Well to start with let me tell you something about myself. I’m IPWS (Indian Person Who Stammers) and I picked up stuttering since I was about 4-5 years old. I was a very mild stutterer to start with but as I got older especially whenever I was put to test I used to crumble or crack like a cookie. I began to avoid certain situations which would put me in a spot of bother or out of my comfort zone. I tried too hard to hide my stutter from people. My father was in para-military forces so every 2.5-3.0 years we used to get transferred and my target used to be that, this time when I go to a new place & when I make new friends I should not let them know that I stutter. There was a time when I was in my 8th grade and my father got transferred from down south to the western part of the country. I was successfully able to hide my stutter for 1.5 years. In fact, I started to believe that I’ve gotten out of my stutter as I could easily answer my roll call, I would always raise my hand and answer the questions in the class, I would participate in elocution competitions and win prizes. But suddenly something happened, I don’t know what but one day a classmate of mine came up to me and told me that he just noticed me fumbling when I was cracking a  joke. I just dismissed that and I said oh, it tends to happen sometimes with me but its not a big deal. But that started playing on my mind, every time when I would speak that thing would still be there at the back of my head. Then I started noticing myself that I’ve started fumbling on words in few places. I suddenly stopped answering questions in the class,  My teachers would nominate my name in speech competitions and I would go and give some lame excuse and withdraw my name out of it. Once my Biology teacher was so insistent that she said – “no, you’re gonna prepare on this topic in speak in the morning assembly. I’ve already given your name.” I bunked my school that day and my teacher (I was kind of her pet then), she stopped talking to me directly. Then slowly my stutter started getting worse but it was still manageable up till my 12th grade (precollege).

My real struggle started when I got selected in Engineering and I had to move out of my house and stay in the hostel with my contemporaries. My stutter suddenly became from mild to very severe. From that day until now it has remained to be severe. I have instances of fluency like every other stutterer but I would categorize my current speech to be from severe to very severe.