The Second meeting of the Bangalore SHG

The second meeting of the Bangalore SHG was held on 20-Sep-2009 at Cubbon Park. In the first meeting, it was decided to have the meeting at 10 AM every Sunday, with the available members. Since it took only half an hour the previous week for me to reach Cubbon Park from my residence in Marathahlli, I started only by 9.20 this week and reached there by 9.50. The place, where I parked the vehicle was very empty and nobody was there to collect the parking fee. I had taken with me the newspaper of that day for some reading practice and an old one to sit on. I just went to the side of the library building where we assembled for the first meeting. Amith who is the coordinator of the group was not feeling well and had asked me to coordinate the meeting, the previous day.

Nobody was there near the library and I was wondering whether the members had not taken a note of the timing as 10 AM when I received a call from N, who told he and P were standing near the entrance and whether they needed to go to the hut where we met the last time. Since nobody had come and since it had rained heavily the previous night, I told them to come to the library building. I was thinking of sitting on a concrete bench somewhere near the Library building as the ground was very wet.

In 5 to 10 minutes both N and P reached the place. In fact N had contacted Amith the previous night to enquire about the timing and had messaged me after coming to know from him that the meeting would be coordinated by me. So I was expecting at least him for the meeting:-). He told even P was a bit confused about the timing and that the coordinator should have sent a confirmation mail on Friday. It was decided to send a mail on Fridays to all the members informing them of the time and activities planned so as to avoid the confusion. N told he went through some of the pages of the ebook ‘the power of the sub conscious mind’ and that he was very impressed by that book. P told he downloaded the recording of the self suggestions I make from Rapidshare and would be listening to it. He wanted to know about EFT and I gave a brief description of it.

Even N and P were of the opinion that we could not go to the hut as the ground was wet. At that time we realized the need of having an indoor meeting place. We decided to move around the Park and find a suitable place to sit, as there was no sign of anybody else joining us. We moved to the opposite side of the Library building and found a circular seat around a tree. I covered the surface with the old newspaper, I had, and all three of us sat on it. Then we discussed about possible indoor meeting places. N suggested contacting some NGOs and proposed the names of ‘Art of Living’ and ‘Sri Rama Krishna Ashram’. It was decided to explore these further.

It was told by P that he went to Nimhans that week and had a consultation there. He was asked to do some breathing techniques and speak slowly. N told he contacted Amith’s cousin who had almost overcome stammering by taking up a marketing job. They talked for about half an hour. Amith’s cousin told N to master the subject in which he was working and to be more confident. That was how he could control his problem.

Then we decided to call Amith to know whether he had got any message from other members about their availability. Since he didn’t pick up the call, we decided to start the activities of the day. We decided to speak slowly and implement all the techniques we have learned through different therapies we attended while speaking in the group and do our best to follow the same when we go out of the meeting. Then we decided to introduce ourselves and speak about some topic. P started the activity and struggled a bit in the beginning. After that he implemented the breathing techniques and spoke slowly about himself and about football and cricket. He didn’t stammer on a single word:-) . Then he read some parts from the newspaper too. After that it was my turn and I spoke about myself and my career. I spoke slowly and stammered only once:-). Then came the turn of N and as usual he spoke fluently.

In between this we could connect to Amith and could get the number of K. I contacted him and came to know that he was also not doing well. He told he had messaged S about his unavailability, but even he didn’t turn up. Then he gave S’s number and in the end I asked P to call S and enquire about him by implementing the techniques learned by him. He talked to him, but didn’t implement any technique:-). He was fluent as they spoke in Tamil in which he was very comfortable:-).

Then I told them about the visit of Keith from UK and asked about their opinion about the activities and a suitable day. P wanted it to be planned after Deepavali as he would go to his native place and wouldn’t be available during that time. Any day after that is okay with him. N wanted it to be planned on Sunday as he works even on Saturdays. It would be impossible for him to come on any other day. All of us were of the opinion that we needed to have an interaction with him, probably at an indoor meeting place or at the residence of one of the members. I offered to have the meeting at my place if no other place was available.

We dispersed at 12.30. This time, the person collecting the parking fee was available there and the parking lot was almost full:-). N was coming to Marthahalli to visit his friend and I dropped him near Marthahalli bridge. On our return journey, N told there was a press club in Cubbon Park and if a press meet was required during the visit of Keith the details of arranging it can be obtained from there. We decided to explore this in the next meeting. It was a useful meeting except for the low turnout of the members as I could speak slowly during and after the meeting, which I am doing even now. I feel this should be an opportunity for us to practice the techniques learned by us and improve our confidence.