First Meet Of Dehradun SHG

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Herbertpur TISA SHG meeting 29th Nov 09

We all met at Anugrah and had a go at it.. The video says it all..

I came, I spoke, I conquered..

Nishant and Harpreet have been discovering that: feel the fear and still go ahead and do it- even if it is a crowded noisy waiting hall of a hospital or a marketing complex or a bus or whatever your mind can conjure up as one of those frightening situations where you tend to stammer. Some Yoga postures, some jogging in tea gardens (6.30 am!), some sight-seeing; They also had a darshan of the "Silent saint" of Yamuna valley towards the end of this three week intensive.
JP bobbed in and out whenever he could- weekends specially. He has discovered that serving others selflessly is the biggest "technique" for self change, after all! Nishant has left earlier for an interveiw (All the best from TISA!). He plans to come for the 7th Jan 2010 intensive again.
(PS: Swamiji wrote a verse of Guru Nanak Dev ji for Romi: Bhaya binu upje na bhakti; Bhava binu hoye na preet..)

Anyone from Goa??

This is Harish Usgaonker from Goa. I have joined TISA in the first week of
October. And after that, I have taken an initiative to start an SHG here in Goa.

I am 28, working as a Senior Software Engineer in NE Technologies (Goa).
Stammering has always been with me everywhere... But along with that, another thing has been with me - that is the passion to get rid of it. I have had a few successful moments, and a few failures. But TISA introduced me to this wonderful concept of "Acceptance". With that, I feel like I have been a part of new journey. And every moment feels like success - even if it has stammering in it.

Looking forward to know many more IPWS here.... Do get in touch with me...
And if any member is from Goa, then please contact me if you wish to be a part
of the SHG.

TISA's Jaipur Chapter

TISA has initiated a Self Help Group (SHG) Process in Jaipur with help from Siddharth. Please get in touch with Siddharth ( 9950162987 , hearsid@gmail.com ) if you want to join the SHG.

Bindas bole to..

To use a Bollywood expression, our motto was to go out 'there' and bole bindas (speak out boldly)! Yes, that is what they did one after another on 22nd Nov in our SHG.. It became difficult to stop some of them!

Let us talk!

This sunday, 22nd Nov., there was more fun because of new faces: Romi, Nishant, and of course the old timers like Garima, Pawan, Nishu, Surendra, Garima's mother, JP and Sushil. We played some interactive games, discussed a few things about good communication etc. There were random topics and brief presentations by participants with little preparation. For most participants, standing on a podium, in a large hall- and throwing their voice far out- was a new experience and some interesting challenge too. Nishant spoke on Team building, Garima on three laws of Newton (Newton stammered btw), JP on good website design, Romi on Front desk management, Nishu on Shop management, Pawan on use AV aids in present day teaching system, Sushil on pros and cons of corporal punishment. Sachin summarised the discussion here and there. Discussions lasted for about three hours.
We wish to thank Mr Robert Kumar and Herbertpur Christian Hospital for letting us sue the hall.

7th meeting of Jammu SHG

On 22nd Nov, we had our 7th meeting of jammu SHG. Aditya didn't come bcoz he was not well.So it was only Rajesh and me. I am in contact with 2 more pws from last 3 months and every time they promise that they will come to attend the meeting but they never show up.
So its their bad luck that they doesn't want to help themselves.

We started the meeting with some casual talks. Then we talked about Rajesh's interview that he had yesterday.Rajesh is already working in a finance company but he is looking for a better job. So he went for an interview in a Sub-sis of Intex. There was an opening for an Accountant.

About his Interview :-

There were around 50 people and out of them 10 were applying for the same post for which R is applying.Each and everyone of them was having lots of experience.Someone with 10 yrs,5 yrs and the least was with 2 years of experience. And here was Rajesh with only 6 months of experience.But still he went for the interview. The interviewer asked him to introduce himself. He started with a lil bit of hesitation and thus stammering. He was a bit shy at the beginning bcoz of his stammering. But suddenly the thought of Acceptance came into his mind and without any shame he started his Introduction.

The interviewer thought that he is a lil nervous and asked him to relax. Then R became more confident and kept on answering without any hesitation. He explained each and everything regarding Accounts in detail. And he cleared the 1st round.

At the end of the interview, the interviewer was so much impressed by his communication skills that he even gave his personal contact number to R. Out of 10, only 2 were selected and R was one of them. Now he is waiting for their call for 2nd round. I bet he will clear that too.

He said that he just used the simple techniques like slow speech, costal Breathing and prolongation and his communication was just perfect.
After that we disscussed a few more things about the Movie "The Unspeakable" and few more things.

