Stammer

Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad, popularly known as EMS, was a communist politician and theorist, who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala in 1957–59 and then again in 1967–69. He was well known for his stammer.

When asked if he always stammered, he would reply, ‘No, only when I speak!’

To stammer is to speak with difficulty, repeating sounds and pausing before saying things correctly. But only one who speaks can stammer. The silent ones will not display any fault. And those who have the courage to move beyond the drawback will go far.

While speech therapists work on exercises and techniques to improve speech, a community support system helps individuals listen, share common experiences and support each other. The intra-personal resolve is also important.

Stop chasing fluency is the first lesson. Even if a person stammers on a particular word/syllable, they should continue speaking so that the stress and struggle is reduced. There are techniques of stuttering modification, prolongation and pause.

The break in speech due to stammer is just a pause. EMS was a role model for people with speech impairments for he chose to continue speaking despite the stammer. And many people were inspired and influenced by what he had to say.

Stammer in speech is no cause for tension

It is just a pause… not an end-punctuation!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Preheat

I learn a lot from Les Menezes every time I meet him. One such lesson is when he makes me a cup of tea. While the tea is getting ready, he fills up the mugs with boiling water, lets it sit for a few minutes, dumps the water and then fills them with tea.

It is easy to get complacent when it comes to daily routines. We are habituated by ‘shortcuts’. But no such shortcuts for Les. He will meticulously follow the right process to ensure that the tea or coffee in the cup does not lose its heat to the container.

This is something that we can observe during gongfu tea ceremonies. The term literally means ‘making tea with skill’. The teapot will be filled with hot water, it will be poured into the cups and then the cups are emptied before hot tea is poured into them.

Athletes have warm-up routines to reduce chance of injury and increase performance. Actors perform vocal warm-ups to increase articulation and to avoid potential stuttering. Musicians have specific warm-ups that benefit them and their instruments.

We must ask ourselves what is the ‘preheat process’ that we follow to ensure that we are fully warmed up for the performance. We should start it with our cup of tea or coffee and also apply to more things that we do.

Don’t you let the warmth go down

Preheating is a practice profound

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Jugalbandi

In Hindustani music, the term refers to a duet — two musicians perform on same stage, but in a different way from normal duets. The two sing common or similar ragas in their distinct ways separately one after the other. It is a sparring between two talents.

Jugalbandis are organised between persons of equal stature who could be both vocalists or both dancers or both instrumentalists. The combination are also a vocalist and an instrumentalist or a vocalist and a dancer or a dancer and an instrumentalist.

Last Sunday, Samraat Club Panaji organised a poetic ‘jugalbandi’ between two well-known Konkani poets, Ramesh Ghadi and Shashikant Punaji. Due to the pandemic, the event was held online. It was a success and it is interesting to know why.

Ramesh and Shashikant were well matched and had some commonalities. They came from socially active lives, rustic wisdom, rural vocabulary and an exposure to diversity of thought and experience. Each had a distinct identity but was this enough? No!

What worked was that both had respect for the other’s body of work. Without this mutual sentiment, their jugalbandi would have been will be a battle not a doubly enhanced performance. Jugalbandis are not competition. They are collaborations.

We know that collaborations require self-assurance as well as belief in the other’s capacity. It is a partnership that thrives on genuine regard for each other. Jugalbandis between the best of performers will not succeed without this shared sentiment.

Confidence in self is good, not detriment

But Jugalbandis need mutual sentiment!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

We killed an old man

Why the fury? Why so much ire?

for someone who refused to retire

He refused to stop his proactive plan

that's why we killed this stupid old man!

 

He refused to ignore like so many do

he taught others to ask questions too

To halt our progress, he thought he can

but our juggernaut will crush all such men!

 

Our development express refuses to stop

we will do everything to rise over and hop

We will jump over every stakeholder’s plan

we will break down resolve of such old men!

 

He wanted to save people as if his own

He taught them the right to voice and tone

But we know how to halt his every fan

by confining behind bars, their old man!

 

Call them anti-national to dump in jail

apply law that the Raj used to deny bail

Our gullible choir will join and raise cain

as we stifle and defeat their old guy main!

 

Our men seating in judgement seat

are blind to what lies at Truth’s feet

Mere accusation is enough to condemn

each and every one, young and old men!

 

The younger lot has a lesson to learn

By the way we prolong, twist and turn

It is easy with a fake nationalist plan

History is full of felling of such old men!

 

Now for the others we hold behind bars

more voices may say that we went too far

We may have to concede they are no fiends

we tarnished them, like we did that old man!

 

Watch the few that protest and cry

ensure the emotions recede and dry

Pull out the ones who together with him sang

they may undo the death of that bloody old man!

- Pravin K. Sabnis, 5 July 2021

(Indian tribal rights activist Stan Swamy died of a cardiac arrest today. The 84 year old Jesuit priest, suffered from Parkinson's disease, was consistently denied bail & moved to a private hospital in May after he tested positive for Covid. The oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India, he was arrested in October 2020, among 15 renowned activists, academics & lawyers, who were charged under a draconian anti-terror law. Swamy repeatedly denied the charges, saying he was being targeted for his work related to the caste and land struggles of tribals in Jharkhand state. At the time of arrest, his health was waning. But his bail appeal on medical grounds was rejected & National Investigative Agency (NIA) continued to oppose his release. In the eight months he spent in Mumbai's Tajola jail, his health declined)