March 31, 2014

Kolkata SHG, a writeup.

Hi !

Kolkata held a SHG meet after a long time.  (Prior meet was held on Diwali). Nevertheless, the event was a fruitful experience. (atleast to me! :))

No specific agenda was set, and we thought it appropriate to set the flow impromptu.



Initially, three of us, Prateek, Sudipto and me were simply chatting about stammering and other events like recent interviews which they have given. Prateek  has done well in GATE, and has also made it to IBM, and is now in a dilemma as to which direction to go! :) Sudipto, a first timer here, shared with us his experience of appearing for a GD for West Bengal Power Development Corp.  He began his GD by acknowledging in front of everybody, that he has a bit of a stammer, and set the ball rolling smoothly from there on. He has a final personal interview this Thursday. (Best of luck buddy!).

In between, a young stranger from Delhi came up to us and began to chat with us. It was his first time in Kolkata, and he was seeking out places of interest to visit. In the process, we asked him, what he thought about stammering? – “God’s gift he said. One should take it, as it is. Look at me, I am so short… but who cares….”.  No comment there.

Later on Mr Santosh Prasad and Miss Soma Roy joined us.

We settled down more formally. After introductions, each of us spoke on a particular technique to aid better fluency and communication. This was followed by each sharing a recent experience.

Miss Roy spoke of a great feat where she did a recitation in front of a huge gathering at her University. She later recited a few lines of the same to us before parting. A sublime performance. Prateek spoke of his recent IBM interview experience. Sudipto his GD experience and Santoshji  spoke about an experience of how he lost his marriage ring(of gold)…. was paranoid for a couple of hours… and finally recovered it, beneath the feet of a statue of Lord Ganesh at his home. I spoke of the opportunity I got of meeting real life hero recently, Mrs Shabham Ramaswamy. (You all can Google to find out her story).

It was quite late in the day by then, and the custodian of the ground ordered us and many other folks to vacate the area. Crap. Nevertheless, we spent a few more minutes chatting and then bid each other goodbye. On a parting note, it was decided to make these meets more regular, keeping fixed dates, to aid such a process. [Preliminarily, it has been decided to hold the SHG meets on the 2nd Sunday or Saturday of every month]. Also the agenda of holding Prepared Speech was decided to make the meets for effective. [Your feedbacks on these matters are most welcome].


                   [All attendees. From Left:  Sudipto, Me, Miss Roy, Mr Santhosh Prasad, Prateek.]


[Miss Roy, reciting a poem on Women Emancipation. (I am hard pressed to recall the poet ! J ). A sublime performance].


[Apologies with regards to the photo quality.]

1 comment:

Satyendra said...

Congrats all of you! and Soma specially! Yes, agenda and structure does help but only when all the participants feel the need for it. May be as you go along, a structure will evolve spontaneously! The bottom line is - whatever happens, participants must enjoy it and feel under no pressure to meet some extraneous standard of fluency ie. acceptance of everyone as they are.
Thanks Kushal for taking the initiative and being the host!