Communication Workshop Report by Delhi SHG

If you missed Delhi SHG Communication Workshop, Don’t Worry, You can get almost 60% of the workshop just by reading this report. You would have never read a meeting report like this one 🙂
General Information

The Communication Workshop organized by Delhi SHG took
place on April 2 and 3, 2016. The workshop was attended by 26 PWS (details are
mentioned at the end) among 2 brave female PWS. The workshop was scheduled at
Danze the Studio, Sohan Ganj, Kamla Nagar, New Delhi.

Workshop Videos Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6–CvDr9ayyXG9bXgQQM_g

Workshop Photos Link:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_VSME1rEztySHpjek9nRk9QLVk&usp=sharing_eid&ts=57000ff4

Day 1

Before the start of workshop, many were wondering what is
going to happen, have they done the right thing by coming to workshop. Will
they achieve their objectives? Will it be worth of two days of their time?

But as the time progressed, People doubts and anxiety
vanished. To break the Ice and lets people know , first each participant was
asked to team up with a other participant whom they didn’t know before. They
have to talk and gather the some basic information about each other for 10
mins. After their talk, some luck participants were called on stage to tell
something about their partners.

Then the second activity was done where one by one people
have come on stage and tell the audience about them, their life, their career
and their hobbies. It was a nice warming up session for days energizing
activities.

Then the Master of Ceremony of the Day Mr. Ashish Agarwal
took the stage and introduced the audience about workshop and some ground rules
to follow. The Ground rules were as follows

·
Please keep the mobile phone on silent mode

·
Stammer openly and in a relaxed manner

·
Do not give advice to other about their speech unless
asked for.

Then Ashish told the audience about the Speech Techniques
which can be used by PWS. He told about following speech techniques

·
Bouncing

o
First take deep breath

o
Then bounce as many times as you feel comfortable

o
Start with non-feared words

o
Develop a hierarchy of situation and apply the technique
from easy to hard situations

·
Prolongation

·
Pausing

·
Voluntary Stuttering

·
Coastal Breathing

Then he also shared with us his “LRE” concept
by that he mean LOUD, RATE OF SPEECH and EYE CONTACT. We should apply LRE with
any technique while we are speaking.

Then he also shared with us another checklist which was
as follows

1.
Be clear what to say

2.
Accept your role as a stammerer

3.
Take a deep breadth

4.
Make proper eye contact

5.
Speak in a calm language

Then after his
session, the organizers Ravi and Shailender devised a wonderful way to
segregate participant into groups. It most unique way and it would be hard to
guess. So Any Guess regarding how will you segregate the bunch of PWS?

………… Emotions! Nope

………… Character! Nope

Criminal! Yes!

The participants were divided by famous villans of Indian
Cinema. The participants were given a card which bear there name and their
group name. The groups were as follows

1.
Shakal

2.
Sherkhan

3.
Lion

4.
Gabbar

5.
Mugambo

Then the participants of each group were asked to group
together in accordance with their criminal group. They were asked to use the
techniques just taught by Ashish during their discussion in group which carried
on for 30 mins. After it we went to a lunch break. Participants were still
after Ashish as you can see in the following photo

And during the refreshment break, Vikas served us very
nice Ice Creams ! We hope he would have made a very good business! 🙂

And then we were back from refreshment break still with
the memories of delicious ice cream served by Vikas. We were asked to use the
techniques on our feared words voluntarily or just share our feared words or
feared situations. Everybody participated.

Then Ashish explained the concept of acceptance to us

After that our Host Mr. Shailender had a very crazy Idea.
He asked each of us to pick a image from a tray, we can only see the white side
of the image not the image while picking. When we look at the image, we found a
face and facial expression. Then he asked us to perform that expression on
stage in front of everybody. The energy in a room went to a new level with it.

After this activity, we were asked to share a situation
in our life where we felt bogged down by our stammering, so on a voluntary
basis, people shared their instances of life.

The atmosphere of room become very touch, so our host Mr.
Shailender decided to help us. He then told us a story of two urns; perfect urn
and imperfect urn.

