| From | To | Flight No. | Class | TerOut | TerIn | Departure | Arrival | Cls. Type |
| London Heathrow(LHR) | Delhi(DEL) | BA 0257 | N | 5 | 2 | 10-FEB 1515 | 11-FEB 0455 | |
| Delhi(DEL) | Poona(PNQ) | IT 3167 | M | 1 | -- | 15-FEB 1600 | 15-FEB 1755 | |
| Poona(PNQ) | Chennai(MAA) | IT 3623 | M | -- | -- | 18-FEB 1750 | 18-FEB 1930 | |
| Chennai(MAA) | Delhi(DEL) | IT 0231 | N | -- | 1 | 22-FEB 0615 | 22-FEB 0850 | |
| Delhi(DEL) | Dehradun(DED) | IT 2359 | M | 1 | -- | 22-FEB 1020 | 22-FEB 1120 | |
| Delhi(DEL) | London Heathrow(LHR) | BA 0142 | V | 2 | 5 | 26-FEB 0330 | 26-FEB 0710 | |
December 30, 2009
Keith confirms
Keith has confirmed the following flights: please note-
Acceptance? Bangalore 27-Dec-2009
Today, 27-Dec-2009, we had the stammering SHG meeting of Bangalore. During the course of the meeting, all of us spoke about a subject and one of the participants spoke about ‘Landmark education’ and accepting ourselves as we were. He told the people attending the landmark forum got breakthroughs for the problems of the life like stammering, diabetes etc. He mentioned about diabetes as I was also diabetic.
After that when my turn came, I told that there was no known cure for stammering and that we should learn to live with stammering and accept ourselves as stammerers. After that it was the turn of one of the new attendees and he told, he became disappointed when he heard my words and he told there was a cure and we should be very hopeful of a cure. I spoke about the real meaning of acceptance as removing the shame from our mind and working on our communication skill. I am not sure whether he was convinced.
Later when I reached home, I just thought about the two problems of my life, namely diabetes and stammering and suddenly I could see some similarities between the two. There is no known cure for both of them. If you are diabetic, you will have to accept yourself as diabetic and then move on in life by following diet control, so that diabetes doesn’t affect your life. If a diabetic did not accept his diabetes and tried to hide it, it would be catastrophic as he would take food with sugar and it would aggravate the problem. If he accepted himself as a diabetic, he would avoid food with sugar and his diabetes would be under control and he would lead a normal life.
Similarly if somebody is a stammerer, he should accept himself as a stammerer and shouldn’t try to hide it. At the same time he should do the things necessary for controlling it, like speaking slowly, prolongation or bouncing, whatever is suitable for him. In this way it will be possible for him to lead a normal life where the stammering doesn’t affect him. If he is trying to hide it by struggling to speak fluently, there would be a lot of stress and the severity of stammering will go up thereby affecting his communication.
I hope I could have used this parallel between stammering and diabetes in the meeting and convinced the person who was a bit apprehensive about the idea of acceptance.
After that when my turn came, I told that there was no known cure for stammering and that we should learn to live with stammering and accept ourselves as stammerers. After that it was the turn of one of the new attendees and he told, he became disappointed when he heard my words and he told there was a cure and we should be very hopeful of a cure. I spoke about the real meaning of acceptance as removing the shame from our mind and working on our communication skill. I am not sure whether he was convinced.
Later when I reached home, I just thought about the two problems of my life, namely diabetes and stammering and suddenly I could see some similarities between the two. There is no known cure for both of them. If you are diabetic, you will have to accept yourself as diabetic and then move on in life by following diet control, so that diabetes doesn’t affect your life. If a diabetic did not accept his diabetes and tried to hide it, it would be catastrophic as he would take food with sugar and it would aggravate the problem. If he accepted himself as a diabetic, he would avoid food with sugar and his diabetes would be under control and he would lead a normal life.
Similarly if somebody is a stammerer, he should accept himself as a stammerer and shouldn’t try to hide it. At the same time he should do the things necessary for controlling it, like speaking slowly, prolongation or bouncing, whatever is suitable for him. In this way it will be possible for him to lead a normal life where the stammering doesn’t affect him. If he is trying to hide it by struggling to speak fluently, there would be a lot of stress and the severity of stammering will go up thereby affecting his communication.
I hope I could have used this parallel between stammering and diabetes in the meeting and convinced the person who was a bit apprehensive about the idea of acceptance.
December 29, 2009
Fluke fluency, Chinese water & conch-shells
Some time back, I decided to give up using Windows and switch to Linux (Fedora). An IT friend installed it and then he had to leave. I tried installing my USB modem on my own- with great courage! I hunted for threads in support forums, read help files, consulted experts on-line, cut/paste some 'config' file- I did many things blindly - and suddenly the USB modem was blinking! I had a breakthrough! So, to complete the process of updating all the softwares I rebooted. And lo! The USB was no more working. I did not know, what I had done, what was the reason and what had suddenly worked. I had no clue. I tried to have a second “fluke” but nothing happened. Finally I gave up and called the IT friend who came and helped me.
Sometime, similar things happen in the field of stammering. Something suddenly clicks and we start being much more fluent then we ever were. But we have no idea what was the cause of 'my stammering' and what helped 'me' particularly. But the sudden release is so liberating that we attribute our fluency to the first thing which comes into our head and start promoting that method as 'the cure' for stammering. Some of us go a step further and start SELLING it too. Young PWS, faced with sudden increase in demands on communication in their teens (higher education, career, new friends) are often under severe stress. They are willing to spend their precious money on any claim- especially coming from 'ex-stammerers': I used to be a very severe stutterer; I have been through all the pain and anguish. Then, I learned this and it worked like a miracle... (kind of emotional blackmail).
SK, trained as Engineer and in his early twenties, attended our Herbertpur self help group for some months. Then, he got a job and was transferred away. Some months later, he phoned and said that he has been blowing Conch-shell (shankh) regularly and it has dramatically helped his stammering. I thanked him for this information and wished him well. Now, imagine if SK went around claiming that blowing conch-shell is the cure for stammering.. Further, imagine SK running paid seminars on type of conch-shells and the correct technique of holding it etc.! Yes, lung exercises can help to some extent, some of us, but to what extent are we going to be 'open' minded and willing to invest? To what limits? Let us not forget that any new technique will help many PWS – but only for a short while. Then, relapse occurs.
If you think this was an extreme example, look at the ad below; it offers stammering cure in 24 hours through the use of miraculous “Chinese water” brought to India for the first time by an ex stammerer- Mr D K Prasad. It was being offered as a live seminar at Citizen hotel, Juhu beach. Entry fee is only Rs 50. This ad appeared in Economic Times, Mumbai, an English news paper on 12th July 2003. Now, even if 200 people came, Mr Prasad, the ex-stammerer would have earned Rs 10,000 in two hours. Do you think these 200 people will ever complain about the fraud? Wont they look so silly? Whenever a method fails to work or stops working, PWS typically blame themselves: May be I did not work hard enough; may be I am 'unlucky'; may be it is my fault only. So, no one complains publicly and Mr Prasad can carry on his live seminar.
Something similar is happening in stuttering world all the time. Here is a true case study: DK, a young man in retail business of computer parts, in Kolkata contacted TISA on June 4th 2009 -
“..My age is 26years .... I have cured myself from Stammering Cure Centre at B .... Address of my blog is Kolkata anti-stammering group ... I know some practices which i want to share with others for their benefits... :) ..”
DK made other contacts with TISA and with other PWS on Internet forums. TISA encouraged him to start a self help group in Kolkata, believing his motives to be charitable. Then, his posts on Orkut, started taking on a different tone: Why accept stammering when you can cure it like me? Contact me immediately.. TISA discovered that DK had started charging Rs 2000 for ten sessions for teaching exercises learned at Banglore. We decided to phone him and find out more about his 'practice'. We asked him a) do you have any training in Speech therapy? b) any training in health sciences? c) have you been authorized/ trained by PB to pass on his anti-stammering techniques to others for a fee? d) do you have a franchisee from PB? Answer to all these questions was NO. On asking why should he charge at all for helping fellow stutterers, he gave following logic:
a) I have spent Rs 8000/- on my therapy. I must get it back.(But will he stop at Rs 8000?)
b) If PB is charging, why should I not? (There is no comparison.)
c) What can I do? PWS come and give it to me on their own. I dont ask. (reminds us of the corrupt bureaucrat who says: I dont ask for bribe. They come and force it on me!)
