January 28, 2014

LETS REWIND : Mumbai Communication Workshop 25-26 th Jan

Day 1 –

After an amazing and thrilling workshop, it’s time to look back and share the wonderful experience with everybody.

(P.S -I am just writing down the activities the way I remember and they might be wrong in terms of their sequence :) )

 The venue for the workshop was Bombay Connect in Bandra and all thanks to our Game Master Dhruv for arranging this beautiful place. The charm of the venue was further accentuated by putting up beautiful posters all over, which contained various quotes about stammering (see below). Hats off to Shyam for these creative quotes.

  •            There is no cure for stammering. You can only control it.
  •           Keep calm and stammer with ease.
  •           If you loved it, let everyone know. If you disliked it, let us know.
  •           If you stammer, you are not alone.
  •           Be proud to be a stammerer. It gets you noticed.


We started the day with a welcome speech by Shyam accompanied with an inspiring story of a monk.

Next the stage was given over to our expert Ashish (who had especially traveled a long way to pass on his learning’s and experience to us). He defined the ground rules for the workshop , which were  one ,to stammer freely for the next two days and second , to not give advice to anybody.

We  introduced ourselves using the creative side of our stammering( i.e easy stammering , high pitched stammering and longest stammering).We were then asked down  to write down our expectations from the workshop and also questions (if any).

( I have compiled everybody's expectations and will be posting a separate blog on it soon . Pls. do read it J .Also all the questions have been mailed to Dr. Sachin and he will post the answers soon). In the meanwhile, pls browse the below links:


The best part of the workshop were the creative games that kept the positive energies flowing .(Not to mention the BUMP and NANI PANI game).

We were enlightened with 2 important techniques of prolongation and coastal breathing.Next was time for a break which was accompanied by WAH TAJ CHAI and COFFEE.  There was also a list of questions ( true or false) given to us related to stammeringThe objective of these questions was to clear the misconceptions that we have w.r.t stammering.

Next , we were taught about the importance of eye contact and pausing. The technique bouncing gave us a chance to stammer freely like a child. The practice sessions that followed next gave us an opportunity to try our hand on the techniques learned.

The evening was filled with an extempore activity where every participant was given a chance to speak on a given topic for one minute on the stage.

The day also included a delicious lunch and was concluded by a FACE THE CHALLENGE activity . Here we were given a list of restaurants, gyms and dance classes ( all thanks to me for preparing those beautiful maps:) )and were asked to inquire using voluntary stammering. It gave us a chance to observe people's reaction when we stammer.  Finally, we shared our experience at the beach side on carter road and also did a wonderful brave activity. The activity was to stand at the carter road and shout our name along with our most feared words ( with stammering as a compulsion ). Ironically, when we were all suppose to stammer badly we actually were all able to speak our feared word with very little or minute stammering.

Day 2 –

Day 2 embarked off with an eye opener session at toastmasters club. Our hero Dhruv won the best speaker award and that was seriously like an inspiration to all of us. Cheers to Dhruv !!

Next we moved back to our Bombay Connect venue where we had a team building session with a renowned member of toastmaster i.e Mr Lancy. He taught us to never fake anything and also to look through the finer things in life without having any pre-conceived notion.We were then informed about the importance of meditation and its positive impact on stammering.


Next we learned about voluntary stammering through a game in which 4 participants came on the centre stage and answered 5 questions each  from the audience but all this communication was done using voluntary stammering only. J

It was followed by an interesting activity which taught us pre-block, in-block and post-block correction. We also learned the role of all 3 and as to how can it help us to manage our blocks.

The evening was marked off with a small speech from every participant w.r.t their learnings ,experience at the workshop and feedback. It was heartening to see some participants crying as they never wanted the workshop to gets over. (ha ha.  just joking guys !!! :) )




Woh!!!Ramesh Babu is the center of attraction !!

Gaurav & Janahvi posing for the pic while our organizers (Ashish, Shyam & Me behind) lost in our own world 

Shilpa , Rahul & Our Game Master cum Organizer Dhruv 

Next we moved to the wonderful location of Carter road and played dumb charades and BUMP on the rocks just beside the sea. (see pics below)

 Communication workshop turning into a Dumb Charades Game Zone


 Communication workshop turning into a Dumb Charades Game Zone


Don't know what to name it :-P

We all repeated the previous day activity of accepting our stammering by shouting loudly our name and that we stammer. We all also said our most feared word. It was followed by the hilarious banana dance act ( it was Vikas' idea :P )

The day got over with a small treat at Tibbs Frankie coupled with a pint of bear. ( oh sorry I mean water J ).

Group Pic  


 Another Group pic showing our best blocked face 

9 comments:

Ashish Agarwal said...

Thank you Naman for this detailed funfilled write up.
I have reached Herbertpur in good shape and you know, I, myself as well can't memorize the exact sequence of activies...but you have covered almost all the activies.

Well, there is a good news, I am couriering 25 hard copies of AHJ booklet and 1 CD having a lot of audio,video and text info

vishal gupta said...

wow !!!!!!!!!!!! awesome guys very nice info about workshop and I would like to give thumbs up to ashish and dhruv you both are doing very gr8 job :)

Satyendra said...

Perfect two days for you all wonderful people.. It is important to have fun while you learn. But now you must practice what you have learned, using your SHG (online as well as physical) and Apna Hath Jagannath, for guidance.
Remember, the workshop shares many ideas and you are welcome to pick and choose whatever works for you. Stammering is a highly individual phenomena. You must try out various things to find out what truly works best for YOU..
Never give up!!
Let it not be your last meeting..

Unknown said...

nice detailing Naman... Almost all the activities are included...
Yeah, the last line is very true.. Didn't want the workshop to end :)

Manimaran said...

Awesome pic. The pictures themselves shows how much the pws enjoyed the WS. Hats off to everyone.

Unknown said...

Awesome...

Unknown said...

thanks everyone .....
Ashish : You can courier the AHJ booklet copies and other material to Dhruv. I will ask Dhruv to text you his address.

Anonymous said...

hi..good to see u guys have ablog here...can u provide info or provide contact details becoz i need help

Anonymous said...

hey can u help me please,even i have stammering problem can u contact me at 8879639323

thanks