Author: Admin

Could Celebrities Be Cutting-Edge Marketers – Leading Online Business Entrepreneurs?

“Where is The Future of Online Business –

Could Celebrities be showing mainstream business the way?”

Have Your Competitors ‘Caught On” and already Talking to Your Customers in this latest marketing evolution for Web Success? (And are they doing it Auto-matically and VERY Cheaply!) SO MANY Crucial Questions to answer… please read on.

The following Report is the Cover Story for “Australian Business Solutions” magazine“

YOU WILL DISCOVER HOW CELEBRITY MARKETING STYLES ONLINE LEAD ‘AUDIENCES’ TO WANT TO BUY RATHER THAN THE CONVENTIONAL BUSINESS APPROACH OF SELLING AND CLOSING. YOU WILL DISCOVER VALUABE, IN FACT ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS AND IDEAS THAT EVERY MARKETER, ENTREPRENEUR AND BUSINESS OWNER MUST NOW EMBRACE!”

(WARNING: THIS REPORT MAY FRIGHTEN YOU… IT WILL DEFINITELY ENLIGHTEN YOU!)

There is a buzz around on the television news, radio, in the print media, at business networking groups and meetings and especially on the internet right now. There seems to be a shift of focus for how people look for products and services and then decide how they spend their money.

In terms of influence and power, the new way people search for products and services and make their buying decisions online could even rival the search engines. And it’s been said that this buzz could be the single biggest thing to happen in business since the industrial revolution!

Sounds over the top, but is there enough evidence (for you) to be a part of it too? And is this buzz a fad or could it be here to stay?

If you’ve watched TV news or listened to radio or brought a newspaper in the past 2-3 years, you will have noticed references to websites in both stories and advertising, where you can find out more – including how to get more information about a product or service and/or how to buy instructions. In more recent times nearly every news presenter, TV show host, journalist and celebrity are also promoting how you can ‘follow’ their lives, interests and activities online too – and it all seems to be centred around websites such as Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, Digg.com and more, collectively known as Social Engines.

Celebrities are using these sites to raise their profile, build their brand and most importantly, solidify their popularity and [hopefully] longevity in their profession and industry. AND, these sites enable their audience (loyal army of fans) to talk directly back to them. And this is at the heart of the buzz and current shift – and why it’s so very important you read on and learn more.

On the Social Engine Twitter.com, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more followers (fans) than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama. Their brand awareness and popularity building is personal, although as that increases, so too does their value to corporations looking for product endorsements to drive their market penetration and increase their market share.

Sporting stars like celebrities have broadened their talent base too, becoming more entrepreneurial and business savvy, seeing their name, brand and product value increase, in many cases, to a higher income level than the actual core sporting talent. In other words, acting, playing a sport, being a comedienne or whatever is their core talent is no longer their only talent. They have embraced the concept of brand building (and protection), marketplace communications and conversations – opting for direct contact via sources like online Social Engines. Here they can touch far more people quicker and easier than say a traditional autograph signing exercise.

A true business woman, leader and entrepreneur, celebrity Oprah Winfrey instantly connects and updates a loyal army of over 2 million+ people that follow her on Twitter. Her power and influence is no surprise or revolution in itself, but her army of followers are able to directly provide instant feedback and ideas to her too -and marketplace feedback is a life blood to your business growth and long term sustainability. (Try ignoring it and see where your business goes.) Everyone wants to be heard and Social Engines give you, your business and your customers a voice.

A loyal army of followers can also provide a viral effect to disseminate information quickly too, meaning they can ‘spread the word for you’ if you ask them to – this can be particularly useful if you want to spread good news and conversely if your brand comes under attack via other mainstream media mechanisms or on the Social Engines themself.

Although it might be hard to fathom, could celebrity entrepreneurs like these be showing more traditional businesses how to connect, behave, build our brand, increase our marketplace value and build our business too using these Social Engines?

Is this a valid idea and model for mainstream business or not?

Firstly, the power of Social Engines extends far beyond Twitter.com alone. Some of the other leading Social Engine sites sprout some pretty impressive visitor and member statistics, as well as services.

Facebook.com – If it was a country rather than a website, it would be the world’s 3rd largest after China and India.

On Facebook there are more than 250 million active users and more than 120 million of them log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide). The fastest growing demographic is 35 years old and older and within that, the fastest growing segment is 55-65 year-old females. Do people 35+ and women influence the buying decision for your products and services? This is worthy of your attention.

And there’s more… more than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week on Facebook alone and more than 2.5 million events are created and advertised each month. More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site and more than 50 language translations of that content are available on the site. The people supplying all this content include business owners and professionals, some of whom are surely in your industry and probably your competitors. And if you think because you’re a localised business that this doesn’t count, you’ll find this statistic most enlightening- 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.

All of those statistics are just for Facebook alone (source Facebook.com/press/statistics).

You can also purchase Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression advertising on Facebook (and other Social Engines). They take your spend to a whole new level of value and ROI with their member data allowing you to display your adverts for keywords AND additional, specific demographics of the member base. For example you can display your advertising message to women, 55+ in Melbourne who are single. You can even target people specifically on their birthday with a relevant offer.

YouTube.com – take a look at YouTube (which is owned by Google for good reason) – People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube -including promotional videos, education, product consumption/direction videos and client testimonials for business. Plus every video you add to YouTube includes a spot on the webpage where you can put a link back to your website. PLUS you can add these videos to your blog posts, making them more interesting to your blog readers on other Social Engines too (more about blogs in a moment).

YouTube’s user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent of users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.

And could this be the good reason Google brought YouTube? It’s the 2nd largest search engine in the world today, 2nd only to Google.com. If you want to connect with your marketplace on volume, this is worthy of your attention.

Twitter.com – let’s take a statistical look at that quickly too. Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users in June with 83.1% of users over the age of 25. In July 2009, the Twitter website recorded 23,284,395 unique visitors – who else wants to be ‘front-of-mind’ to an audience of that size? Does your target market include people 25+? This is worthy of your attention.

Twitter has been described as the “Pulse of the Planet” given its instant, viral spread-the-word-to-the-world-instantly nature. It has boosted box office numbers and it’s killed them too, just ask the makers of the movie “Bruno” – overnight ticket sales dropped by more than half thanks to the frank and instant feedback from those that had just seen it. It was so quick too because 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime – imagine what that means for bad customer experiences and you!

Do you let your customers walk away with a bad experience, only to stand out the front of your store or hang up the phone and blast their frustration and disappointment to hundreds, thousands maybe millions of people -in the ‘heat of the moment’?

The true power of Social Engines is not to be feared, it is to be embraced and when done well, you can influence large numbers of people in the ways you want them to know and represent you. This is worthy of your attention.

Understanding the nature of Social Engine participation is important and the question to answer is – What are people doing on these Social Engines? They are looking for ideas, insights, invites, offers, information, inspiration and conversation.

Savvy business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are providing it all to them and at the same time, in a more passive or softer way than conventional advertising, promoting their business, building their reputation and ultimately getting more leads and customers to their web sites. These business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are using resources within services like Facebook that include a Personal Profile Page, Business and Product Pages, Fan Clubs, Groups, Time-sensitive Events/Promotions, Classified Advertising (PPC) and more… and the really smart ones are sharing content direct from their website blog feed too (more about that in a moment).

Then there are sites like LinkedIn, a professional social network and directory of business owners and professionals who can communicate quickly and easily with one another. In a 2009 survey, 80% of businesses and companies who are members were using LinkedIn as a primary recruitment tool to find new employees. This is worthy of your attention.

On these Social Engines, people can say what they want about you and it’s uncensored. What do you do about it? Ignore it and hope the customers and prospects that really matter to you don’t see it? Should you take a proactive approach and start by monitoring what’s been said about you and then start providing your brand of information, insights, ideas and inspiration to your marketplace and control the information flow you want through them?

We are living in an era now where what happens in Vegas goes ON and STAYS ON YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and more.

“Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, WORD of mouth has become WORLD of mouth.”

Love them or hate them, social engines are here to stay simply because ‘the people’ love them and trust others on them. Facebook and MySpace are among the most popular destinations on the web. And even though they can be extremely annoying, there is one inescapable fact: the most irritating thing about Facebook is the 200m-strong army of people who use it.

And here’s the final enlightening point- Social Engine participation has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web.

SO Do you get involved or not? And if so, how do you do it easily and cheaply but still ‘play the game’ like a Celebrity with a 2m+ loyal army of followers?

The reality is that even if you’re not involved, your customers and prospects AND competitors probably are – and they’re talking to one another, perhaps about you and without you so the sooner you start, the better chance you have to becoming both a part of the conversation and then lead it.

The answer for businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals is automation – this is the single biggest break-through strategy and tactic that very few people have worked out, including many larger corporations who are successfully using Social Engines but they are not leveraged with automation, also known as things happening ‘auto-magically‘.

In many cases, businesses are employing specialist online staff on top of web masters and advertising/SEO experts. With automation, you can do a whole lot for very little extra time and virtually no money.

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?

At its essence or core are six words that will transform the way you generate leads and make repeat sales online – those words are YOUR WEBLOG FEED PLUS SOCIAL ENGINES.

A Weblog or blog as it’s more commonly known is a type of website or part of an existing website that allows you to add content as blog posts or articles and display them on your website – content like information, ideas, insights, offers, news, invites, images and more and you can create blog posts quickly and easily without ever needing to get a webmaster to do it for you.

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs online today and that number grows every day. Again, not all blogs and blog owners are equal, many are neglecting to include automation and leverage and integration with Social Engines so there are many nay-sayers about blogging, but that attitude is changing as more people are enlightened.

A Feed or RSS Feed as it’s more commonly known will distribute your blog posts well beyond just displaying them on your website. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates of your blog posts, delivered ‘auto-magically‘ via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for your content (information) to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other technologies as shortened or full length messages, which Social Engines happen to LOVE. Your Feed makes it possible to display blog posts just about anywhere on the web or web connected device and most importantly directly to the millions of people online every day.

That means a Blog with an RSS Feed can ‘auto-magically‘ distribute information you create about you, your business, your products and your services quickly and easily across thousands of sites on the web. And you only have to create your pieces of content once!

A blog is a powerful code (invisible to the human, non-techie eye) and every time you add content to an existing or new blog post, like you would add content to a word document, it is distributed around the web in seconds and is fed directly into the biggest marketplaces and communities of people online every day.

What makes a blog with a feed even more powerful is that it reaches the biggest sources of people (leads) online – who by the way are not just using Search Engines anymore to find out about products and services, they are also using the “Social Engines”. PLUS your Blog Feed can also ‘auto-magically‘ update Google and Yahoo about your site too, so you still stay connected with the Search Engines for no more extra work, or money.

Now if you’re anything like me, when I first heard about these Social Engines, I dismissed them as not being a viable business and marketing channel because they appeared to be for personal networking and friendship (and they are indeed used for those reasons). Whilst many businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals are using these engines and winning new business – only a handful are doing it easily and quickly, because most of them do not know about the power of connecting your Weblog RSS Feed and how it fits in with using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg and hundreds more Social Engines.

In my own experience, I was wrong to not get involved with Blogs and Social Engines sooner (like many business owners and professional managers still are) as my competitors began to build an edge I did not have with my marketplace, simply because I did not understand and connect these two key points about connecting your blog directly to Social Engines. If you want to find new customers quickly and easily and build better sales from existing customers:

  1. Your website must be a Blog with a Feed and/or include one as part of your website
  2. Your online marketing mix and strategy must include sharing your blog post information with people on Social Engines like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg etc.