A village man used to carry water from well by using
these two urns. The perfect urn would bring 100% water from well to home while
imperfect urn can only bring 50% water. So perfect urn was very proud while
imperfect urn was very sad. So one day imperfect urn asked his master, why is
he using it to carry water? The village man replied that in trail which is
between the well and his home, his had planted some flowers which now have
grown very beautifully only due to water dripping from imperfect urn. And this
has filled the earth and thus his home full of sweet smelling flowers. So the
village man thanked the imperfect urn and asked him to be not sad any more.

So as PWS, we are also like imperfect urn who can make
lives of other people rosy.

Then to test the people listening and maths ability,
Dixit did a very funny activity where we have to speak “BUM” whenever
multiple of 3 are encountered and speak “BUM” for 3 anywhere. Almost
half of the activity time were taken to explain the rules to participants. The
winner of this round was Sunoy Garai, a 19 year old Bengali lad, so it turned out
that most people are weak in maths and PWS are not exception!

Then Amit and Shailender had even more vicious plans for
us. Each villain group was asked to keep a balloon float by blowing air from
mouth. As each of the group we were full of laughter as how funny we PWS could
be.

Then the stage was set, people were waiting for Vishal
Nagar to perform and burn the stage which he did, with his awe-inspiring dance.

Then we had one refreshment break, we eaten up our Yummy
sandwiches with Tea and Coffee and went to do Voluntary Stuttering round. We
were given an address of nearby shop and were asked to find it and get the
selfie clicked in front of it. We have to roam around the market, asking
strangers with voluntary stammering about the shop. Lovish was the centre of
this activity because he managed to do voluntary stammering in front of women
as well which many of us male PWS find it very hard.

Then we assembled back at the main hall, for quick
feedback about the voluntary stammering round. Everybody shared his views about
their group has done in voluntary stuttering round.

Then our host Shailender came with a another story to
motivate us. The story is so much motivating and apt for PWS tha t it deserved
to be told in full. So here the story goes

“Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs
who arranged a running competition.

The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race
and cheer on the contestants….

The race began….

Honestly:

No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would
reach the top of the tower.

You heard statements such as:

“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”

“They will NEVER make it to the top.”

or:

“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is
too high!”

“get down or you’ll fall and die!!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one.

Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher
and higher….

The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult!!!
No one will make it!”

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up….

But ONE continued higher and higher and higher….

This one wouldn’t give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower.
Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who
reached the top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know
how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the
strength to succeed and reach the goal?

He said….”what did you say….?”

It turned out….

That the winner was DEAF!!!!

The wisdom of this story is:

Never listen to other people’s tendencies to be negative
or pessimistic…. because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away
from you — the ones you have in your heart!

Always think of the power words have.

Because everything you hear and read will affect your
actions!

Therefore:

ALWAYS be…. POSITIVE!

And above all:

Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your
dreams!

It may also happen that frog was blind, since he kept
going on despite everyone falling apart. The explanation is that it could be
that he didn’t see that everyone had fallen off so he keep going. Besides
words, other people’s action could also bring us down.”

Then we wrapped the meeting with a very positive and
energetic note

Day 2

Well before going to Conference hall, we were really
tired due to yesterday energetic activity, so we sat on the chairs waiting
patiently for the Day 2 begin for us.

So Ravi and Shailender started with the meditation round.
The host asked us to meditate for 10 mins. We did it and almost trying to
centre our line of thoughts. Then Shailender explained to us to advantage of
meditation from stammering point of view.
He said the meditation help us to remain in present and remind us to use
our technique, not worry about our fumbling on difficult words. Then he played the Shak Rukh Khan audio
clipping.