Bangalore SHG meeting on 22-Nov-2009

Dear Friends,

My Name is Murali. I have stammering problem from my childhood.
I don't know how I got this problem. Now I am 29 yr old & even now I can't speak some words properly.

Recently I joined "TISA" Self Help group, in Bangalore. Mr. Karthik, is the person who introduced me to the group. Every Sunday, this group meets at Cubbon Park and today I met some friends like Mr. Sudheendran, Mr. Sharan Kumar & Mr. Jayaraju. This is my 1st meeting with SHG. As a Stammerer, I have not gone for any treatment, but for a very long time, I was eagerly looking for some kind of practice methods & techniques which would help me speak fluency.

Today when I attended the 1st meet with the above said SHG group members,
I got to know some methods to speak fluently. The Group members were very encouraging and motivated me to speak without any fear & stutter.

Mr. Karthik spoke about the technique of “One Word, Per Second” to control the speed in which we speak. Using this method he showed me how to speak slowly & clearly without any problem.
Mr. Sudheendran discussed about the “Bouncing the Words & Prolongation” method. I got very impressed by his style of speaking and after that he cleared some of my stammering related doubts.
Mr. Sharan Kumar showed “Breathing Technique”. He gave a demonstration of breathing in and speaking while breathing out.
Mr. Jayaraju, is an ex stammerer. Now he speaks very fluently. He shared his methods & techniques with us. He told us to practice the difficult words loudly more than 1000 times. He told practicing was the most important aspect in curing the stammering problem.
At the end of the meeting, I felt very happy to get a friends group, where I can openly share my feelings & thoughts without any shame or fear. Daily I can practice those methods & techniques. I will continue to attend the SHG every Sunday. I hope in coming days I will also speak normally without any stammering.



Thanks & regards,

Murali B.

The Goa-Dehradun SHG Meeting

It was 22^nd of November – the day scheduled for the second meeting for Goa SHG. But when the day dawned, a feeling of disappointment was beginning to lurk my mind. Till now, the meeting was not confirmed. I had received no confirmation from anybody that they are going to make it. I tried calling Stanley (with whom I had kicked off the first meeting) the whole week. But he didn’t answer the phone. For the first meeting we were two – but today I was just one! How would I possibly hold a meeting with no members to attend?

 

With those thoughts running my mind, I reached on to my laptop and logged in to my special account I have created to converse with stammerers on internet / orkut (This was before acceptance), and now it became an account for my conversations with TISA. 

 

I saw Dr. Sachin online in my list. I conveyed my disappointment to him. He promptly asked me to call him on skype. And this conversation – like magic, erased all my disappointment.

 

Dr. Sachin reminded me again of the first advice that he had given me – that, running an SHG is not a 100 meter dash, but it’s a marathon race. He also  told me how he also face similar problems at Samagra, when people commit on phone, but don’t turn up in the meetings. He told me about the difficulties Mr. Manimaran from Chennai had, when he got started with the SHGs.

 

Dr. Sachin then said a very important thing. “We are doing this because we love doing it. Because we help ourselves by helping others. Not to win any reward.” These words by Dr. Sachin recharged me again. He also looked it in a positive way. Who says 2^nd Goa SHG meeting didn’t happen? It did happen. It happened online. With me and Dr. Sachin having a conversation on Skype! As Dr. Sachin called it – It’s a cross-meeting of Goa and Dehradun SHG.

 

At the end of the conversation, I was feeling great and charged again. I promised Sachin sir that I am going to keep trying, and not going to stop.

 

Dr Sachin has always been an ocean of inspiration for me, right from the day I joined TISA. And today’s conversation has given me the much needed consolation, a recharge of energy to come back strong, and off course – A GREAT DEAL OF INSPIRATION. 

PS: I received a call from Stanley later in the evening, and he told me that he was unable to receive my call because he was outstation. We then tentatively fixed our 2nd SHG meeting, next sunday, 29th November 2009. 

TISA Mumbai SHG meets

Dear Friends,

TISA Mumbai Chapter is going to conduct its next meeting on Sunday 22 Nov 2009 at 9:30a.m. Kindly find the meeting details given below,
etails given below,

Date:22 Nov 2009
Time:9:30 a.m.
Venue:III Floor,Niwara Chambers,
Raghoba Shankar Road,
Chendani Koliwada,Thane(W).
Contact:
Ajit Potdar:9930066424
potdarajit@gmail.com

Chennai meet: learn speech therapy

Venue: MINI CONFERENCE HALL, Y.W.C.A.INTERNATIONAL GUEST HOUSE,

#1086, E.V.R.PERIYAR SALAI, (POONAMALLI HIGH ROAD),(Near Dinathamthi office)

CHENNAI-600084.

Time: 29.11.2009., 4-7 pm
Contact: V. Manimaran,

Mobile: 098842 89989

shout the stutter away..

