Getting freedom, over our fear of public speaking, which is considered to be the next to death. Now, this doesn’t mean that just by joining Toastmasters we become a better speaker. Imagine a person who wants to be the best Salsa dancer and just by joining Salsa classes will he become a dancer he wants to be? No, obviously not. He has got to practice it and dance as often as he could. Never leaves an opportunity to shake his legs. Same thing applies to Toastmasters! We joined Toastmasters to be a better speaker, and then what, if, we do not speak at the meetings, do not present the projects, and do not take up the roles? It will just be a mere wastage of time and money – vital and scarce resources. Toastmasters, fight against our own fear of speaking, take up roles, do projects, come forward and face it. Someone rightly said that “avoid it and it grows; face it and it goes.” Believe in this concept and march ahead, coz what you believe in can certainly be made possible.

Wish you all good luck along your journey to be a better speaker!

Best Regards,
Abdul Lateef
VP – Education

(Published in the monthly newsletter of Millennium Toastmasters "The Mirror")

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

“Once you learn, you will remember”

Mom once said, there are three skills which if you learn will never forget in your life time – riding a bicycle, climbing a tree and swimming.

And yesterday was one such day to practically experience this. We were in the pool after about 10 month’s gap and I was really surprised to notice that I am able to swim to the extent I was taught.

But yesterday’s session wasn’t much about training/practice as we were for the entire time playing hand ball. It was a real fun, enjoyed it!

Well, at the end it was pretty clear that, once you learn it, you will remember!