AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 115 of 237 other. According to H.P. Lovecraft "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear." The fears that we have are of varying kinds – Fear of Height, Fear of the unknown, Fear of failure, Fear of surgery, etc – the list is endless. The most common fear that I have come across is Stage fear (or should I say Fear of Public Speaking) and this one thing which everyone faces. We hold people in awe – be it a politician, a Swamiji in a religious discourse, business leaders, commentators etc – and conclude that these people are born speakers. There is nothing like a born speaker; everyone has butterflies in their stomach when they have to face an audience. It is the ability of an individual to triumph over his inhibitions in the least possible time, combined with training that makes him overcome stage fear. The first person from whom I have taken the inspiration to overcome stage fear is Mr. Woods, (he was the Resident Secretary of Railway Officers Club, Perambur, Chennai) a true Anglo Indian who had a command over his English and a great sense of humour. My father was a member of Railway Club and we were regulars to the Wednesday evening of Tambola games every week. Mr. Woods would hold the center stage on these evenings with his wit and humors and we just loved it. Once I asked Mr. Woods as to how he became a confident public speaker and his reply was that the answer lies in the question – Confidence. I have come across many people who lack total confidence to get on stage and many a guy’s wish that they had a magic wand with them that would make them disappear at least temporarily, instead of facing an audience. While confidence is one thing, training and practice do help one in getting over stage fear. I am told that one of the best Indian cricket commentators that we have today, was once a nervous wreck when he got his first opportunity to comment in a match. The story goes that he picked up video tapes of past matches and replayed them at home. At first he would listen to the original commentary and later he would hit the mute button and rant out his comments. Well they say that practice makes one perfect and if a cricketer can use his net practice to polish his game there is no harm in one practicing and polishing his public speaking abilities. Acrophobia is the fear of heights. It is most common for people to experience this natural fear when they are exposed to heights, especially when there is hardly any protection around them. Imran Ali is perched high up in the scaffolding of a multi- storey building under construction in Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai. His life line is just a safety harness which is attached to the scaffolding. Imran Ali is from Dhulijan Gaon, in Tinsukia Dist of Assam and has been working as a semi-skilled worker in constructions sites in Chennai for the last five years. In the same construction site Nallathambi Perumal operates a tower crane at a height of 150 meters. He is an experienced operator and is a native of Nagapattinam. He had