THE STORY OF SAMRIDH

When difficulties come; they come not single, they come in hordes. This saying turned out to be a reality for Venkat Devrajan, the chief coordinator of YLP. It is only the chief coordinator who bears the brunt when an unwanted or an undesired circumstance is encountered. Disregarding technical difficulties and resource shortfall, handling around 30 youth leaders is a challenging job. A job that can send one’s night sleepless and one’s stress escalated. Absence of a mentor increases one’s worries double fold. One more mentor had to leave the kingdom on emergency reasons. Time and tide wait for none; any shortage of resources hard or soft had to be met. A mentor had to be arranged for youth leader Samridh.

Apart from Toastmastering I and Venkat were good friends, I already had three mentees, but there was no other way left. I was asked to help Samridh; I consented.

Generally elders put big ideas and tall talks before the children. They forget that the person to whom they are talking is not big as they are, as big as them in experience, as big as them in thinking, as big as them in ideology. Every child is different and each one needs to be dealt differently. One can get a thing done from a child but the other child perhaps needs a different way to accomplish the same. Certain traits of person are inborn or habitual. Say for example accent, proper pronunciation is essentially important in the delivery of a speech. A slight variation can alter the meaning of an idea or can confuse the listener, one has very little control over it and overcoming it may require a long time. Accent has its roots in the family he belong to or to the region he is from.

The same day Samridh and his father visited me in the evening. He had brought along with him his speech. No sooner did we settled down he expressed that he didn’t like the speech, he didn’t enjoy the speech and it would be difficult for him to deliver that speech.

I asked “what is the thing that you like the most?”, he replied “Cricket”, I continued how if your speech starts with cricket that too with a climax scene. He immediately agreed. Leaving the speech with me the father and son went home wearing a smile, the father with satisfaction that his son’s worry was gone and the son with an assurance that I will be doing a speech of my liking. 

The next day we started rehearsing. I would explain him the pace of word, and the instance to raise and lower it, the emotion expressed by the pace. I also would explain him the importance of pauses in a speech and how they added value to the speech, instilled confidence in the speaker and casted an impression on the audience.

Some children involuntarily happen to be themselves, they would listen to you but when they perform you can’t see much difference in their later performance and the previous performance. It is not that they don’t want to but it simply doesn't happen. The best solution is to give time and work persistently. 

Samridh happened to be himself. Working with him, I liked his commitment and the contentment that he carried while he performed. He did complete his project successfully. Irrespective of the quantum of learning. I know all children learn but with varying pace. For me it was an opportunity for understanding Samridh.