Then Shailender agains took us a session on Transfluency.
He said that Transfluency is the different understanding of stuttering. For
More Info about it, read below

Transfluency

Introduction Stuttering
is a phenomenon which could be demedicalized. Since medicalizing does not offer
benefits and causes a great deal of harm, I propose demedicalizing stuttering.
Demedicalizing means looking at a phenomenon as an expression of human
diversity, but not as a pathological symptom or a deviant behaviour. Stuttering
is human nature, and probably will never be eliminated or modified. This new
understanding of stuttering requires constructing a new term. I have chosen
transfluency. Transfluency is a non pathologic speech pattern. Some behaviours
have been demedicalized in the last two centuries, as drapetomania and being
left-handed. Like them, stuttering is very resistant to treatment. Like them,
stuttering is a natural attribute of the person, as the race and hemispheric
dominance. Transfluency is a speech pattern dramatically different, but as
human – or as natural – as the fluency. Both cannot be modified significantly
because both are part of human nature. Transfluency is a natural speech
pattern.

Definition of transfluency The
construct of transfluency proposes that the speech of people who stutter is not
pathological or deviant. Thus, transfluent speakers are not patients or sick
people, who require clinical treatment. The transfluent community does not need
treatment and is not worried about their speech pattern. Stutterers who accept
themselves, speak openly and live freely, every time and with everybody, and
are no longer stutterers but rather are transfluent speakers. They do not
stutter but have a transfluent speech pattern. Transfluency is an attempt to
dignify stuttering, because stuttering is a stigmatized condition. Transfluency
is a new speech pattern which modifies the social meaning of stuttering and we
must work to dignify its singularity and to carry out the Transfluent project.

Coming out. The three main characteristics of the stutterers’
closet are: lies, secrecy and silence. Coming out means eliminating lies,
secrecy and silence. Stutterers who “come out,” break the taboo of
stuttering, and try to change the darkness of the closet into transparency and
authenticity. I purpose that coming out reduces stigma and suffering. Coming
out dignifies the stutterers’ life: no more stigma, no more conflict, no more
being laughed at or mocked, no more irrational beliefs regarding stutterers and
stuttering, no more social disapproval.

From <http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad12/papers/loriente12.html>

Then to fill up the room with inquisitive energy and test
the listening and mathematical and literature abilities of PWS, Shailender started
his round of Question, which we all prayed to God to end fast as we were pushed
to limits. For example we were question on following topics

·
Tell us How many triangles

·
General knowledge quizes

·
Presense of Mind quizes

·
Relationship quesitons

·
Paheli

·
Translation Challenges from Hindi to English and from
English to Hindi

·
Mathematics question on interest

Then came the funny round and we were enlighten regarding
the reason behind give us Villain group name. Each group was asked to perfom
the acting of that group’s villain. We throughly enjoyed it.

Then came the session which was the focal point of Day 2
Workshop, when Vishal explained to us the Stuttering IceBerg Analogy. He
wonderfully explained regarding 90% of stuttering iceberg which is composed of
our inner self such as denial, shame, isolation, hopelessness, fear, anxiety
and guilt. He said that like real iceberg of which major part is in water, so
90% part of our stammering is hidden from outer world.

Then he explained about how we can work on this 90% part
of Stuttering iceberg by working on Acceptance, Pride, Community, hope,
courage, comfort and Kindness.

Then we had to opportunity to listen to very unusual
female PWS Ms. Sapna Roy who belong to Bihar and how she traversed through all
odds to become a succesful market analyst. Her Full Speech is Posted below

Then once again to fill the energy in Crowd. Shailender
did Sit, Stand, Sit, Dance activity once again were tested for our listening
capabilities.

Then we went to lunch break and hoping for more ice cream

Then our Dear Sikhander Sir came and delivered us his few
kind words on power of meditation and accepting ourselves. This gist of that is
as follows

“We stammerers are always worried more about other
people discomfort then our comfort. To put other people into comfort, we put
ourselves into discomfort. We have created fear, so now we have to remove it.
No speech therapist can remove the fear from us, only we have to remove it for
us. With Confidence, fluency will automatically come. We stammerers always
blame other people for our weakness. We should blame ourselves only not our
parents or siblings. He than advised us to remain in present on which we have
some control than remaining in past and future on which we have no control. He
said that with the help of meditation we can remain in present. He than gave
the example of 4 categories of thoughts

1.
Postive

2.
Negative

3.
Neutral

4.
Wasteful

He said that 90% of our thoughts are wasteful thoughts
due to which we feel so tired at the end of day contrary to the fact that we
have not even lifted an iota of weight. We feel such tiredness because our 90%
thoughts are wasteful which suck our energy.

