Pune SHG Report(17 Jan 2016)

This week SHG meeting was attended by Amol,Nishu,Ravi,Sandeepan,Vishal,Vikram,Anshu. 

Meeting started at around 10:30 am. 

We started with doing meditation for 2 minutes. After doing meditation we did introduction 

round in which along with introduction everyone has to speak about tools or techniques they are

using to manage their stuttering.Afterwards we did a round of pausing and voluntary stammering on difficult words.

Later we did a round of extempore in which everyone has to speak for about 2 minutes on a topic provided.

In last SHG meeting we had planned that we would be having some outdoor activity in coming week.So

We decided to visit a nearby Mall. We split in pair of 2.There we interacted with people at mall and also People outside the mall. We tried voluntary stammering with rickshaw walas and strangers walking on pedestrians.

Response was pretty good.People asked many questions and asked for contact details. Main purpose of activity was to deal with fear, guilt, shame and other emotions associated with our stammering. It gave us a new learning experience us. 

Sorry we forgot to take photos

Next SHG meet details

Date: 24 January 2016(Sunday)
Time: 10.15 am
Venue: Senior Citizen hall,Dhole patil road,Ruby Hall Clinic,Near Pune railway station

For queries contact : 

Contact below members for further details

Amol Karale

amolkarale9763"at"gmail"dot"com

9763951322

Vishal Yewale

vish.yewale22"at"gmail"dot"com

8421452724

Write up By Ravi

Pune SHG Meeting on 27 Dec 2015

Hello All,

Everyone is invited for next Pune SHG meeting on 27 December 2015.

Date: 27 December 2015(Sunday)
Time: 10.15 am
Venue: Senior Citizen hall,Dhole patil road,Ruby Hall Clinic,Near Pune railway station

Nishu  is host for this meeting.

Through these meetings we learn how to stammer with ease. We get more knowledge about stammering.  We meet people from diverse backgrounds. We learn from different people experience. Here we practice techniques which can help you to manage stammering.

So you want to face the challenges get up and come for the meeting.

Contact below members for further details

Amol Karale

amolkarale9763"at"gmail"dot"com

9763951322

Vishal Yewale

vish.yewale22"at"gmail"dot"com

8421452724

Pune SHG 20th December 2015

Pune had a SHG Meeting on 20th December hosted by Abhinav.

(Amol,Dhruv,Dhananjay,Nishu,Abhinav,Girish)

We also had Dhruv from mumbai in our SHG.

The meeting started around 10.30am. We started with a round of introduction. Introduction consists of name,profession and how long you are associated with TISA.

We had a new member Dhananjay he also introduced himself.Later i and abhinav explained about TISA to Dhananjay as he is a newbie. He has some queries  we clarify his queries too.

In the meantime Dhruv and Nishu too join. We also had their introduction. When Dhruv gave his introduction few people were eager to know how his accent is so different. Then he shared his story in brief.That he has stayed outside India  for a quite long time.

Pune SHG Meeting 20 December 2015

Hello All,

Everyone is invited for next Pune SHG meeting on 20th December 2015.

Date: 20th December 2015(Sunday)
Time: 10.15 am
Venue: Senior Citizen hall,Dhole patil road,Ruby Hall Clinic,Near Pune railway station

Abhinav is host for this meeting.

Through these meetings we learn how to stammer with ease. We get more knowledge about stammering.  We meet people from diverse backgrounds. We learn from different people experience. Here we practice techniques which can help you to manage stammering.

So you want to face the challenges get up and come for the meeting.

Contact below members for further details

Amol Karale

amolkarale9763"at"gmail"dot"com

9763951322

Vishal Yewale

vish.yewale22"at"gmail"dot"com

8421452724

Pune SHG On 13 December 2015

You all are invited to Pune SHG meeting on 13 December(Tomorrow).

Venue:- Senior Citizen hall,Dhole patil road,Ruby Hall Clinic,Near Pune railway station

Time:10.15am

Vishal is going to be the host for the meeting.

If you have any queries feel free to call Amol 9763951322 or Vishal 8421452724

Pune SHG report 24 FEB 2013

Hi folks

Some news from Pune SHG.It has not gone into solitary it was just out for refueling.

