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You influence everything but control nothing. Having practiced and shared (“taught”) techniques for a long time, let me offer some thoughts. Many PWS have an unconscious resistance to “techniques”: What! I have to use artificial tricks just to say my name now? And yes, it is a lot of “work”—not just drudgery, but the need […]
These are notes to myself: I will revisit these before I launch -God Willing! – TOPG 3.0 or any group activity for that matter. We need to have a long warm-up or run-up before ANY event. Because people need time to make up their minds and the organizers also need time to screen, select, and […]
Slash and Burn is another name for Jhum cultivation which is prevalent in some countries. Trees are burned and cleared- cropping is done for some years. When the ground fertility is gone, a new patch is cleared- and the cycle goes on. This is what was happening at the edge of an ancient forest. One […]
This Yamuna valley where I live, roughly stretches a hundred kilometers, between Paonta Sahib and Dehradun, in the Shivaliks. Here, Tons River joins Yamuna, as they both come tumbling out of the mountains, into the Terai. From Pathans, to Mughals, to Maratha, and finally to British – they all came, ruled this region and eventually […]
Jaipur Communication Workshop Report 22-24 Sept 2023 This is a brief narrative report about what was accomplished in the 3-day TISA workshop. It was organized by the Jaipur Self-Help group, very efficiently and in a cost-effective manner. About thirty participants (three women) took part in it; one participant joined with both parents and another, with […]
What people who stutter (PWS) need in order to gain some control over their stutter may not always be therapy of some kind, but exposure! Yes, exposure to more and more scenarios and circumstances – Circumstances that could allow them to express themselves vocally and thereby inspire them to make little efforts to stride out […]
The fact is- it was a picnic, a get-together, which we gave a fanciful name of “mini-workshop” ☺️ – and to prove the point we did have a little (but serious) discussion. So before we had a boat ride and a picnic lunch under the trees in the vast sprawling grounds of Patna Zoo, we […]
(A humorous piece on TISA) TISA membership is entirely free. You can join and leave anytime. In fact, you can join it just before your campus interview and leave it five minutes later. In the US Visa interview, you can leave our membership midway, soon after the introduction rounds are safely over. TISA is another […]
TISA Bodhgaya Communication Workshop 8-9 Jan 2023 Four noble truths: There is Stammering. There is a cause of stammering. There is a state beyond Stammering. There is a path to it. Let us walk that path, like Buddha! Introduction Twelve pws explored concepts and techniques related to stammering, besides bonding and exploring this town, famous […]
Solitude (A short story) The old man was again in the church today at his regular time. He quietly comes in and sits in one of the pews at the back. This is not the usual time to visit though. One day, I asked him: Why don’t you attend the morning service? The afternoon is […]
Dear All, This post was long due! But without any further ado, let me share something that makes me very happy. Let us all join in welcoming Nikhil Iyer into his new responsibility with TISA, as the National Coordinator. Nikhil will be playing a significant role in running TISA as an organization, participating in key […]
Many pws join TISA and want to play a bigger role than just a member. They want to contribute. Mooc 2 is an opportunity for them. But let us face the facts: You can help others only if you have helped yourself – at least to some extent! Therefore, Mooc 2 is aimed at people […]
A young pws, Vinay, came to visit me from eastern UP in 2014. I took him to some nearby shops for voluntary stammering. Then, we came home and had a cup of tea in the back lawn. He was still trembly! It was such a big shock for him. I brought out an old medal […]
I am so happy that the three days of NC have gone so well, from every perspective. My happiness is doubled, even trebled, when I realise that all this has happened without me hovering all over NC like a compulsive mother hen! When I left home on 19th Sept. for Leh, there were two predominant […]
Counseling Tales : Indecision, self-doubt, Fear We in the north India have some funny stereotypes about South! May or may not be true but we love them. One such stereotype is that people from south are very intelligent. Of course it may not reflect in their politics! That is a different matter! Anyway. So I […]
It is difficult to understand what is selfish and what is selfless- without defining SELF itself on whose behalf we seem to act all the time. Even at 62, I am not sure who or what this self is, whom I have defended and nurtured all my life. But intuitively, I have often understood what […]
So finally Kamal did visit Herbertpur one day, after being in touch for many months over emails. I was quite surprised. He had taken a one week leave to hang around. It was early winter and taking a stroll through tea gardens was a popular pastime for the two of us. I would get a […]
It is always difficult to ask for help. We think that it diminishes us. So even when we go to a friend or a counsellor, we may never come to the point. We may keep dilly dallying for a long time- may be too long! But if you are a peer/counsellor, you will wait patiently, […]
This happened many years ago in Allahabad: I was fond of buying cheap books from the roadside. There was a pavement book shop in Civil Lines, those days – specialising is Russian books. Cheap but good authors. Even when I could not buy them, I loved handling them, looking at them, browsing them for hours. […]
Few days back I met Anil. A young pws, just finished B Tech from Dehradun. I had known him since 2014. We began chatting. I had to just ask a few questions, and he talked for a long time. He shared all that was happening in his life since passing out- and before. Ups and […]