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| It sometimes surprises me when I was very much younger, I would see many people like my School principle, My teachers, Philosophers from around the world when they come to Jakarta, when I would hear them |
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speak on stage or on a podium to hundreds of people it never once occurred to me that, there is so much going on inside the skull which is behind the mike. Speaking to hundreds of people just seemed as simple as speaking to |
| someone across the table |
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| It was during my 8th grade when during the morning assembly in my school I had been approached to read out a small morning announcement that I had experienced what is called “STAGE FRIGHT” As I climbed up the stage and the mike was given to me I saw the faces of over 300 of my school mates looking up at me , was when I started shivering , I could barely hold the 400 grams mike steady , I could barely stand straight, even though all I had to do was read out a 8 line paragraph from a piece of paper word for word. As I gathered up all the courage that I had inside of me I started reading my first line , to my surprise I could feel my voice becoming more deeper and the fear of over 600 sets of eyes laid on me , I realized I was stammering , even though what I had to read was in simplest of all English. And when I came off the stage I told my self “that’s the last time I would ever speak in public” |
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| When we arrived at NMIMS, my aunt head straight for the information counter and asked “Is there any Public speaking course starting soon” and a very least expected answer came up “Sure mam, ur just in time, Our next batch starts today evening at six, if you are interested in joining |
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then please fill up the form and pay the amount at the cashier”. as far as my memory cells are working properly, I don’t recollect my aunt even asking me if I |
| was interested, she just took the form and started filling the empty blanks, and I was just thinking to my self “Hello its my life, its my holidays, can I even know what in heavens name is this course that I was being signed up for” But in just a matter of 14 minutes the form was filled the amount paid for by my aunt. As we were about to head back home my aunt finally said something to me “will you be able to come here alone in the evening”, I nodded and thought “Holy Carrots and tomatoes im a 14 year OLD boy of course I can manage to make it to this place alone, after all if I do get lost I can simply ask the “public” to “speak” where in the world im right!!! |
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| Later on that evening as I managed to get on the bus to head for the institute, I was pondering on what is it that im heading for, what is public speaking anyways? |
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| Finally I reached the institute, without having to ask any “public” to “speak”; I guess I was just to smart for roads for a 14 year old? |
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| Anyways I had arrived for the class 20 minutes early, and there I was sitting in a big classroom which had about five other aliens sitting in different corners, I though why don’t I just join them ( sitting separately in a far away corner) and by the time it became six , the class were filled with about 23 different aliens (the reason why I call them aliens is because I did not know which part of the world or planet they came from, there were university students , school students , house wife’s , office executives and so on. |
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| And finally at exactly six the professor, walked in the room, like one of those hosts for the academy awards, except that instead of smiles, cheers and applauses there were, no smiles, no cheers and definitely no applauses. As the trainer started his discourse on public speaking and then asked all of us to move ahead and tell everyone what are we there for, that finally I understood what the term meant, it did not mean the public spoke and I listened, I meant that I had to speak in front of a public and they had to listen to what I was talking. But you know what two sessionslater I begun to actually start enjoying speaking in front of the classroom and all these people who were once aliens from different planets actually started looking like they came from the same planet that I lived. |
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| Everyday for the 8 days thereafter I started looking forward to my new evening classes, the idea of delivering a speech no matter how scary it seemed in the beginning stared to feel more exciting. And during one of the days I was awarded the best speech of the evening, my speech was entitled “I cant understand women” that night on my journey back home in the bus I felt happiness like I had never felt before, for the first time in my life I won something, for the first time I was the best from a bunch of 23 people, that night I felt Alive,,,, |
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| I wont deny the fact that I almost cried on the last day session , thinking that this was the end of my being Alive, How could I ever forget that 3 sessions back I felt what it was like to be good in something. But I guess every thing is a passing cloud. And I had to just accept the fact that the honeymoon period was already over. |
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| One week and a wedding later I was back in Jakarta, I guess things just change the minute you land in a different country and true enough when I had returned I got tied up with looking for a university, joining a university, graduating from a university, working in a hotel to working in a premium call centre shifting to the garment manufacturing world that public speaking somehow just got erased from my mind, but definitely not erased from my heart. |
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Back in 2004, ten years after I left Bombay, (Now called Mumbai) I happened to be in India for a spiritual retreat and co incidentally it happened to be my birthday 22nd December. On that day there was an unexpected or unplanned program of two people being called upfront on the podium and talk on spirituality.
When the first person appeared as he spoke to an audience of almost a thousand people, somehow whatever he said seem to be imprinted on my mind it was like I could repeat the entire 15 minute speech after he finished speaking. I left the place with the speech still repeating itself inside my head., I bought a notebook and a pen went straight to my room and penned the speech down, for a minute I was amazed at the thought that I could manage to remember almost an entire speech and then I told myself if I would anytime in Jakarta get a chance to speak in front of an audience I would definitely speak on what I had just learned. |
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| But what was I to know things could just move in so fast 5 months after landing back I was given a chance to speak during the break time of a high caliber speaker who had been flown in from Malaysia. I had the material ready all I needed was to package the material in a presentable manner and it was during that time when I was rehearsing for the speech that I dug in my old boxes to find the manual that I was given when I had taken up the course in NMIMS ten years earlier. |
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| The day of the program finally arrived, the speaker from Malaysia as usual won the admiration and teeth of all the people who had come to listen to him. Halfway through the program he announced that he will be having a short break and during the break two speakers will fill in the gap for him, well what was I to expect, nervous as I would ever be, I came up and spoke to a group of about 200 people. And to my utter surprise I realized that 3 minutes into the talk, I felt comfortable being there and sharing what I had learnt a few months earlier when I was in India. After my 15 minute speech I got off allowing the admirable Malaysian speaker to continue where he had left of. I came down the stage thinking oh im not as good as the Malaysian but at least I had made a small attempt. |
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But little did I know when the program got over, hoards of people came to me and said things that would probably make a two month pregnant lady give birth on the spot. They said things like
“How did you learn to speak like that”,
“Where did you learn public speaking?
“You are our local speaker from now”
Someone even tried comparing me to the Malaysian speaker, but well I knew it was just simply exact ration. |
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| But the very fact that people appreciated my efforts and after getting quite a few complementing sms’s that night, I suddenly felt alive again, that same experience I had when I was traveling in the bus 10 years ago was very close, the only thing is the sense of being alive in the bus somehow carried more personal value to me than what I had accomplished here in Jakarta. I guess first love do die off longer. |
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| And after that I told myself , what a moment I had made for myself , to be able to make people learn something and what more better than to make people take action to do what they have not before or are simply delaying , what power is there on stage ,. And from that point onwards I told my self that I would like to be a public speaker, to share my stories and stories of many people across the world who have made a difference in people life just because they have been able to overcome their fear of speaking in public and giving them the push that could change life’s forever. |
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| Hence this website. |
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