The attendees were

                Sanjeet

                Vishwas

                RaviShankar

                Anup

                Amol(myself)

                Vivek Sharma(new member )

PUNE SHG REPORT 9 DEC 2012

PUNE SHG had a meeting on 9^th Dec 2012.

The member who attended the meeting were

Sanjeet,

Vikram

Sachin

Amol

Vikas

We first started with meditation in which sanjeet sir gave instructions how to do meditation.

Next  activity we performed was Slow Reading.

After that a round of introduction was done.

As the number of attendees was less we decided that everybody will tell a short story.

Everybody told stories related to different topics.

Later we had a very interesting activity Role Play of court.

Sanjeet sir was assign the role of judge ,other members were also assigned roles like deceased,lawyers.

Last Activity we  performed was extempore everybody was assigned a topic to speak.

Vikas told about the stuttering pro software which is a DAF type software.It is free ware.

The meeting was over around 1 pm.

Pune shg report

Hello Friends hope you are doing well.

The members who attended PUNE SHG meet which was held on 12^th August Amol, Pradeep, Vivek, Sachin, and Sanjeet.

The first activity we had performed was Meditation. Sanjeet sir gave instructions for Meditations. After that slow reading was done. Later we introduce ourselves. We had session of question answer in which one person will be selected and rest all members will ask questions to him and this will repeat with every other person. The questions were like

                What are your hobbies?

                If you get a chance to become actor what will you do?

                What other profession you would choose other that your current profession?

Later Vivek sang a song of DILIP KUMAR after that he leaves the SHG hall because he was having some work. The last activity we performed was prepared speech. I spoke about India’s Independence and sachin sir also continues my same topic and spoke about how india achieve Independence. Sanjeet sir shares a story of film Ishqzade. Pradeep told us a short story.

The meeting was over around 1 pm.

Regards,

Amol karale

amolkarale9763”at”gmail.com

Workshop Report

An old workshop report that has never been published :-) http://www.scribd.com/doc/94199116/Communication-Workshop-Report

ISAD celebrations in Pune

Finally it was our Day (International Stuttering Awareness Day, ISAD) and a Friday too! So Anshul, Devang, JP, Mahesh and Manohar met at Copacabana restaurant at 8 p.m. Since we had a lot of choices for the place to sit, it was difficult for us to make a decision and then Anshul finally decided that all of us will sit in the air conditioned hall. As we settled down, Mahesh also called Bhaskar to join us and bhaskar agreed on the condition that we won't start any of our activity there :-).
As soon as the waiter arrived, we gave him a brief gayan about ISAD and told him that all of us will take more time to order our meals. The Sofas were a bit uncomfortable, so Mahesh and me used our assertive skills and asked the guy to provide some cushions. We were just about to finish our first round of beers when Bhaskar joined us. We had a nice fun filled conversations discussing fun side of stuttering. e.g. Anshul once took an oath as a secretary in his college and he stuttered too, but after the event four girls approached him for friendship :-). I must say all of us have a special bond of friendship where we don't edit anything but just share our feelings direct from heart. After a few rounds of beer, appetizer and a small round of main course meal and lots (around three and half hours to be precise) of chit chatting and fun, we called it a day. Anshul would sure be thinking of a nice excuse on his way back home :-)..I must say people who were not there, missed the fun side of stuttering ;-). Also as we have planned, we will be having such get together, once in a month or two months from here on in Pune.

Day 7, Phase 2- day 1

Above: 1. JP leads a discussion; 2. Sunny & Anshul conduct Stammering Interviews, while JP supervises.

Above: 1. Raja- pros & cons of starting an SHG; 2. Stuttering interviews on ROAD!
3. Devang conducting stuttering interviews with two strangers

Raja's phone was not working in Pune. He sent an sms using the phone of a fellow traveller. I and JP arrived by 9.15 am in the conference hall- a little late to our consternation. Some participants did not have a holiday today, so the strength was a little low: about 9 participants. Silence, Recap, Feedback- all this in an interactive mode. We shared the message from Nitin, the founding trustee of TISA and a very senior IT professional from Delhi. His message to young IT professionals was: dont make stammering the "pole star" of life. Dont postpone living in search of "cure"!

Then, we had a practice session for bouncing, prolongation, pausing and vol.stuttering. This was followed by block correction techniques- even though it was a little early, but it was more for future reference.

