English Speaking Journey - Pune Stories

I completed my high school in Marathi medium from my hometown Wai. Then went to complete my graduation in Commerce from Kisan Veer College at Wai only. Even though I had opted for English medium in graduation nobody in college ever talked in English. Mode of communication was strictly Marathi. English was limited to only reading and writing. If anyone would try to talk in English then everyone would mock them as if it was a sin. So much guilt and mockery were associated with speaking in English. All my friends would love to watch Hollywood movies, English TV shows and dress like westerners. But when it came to talking in English, everyone would shy away with some kind of inferiority complex. And it didn't matter also as we were living in a small town where English speaking wasn't a necessity. So that language remained underdeveloped in me.

Soon after graduation, I went to Pune to pursue my post-graduation. We had our own flat in Pune so I was staying there along with three engineering college roommates. I got admission in S.P. College for my studies. Pune was a completely different environment than Wai. Especially the college where a majority of the students would speak in English. It was a challenging situation even though I was good at reading, writing & understanding English. I was filled with an inferiority complex as I felt like an outsider. We are social animals and we seek co-operation from each other to be part of the social circle. The very basic way of seeking co-operation was through language. And I was failing at the basic level. The dream of a small-town guy to be friends with cool guys and beautiful girls from the big city were getting crushed. I wondered why it was such a big deal to speak in English. It was just a language only, a simple mode of communication. I was feeling handicapped and didn't like that feeling. So I decided to deal with that face to face rather than avoiding that like I was doing back in the college of my hometown.

I joined one English speaking class where they would teach students basic grammar, sentence formation and public speaking. It was very helpful for me to get started. I learned one very important technique from that class and that was: Speak in English with Everyone. Yes, with everyone you meet. It was a little awkward but I was determined to my goal. I would literally speak in English with everyone I meet. From rickshaw driver to bus conductor, to vegetable vendors, to shop keepers, to society watchman and even to beggars. None of them had any clue what I was talking. They would just look at me blankly and then turn their head without responding me. Most embarrassing moments of my life were from the time I was learning how to speak English. I was completely on shameless mode with a single-pointed focus in my mind. My friends initially would speak with me in English but later they switched to Marathi. But I didn't.

A year passed with this practice and one morning I saw an advertisement in the newspaper about recruitment in some International & Domestic Call Centers. It was the most famous one in Pune. Back then in 2004 call centres were a big thing where most college students would work for extra money. There were two types of call centres: Domestic & International. In the domestic one, it was fine if you could talk average English. But international ones were very strict in selecting people with absolute fluency in English as they would be talking with western clients. Without a doubt, in my mind, I applied for an international one. I cleared the first round where they selected 30 candidates to train for the United States process. The training was for one month where they taught us American culture, accent, their values, geography, festivals and much more. The idea was to train us in understanding Americans better before we were selected to talk with them. I was still one step away from entering the international call centre. One day we were told only 20 out of 30 candidates would be getting selected. I had made many friends there. We all would study and practice our tasks dedicatedly. It was a big deal for me to get selected. I knew where I was coming from. More than a job it was a test of my work which I had put in learning how to speak in English.

The day came when there were final interviews. We all came early morning and gave interviews one by one. Results were in the evening. We had our lunch at a nearby restaurant and came back. Shortly, our teacher came to announce the results. While I was listening to the names of the candidates who were getting selected, my mind was running the movie back from my hometown college days. All the guilt & mockery associated with English speaking. Then entering Pune to witness my complete inability to connect with students in the new college. My determination to learn this skill and all the embarrassing moments I had faced to overcome that challenge. And here I was sitting waiting for my result to enter into an international call centre which was the highest test to check one's English speaking ability. The teacher announced my name, looked at me, smiled and said 'Selected'. That selection was a certificate to my work which I had put in to learn English speaking. I wasn't much interested in the job and left it in 3 weeks as night shifts had ruined my whole lifestyle. It wasn't healthy. Getting selected in such a big company was necessary for that small-town boy who was carrying a complex in his mind about a language. I entered that company with Confidence and left with Contentment.

That was when I had truly arrived in Pune.