Kolkata workshop : Day 5

We started at 6:30 AM, and left for jogging. We warmed up slowly and did some stretches. Then Sachin did some real tough karate blocks. We played some interesting exercise of pushing each other using our backs and hands. I wrestled and jostled with Sachin. Check out the pics to get more idea. The objective is to exert pressure on limb and spinal chord muscles. Then Nilu lead us to do musical yoga again using the colonial cousins “Krishna” song. Then we did meditation for 30 mins. Sachin lead us in to “positive visualization” which proved beneficial. Each one of us visualized about being in front of an audience. Sachin started narrating an experience, which we all (turn by turn) continued using our own positive visualization. This was a very liberating experience that gave us a chance to face our fears head-on. We wrapped up, had break fast, freshened up and headed straight to the conference hall. We had a round of rapid fire generic questions’ round. Sachin then made us to play a game. The game was to explain about the object in hand, this time only without words. Yes, you guessed it, this was the non-verbal communication. In the midway of Sachin’s presentation, Dr Durba pitched in a question: “Is it ok to reveal your stutter in interviews?” Sachin gave a very logical and practical answer, summary of which was: “Only if it is called for.” In the meantime, Media persons from “The Telegraph” happened to join us. And Sachin soon got engaged with them. Dr Durba took charge of the rest of the presentation. I asked Dr Durba about the reason why men are more susceptible to stutter compared to women. Dr Durba in consultation with Sachin, explained in a way as follows: Men tend to specialize in their brain for different kinds of work. Whereas women multi task naturally. Woman’s brain works in such a way as to allow their right hemisphere to take on the duties of left hemisphere which is responsible for speech, when growing up as an adult. This was the time to bid adieu one member of the Workshop: Nilu. We saw her off, returned to the conference hall and watched the movie: “Voices to Remember” about a young girl from Canada. In this movie, it was shown that many PWS face the difficulty of not being able to show the world their true personality. Do not let this happen to you. This is about time to announce to the world that we have arrived. And say proudly: “Hey! I can be cool too…” Sanjeet gave a presentation about Goal Setting. It was then our turn to list the goals for the next three/six months. Sanjeet then reviewed and advised about these goals. Dr Durba and Mrs Sweta Chatterjee then prepared a list of activities to be done to start a SHG. Very impressive and innovative idea they were. Sachin and Sanjeet then added some points to that list. Seems like kolkata SHG will soon be up and running. We decided to call it a day early since we wanted to shop for some edibles/delicacies from kolkata. We headed to the nearby shopping mall. We were accompanied by Sachin as well, and we tried bouncing and voluntary stuttering “shamelessly” and merrily- as if there was no tomorrow! We all did master this craft, I should say. Not even one of the listener did make any face, which proves that there is an acute cognitive distortion each stutterer is going through. Very enriching experience this was indeed. We retired for the day…..