I was invited by Speakers Den Toastmasters, Bangalore to speak on humor and the theme was Bollywood. I recollected my growing-up years and recounted my favourites. It may be pre-historic for Gen [...]

Disclaimer: I live today to write this blog because of the munificence and support of my friends from school and college. This post is not about them but the lessons learned from getting into a [...]

“Attending a committee meeting and going to the toilet are in many ways similar. In both the places you go sit down, make a lot of noise and finally the matter is dropped.” I haven’t yet used [...]

In 2009 I had signed up for a workshop for entrepreneurs by Prof Y L R Moorthi of IIM Bangalore for two reasons. One, to pitchfork my training to the next level and learn from the iconic [...]

June 3, 2020. Dr Latha Vijayabhaskar, curator of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge welcomed us with a note, “We are back once again with a 30 day challenge to learn and push ourselves to do better. [...]

It all started at IIM Bangalore. I regularly conduct programs for MDP sessions and one program I’ve been associated since inception is the Women Entrepreneurship Program offered by N S Raghavan [...]

Both of them in the picture above may not have anything to do with public speaking, but in India we celebrate ‘Guru Poornima’ today by expressing our gratitude to our teachers in various avatars, [...]

My friend and a compelling professional speaker, Pravin Shekar http://katha108.com has been persuading me to write a book for over three years. I thought my lethargy will put him off. And he [...]

I was elated to read the blurb that lead to an article in the July-August 2020 issue of Harvard Business Review which validated my sustained work on talking about business humor. “One good [...]

I’ve been lucky to travel extensively across continents on training assignments and here are some tips on communicating across cultures. 1. Challenge your Assumptions My training career took off [...]

Manipal, Karnataka. Mid-70s. I was a student of engineering at MIT and also a member of the Manipal Junior Jaycees Club. We had many stalwarts from our parent Manipal Jaycees guiding us as [...]

“When you begin to analyse fun, it isn’t fun anymore”-Anon I received this book as a gift and something about the title and the blurb intrigued me -“The best-selling, groundbreaking classic by [...]

My public speaking teachers had stressed on these rules to be followed religiously to be an effective speaker. Seemingly simple but difficult to practise as I learned the hard way. There are many [...]

I live in the city of Bangalore,India. Every month I buy medicines for a tidy sum. A neighbourhood medical store owner noticed the volume and made an offer. If I bought medicines for ten months [...]

2005. My first visit to Bangkok. As my cab from the airport was navigating the crowded streets to reach my hotel,I noticed auto rickshaws known as tuk-tuks of varied colours whizzing past. [...]

Public speaking as a skill may come naturally to a select few but for the rest of us, the vast majority, we need to work hard at overcoming our fear, learning, applying and only then becoming [...]

My friend Dhileepan Nair had shared an inspiring incident about ordinary people displaying stellar qualities in these testing times of COVID 19. Rotary Club of Heritage Mysuru were distributing [...]

Humor has many forms, jokes, anecdotes, quips, verses, limericks, satire, slapstick, stand-up, parody, morbid, topical and many more. But personally, I feel repartee outshines all these [...]

The Bhagavad Gita has 18 chapters. No,this is NOT a religious post!😎 The Gita chronicles the dialogue between a mentor and his protegé. Arjuna, the mentee is in a state of despair pitted in a [...]

A workplace filled with laughter is generally assumed to be a good thing.Several studies have found that good humor doesn’t just make people feel better, or make the work day seem to go faster; [...]

I was listening to a celebrity speaker who thundered,”The number one fear for most people is the fear of speaking in public !”And the number two fear – “fear of flying !” Any idea about the [...]

I am encouraged and grateful for your overwhelming response to my earlier post on humor. This prompted me to come out with five more tips based on my experience. Read on.. 6.Don’t announce humor. [...]

I thought I’d given a magnificent speech. And an elderly gentleman from the audience came up to me and exclaimed, “Well, your speech was both good and original.” Grinning from [...]

I was listening to a podcast of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft titled ‘ Microsoft’s Next Act’ in which he talks about empathy. “Innovation comes only when you are able to meet unmet, [...]

A webinar for a client yesterday… During the intro round,a participant said,” I am a Retina fellow….” I was about to pounce on him with my feedback,” please be formal in introducing yourself….” [...]

I started blogging exactly THIS DAY,the 5th June in 2006! I wrote on public speaking,humor and communication in general. In 2008, my blog was listed in Alltop list of world’s top 100 blogs by GUY [...]

Well, part 2 and the end of the Q&A. From 100 plus questions I’d clubbed similar questions and created a list of 40 questions. I don’t claim these answers to be sacrosanct as they are a [...]

I recently conducted a webinar on INFLUENCE WITHOUT AUTHORITY for Toastmasters of District 92 comprising Karnataka and Kerala. I received over 100 questions in advance. Overwhelming. Since the [...]

I gave a 15 minute talk on ‘UNLEASH YOUR HUMOR QUOTIENT’ at TEDx Dubai in 2010. My dear friend Pravin Shekar and team at www.katha108.com ran through it and gave me, A FREE Content Audit one 15 [...]

Last year I was scheduled to speak at a conference from 12.30 PM to 1.30 PM. Like it happens the initial delay cascaded into my slot and I was at the lectern only by 1 PM. The previous speaker [...]

31 May 2013. Quito. The scenic capital city of Ecuador. I was at the Hilton Colon to conduct a two-day workshop on ‘Breakthrough Negotiation Skills’ for my client. Forty eager [...]