Divine Intervention!

Yes! I was the most talkative guy in my class!

Being raised in a middle class family from Central Travancore, I obviously did not speak English while being raised, and neither did i feel the compulsion of garnering deep knowledge in English literature. So, let me tell you, my blogs will have the stupidest grammer mistakes, and worst language, but then as I had said in my previous blog, I'm just penning down my naked thoughts.

I still remember those days when I used to stand on the footrest of my dad's scooter while he used to drop me to Balavihar, my first school. I still can feel that gust of wind which used to blow through my hair while my dad drove our old Chetak beside the railway track through those untarred road. And yah, I was in school. During my first year in school, I must say, I was the most boring person there. Used to sit silent in one corner and was afraid to mix with other kids who used to fight for crayons and other 'valuable' stuff.

Then came a shift to Calcutta, ya, back in 1989, it was Calcutta. A new place, new school, and pity me, I had to join KG-1 again because of my poor hindi, *which is still poor*! Damn! There was a time when I used to brood over that lost year, but now I dont.

Calcutta was the best experience ever in a new city - maybe because I did not have to care for a new place to stay, a new pub to drink, new friends, and all that I knew was to speak in Malayalam. After the first day in my 2nd year of KG-1, I came home and said, "Amma, everyone knows Malayalam". And boy, I was so happy...

Knowing not how to respond, the Bengali kids used to listen to what I kept saying and I was unstoppable. Confidence growled in me and made me a mad talkative, and I made friends without any apprehensions, and Malayalam was my strongest point. I might have looked like an idiot to many, but most of my fellow kindergarteners were in awe, and I became a superhit... The 1st Idiot (Not the 4th one).

Soon the new kid in the block was rockin' and rollin' and I felt like a superstar and I started speaking in broken english and hindi as well. This gave me more confidence when people started responding to me, and I would say, boy, that was an amazing time. Needless to say, my teachers also started liking me due to my confidence level and the ease in which I was mixing with the kids. I still remember my teacher telling my amma, "He will speak to the walls if locked in a room alone". Aah, I was brimming with confidence with the new found capability to communicate, to be a rockstar.

From having a cold start in school, this transfer to Calcutta really changed me and it was due to my inability to speak English/Hindi. If that had never happened, I would have lost the rat race, and wouldn't have enjoyed a good learning path with a high confidence level.

So my friends, if you ever decide to have a kid, make sure that he/she is not scared in the early school life, and _DO NOT_ scare him/her at all with all those spooky stories because it directly reflects on his confidence level later. I may not be the most successful person, but this oozing confidence has really helped me in many a situation in my life. Let me conclude.