Then he said to counter these wasteful and negative
thoughts, we have to motive ourself by appreciating our inner self instead of
constantly demeaning it. We have to be postive with ourselve. If we don’t
accept ourselves then how can we expect others to accept us. God is powerhouse
and meditation is way which connect us with that powerhouse.”

Then we made a circle, people were asked to volunteer to
tell the first name of everybody in the group. Many people tried but only
Jitender succeded.

Then Amit and Shailender planned a beautiful activity
where a participant was given a sticky note and asked to write about any two other participants who have inspired
the participant with their qualities. And then the sticky note were collected,
shuffled properly. Once Shuffling is done, the sticky notes were once again
distributed to participants. And then everybody was asked to tell the names and
qualities written in front of that name. The person who got the maximum was
Lovish with 8 votes because of his superb voluntary stuttering but Himanshu and
Jagriti were not far behind with 7 votes and finally our two IITians Suraj and
Vikas got 4 votes each.

Then we have one Rapid Fire Round in group where a person
who throw a bottle at another person and that person catches the bottle, then
the person who had thrown the bottle would ask the question to a person who has
caught it.

Then Finally Himanshu with his deep bass voice explained
us his experience of Vipassna.

Then Shailender distributed us a gift which is the most
important takeaway of the workshop. It is as follows

With This quotation, Shailender explained us the
importance of this statement by the story of king which is as follows

“Once A King Called Upon All Of His Wise Men And
Asked Them, ” Is There A Mantra Or Suggestion Which Works In Every Situation,
In Every Circumstances, In Every Place And In Every Time. In Every Joy, Every
Sorrow, Every Defeat And Every Victory? One Answer For All Questions? Something
Which Can Help Me When None Of You Is Available To Advise Me? Tell Me Is There
Any Mantra?”

All The Wise Men Were Puzzled By The King’s Question.
They Thought And Thought. After A Lengthy Discussion, An Old Man Suggested
Something Which Appealed To All Of Them. They Went To The King And Gave Him
Something Written On Paper, With A Condition That The King Was Not To See It
Out Of Curiosity.

Only In Extreme Danger, When The King Finds Himself Alone
And There Seems To Be No Way, Only Then He Can See It. The King Put The Papers
Under His Diamond Ring.

Some Time Later, The Neighbors Attacked The Kingdom. King
And His Army Fought Bravely But Lost The Battle. The King Had To Flee On His
Horse. The Enemies Were Following Him. Getting Closer And Closer. Suddenly The
King Found Himself Standing At The End Of The Road – That Road Was Not Going
Anywhere. Underneath There Was A Rocky Valley Thousand Feet Deep. If He Jumped
Into It, He Would Be Finished…And He Could Not Return Because It Was A Small
Road…The Sound Of Enemy’s Horses Was Approaching Fast. The King Became
Restless. There Seemed To Be No Way.

Then Suddenly He Saw The Diamond In His Ring Shining In
The Sun, And He Remembered The Message Hidden In The Ring. He Opened The
Diamond And Read The Message. The Message Was – “ THIS TOO SHALL PASS ”

The King Read It . Again Read It. Suddenly Something
Struck Him- Yes ! This Too Will Pass. Only A Few Days Ago, I Was Enjoying My
Kingdom. I Was The Mightiest Of All The Kings. Yet Today, The Kingdom And All
My Pleasures Have Gone. I Am Here Trying To Escape From Enemies. Like Those
Days Of Luxuries Have Gone, This Day Of Danger Too Will Pass. A Calm Came On
His Face. He Kept Standing There. The Place Where He Was Standing Was Full Of
Natural Beauty. He Had Never Known That Such A Beautiful Place Was Also A Part
Of His Kingdom.