And here’s why…

Your competitors have possibly already figured out that social engines are where they can connect with people who include your customers and potential customers because the Social Engines are where your customers and potential customers are going online – and they’re going to these Engines regularly and for long periods of time. And people are making buying decisions based on the conversation they are having and the feedback they are hearing.

Even if you [believe you] have no competition, you’re not connecting with your marketplace as directly and as easily as you can, if you are not using the true power of Social Engines. These online sources or marketplaces attract people 24/7/365, who stay for a while each time. How could you NOT promote you, your business and your products and services there?

Every time you add content to your blog, it is circulated out to many Social Engines, once you set up a FREE account with them… people at these Engines who have an interest in what your business offers then come to your website to find out more.

Here’s an example of how your website Blog, its Feed and these Social Engines work together. (Note this diagram also includes the two largest Search engines -let’s not forget them. Using your Blog and RSS Feed, you can ‘auto-magically’ update them too.)

At the centre of this relationship are your website blog and its RSS Feed. Every time you add content to your blog, the Feed distributes it out to the Social and Search Engines with a link back to your website. People on the Social Engines instantly see a summary of your blog post and a link back to your blog/website. If they are interested in you, they click on the link and follow it back to your website to find out more about you and move forward with you.

“Although we like to feed information to the Search Engines for free listings, the Social Engines outperform them in providing INSTANT, FREE traffic (people) to your website… meaning Social Engines host millions of people live online at any given time who are exposed to your blog post instantly… and not only will they follow your link back to your blog/website if they are interested, they also have the power to make your Feed ‘viral’ – voluntarily passing it on to their friends who in turn pass it on… and so on.

The Social Engines and the people on them help you grow your prospect and customer base quickly, easily and cheaply – you can’t get any cheaper than free!”

The Social Engines are places where people go to and stay at; whereas Search Engines are places people only pass through ‘in search of’ a final site destination. This is the major difference and the significant extra power you’re missing out on if you are not involving your business in the Social Engines. Remember though, the Blog Feed is vital to ensuring your participation is mostly ‘auto-magic’ otherwise participating in them could over run your day, your week and your life!

The Blog Feed allows you to ‘auto-magically‘ update the Social Engines, minimizing the ‘air time’ you personally allocate to this.

So, who’s already taking this seriously and using Social Engines as a powerful, quick, cheap and easy tool and media to generate free leads quickly too?

Firstly, no matter your business, products and services, you’ll find prospects and possibly existing clients already participating in these sites on a regular basis. You are bound to find your competitors there too, it makes good business sense to be present on an Engine where millions of people congregate, converse and seek out people with the products and services they require – someone in your industry is probably joining them and being ‘front-of-mind’ and it should be you.

Everyone that gets it commits to it. These world-wide companies, brands and industry leaders have dedicated resources to connect and cultivate relationships with prospects and clients on the Social Engines with reportable, measurable results:

Motor Vehicle Industry: Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors, Honda

Travel and Tourism Industry: JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Luxor Las Vegas, Marriott International Hotels and Resorts, Carnival Cruise Lines, Hertz Car Hire

Sporting Teams: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego Chargers

Entertainment: 92Y, The Travel Channel, ComCast, Marvel Entertainment, Direct TV, Pop Caps, TV Guide

Finance: Wachovia, H&R Block, Intuit

Retail: Best Buy, The Home Depot, American Apparel, Rubbermaid, Whole Foods, Zappos.com

Food and Beverage: Starbucks, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Popeye’s Chicken, Tastidlite, Kraft Foods (see Vegemite Case Study below)

Other Global brands: Dell Computers, EMC and Kodak – all benefitting by directly connecting with their target marketplace – whether that’s existing customers and/or potential customers.

Case Study:

Kraft Foods have taken an interesting Corporation-Consumer collaborative approach to product promotion and development using Social Engines. Here’s what they say about their social engine strategy:

For many of our strong brands such as Vegemite – we acknowledged that we are simply (proud) brand custodians and that the brand is owned by ‘the people’. We focused our first two years of social engine participation on simply listening and asking questions.

Two of these questions were:

  1. How do you individually like your Vegemite?
  2. If there ever was to be a Vegemite variation what would this be?

Recently Kraft launched their latest product “Name me” a vegemite plus cream cheese experience. Here’s how they are using Social Engines to develop it.

“This is a work in progress; we spent two years listening and now with the product on shelves the Kraft Communications team is engaging with Vegemite loyalists and cynics alike on the 12 top social engines. They are engaging and getting samples out on and off line- and encouraging debate on the new products. There are a number of Facebook groups sitting in the following camps: pro original, pro new flavour and anti new flavour.”

This is just one way Social Engines are helping businesses already to grow brand, product and corporate awareness. There are many other ways to use it too that can and do lead to direct and immediate sales. No matter the size of your business and marketplace, Social Engines, like the internet at large give you a level playing field with industry leaders like Kraft Foods and the others mentioned here.

Your website with a blog and feed will provide regular content to the Social Engines ‘auto-magically’. You need to support that by also visiting the main Social Engines and engaging people on a weekly basis, as it forms part of your marketing, CRM and all the other pay-offs mentioned previously.

Adding content regularly to your Blog Feed, ‘auto-magically‘ keeps you in touch and front of mind to millions of people around the world, on the Social Engines (and Search Engines) so they can access your business, products and services quickly and easily.

The buzz appears to be more than a fad so for your business it becomes not a question of ‘if’ these Social Engines are going to be a valuable marketing tool for business. Rather, the question now is:

“How quickly will you get your business on the Social Engines

… to Capture Your Competitors Clients too?”

HOW TO GET STARTED

Here’s a checklist to help you get started with your new, exciting and FREE Social Engine Strategy:

1) Get a Blog website with a domain name of your choice OR if you already have a website, get a new sub domain or folder added called blog

2) Open an account with at Google, Feedburner, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and LinkedIn.

3) Install an RSS Blog Feed and set up a Pinging list on it then add your Blog feed to the Search and Social Engine accounts you created in the step above.

4) Create content-rich education videos that can be added to your YouTube account and your Blog – that is then ‘auto-magically‘ added to your Search and Social Engine accounts.

5) Actively participate in or create new Facebook Groups, Events and Pages.

6) Make promotional videos about you, your business, your products, how you help and support people and upload them to your YouTube Channel then add them to your blog posts.

To really make this all work well for you, you need to know there is a big secret in succeeding with growing your business using Social Engines. You’ve read this far, so here it is: Social Engine success rest largely with you getting to grips with:

  1. Being a ‘face’ of your business and allowing people to connect with your ‘authenticity’ as a person ahead of a product, and
  2. the need to ‘listen’ to your marketplace, innovate with change to meet their ever-changing needs and then share information that will help them, rather than push product.

Millions of dollars are spent monthly with pay per click advertising on these sites and more millions are paid to ‘search engine specialists’ who supposedly help you reach number 1 ranking on keywords relevant to your business. It’s a fierce fight between serious players for top spots on search engines, both free and paid listings. An entire industry is built on it and around it. But you now know how to become a leader in your industry on the most powerful Social (and Search) Engines online today and how to do it Quickly, Cheaply, Easily and Auto-Magically.

In some cases, target market demographics may not be using Social Engines; therefore it would not be worthwhile. Consider these statistics when making your evaluation:

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Do you rely on 3rd party endorsements to build buyer confidence? If this is not a necessary part of your marketing and sale process, you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing.

Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy – Listening first, selling second. Would your competitors be prepared to connect and listen to your prospects and customers directly to discover what they want, and then give it to them? If not, then you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing… and least for a little while.

The worst part is the first part. When you start, your ‘following’ could be small but that is far better than not monitoring what’s been said about you at all! The only way to change that is to get in the game!

Get started right now, before your competitors do -it’s the future of marketing your business online, because that is where the people you want as your customers are going online. It’s only a matter of time before someone in your industry emerges as the leader on the Social Engines – get you and your business front-of-mind first. Enjoy the experience and I’ll ‘meet and tweet you’ on the Social Engines of the World!

Why Is Now the Right Time to Build a Mobile Application for Your Business?

With mobile users increasing day by day, it is true that the enterprise mobile app market is expected to grow over $65 billion in the coming few years. It is no more news that there is an app for your business. An app helps you to support your business goals, drive engagement, support your e-store and also extend your services. Being a small or mid-sized company, you might often think that only large brands can have an app. But today, more and more SMEs are also leveraging the mobile app development platform simply because it helps to remain well connected with their customers and also create a successful brand. Introducing an app is vital for your business success and there are multiple reasons why your business now needs to build a mobile app.

Here we will discuss some top reasons why you need to develop a mobile app now:

It’s time to be visible to your customer at all time:

On an average, people spend more than two hours on his or her mobile device and making your business visible before your audience at the right time is what you need in a competitive market. Though only a handful of apps make up to the top among thousands of apps, it doesn’t change the fact that the user always has to scroll their device to look for the app they need. A well designed app icon will have an impact on your mind and since your mobile always remains in your pocket, users will carry your app all the time and can view it whenever needed.

You need to create the stickiness:

There is nothing better to increase the stickiness of your business with the customers than embedding your brand in their pocket. Since apps are always visible on the home screen of the user’s phone, customers are also more likely to interact with your business when they find an app at their fingertips. Building an app will also help you increase your customer loyalty and bring in repeat business.

Embrace the IoT age:

IoT is one of the primary drivers of digital transformation and mobile apps are creating news with IoT as well. Today, mobile apps for smart watches, glares and belts and etc. are taking the networking to a new level. With IoT, the virtual and the real world are merging and this technology is operated and used to its ultimate by smartphone users. IoT role in healthcare is also immense as it helps to transmit all the data into the app and thus in a smartphone.

Strengthening the brand image:

Without a mobile app, you might appear to be outdated from the latest trends. This will obviously have a great impact on the performance and also the future prospects of your business. For many users, having an app is an expectation since it helps to remain connected to them. Building a mobile app for your business helps in branding and also enhances the current capabilities and offers a more streamlined experience.

You need to appear as innovative and cutting edge:

There are very few things that say “innovative” louder than any mobile app. Building a mobile app shows that your business is ready to innovate rather than stick to the convention. There are many companies that develop mobile apps simply to generate the wow factors and nothing springs innovation better than adopting new technologies. With more technology growth, you will receive more questions from your users and it is obvious that big organizations believe that mobile apps drive competitive advantage.

The need to open up new revenue channels:

If in case your business is in need to open up new channels to generate revenues for your business, then developing a mobile app is the best option before you. The app will help you to target a new customer base using mobile devices who are willing to avail services even while travelling. Offering services to that specific segment of your audience will help you drive more traffic to your website and obviously generate more sales.

Why You Mustn’t Take Singing Lessons Simply to ‘Prove Yourself’ to Anybody

Indeed, quite an off the beaten track topic this is, but I’ve been inspired to write this article because I know it can help a lot of people come to terms with how important it is to take up singing lessons not to prove themselves to anybody, but to do it for themselves. Some particular cases emanating from my studio have made me realize how a self-inflicted burden such as this can affect a pupil. So let me explain the thought processes that run through such an individual’s mind, and how that affects their performance and concentration in class.

The crux of the matter is, one taking up singing lessons to prove to someone else or a group of people that they have the potential to become good singers, instead of that being a source of motivation to achieve what they signed up for, it tends to lay a huge burden upon them that constantly distracts them from focusing. Through the lesson, I have observed, that I repeat myself on countless occasions. The pupil, I find to be eternally self-conscious and lacks the confidence to perform well. When I dig into the probable cause of this, I find that there’s someone or some people waiting to see HOW they fair. Now this puts a lot of pressure on them to deliver because they’re constantly worried about failure. And the end result is they DO fail miserably because they’re way too distracted to concentrate on learning. It becomes a state of constant fear and panic. Not a pretty sight. If anything, it is very annoying.