Speaking a little loudly can help. If you stand away and ask the other person to speak- people tend to speak loudly and fluency is better. Similarly, when you whisper, you dont stutter. There are many such fluency enhancers. These are not "cures"; In fact there is no cure. These ideas help by convincing the person that fluency is inside him/ her, not outside. That s/he can be fluent to an extent if s/he tries. But the bottom line must be emphasized that it is okay to stammer.

Yoga & Calms approach to stuttering

I have been working intensely with R for about a week now. Reverse side of the coin: I have been working intensely with myself in order to do that! Like getting up at 6.20 am with my cough and then a jog with some one half my age! Yes, this and many other challenges. Like inventing new surprises, new speaking situations for R, finding out new ways of getting into his head and finding out what works, what does not. Post session analysis with R. Conquering my own fears that carefully set up interview session may go awry at the last minute..

By and large, I have been following Calms approach (cognitive, affect, language, motor and social skills)- To this I have added meditation and a belief that stammering is a "given" in our life by a higher power (we need not blame ourselves)- a "given" which turns into a gift, the moment we stop fighting against it.. So, far it has worked but the real challenge would be when he returns home..I will be getting him in touch with TISA SHG members there...

Bangalore SHG meeting on 15-Nov-2009

Written by Pramod V. P.

Hi everbody this is Pramod a new member of SHG Bangalore. It was around 10.45 in the morning and the weather just suited for a decent walk in the cubbon gardens! The Bangalore SHG was to meet near the central library as supposed. After a little walk down the road I was picked by a group member and finally we started our study class at 11!

It was my first meet and I was excited to catch up with the people. well however the crowd was way too small than I expected but that did not get me down, however! It started with the usual introduction and greetings. We were four of us and though there was some excitement in me, I did not feel 'anxious' (very rarely it happens)! Well jokes apart we began with a clear acceptance of this long standing problem of us stammerers and then we moved with the day's schedule.

I started with my experiences and possible remedies I had been looking into all my life, most of it were already tried and chewed by others there! Karthik was one guy there with whom I just couldnt match speed as he was way too fast in his speech and I had to be calmed at intervals by Amith whenevr my excitemnet level ran pretty high! Sudheendra was one person who was very less bogged by our arguments and he held on to his cool, while there I was wondering as to what new breakthrough I can possibly create here. Then there was the extempore and Debate which would constantly shake our comfort zones!! The meeting lasted for around 2hrs and I was really happy at the end that I found a group where in I can fall and still smile!

"Sir, you speak like me"

Today we went to a school for screening of young boys, looking for any child with any kind of speech impediment especially stammering..As the boys were introducing themselves, I saw a young boy struggling with his speech and when it was my & Parmanand's turn to introduce ourselves, we bounced a bit. I could see a hint of smile on his face after our introductions..Soon after the introductions as we get prepared to play a game, the same young boy surprised me. He came up to me and said in very sweet and innocent voice - "Sir, you speak like me"..

After this we played a lot of games and I could see that the child who was holding himself back a bit, at the start of the session, suddenly changed gear and was enjoying with other kids....This incident reminds me of what once Sachin had said in response to a question being put to him by Pune SHG- "How can we help school kids ? ". Sachin's reply was - even if you go to school and spend some time with kids who stammer and just listen to them, play with them, it will help them and today I saw it..We didn't do any therapy...Just Me and Paramanand stammering openly in front of his class gave him a hint that stammering is fine...

Also there was another surprise from one of his classmates - "Sir why do some people speak this way ?" . My reply was - "As some people are fat, some are thin, Some are tall and some are small , there is also a variation in the way people speak, so some people stammer and some don't".
I hope I am able to convey my message to fellow PWS (People Who Stammer) that please go out, talk to young people who stammer, go to schools and give a presentation to the whole school about s-s-stammering...U don't realize that how you can change the life of a young boy/girl in a positive way..Anyone game for it?

Communication, motivation, attitude & challenges

R has been here for last 4 days. We decided to review the program today- so that I (sachin) could learn what has helped him as a PWS wanting to change his communication, motivation and attitude. It was a very useful feedback session, where he took the lead and I just clarified the things. I think every trainer / teacher should pay attention to her/ his own learning constantly.

Day 1: R liked the sign on the wall of our sitting room- “Haklana na jurm, na gunah..(Stammering is neither a crime, nor sin...)”- It got him thinking - and feeling at home in a new surrounding, after 48 hrs journey from home. (We discussed and modeled “bouncing”.)

Day 2: R liked the videos he was shown. Unspeakable. It was a Sunday- so I made R phone all the SHG members: “I am R from M. I would like to attend the meeting today. Are you coming? The time is 3 pm and venue is Anugrah center...”
He liked this calling everyone on phone, before meeting them in person. (Belly breathing was discussed in the morning.)

