From Silent Struggles to Mentorship: My Path to Writing with Purpose and How I became a Writing Mentor.

Writing in English was always a challenge for me. Forget writing; reading English storybooks was a challenge. I was a slow learner; I just couldn’t bring myself to read them. But I had a vivid imagination, was artistic, and was a budding athlete.

I would listen to Bengali and English stories read by my parents and my aunts. Whenever I picked up a storybook to read, I had to sit with a dictionary – and if you chance upon some of my novels from my childhood, you’ll notice pencil underlining and word meanings. I took longer than other children to finish one storybook, but I kept at it.

Since I was not very proficient in English, I was always an underconfident child. I couldn’t communicate well in class, seldom participated in school plays, or raised my arm to answer the teacher’s questions during class. I was always nervous that I was not good enough.

The Turning Point: A Teacher’s Words

During one of my Parent-Teacher Meetings (PTMs), my 6th grade English teacher, whom I feared like the devil, would often punish me by asking me to kneel on the floor or sitting outside the class as I couldn’t speak a word of English.

So, during my PTM, when my mother attended it with me, my English teacher gave my mother an earful about what a dull child I was. My mother, a Hindi-Bengali medium student (who was born and raised in Bihar), managed to communicate to the best of her ability. Usually, my father (a retired army officer) would attend the PTM. Being a PhD and a Civil Engineer and having studied in elite schools and universities of Bengal, his English was immaculate.

One fine day, something happened that changed my life forever. I submitted an English essay with great fright, trembling in fear, to my English teacher. Yes, my father had helped me write my essay. When my English teacher read it, she said, “You couldn’t have written this. Your father has done this for you. Anyway, your mother is illiterate. She can’t even speak a word of English.”

That crushed me and broke my spirit. I stood there in front of my classmates while my English teacher yelled at me and insulted my mother for not knowing English. As I meekly went back to my desk, all my classmates turned at me and said “Your mother is illiterate?” as if not knowing English was a taboo.

A Journey to Confidence

I was a 12-year-old 6th grader who was crushed and humiliated. That day, I swore to change things and prove my English teacher wrong. I went back home that day and started visiting my aunt, who was an English teacher at a reputed school in Calcutta and had recently moved to Mumbai.

Since I loved sports, especially swimming, my treat was one hour of English grammar lessons followed by swimming in her residential complex. With the support of my parents and aunt, I started to turn things around.

Knowing English—writing and reading—gave me a confidence boost that made me feel that I could achieve anything. I desperately wanted to meet my English teacher, speak to her in English, and tell her, “You were wrong to have treated me like this.” I wanted to converse with her in a full English sentence and shock her out of her socks or sandals, if you may. But, alas, that never happened.

Breaking Barriers, One Word at a Time

I became so confident in my English speaking and writing skills that I studied to be a journalist. After a brief stint as a reporter, I moved into e-learning, publishing children’s books, and then into the corporate sector, working as a Language Expert for AI chatbots and launching my own website called The Lifestyle Portal.

When I started writing and featuring over 200 entrepreneurs across India and the globe, I realised that there are brilliant people out there with fantastic ideas who aren’t able to find a voice or a platform just because they lack confidence in their ability to write in English.

I wanted to bridge that gap, and that’s how I launched my Writing Mentorship courses and started mentoring doctors, engineers, principals, professors, homemakers, lawyers, students…you name it. I wanted to break the mental barrier that not knowing English is a disadvantage. English is just a business language that helps us get around with academics and at work.

I’ve worked with brilliant team members whose first language isn’t English, but they’re the reason for our success at work. While we spoke in Hindi and broken English, it did not impact their performance.

The Write Compass: A Platform for Growth

Today, after more than four decades as a Writing Mentor, I have mentored the children of classmates from my school, some of whom are studying in international universities. Life has certainly come full circle.

As a Writing Mentor and Coach, my aim is to guide students, professionals, those on sabbatical, and retired professionals with the ease of effective communication skills. We don’t have to use flowery, complicated words to make us look ‘intelligent’. The challenge lies in writing and communicating effectively even with the simplest of words.

My writing mentorship programs are simple, effective, and based on real-life challenges—it could be giving feedback to a team member or to a friend, dealing with a toxic boss, or communicating with him effectively. For millennials who feel stuck in their academics or careers, I mentor them with guidance, direction, and a whole new perspective, all with the help of writing.

Many hate writing but fail to realise that there’s no escape from it—be it a school or college assignment, an official email, drafting a legal paper, competitive exams, essays for international universities, drafting a sales deed, or something as simple as writing a Whatsapp message.

How my Mentorship Programs are practical

My mentorship comes from a space where I dwelled in self-doubt, insecurity, and lack of confidence. Luckily, I got the support and guidance, and it just turned things around. I now want to do the same for others by offering them the same guidance and support so that great minds and talented people don’t miss out on their chance to grow just because of a language. Language is supposed to connect, not disconnect.

If you’re inspired and keen to embark on an empowering journey to self-discovery and self-confidence, join me at The Write Compass, where we turn hesitation into confidence, one word at a time.