So here’s the deal. You want to learn to sing? Do it for YOU. Do not get into this to prove anything whatsoever to anyone in your circle of friends or elsewhere. (In any case, why would anyone want to do that?) If you hadn’t read this article you wouldn’t have discovered that it actually works against you. You’d be better off not taking singing lessons at all. Wouldn’t you agree? The ideal student of voice is one that wants to do it to improve their voice for THEM rather than for anybody else. And this type of student steps into class looking forward to the lesson and enjoying the therapeutic qualities of the lesson. Just the other day, one of students said to me “I really feel relaxed when I come here. This is a form of therapy. And looking out the window, your garden is so beautiful it adds to the calm.” So there you have it! If you want to enjoy your singing lessons AND come away with something, take a more relaxed approach. The less outside pressure you impose upon yourself the better. So the next time you attend a vocal training session, be sure to leave your burden at the door, and enjoy the lesson.

A Journey to Remember, a Short Story, Part 1

Vacations always get over sooner than one realizes.

Our vacation is over and has come to an end. But the point of fact is, even to this day Strong, Arindya and Sati couldn’t take this in their stride even as it has driven them furlong into the realm of mortifying nostalgia. Nothing can now bring them back to the real world, or so it seems.

Naturally, to be able to get away from the grime and tussle of life in the city is a jubilant feeling like no other, thought Arindya, himself forlorn in deep nostalgia. Alas, another vacation wasn’t anything nearer to happening anytime soon, so therefore learning to live with it, not surprisingly, is hard enough. But that’s another story though, for another time.

Not satisfied with a nice full week’s fabulous expedition, they were still craving for more. Such was the torrent of their newfound addiction. Arindya’s college buddies Strong and Sati corroborated having come across the same alluring feeling that never let go of them even after the precious trip taken all those years ago – a little more than a decade ago – is now far behind them, lodged in the labyrinths of their collective memory. I guess good friends all think alike.

Our journey, The-Three-Musketeers’ journey, had turned out to be the most special mention of our lives. The journey that we undertook more than a decade ago, at the start of the new millennium: 2001, has always been a high-point of our collective remembrances. We often find ourselves chatting away over cups of hot tea and pakoras, and sitting lazily in the wicker chairs on the sultry terrace bathed in dusky evening moonlight cascading down upon us, and tenderly recalling those wonderful, younger days of our lives.

Burning Driftwood

All the highs and lows of my life’s first friends-only vacation came into my nightly dreams like burning driftwood that always remained aglow. The glowing embers of memories kept on burning in my heart as the early morning sky began to rescue its warm, sweet, hopeful Sun from the mystery pools of the dark night. A new dawn of life then shines upon the horizon ending its nightly escape from the clutches of unrepentant darkness. Golden memories are like warm glowing embers that settle inside the spaces of your heart.

If not for the endless days and nights of consternation that went into planning our first outing – a chance at as they say ‘getting away from it all… ‘ – to get away from the daily grind or routinely boring sort of sclerotic lives we were living, than we would have found ourselves slowly seeped out of life and hung up to dry like washed linen on a wiry receptacle of juvenile delinquency. Thank God we saved ourselves from turning into lazybones and just do nothing. Getting to be peripatetic is such fun.

For Strong, Sati (our very own Kumbhakaran!) and Arindya things were not looking up bright nor were they really leading ship-shape lives. But at long last, when things began falling into their rightful places, they struck wanderlust and simply packed and moved. We sung together in our throaty voices, emulating the mellifluous voice of Kishore Kumar, our made-for-the-occasion friendship song while travelling all the way towards finding freedom and abandon:

To be one with the world…

We are in heaven…

In the lap of Mother Nature…

We are in heaven,

O sweet feeling…

(Arindya wasn’t aware of what was to come upon him when after he returned home from a life altering journey to Nashik. The three wanderlusts have travelled to Aurangabad, Ellora, Nashik, Tryambakeshwar and Shirdi.)

In my heart of hearts, I knew this is it. The beginning of one of those things that maketh a friendship last long, for life long. The vacation was probably meant to do that. We were known to be best of friends and we wanted to give it a touch of emotional appeal: a fine companionship fetching its own little permanent space in our hearts, for memory keepsakes. And that’s what exactly has happened besides Arindya’s falling in love with an elegant stranger.

Speaking of myself, I would say it was our one great outing, more of a pilgrimage to be sure, that had washed up ashore something of a philosophical musing which, oddly, to this day, is still quaking in my unaccustomed heart. In fact, it never let go of me ever. It still quakes inside me. Like a chronically emotional guy I would constantly have myself believe that ‘things’ have ‘changed’ and that there’s no way to find out whether it was for the better or for worse; even as it went on to carve a secret alcove in my private life. Why worse? Because I knew for a reason that my journey, especially from Shirdi to Hyderabad, would turn out to be extraordinarily heart-wrenching for me and I’ll have to live my life heart-broken. So here goes the tale.

All love stories have one thing in common; you have to go against odds to get there. For me the temple town of Tryambakeshwar was the greatest allure of all my life’s worth could hope to get honoured with. So great was the sweet atrocity of the lost love that Arindya thought a tell-all memoir was all that was left to do and relive those moments all over again. His sense of loss, his seemingly decadent life was waiting to be relieved for the purposes of getting it written and ultimately retold in a manner that would bring him some kind of relief. To unburden. You know, the worst feeling in the world is when you know that you both love each other but still you just can’t be together.

That Thing Called Love

Yes, you said it right. Indeed, it was love at first sight! Or was it a false alarm? Or was I being a darnedest fool? Didn’t I have ever had a proper handle on the two thinly-veiled, albeit different, paroxysms: Infatuation or Love? Turns out, I never did. I never knew it clearly enough though, not then, but surely, now I do know. An idea can change your life. But ‘change’, a brooding change at that, (if not the real Love itself) can make a hostile bid on your way of life! A thing of beauty is a joy forever and I have lost ‘something’ on my return trip back home and I am left undone. I know not what to do, how to do in order to be able to get it all back into my life. This is a mystery (I simply call as ‘change’) which failed to warm up to me with any evidentiary feeling of what it has ‘changed’ after all. I am unable to place that thing properly amongst the bare necessities of my life, but am feeling it all right in the empty center of my being with a great sense of remorse.

Is it a kind of passion that strangely afflicts lovesick puppies all the time? Or is it something to get serious about and needs a little personal scrutiny? Was it love? Or was it supposed to be a plain human reaction after all that rushes up your psychic mind some kind of hormonal hara-kiri when you see a beautiful face, a thing of beauty? Whatever it was, it surely came by slowly and beautifully, that old sweet feeling of – I dare say – love? Oh! Is it all about that good old culprit that goes by the sweetest name in the world called Love? If it is so then it will kill me on a regular basis!

It indeed does weird and wonderful things to your heart, I strongly believe that. The ‘change’ that I was so proudly kept repeating over and over again in my mind is known by nothing else but Love. Pure and untouched. Warm and Cozy. Humble and Secure. That thing called Love slowly spread within me like wind-rippled sand in a forlorn, forsaken desert, and little by little the deeper meaning of the word got me totally baffled and confused. Afterwards, I grew very restless on account of such emotional stirrings and I knew not what to do except accept my Destiny as a one-time readymade parcel service from the heavenly counters of The God Almighty. Oh yes! I am eternally thankful for that service!

Call it thrill or the regular drill, the other side of falling-in-love coin is an unchartered territory of emotional warfare. You can deal with it if you think you really can, or else you lose your love and go home in several pieces. Your heart is felled first, always a ready victim of ‘unrequited love’ and longing, considering the circumstances.

After having lingered on such a thought-process in my mind that began materializing like a zany commotion of deep-seated melancholia, I came to realize that it was indeed the mysterious workings of the persuasive power of ‘Love’ that suggested itself by, both subconsciously and feelingly. Furthermore, the matter of such a delicate nature was so tellingly mystifying that I was finding myself shy and uncertain in equal measure to be able to get a comprehending grasp on its unmistakable magical power. I felt I have been given this evident opportunity to figure it all out, and so I will I thought.

Somewhere in my heart Love was being bucolic.

It slowly came to light in Arindya’s minds’ eye that he has been touched by an Angel; that lovely species whom one unstoppably falls in love with. And there was never a name for her, for name didn’t really matter I suppose. As if transfixed I stood there with unblinking eyes looking her way. Realizing my eyes on her, she turned towards me for a fairly long moment and looked up at me. Her eyes, lips, cheeks twinkled a bit; then knowing that I had still devoted my attention on her, her face broke into a saucy smile. After a moment or two, with a calming poise she fervently put her hands together in front of the deity praying.

The clear light of day of the afternoon Sun and the serene October air appeared to be blending together to bathe her beauty with divine loveliness. Heavens opened up their doors and windows and Gods and Goddesses assembled together to have a precious look at their loving creation; even a grant of a tiny glimpse at her would no doubt continue to reassure and comfort them of their blissful eternity and immortality. They were being jealous, apparently! And I merely an Earth-dwelling mortal dared to romanticize the lovely sight I was likewise being treated to, and standing right there transfixed I fell into a trance I never seemed to have got out of. A serious bout of daydreaming crept up my soul that completely stirred my living being! I was being as if zealously ‘guarding’ her from something I could never know of what. Gods and Goddesses? Possibly. They too were looking at her, remember?

Holy Moly! No… ! I remember Adam and Eve’s satanic mistake in the Garden of Eden before they were necked out of unceremoniously!

Indeed, I opened my heart at the main entrance of the temple to yield a precious place for her to step right in. No doubt, I treasured up her memory (including her divine angelic smile) in the deepest vaults of my unbidden heart ever since.

A Journey to Remember

A journey to a holy place can sometimes make you feel profoundly rejuvenated and transformed; especially when you find that the journey you had has rendered a new dimension of poignancy to the basic perception of your own life.

One doesn’t just go and fall in love in a temple. It doesn’t happen that way. But you can’t help it when it happens, can you? Love can subtly suggest itself anytime anywhere, whether in a temple or in a park, or in a train or in a bus. I thought to myself, in my limited understanding, that for me Love will always be something that cannot be ‘set up’ to ‘gain’ something from it, but which is ultimately intensely natural and a thing that can only be felt deep within and treasured for a lifetime. Love makes life live. Love makes you feel enormously optimistic at heart. It makes you smile secretly and satisfyingly in the assuring fact that she is the one made in heaven for you, Then again, when others see you smile without obvious reason, they think you are kind of… ‘myyaaad’. So what is Love after all?

“Love doesn’t mean to win someone,

But it means to lose yourself for someone.

It is not done by the excellence of mind.

But it is done by the purity of heart.”

The great novelist Eric Segal’s immortal lines “love means never having to say you’re sorry” conveys as much of what lovers practically feel all the time but hardly ever can utter in those very words. That’s one way of looking at it. Yet Love manages to get conveyed; if not in words then the eyes do the trick.

All this were personal definitions that Arindya gave to his newfound feelings that were compelling enough for him to freely believe in love at first sight. And this hell of a feeling was met with approval by the Angel he met at the Tryambakeshwar temple in the picturesque district of Nashik.

As apposed to Strong’s suggestion of “infatuation” that I might possibly have been a case of, I had nothing short of The Bard William Shakespeare’s lines to counter his (Strong’s) sly riposte with:

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove… “

I have believed that this piece of sonnet explains everything what Love has been, what Love is, and what Love will always be.

