Indian-origin Singaporean wins public speaking championship

An Indian-origin Singaporean's tips for a happy marriage based on compromise has helped him win a prestigious international public speaking championship held in Canada.
Manoj Vasudevan, 43, a permanent resident of Singapore, said he was not a natural speaker and first started practising public speaking in 2009. He took on emcee jobs and did stand- up comedy to train himself.
His message of compromise and unity won over the judges to bag him gold at the Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking held in Vancouver,
"When I first met my wife, I imagined that we were going to stay together forever," he narrated.

"But when we started marriage, we had differences. We were arguing about the big things, the small things, and sometimes nothing," Vasudevan, who is an engineer by training said.
He said his mother told him, "You fall in love with the Cupid's arrow, but to stay in love, you need to be like the Cupid's bow, and learn to compromise."

The finals required speakers to give a five to seven minute prepared speech on a topic of their choice. They were judged on delivery, content and language.
With his victory, Singapore has won the Public Speaking championship two years in a row.

Last year, Darren Tay, 28, won the championship in Washington DC, The Straits Times said.
Toastmasters International has more than 352,000 memberships. Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 16,400 clubs in 141 countries that make up our global network of meeting locations.
I holds a convention every year to choose the best speaker.