Face your fears

Shubra overcomes speech disability with determination and support, shining on stage despite her limitations.

Shubra was annoyed with her mother. For the past 10 days, every evening, her mother had seen to it that Shubra read out loudly the first two paragraphs of Chapter Three in her English textbook.

“Why are you making me do this every day?” protested Shubra. “There is no reading competition in class. You know I would never participate in it. So why are you wielding the you-must-read-aloud rod at home?”

“Because that is what your English teacher told me you had to do,” retorted her mother.

“She knows I stammer when I get nervous about reading or saying something in public,” said a puzzled Shubra. “Why force me to do something I cannot do? I would hate to see my classmates grin when they hear me speak, stuttering along like a car with low petrol.”

“Present audience consists of two cats, a crow and a dog,” pointed out her mother. “They listen to you patiently .”

“That is because when I finish reading they go away only if they get a tasty bite of my evening snack!”

Shubra’s determined mother saw to it that the girl did the task assigned to her. Next Monday, Ms. Grover, Shubra’s English teacher, told her to read aloud the first paragraph from the chapter she had been reading at home. An apprehensive Shubra was amazed that she managed to read the paragraph slowly and fluently without a pause.