When does such a thing affect you? Does it affect you especially when you find yourself atop a precipice of your life and you have nothing better of your own but to claim that it was NOT infatuation? No doubt, she was an exalted species of pure feminine beauty, and I had to hanker after the girl only because of a so-called ‘exterior’ quality on her – her eye-catching beauty? No, I don’t believe so. And that’s exactly what didn’t happen to Arindya at all. People might say different things, for they are, well, people; they are meant to say things: uncharitable or appeasing. But in the end you are the only one to know for sure whether or not you were in love and what really happened to you. For me it was Love all right: Love at first sight, Love for ever and Love forever after.

He knew it was far from anything what some people never really get to acknowledge when someone happens to fall in love. Arindya was not travelling alone but he sure was feeling very lonely for the first time among his friends. He had Strong and Sati for good company, yet why does he have to want for something that was not at all his in the first place? Strong and Sati were great friends, but Arindya’s dilemma was nobody’s business but his own heart’s catch-22 situation to get around and deal with it. Does he have to draw a line somewhere considering that this complicated question, which is writ large on his face like a dark shadow, is showing no sign of leaving him alone? What does Arindya, the chief progenitor of all things immaterial, think about this entire quandary of his own making? Pushing oneself off the precipice, and end of the matter? Flat on the rocks below?

Or finding something to latch on to, setting adrift on a grand new boat of hope, against the time and tide of luckless foreboding, even tackling the normal wages of one’s daily life should become the normal course of action for him? Which one? Which goddamn one? Where is Arindya’s once-glorified “enormously optimistic” dramatic feeling gone? Cut its way off to a better soul, which was better than Arindya’s? Oh well O well, probably, it is here; it is here, somewhere, trampled. Arindya will find it. He will have to.

En Route to Tryambakeshwar via Nashik

Booking a room for us three lads at a local hotel was, thankfully, not a tricky business to deal with. During the tourist season, naturally, getting even a single room is a big trouble, but we eventually found one in a nice hotel not very far from the Maharashtra Tourism office-cum-hotel plaza on the main road. To tell you the truth, we enthusiastic bunch of all-guys travellers did get lily-livered sometimes when faced with indigenous, maddening signboards hung on hotel front offices such as “Sorry! Rooms Not Available”, “No Rooms”, “All Full”, “Houseful” or even “No Vacancy”, as if we were looking for jobs! We have been pretty much up to facing whatever challenge was popping in front of us. But we sure disliked these ‘unwelcome’ signboards where ever we spotted one.

No wonder Sati (our very own Kumbhakaran!) was the one who went to the bathroom first to bathe and spill over some cologne fragrance under his tropical rainforest-like armpits, and I and Strong smiled sheepishly at each other to resolve who would go next up! Sati’s childlike enthusiasm to always be the first one to use our hotel’s bathroom was no less legendary than Strong’s preference for window seat whether in bus or in train! I was more like a confused mute, a concerned spectator sandwiched between their ever-amusing comedy of errors (always-use-first bathroom and window-seat preferences included). Must say I hardly ever made any attempt to get out of my reverie, for watching them do their own thing in the pocket-sized, beige-toned hotel room was hilarious!

And yes, not to forget Sati’s insatiable penchant for rounding off his meal with a huge bowl of curd-rice was laughed out loud over Strong’s all-weather-always-better garam garam idly, sambar, rasam and rice preference, never mind curd-rice. I didn’t exactly dream of McDonald’s or Domino’s platters, but my mouth did remember to flood at this unexpected suggestion of a well-tasted hemlock that I have drunk not very long ago! Umm.

Before we embarked upon this journey, Strong let out a secret of his to me that if he doesn’t eat rice in the dinner, he doesn’t get sound sleep at night! I nodded: possibly! Of course, all three went out to dinner and sat in a vegetarian-only restaurant to eat a belly full of sona masoori rice.

Our first leg of journey was a long one to complete. We travelled from Aurangabad to Ellora caves and back. After a night’s intervention, we alighted from long-dead King Aurangzeb’s kingdom Aurangabad and traveled in a MSRTC (state-owned local bus service) bus to Nashik’s central bus station via several unmanned railway crossings, roadside shacks, and quiet villagers, who faithfully lived with their precious cows, hens, cocks, goats, and buffaloes and bulls, even an occasional donkey or two. I spotted several cows grazing and mooing blissfully in the grassy meadows; the hens playing with their tiny chicks in the open yards and goats braying in the vicinity of their human caretakers. The bus ride was bumpy but we enjoyed the bumps with shoulders colliding with the passengers seated next to us; we slammed, banged, crashed all at once into the front seats knocking our breaths out of our lungs, and bounced several inches off our scruffy seats before our heads bashed on the overhead bunkers pounding on our senses.

Apart from all that bumpy encounters we experienced, our bus ride to Nashik was pleasant enough. In fact, in Aurangabad, though a nice little place to visit, we hardly found any other option in the name of good inter-city bus travel apart from the one we decided upon for our journey. That was the year 2001; things might have changed a lot now. These days, when we find each and every city of our country taking a turn for good economically, old things being replaced with the new and how: city squares, shopping centers, fine dining restaurants and all coming up like crazy. I am sure Aurangabad city too had transformed itself now into a fine tourist destination that it was always bound to be.

Strong and Sati (our very own Kumbhakaran!) were jousting with each other to look at the seat occupied next to a hulking woman travelling with her fair and fine-looking daughter. They (Strong and Sati, that is) craned their heads, flashing their gazes at the object of their attention, tried several tricks up their sleeves to get her attracted to them, but all their actions came to a naught. She was far ahead in her own dream world but apart from looking at their general direction, she was, apparently, way out of their league. And Arindya, he had already gazed at her for a moment longer than necessary, tried to be really interesting and all that, but it seemed that he was met with a rebuff.

The bus ride through the countryside had us totally rattled and disheveled, but we took no notice of that. We were on a mission here and totally up and about to accomplish it, so who has the time, you know, for things that don’t matter much.

After reaching the central bus station of Nashik, we took a bus to the great Tryambakeshwar Temple. Tryambakeshwar (Tryambake�vara) is located around 28 kilometers from the urban center of Nashik, tucked away into the pacific greenery of the wonderful countryside of Nashik. The ancient Hindu temple is situated at the bottom of the Bramhagiri mountains, where the river Godavari is said to have originated from.

The first day of the October month was agog with beautiful indulgences of the blushing cottony clouds ambling across the blue expanse of the Gods above…

I still remember the shimmering countryside meadows sparkling under the veil of moon-struck light illuminating everything from the sky above. I recollect the face of a serene-faced girl with lotus-like eyes I had never seen before or ogled at. Dressed in a soft yellow salwar with tiny ashen-grey polka-dot like flowers spread all over her lovely attire that greatly embellished her graceful countenance; she looked a million bucks. Without hesitation I resolved that she might be the very embodiment of a dream-like, unheard-of Angel that hardly often do we ever get to see in other normal circumstances. It tugged and pulled at my heart when she found my eager, will-you-be-mine eyes and winked impishly. She winked her huge eye-lashes at me. At that moment my heart forgot to beat. I saw her at the Tryambakeshwar Temple offering prayers and trying to hand over her casket of coconut, red kumkum, agarbatti and yellow Marigold flowers to the Sanskrit-chanting purohit, entreating him to break the coconut and flowers be put at the jyotirlinga of the presiding deity Lord Shiva.

Leaving Tryambakeshwar was hard enough for Arindya. He realized that he has fallen in love, really hopelessly and leaving the pilgrimage town of Trymbakeshwar meant bidding goodbye, farewell, and adieu to her, perhaps forever.

While journeying back on a bus to Nashik, my plain lunatic heart began to thump furiously at the thought of not having to see her ever again, perhaps, never in this lifetime. No wonder my days of being an eternal optimist were gone. What am I to do now without even an ounce of it? What a life I have!

The chimera of optimism anyway doesn’t work in such a circumstance, does it? I had no way of knowing her, and finding her again at the same spot is a foregone conclusion even if I come back looking for her. Life doesn’t treat us that way. It isn’t that easy to get excited about. It has its own exigencies to care about first. Besides there are so many other unknowable factors that come into play, whether you like it or not almost all of them will be pitted against your wish and will. Mankind is always left in the lurch to enthuse themselves by indulging in the mucky discourses of defunct challenges and useless competition. No wonder, in a dog-eat-dog world such is the twisted fury of God’s own creation!

I can’t even expect a ‘co-incidence’ thing to take place and then somehow I come rushing back to find her. Life, it seems, has its own book of destiny to keep. The thing is a brave man makes his own destiny, but the question is: Was I brave enough to be undertaking a task of going back to Tryambakeshwar and find her – all by myself? Perhaps, I might as well just do it. There is after all a wee bit chance, an opening, for anyone who knows where to look and how to look. But Arindya could not possibly have fathomed that secret, for he was not in Destiny’s good books. If passion is what it appears to be in Arindya, then the desire to find her, to see her, to touch her, to embrace her, will always remain a desire, no matter how vaguely life leaks away thinking about her. I couldn’t believe what I was feeling for her. I was dying inside to touch her, hold her. Never will come that moment when I can get close to fulfilling it. I am not in a position, Oh! Dear Lotus-Eyed Angel, to fulfill that passionate desire of mine… It will stay that way.

Eternal passion!

Eternal pain!

Not in this lifetime, my love. Not in this Hell that I am being bludgeoned through and still managing to survive with my besieged chest full of memories. As far as Arindya’s future prospect is concerned, howsoever well-deserved or even if there was one in the first place, it had dead-ended, stopped dead in its path, prematurely. That has come to be known as his portion of sad destiny ever since!

If there is any hope to know what she thinks about our little, private rendezvous at that old Shiva Temple, I would drop everything and go rush in her general direction. On second thoughts, that won’t be necessary because I understand for the same sacrosanct reason that she understands: we have been destined and decreed to be together only in our next life, not in this one. Compromise appears to be the darker side of man’s Destiny, full of twists and turns and blind corners. Such is God’s will. Take it or leave it.

Love Is a Sad Song

I remember how the silvery white moon had shone from high above wandering somberly in the largely cloudless, inky October sky like a loving soliloquist soul, peeping at us lovingly through the tinted windows of the bus we were travelling in, wishing us a silent goodbye after we reluctantly bid adieu to the temple town of His Holiness Shirdi Sai Baba.

“I swear to you

I will always be there for you.

There’s nothing I won’t do.

I promise you,

All my life I will live for you;

We will make it through… “

Then out of nowhere a forgotten strain of an old Hindi song decanted into my mind. I was instinctively humming it aloud in my heaving chest thinking about the lotus-eyed girl I saw in the sanctum sanctorum of the great temple:

“Dil ke aasman pe gam ki ghata chayee

Ayee ayee ayee teri yaad ayee…

Teri yaad main sari duniya bhulayee

Ayee ayee ayee teri yaad aye… “

The tail-end of the journey was a heart-pounding experience for all three of us. Strong, Sati and Arindya were still awake and far away from any sign of wanting to get some sleep. All that trekking, hiking, climbing mountains and forts and circling historic temples in faraway places like Aurangabad, Ajanta-Ellora Caves, then visiting Panchavati and walking on the streets of Nashik did not bog us down. We were fatigued no doubt, but kept up our tempo in full gear. Strong and Sati were still afresh with keen energy and so was Arindya.

