It was 2004. I resided at the street number 7 in Govindpuri by sharing a room with two friends of mine. I worked in a company, situated in Okhla Industrial Area Phase 2.

One day, a friend of my roommate came on Sunday. Wearing an expensive shirt, a pair of excellent Ray-Ban glasses, branded shoes, he looked amazing. While having a chat, I got to know, he worked in an international call center. He had come by a car and he said, his salary was ₹ 40000/ -. He brought it to my knowledge that even a fresher in a call center gets ₹8000/- monthly. In those days, my salary was only ₹ 2800/- which wasn’t good enough even at that time. I asked him as to how I could get a job there. He said, one must be able to speak fluent English, that’s it; qualification is no bar.

I got allured with the high pay and the facilities this job offered. I had often heard people saying that learning English for the children belonging to Hindi medium schools is no short of a miracle, only one in a thousand can do so; but for me, getting this job had become a dire need. I had made out that if I wanted to continue my studies further, I had no other option but to grab it. Only when a person has no choice, he tends to give his 100%.

I started reading English speaking books diligently from 5 am to 9 am every day. The whole day of Sunday was spent only in learning.

When I realized that it wasn’t really enough, I thought of leaving the job. This wasn’t easy either as how could I pay the rent without a job otherwise; so for the next 3 months, I continued working and saved as much money as I could.

After 3 months, finally, I quit the job. Now, I got into English learning, days, and nights unnoticed. I used to talk to myself for hours in front of the mirror. I had three books. Grammar rules were in my fingertips. But despite doing all this, speaking was not really happening.

Someone suggested to me that if I didn’t try to speak with others, I would never be able to; even if I learned the entire grammar, or I memorized every single word in the dictionary.

Then I took an important decision. I told myself, “Whatever happens now, I would not speak even a single word of Hindi for the next one month; be it with my family members, my friends, any shopkeeper or vegetable seller, or anyone for that matter. I don’t even care if they understand it or not. I will try to make them understand somehow in English only. If a word or a sentence doesn’t strike right then, I will look up the Dictionary, or ask someone else; but, at any cost, I’m not gonna speak in Hindi.

During this one-month pledge, I would often go to STDs and call the Call Center Consultancies for, I guess, 50 paise a minute and try to speak with fluent speakers there.

Whenever a shopkeeper forced me to speak in Hindi, I used to pretend as if I didn’t know how to speak it and would say, “I’m sorry! I am from south, I can’t speak Hindi. But, I can understand it.”

Meanwhile, when I went to a call center interview for the first time, I remember, all of us were seated in a hall where there were about 100 candidates. Everyone had to stand up and introduce themselves. When I started mine, my words were fumbling, my feet were shivering, I could hear the laughs of people sitting around.

I used to take a lot of time in speaking sentences, but I never backed out from my decision of not giving up. Initially, everyone laughed at me, but then they understood how obsessed I was to it. I did not stop even after a month, I extended my pledge till I got what I wanted.

In my last interview during this struggle, the interviewer asked me, as to how long would I be keep coming to fail? I said, “Sir until I crack one.” He exclaimed, “You are crazy for it, I guess!” I pleaded, “I’ve no other option, sir. Give me a chance please; I want to prove my superiority.”
My obsession gave me the opportunity I needed and I never stopped then.

After 5 years, I was addressing more than 1000 Employees, but now my feet were not shivering, nor were people laughing.

It is a bitter reality that the person, who is worried about how others would react to what he does; Speaking English remains only a dream for him for his lifetime. Even after these many years, many of my friends often ask, “how to learn to Speak English”. The answer remains the same – Only by taking a pledge to speak in English, and that too until you speak fluently without a fear.