The Orators Blog

      Warning : Nudity      The sound of the wind blowing. The sound of the leaves rustling. The sound of heavy breathing as she stared at her naked reflection in the mirror. She moved a hand listlessly through her jet-black waist length hair, feeling a few strands come off. She stroked her face with a finger, closing her eyes and feeling every tiny part of it, as if she did not want to forget even a single wrinkle or one of those hard pimples that come out each winter. She slid her hand over her body taking every inch of it in, particularly her breasts, feeling the shape of them, along with remembering what they represented to her. She kept going downwards, over her chest, and her navel, finally stopping at her womanhood.        Funny word, womanhood. She thought, the corners of her lips turning ever so slightly upwards. She decided that she didn't like the word very much. Her hand roved the area, exploring previously unexplored regions and finding the meaning of her identity. At

          Sports are truly a sensational way to express one’s emotions. May it be a fun match of cricket after a long day at school or an exhilarating game of football on the weekends, the playground never fails to provide a channel to convey our innermost feelings. The recent festivities of Agneepath serve as the epitome of the fact that sentiment and sports go hand-in-hand. However, can sports also improve one’s speaking skills and ability to communicate? As it turns out, these skills play a crucial role on the field and can be the deciding factor between a win or a loss.     Oration in sports comes in different forms, differing slightly with a new variation. There’s communication among the players, which can make or break a team sport like basketball. Each player on the court knows their role, yet communication among them can improve the quality of the sport. Even though it appears simple, the ability to quickly set up plays and direct teammates to specific positions while playing s

       Often, conversations make our day. The ones that leave you smiling, make you laugh when you rewind those dialogues, enlighten you, inspire you, those that are filled with words that can be written down, make you want to meet the person tomorrow and start conversing all over again.      Heck, great conversations fill the silences in our lives, because they replay endlessly in our heads even when we’re walking alone on the streets. It’s not the words, it's the feelings they evoke that fill us up. Feelings that linger, quietly sparking melodies in our heads when we revisit them.      What I love about these conversations is how they follow us through our days, accompanying other activities in life. Talking to your friends while you grab a quick lunch,  those few words exchanged when you pass someone you know on the street-  quickens time. And discussing things while travelling is a whole other vibe; unmatched as the scenes outside make silences more comfortable. Buzzing of othe

A few days ago, my father called me downstairs and handed me the most random bundle of photographs he found just laying around in a packet. As I opened the set of almost 200 something photographs with ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ looped unavoidably in my head, it surprised me to find prints that one doesn’t find anymore. With round edges and the vintage yellow tint to them, some were my mother’s childhood pictures that I saw for the very first time. Among those were some I couldn’t even recognize. On flipping them, another thing I saw for the very first time were notes at the back by the sender themselves. One was my mother’s college mate, another an aunt- all wishing Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year  to her. Shocking as it may sound, I had not seen a real, physical Christmas card sent from far away before. And as I started sorting these precious memories sitting beside my Christmas tree, the importance of traditions hit me. Holidays are never the same for everyone. While s

As the Union debated upon whether or not Great Britain owed reparations to India, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament was called on to speak in favour of the proposition as their last speaker. Within the Oxford style of debating, he thus has a very specific role – refute the arguments made by the opposition while strengthening those made by his own side. The following article will attempt to elucidate and contextualize the arguments made in Dr Tharoor’s speech, and in the process explain the main role of the whip in Oxford style debates.   After some light banter that strategically draws the crowd’s attention without wasting too much time, Dr Tharoor goes straight into his first refutation. Sir Ottaway had previously suggested in his speech that it was not a given that British imperialism had at all caused any economic harm to the colonies in consideration. Dr Tharoor counters this simply and effectively by means of a simple factual argument – the percentages of the world market sh

The word Orator conjures images of mighty leaders basking in the spotlight, addressing huge crowds with the perfect mix of voice modulations and gestures. An eloquent orator pauses time while he takes a breath and always keeps the audience under his command. This is the alley of oratory I would like to pay homage to, not by scrutinizing great speakers perched on podiums, but through my own father sitting at the dining table weaving stories.  It’s always stories that we’ve heard a few million times before. But that’s what great orators do right? Irrespective of content, they engage the audience tirelessly.   We’d be sitting around, eating slowly, discussing our work or school when Dad began his autobiographical tales. “When I was in…” or “Back in the day…” served as introductions that transported us to the decades Dad grew up or perhaps his initial years in Bangalore. He’d paint a vivid image of the characters of his tales: by linking them to some other story or relation we know of. Eve