“Oh figure about those younger years

There was only you and me

We were young and wild and free

Now nothing can take you away from me

Even down that road before”

End of Part 1

Translation – Significance and Scope

The in-depth study of Art of Translation demands more attention not because it paves way for global interaction and offers an excellent opportunity to undergo socio-cultural survey of various languages and their literatures but also gives an opportunity to establish some kind of relevance it has in the study and area of Literary Criticism. Translation Studies can very safely be included as an important genre in the domain of Literary Criticism since translation is an art prompting to peep into the diversified lingual, cultural and literary content of a source language and thus highlighting/appreciating the essence and niceties of the literature of that particular translated language. In the context of Indian Studies, keeping in view the multilingual and pluristic cultural nature of our country,translation has an important role to play. It is through translation that we can look into the rich heritage of India as one integrated unit and feel proud of our cultural legacy. The relevance of translation as multifaceted and a multidimensional activity and its international importance as a socio-cultural bridge between countries has grown over the years. In the present day circumstances when things are fast moving ahead globally,not only countries and societies need to interact with each other closely, but individuals too need to have contact with members of other communities/societies that are spread over different parts of the country/world. In order to cater to these needs translation has become an important activity that satisfies individual, societal and national needs.

It goes without saying that the significance and relevance of translation in our daily life is multidimensional and extensive. It is through translation we know about all the developments in communication and technology and keep abreast of the latest discoveries in the various fields of knowledge, and also have access through translation to the literature of several languages and to the different events happening in the world. India has had close links with ancient civilisations such as Greek, Egyptian and Chinese. This interactive relationship would have been impossible without the knowledge of the various languages spoken by the different communities and nations. This is how human beings realised the importance of translation long ago. Needless to mentiuon here that the relevance and importance of translation has increased greatly in today’s fast changing world. Today with the growing zest for knowledge in human minds there is a great need of translation in the fields of education, science and technology, mass communication, trade and business, literature, religion, tourism, etc.

Defining Translation

Broadly speaking,translation turns a text of source language(SL) into a correct and understandable version of target language(TL)without losing the suggestion of the original. Many people think that being bilingual is all that is needed to be a translator. That is not true. Being bilingual is an important prerequisite,no doubt, but translation skills are built and developed on the basis of one’s own long drawn-out communicative and writing experiences in both the languages. As a matter of fact translation is a process based on the theory of extracting the meaning of a text from its present form and reproduce that with different form of a second language.

Conventionally, it is suggested that translators should meet three requirements, namely: 1) Familiarity with the source language, 2) Familiarity with the target language, and 3) Familiarity with the subject matter to perform the job successfully. Based on this concept, the translator discovers the meaning behind the forms in the source language (SL) and does his best to reproduce the same meaning in the target language (TL) using the TL forms and structures to the best of his knowledge. Naturally and supposedly what changes is the form and the code and what should remain unchanged is the meaning and the message (Larson, 1984).Therefore, one may discern the most common definition of translation, i.e., the selection of the nearest equivalent for a language unit in the SL in a target language.

Computers are already being used to translate one language into another, but humans are still involved in the process either through pre-writing or post-editing. There is no way that a computer can ever be able to translate languages the way a human being could since language uses metaphor/imagery to convey a particular meaning. Translating is more than simply looking up a few words in a dictionary. A quality translation requires a thorough knowledge of both the source language and the target language.

Translation Theory, Practice and Process

Successful translation is indicative of how closely it lives up to the expectations as: reproducing exactly as for as possible the meaning of the source text,using natural forms of the receptor/target language in such a way as is appropriate to the kind of text being translated and expressing all aspects of the meaning closely and readily understandable to the intended audience/reader.Technically, translation is a process to abstract the meaning of a text from its current forms and reproduce that meaning in different forms of another language. Translation has now been recognised as an independent field of study. The translator can be said to be the focal element in the process of translation. The writer/author becomes the centre, for whatever he writes will be final, and no two translators translate a text in the same way. It is genegally believed that a writer to know the intricacies of the TL in which he may wish to translate. As a matter of fact, it is not the writer of the SL text who asks someone to translate his works into the TL; it is primarily the interest of the individual translator which prompts him to translate a work into his mother tongue. A successful translator is not a mechanical translator of a text but is creative as well. We may say that he is a co-creator of the TL text. . In fact, for a translator knowledge of two or more languages is essential. This involves not only a working knowledge of two different languages but also the knowledge of two linguistic systems as also their literature and culture.Such translators have been seen to possess various qualities which we shall briefly discuss later.

Linguiustically,translation consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language and its text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing the same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the target language and its cultural context. The process of translation starts with the comprehension of the source text closely and after discovering the meaning of the text, translator re-expresses the meaning he has drawn out into the receptor/target language in such a way that there is minimal loss in the transformation of meaning into the translated language.This entire process could be graphed as under:-

Overview of the translation task

In practice, there is always considerable variation in the types of translations produced by various translators of a particular text. This is because translation is essentially an Art and not Science.So many factors including proficiency in language,cultural background, writing flair etc.determine the quality of translation and it is because of that no two translations seem to be alike if not averse.

Accommodation in Translation

Translation turns a communication in one language into a correct and understandable version of that communication in another language. Sometimes a translator has to take certain liberties with the original text in order to re-create the mood and style of the original.This,in other words is called ‘accommodation.’ This has three dimensions: cultural accommodation; collocation accommodation; ideological accommodation; and aesthetic accommodation.Accommodation is considered a synonym of adaptation which means changes are made so the target text produced is in line with the spirit of the original. Translation is not merely linguistic conversion or transformation between languages but it involves accommodation in scope of culture, politics, aesthetics, and many other factors. Accommodation is also translation, a free, rather than literal, kind of translation. Moreover, it is inevitable in practice if the translation is to maintain the source message’s essence, impact, and effect. There is an interesting saying: A translation is like a woman: if it is faithful, it is not beautiful; if it is beautiful, it is not faithful. That is to say if you want to be faithful with the text while translating you are bound to lose the beauty of the translated text and if you try to maintain the beauty of the translated text you are sure to be unfaithful with the original text.. Faithfulness was once considered the iron rule in translation process but over the years when we take a closer look, accommodation, or adaptation, is found in most published translations and it has become a necessity too since keeping in view the averse cultural/lingual/geographical/historical/political diversifications and backgrounds of various languages and their literatures, accommodation,if not compromising, is almost obligatory. Accommodation, too, has to be carried out very sensibly, more especially when it comes to translating poetry or any such text which is highly immotive and artistic in nature.For example translating poetry has never been so simple. Robert Frost once said, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” This is a sufficient evidence of the difficulty involved in translation of poetry. Because poetry is fundamentally valuable for its aesthetic value, therefore, aesthetic accommodation becomes an art instead of a basic requirement. A good poetry translator with a good measure of accommodation and adequate knowledge of aesthetic traditions of different cultures and languages, can be better appreciated by the target reader and can achieve the required effect.

Qualities of a good Translator

A good translator should have adequate knowledge of the SL(source language) from which he is translating into the TL which is generally his mother toungue/target language. In order to produce an accurate translation of the SL text he should have command over the grammatical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of the SL. In addition to this it is necessary that he is well-conversant with the socio-cultural contexts of both the SL and the TL. A good translator should be the author’s mouthpiece in a way that he knows and comprehends fully whatever the original author has said in his text. One of the generally accepted characteristics of a good translation is that it should resemble the original text or come as close to the SL text as possible. It should appear like the original in the TL translation within the usual social and cultural settings with some minor accommodation, if necessary,of course.

Usually it is also believed that the job of a translator is a mechanical one-a simple rendering of the SL text into a TL text. But it is not so. The translator has to perform a really difficult task. It is in a way more difficult and complicated than that of the original writer. A creative writer composes or pens down his thoughts without any outward compulsion. A translator has to confine himself not only to the SL text but a host of other factors also intervene in the process of translating the TL.

A good translator must have an adequate knowledge of the subject or area to which the SL text relates so that the translator is able to capture the spirit of the SL text. If he does not have an in-depth knowledge, he may not be able to produce an accurate translation suitable for its intended purpose. For example, if you want to translate the Bible or the Gita or any other religious text, you must have adequate knowledge of those religious and theological works.

A good translator should be careful of the choices that he makes in using the TL. He should translate in the style, which is appropriate for the target audience. The style should be such that it appears to be natural and spontaneous to the TK readers. The translation in the TL should not sound alien.

A translator does need certain tools to help him out in moments of difficulty. These tools can be in the form of good monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias, e-dictionaries, glossaries of technical and standard works, etc. pertaining to the SL text.

A good translator must have patience and should not be in a hurry to rush through while translating any text. He should not hesitate in discussing with others the problems that he may come across. Morever, he should not shy away from conducting micro-research in order to arrive at proper and apt equivalents.

In short, a good translator should be a competent and proficient bilingual, familiar with the subject/area of the SL text chosen for translation. He should never try to insert his own ideas or personal impressions in the TL text. His objective should be to convey the content and the intent of the SL text as exactly as possible into the TL text. The job of a translator is very rewarding and intellectually stimulating

Finally,a few words(based upon my close understanding about translation study and activity) for up-coming translators and translation-lovers.To translate from one language into another has never been an easy endeavour.It is an exercise both painstaking and cumbersome and only those who have engaged themselves with translation work can realize the complex character of this Art. I have been associated with translation work for over three decades translating from English, more especially, from Kashmiri/Urdu into Hindi and back.

1-A good translator ought to be a good writer.

2-You needn’t translate everything that has been written, you need to translate the best only.

4-A good translator adjusts/accommodates and not compromises with the original text.

5-Translators are like ambassadors representing and exchanging the best of their literary world.

5-Art of translation is as old as makind, don’t you translate your thought before you speak it out? Some more suggestions:

1-Try to get into the mind of the writer.

2-Check your translation twice or may be thrice before finalizing the script. Put the original passage “aside” and listen to/read your translation with your ear “tuned in”, as if it were a passage originally written in the TL.

3-If your material is highly technical, with vocabulary that is distinctive to a discipline, it is important that the translator has at least some background or experience of that discipline. A good translator of poetry and drama may be a bad choice for a chemical engineering or biotechnology text.

4-If you have a native speaker of your target language handy, particularly one who is familiar with the subject, that person could be as useful as your teacher for final script-review. Take his assistance without fail.

A few more guide lines for the translators:

Do not try to find difficult equivalent words in the hope that this will add to the perfection of your translation.

Every language has its own punctuation rules and differ in many ways; take care to punctuate correctly.

Check your translation two or three times at the end.

Diaspora Literature – A Testimony of Realism

Diaspora Literature involves an idea of a homeland, a place from where the displacement occurs and narratives of harsh journeys undertaken on account of economic compulsions. Basically Diaspora is a minority community living in exile. The Oxford English Dictionary 1989 Edition (second) traces the etymology of the word ‘Diaspora’ back to its Greek root and to its appearance in the Old Testament (Deut: 28:25) as such it references. God’s intentions for the people of Israel to be dispersed across the world. The Oxford English Dictionary here commences with the Judic History, mentioning only two types of dispersal: The “Jews living dispersed among the gentiles after the captivity” and The Jewish Christians residing outside the Palestine. The dispersal (initially) signifies the location of a fluid human autonomous space involving a complex set of negotiation and exchange between the nostalgia and desire for the Homeland and the making of a new home, adapting to the power, relationships between the minority and majority, being spokes persons for minority rights and their people back home and significantly transacting the Contact Zone – a space changed with the possibility of multiple challenges.

People migrating to another country in exile home

Living peacefully immaterially but losing home

Birth of Diaspora Literature

However, the 1993 Edition of Shorter Oxford’s definition of Diaspora can be found. While still insisting on capitalization of the first letter, ‘Diaspora’ now also refers to ‘anybody of people living outside their traditional homeland.