Going by his posts, he does not state what was the underlying cause of his stammering (he claims that he has forgotten all about his stammering) and what exactly has helped him- but all the same he is selling his services to PWS - with no guarantees, actual or implicit. Does he try to assess and find out what kind of stuttering his client is facing? Obviously no (we spoke to one of his 'clients').
Then, there are those websites, which offer you a solution you can practice from the privacy of your home- either a pdf file about phobia, social anxiety, panic attacks, positive thinking etc or a computer based speech program. That phrase “from the privacy of your home” is the bait. Will the typical PWS stop to think of the paradox- curing stammering in the privacy of home? Curing stammering under nine minutes? Most likely not. Since the element of shame and fear is at the bottom of "stuttering mindset", almost all PWS fall for it. And never complain later.
Some of these campaigns try to shame and bully PWS into buying there therapy: You talk of acceptance because you have failed. If you were as committed as me, you could be fluent like me. This is highly objectionable. In order to do anything about your communication, you have to first accept that there is a problem. Without this acceptance, why would anyone want to do anything? Acceptance does not mean giving up or becoming indifferent. You accept your stammer but work on your overall communication. Secondly, experts like Van Riper and Sheehan maintain that stammering is outcome of a struggle, a conflict (desire to hide, mask or force through our disfluency). When a PWS learns to accept the fact that she/ he is sometime disfluent, the struggle and conflict are no more there. Then, her/his mind is more free to communicate. Thirdly, a certain amount of disfluency is there in everybody's speech. Watch news anchors and see for yourself. If a PWS is not willing to accept even that, what is he aiming at? to become a talking robot? a perfect machine?
What is the role of people who buy such cures? We think, PWS, especially young ones need to be even better informed. If they spend one hour at Orkut, they should spend at least two hours at BSA, NSA, Kuster's home page and such other responsible, objective websites providing correct & latest knowledge with out selling pitch. Else, Chinese miracle water will keep flowing through the Indian conch-shells!
In Herbertpur, Dehradun
This sunday (27th Dec 2009), Nitin, JP and Kishore were also here. So, we started with mock interview, especially organised for Parmanand on his request. Then, the interview panel continued with others too- especially young students, Vineet and Aman. Panel observed afterwards, that students must learn their subject thoroughly rather than blaming their stammer. Also, that secondaries (on face) must be dealt with, since they substantially detract the audience.
Then, we had an intro round, followed by memory recall; two plays were staged by the two groups. It involved reading the script, team work and some acting skills. Later we all walked upto Mr Robert's house to thank him to let us (TISA) use the hall in the day care enter meant for children with developmental disabilities. We also discussed Keith's upcoming visit.
JP was here to help launch SMTA website and give a crash course to SMTA staff on website maintenance (pictures below). Kishore has just returned from Italy.
December 28, 2009
Goa SHG : The Marathon Continues ...
What’s going on in Goa SHG? Well, the marathon continues. With the aid of social networking and internet, I am trying to reach people, and spread the idea of SHG. I had come across a number of PWS in 2000, while attending the workshop conducted by one Mr. P, who runs a Stammering Cure centre in Bangalore. I searched them on orkut and got them and conveyed my idea. They all said it was a great idea. But when it came to joining hands, they were mum. But I am sure the silence will end very soon.
While interacting with PWS on internet, I found Santosh. He has his origins in Maharashtra, but works in Goa. We got in touch by phone. We had a number of conversations on phone. We discussed everything about stammering, and how we dealt with it. He told me how it started with him, how some of the incidents hurt him in childhood, and how he feels about stammering now. I too reciprocated with my thoughts and experiences. And we discovered that all PWS have same problems, and same things to deal with. It was like a feeling of meeting a Human Being when you are lost on another planet inhibited by strange aliens! Santosh has a firm belief that stammering can be controlled. And strongly believes that all PWS are successful, because they are hard-workers!! Nice thoughts aren’t they?
Then there is another young man with whom I had a head-to-head meeting. He’s pursuing his engineering, and is very ambitious, determined and aspires to be an IAS officer. And to achieve that goal, he wants to get rid of stammering, by the time he gets there. Surprisingly, most of the time I was getting started to tell him something, he knew my thoughts already. That’s because he had read all my posts in the stammering communities. He said he keeps on searching about stammering on the internet. He has kept a goal for him, and that is to combat stammering. I was very much impressed by the determination of this guy.
He asked me how I cured myself. I said I still stammer. And he nodded in agreement. I told him that there is no perfect cure for stammering, but it can be managed upto 99%. I explained him the scientific causes behind stammering (as explained by BSA) and asked him to refer the TISA site for more details. I also told him about various techniques given on TISA site, and also briefed him about breathing exercises and meditation. I also told him about my various conversations with Dr. Sachin, Jai Prakash and Manpreet. I also gave him links to various articles and ocean of knowledge available on TISA site.
With this, I am of the opinion now that SHG need not necessarily be meeting at one place only. Of course meeting at one place helps a lot with our social and talking skills. But till that thing happens, if we can be a group united with a single cause, and as long as we all benefit each other, the SHG cause is fulfilled.
While interacting with PWS on internet, I found Santosh. He has his origins in Maharashtra, but works in Goa. We got in touch by phone. We had a number of conversations on phone. We discussed everything about stammering, and how we dealt with it. He told me how it started with him, how some of the incidents hurt him in childhood, and how he feels about stammering now. I too reciprocated with my thoughts and experiences. And we discovered that all PWS have same problems, and same things to deal with. It was like a feeling of meeting a Human Being when you are lost on another planet inhibited by strange aliens! Santosh has a firm belief that stammering can be controlled. And strongly believes that all PWS are successful, because they are hard-workers!! Nice thoughts aren’t they?
Then there is another young man with whom I had a head-to-head meeting. He’s pursuing his engineering, and is very ambitious, determined and aspires to be an IAS officer. And to achieve that goal, he wants to get rid of stammering, by the time he gets there. Surprisingly, most of the time I was getting started to tell him something, he knew my thoughts already. That’s because he had read all my posts in the stammering communities. He said he keeps on searching about stammering on the internet. He has kept a goal for him, and that is to combat stammering. I was very much impressed by the determination of this guy.
He asked me how I cured myself. I said I still stammer. And he nodded in agreement. I told him that there is no perfect cure for stammering, but it can be managed upto 99%. I explained him the scientific causes behind stammering (as explained by BSA) and asked him to refer the TISA site for more details. I also told him about various techniques given on TISA site, and also briefed him about breathing exercises and meditation. I also told him about my various conversations with Dr. Sachin, Jai Prakash and Manpreet. I also gave him links to various articles and ocean of knowledge available on TISA site.
With this, I am of the opinion now that SHG need not necessarily be meeting at one place only. Of course meeting at one place helps a lot with our social and talking skills. But till that thing happens, if we can be a group united with a single cause, and as long as we all benefit each other, the SHG cause is fulfilled.
December 26, 2009
Acceptance is the KEY
Hi This is Santosh,
One fine day some one told me to accept as I'm. No matter what will happen after that.
Just accept it. You know its a very different advice some one given me knowing that I'm a Stammerer.
I took it as a blessings & start accepting it.To my mates, to my elders, to my sub ordinates.
I feel relaxed when I start accepting it. Because being a stammerer from the age of 8 or 9?????,I don't know... Always I tried to not to show it. And in the mean time 'I keep on stammering ....
But when I started accepting , clouds just melted away..Let me share my own experience..
On 22nd of Dec, I was having appraisal in Mumbai & that too in front of Vice President of my Company. Always We have a review every month, & being an Area Service Head , I have to present my self with loads of data & actions. Each time I stammer in front of hand full people coming from each area & in front of my VP. Each time I try NOT to stammer but I could not help. Each time I saw from the corner of my eyes that everybody was looking at me as if they already knew that I'm going to stammer.
That day one new joinee came as an Area Manager of different area to have a look as to how was the working of company. I introduced my self. He also did the same thing. After some talk, I just thougt "He must have noticed that I'm stammerer; what if I accept?"
At that point of time I just told him, that some time I do stammer. If you can not understand me, please ask me to repeat. I 'll repeat it for you...
I waited for his answer.He told me- not at all. You are speaking perfectly all right.
And then He SPEAKS.......
He told me that he also was a stammerer but not now....... I felt so good after I accept.
He told me from the age of 5 , he started stammering and being in 'sales', he always stammered but not any more. I asked him how did you cure your self?
He told me: We stammerer are always thinking very rapidly, very fast. We want to convey our message very fast. And that is why,Our thoughts & speech can not resonate with each other.
So We STAMMER.
