Here is a very inspiring true story of a man making up his mind to change himself. It has been related by Mr Manimaran very kindly. This discussion started with a question in IPWS yahoo chat group: what kind of things PWS need to do in order to truly change themselves? This story sums up the answer very well.

Here is Mr. Balasuramanian's true story.

Mr. Balasubramanian was born in Madurai in Tamil Nadu (500 km south of Chennai) in a poor family. He was a stammerer by birth. He managed to study Mechanical Engineering. At a young age he realized that stammering will hinder his progress and decided to get rid of it before entering into professional life. He took everyone's advice and practiced it sincerely like putting pebbles into the mouth, standing in the water and speak loudly etc but nothing worked for him.

In late 1980s he learned that one Mr. Andrew Bell form Scotland (an ex-Stammerer) had invented a speech therapy to overcome stammering and is taking 5 days intensive course at Scotland. After writing many letters to Andrew Bell, Mr. Balasubramaniam finally got an appointment at Scotland for that course.

One hurdle crossed. What about money?. He understood that a minimum of Rs. 50000/- is required to attend the course. It was a very big amount those days: roughly equivalent to Rs.10 lakhs at present price index. He somehow managed to mobilize the amount through well wishers. Second hurdle crossed.

Passport and visa had to be obtained then. It was not easy in those days to get visa. He ran many times from Madurai to Delhi - from pillar to post and finally got visa also! He crossed another hurdle.

Mr. Balasubramaniam then went alone to Scotland as a Stammerer. Wow what a courage, when many of us dont even dare to travel in our own home city! What a level of motivation! It is not easy for a Stammerer to go alone to an alien country at such a young age with stammering. He sincerely attended the course for 5 days, learned all the techniques and returned back to India.

After coming back to India, he practiced the speech therapy for one year continuously and overcame his stammering.

Now he is in Coiambatore owning an engineering company giving employment opportunities to more than 100 persons. Now he is a respected personality in the society. He flied first time in airplane to Scotland to overcome his stammering and now he flies every year all over the world as fun trips for enjoying his time.

The most important thing about Mr.Balasubramaniam is that he never contented with his overcoming stammering alone. He started teaching the therapy techniques for the benefit of others once in a year at Madurai from 1992 0nwards. I (Mani) am one of the beneficiaries. I think by this time he would have trained more than 1000 pws.

If you think deeply about Mr.Balasubramaniam's story, you could understand two things: what it takes to change yourself- and that, the true success lies in sharing. Entire TISA family congratulates Mr Balasubramanian!