Day 3: He decided to phone a friend and tell him the true purpose of his coming to Dehradun, for the first time. He felt lighter and better. In the evening, he went to Samagra (Dehradun) for the inauguration of Computer class. Suddenly, he was invited to come forward and share his views with a audience (about 30) on stammering and difficulties caused by it. He felt quite good about the whole thing afterwards (link). (Today “prolongation technique” was introduced.)

Day 4: I asked R suddenly to go with Nishu and do lot of marketing. Nishu was told to keep quiet and stay back. R handled the challenge well and felt even more confident. (Today, “Pausing” was discussed.)

Day 5: R was given a list of 6 questions and was asked to go out with Nishu and interview two strangers about stammering. R realized that people do not necessarily share our perception about stammering.

NB: R and S have been going for morning walk at 6.30 am, followed by yoga and meditation session. Many of the things we attempted were truly challenging for both of us. What we are doing here can easily become the nucleus for an Indian version of McGuire program. A program run by recovering stammerers, incorporating Indian traditions along with modern understanding of stammering.

TISA registration..

After long deliberation, we moved ahead on long pending issue of TISA registration. As per the requirement, we needed just two trustees- so Nitin and I acted as the trustee and submitted the deed for registration in the office of Sub-registrar, Vikasnagar. Of course, the babu there kept asking for seven members to be present and "what is the property you are entrusting in this deed?".... pathetic, in one word, is the state of our judiciary! This is a bigger melting of polar cap, which will inundate the whole length and breadth of the land of Bharatkhande, Jambudweepe..
Anyway, afterwards we went to Assan lake- had chowmein- chatted, discussed and dreamt (like old men)..
Later, JP interviewed Nitin on a variety of questions. As we talked about TISA and what self help could mean to ourselves and others- a vision (brighter than the kutchehry, we had been to in the morning!!) emerged: our personal journeys, our search for deeper meaning in life, a dream of communicating with rest of the world at a deeper level.. Slowly, a bigger and brighetr picture was emerging-
Late that night, JP saw Nitin off at railway station.. Life must not stop.

Herbertpur SHG: Introduce your girl friend!

This sunday, JP was around. Romi phoned all the members in the morning as part of his "therapy"..
We did a new activity: Introduce your girl friend!
We all introduced our mysterious but glamorous girl friends to the group- we shared a little about our tempestuous dating history etc. as well.. Lot of fun!

6th meeting of Jammu SHG

On 15th Nov, we had our 6th meeting of Jammu SHG. This meeting was attended by three members which started at 11 am and went on to 1:30 pm. According to the Photograph, starting from the left, it was Rajesh ,me and Aditya.



We started this meeting with a lil bit of Bouncing and Voluntary stammering.On our way to our meeting place ,We saw a guy sitting on a bench at a distance. Aditya went to him and asked him to take our photograph using some Bouncing or Voluntary stammering. This time Aditya was quick and confident.

Then we sat at our usual meeting place and discussed about stammering in our life. Rajesh said that today he has achieved so much in his life just bcoz of his stammering. He said that instead of being here, he would ve been somewhere else doing wrong things like most of the young people are doing for example taking drugs or wasting time & money by going after girls etc.And I totally agreed with him. Bcoz I think that stammering makes us much more Hard working, Determined and above all a kind hearted person who understand the pain of someone else.

Then we discussed about a movie called "front of the class". In this movie I learned loads of things that were even missing in "The unspeakable". This movie is based upon a true story of a Guy named Brad who is having Tourettes syndrome.
Tourettes is also a sort of speech impediment in which the person keeps on making funny sounds even when he is sitting quitely.They have shown a lot of emotions and struggle that Brad goes through .He wants to be a Teacher but gets rejected everytime he goes for an interview.
But he keeps on his fighting spirit and never lets Tourettes to win. After appearing for more than 25 interviews, he gets a job as a teacher in a school.And in the end, he gets an Award of "The best gifted teacher of the year".In his last speech he says that "I got support from My family,my school family,friends and my students. But My best teacher and constant companion was my Tourettes who taught me lots of things.I wouldnt have be here without my Tourettes". That was very encouraging.
OMG Brad and Rajesh are having similar kindaa thinking.

Then we called Sachin sir on his phone and talked to him for about half an hour(28:10 exact). Sachin sir motivated all of us and also cleared many of our doubts.We also talked to JP and Romi.Romi is from Mumbai and he came to samagra to work on his speech.
He is at the right place. Nothing can be better than Samagra ashram.