He told me You have to slow down your thought process slowly, deliberately. And speak in sync with your thought process. No matter how much slow you are, Just be yourself.
SLOW DOWN YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES.
This is some thing very new to me.
I tried it in my appraisal & you know what ? It worked !!!!!!!!!!!
I got second highest marks in my appraisal.
If I had not accepted it, I would not get such valuable, in fact price less, advice from someone who at one stage of his life had stammered.
So Dear, accept , who knows You will meet some one who can give you a ray of Hope....
One fine day some one told me to accept as I'm. No matter what will happen after that.
Just accept it. You know its a very different advice some one given me knowing that I'm a Stammerer.
I took it as a blessings & start accepting it.To my mates, to my elders, to my sub ordinates.
I feel relaxed when I start accepting it. Because being a stammerer from the age of 8 or 9?????,I don't know... Always I tried to not to show it. And in the mean time 'I keep on stammering ....
But when I started accepting , clouds just melted away..Let me share my own experience..
On 22nd of Dec, I was having appraisal in Mumbai & that too in front of Vice President of my Company. Always We have a review every month, & being an Area Service Head , I have to present my self with loads of data & actions. Each time I stammer in front of hand full people coming from each area & in front of my VP. Each time I try NOT to stammer but I could not help. Each time I saw from the corner of my eyes that everybody was looking at me as if they already knew that I'm going to stammer.
That day one new joinee came as an Area Manager of different area to have a look as to how was the working of company. I introduced my self. He also did the same thing. After some talk, I just thougt "He must have noticed that I'm stammerer; what if I accept?"
At that point of time I just told him, that some time I do stammer. If you can not understand me, please ask me to repeat. I 'll repeat it for you...
I waited for his answer.He told me- not at all. You are speaking perfectly all right.
And then He SPEAKS.......
He told me that he also was a stammerer but not now....... I felt so good after I accept.
He told me from the age of 5 , he started stammering and being in 'sales', he always stammered but not any more. I asked him how did you cure your self?
He told me: We stammerer are always thinking very rapidly, very fast. We want to convey our message very fast. And that is why,Our thoughts & speech can not resonate with each other.
So We STAMMER.
He told me You have to slow down your thought process slowly, deliberately. And speak in sync with your thought process. No matter how much slow you are, Just be yourself.
SLOW DOWN YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES.
This is some thing very new to me.
I tried it in my appraisal & you know what ? It worked !!!!!!!!!!!
I got second highest marks in my appraisal.
If I had not accepted it, I would not get such valuable, in fact price less, advice from someone who at one stage of his life had stammered.
So Dear, accept , who knows You will meet some one who can give you a ray of Hope....
December 23, 2009
Merry Christmas and Happy new year!
We wish all our readers and their families best greetings of the season. May they realise that our well being is interconnected and that in serving others we serve our true Self.
(The picture above is that of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of an Indian artist, I guess?)
December 22, 2009
Bangalore SHG meeting on 20-Dec-2009
I started for the meeting at 9.20 AM. Tanoy had requested me to pick him up on the way. When I reached the spot mentioned by him, he was not there. I called him and he told he was on the way. He reached there in ten minutes and we started. He told Murali was waiting for us on the way and he contacted him. By this time Murali had already boarded a bus. It seems he became bored of waiting for us.
We reached Cubbon Park by 10.20, parked the vehicle and moved to the hut. Some more people came to the hut and occupied the remaining seats. Then I received a call from Satish Chandra who had contacted me the previous day, showing interest in participating in SHG. I went to pick him up and while coming back I saw the people still occupying the seats. I was wondering whether we needed to move out to some other place, when they themselves left the place leaving it for us. Almost at the same time we were joined by Sharan and Murali.
We started with the introduction as we had a new member. Satish told the experiences of being a stammerer and the troubles he had due to stammering. After the introduction, he spoke about the techniques that had helped him like belly breathing and speaking after taking the breath and starting the exhalation.
It was followed by a reading exercise in which everybody read a passage using some of the techniques like slow reading, breathing and bouncing. After this everybody spoke about a subject given by others. The last activity was story building.
We dispersed by 1 PM and when we reached the parking lot, my car was not getting started. Initially I thought it was the problem with the battery of the remote, but then Murali told me that he saw the lights of the car as turned on when he reached the park and that he forgot to tell me. By the same time, the caretaker of the parking lot also came there and told the same. Then I realized that the battery of the car might have gone down and opened the car with the key. The SHG members and the caretaker helped me in pushing the car and making a jump start and we left the place by 1.10 PM.
The picture of the hut where we meet is given below.
We reached Cubbon Park by 10.20, parked the vehicle and moved to the hut. Some more people came to the hut and occupied the remaining seats. Then I received a call from Satish Chandra who had contacted me the previous day, showing interest in participating in SHG. I went to pick him up and while coming back I saw the people still occupying the seats. I was wondering whether we needed to move out to some other place, when they themselves left the place leaving it for us. Almost at the same time we were joined by Sharan and Murali.
We started with the introduction as we had a new member. Satish told the experiences of being a stammerer and the troubles he had due to stammering. After the introduction, he spoke about the techniques that had helped him like belly breathing and speaking after taking the breath and starting the exhalation.
It was followed by a reading exercise in which everybody read a passage using some of the techniques like slow reading, breathing and bouncing. After this everybody spoke about a subject given by others. The last activity was story building.
We dispersed by 1 PM and when we reached the parking lot, my car was not getting started. Initially I thought it was the problem with the battery of the remote, but then Murali told me that he saw the lights of the car as turned on when he reached the park and that he forgot to tell me. By the same time, the caretaker of the parking lot also came there and told the same. Then I realized that the battery of the car might have gone down and opened the car with the key. The SHG members and the caretaker helped me in pushing the car and making a jump start and we left the place by 1.10 PM.
The picture of the hut where we meet is given below.
December 21, 2009
Partridge in a 'Bear' tree
Sunday (20th Dec 09). There is a spirit of Christmas everywhere. Especially in the Hospital where we gathered for our weekly meetings. Atmosphere was sunny and fun- so we decided not to go indoors but conduct our real life training with anyone we could find near OPD.
First, sachin phoned Shamsher (Delhi) and everyone practiced talking to him on phone, telling their names etc. Communication demands are higher on phone since you can not read the facial cues of the other person, to fine tune your communication efforts; body language of both parties are of little use.
Next, we found a group of three which was in a rush to go into the ward to see a friend of theirs- but, we were able to convince them to stay and talk to us; Yes, we had to use a little bit of self-assertion (and some cheating). Then, we talked to another person at some length. During all this discussion, we had to practice-
1. focusing on our own act of talking (rather than worrying about what the other guy may or may not be thinking about us)-
2. Bouncing wherever we felt the pressure coming on..
3. completing what we set out to say, no matter what..
4. maintaining eye contact
5. Listening attentively (checked afterward through a recall exercise)
Some of us, like sachin, showed off their girl friend too (voluntary stuttering). The second person, we spoke too, asked us a riddle; he also taught us something about convincing the other guy, without raising your voice! A dog joined us happily. Do dogs ever stammer?
Before parting- we, Parmanand, Vineet, Aman, Nishu, Surendra and sachin decided to visit Fatehpur, next Sunday or a similar "transfer" exercise. (Transfer- learning to apply your speech skills to outside world).
Rule of 21
Dear friends,
Six pws were attended the Chennai chapter meeting held on 20th Dec’2009. One pws attended along with his wife and one is a new pws. I started the discussion with importance of setting goals and time frame to achieve anything in life.
Last week only I completed reading the book of “THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRERI†by ROBIN SHARMA. Really a wonderful book and I was very much impressed with a easy way of achieving anything in life. I recommend everyone to read this book.
I requested pws to tell about their goal one by one. The 1st pws informed that he want to earn more money and wanted to spend half the amount for social welfares. He wanted to buy a car and a house in near future. He also wanted to become a director. Really a great ambitions. I suggested to him that to set the goals more specific with a reasonable time frame to achieve it. I suggested to him for example, earning Rs.2 lahks per month in 5 years time, buying a house in Ramnagar in 3 years and buy a Santro car in one year.
If we set our goal more specifically, then the nature will help us accordingly. After that, all pws told about their specific goals with reasonable time frame to achieve it. Then I taught about the speech therapy which I learned from Mr.Balasubramaniam and requested them to practice one hour in the morning for atleast 6 months to feel improvements.
Then Mr.Hasanad told about the importance of cultivating reading habit atleast half an hour a day especially self improvement books which will have positive impact on our mind set throughout the day. In fact I am in the reading habit of more than 40 years and might have read over 500 books.
