by Tarun Puri

I started stammering from the age of 3 years when one day, my elder brother came back from school and imitated one of his friends who used to stammer. From that day onwards I could not speak fluently. My parents thought that this habit of stammering will get healed of its own if I was not made conscious of my Stammering. But when they saw that there wasn’t any improvement they decided to consult a speech therapist in AIIMS while we were on a vacation to Delhi. At that time I was 10 years old and did not know much about the problem I had. I undertook therapy for 7 days and could not continue as we had to go back after the vacation to Shillong. In Shillong I continued with the exercises suggested by the doctor at AIIMS and there was some improvement in my speech, but I discontinued them after a year. After finishing my class 8 from Shillong we shifted to Delhi and I did the rest of my schooling from Delhi after which I did my graduation from IIT Delhi in the field of Mechanical Engineering. It was in IIT that I realized that I have to somehow get rid of this habit of stammering that had plagued my life for such a long time. I again tried therapy in AIIMS but did not avail much benefit out of it. When I was in the third year of my graduation studies I became very conscious of my stammering as I had realized that it might create a problem for me in the campus interviews that were to be conducted next year but I did not do much about it. In my final year of graduation studies I did apply for campus interviews and succeeded in getting a job at two companies. It was after this that I realized that now once and for all I should get rid of my habit of Stammering, as I am going to work for a private company where it may be a hindrance in my growth. I got in contact with a classmate of mine, Shobhan Aggarwal and he advised me to join Adlakha Speech Therapy. I joined the Centre on February 27 and within two months there was a substantial improvement in my speech. Now nearly after four months of therapy my speech has witnessed a tremendous improvement and although blocks do occur occasionally some time, but I don’t consider them to be a hindrance in my path. I also do not face any problem in the company in which I am working due to my speech. This has also boosted my self-confidence to a great extent. The credit for all this improvement in my Speech and also my increased self confidence definitely goes to my friend Shobhan ,who showed me the right therapist and to Dr.Adlakha (my Speech Therapist) who showed me the right path.