BENGALURU: Growing up, Dr Satyendra K Srivastava had a hard time buying bus tickets. Instead of his regular stop, he would sometimes mention the one before or after it, and then cover up the distance by other means. Srivastava found it difficult to say, ‘Vikas Nagar’. “For people with a stammer, such things can be a painful experience. Conductors were amused or went to other passengers while I tried to say the name of the stop,” says the Dehradun-based doctor, who is the founder of The Indian Stammering Association (TISA). Recently in town for a communication workshop, he recalls how the group was born from a blog he started in 2006.
Called Haqlana (Hindi for stammer), the blog marked the first time Srivastava spoke in public about his condition. It soon started getting responses from people across the country, bringing about the realisation that the experiences, like difficulty in answer roll calls in school, job interviews, or fear of ridicule, were universal. “But stammering is not a crime, so why hide it? I thought it was time we step aside from the shield of our computers, and stammer in open,” he says, recounting the birth of TISA in 2008. Today, it has over 8,000 members in various cities, including Pune, Jaipur, and Lucknow, besides the Metro cities. Not all cities have active meetups, but Bengaluru is an exception.
According to Abhinav Singh, the coordinator here, meetups are held every Sunday at Cubbon Park. “About 20-25 of us meet and approach random people with simple questions like asking the time or directions. The emphasis is on not hiding our stammer,” explains Singh, who is also the co-founder of the startup, CloudXLab. These exercises helped him gather more courage. “Not everyone views us differently. Sometimes, the mental block lies with us,” he says.
This is a common realisation with other members too. For Ankit Devra, another coordinator of the city chapter, this helped ease conversations with cab or auto drivers. Prashanth BR found that it helped with professional interactions, while Soma Roy says the association has helped her perform better at presentations, thanks to mock practice sessions with other members. “But more than that, it’s also a safe space to discuss problems, feelings or comments that hurt us,” says the Ph.D student, who was one of the four women present at the workshop. “The ratio of men to women who stammer may be 4:1, but the stigma women face is greater,” she says.
Members say there is only one solution to this: More awareness about the condition, which Srivastava stresses is neither a disability nor a disease, but just a “diversity.” Agrees Dhruv Gupta, founder of ahara.org, who grew up in the United States but is currently based in India. He says, “We need people to understand that having a stammer is just like having an accent or a particular skin colour. It’s like any other trait.”