Tata jagriti Yatra

I have been talking to many young people about stammering: Invariably they ask me: what am I doing in TJY? (assumption being that either I am yatri who is here to learn enterprise or am some kind of role model: both assumptions are untrue- and true in some ways..). I have been getting a mixed / complex picture; I have been asking: do you think stammering is a handicap, a problem, a disability? Here is the response I have received:
Stammering is not a problem; certainly not like Cancer or Blindness. There is no discrimination against them..
There are some people who listen, ask questions, try to understand and then are willing to concede that may be it is a handicap, a challenge for the person facing it..
None of the respondents knew that it has a biological basis; most believed it is a "sweet nothing" based in psychology.. Just have more confidence in yourself and talk!
On the other hand, many young people consulted me privately: you talked about stammering..I too feel like that.. can you tell me if it is stammering?
There were others, who could empathize based on analogy to their own personal experiences of being "different"..
At the end of the day, I feel, everyone is busy with their own issues, dreams, ambitions (as they should be of course..) and if anything has to change, it will happen only when we, the stammerers, work for it.. No shortcuts, no hand outs..
But I am happy that I have spoken to many people, interacted with them and certainly educated some that stammering has a neurological basis, has a genetic transmission and while it may not kill you- it does makes many things difficult because oral communication is so much at the heart of everything we do as a society..
So, take heart and keep talking..and educating people..
Get into ENTERPRISING mode for God's sake..and for your own sake!