When Raja joined us, we had another round of introductions using some technique- and some time no techniques, just as the words came to us. Raja is a senior IT professional and heads the Hyderabad chapter. There were mini discussions in between. Is there discrimination against PWS in IT sector? Should / can the PWS be given a chance to talk to overseas clients? Will it affect the "business"? Will the overseas client really be shocked to hear an Indian stammering? Are there other "minorities" which face discrimination in society and in IT sector? Is IT sector totally driven by excellence and "technical" competence and no other consideration? The group had some senior managers too, who were able to give a different perspective on the issue of discrimination.

After lunch, we had two video clips to discuss the possible outcomes of Acceptance: One extreme where Dr Joseph Sheehan (No words to say) has become quite fluent after about ten years' struggle. The other end of the spectrum was represented by a clip of Marty Zejer from Unspeakable. Marty, a well known name in stuttering circles and a writer of many books, tried many therapies, practiced acceptance no end, but still remained quite dis-fluent to the very end.

So what does Acceptance gain for us? A lot of peace of heart and mind- which may or may not translate into fluency. It was considered important to highlight this, since many IPWS nurture a secret hope that if they practiced Acceptance of their stammering, one day soon it will go away and they will become a "normally fluent" person. We discussed the essentially unknown variations in the way our brains worked, even though our stammer seemed externally similar at times.

Then Raja, shared his experiences of starting a self help group in Hyderabad soon after attending the first communication workshop; how he saw it beneficial for himself and others; the issues he faced in the process etc. After some questions, answers and discussions, related to his presentation, we went to a nearby spot on the road for stuttering interviews. Participants were divided in twos, given the questionnaire, briefed by JP. Everyone had "butterflies" in the pit of stomach.. But no stutterer worthy of his salt has ever turned away from a challenge!

The pictures and videos will tell the reader that it was great fun. Many beliefs got challenged in the process. Almost everyone said that it was the first time they had done something like this and that they felt immensely good, having successfully completed this last assignment of the day. We dispersed after the debriefing of these stammering interviews.

Day 6 - Pune - 14th Oct

We got ready for the second phase of the workshop starting tomorrow: Friday. Raja was coming from Hyderabad and his accommodation had to be planned. Devang and team was able to get accommodation for him at Infy campus itself, which in retrospect, seemed an achievement! One thing is becoming obvious: help is often available for ASKING! May be we dont believe this and as a consequence, dont even try. "You get, what you desire; you desire what you consider possible!"

Some of the Infy participants were surprised when they began getting permission to use all this infrastructure for asking. The next challenge would be to spread the message to different branches of Infosys in the form of small conferences and workshops..and for that we should consider some participants of this workshop, to act as facilitators.

In the evening, Anshul came and we discussed how wives can be meaningfully roped in as "speech buddy": they can help in speech practice assignments and later offer objective feedback. Above all, when we have shared our "little dark secret", communication and even relationship with spouse acquires a lightness and things improve..

A slice of life in Pune- Day 5

The morning on the roof was glorious! High rise buildings, topped by dish antenna - hemmed in by humbler dwellings of people who work in these buildings: delivery boy, driver, kam wali bai etc. etc. Dualities of life are never too far as a reminder in big cities. There has been rain in Pimpli Chinchwad area nearby, so morning was a little chilly. Still, it was nice to get the top-down view of life from our multi storey building. A child crying, chicken fighting, screeching of breaks on the nearby highway, a dog barked somewhere- various sounds wafted up like scents in the balmy morning. May be after all, it is possible to be happy for no reason...

Devang and Mahesh came in the evening and I got a glimpse of the struggle, many young IT graduates have to go through to get a job, in spite of a good degree. Some of it was hilarious and some, hair-raising! The picture is further compounded if you have stammering. HR has no clue: sometime you are simply asked to leave; No second hearing, however good you may be technically. At other times, people interrupt you and offer you water! There is concern but no understanding of the issue and how to help appropriately.

I wonder what would they do, if a candidate actually had a fit, choking or fell down during interview? What would they do? Put a stapler between his teeth, I guess. Or may be make him smell a slipper or shoe? Yes, that is how fits were treated by uneducated people in the past..