Finally the wife of that pws has spoken about TISA activities. She was very much impressed and very happy about attended the meet. She informed that she never bothered about her husband’s stammering and also happy that he now making efforts to overcome it.
Here I would like to inform about some simple techniques which I learnt from Robin Sharma book for the benefit of others.
1. Setting of goals.
Setting of clearly defined goals will serve to motivate, inspire and guide you as you reach for what you want out of life. Goals serve as your personal lighthouse. Without them, you are gambling with your future.
2. Success Mechanism
Every person has a success Mechanism built into their mind. This device works with your creative imagination and is goal striving. In other words, the success mechanism is triggered by positive goals that you give to it.
The mechanism is guided by the mental images of your past experience. For example, if you were asked to give a big speech at the last convention you attended and fumbled badly, a mental picture of that event has been indelibly etched in your mind. You may have played and replayed the mental movie of the negative speech over and over until it become embedded it. Now when you have to give another speech, the mechanism scans for relevant information and comes up with this negative picture which often has the result of leading to another unsuccessful performance.
HOWEVER THE SUCCESS MECHANISM CAN BE FOOLED. It cannot tell the difference between a mental picture that has actually happened (ie your bad speech) and one that put into the mind by dreaming and visualizing.
Therefore by visualizing yourself over and over , giving the perfect speech to thunderous applause and cheers, the mechanism picks up this “past experience†and powerfully ensure that it becomes a reality. Using this little-known knowledge, you can re-program your mind, which is really nothing more than the world’s most powerful computer by picturing in your mind’s eye the achievement of each and every one of your goals.
3. Rule of 21
If you do anything for 21 days in a row, you will have an excellent chance of making it into a habit. There is power in PERSISTANCE. Whether you are trying to erase the worry habit, develop the discipline of a daily walk in a natural setting or trying to quit smoking preserve for 21 days. It will become a habit afterwards without putting any efforts.
For better understanding of everyone, the above principles are given in a nutshell as below.
1. Set your personal and professional goals specifically.
2. Set reasonable time frame to achieve it.
3. Write it down in a paper daily for 21 days.
4. Read the above article for 21 days.
Do not miss for even a single day without doing the above. You can see yourself the amazing results after 21 days.
START NOW. TODAY IS THE DAY FOR YOU. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Best wishes to everyone.Regards,
V. Manimaran
Mobile: 098842 89989
Six pws were attended the Chennai chapter meeting held on 20th Dec’2009. One pws attended along with his wife and one is a new pws. I started the discussion with importance of setting goals and time frame to achieve anything in life.
Last week only I completed reading the book of “THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRERI†by ROBIN SHARMA. Really a wonderful book and I was very much impressed with a easy way of achieving anything in life. I recommend everyone to read this book.
I requested pws to tell about their goal one by one. The 1st pws informed that he want to earn more money and wanted to spend half the amount for social welfares. He wanted to buy a car and a house in near future. He also wanted to become a director. Really a great ambitions. I suggested to him that to set the goals more specific with a reasonable time frame to achieve it. I suggested to him for example, earning Rs.2 lahks per month in 5 years time, buying a house in Ramnagar in 3 years and buy a Santro car in one year.
If we set our goal more specifically, then the nature will help us accordingly. After that, all pws told about their specific goals with reasonable time frame to achieve it. Then I taught about the speech therapy which I learned from Mr.Balasubramaniam and requested them to practice one hour in the morning for atleast 6 months to feel improvements.
Then Mr.Hasanad told about the importance of cultivating reading habit atleast half an hour a day especially self improvement books which will have positive impact on our mind set throughout the day. In fact I am in the reading habit of more than 40 years and might have read over 500 books.
Finally the wife of that pws has spoken about TISA activities. She was very much impressed and very happy about attended the meet. She informed that she never bothered about her husband’s stammering and also happy that he now making efforts to overcome it.
Here I would like to inform about some simple techniques which I learnt from Robin Sharma book for the benefit of others.
1. Setting of goals.
Setting of clearly defined goals will serve to motivate, inspire and guide you as you reach for what you want out of life. Goals serve as your personal lighthouse. Without them, you are gambling with your future.
2. Success Mechanism
Every person has a success Mechanism built into their mind. This device works with your creative imagination and is goal striving. In other words, the success mechanism is triggered by positive goals that you give to it.
The mechanism is guided by the mental images of your past experience. For example, if you were asked to give a big speech at the last convention you attended and fumbled badly, a mental picture of that event has been indelibly etched in your mind. You may have played and replayed the mental movie of the negative speech over and over until it become embedded it. Now when you have to give another speech, the mechanism scans for relevant information and comes up with this negative picture which often has the result of leading to another unsuccessful performance.
HOWEVER THE SUCCESS MECHANISM CAN BE FOOLED. It cannot tell the difference between a mental picture that has actually happened (ie your bad speech) and one that put into the mind by dreaming and visualizing.
Therefore by visualizing yourself over and over , giving the perfect speech to thunderous applause and cheers, the mechanism picks up this “past experience†and powerfully ensure that it becomes a reality. Using this little-known knowledge, you can re-program your mind, which is really nothing more than the world’s most powerful computer by picturing in your mind’s eye the achievement of each and every one of your goals.
3. Rule of 21
If you do anything for 21 days in a row, you will have an excellent chance of making it into a habit. There is power in PERSISTANCE. Whether you are trying to erase the worry habit, develop the discipline of a daily walk in a natural setting or trying to quit smoking preserve for 21 days. It will become a habit afterwards without putting any efforts.
For better understanding of everyone, the above principles are given in a nutshell as below.
1. Set your personal and professional goals specifically.
2. Set reasonable time frame to achieve it.
3. Write it down in a paper daily for 21 days.
4. Read the above article for 21 days.
Do not miss for even a single day without doing the above. You can see yourself the amazing results after 21 days.
START NOW. TODAY IS THE DAY FOR YOU. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Best wishes to everyone.Regards,
V. Manimaran
Mobile: 098842 89989
December 19, 2009
Stammering : Do's and Don'ts for the Non-PWS
The hatred for stammering by all PWS has it's origin in the kind of reaction that they are met with when talking to the world, or the non-PWS which are relatively more fluent ( I won't say fluent ) then the PWS. A PWS will be at his / her ease when speaking to another PWS, because they respond just the way that is comfortable to the speaker.
This happens because non-PWS cannot relate to what goes behind a PWS mind. And they are always ill-prepared on how to deal with the situation when they have to communicate with a PWS. So, here's a list of Do's and Don'ts for the non-PWS, that may help to give rise to a better and productive conversation :
Do's
1. Do listen to him / her with patience. Give him / her time.
2. Do maintain a straight eye contact with him / her.
3. Do motivate and encourage him / her to do things, like extra-carricular, creative, with regards to speech or things related to work.
Don'ts
1. Don't complete the sentences / words for a him / her.
2. Don't make crooked faces by stretching your eye-brows or ears.
3. Don't nod without understanding.
4. Don't start speaking your sentence while he / she is stammering and is completing his / her sentence.
5. Don't hesitate to talk to a PWS because he / she might stammer.
This happens because non-PWS cannot relate to what goes behind a PWS mind. And they are always ill-prepared on how to deal with the situation when they have to communicate with a PWS. So, here's a list of Do's and Don'ts for the non-PWS, that may help to give rise to a better and productive conversation :
Do's
1. Do listen to him / her with patience. Give him / her time.
2. Do maintain a straight eye contact with him / her.
3. Do motivate and encourage him / her to do things, like extra-carricular, creative, with regards to speech or things related to work.
Don'ts
1. Don't complete the sentences / words for a him / her.
2. Don't make crooked faces by stretching your eye-brows or ears.
3. Don't nod without understanding.
4. Don't start speaking your sentence while he / she is stammering and is completing his / her sentence.
5. Don't hesitate to talk to a PWS because he / she might stammer.
December 17, 2009
Keith's visit
Dear Friends
Think of Keith's visit, as a friend visiting you. Dont worry too much about organising this or that- Just come and interact with a friend, who walks the same path as you do- discovering our true self, through the difficulties of life, including communication. Study carefully the following schedule and chose a place and time of your convenience and inform the local organiser (SHG coordinators) concerned. You can meet him at more than one place, if you like!