In the tradition of indo-Christian the fall of Satan from the heaven and humankind’s separation from the Garden of Eden, metaphorically the separation from God constitute diasporic situations. Etymologically, ‘Diaspora’ with its connotative political weight is drawn from Greek meaning to disperse and signifies a voluntary or forcible movement of the people from the homeland into new regions.” (Pp.68-69)

Under Colonialism, ‘Diaspora’ is a multifarious movement which involves-

oThe temporary of permanent movement of Europeans all over the world, leading to Colonial settlement. Consequen’s, consequently the ensuing economic exploitation of the settled areas necessitated large amount of labor that could not be fulfilled by local populace. This leads to:

oThe Diaspora resulting from the enslavement of Africans and their relocation to places like the British colonies. After slavery was out lawed the continued demand for workers created indenturement labor. This produces:

oLarge bodies of the people from poor areas of India, China and other to the West Indies, Malaya Fiji. Eastern and Southern Africa, etc. (see-http://www.postcolonialweb.com)

William Sarfan points out that the term Diaspora can be applied to expatriate minority communities whose members share some of the common characteristics given hereunder:

1.They or their ancestor have been dispersed from a special original ‘centre’ or two or more ‘peripheral’ of foreign regions;

2.They retain a collective memory, vision or myth about their original homeland-its physical location, history and achievements;

3.They believe they are not- and perhaps cannot be- fully accepted by their lost society and therefore feel partly alienated and insulted from it;

4.They regard their ancestral homeland as their, true, ideal home and as the place to which they or their descendents would (or should) eventually return- when conditions are appropriate;

5.They believe they should collectively, be committed to the maintenance or restoration of their homeland and its safety and prosperity; and

6.They continue to relate, personally and vicariously, to that homeland in one way or another, and their ethno- communal consciousness and solidarity are importantly defined by the existence of such a relationship ;( Safren Willam cited in Satendra Nandan: ‘Diasporic Consciousness’ Interrogative Post-Colonial: Column Theory, Text and Context, Editors: Harish Trivedi and Meenakshi Mukherjee; Indian Institute of Advanced Studies 1996, p.53)

There lies a difficulty in coming to terms with diaspora, and as such it introduces conceptual categories to display the variety of meanings the word invokes. Robin Cohen classifies Diaspora as:

1. Victim Diasporas

2. Labour Diasporas

3. Imperial Diasporas

4. Trade Diasporas

5. Homeland Diasporas

6. Cultural Diasporas

The author finds a common element in all forms of Diaspora; these are people who live outside their ‘natal (or imagined natal) territories’ (ix) and recognize that their traditional homelands are reflected deeply in the languages they speak, religion they adopt, and cultures they produce. Each of the categories of Diasporas underline a particular cause of migration usually associated with particular groups of people. So for example, the Africans through their experience of slavery have been noted to be victims of extremely aggressive transmigrational policies. (Cohen)

Though in the age of technological advancement which has made the traveling easier and the distance shorter so the term Diaspora has lost its original connotation, yet simultaneously it has also emerged in another form healthier than the former. At first, it is concerned with human beings attached to the homelands. Their sense of yearning for the homeland, a curious attachment to its traditions, religions and languages give birth to diasporic literature which is primarily concerned with the individual’s or community’s attachment to the homeland. The migrant arrives ‘unstuck from more than land’ (Rushdie). he runs from pillar to post crossing the boundries of time, memory and History carrying ‘bundles and boxes’ always with them with the vision and dreams of returning homeland as and when likes and finds fit to return. Although, it is an axiomatic truth that his dreams are futile and it wouldn’t be possible to return to the homeland is ‘metaphorical’ (Hall). the longing for the homeland is countered by the desire to belong to the new home, so the migrant remains a creature of the edge, ‘the peripheral man’ (Rushdie). According to Naipaul the Indians are well aware that their journey to Trinidad ‘had been final’ (Andse Dentseh,) but these tensions and throes remain a recurring theme in the Diasporic Literature.

Diaspora

1.Forced 2.Voluntary

Indian Diaspora can be classified into two kinds:

1. Forced Migration to Africa, Fiji or the Caribbean on account of slavery or indentured labour in the 18th or 19th century.

2.Voluntary Migration to U.S.A., U.K., Germany, France or other European countries for the sake of professional or academic purposes.

According to Amitava Ghose-‘the Indian Diaspora is one of the most important demographic dislocation of Modern Times'(Ghosh,) and each day is growing and assuming the form of representative of a significant force in global culture. If we take the Markand Paranjpe, we will find two distinct phases of Diaspora, these are called the visitor Diaspora and Settler Diaspora much similar to Maxwell’s ‘Invader’ and ‘Settler’ Colonialist.

The first Diaspora consisted of dispriveledged and subaltern classes forced alienation was a one way ticket to a distant diasporic settlement. As, in the days of yore, the return to Homeland was next to impossible due to lack of proper means of transportation, economic deficiency, and vast distances so the physical distance became a psychological alienation, and the homeland became the sacred icon in the diasporic imagination of the authors also.

But the second Diaspora was the result of man’s choice and inclination towards the material gains, professional and business interests. It is particularly the representation of privilege and access to contemporary advanced technology and communication. Here, no dearth of money or means is visible rather economic and life style advantages are facilitated by the multiple visas and frequent flyer utilities. Therefore, Vijay Mishra is correct when he finds V S Naipaul as the founding father of old diaspora but it is also not wrong to see Salman Rushdie as the representative of Modern (second) Diaspora V S Naipaul remarkably portrays the search for the roots in his ‘A House for Mr. Biswas:

“to have lived without even attempting to lay claim to one’s portion of the earth; to have lived and died as one has been born, unnecessary and accommodated.(Naipaul,14) similarly Mohan Biswas’s peregrination over the next 35 years, he was to be a wanderer with no place to call his own'(ibid. 40)

In the same manner, Rushdie’s Midnight Children and Shame are the novels of leave taking… from the country of his birth (India) and from that second country (Pakistan) where he tried, half-heartedly to settle and couldn’t.” (Aizaz Ahmad, 135)

Here the critique of Paranjape generates the debate of competing forms of writing: Diaspora or domiciled -those who stayed back home and importantly a competitive space for the right to construct the homeland, so he points out the possibility of harm by ‘usurping the space which native self- representations are striving to find in the International Literary Market place and that they may ‘contribute to the Colonization of the Indian psyche by pondering to Western tastes which prefer to see India in a negative light.’ The works of various authors like Kuketu Mehta, Amitava Ghosh, Tabish, Khair, Agha Shahid Ali, Sonali Bose, Salman Rushdie confirm a hybridity between diasporic and domiciled consciousness. They are National, not Nationalistic inclusive not parochial, respecting the local while being ecumenical, celebrating human values and Indian pluralism as a vital ‘worldliness’. (Ashcraft, 31-56)

The diasporian authors engage in cultural transmission that is equitably exchanged in the manner of translating a map of reality for multiple readerships. Besides, they are equipped with bundles of memories and articulate an amalgam of global and national strands that embody real and imagined experience. Suketu Mehta is advocate of idea of home is not a consumable entity. He says:

You cannot go home by eating certain foods, by replaying its films on your T.V. screens. At some point you have to live there again.”(Mehta, 13)

So his novel Maximum City is the delineation of real lives, habits, cares, customs, traditions, dreams and gloominess of Metro life on the edge, in an act of morphing Mumbai through the unmaking of Bombay. It is also true, therefore, that diasporic writing is full of feelings of alienation, loving for homeland dispersed and dejection, a double identification with original homeland and adopted country, crisis of identity, mythnic memory and the protest against discrimination is the adopted country. An Autonomous space becomes permanent which non- Diasporas fail to fill. M K Gandhi, the first one to realize the value of syncretic solutions’ hence he never asked for a pure homeland for Indians in South Socio-cultural space and so Sudhir Kumar confirms Gandhi as the first practitioner of diasporic hybridity. Gandhi considered all discriminations of high and low, small or great, Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Sikh but found them ‘All were alike the children of Mother India.’

Diasporic writings are to some extent about the business of finding new Angles to enter reality; the distance, geographical and cultural enables new structures of feeling. The hybridity is subversive. It resists cultural authoritarianism and challenges official truths.”(Ahmad Aizaz, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures; OUP, 1992,p.126) one of the most relevant aspect of diasporic writing is that it forces, interrogates and challenges the authoritative voices of time (History). The Shadow Line of Amitav Ghosh has the impulse when the Indian States were complicit in the programmes after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The author elaborates the truth in the book when he says:

“In India there is a drill associated with civil disturbances, a curfew is declared, paramilitary units are deployed; in extreme cares, the army monarchs to the stricken areas. No city in India is better equipped to perform this drill than New Delhi, with its high security apparatus.”(Amitava Ghosh, 51)

The writers of Diaspora are the global paradigm shift, since the challenges of Postmodernism to overreaching narratives of power relations to silence the voices of the dispossessed; these marginal voices have gained ascendance and even found a current status of privilege. These shifts suggest:

“That it is from those who have suffered the sentence of history-subjugation, domination, Diaspora, displacement- that we learn our most enduring lessons for living and thinking.”(Bhabha, 172)

The novels of Amitav Ghosh especially the hungry tide in which the character Kanai Dutt is cast together “with chance circumstance with a Cetologist from the US, Priya Roy studying fresh water Dalphines, The Oracaella Brebirostris. The multiple histories of the Sunderbans became alive when the diaries of Marxist school teacher Nirmal came to light. He withdraws from the romance of political activism and came to settle with his wife Nilima in Lucibari and the relation between them is exemplified in the pragmatism of Nilima:

“You live in a dream world- a haze of poetry

Such passages of the novel points towards the metaphorical distinctions between the centre and margins, made narrative and little histories the well knows gods and the gods of small things. In the novels of Ghosh an assault of unarmed settlers Morich Jhapi, in order to evict them forcively is carried out by gangsters hired by states. They had been “assembling around the island… they burnt the settlers, hearts, they sank their boats, they lay waste their fields.”(ibid)

Similarly there are a number of novels by South Asian and British Writers on the theme of partition a blatant reality in the global history. Partition was the most traumatic experience of division of hearts and communities. Similarly, Ice Candy Man comprises 32 chapters and provides a peep into the cataclysmic events in turmoil on the sub continent during partition, the spread of communal riots between the Hindu and Sikhs on the one side and the Muslim on the other. The Muslims were attached at a village Pirpindo and the Hindus were massacred at Lahore. It was partition only that became the cause of the biggest bloodshed and brutal holocaust in annals of mankind. Lenny on eight years child narrates the chain of events on the basis of her memory. How she learns from her elders and how she beholds the picture of divided India by her own eyes in the warp and woof of the novel. There is a fine blend of longing and belonging of multiplicity of perspectives and pointed nostalgia of mirth and sadness and of Sufism and Bhakti is epitomized in the work of Aga Shahid Ali. Similarly the novels of Rahi Masoom Raja (in Hindi) narrate woeful tale of partition, the foul play of politicians, the devastated form of the nation and its people after partition and longing for the home that has been:

“Jinse hum choot gaye Aab vo jahan kaise hai

Shakh-e-gulkaise hai, khushbu ke mahak kaise hai

Ay saba too to udhar hi se gujarti hai

Pattaron vale vo insane, vo behis dar-o-bam

Vo makee kaise hai, sheeshe ke makan kaise hai.

(Sheeshe Ke Maka Vale ,173)

(“To which we hav’een left adrift how are those worlds

How the branch of flower is, how the mansion of fragrance is.

O,wind! You do pass from there

How are my foot-prints in that lane

Those stony people, those tedious houses

How are those residents and how are those glass houses.)