Release clutch slowly: Day 4 at Pune

Vaibhav, a young IT pro, came from Mumbai. It is just 3 hours by road! We watched some videos, discussed, practiced a few skills together- then, went for lunch and 'bounced' along the way! Vaibhav gave me a very useful analogy; while learning to drive a bike- he recalled, that he used to release clutch a little early; as a result bike used to jump and then stall! It took him some time to master the fine coordination between relaesing clutch, giving gas and letting go! When we start talking- something similar needs to happen; so we have coined a new watchword: release clutch slowly! Once you are airborne in your speech, it doesn't matter!

Then, Vaibhav helped me with some IT tasks. Finally, after some coaching about dealing with interviews, he left by the evening bus for Mumbai. Later, Vivek and Rahil visited us. Both are quite knowledgeable about stammering. We discussed about what could be the limits of "self-exposure". Should we go out of our way to tell people that we stammer? The problem is- mind is very subtle in sabotaging any effort which threatens status quo. Denial returns in subtle ways. Old fears come back in many "logical" and "rational" arguments. And yes, others' privacy too has to be respected. So, we are sure, very creative and acceptable ways can be found of being at peace with who we are..

Okay, now release the clutch slooooowly.. and off you go!

Some Videos from Comm WS day 1,2

Bhaskar sharing about the movie he saw last: Anjana Anjani..

Anil shares about the ISAD paper: "Stuttering Support - 3615 Miles Away"

A group exercise: story telling with a speech technique.. Can be a challenge to your creativity and multi-tasking skills. But lots of fun- unexpected!

Some more Pics from Day 2, Com WS Pune

Pics above: 1. Beautiful campus - Food court is close by.
2. A session of deep silence and inner stillness: If I am not my fluency and disfluency, who am I?
3. Being at peace with who you are (not who you think you should be) is the key
4. Communication is so much more than talking!
5. A lot can happen over a cup of coffee, especially when IPWS meet!
6 & 7. Energizers: Nani-pani game- Sachin at his wit's end, trying to get Mahesh and Sanjeet out! But they survive and sing together! Singing holds many clues to understand fluency. (Itni shakti hame dena data...)
8. Sharing and listening- and offering objective feedback- is the back bone of any self-help movement.

Day 3 at Pune !

Yes- this is Navratra season in Pune. You can see people doing dandiya (a folk dance with short sticks) under big canopy, by the side of the road late in the night, to slow music, under the indulgent gaze of beautiful idols of various Godesses! While the Mother watches and smiles children dance to Bollywood music! Perfect!

I am staying with JP and his house mates. It brings back memories of living in boys hostel in my medical college days.There are six young IT professionals sharing a nice little flat on the ground floor of a multi-storey building. Each has his own time to go to office (often decided by the client overseas and the IT companies they work for), work, eat, sleep and also sing! Some cook, some dont. They share one broad band by turning one of their laptops into some kind of wireless server. Every now and then, you here some one yelling: Dekh, Dekh, brodband ka jack nikal gaya kya? (Has the broad band cable come loose?!!)

Watching sun rise from the roof of this five storey building is a great experience: Pune is surrounded by a ring of low hills. A haze hanging loose on the city is slowly lit up with changing shades of pink, red, auburn- and suddenly this molten red ball is suspended in the blue sky just above the eastern hills.. reflecting from the glass panes of the high rise buildings in Hinjewadi, behind me.. No time to close your eyes, but to open them and be one with the scene!

Gaurish came, saw his video and then we discussed a few things: Need to accept ourselves with the freckles, wart and all..And how this acceptance radiates as a comfortable feeling when you communicate. Then, he drove us to Rama Krishna Math- other end of the city. I heard the slow vesper chant Khandana bhava-bandhana.. in Dhrupad, after many many years, it seemed.. Then JP bought some inspiring books and we returned.

Yes, I interviewed Nitin, a founding trustee of TISA, on skype before going to bed. He is doing something quite creative: developing a group of freelancing IT professionals (all PWS) who bid for overseas assignments; support each other, work together and challenge themselves to new heights every day.