11th Feb Thur Arrive in Delhi
12th Feb ( Fri) Extra Activities and rest (jet lag)
13th 14th Feb (Sat, Sun): Two day conference (YMCA?): no parallel sessions; just two presentations (Keith and one IPWS) followed Extra Activities. Audience from Delhi and around it (Jammu etc)
15th Feb (Mon): Extra Activities and evening flight to Pune
At Pune
16th Feb (Tue): Extra Activities in Pune, with Surat & Mumbai SHG members
17th Feb (Wed)- One day conference at Pune: no parallel sessions; just two presentations (Keith and one IPWS) followed by Extra Activities
18th Feb (Thurs)- Extra Activities and evening flight to Chennai
At Chennai
19th Feb (Fri) –Extra activities with Chennai , Banglore & Hyderabad SHG members
20th 21st Feb (Sat, Sun)- Two day (One day) conference at Chennai (YWCA): no parallel sessions; just two presentations (Keith and one IPWS) followed Extra Activities
22nd Feb (Mon): Morning flight to Dehradun
At Dehradun / Herbertpur
22nd 23rd 24th Feb (Mon pm,Tues, Wed): One hour at Samagra in Dehradun, then to Herbertpur for two days; Public meeting at Anugrah (Dehradun)
25th Feb (Thur): Extra Activities and evening train to Delhi; and fly to UK
Think of Keith's visit, as a friend visiting you. Dont worry too much about organising this or that- Just come and interact with a friend, who walks the same path as you do- discovering our true self, through the difficulties of life, including communication. Study carefully the following schedule and chose a place and time of your convenience and inform the local organiser (SHG coordinators) concerned. You can meet him at more than one place, if you like!
11th Feb Thur Arrive in Delhi
12th Feb ( Fri) Extra Activities and rest (jet lag)
13th 14th Feb (Sat, Sun): Two day conference (YMCA?): no parallel sessions; just two presentations (Keith and one IPWS) followed Extra Activities. Audience from Delhi and around it (Jammu etc)
15th Feb (Mon): Extra Activities and evening flight to Pune
At Pune
16th Feb (Tue): Extra Activities in Pune, with Surat & Mumbai SHG members
17th Feb (Wed)- One day conference at Pune: no parallel sessions; just two presentations (Keith and one IPWS) followed by Extra Activities
18th Feb (Thurs)- Extra Activities and evening flight to Chennai
At Chennai
19th Feb (Fri) –Extra activities with Chennai , Banglore & Hyderabad SHG members
20th 21st Feb (Sat, Sun)- Two day (One day) conference at Chennai (YWCA): no parallel sessions; just two presentations (Keith and one IPWS) followed Extra Activities
22nd Feb (Mon): Morning flight to Dehradun
At Dehradun / Herbertpur
22nd 23rd 24th Feb (Mon pm,Tues, Wed): One hour at Samagra in Dehradun, then to Herbertpur for two days; Public meeting at Anugrah (Dehradun)
25th Feb (Thur): Extra Activities and evening train to Delhi; and fly to UK
10 day Intensive Course on Communication
Hi,
TISA is planning a ten day intensive residential workshop on communication for people who stammer. Time: 7 to 17th Jan 2010. Venue Herbertpur. Participants have to pay only for their board and lodge (total estimated Rs 300-400 per day) in nearby hotels. Workshop itself is free. Contact JP This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or sachin This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for info and booking a place. This course consists of theory and practice of eastern Meditative (plus breathing) techniques, CALMS approach and concepts of Self-motivation from business world. One of the highlights is getting up at 6.30 am and going for a jog! Another is 'bouncing' with strangers in a bus! (Feedback from a participant).
regards,
TISA
TISA is planning a ten day intensive residential workshop on communication for people who stammer. Time: 7 to 17th Jan 2010. Venue Herbertpur. Participants have to pay only for their board and lodge (total estimated Rs 300-400 per day) in nearby hotels. Workshop itself is free. Contact JP This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or sachin This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for info and booking a place. This course consists of theory and practice of eastern Meditative (plus breathing) techniques, CALMS approach and concepts of Self-motivation from business world. One of the highlights is getting up at 6.30 am and going for a jog! Another is 'bouncing' with strangers in a bus! (Feedback from a participant).
regards,
TISA
Pune SHG Meet on 13th December
Pune SHG met on 13 December 2009 at Senior citizen’s hall on Dhole patil road.
The meeting started at around 3PM and was attended by the following members; Suraj, Praveen, Dharmaraj, Manohar, Sunil, Mahesh and Sujit
The first exercise was relaxing the different body parts one by one; Feet, calf, shoulder, neck, jaws and tongue.
The idea behind this was to give the tension in the part and then releasing the tension and relaxing that part.
This exercise was suggested by Mahesh, i found it it very different from the normal speech exercises.
Then we did meditation for 2 minutes.
After that we did the slow reading and public speaking exercises one by one. We all read few lines on advices and suggestions for the PWS.
In slow reading we were required to introduce our self, speaking about our work profile, about our family and education.
In public speaking some of the interesting topics were;Formation of Telangana, Software testing scope
Mess up of CAT 2009. Following the slow speaking style in workplace.
We also discussed about, Mr. Keith Boss visit to pune,India in Feb 2010.
Finally we could wrap the things by 6:30 PM
We have much more coming up in the next meeting on 20 DEC 2009, Be there with us !!
@others who attended the meeting;
Please add your comments
The meeting started at around 3PM and was attended by the following members; Suraj, Praveen, Dharmaraj, Manohar, Sunil, Mahesh and Sujit
The first exercise was relaxing the different body parts one by one; Feet, calf, shoulder, neck, jaws and tongue.
The idea behind this was to give the tension in the part and then releasing the tension and relaxing that part.
This exercise was suggested by Mahesh, i found it it very different from the normal speech exercises.
Then we did meditation for 2 minutes.
After that we did the slow reading and public speaking exercises one by one. We all read few lines on advices and suggestions for the PWS.
In slow reading we were required to introduce our self, speaking about our work profile, about our family and education.
In public speaking some of the interesting topics were;Formation of Telangana, Software testing scope
Mess up of CAT 2009. Following the slow speaking style in workplace.
We also discussed about, Mr. Keith Boss visit to pune,India in Feb 2010.
Finally we could wrap the things by 6:30 PM
We have much more coming up in the next meeting on 20 DEC 2009, Be there with us !!
@others who attended the meeting;
Please add your comments
December 16, 2009
Bangalore SHG meeting on 13-Dec-2009
Written by: Pramod
Hello all, well here goes the next dossier ( chuckle) from my side. The day started with 3 of us and two of us joined later. This time it was Karthik, Sudheendran, Tanoy, Aravindan and myself. It started with the usual hi hellos and an ever enthusiastic thirst of 'expressing full out' of every stammerer!! The time was scheduled at 10.00 A.M but our Bengalluru culture dominated and people drooped from 10.30!
This time it was Karthik's anchoring and he had some new things planned up this week. It was just declared there that a play would be enacted and all of us just bagged roles and went on field!! 'wow'!! Other than the regular sharing of breakthroughs and breakdowns, this was something spontaneous and it was really good doing the acts as it broke the monotony of the atmosphere and we got a good kick start.
The first act was a conversation between me and Sudheendran and the scene was that in a railway station. I was the ticketless hiker on the platform and Sudheendran the 'Honest Cop'. Next it was between Karthik and Tanoy- the scene was that of a school master and an ever irritating ever complaining student! It was fun seeing Tanoy getting banged by Karthik for doing the homework in more than expected way!!
Arvindan just joined in and then we had this next play, play of the day- Behind enemy lines!! hahaha...I and Sudheendran took up the role of intruders, Karthik the senior BSF, Tanoy the havildar, Arvindan the ever alert soldier on guard! The play went on with a conversation and a little of laughter for about ten minutes. Hope they did have just accepted my basmati deal! The play was enacted with the intention of breaking the monotony and giving us full freedom to express and enjoy having conversations in a gathering.
Well it was followed by an extempore and a questionnaire round. We discussed about the various ways we all deal with our stutter be it hiding, masking or exposing. We never found any solutions but only acknowledged these things. Thankfully we did not have to chalk out any free advices nor any solutions as such. All we did was taking further the fact of 'acceptance' of this problem and "start living life"! At last we had a photo session and you can see the smart men of TISA Bangalore smiling there!!
Sitting from left:Aravindan and Pramod. Standing from left: Sudheendran, Karthik and Tanoy
Stuttering is one thing that gets a lot easier if you don't try to hide it" (Guitar)
Regards
Pramod
Hello all, well here goes the next dossier ( chuckle) from my side. The day started with 3 of us and two of us joined later. This time it was Karthik, Sudheendran, Tanoy, Aravindan and myself. It started with the usual hi hellos and an ever enthusiastic thirst of 'expressing full out' of every stammerer!! The time was scheduled at 10.00 A.M but our Bengalluru culture dominated and people drooped from 10.30!