Most of the major novels of South Asia are replete with the diasporic consciousness which is nothing but the witness of the all the happenings of social realities, longings and feeling of belonging. Train To Pakistan, The Dark Dancer, Azadi, Ice Candy Man, A Bend In The Ganges, Twice Born, Midnight’s Children, Sunlight on A Broken Column, Twice Dead, The Rope and Ashes and Petals all these novels abound in the same tragic tale of woe and strife from different angles. Most of the fictions of South Asian Countries are written in the background of post- colonial times and the same South Asian countries were under the colonial rules of the English. After a long battle of independence when those countries were liberated, other bolt from the blue of partition happened. This theme became whys and wherefores of the most of South Asian novels and the popularity of it will prognosticate its golden future.

References:

1.(Cohen Robin, Global Diasporas- An Introduction. London: UC L Press, 1997)

2.Rushdie: Picador, Rupa, 1983.

3.Safren Willam cited in Satendra Nandan: ‘Diasporic Consciousness’ Interrogative Post-Colonial: Column Theory, Text and Context, Editors: Harish Trivedi and Meenakshi Mukherjee; Indian Institute of Advanced Studies 1996, p.53)

4.Stuart Hall, ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora in Patric White and Laura Christmas, eds, Colonial Discourses and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994,p.401)

5.(Rushdie: Shame Picader, Rupa, 1983, p.283).

6.(An Area of Darkness London: Andse Dentseh, 1964,p. 31)

7.(Ghosh, Amitava : ‘The Diaspora in Indian Culture’ in The Imam and The Indian Ravi Dayal and Permanent Books, Delhi : 2002,p.243)

8.(Naipaul, V S, A House for Mr. Biswas Penguin, 1969,p.14)

9.Aizaz Ahmad ‘In Theory: Classes Nations, Literatures, O.U.P.1992, and p.135)

10.(Ashcraft. Bill. And Pal Ahluwalia, Edward Said: The Paradox of Identity Routledge,London & New York 1999,p.31-56 )

11.(Mehta, Suketu, Maximum City Viking, Penguin, 2004, p. 13)

12.(Amitava Ghosh, The Ghost of Mrs. Gandhi in The Imam and The Indian , Ravi Dayal, New Delhi, 2002,p.51

13.(Bhabha, Homi, The Location of Culture, Lodon, 1994,)

14.(Ghosh, Amitav,The Hungry Tide Delhi:Ravi Dayal Pub.2004)

15.Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza, Sheeshe Ke Maka Vale. ed. Kunvar Pal Singh, Delhi: Vani Pub.2001,)

An Introduction to Satyajit Ray, The Celebrated Movie Director With Synopses of His Masterpieces

I had already read something about movies of Satyajit Ray, doyen of Indian movies. The first film I saw was Pratitwandi (The adversary) in 1971. I was employed in an all India job and had the opportunity to work in all the metro cities of India. Wherever I went, I never missed to see Ray movies. It was a pleasant experience of life to watch his movies.

This article contains the impressions which the films created in me and I hope that readers will agree with my observation that he is a poet, artist and a sculpture among the film producers/directors. Also a synopsis of each film has also been given so that readers may have an understanding of the theme of the film under discussion.

However, a word of caution is that it requires a sense of appreciation of fine arts to enjoy movies of Ray. One should necessarily be a connoisseur to appreciate his movies. There are adverse critics also for some of his movies that he portrayed the poverty of India abroad. The fact is that he was bold enough to highlight which other producers were afraid to touch.

Synopses of some of his best movies in the chronological order of my viewing them are as follows:

1. Pratitwandi- The adversary:

Pratitwandi which means Adversary remains to be the first movie of Ray seen by me. It was a pleasant Sunday morning; the hall which screened the movie was most modern with high class equipment. The film Pratitwandi was a new release and the print of the film was very good. The moment the tiles started running on the screen, I was engrossed in the movie.

The story was about an educated, unemployed lad, whose mind was tilted to the path of violence gradually. The year 1971 witnessed a great exodus of refugees from Bangladesh (Erstwhile East Pakistan) to Calcutta. From South (Andhra Pradesh) a new violent movement called Naxalbari movement founded by Charu Majumdar started spreading and its loyalists were known as Naxalites.

Famous writer Sunil Gangobadhyaya wrote the story and Mr Ray portrayed it in an exemplary manner.

The hero’s name was Siddhartha. He was a calm and quiet lad whereas his younger brother chose the path of a naxalite, wedded to bomb culture.

The essential part of the film was to explain how Siddhartha’s mind was also tilted towards violence because of unemployment. He started brooding violence in his mind gradually and finally when a mob was seen mercilessly beating a cab driver responsible for an accident, he joined them in beating the driver even without knowing the reason.

“Individual Bengali is a poet, but a Bengali crowd is a violent mob”, this is a famous proverb and it was proved well by this scene.

The last scene was about an interview. Dozens of youth were called to attend. But there was no seating arrangement, no drinking water and only suffocation was there. One by one, the candidates started swooning for want of water and air and the hero entered the cabin with a bang. In a spate of anger he threw all the papers on the faces of interview board members and got out of the chamber. Naxalite thoughts were running over his mind along with portraits of Naxalite leaders..

‘That is how a naxalite is created’. This was the message of the film…

But the picture ended with positive note. He did not turn into a naxalite. He got a small assignment of a medical representative and he had a sweetheart who influenced him to be a normal youth, shunning the way of violence. There was place for love also in his life..

The Impressions: The directorial touches were excellent in various scenes. One important scene was about the naxalite turned brother. When he was an urchin he was unable to tolerate a chicken being killed by butcher, but later he used to kill mercilessly by throwing bombs. What a dramatic irony!

I could never forget the facial expression of the school child sitting inside the car, watching the violence with bewildered eyes, when the car driver was beaten to death by the mob.

After coming out of the hall, I was unable to go to my residence. The whole day, I was wandering around the city, the contents of the film lingering upon my mind.

No doubt, it is one the best pictures of Indian Cinema.

2. Teen Kanya- Stories of Three girls.

The next film I saw was Teen Kanya, a story of three girls. Three independent stories of three girls were clubbed into a single movie and perhaps might be the first such attempt in India. The names of the three stories are, ‘Post Master, Monihar and Samapti’ respectively. The story was by the great Poet Rabindra Nath Tagore. Though the film was produced in 1961, I saw it only in 1972. It was an old print and images were not clear. Yet I was able to appreciate the movie because of its rich contents.

First story: ‘Post Master’ was about a young person posted as the post master in a hamlet. The only fellow who was to help him was a young orphan girl child. Gradually good friendship blossomed between them He took personal interest to teach her to read and write. Alas, when she started learning something, he got a transfer and had to leave.

Impressions: Words could not explain the despair in the girl’s eyes, when the post Master left the hamlet.

Two scenes are worth mentioning. The post master got severe fever. When he was hesitant to swallow the tablet, the urchin grabbed the tablet and started chewing on his behalf to demonstrate how easy to swallow a tablet. In another scene, he had an encounter with horrible mad fellow. The whole night he was sitting before him sleepless out of fear. But, the next morning, when the girl visited him she just shouted ‘go, go’ and the ‘horrible’ lunatic ran away.

The second story was about a beautiful, rich and married lady who had an un-natural death and haunted a villa. Unfortunately, this portion was not available to view.

The third story was about an un-willing young bridegroom wedded to an immature girl who was not aware of marital relationships. How she came in term with her husband and started loving him was told in a jovial manner. This episode was later produced as a full length Hindi movie.

3. Pather Panchali- The Roadside Song:

Pather Panchali was the first film produced by Ray (in 1955) with the financial support of Government of West Bengal. But it took five years for me to view that film after I saw first a Ray film. I could vouchsafe that it was an experience of life. The recognition and awards given to the film were too little compared to the greatness of the movie.

The original story was written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, a famous Bengali author and the screenplay was by Ray himself. The music was scored by Pandit Ravisankar, a famous sitar player.

The story revolved around a poor family of five from a village viz: The family head

Harihar, his widowed sister, wife, daughter Durga and son Apu. The film was about their poverty and yet they used to find pleasure in enjoying the small pleasures Nature provided them with. The children walked kilometres from the village to watch a moving train. The scene could easily be compared to the train scene of Dr Zhivago.

Mother had the weakness of stealing coconuts from the neighbour’s garden. One day the neighbourhood lady lost her bead necklace and the blame fell on the daughter. But she firmly refuted the charge. The father left the village and went to an unknown town for betterment of his livelihood. The family entered into utter poverty. The girl Durga fully drenched in rain water was severely attacked with viral fever and without getting any medical relief she was dead. The house is in utter ruins.

After some years, the father chose to return to the village. He was shocked to see the ruins of the house. However, he started showing the valuables, he brought from town. When he was in search of Durga his wife fell to his feet and started crying. He also started crying after realising that his daughter was no more alive.

They decide to leave the village for good and started moving in a bullock cart.

The film ended with a totally touching scene. When clearing the old vessels. Apu found the neighbour’s once lost necklace from a mud pot. For one second he was perplexed, but the next moment, he threw it into the pond and joined the bullock cart.

No doubt, the film richly deserves the ‘Best Human document’ award in the Cannes film festival of 1956 and it remains to be one of the best films of the world. This is first of the three films known as Apu Trilogy.

4. Charulata, The lonely wife:

This is the story of a young married girl. The lonely wife was disillusioned with her husband who was a workaholic, always busy with his publishing works, not finding time to take care of her. The bewildered wife got solace in the company of brother of her husband and fell in love with him. Because of the extreme love and affection, the brother had for his elder brother, he gently rejected her love and nothing untoward happened. However, when the husband knew about the intention of his wife, the couple were psychologically separated.

Impressions: The woman watching the innocent brother in law from a swing was a very popular scene known as ‘the swing scene’ and the change in her mind from affection to love was very powerfully depicted. In India, a sister in law (brother’s wife) is considered equivalent to mother. It is very difficult to portray a woman otherwise which Ray did powerfully.

The story was by Rabindranath Tagore and reported to be a reflection of some incidents in his life.

5. Ghare Baire, Home and the world:

It is an adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s story with the same title which means Home and the world. It powerfully exposes the pseudo patriots (swadeshis), who cheat local Indians saying that they are fighting imperialism and promote local economy.

The story was about a broad minded vicar who gave total freedom to his wife. He invited his friend, supposed to be a ‘Swadeshi’ (Patriotic Indian leader) but really not so. The leader, by his cunning ways won the heart of vicar’s wife who wished to take part in the freedom struggle. When a communal fight with huge violence (involving local Hindu-Muslim population) occurred in the village, the leader fails to face the situation, whereas, the vicar, supposed to be a selfish rich man, went and met the violent crowd. There was a sound of distant gunshot indicating that he sacrificed his life. His wife got disillusioned and it was too late. The screenplay was in a flashback narrated from her angle.

Impressions: It requires lot of boldness to write and to portray such an off-beat story exposing pseudo leaders. This film received sharp criticism from local leaders (Naturally).

6. Devi:

The story: A father in law got a peculiar dream that his daughter in law was none other than Devi (Durga, The Goddess) and started worshiping her. Soon people in and around the neighbouring villages started pouring in to worship her. When her husband returned from studies, she never allowed him to touch her since she was afraid of offending the Divine power. However, finally he was able to convince her that she was only a human and they were able to escape the village to go to a faraway place and live a normal life.

Impressions: The scenes, when people were converting her as God incarnate and she herself believing it are worth remembering.

