My Icebreaker Speech
The first speech every Toastmaster gives, an introduction, a name that's been mispronounced in every possible way, and where I am right now.
Photo by AMONWAT DUMKRUT on Unsplash
Fellow Toastmasters — have you ever had your name used in all sorts of ways?
Mine's Sai Dilip Ponnaganti, and "Sai" alone has been through a lot: chemistry class turned it into "saianide," rhyming it with cyanide, and it's had a few other phonetic lives since. I've made peace with all of them.
What I do: I'm a cloud engineer. Cloud computing infrastructure is the day job.
What I do with the rest of my time: I have a hard time saying no to things, so call me a Sai of all trades, master of none: writing, video games, tennis, the gym, flying drones, photography, cooking, and poking at whatever new piece of technology shows up. Starting a podcast has probably been the thing I'm proudest of. It's taught me that asking the right question, out of genuine curiosity, is most of the work.
Where I am right now: this feels like a meaningful stretch of life. Since the pandemic I moved back in with my parents, and that's deepened those relationships more than I expected. The last couple of years have mostly been about healing and self-discovery through therapy — prioritizing that over chasing the next professional milestone.
Feedback I got: clear delivery, strong projection, confident and relaxed, good humor, an attentive room, and vocal variation that's coming along. Suggestions: a bit more length, more hand gestures, some visual aids, and more direct eye contact with the audience.