I was terrified of the stage as a young kid.

I recall my first stage appearance back in Class 6th or 7th, when I was to recite a poem as part of a recital competition.

I went up on stage, nervous, blurted my lines and felt relieved at the end of it. It didn’t strike me that there was no response from the audience, after I had delivered my recital.

I couldn’t care less, frankly. When I got back to my seat, my fellow student asked, “what was that?”
“What was what?”, I asked.
“No words came out of your mouth. It was moving, but there was no sound at all.”

Cut to this day, most audiences when they hear me often very kindly say

“one of the best speakers we have heard from”.