After that, on our way back, we once again asked a guy to take our photograph using bouncing technique. Then we started asking him few questions about stammering. But he was a bit confused and said that he had no clue why do people stammer. He was feeling a lil bit uncomfortable.So instead of explaining him why it happens, we thought to leave him alone. It really looked a bit strange to him . Three stammering guys standing around him and firing questions. It was a lil funny.

TISA & our journeys: an Interview

TISA has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust at Vikasnagar (Dehradun) today on 13th November 2009. Nitin Tomer was here in this connection and JP took the advantage of the ocasion and interviewed him on wide ranging topics: his vision for TISA, what ails SHGs, what needs to be done, how our personal journeys have brought us to the idea of self help etc. and finally, can stammerers hope to find a mate :-))
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Stammering in workplace (part 5)

Bangalore SHG meeting on 08-Nov-2009

The meeting of the Bangalore Stammering SHG, on 08-Nov-2009, was held in Cubbon Park. In the morning, I got a call from Sharan and he wanted to know whether the session would be held and whether there was any change in the location as it was drizzling. Amith who is the coordinator of Bangalore SHG, called me when I was about to start, telling he wouldn’t be able to come. Karthik 1 had already communicated his inability to come. Since it was drizzling I had a feeling that the turnout would be low. I reached the place at 10 AM, but nobody was to be seen. I decided to go to the hut where we usually meet and decided to read the newspaper and leave after 11 if nobody came. After some time, I got a call from Sharan and he told he was on the way and that he would reach within 20 minutes. After some time Vinay joined me and we began to discuss the activities we did in the previous week. By this time I received a call from Karthik2. He was in Cubbon Park and wanted to know where we were. He had gone to the hut where we met for the first time and couldn’t find anybody. This was his second meeting as he could not attend any meeting after the first one. I told him to come to the library building and went there to bring him to the hut where we were.

We started with the introduction as Karthik2 was not known to Vinay. We almost completed the introduction when Sharan joined us. So I requested Vinay to introduce Karthik2 to him. There was a suggestion from Karthik2 to have a session of extempore speech on any subject. Sharan suggested the topic of ‘our achievements’. We decided to implement the techniques that suit us the most and give the speech. We started with Sharan himself and he decided to speak slowly. He did a good job, though there were some blocks. By this time it began to rain heavily and some people came to the hut. Next it was my turn and I decided to speak to these strangers and try bouncing. I spoke to them about the SHG and asked whether they would like to join the conversation. None of them wanted to join us and luckily almost all of them left soon, thus leaving the hut to us. I tried bouncing and prolongation. Next it was the turn of Vinay and he tried slow speaking, which was followed by Karthik2.

After that Karthik2 spoke about the technique of energy passing which they do in drama rehearsals. To do this, we sat on the ground in a circle and held the hands of each other. The left hand is for receiving the energy and the right hand is for giving it. So the left hand face upwards and right hand downward when we hold the hands. Then we closed the eyes and he gave some positive suggestions. Then we imagined some force coming from above the head and entering our body. Which was followed by chanting the sounds Aa, ae, ee, ae, Aa and Ohm.

In the end we decided to go to a restaurant and have some snacks. We went to a good restaurant suggested by Karthik2 and had some food and then dispersed. I could implement bouncing even in the restaurant and it was really satisfying.

Stammering in workplace (part 4)

Stammering in workplace (part 3)

Part three of JP's thoughts on stammering and workplace..

Stammering in workplace

JP on stammering and workplace..Not entertaining (to quote a chance viewer!) but certainly honest and engaging!

What after acceptance?

When I learned about accepting our stammering, it was love at first sight, as the fighting against it, has never helped me for all my life till that point of time..But now looking back into hindsight as I see now, it created a new problem, that was lack of motivation..Now I didn't had anything to fight..So continuously working on my speech & communication everyday, day after day, became a challenge..I felt a big void in my life..there was nothing to worry about most of the day and I was not used to a free and relaxed mind..But now with meditation and involving me in therapy of others and trying to help other people who stammer, has brought back that motivation and I am back on the right track.
I want to know from others, their experiences with acceptance..Was it what they expected or did it made things more complex? Did you enjoy the journey after acceptance or was it difficult to live without "Giants in chain syndrome"?

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani Movie Review

Ranbir and Katrina rocks ........Never seen a bollywood movie showing stammering in this way.

At first I thought that only Ranbir is playing the role of a stammerer but then I came to know that Katrina is also a stammerer in the movie.

APKGK is a story of Prem(Ranbir kapoor) and how he falls in love with the pretty Jenny (Katrina Kaif). And it's the story of how Prem goes from being unable to express his love for Jenny, to finally finding the words to tell her he loves her.