This time it was Karthik's anchoring and he had some new things planned up this week. It was just declared there that a play would be enacted and all of us just bagged roles and went on field!! 'wow'!! Other than the regular sharing of breakthroughs and breakdowns, this was something spontaneous and it was really good doing the acts as it broke the monotony of the atmosphere and we got a good kick start.
The first act was a conversation between me and Sudheendran and the scene was that in a railway station. I was the ticketless hiker on the platform and Sudheendran the 'Honest Cop'. Next it was between Karthik and Tanoy- the scene was that of a school master and an ever irritating ever complaining student! It was fun seeing Tanoy getting banged by Karthik for doing the homework in more than expected way!!
Arvindan just joined in and then we had this next play, play of the day- Behind enemy lines!! hahaha...I and Sudheendran took up the role of intruders, Karthik the senior BSF, Tanoy the havildar, Arvindan the ever alert soldier on guard! The play went on with a conversation and a little of laughter for about ten minutes. Hope they did have just accepted my basmati deal! The play was enacted with the intention of breaking the monotony and giving us full freedom to express and enjoy having conversations in a gathering.
Well it was followed by an extempore and a questionnaire round. We discussed about the various ways we all deal with our stutter be it hiding, masking or exposing. We never found any solutions but only acknowledged these things. Thankfully we did not have to chalk out any free advices nor any solutions as such. All we did was taking further the fact of 'acceptance' of this problem and "start living life"! At last we had a photo session and you can see the smart men of TISA Bangalore smiling there!!
Sitting from left:Aravindan and Pramod. Standing from left: Sudheendran, Karthik and Tanoy
Stuttering is one thing that gets a lot easier if you don't try to hide it" (Guitar)
Regards
Pramod
December 13, 2009
Protest & Forgiveness
For a long time, I blamed my father for my difficulties with words, especially while talking to authority figures. He was an army man and a disciplinarian- actually, no more than any middle class Indian father, wanting to raise children into responsible adults. Actually, he was quite loving and approachable. But I as a child did some 'brainstorming' (2+2=22, not even 5!) and thought- since I stammer when he questions me in 'that loud voice' – it is he who has put this fear of authority in me, which later must have infected other areas of my life- emotions, attitude, relationships etc.
Much later, when I began researching stammering, I realized that, this could not be true. Because my other siblings, being older than me (I was the youngest) received more scolding from our father and still they did not develop a stammer. So, real reason had to lie somewhere else. I realized that I had inherited a genetic predisposition and later, it was me, who, when faced with negative audience reaction, opted for the 'covert path'.
My father died of an heart attack when I was about 20 yrs. Twenty two years later, when I was 42, I discovered that I had used my father as an scapegoat, instead of taking responsibilities for my own actions and decisions. A taut knot inside began to dissolve and I sought his forgiveness in spirit. I know nothing about afterlife- but I felt I was forgiven and thereafter I made rapid progress in my attitude towards communication and other aspects of life. I felt lighter, healthier and vibrant.
But what about those, who have actually hurt us, knowingly or unknowingly? Should they too be forgiven? Ideally, yes- because then you no more carry that extra burden. That was about past. What should we do in the present? When both parties are present and accessible - we should try to protest, through whatever means available to us and acceptable to our society.
“..But he did tell me. Never losing pace. There were a group of kids, they took him on, one with a baseball bat. They terrorized him. That's the word he used, 'terrorized'. He understood that he was being attacked because of his disability. He understood that what was happening was wrong. More than that he knew that his treatment was criminal...”
Read this post about how a developmentally challenged person calmly went about helping himself when harassed by a group of adolescents. Here, another post on the same theme.
For PWS, especially younger ones: making a protest, when mocked is difficult, because then, talking is even more difficult. But one can always leave the place in protest- IF nothing works. Finally, true forgiveness takes care of everything, of all the loose ends, and sets you free to move on.
Jab we met in Connaught place!
Hi, the Delhi SHG meeting was held on 13th December 2009 at the Central Park Connaught Place. To start with, there were Arun and myself in the meeting, Anuj had to join late. We met and discussed about how our practises were going on and what changes have we observed over the period. We both agreed that stammering is more linked to our psychology and our fear of interacting with people. It is like a vicious circle that if we stammer, we will not talk and if we will not talk (come out of our inhibitions), we will stammer. We practised breathing techniques of 4-2-6 and meditation. Then, we practised slow reading. After that we discussed about the effects of our behaviour towards stammering and how we can change our thought process into positive thinking rather than our mind generating negative thoughts and emotions. After this, we played an interesting game, we went to people and interacted with them using the most difficult words. Also, we created the environment of mock interviews and gave interviews to each other. At 12 PM it was time for me to leave. Arun and Anuj continued with the meeting.
Such meeting are really fruitful and help us in a better way than always practising in isolation.
Deepak Sanothra
Such meeting are really fruitful and help us in a better way than always practising in isolation.
Deepak Sanothra
Budding salesmen
This Sunday, Nishu, self, Pawan, Sushil and Surendra participated. Surendra and Sushil were asked to make a selling pitch at the dias. Surendra had to sell an empty bottle as the new Pepsi launched this summer. Sushil had to sell a mirror as if it were a newspaper, in a crowded bus.
Thereafter, we discussed and practised block corrections (post, in, pre). Then, we used mirror to get visual feedback, to observe our facial reactions and get a better control. Then, we did some 'assertion' training.
December 12, 2009
I Performed a Mimicry Item
Today (12th Dec) was the annual picnic of our company. The event was held at a beach resort in Goa. But why am I talking about this here ? It's because of one incident that I experienced here today, which I would like to share.
The first thing good about this picnic was, I was the part of the organizing committee, and I was among the committee which organized games. This was the first time I was a part of organizing any event. And it went all well... But that's not the only thing I want to tell.
Today, at the picnic, there were around 70 to 80 people attending, that included the company employees, their spouses and kids and a few management people from our US and France offices. In front of such a big crowd, I performed a mimicry item.... and also won a prize for it. A performance infront of 80 people - was something I thought was impossible with me a few years back, happened today. Being in the organizing committee I had shown my willingness to perform a mimicry item. This may be the result of the feel-good factor the acceptance gave me lately. It could also be because of my constant urge to push myself out of my shell, to fight my long standing battle. But when the comperer announced my item, I was not scared, but was a bit apprehensive. I held the microphone in the hand, and faced the crowd. A stage fright is something which i always had. And today I was facing my fear for the first time. There were round about 80 pairs of eyes - that makes it around 160 eyes looking at me. But yet I got started. I could hear my own words echo from the microphone. The stammering came... But I could manage it. For the audience, it didnt looked like stammering. I performed mimicry of 5 bollywood actors, and also had to do a bit of talking in between. And when the item was over, the sound of applause was the best sound I had ever heard in all these years.
Later I got a prize for my item, and it felt really great - to win a prize for a mimicry (related to speech) , being a part of a battle called stammering (also related to speech).
The praises from my bosses from US and Goa office, that they never knew I had this talent, and that it was a great performance, only added to my happiness. This was one talent I had which I always wanted to show right from my college days, but didn't. Because I had locked myself in a cage.
I just want to pass a message... It is indeed very true that, if you fear something, then you need to face your fear. When you do it, you come to know that what you fear for was actually - "NOTHING".
The first thing good about this picnic was, I was the part of the organizing committee, and I was among the committee which organized games. This was the first time I was a part of organizing any event. And it went all well... But that's not the only thing I want to tell.
Today, at the picnic, there were around 70 to 80 people attending, that included the company employees, their spouses and kids and a few management people from our US and France offices. In front of such a big crowd, I performed a mimicry item.... and also won a prize for it. A performance infront of 80 people - was something I thought was impossible with me a few years back, happened today. Being in the organizing committee I had shown my willingness to perform a mimicry item. This may be the result of the feel-good factor the acceptance gave me lately. It could also be because of my constant urge to push myself out of my shell, to fight my long standing battle. But when the comperer announced my item, I was not scared, but was a bit apprehensive. I held the microphone in the hand, and faced the crowd. A stage fright is something which i always had. And today I was facing my fear for the first time. There were round about 80 pairs of eyes - that makes it around 160 eyes looking at me. But yet I got started. I could hear my own words echo from the microphone. The stammering came... But I could manage it. For the audience, it didnt looked like stammering. I performed mimicry of 5 bollywood actors, and also had to do a bit of talking in between. And when the item was over, the sound of applause was the best sound I had ever heard in all these years.
