The Kendriya Vidyalaya Days –II

When threatened verbally with dire consequences by my seniors, I had no option but to take part in the competition. But my seniors had overestimated my capabilities. I have trouble speaking fluent English and even now I do stammer a lot. But back then when I did so, it was somewhat gibberish. As to prepare a 500 word speech, I ran off to seek help from M.S.Rao sir.  Till then, I had stood in front of the audience only once and that too during a “Bihu Function” where in I had to sing a Bihu Song and it was quite embarrassing. The least I mention about this, the better it would be.

So, after our classes were over and on a very hot afternoon in a humid Saturday in our very old school auditorium, I went up to the stage. I began with “Respected Principal sir, honorable teachers and my dear friends, today I am going to speak a few lines about Pollution. Pollution, as you know is of three types:-

·       

-       Air pollution

·      Water Pollution

·      Soil pollution

Guess what, I forgot the rest of the lines. My nerves were cracking and with a blurred vision, I thought of giving it up and yes I froze. There was absolute silence and as I didn’t know what to do, I just said Thank you and left the podium in haste.

 Few point I would like to mention here. When you are speaking on to a microphone, the way your voice echoes is something of an experience in itself. This is why; it becomes necessary to be articulate. I learned it from my juniors, who I found that they spoke with an assured calmness. There is no shame in it and it did help me. Habib, Satyajeet , Deepa and  Devashree; they were just fantastic.

Years later, once again, I found myself in the same podium in an extempore speech competition held in the senior category. As I was prepared, this time I did manage to win the third prize. J