MY SPEECH, A RESULT OF MY EFFORTS
(A SHORT STORY FROM MY CHILDHOOD)
From the age of my childhood I ever tried to learn the things from my father , family , society and my school and I always questioned what I couldn’t get easily and tried to understand and know the fact. I used to revise my course from school many times and never gave up. Here’s an incident from my tuition class when I was in 6th standard.
At that time Mr. Chandrashekhar Bisht was the class teacher. As my family was not able to pay the tuition fees he offered me a tuition class without any reimbursement. Now I had to go to the class daily in evening. He was too brilliant in the most of subjects of the courses and also taught us different topics from other subjects like social sciences, Sanskrit etc. besides the main subjects Mathematics, Science and English. I enjoyed the classes and gained a surplus there.
One day in the tuition when he was teaching us Geography, we all were listening and trying to remember the main points out of the passage he was reading. Having completed his reading he asked each of us to read the same passage one by one. Before my turn two of us had completed their reading and now it’s mine. I started to read the passage and completed about a half of it. Further in the next few lines there was a word Drakensberg, the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. I tried to read it many times as it was tough for me to make the perfect pronunciation of the word, ड्रकैन्स्बैर्ग in Hindi. In my childhood I felt some hesitation in speaking fluently and thus I couldn’t able to make proper pronunciation. Everyone was laughing at me as it was quite funny to hear Drakainsbairg as Derkensberg. I was feeling ashamed and was about to weep as all could see tears into my eyes. I didn’t want to show them my weakness but I failed.
Mr. Chandrashekhar, our tuition teacher was out of the room when this incident happened. When he came back just within couple of minutes after the incident happened, he realised that something went wrong with me and asked for the reason but I didn’t replied as was I afraid of that he would also make a fun of my weakness but I was wrong. When he came to know about my problem in pronunciation of the word Drakensberg he put his hand on my shoulder and asked me to read the word again after him. His humble appearance and supportive nature made me enough confident to read the word again and I tried as much as I could at that time but failed. After short of period when there was no any improvement in my pronunciation he asked the next boy to read the passage and then next.
Now it was the time of ending the class. Everyone said good bye to him with duly respect and I also did. As soon as I came out of the room he called me and offered me a seat in front of him. He advised me not to lose my confidence but to improve my speech by making frequently efforts of reading, speaking loudly and squealing in the silent world of nature near the village, at the bank of river or into the forest where nobody could hear me. He also told me to make practices of my speech in front of the mirror. It was quite strange to hear this but I could believe in his words as he was the only person who treated me so well when I needed.
After this short conversation he gave me a chocolate and I left. Having reached the house I wondered what was happened today and what I was asked to do but it also seemed too interesting and enjoyable to make louder than louder sounds into the forest or a solitary place. That day I slept without making any effort except to talk in front of the mirror which I brought inside the bathroom and uttered in a peace sound.
The very next day I started the activity at the bank of the river because it’s not safe to do it into the forest because many dangerous and weird animals always were there in search of a meal like me. Sometimes I sat on the stone in the middle of the river and peeped out into the flowing water to see the small fishes under the bubbles formed by the water flow. I stood on the same stone and started to speak loudly towards the sky but only the word Drakensberg. I was happy to see no one there to hear my mispronunciation of the word despite of it I was enjoying the movement when only I was the only witness of my weak speech. Soon I used to do the things regularly but this time not in the same place, instead of it, in my house with a lower sound in front of the mirror. I didn’t realise when I had the voice of pure speech which I ever wanted to have. I came to know about this fact when I faced the same tuition friends when I was taking a reading of the same passage. I was afraid of the possibility of the same incident which was happened couple weeks earlier at the same place with the same guys. But this time my reading was much better than all of them and I heard the sound of praising me from them. I looked at my teacher and bowed my head towards his feet to give him my regards and thanks for what he did for me, I said “ Charan sparsh guruji.”
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