Prem is an unemployed school drop-out who, along with the fellow members of the Happy Club (of which he is President), spends his time conning the local uncles into joining (and coughing up the membership fee to keep the club afloat), mooching meals from his frustrated father, and occasionally arranging an "abduction" (like the one that opens the film) in order to unite couples in true love. It's in the course of one such "abduction" that he meets the pretty Jenny. They become fast friends when they realize they both are given to stammering when overcome with strong emotion. Prem falls in love with Jenny, wants to ask her to be his life partner - but in true filmi fashion, he waits too long to do so.

There is a scene when Katrnia slaps Ranbir, as she feels he is stammering to copy her. But later on she comes to know that he is also a stammerer.So from here the love story starts.

I think this is the first movie in which both the Actor and Actress are playing the role of a stammerer. It was great to see that 1st time in Bollywood history someone has introduced stammering in a positive way and not just for making it a source of fun and comedy for people. Before this shahid also played thr role of a stammerer in Kaminey. But Ranbir and Katrina were better than shahid .

So overall it is a Good movie and all the stammerers must watch this movie.

5th meeting of jammu SHG

On 8th nov (sunday) we had our 5th SHG meeting in jammu.This meeting started at 3 pm and ended at 5:45 pm. Aditya was a little late but Rajesh reached at the venue on time.
It was also raining a lil bit at that time.Both of us discussed a lil bit about our experience of last week.

Rajesh told me that he was using the prolongation technique and slow speech very effectively. Then after about 10 mins Addy came and we started our session. We discussed few more techniques such as post,pre and In-block corrections.

Then we started playing some games that I learned from JP at samagra.After that we started a story telling session which was totally based upon our imagination.One of us was suppose to start the story by saying one or two sentences and then the next person had to use his imagination and start the story from where the other person left . It was really fun and we all enjoyed this.

Then Rajesh said that we should start speaking on a topic which triggers us to get more excited and stressed.Bcoz it is easy to talk casually and we are quite a lot fluent .But we suddenly start stammering when we get too much excited and stressed. So we started a different topic and the result was really surprising.
I started stammering and my speech got out of control. I was trying to implement the techniques but was not able to do so.My rate of speech also increased and was not able to control my breathing too. This was what R was trying to prove and he was right.
So next time we will try to have a small discussion on this kindaa topic and we'll try to control ourselves and our stammer too.

Then Addy told us about the latest movie "Ajab prem ki gazab kahani" in which both Ranbir and Katrina are playing the role of a stammerer. So this week I am going to watch this movie too.

Stammering in workplace..

Here are JP's thoughts on an issue, which we all have thought about but rarely discussed; JP is on a sabbatical with sachin at Samagra, working with children who stammer and working on himself as well:

Goa SHG Kicks Off !

“Co-ordinating a SHG is like a marathon, and not a 100 meter dash” – were the words of Dr. Sachin, when I revealed to him my desire of co-ordinating a SHG in Goa. And his words stood vindicated, and were the driving force for me to make the first Goa SHG happen.

As the scheduled day – 8th November was approaching, it was approaching with all odds against me. I co-ordinated with 3 of my friends out of which 2 had willingly accepted to attend the meeting. One day prior that is on 7th November, one of my friends called and told me, that he couldn’t make it for the meet. So, finally it was only two of us – Me and Stanley. Also, from nowhere, it started raining and the roads were jammed due to the ONGC I-league football matches.

Taking a tip from Manpreet’s Jammu SHG, and Dr. Sachin’s advice, that even starting with 2 is a success, we decided that we both should kick off the meeting.

Amid the drizzles and traffic jams, we finally kicked off the meeting. Stanley, is a businessman, and is running a Printing Press in Margao. I had known him when I met him during the Partha Bagchi workshop in Margao, years ago.

I had already told Stanley about TISA and SHGs. We started by sharing a few of our experiences in the past. Stanley told me how his stammering was very severe, when he was in Mumbai. Years ago, in late 90s, he then moved to his homeland – Goa, and he said that his speech was much better.

I also told him about my experiences and how people questioned me about my stammering during my interviews. After exchanging a few experiences, we then discussed about practice.

Stanley told me he practices one hour a day. He practices slow reading, and talking to himself by looking in the mirror. I told him I do slow breathing exercises, daily and that’s it!

Then we decided to be each other’s critic. We both gave a frank feedback on each other’s speech. Stanley said that he thinks my stammering was very mild now, as compared to what he saw years ago during the workshop. He also said that I do speak slow, but sometimes the speech gets too monotonous. He suggested I should try to make my speech interesting, by varying the speeds as and how required.

I then gave Stanley feedback about his speech. I told him that he speaks too fast, and breathes very shallow while speaking. I suggested that he should breathe before staring to speak, and having enough air in the lungs is like a fuel to our speech.

The good thing about this exercise was that, we both took the criticism sportingly, and were looking to learn from it.

