With firm resolution, he confronted his fear and delivered an excellent speech before the audience
After the Graduation examination, father of the teen-ager forced him to join a course in Science Journalism. The boy was initially not at all willing to take admission, but his father told him that this course would help him to hone his writing skill and develop his 'journalistic acumen'. Without even understanding the phrase ('journalistic acumen'), he joined the course.In the class, he met many young journalists and reporters who had already been working in print media and also in radio. At that time, very few people worked in the television. The young boy also noticed some very bright students of University of Calcutta and Jadavpur University in his journalism class. He found that he was the youngest in the group and was overawed by the presence of those bright students and young journalists. The teachers were well-known media personalities of that era besides the professors of the Journalism Department of University of Calcutta.
The unwilling young boy slowly took interest in the subject. He learnt how to give short, crisp and eye-catching titles of articles, how to write reports, how to enlarge or shorten articles, how to prepare questionnaire for the interview, develop skits and radio talk show, make interesting posters, etc. After a very productive course, there was a term-ending examination. And, very astonishingly, surpassing all those brilliant students and young journalists, this young boy topped the term-ending examination.
The teen-ager reached the seventh heaven. Some of his classmates were happy and some were understandably jealous. But his happiness was short-lived.
The course director called him and directed that as the topper of the course, he would have to address the audience during the prize-distribution ceremony.
The boy was terribly afraid. He was terrified to speak on public platform! He was almost sure he would not be able to deliver the speech. He even started planning to flee from Calcutta to avoid giving the speech.
But ultimately he got help. His father, his mentor (a remarkable man from Ramkrishna Mission) and his maternal uncle guided him. He prepared a fairly good speech and rehearsed to properly deliver this speech everyday at least five times before his father, his uncle and his mentor from Ramkrishna Mission.
Finally, the special day arrived. With firm resolution, the teen-ager confronted his fear and delivered an excellent speech before the audience and received a loud applause.
(Competition entry: Topic-based contest)