Communication Workshop in Pune

TISA is conducting its next workshop on communication for people who stammer, in Pune. It will be five day workshop spread over two weekends and a Friday (a holiday) i.e. 9, 10 , 15 , 16 , 17 October 2010. All the days will be independent of each other, so even if you miss one day, you will still be able to participate the next day without any catch up to do. However TISA would advise you to attend all the days. The workshop doesn't promise any cure but will help you become a better communicator.
Please find details of one of the workshops conducted by TISA @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/26113740/Communication-Workshop

Registrations are closed as we have reached the maximum number of required participants for the workshop

For any queries please drop a mail to jaiprakashsunda@gmail.com

Pune SHG weekly meet - 12 Sep 2010

Pune SHG met this Sunday (We meet every weekend, with a very few exceptions. Now we also need to focus on writing a report for every meet). Anshul, Devang, Jai, Vipin and Suraj were present.

Since it was Ganpati utsav, a pandal was playing music with speakers on full, we thought of giving meditation a miss and we started with our introductions and setting a goal for the meet. A member is expected to follow his/her goal religiously throughout the meet and other members also make sure that it happens. So once we had our aims in front of us, we started the race :-) . The meeting makes more sense once each member has a goal and then gets involved in the activities to fulfill that goal. The next activity was word association game where a participant starts with a word and the next person says a word associated with the last word and we continue in a circle. We could see that the goal setting made the activity more interesting, fun and challenging. We made sure that everyone of us at least tried to do what we had set the expectations for us.

Next was the impromptu speech round. Anshul with experience of around ten years in IT was the main evaluator for rest of us. Since we were only five, we did this activity twice and noted the improvements as result of constructive feedback in the first round. We also learned the art of giving feedback. e.g. – a feedback should always start with the positive points first and then the negatives with suggestions. Required to giving feedback also makes you listen and observe more attentively. A quality most people including PWS always lack at. Another observation from this activity was that – most of us don’t read/write very often and hence lack clarity of thought and knowledge, and hence confidence. I feel another important factor to stammer with confidence is having knowledge about the topic and clarity of thoughts. So, let us all pledge to read at least for half an hour per day.

As observed in the first two activities, some of us were feeling it tough to stick to their goals due to its complexity. So we reset our goals and made them very basic for this activity – my goal it to use bouncing or my goal is to make eye contact or my goal is to smile :-) . Next was one word story where one of us gave a topic and then we made a story by speaking once word after other and hence forming sentences and the story. We also had some good laugh with some unexpected twists and turns. We concluded the meet with giving suggestions and feedback as to how to improve the meetings. Before leaving we also went out to check the beautiful pandal right next to our meeting hall and then dispersed. Next week we are going to do video recordings of our impromptu speeches so as to catalogue our stammer and eliminate our secondary behavious.

Pune SHG - A Memorable Day

The Pune SHG meeting this sunday was very interesting. We had fun and enjoyed as much as we could. JP had already planned to give us Treat, as it was his Birthday on 22nd July. Although I wished him on that day too but sunday was special. It was raining very heavily from the last 6 days and still was raining with no hint of sun shine.

Our meeting starts at 10:30 am but due to heavy rain and traffic, I was about 25 minutes late(sorry for that). Till that time JP,Chris and Rahul had already started meditating. I removed my shoes and sat down on the chair very carefully so that I don't disturb them. Then I also closed my eyes and started meditating along with them. After 5 minutes, when we opened our eyes, Sujit was also sitting in front of us. Actually Chris took some time to come out of the meditating state. And it was really good to watch him going so deep in his mind and we all remained silent till he opened his eyes.

Most of the members couldn't make it because of the heavy rainfall.So with 5 members this time, we had a round of slow reading where we were suppose to pause after every three words. In this round our patience was tested.Because everyone was trying to speak the whole sentence in one go forgetting about the pause. After that we began to play a game in which we had to frame a sentence and the next person had to make a sentence rhymed with the previous one just like a poem. This round was very interesting.After this we had a round which was similar to Extempore. Each of us had to suggest a Topic and anyone can choose any Topic but the same topic cant be chosen twice. The topics were very interesting and we all had to speak for at least 4 minutes on the topic we selected.

Then came the time for celebration. JP himself had brought the cake and we all sang the famous "Happy Birthday to you " song for him. Then we all ate some of the cake and the rest
of the cake was as usual put on his face. It was the perfect Asian paints moment :-D



After that it was Treat time.We all went to a restaurant where we had a delicious vegetarian Lunch as it was a vegetarian resto :-( . Our lunch went on for about an hour and a half. After all we were discussing many important things. This was all about our meeting.

JP and I also have an experience to share which was more like a nightmare to us.Stay tuned for this Nightmare.