STAMMERING.

Everyone is having a problem one way or another. It may be the need of this, that or the lack of certain things. These problems may be natural or created by circumstances. If a person is having a stigmatism or a paralytic limb, it is natural but if one has lost a purse during a travel it is because of circumstances.

In my case stammering is the biggest problem. I don't know how it has occured but it is there and I have to grow with that. I am growing more and more conscious of it as I grow in age. Since I stammer, I am unable to mingle freely with others of my own age. They react differently, most of them mock at me and very few have sympathy. While the ideas roll, words do not at the same speed. So very often I blink which means I am taken for a muff. Since I stammer, I cannot retort and my contribution in a company will be so little; so I have to be very often an idle spectator. It is not because that I cannot give my ideas but I am unable to speak fast enough.

So it has developed in me an inferiority complex and nowadays I shun company.

How to overcome it, is the most biggest liablility. I have heard of a great Greek Orator, Demosthenes who was once a stammer, as a child he was able to overcome it with some form of exercise. It was told that he put pebbles in his mouth and stood on the seashore where he used to cry loud. As a result of it, he overcame his stammering. But in my case, I have not tried that. What I would normally do nowadays is to gather ideas and slowly put them without repeating a word. I am successful to some extent but I cannot say that I have overcome it completely. One thing for certain is that this stammering of mine has blocked certain employment opportunities for me, for instance, I cannot become a lawyer nor a platform speaker. Though I like music and enjoy it, I will never become a singer. It is a pity that I am deprived of all these opportunities.

I have come to the wise conclusion that one must put up with that which one cannot improve. Since Mother Nature feels that I should be in this category, I have no choice but to live with it for the rest of my life.