Musings of a translator

Ein blinder Glaube der Kunden an gestempelte, beglaubigte Übersetzungen

2011-10-26T07:48:00.011+05:30

Wenn mir ein Kunde eine Übersetzungarbeit anvertraut, ist die Sache meistens ganz einfach. Ich übersetze die Texte, sende dem Kunden die Übersetzung mit der Rechnung und er bezahlt mich (hoffentlich, aber das ist eine andere Geschichte!). Die Sache ist damit für die beiden Parteien zufriedenstellend erledigt.

Aber das Posten dieses Blogs beschäftigt sich mit einer anderen Sache. Ab und zu kommt ein Kunde, der es wünscht, dass ich die Übersetzung von einem Notar beglaubigen lassen solle.

Der Kunde versteht eine Sache nicht. Diese Art der Beglaubigung bestätigt bloß die Tatsache, dass ich meine Bestätigung der korrekten Übersetzung in Gegenwart von einem Notar gemacht habe und nichts mehr. Der Notar bestätigt nur, dass ich die obige Bestätigung in seiner Gegenwart unterzeichnet habe. Der Notar ist nämlich für die Richtigkeit meiner eigenen Bestätigung nicht verantwortlich.

Aber manche Leute scheinen einen blinden Glaube an gestempelte Schriftstücken zu haben!!!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Maintenant l'on blogue en français !

2011-10-04T20:29:00.001+05:30

Ayant commencé le blogging en allemand, pourquoi pas en français également ? Voici mon premier billet de blogue en français.

Mon remerciement à Mme Lartet, ma première professeressa française. Sans elle je n'aurais pas été en mesure d'étudier la langue française jusqu'au niveau de diplôme supérieur, il y a plus de 33 ans.

Cordialement,

Dondu N. Raghavan

Natürlich kann ich mich ab und zu auch auf Deutsch-Französich bloggen, oder?

2011-10-04T08:43:00.000+05:30

Ich war der Absicht, die Blogposten auch auf Deutsch bzw Französisch zu schreiben. Dabei blieb es lange Zeit ohne irgendeine Handlung. Nun ist es soweit und ich habe beschlossen, diese Absicht in Tatsache umzusetzen.

Wenn ich als Dolmetscher arbeite, finde ich es seltsam, dass einige deutsche Besucher beim Gespräch alle duzen. Als ein Produkt des Goethe Instituts, finde ich es etwa komisch. Dazu beherrsche ich leider die Konjugation für du nicht ganz genau. Demnach beharre ich auf "Sie". Dies findet nun der Besucher komisch.

Was soll ich tun?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
N. Raghavan

Has the Word 2003 a bee in the bonnet about the passive voice in its spellcheck?

2011-09-05T17:14:00.000+05:30

17:11

I use Word 2003. Whenever I do spell checking, I get cautioned when a passive construction is used. The spell check wants me to reconsider the use of passive voice. I get impatient and just ask it to ignore for once. Unfortunately there is no ignore all button. I have to go on ignoring repeatedly only once each time!

What is wrong with passive construction? In fact, during our college days, all the lab records have to be submitted in passive voice only. The instructions were very formal on this point.

After all we are grown up and do not require such sermonizing on the part of the spell checker.

I am curious. Is the passive construction then so bad that it has to be avoided?

I have posted this in proz forum too. Let us see what my colleagues have to say about this.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Serving as moderators to proz.com

2011-07-28T19:04:00.003+05:30

There is a call for proz members to consider becoming moderators. A forum was specially opened for the same.

When I became an ordinary member way back in 2003, I was quite awed by this portal. I still am grateful to the site, but the awe has given rise to certain skepticism.

While calling for moderators, it is made clear that they are only volunteers and no privilege will be given to them. And this from a commercial Website, which has - indeed should have - a profit motive.

But then, why should a member be a moderator? And as I understand it, only platinum members can become moderators, who pay quite a sum of money already.

Way back in 2003, I saw wonderful moderators such as Ralf Lemster, Kim Metzger and others. These two have ceased to be one and I wonder why. A spate of well known moderators left the scene likewise. At that time there was much talk about it in the proz fora.

On seeing the conditions being imposed on a moderator and the benefits he is likely to get, I am not enamored of becoming one. Which is now beside the point as I am no longer a platinum member.

But yet:

The forum cited above has been locked. A few posts have been made invisible. I am not able to make my points there. Hence this blog post.