Just before parting, we sat over a cup of coffee in a near by restaurant. During this, we decided that we will next meet a fortnight later. Stanley also insisted that I should do reading practice. We then decided that in the next meeting, we will carry some reading material for doing slow reading practice.

TISA Mumbai meets after a gap..

After a long break we were able to conduct a meeting.Now onwards Mumbai will meet on 2nd and 4th Sundays at 9:30 a.m.

Mumbai get together was attended by four members ,

1)Ajit Potdar

2) Ankush Pedambkar.

3)Raj Samal

4)Vikas Bindal

This meeting was different from our previous meetings in many aspects.First time the Mumbai meet was held indoor unlike our previous meetings which was held in open spaces.

1) Meeting was started off by breathing exercises,neck rotation exercises,meditation.This helps us to relax ourself and it was clearly reflected in members speech.

2) In the second round members were asked to read the paragraph from a book using speech techniques.

3) In the last round members asked open questions to each other on various topics like sports,politics.Here the member has to answer a question for which he is not prepaired.

4) Members give review on other members speech. It will help us to improve our speech techniques.

5) Members present in the meeting decided to meet every 2^nd and 4^th Sunday now onwards.

--
Thanks & Regards,
Ajit Potdar,
99300 66424,
potdarajit@gmail.com.

Jammu SHG meeting schedule on 8th November.

we are having a meeting of jammu SHG.
Venue : Baghe Bahu
Timings : 3pm to 5pm
Contact : 9797666432
Hi all,

This is Manpreet.Any member from jammu if interested can come to Baghe bahu at 3 pm or contact me on the above given number.

3 minutes to happiness

Guys check this 3 min video..
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/70

Inauguratory Goa SHG meet

After a lot of discussions and phone calls I have been finally able to schedule the first ever SHG Meet in Goa. The details of the meeting are as follows :

Venue : Nehru Park, Gogol, Margao - Goa

Time : 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm

I have observed that there is a very less awareness of TISA and it's idea of SHGs in Goa. My agenda in this first meeting will be to acquaint the members about TISA, discuss about it's role with PWS, and the importance of having SHG.

CONTACT DETAILS

If you are reading this and are from Goa, then please dont hesitate to contact me on my cell : 9823211467. (silentscream.21{AT THE RATE}gmail.com)

Lets not let stammering rule us ... Let us rule stammering !

Mumbai meets

Dear Friends,

TISA Mumbai Chapter is going to conduct its next meeting on Sunday 08 Nov 2009 at 9:30a.m. Kindly find the meeting details given below,
etails given below,

Date:8 Nov 2009
Time:9:30 a.m.
Venue:III Floor,Niwara Chambers,
Raghoba Shankar Road,
Chendani Koliwada,Thane(W).
Contact:
Ajit Potdar:9930066424
potdarajit@gmail.com

4th meeting of Jammu SHG

On 1st nov (sunday) we had our 4th SHG meeting in jammu.This meeting started at 4 pm and ended at 6:15 pm. In this meeting, there were 3 members(Aditya, Rajesh(new member) and me) .

First of all we started introducing ourselves.R is working in a finance company.He never got a chance to go for a speech therapy. So it was our duty to tell him about the few key points that would help him to manage his stammer.

R came to know about the Jammu SHG through a social networking site (orkut). So I visited his orkut profile to know a lil bit more about him.His profile was quite interesting but there was no Communities related to stammering in his community section.So I got a hint that he is still hiding his stammer. So my main focus was to let him know the benifits of Accepting stammering.

Aditya and I focused on Acceptance for the first 1 hour or so.R also shared some of his feelings with us. R said that he is very ashamed of his stammer and that was the reason why he didn't joined any stammering community on orkut. He said that he just hated the word "stammer".
He was not having too much secondary symptoms. Then he told us that because he is working in a finance company, very often he has to speak the word "credit" and this was the word on which he struggles the most. The initial sound of kkkkk was the problem . So we started to explain him the techniques such as bouncing,prolongation ,light contact etc which would help him to speak the difficult words with ease.

We also told him about the importance Diaphragm breathing and slow rate of speech. I think that about 80% of our stammering goes away if we breathe properly while speaking and try to speak as slow as we can. The slow rate of speech wont be easy for anyone and will take sometime to get use to this rate of speech. It would be good if we keep on practicing this slow speech and implement it in real life situations .

In order to totally change his attitude towards stammering, the documentry movie "The unspeakable" by john paskievich is very important. So in our next meeting I am going to give him few documentry movies on stammering.

Bangalore SHG meeting on 01-Nov-2009

Written by Vinay Sindhe
The details of the meeting on Nov 1 are as follows:
After promising Amith of joining the meeting some weeks ago, this was my 1st meeting with the SHG members (glad that I made it :-)). It was scheduled on the 1st of November @ 10 in the morning. Keeping up my word I reached the Cubbon park @ around 9 30 and found no one but elderly women discussing house old chores.

