December 20, 2012

Life lived, wisdom gained..

Capt Bali is a retired IAF officer. I browsed his book "My Experiments In Conquering Stuttering and Stammering" (free download) recently and wish to share my feedback. In one word: Go for it! Read it! But dont read it with an expectation that merely reading will help you conquer your stammering.Read it with a child like curiosity to know how some one who has flown MORE than 15,000 hours, mostly as a commander- all kind of plains from pushpak to hunters and gnats, to Boeing 747 has learned to deal with his stammering and overcome it..

The author makes no claim to be "Expert" on the subject but with all the humility, openness and courage, shares everything he tried and found useful over a long & demanding life. You may or may not agree with everything he says. That is OK. He does not expect that, I am sure. He is just sharing his wisdom, his experiences. His plain, no-nonsense approach is evident both is his choice of language, idioms, pictures and presentation. Let me quote a few lines:

"a.     If A stutterer and stammerer could reduce the fear of s&s to a manageable level.
b.     If A stutterer and stammerer could raise his self pride to a respectable level.
c.     If A stutterer and stammerer could follow some basic breath control exercises.
d.     If A stutterer and stammerer could get rid of his cockeyed way of thinking.

Then, there is a great chance of a stutterer and stammerer leading a normal, happy, fulfilling and fruitful life."

The book takes an empirical approach and a very wide angle view of the problem and possible solutions. It talks of the need for broad life style changes rather than just speaking in a particular way. It also does not try to sell it self by exclusive focus on fluency. It talks about pws as a whole human being, beyond speech and its imperfections. He comes through as a very sensitive, observant and broad human being, who cares about others and wishes to help genuinely.

We think that this book represents a very good development: common men who stammer are taking the courage to share their valid experiences, without waiting for a nod from the "experts", in all humility and for no monetary or social gain. The book is offered as a free download. Please read it and leave your comments here or at his website.
TISA congratulates Capt Bali, for his achievements in life and the wisdom he has gathered, and now shared through the book. All the best to him for 2013!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting. It proves one thing- you can stammer and still fly a fighter plane!! wow!

Akhil

Dinesh said...

Thank you Sachin Sir for sharing..
I have so far finished the first 50pages!
I have read often on Stammering still this book looks so fresh in its words and thoughts.. Thanks to the Captain for such a candid sharing.

Dinesh.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Capt Bali! I really thought that some professions are just not meant for stammerers..Thanks for curing my mindset! my value system..

Puneet

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the wonderful post. I am sure that both the book and author inspiring a lot of people.. Many congratulations to the captain and thanks for his contribution..