Indians, since the advent of the British Raj, have struggled to grasp and master the English Language. Not being the mother tongue, English is still a foreign language to our country though it is a quintessential medium of education and official transactions.
Students from Hindi or any other local language medium school always have his or her own story of struggle with English. With their basic education in a different medium, not everyone succeeds to shape their thought process in English. Moreover, it will be also very wrong to assume that all English medium students are good at English. Mastering a language requires a separate intelligence which not all of us are born with. But it is for sure that each one of us is born with qualities in different subjects and not necessarily in language.
Anurag Mishra, a humble chap from Tikamgarh, a small town of Madhya Pradesh has a completely relatable story to tell.
Mishra has authored three books – Struggle of A Star and A Beautiful Love Story, Safalta Tay Hai, Hardaul Ek Mahan Shasak. The author also writes poems and has performed on the open mic for poem and kahaniyan, kavi sammelan, G talks, poetry and you, Ek khwaab, Blossom of poetry, the realistic dice, and more. He is also a public speaker and has spoken on various leading platforms such as Josh Talks. A man of many talents, Anurag has tried his hand in cooking as well and has a popular youtube channel named Rishi Ki Rasoi to his credit.
But you would be surprised to know that this bright young man struggled to speak and write English since his childhood!
Things went even worse when he was in 12th grade. Mishra scored a percentile score as high as 90 but could manage only passing marks in English. He as a teenager assumed that this will not affect his higher studies as he intended to pursue engineering or medical. But fate led him in a separate direction. Soon, Anurag enrolled himself in CAT coaching at Bhopal. That is exactly where he realized how vital English is and he felt low for all his mates were very fluent and he was not.
Thereafter Mishra moved on to New Delhi where he pursued History Honors for graduation. To his dismay, he had to face a similar issue at Delhi University. All the lectures were held in English and he would not understand a word. Likewise, all the students there were quite good at English. He succumbed to the situation and went into depression.
“At a point, I had suicidal thoughts. I simply wanted to lock down myself in my room and not face the world,” the writer shared.
But Anurag was brave. He did not give up. Deep down he could understand that he has to fight all odds and fears. Despite the general taboo around consulting a psychiatrist in India, Anurag, a small-town boy dared to open up and consult one of the best psychiatrists in this country.
With the right therapy and medications, Anurag was back on track. Now he had to face his demon – the English language. He worked day and night and enriched his vocabulary. He would read newspapers aloud, and read as many books as he possibly could leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to master the subject he feared and he was victorious!
Right at that point, Anurag felt that he needed to do something substantial to feed his confidence. That is when his brother Ashutosh came in. It was him who asked Anurag to write books. Mishra loved writing and soon he authored three books back to back. His books sold quite well and he finally stood strong on his otherwise trembling ground.
During his graduation, Anurag had to live on his own and that is when he started cooking. He would post his videos on Facebook which was highly appreciated. This inspired him to start his youtube channel – Rishi Ki Rasoi which has more than 300 recipe videos.
“You know up until 12th grade I didn’t even know how to make a cup of tea and right now I have an entire Youtube channel on cooking. It’s all because of the amazing responses I have been receiving over the time,” said Anurag.
Such an inspiring guy. It is a sad truth that so many bright minds succumb every day only because of their inability to speak and write English. Should intelligence be measured with language skills? This is a big question that the world needs to answer.
Anurag has a very special message for those who are suffering from depression…