Transformation... My journey

Life has always been a struggle for me, I was diagnosed as suffering from dyslexia which impacted my school life and as a result I suffered from low self-esteem, which stripped me of all self-confidence. What made it worse was that I stuttered too, making it difficult to express myself. Not now. Making a beginning is what matters. I connected strongly with my speech therapist with whom I had built a strong bond over an association of few sessions, and she is the one who played an important role in my life.

It is only now when I am an adult now, I realise the role my speech therapist has played in shaping my life, by going that extra mile. My adversity turned into a blessing for me thanks to her belief in me. So here is my story over the past two and a half decade.

When I was about five to six years old, it was a struggle for my parents to get me to do anything. All their efforts would end in tears and tantrums. They tried to just handle it to the best of their ability, and push the whole concern aside .Compliance had become a big issue. All of the family members put it down to the big change that was happening in my home. My home, and especially my sanctuary was being refurbished. What my parents couldn`t understand, was I would refuse to settle down in the special room that was designed for me, and insist on being in the Living room. That too, would refuse to sit on the newly bought furniture, and play and roll on the floors. This was getting embarrassing for them, that too when friends and family would visit our home. And worst, I would listlessly stare at the floor, refusing to move away even for a minute. They could not understand my restlessness.

The floor to me was fascinating. It was a mosaic floor, dotted with just coloured differently shaped tiny patterns. To me, these were just not dots and tiles, but I could see different interesting patterns within the dots. I was taken up by the lovely, engaging patterns, and was happy to spend hours with this new flooring.

So when my therapist, with whom I still had regular sessions, saw the change in my temperament, she decided to visit my home and personally check out the new changes at my home. Once she saw the flooring, she discussed with my parents, what best could be done. Because as per her observation, I was so much taken up with the flooring, seeing things in it, which others could not, and in the bargain was compromising on my scheduled life. My diet and eating habits were going for a toss, I was losing weight and was constantly distracted, was losing focus, unable to do any meaningful activity. The obvious solution at first seemed to change the whole flooring, as that was what was causing disruption in my thoughts. My therapist went a step ahead, and came up with an excellent idea. She chatted with me, asking me what I exactly I could see on the floor. I was very creative in my description, but as I could not express all my thoughts with speech, she gave me a paper and coloured pencils and asked me to draw exactly what I saw. Then she expressed astonishment to what I drew, and discussed at length with my father and mother. Next day I saw a huge box gift wrapped for me, placed in my room. When I opened the gift box, I was happy to see a whole lot of drawing materials, with few fevicryl colour bottles, a canvas, and a stand to hold the canvas, brushes to colour, and two beautiful Kaleidoscopes.

The kaleidoscopes caught my attention. When I saw through this, I could see innumerable beautiful designs, made by broken pieces of bangles. A thousand designs, never repeated. This is the best gift that I have had. So finally I was weaned away from the hall with the mosaic flooring to my own room, which was made in far sombre design, and I was happy to spend my time with the new toy, the Kaleidoscope. However, she did not allow me unlimited access to the Kaleidoscope. What she did was asked me to look through the designs and patterns, and then capture whatever design I wanted on to the canvas with the colours. Being trusted with colours and canvas, I really took to painting. Initially it was simply splash of colours, but gradually I started making my own designs, which were to begin with, looked clumsy, but now today I am happy to say I can make fine intricate designs of my own. Design making is a language in itself, to be mastered, and lots of creativity is required. My therapist says this is a talented gift which I have, something well appreciated in the world of designs.

I thank my therapist for releasing my built in talent and bringing it to the fore. Her intelligence has today given me the confidence to pursue my career, and I make fine intricate designs on fabric, and my younger sister had the fine idea of starting a business, where she sells this fabrics with designs, after making wall decorations, table cloths, bedsheets and the like . It has become a lucrative business and I am happy that I can contribute financially towards my family income. Till date I have kept those two Kaleidoscope as a precious gift, well preserved.as these are the really the inspiration behind my wonderful career.

Recently I won an award for making the best and unique design on a painting. All thanks to the far sight vision of my therapist all those years back. One must never underestimate the blessings one is endowed with and always trust in human potential.