Smile

The second best thing you can do with your lips is…? Smile, what were you thinking? I would not talk about the best thing you can do with your lips today, not because my speech could get disqualified on moral grounds but because all of us here are grown up enough to know what it is. So to all the grown up toastmasters, guests and grown up judges and a very grown up contest chair, Good Evening.

Now I am a person who has both used and misused smile in both my personal as well as my professional life. Allow me to explain how I have used it in my professional life. I come from the IT industry and in this industry there are dangerous creatures known as managers. My manager everyday comes to my desk and asks – “What’s the status?” Initially I used to be like – “What’s the status? ...uhmm...”, but nowadays I simply smile. In my mind I am actually thinking – “What’s the status? I am 24 and you are 42, I have a girlfriend and you are still single. Go fix your status!” But I don’t say all these instead I simply smile. Somehow my manager gets the point and no longer asks me the status.

But I get the most joy when I use it in my personal life, on my most favorite person… my father. He asks me –“what’s the problem? Tell me what’s the problem? You are 24 and you only hang out with boys, I have never seen you with a girl, what’s the problem?” Initially I used to make a lot of excuses, but now I simply smile. In my mind I am thinking – “Problem? You are the problem? You always stay in the home and with you in the house, me bringing my girlfriend, that’s simply not going to happen. But I go to her house instead, because her father unlike my father is at office and not at home. And I get to practice the best thing I can do with my lips on her”. I dare not say these to him because he might faint so instead I practice the second best thing with my lips on my father which smile

To my audience, if my speech could bring smiles on your face, then with a smile on my face, I say Thank...