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Annotation

Portrait of Ramdeep Romann stammering. Oil on board 12 x 12 inches. Painting by Paul Aston.

Here are Ramdeep’s thoughts on his life with a stutter and this portrait collaboration.

“I have spent most of my life hiding my stammer, deeply ashamed of how I would be perceived by my peers if I were to block on some dreaded sound. This irrational and toxic fear was borne from a life seeing stammerers being portrayed in the most insensitive way possible on virtually every form of media I have ever watched. I cannot count the opportunities I turned down or denied myself; too many times I hid in silence instead of speaking my mind for fear of humiliating myself with this disability. For too long I thought a competent doctor should not stammer.

But finally meeting other stammerers and realising there is a whole community campaigning for our stuttered voice to be heard made me realise that I have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to apologise for. My stammer is a part of who I am, WHAT I say is more important than HOW I say it, and I will never allow it to silence me again.

This beautiful painting by my friend Paul shows me finally turning away from the darkness and facing the light, with a stammered word etched on my face but my gaze still turned forward and upwards, unashamed and uncowed. The hospital scrubs represent my new found pride in embracing myself as a doctor who stammers.”

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Resistance
Resistance
Aesthetic
Aesthetic