Later I got a prize for my item, and it felt really great - to win a prize for a mimicry (related to speech) , being a part of a battle called stammering (also related to speech).
The praises from my bosses from US and Goa office, that they never knew I had this talent, and that it was a great performance, only added to my happiness. This was one talent I had which I always wanted to show right from my college days, but didn't. Because I had locked myself in a cage.
I just want to pass a message... It is indeed very true that, if you fear something, then you need to face your fear. When you do it, you come to know that what you fear for was actually - "NOTHING".
December 10, 2009
chennai meeting on 20.12.2009
4 PM to 7 PM at
MINI CONFERENCE HALL
Y.W.C.A.INTERNATIONAL GUEST HOUSE,
#1086, E.V.R.PERIYAR SALAI
(POONAMALLI HIGH ROAD),
(ABOUT 1 KM FROM EGMORE RLY. STATION)
CHENNAI-600084.
Contact:V. Manimaran
Mobile: 098842 89989
MINI CONFERENCE HALL
Y.W.C.A.INTERNATIONAL GUEST HOUSE,
#1086, E.V.R.PERIYAR SALAI
(POONAMALLI HIGH ROAD),
(ABOUT 1 KM FROM EGMORE RLY. STATION)
CHENNAI-600084.
Contact:V. Manimaran
Mobile: 098842 89989
December 9, 2009
Bangalore SHG meeting on 06-Dec-2009
Written by: Amithap Sampath
This week I had to go a little late to the meet. Meanwhile we had two new folks, one Aravindan (along with his non-PWS friend) and one Umashankar, both from HCL (thanks to Sudheendran!!!). After Introduction, group discussed about the feasibility of attending intensive therapy of sachin efficiently. We decided to go back to sachin for a 2 day event so that we can attend with a maximum strength.
We later had a story building activity focusing on the difficult words or situations per individual. Murali for instance finds it difficult with words starting in "T" ex: Two, Three. And on other hand I find it difficult to encounter an unprepared situation. We exercised this and the story had twists of its own. We enjoyed it.
Later we had a reading session and an assessment following it. Umashankar suggested to have breathing exercise and Q&A session (Hot Seat) as part of the group activity. We realized it later that though we had worked on these areas we had it slipped off our routine. We decided to incorporate these in future.
We then had a round of explaining 5 words or two basic sentences in our mother tongue. Ex: How are you? I am fine. We had hit Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi (6 languages). It was amazing.
Aravindan and Umashankar were explained the importance of accepting the stammering in work place. Healthy discussion went on about the pros and cons of having this said to peers or manager. We then learnt that it’s important to say this in a constructive manner rather than as a limitation or challenge to our performance. We then signed off the meet.
Attendees: Sudheendran, Karthick1, Karthik2, Murali, Tanoy, Aravindan & his friend, Umashankar, Amithap
This week I had to go a little late to the meet. Meanwhile we had two new folks, one Aravindan (along with his non-PWS friend) and one Umashankar, both from HCL (thanks to Sudheendran!!!). After Introduction, group discussed about the feasibility of attending intensive therapy of sachin efficiently. We decided to go back to sachin for a 2 day event so that we can attend with a maximum strength.
We later had a story building activity focusing on the difficult words or situations per individual. Murali for instance finds it difficult with words starting in "T" ex: Two, Three. And on other hand I find it difficult to encounter an unprepared situation. We exercised this and the story had twists of its own. We enjoyed it.
Later we had a reading session and an assessment following it. Umashankar suggested to have breathing exercise and Q&A session (Hot Seat) as part of the group activity. We realized it later that though we had worked on these areas we had it slipped off our routine. We decided to incorporate these in future.
We then had a round of explaining 5 words or two basic sentences in our mother tongue. Ex: How are you? I am fine. We had hit Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi (6 languages). It was amazing.
Aravindan and Umashankar were explained the importance of accepting the stammering in work place. Healthy discussion went on about the pros and cons of having this said to peers or manager. We then learnt that it’s important to say this in a constructive manner rather than as a limitation or challenge to our performance. We then signed off the meet.
Attendees: Sudheendran, Karthick1, Karthik2, Murali, Tanoy, Aravindan & his friend, Umashankar, Amithap
Herbertpur December 6th, 2009
Sachin had gone to Badkot, wondering if the SHG will meet this Sunday in his absence or not. But it did! Pawan, Surendra, Nishu, Parmanand and Sushil gathered had diverse discussion and then, Pawan asked everyone to pick up a slip froma box and speak on the topic for five minutes- with a smile and good eye contact. Topics were interesting: Surendra, who is doing accountancy training was asked to explain the concept of VAT (value added tax), Sushil was asked to talk about Cricket; Parmanand spoke on the experiences of being unemployed and looking for a job! All in all, everyone had a good time.
December 7, 2009
Pune SHG Meet on 6th December
Pune SHG met on 6 December 2009 at Senior citizen’s hall on Dhole patil road. The meeting was attended by the following members; Sanjeeth, Rahil, Suraj, Praveen, Rupesh, Prasad, Bhaskar, Dharmara and Sujit.
The meeting started at around 3PM with meditation which is considered very positive for calming the mind. Subsequently we all did the slow reading one by one. This included reading aloud 12-15 guideline steps for overcoming stammering with pauses to bring down the rate of speech. This is a strong aid in reducing the urgency in speech and speaking with poise and control. This was followed by self’s short introduction and narrating one of the happiest moment of one’s life. It really motivated the people to tell and share their happiness with the other persons.
Then we played a small game which was to bring back the tendency to rush through the sentences and speaking at breakneck speed. This was done to simulate the real time situations and have control over one’s speech. This can be a really good exercise to test the ability not to panic under uncomfortable situations. People did a very good job here.
The last and final activity of the meeting was public speaking/question answer sessions. Most of the people preferred to have the question answer session rather than speaking on any topic. Some of the interesting topics which were discussed during this were; 25 years of Bhopal gas tragedy, Life cycle of stars, being entrepreneur, accepting stuttering gives freedom, how following the slow speaking technique helps at work place, Members views on stuttering, different course which can be done to increase the skill set, Places to visit in West Bengal. Practicing the slow speaking style initially with few people is a step in dissolving stammering.
Thanks to one and all for making this meeting interactive and lively!!
We have much more coming up in the next meeting on 13 dec 2009
Sujit Singh
The meeting started at around 3PM with meditation which is considered very positive for calming the mind. Subsequently we all did the slow reading one by one. This included reading aloud 12-15 guideline steps for overcoming stammering with pauses to bring down the rate of speech. This is a strong aid in reducing the urgency in speech and speaking with poise and control. This was followed by self’s short introduction and narrating one of the happiest moment of one’s life. It really motivated the people to tell and share their happiness with the other persons.
Then we played a small game which was to bring back the tendency to rush through the sentences and speaking at breakneck speed. This was done to simulate the real time situations and have control over one’s speech. This can be a really good exercise to test the ability not to panic under uncomfortable situations. People did a very good job here.
The last and final activity of the meeting was public speaking/question answer sessions. Most of the people preferred to have the question answer session rather than speaking on any topic. Some of the interesting topics which were discussed during this were; 25 years of Bhopal gas tragedy, Life cycle of stars, being entrepreneur, accepting stuttering gives freedom, how following the slow speaking technique helps at work place, Members views on stuttering, different course which can be done to increase the skill set, Places to visit in West Bengal. Practicing the slow speaking style initially with few people is a step in dissolving stammering.
Thanks to one and all for making this meeting interactive and lively!!
We have much more coming up in the next meeting on 13 dec 2009
Sujit Singh
December 3, 2009
Please Do Ponder ...
Today, I am going to share an experience, which I have faced in the past too, and which I am sure many PWS's have faced in their lives at some juncture or the other. Today, I had to attend a freind's wedding. Wedding means lots of people to meet and to face. Though it doesnt scare me now, it sure keeps me in a different state of mind. A state wherein my mind is hypersensitive, and always ready to face people. It's like the mind putting an extra-effort subconsciously, towards fluency. And in such state, the stammering sometimes increases. And I stutter a few times, even at the situations where I dont usually stutter.