The Revelation Of The Message Had A Great Effect On Him.
He Relaxed And Forgot About Those Following Him. After A Few Minutes He
Realized That The Noise Of The Horses And The Enemy Coming Was Receding. They
Moved Into Some Other Part Of The Mountains And Were Nowhere Near Him.

The King Was Very Brave. He Reorganized His Army And
Fought Again. He Defeated The Enemy And Regained His Empire. When He Returned
To His Empire After Victory, He Was Received With Much Fanfare. The Whole
Capital Was Rejoicing In The Victory.

Everyone Was In A Festive Mood. Flowers Were Being
Showered On King From Every House, From Every Corner. People Were Dancing And
Singing. For A Moment King Said To Himself, “ I Am One Of The Bravest And Greatest
King. It Is Not Easy To Defeat Me. With All The Reception And Celebration He
Saw An Ego Emerging In Him. ”

Suddenly The Diamond Of His Ring Flashed In The Sunlight
And Reminded Him Of The Message. He Open It And Read It Again: “ THIS TOO SHALL
PASS ”.

He Became Silent. His Face Went Through A Total Change –
From The Egoist He Moved To A State Of Utter Humbleness. If This Too Is Going
To Pass, It Is Not Yours. The Defeat Was Not Yours, The Victory Is Not Yours.
You Are Just A Watcher. Everything Passes By. We Are Witnesses Of All This. We
Are The Perceivers. Life Comes And Goes. Happiness Comes And Goes. Sorrow Comes
And Goes.

Now As You Have Read This Story, Just Sit Silently And
Evaluate Your Own Life. This Too Will Pass. Think Of The Moments Of Joy And
Victory In Your Life. Think Of The Moment Of Sorrow And Defeat. Are They
Permanent ? They All Come And Pass Away.

Life Just Passes Away. There Is Nothing Permanent In This
World. Every Thing Changes Except The Law Of Change. Think Over It From Your
Own Perspective. You Have Seen All The Changes. You Have Survived All Setbacks,
All Defeats And All Sorrows. All Have Passed Away. The Problems In The Present,
They Too Will Pass Away. Because Nothing Remains Forever. Joy And Sorrow Are
The Two Faces Of The Same Coin. They Both Will Pass Away.

You Are Just A Witness Of Change. Experience It,
Understand It, And Enjoy The Present Moment – This Too Shall Pass”

From <http://www.citehr.com/346028-too-shall-pass-thought-provoking-story.html>

And finally we had one feedback round where newcomers
gave their feedback about the workshop. The feedback was as follows

·
Very good planning of activities

·
Very good hosting by Ravi and Shailender

·
Good Stories told by Shailender

·
Great Stuttering IceBerg Session by Vishal

List of Participants
in Delhi Communication Workshop

1	Sunoy Garai	New Delhi
2	Shailender Vinayak	Delhi
3	Vishal	Ghaziabad
4	Prajwal Joshi	Nagpur
5	Suraj Kumar	New Delhi
6	Anurag Mishra	Gurgaon
7	sidhant sharma	greater noida
8	Vikas Ranga	New Delhi
9	Anshul saini	Ambala
10	ramandeep singh	narela
11	MD ARSHIYAN NAZBER	BHOPAL
12	Sandeep	Noida
13	VISHAL NAGAR	NEW DELHI
14	Jitender Gupta	Delhi
15	Deepak Bodade	Indore
16	Ravi Jagga	New Delhi
17	Shubham	New Delhi
18	Ashish Agarwal	New Delhi
19	Jagriti Bhagat	New Delhi
20	Lovish Arora	Aligarh
21	Anand	Delhi
22	Dinesh Kumar Ola	Dehradun
23	Shyam Sunder	Makrana, Rajasthan
24	Varun Sood	Chandigarh
25	Dixit Arora	Delhi
26	Amit Dixit	Noida
26	Sapna	Noida