People told me the secret.

This one is my first blog on TISA. On last Sunday (30^th May) we met for our weekly meeting at Dhole Patil Road, Pune. But to my surprise the attendance was too low. Jp and I got late and reached at venue at 11:00am (1 hr late) and found that the venue is locked. Then we saw Manohar who informed us about the unavailability of keys. Manohar again went to key owner to get the key but this time too he was not available at home. So I decided to take this opportunity to go for some movie. But Jp was too much hungry, he wanted to eat something. We suggested the idea to eat at theatre, but Jp has something else in his mind. As we all came from far distance for some purpose, Jp wanted some outcome from this meeting. Jp used his articulation and assertiveness skills and take us for some breakfast to Dominos. There we decided to go to SGS Mall for public speaking practice. When we reached SGS Mall, Jp explained us (Manohar and me) about the process that how to reach people and what all question we can ask them.

Here starts the fun moments. As I was new to this exercise I was somewhat uncomfortable. So Jp started the exercise. To our expectation he found one girl sitting aloneJ. He went to her and started the conversation. Manohar and me also got some confident, but we planned to start with the group of boys first. And we reached to two boys and ask them to spare 5 min for conversation about stammering. First of all we (Manohar and Me) introduced ourselves that we are from TISA and give brief intro about TISA. Then we started asking them questions like:

Have you ever encountered the person who stammers?

What is your response when somebody stammers in front of you?

What do you think is the root cause of stammering?

Do you think stammering is curable?

Then we open the session for them to ask anything about stammering. We clarify their doubts and also got some suggestion from them as to have some pamphlet available which contain a brief intro about the TISA and stammering, so that they can contact us in future.

Some of the feedbacks which I received from these public meetings are very useful and encouraging for me. Like:

People generally do not make difference if person stammers. Nobody is perfect and they accept stammering also open heartily. It’s our own perception that we have some weakness but people out there are very much fine with it. The response I got from them was amazing. When I looked into my past I found that no one in my family or friend ever complain about my stammering. I never lost a relationship due to my stammering and that’s all matters in life.

Also when I was explaining them that how stammering happens, I too took care of all the thing and I didn’t stammer there.

It heals me from inside. And I was so confident after this exercise that I rarely stammer for the rest of the day.

Thanks to Jp and Manohar.

One more funny incident I want to share here: In these pubic speaking meeting we met with one couple and after the meeting that girl asked for our contacts. Manohar quickly reached to his pocket, take his wallet out and was searching for the business card. I thought he don’t have his card and gave mine to that girl. When I turned back and look at Manohar, he was staring at me. I found that Manohar was writing his mobile no. on the card as it was not present there. Sorry Manohar better luck next time. Have your mobile no on the card next time. J