7. Ashani shankat (Distant Thunder)

Ashani Shankat is another movie depicting the 1942 famine in Bengal taken in the style of Pather Panchali. This is a 1973 movie, in colour. It is a powerful depiction of human psychology subjected to poverty and hunger.

8. Seemapadha (company Limited).

This film, though only in black and white, is one of the most modern themes of Ray. It portrayed how an executive did all the cunning tricks in getting a coveted promotion. He engineered even an internal strike by creating artificial fight. He was ruthless, made one of his poor staff getting physically hurt to get a strike proposal materialise. Finally he got the promotion by hook and crook.

But in this process, he lost the great respect and appreciation his young and beautiful sister in law had for him who was disillusioned with her brother in law that he would stoop down to any level to get his promotion. A realistic approach indeed!

9. Jalsa Ghar (merriment room)

The story: Jalsa Ghar means a house or a hall reserved for merriment. The story revolves around a Zamindar (landlord, vicar) who lost all his wealth in independent India to be taken over by the Government. Unfortunately he lost his only son also in a ship wreck. What he retained was only his palatial building and a faithful servant and lived only in the past spending most of the time in the empty Jalsa Ghar in the palace which was a permanent reminder of his hay days.

But, a friend of him, who was a mediocre, became a millionaire by political influence and getting huge contracts. He invited the vicar also to join him in the business to mint money but he firmly refused considering his past prestige. The respect shown by the friend reduced day by day and finally he refused even to recognise his presence.

Enraged by this, the land lord ordered his servant to sell his personal belongings, renovate the Jalsa Ghar and ordered to have a merriment day at least once to celebrate the past memoirs. On that day, fully drunk, he drove the horse to beach side, lost control and fell down to death.

The servant took a drop of his blood from his forehead and cries “Khoon” meaning that ‘finally the blood is same red for all’.

Impressions: The picture very powerfully portrayed the feelings and emotions of a king who lost his power and lived in past glory, ingratitude of the Government, the cunning ways of politicians, and finally the tragic end of a ruler who wished to have his past glory at least for a single day and to have his Swan song. To some extent it portrayed the situation prevailing in post Independent India wherein ex-rulers were thrown into mud and Neo-politicians took their position by crooked means.

The story was by Sri Tarashankar Bandopadhyay and the lead role was powerfully played by Chabhi Biswas.

I was able to recognise the feelings of the ruler and emotions and my heartfelt sympathies went with him.

This film remains to be my most liked movie of Ray.:

I have recorded my impressions of 9 movies produced and directed by Mr Ray. There are some more films which impressed me very much. Some of them are:

Shatranj Ke kiladi (Chess players) the only Hindi movie,

Nayak (The Hero),

Aranyer Din Rat (Day and night in a forest) with typical Ray touch.

Kanchan Junga (A Himalayan Peak)

Since they have themes of fantasy, they were not recorded here.

Now I will record the tribute I paid him. I have never attended the funeral of any political leader nor film personality though there were several deaths in places where I lived. But I broke the rule and in 1992, when Ray breathed his last, in Calcutta I went to the place where his body was kept, waited in the queue for hours and paid my last respects.

This is the greatest tribute a common man like me would be able to pay to an artist whom he admired most.

Filipino Language – Advantages When You Know It

If you want to be globally competitive means you must be able to communicate efficiently in languages. Filipinos can be called global because they can adapt to languages like Spanish, French, Chinese, and English. They stand out in all walks of life which include professions like doctors, teachers, lawyers, academician, engineers, nurses etc.

Filipino or Pilipino is the combination of Tagalog and other local dialects and languages. Tagalog is the official national language and is spoken by 23% of Philippines. To learn Filipino you must have knowledge of Tagalog as the only difference between the two is terminologies. Filipino is an amalgamation of all Philippine languages, dialects, Sanskrit, Spanish, and French words combined together. English is taught in elementary level and higher level in schools so people speak Tagalog with English words and at this point this language becomes Filipino.

You can imbibe, absorb or assimilate a culture or communicate if you know the language of the country. Language is the supreme power. Filipino language is a conglomeration of so many languages. It has characteristics of early languages like Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Spanish. It has sophistication of Latin language, complexity and straightforwardness like Greek language, courteous like Spanish and old like Sanskrit and Hebrew.

Thus, Filipino has characteristics of so many famous languages and so it becomes very easy to learn and this is the main advantage of learning Filipino. Philippine is also known as – Smile of Asia – and is considered as the most westernized Asian country. It is the hottest tourist destination and attracts millions of tourists every year due to its scenic beauty. Filipinos are very hospitable and this country has a bright future and good prospects.

Filipino is widely spoken in Philippine communities all over the world. If you want to do business or trade or even if you want to visit as a tourist, knowing the local language helps easy interaction and you can save yourself from unnecessary hassles. Philippines is the one destination of Americans for outsourcing their jobs so Filipino language has got a position in American market. As it is very easy and pronounced as spelled, it can be easily learnt by every one.

It has become a global language, and you can master the basic words and phrases like “magandang araw” or “good day”, “kamusta?” or “how are you?”, “salamat” or “thank you”, “paki” or “please”, “hindi ko naintindihan” or “I do not understand”.

Dubai Can Be Real Hot And Cool Both

There is more about Dubai you should know apart from its breathtaking skyline and the trade and commerce. Specially, if you were about to finalise a travel plan to one of its famous sea beaches. Things like the law, political system, weather and traffic congestion are some of the key areas that require attention. This article gives you an account of the same important issues before you embark on with your much awaited sojourns.

Historical Background

Dubai was one of the first emirates to join the UAE, a unified group of seven Muslim majority states, when the British forces finally left the Middle East in 1971. The area is surrounded by Saudi Arabia and Oman and the shorelines unite with the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. A Supreme Council of Rulers is the governing body of the United Arab Emirates. This council consists the seven ruling Emirs as its members, who in turn appoint the Prime Minister and the various Cabinet berths for the federal government. Note that while the Supreme Council of Rulers has overall control of the complete UAE, Dubai is famous for the high level of autonomy that it maintains as far as its local development issues are concerned.

Normal Weather

Since the Emirate of Dubai is in the Middle East, the climate is naturally sub-tropical and what you might expect from a desert in the neighborhood. This is good news in terms of clear skies all the year. There is very little rainfall and most of it takes place during the winter season. Temperatures follow an extreme trend with the daytime temperatures of summer touching the 48 degrees Celsius, and the winters the 10 degrees Celsius marks. January is the coldest with an average temperature of around 24 degrees Celsius, while the hottest month of July may report back an average of 41 degrees Celsius mark.

Population Estimates

The United Arab Emirates constitutes a population comprising that of the ethnic Arab community and a huge number of expatriates from India, Pakistan, East Asian countries, United States and the members of European Union. The region has been witnessing an insessent inflow of the expatriates due to the ongoing trade and commerce activities, and this can be visualized through its sharp rise in population since 1995. It shot up to 3.1 million in the year 2000 from the 2.4 million mark in 1995.

The population registered in the case of Dubai was 689,000 and 862,000 in the years 1995 and 2000 respectively. Most of these counted people reside within the urban areas of Dubai, while a tiny fraction prefers living on in the neighbouring countryside farms.

Language, Holidays, Local Time and Religion

Arabic is the official language of UAE, but also spoken are some other languages. English enjoys being the medium of communication in the majority of trade and commerce activities, while Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and some other dialects are spoken by the expatriates from India and Pakistan.

Dubai’s standard time runs four hours ahead of GMT and keeps unchanged through out the twelve month period. It runs one and one and half hours behind the Pakistan and Indian standard times respectively.

Islam is the official religion of all Arabian countries including the UAE. Dubai is no exception either in this context. As a result, the Muslim holidays and festivities assume a very significant role in its normal life. These holidays may keep varying from one year to another as per the Islamic calender.

Visa Issues and Transportation

Visa rules can vary for the travellers from different nations. Citizens of the western block of nations may walk out of the airport with a visa on their arrival. Visitors from the rest of world are not allowed the same kind of luxury though. Those who may be looking forward to carrying on with their business activities will have to get somebody local sponsorship first.

Buses and taxis are available for the transportation within Dubai, but it may not prove sufficient to those who may have plans of going outside of the city area. Hiring private vehicles is a much preferred option for this reason these days. Roads in and outside of Dubai are advanced in nature, but the general traffic sense may not prove out to be that much appealing. Be wary of driving on Dubai’s roads, if you were not fully aware if its existing traffic hazards, like the disorderly driving on the roads within and the wandering camels off the city limits.

Dubai’s government has initiated some steps recently to improve upon its general traffic scenario. There are several projects planned to carry out this task, including a floating bridge over Dubai Creek, upgrading of the First Interchange with a three-tier interchange, the Dubai Outer Bypass Road and the Sufouh Roads Network etc.

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

What is e-Marketing?

e-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to talk about, since no one succeeded to unify the various theories around it; however there is one thing upon which there is no doubt – that e-Marketing first appeared under the form of various techniques deployed by pioneer companies selling their products via the internet in the early 90’s.

The frenzy around these new marketing techniques created by e-tailers and supported by the internet rapidly gave birth to a new dimension of what we knew as Marketing: the e-Marketing (electronic Marketing).

There are many definitions to what e-Marketing is, the simplest and shortest one being formulated by Mark Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing that uses the internet as manifestation media. A working definition is that coming from a group of CISCO specialists: e-Marketing is the sum of all activities a business conducts through the internet with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers.

e-Marketing Strategy

The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing – the well-known 4 P’s (Product – Price – Promotion – Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P’s (People – Processes – Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix.

Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate e-Marketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 + 3 P’s) is built around the concept of “transactional” and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives e-Marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion.

These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any e-Marketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate, operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P’s) and upon each other.

1. Personalization

The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the e-Marketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services.

For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor’s computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a low-volume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer’s experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages.

Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function.

2. Privacy

Privacy is an element of the mix very much connected to the previous one – personalization. When we gather and store information about our customers and potential customers (therefore, when we perform the personalization part of the e-Marketing mix) a crucial issue arises: that of the way this information will be used, and by whom. A major task to do when implementing an e-Marketing strategy is that of creating and developing a policy upon access procedures to the collected information.

This is a duty and a must for any conscious marketer to consider all aspects of privacy, as long as data are collected and stored, data about individual persons.

Privacy is even more important when establishing the e-Marketing mix since there are many regulations and legal aspects to be considered regarding collection and usage of such information.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is one of the necessary and required activities among the support functions needed in transactional situations.

We will connect the apparition of the customer service processes to the inclusion of the “time” parameter in transactions. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is mostly based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw himself somehow forced into considering support and assistance on a non-temporal level, permanently, over time.

For these reasons, we should consider the Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within the e-Marketing mix.

As we can easily figure out, the service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from the classic 4 P’s, hence its moderating character.

4. Community

We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by the existence of this impressive network that the internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a “community” and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community.

The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that the value of a network is given by the number of its components, more exactly the value of a network equals the square of the number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that the value of a community rises with the number of its members. This is the power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it.

The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by the marketer) – therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential.

Interactions among members of such a community can address any of the other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions.

5. Site

We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media – the internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place – a digital location for digital interactions.

Such a location is what we call a “site”, which is the most widespread name for it. It is now the time to mention that the “website” is merely a form of a “site” and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The “site” can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example.

This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of the e-Marketing – it is then a moderating function.

6. Security

The “security” function emerged as an essential function of e-Marketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels.

What we need to keep in mind as marketers are the following two issues on security:

– security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction;

– security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors.

A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with the company’s IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards the customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes.

7. Sales Promotion

At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume.

This function counts on the marketer’s ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan.

On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.

To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from the traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.

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