Today, In such a state of mind, I came across a friend (a girl), and as the conversation began, she asked me something. When I answered, for that moment, I had forgotten everything. And I spoke in a lot of haste. The speed of my speech delivery was so much that I could make out that I was not clear with what I was trying to convey. I knew I had gone wrong with my communication skills. And I wanted to bounce back... I wanted to correct my mistake. I wanted to say it again, and this time applying all the rules of fluency, which i know. But before I could do that, she nodded in agreement and said "OK". I was very much sure that I was not clear with
my words, and she didnt get my message. But still she reacted in a way as if she understood, which I see was her way to help me, comfort me or whatever.
This is one thing many non-stammerers often do with the stammerers. This, may however be in good taste, but I feel, it should still be included in the "Don't"s list for the non-stammerers. Just like it hurts when others complete our word for us, or when others make those crooked faces, this is another thing which is not good for the stammerers. In my opinion, what the non-stammering people should do is, if they find that the stammerer is not clear with his words, be patient and give him a chance to come back again. Or, ask him again politely to speak again. This will encourage the PWS to correct his mistakes and to produce fluent and clear speech when he talks. Reacting in such a way can really be disturbing and sometimes even can harm the morale.
I wanted to voice my opinion here, and see what other PWS think on this. I would be glad if other PWS share their viewpoints with respect to the issue I just discussed.
December 1, 2009
Bangalore SHG meeting on 29-Nov-2008
TISA Bangalore Meeting on 29th
Hai.. This is Tanoy. Yesterday along with my colleague Mr. Laxman (also a Stammerer), I attended the TISA meeting. Actually, I was planning to attend the meeting for a quite long time but, couldn't make it earlier. So, this time on 28th I called Sudheendran and asked about the meeting details. Then, on 29th we met at Cubbon Park around 10.15 AM near the library building and then he took us to the small hut where TISA usually meets on Sundays. There Mr. Amith was already waiting for us.
There we introduced ourselves (Name) and told how we came to know about TISA and its whereabouts. Then, Amith bought tea for us and asked us to take a sip of it slowly and then speak after that. I continued slowly and with a little stammering I was able to complete my introduction. Later, Laxman started and we realized that he was not relaxed. We asked him to take his own time but to stutter slowly. He told that he wanted some technique with which he would be able to hide the stammering problems from others.
Then, Mr. Sudheendran and Mr. Amith told that Stammering was not crime or sin, it was just in our mind. We tend to think too much about the 3rd person which ultimately increases tension and leads to more stammering. We should accept it. We can 'stutter but easily'. We should not force our body into it. It’s our speech which has a problem not our body. We should not force to speak a word, we should take it easily. Then, we discussed about the techniques which are available like prolongation, proper breathing, the bouncing techniques and opening our mouth properly.
About an Hour later, we were joined by Mr. Murali. He told that he had informed in his office about the problem and asked them to cooperate with him. Mr. Murali told that he got stuck whenever he tried to speak 'TWO' in English and 'TEEN' in Hindi. So, we asked him to say 'TWO' twenty times, using the technique he was more comfortable with, and he did well using the bouncing technique.
Later, I asked about marriage which is the next phase of life after job. :) Mr Murali told he would be much freighted whenever he saw a girl and that he stammered a lot with them. Only later did I realize that both Mr Sudheendran and Mr. Amith were married and I and Laxman got convinced that we could also get proposal regardless of the problem.
Then, I told that it was not just English Language in which we stammered. It was the same with the other languages that we knew. So, we decided from the next time, we would teach others 5 words from our mother tongue.
And the meeting ended in a fruitful way and I realized that every technique might not be helpful for everybody. We must find the technique suitable to us and we should go forward with that.
I look forward to continue my association with the TISA SHG Bangalore for a long time.
Thanking You,
Tanoy Bhattacharjee
Hai.. This is Tanoy. Yesterday along with my colleague Mr. Laxman (also a Stammerer), I attended the TISA meeting. Actually, I was planning to attend the meeting for a quite long time but, couldn't make it earlier. So, this time on 28th I called Sudheendran and asked about the meeting details. Then, on 29th we met at Cubbon Park around 10.15 AM near the library building and then he took us to the small hut where TISA usually meets on Sundays. There Mr. Amith was already waiting for us.
There we introduced ourselves (Name) and told how we came to know about TISA and its whereabouts. Then, Amith bought tea for us and asked us to take a sip of it slowly and then speak after that. I continued slowly and with a little stammering I was able to complete my introduction. Later, Laxman started and we realized that he was not relaxed. We asked him to take his own time but to stutter slowly. He told that he wanted some technique with which he would be able to hide the stammering problems from others.
Then, Mr. Sudheendran and Mr. Amith told that Stammering was not crime or sin, it was just in our mind. We tend to think too much about the 3rd person which ultimately increases tension and leads to more stammering. We should accept it. We can 'stutter but easily'. We should not force our body into it. It’s our speech which has a problem not our body. We should not force to speak a word, we should take it easily. Then, we discussed about the techniques which are available like prolongation, proper breathing, the bouncing techniques and opening our mouth properly.
About an Hour later, we were joined by Mr. Murali. He told that he had informed in his office about the problem and asked them to cooperate with him. Mr. Murali told that he got stuck whenever he tried to speak 'TWO' in English and 'TEEN' in Hindi. So, we asked him to say 'TWO' twenty times, using the technique he was more comfortable with, and he did well using the bouncing technique.
Later, I asked about marriage which is the next phase of life after job. :) Mr Murali told he would be much freighted whenever he saw a girl and that he stammered a lot with them. Only later did I realize that both Mr Sudheendran and Mr. Amith were married and I and Laxman got convinced that we could also get proposal regardless of the problem.
Then, I told that it was not just English Language in which we stammered. It was the same with the other languages that we knew. So, we decided from the next time, we would teach others 5 words from our mother tongue.
And the meeting ended in a fruitful way and I realized that every technique might not be helpful for everybody. We must find the technique suitable to us and we should go forward with that.
I look forward to continue my association with the TISA SHG Bangalore for a long time.
Thanking You,
Tanoy Bhattacharjee
8th meeting of Jammu SHG
On 29th Nov(Sunday) we had our 8th meeting of Jammu SHG. This was the longest one. Started at 11 am and went on to around 2:45 pm. We started our meeting with usual discussion..Rajesh cleared the 2nd round of the interview too and got selected. Then we moved on to Sharing our Ambitions.
Each and everyone of us is very Ambitious and we talked about that from our school time to present day Ambition. Bcoz we are having some kiddish Ambitions in school and as we grew up and responsibilities increases, our Ambitions also changes.
Then we started discussing our fretful encounters with something supernatural or Paranormal Activities like Ghosts,spirits etc, if any.All this was increasing our excitement and triggering stammering but we tried our best to handle this excitement and control our stammering.
After a long discussion of our encounters with supernatural things I began to tell them about the concept of Parallel universes,CERN's Large Hadron Collider(LHC) experiment. Then we discussed few more interesting topics such as UFOs, Aliens,Area 51,John Titor(the Time Traveler) etc.
All the topics were very interesting and thatz why it took around 4 hours to discuss it all. We started these topics bcoz I think that we got bored of talking about stammering and techniques and other stuff related to stammering. So we should have this kindaa chat sometimes in our SHG meetings.
This meeting was very much interesting, especially for me, bcoz I was having a lot about these things within me and finally It came out and now I am feeling very very relaxed. Same will be with Addy and Rajesh too . We also discussed about girls,love etc. So this was even more interesting.....jus kidding.
So this was all about our 8th meeting.Stay tuned to get more on our 9th meeting.
Each and everyone of us is very Ambitious and we talked about that from our school time to present day Ambition. Bcoz we are having some kiddish Ambitions in school and as we grew up and responsibilities increases, our Ambitions also changes.
Then we started discussing our fretful encounters with something supernatural or Paranormal Activities like Ghosts,spirits etc, if any.All this was increasing our excitement and triggering stammering but we tried our best to handle this excitement and control our stammering.
After a long discussion of our encounters with supernatural things I began to tell them about the concept of Parallel universes,CERN's Large Hadron Collider(LHC) experiment. Then we discussed few more interesting topics such as UFOs, Aliens,Area 51,John Titor(the Time Traveler) etc.
All the topics were very interesting and thatz why it took around 4 hours to discuss it all. We started these topics bcoz I think that we got bored of talking about stammering and techniques and other stuff related to stammering. So we should have this kindaa chat sometimes in our SHG meetings.
This meeting was very much interesting, especially for me, bcoz I was having a lot about these things within me and finally It came out and now I am feeling very very relaxed. Same will be with Addy and Rajesh too . We also discussed about girls,love etc. So this was even more interesting.....jus kidding.
So this was all about our 8th meeting.Stay tuned to get more on our 9th meeting.
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