‘Vocal Nap in the Gap’

A key for the teachers: ‘Vocal nap in the Gap!’ After college hours, at home, I came to a point when I started avoiding talking to family members and with friends on phone. I wasn’t being able to hunt my exact problem. Finally! one fine day I thought over and felt ‘am I really loosing my voice!?’ and this was an alarming moment for me as the most significant estate for teachers is the voice box, the larynx. Throat problems are an occupational hazard of being a teacher which arises due to extensive use of the throat. This may lead to throat illness, gradual voice loss, hoarseness, weak-sounding voice, a sensation of pain, a constant need of throat clearing, discomfort, vocal cord lesions, non-cancerous and cancerous growth. We are well-verse with the care taking precautions like beginning the day with warm water gargles, reducing voice modulation and voice raise, pausing exactly when one feels to amplify the voice, practising ujjayi-pranayam, drinking warm water for soothing effect and the ginger-lemon grass green tea, lessening the consumption of fatty dairy products, use of microphone, use of text messages over talks, use of the gesture of clap to attract the attention or a bell in the class etc. While I scroll down the abundant literature related to throat care, amongst all, I realize two feasible and much easier tasks which can be implemented with consistent habit-making viz., the first is sipping water after every 15-20 min talk and keeping the larynx platform moist, and second, between every two lectures maintaining silence, so called ‘vocal naps’ or the ‘silence diet’. So, I would put it this way ‘sip is the tip and vocal nap in the gap’. Many a times I have an observation to my record that when the entire class is making noise, it’s not that my yell stops them but my silence and the complimentary glare sets a wave of discipline in the class. ‘Kena-Upanishad’ of Indian culture states the truth ‘यद्वाचाऽनभ्युदितं येन वागभ्युद्यते’ and supports the hypothesis, ‘that which not utters the speech but that by which the speech is revealed’ is so called practicing an effective silence, ‘mauna’. Traditionally, so many ‘kirtankars’ in Maharashtra practice silence prior to their kirtan delivery period of ‘Chaturmaas’ and also during off-hours in between the ‘kirtans’. It has a dual advantage; it gives them the ‘me-time’ for balanced thoughtfulness and also maintains the native form of their voice box due to relaxation, conserving the energy there. They know that the resources given by nature have a limited life and if they are to be used judiciously for the mankind, their performance should be preserved by wiser practices. ​Prof. Dr. Swati Padmakar Bhavsar, ​H.P.T. Arts and R.Y.K. Science College