06 March,2011 08:23 AM IST | | Lhendup G Bhutia
As The King's Speech wins laurels for telling the poignant story of how King George VI overcame his stutter to lead his country during World War II, we meet the Mumbai members of The Indian Stammering Association to figure how difficult it is to finish that sentenceu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
Harpreet Singh Arora is a smart 22 year-old lad of Punjabi descent. Turbaned, and dressed in a bright blue shirt and denims, politely, he stops a man hurrying to catch a train at Khar station. The stranger doesn't seem to mind and in fact, offers him a smile. Arora asks, "Sir, what is the..." and pauses. He takes a deep breath and continues, "...the tiiiiiiiiime?" The stranger mumbles what could perhaps be a few obscenities under his breath, and walks away.
Arora himself isn't bothered about the time. He is just practicing his 'T's. A member of The Indian Stammering Association (TISA), a self-help group of stammerers with chapters across the country, Arora is eagerly waiting to watch Tom Hooper's Academy Award-winning The King's Speech that released on Friday.
Harpreet Singh Arora from The Indian Stammering Association
outside Khar station. Pic/ Satyajit Desai
The film tells the story of King George VI and how he overcame his stutter to become king of England. "Perhaps, I can learn something on how to overcome my own impediment. And even if I don't, at least, I can watch a film that deals with a subject that is close to me."
One can understand his eagerness. Cinema has, in the last few years, portrayed those who stutter as either psychotic murderers (Shah Rukh Khan in Darr and Baazigar) or bumbling idiots (Shreyas Talpade in the Golmaal 3).
While in the film, Prince Albert (Colin Firth), who becomes King George VI when his father passes away and his brother abdicates the throne, uses a variety of measures to control his stutter (from trying to speak after filling his mouth with marbles to smoking as a way of smoothening his voice, even dancing while speaking), Arora has tried a fair bit too. He once visited a speech therapist who told him his tongue was 'weak'. "Every day, groundnut oil was applied to the inner part of my tongue to make it stronger," Arora says.
Another time, he tried hypnosis. The doctor swayed a pocket-watch pendulum in front of his eyes, told him he was "feeling sleepy", and that "he was feeling free" and "not feeling scared". Arora says, "But the trouble is, I did not feel sleepy or free. The groundnut oil didn't work, and my stuttering continued."
People have long sought to treat stuttering. The great Greek statesman Demosthenes (384-322 BC) is said to have filled his mouth with marbles, and Moses is believed to have placed a burning coal in his mouth that caused him to be "slow and hesitant of speech" (according to the Talmud interpretation of the Bible). Later, people tried to change their diets, reduced lovemaking, and during the 18th century, even got their tongues cut with scissors, all to get a grip on their stutter.
Two years ago, Arora travelled to Dehradun, TISA's head office, where he spent three weeks meeting others who stammer, learning how to deal with the condition. He now meditates every day to feel more confident, uses techniques like 'bouncing', where he utters the first letter of every 'difficult' word multiple times and quickly slips in the rest of the word, or elongates pronunciation of words like 'tiiiiime', instead of 'time'.
Rounak Modha (name changed on request), who works with Tata Consultancy Services, is a new member at TISA. "As a kid, friends ridiculed me, and I used to be embarrassed," Modha says. "But now I try to deal with it." Even when he stumbles on a certain word, he does not use its synonyms. "Why should I be ashamed? Great people have had the same problem. People like M...M...Marilyn M...M...Monroe, L...L...Lewis Carrol, Winston C...C...."u00a0 At this point, I try to help him out by saying "Churchill".u00a0 He holds up his hand to stop me, and says, "C...C...Churchill."
To contact The Indian Stammering Association in Mumbai, call 9769383897
Taming stammering
People have long sought to treat stuttering. The great Greek statesman Demosthenes (384-322 BC) is said to have sought to overcome his stutter by filling his mouth with marbles, and Moses is believed to have placed a burning coal in his mouth that caused him to be "slow and hesitant of speech". Later, people tried to change their diets, reduced lovemaking, and during the 18th century, even got their tongues cut with scissors, all to get a grip on their stutter.