I was roaming around, hearing the chirping of birds and thought of calling up Amith @ 300 seconds to 10:00. He told he’ll be late by 15 min and gave me Mr. Sudheendran's number. Upon calling up, Sudheendran told he’ll arrive in 5 min. Rightly so, I saw him and we greeted each other and he introduced me to Subhash. Subhash guided me to the hut and v found some couple to our disappointment :-(.

Meanwhile Sudheendran brought along Sharan Kumar to join us. Actually I, Sudheendran and Sharan knew each other as we had met in Prabhakaran's clinic. Amith joined us and Pavan and Shanmu followed. Courtesy to Amith's heroics, we shooed away the people in the hut and occupied our seats.

We began greeting each other and started discussing about the techniques which we follow. I decided to stick to prolongation and slow speed (was not possible to a great extent though) while Sudheendran was acing @ his "Bouncing technique". By this time we were joined by Karthick and one more Pavan.

Ms Deepika of The Hindu fame was scheduled to meet us at around 11:15 for a casual interview session and made her presence around the same time. She noted down all our names, the techniques which we follow to overcome stammering, the cause of stammering and all. She promised to publish the article at the earliest. Sharan made an important point of having to spread the message in the rural areas wherein the media and the sort of urban help are questionable.

Deepika left after taking a few Kodak moments. Then we exchanged our action plans for the rest of the week and left the place. Personally I was damn satisfied :-).

Opportunity : IPWS in Kolkata

Dear friends,

Now I am at Nasik for 2 Weeks training programme. As a part of the training I am visiting Kolkata on 5 & 6th Nov and leaving to Chennai by evening flight on Nov 7th. I am staying at Kolkata, most probably in VIP Continental hotel at Free school street. Anyone intersted may meet me after 8PM on 5th & 6th; and 8AM on 7th- to discuss anything related to stammering or starting a SHG. I have only limited access to email and I may not be able to post another mail due to my tight schedule. Please feel free to contact at my mobile number given below after my name.

Regards,

V. Manimaran, Mobile: 098842 89989, 09600002303

Bangalore SHG meeting on 25-Oct-2009

Last week the meeting had to be cancelled as the members were not available on account of Deepavali. This time we stuck to the usual plan of meeting on Sundays and met on 25-Oct-2009. Navin and Praveen were out of station and had informed about their inability to come for the meeting. Subhash had reached the spot by 9.30 AM itself and was roaming inside the library. We met by 10 AM and were soon joined by Kartik.

The hut where we met in one of the meetings was very close to the passage and Kartik wanted a secluded place where he could shout. We searched for a suitable place, but could not find one. By this time Amith joined us and we decided to go to the hut itself. At that time, Amith got a call from Pavan, who used to interact with him before the SHG was formally launched. He was a +2 student and was planning to come for the meetings for a long time. So, this week we had a new member.

We started by introducing our names and the activities we did in the last week. Pavan told he was going to a speech therapist and was practicing the breathing technique, in which he would inhale through the nose, exhale a bit through the mouth and then speak. We encouraged him to read and speak using that technique. Though he struggled a bit, he could manage it. Then all of us spoke about a topic for about 15 minutes using slow speaking, bouncing, prolongation etc.
Kartik raised the concern that the strength of the group was very less and then we decided to explore the possibility of giving news about the SHG meetings in newspapers and approaching some of the therapy centers to check the possibility of putting the details of the SHG in their notice board.

We dispersed by 12.30.

Jammu SHG Contact details

Rajesh - 9858660917

What can SHG do for you?

Self help movement in many other countries have achieved a lot. Here, we have learned to depend on state and other actors, a little bit too much. But the experience of participating in a Self help group can do a lot of wonders to our faith in ourselves, to our sense of belonging to others with whom we share our uniqueness and it is an oportunity to say what we think without bothering about how to say it.. Here is a member from Banglore group, sharing his thoughts with his group; He represents many IPWS in the country today:

Hi guys.... last Sunday it was really nice... I am happy that such group is there to help people like us... all u guys were so supportive & encouraging.... I hope everyone felt very comfortable like i did... In future I would like to do more for this group... i know many people who stammer... but the toughest part is they all try to hide & no one want to talk abt it... next sunday if someone has a handycam or digicam plz bring it... I would like to take small video of out meeting so that i can show to other people which will surely encourage them to join our group.
And if possible kindly email me (pavan.wind@gmail.com) your name - mobile number- gmail ID- skype. so that i can make a list of it & send it to everyone instead of exchanging single single contacts. send me asap guys.

TISA thanks Banglore chapter. Best wishes!