Blog Tour: Shouting from the Summits Guest Post

Hi Everyone! 

I am excited to have a Guest Post today here from Kala Ramachandran! Her book Shouting From the Summits will be released on September 13th. 

Please help me in giving her a warm welcome to the blog!

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 There are lots of short stories in my book about my stammering experience and how my dad, teacher reacted towards me. My stammer made me a person full of anxiety and nervous in my daily life. But, the climbs I have led gave me inner confidence to find my voice. I did talk about my dad’s mental illness in the book.

The book will inspire readers to achieve their own dreams even if despite their disability or any sort of illness.

There are great advices and motivational and inspiring chapters in the book and every one should read this.

Extract

One day in 1983, a tall young teacher, Stephen, joined my school. He lived in the same town and Dad gave him a lift in our car. He walked into my classroom and he introduced himself as our new Tamil teacher. He knew I was the brightest child and a teacher’s daughter, with some intelligence, so he asked me to stand up and read a passage in Tamil. I stood up proudly. I started to read the passage and all of a sudden a word from the passage would not come out of my mouth. I paused. I perspired. I tried to move my mouth. I said the word. After that it was a fluent reading. I puzzled the whole day thinking, “What has happened to me?!” At that time, I did not even know the words ‘stammer’ or ‘stutter’ or ‘blocked speech’. We were not encouraged to talk to parents. I thought it might be just a one-off.

The same week, Dad, who was my geography teacher, asked me to read a whole passage from my geography textbook. I stood up and I started to read. Again, a word would not come out. I paused. Then, I read again. Dad raised his voice. I could hear my heart beat so loud in my ears. This time, many words did not come out of my mouth. My heart was racing very fast. I wept. I trembled. My tears rolled down my cheek. Dad shouted, “Sit down.”

One day, Dad mentioned that the first woman to climb Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain in the world (8848 metres), was a Japanese lady – Junko Tabei; and that was what went into my mind. In my mind, I said “I will be the next one.” That’s where my search for my life purpose began.

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Book Blurb

'Living proof that a stammer need not hold you back'. Leys Geddes

Kala Ramachandran struggled with a stammer and it became so debilitating, she thought it would be with her her whole life. But then she embraced mountaineering. And finally found her voice. This is her story.

'It is a given we will have obstacles in life, some of us from the very beginning. Kala's story is one of perseverance; of overcoming; of hope. The world she grew up in didn't include Asian women who climbed mountains. Now it does thanks to Kala never letting go of her dream.' Warren Macdonald         

    

Purchase from Amazon UK - 

Purchase from Barnes & Noble - 

About the author: Mountaineering enthusiast Kala Ramachandran spends her professional life working for the finance department for Brent Council. She has been a member of the British Mountaineering Council and the British Stammering Association for XX years the latter to whom she will be donating 20% of the royalties from all her book sales. Today she lives in Stanmore, London with her two sons. 

Thanks Kala for coming by the blog today! Happy Reading!