The benefits a moderator is supposed to get is expressed in the following words:
Moderators are volunteer members and are not paid for their work. However, there are a number of benefits to participating in the program:

First, serving as a moderator provides an enhanced opportunity to help others benefit from the mission. For a person who has achieved success as a translator or interpreter, or in a translation company, and who has derived benefit from ProZ.com, the moderator program provides an opportunity to give something back by sharing what you have learned with others.

Secondly, as it turns out, helping others to benefit from the mission also allows one to experience the benefits of the mission in a deeper way oneself. For example, because each class of moderators consists of a group of about 100 professionals from around the world, the program provides a great opportunity for personal networking. The camaraderie, and resulting friendships, cross linguistic and geographical boundaries. Also, because of the high profile nature of the role, moderators gain exposure that in some cases may lead to new business opportunities. Finally, as is the case with any professional challenge, the moderator role provides opportunities to advance as a professional and have fun at the same time.

Hope this explains.

No, this does not explain it, I am sorry to say. This can then be claimed for any free work. Surely the recipient of such pro bono work will think along those lines. But why should one consider becoming a moderator?

In the Gotranslators portal. articles are solicited from members and in the event of giving one, they are offered 2 months of gomembership (equivalent to proz's platinum) free of cost. In that way I was a gomember for a period exceeding one year.

Proz can consider such a gesture for moderators. This incentive will surely attract good talent. And by the way this gesture is not exactly new for proz. I was a platinum member of proz for 4 years and I did not spend a single cent for the same. It came about in the following manner.

There was a move to localize proz into Tamil, my mother tongue. Three of us worked on that and a lot of browneys were given to us. It was in this connection that I wanted a platinum membership in exchange of the browneys. I initiated a forum post for this. There were lively discussions on this point. But if you now see that forum post, you will have no inkling of what actually happened.

One fine day in July 2007, I was admitted to the platinum membership for one year against 20000 browney points. Come 2008, there was call for me to renew membership through payment with offer for 1/3 discount against 4000 browney points. I had more than 60000 browney points at that time and I remained adamant about getting platinum membership in the same way.

In July 2008, I was given platinum membership for 3 more years and it lapsed this month. Not much browney points remained and I let the matter go.

My localization into Tamil was considered as valuable contribution and I got the membership. But then moderators too do a valuable service and they should be given at least browney poitns generously and if some of them convert it to platinum membership renewals, why not?

There is precedence for this and I am that precedence.

Proz is a commercial site. It should consider getting the best talents. Just vaguely referring to the dubious mental satisfaction will not wash.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

background information for "Yes Minister"/"Yes Prime Minister"

2010-10-24T20:55:00.003+05:30

First see the video given below.

It is quite self-explanatory, eh? The series was so popular that Mrs Thatcher too wanted to act in it!!!!

While we are about it, do see the video below. Israel plays a major part in the action. Hence it is my favorite, no need to talk further eh?

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

The present Miss France is future interpereter!!!!!!!!

2009-12-06T21:03:00.004+05:30

This good news has come from this post of not just another translation blog from our French colleague Laurent.

For our francophone colleagues no problem, go and read directly in French that post. For others, I give below the English translation.

Your kind attention please, exclusive information! Yours truly has sacrificed his Saturday evening for a highly cultural transmission. He is now giving you this hot news in advance: the new Miss France is an upcoming interpreter!

The news arrived just now: Malika Menard, a girl from Normandie, who is anything but a cow, was elected as Miss France 2010. The 22 year old lady is studying in the third year of the licence course in Applied Foreign Languages (Licence L.E.A.), English-Italian (well, I am reminded of my young days) at Caen, with the idea of becoming conference interpreter.

With such talents, no marks for guessing that whispered interpreting will have a bright future!

Now back to Dondu N. Raghavan. The allusion to a cow may be incomprehensible to the non-francophones. Actually it is word play in the original French blog post. The sentence in original reads, "Malika Menard, une Normande qui n'a rien d'une vache, a été élue Miss France 2010". I was a little foxed by the reference to a vache in this context. Then I took recourse to my colleagues in the word reference forum.

The query raised therein along with the responses can be seen here. Here I was informed that the word Normande refers to a lady from Normandie as well as a cow of the breed Normande.

Hence my allusion to the cow in my translation. Now I went to the original French blog post and gave a comment referring to the word reference forum in question.

Laurent was kind enough in coming to the concerned word reference forum and clarifying as follows.

"I am the author of the original blog post. I was contacted by Raghavan to give some explanation about my sentence. I never meant to make fun about that young lady : I simply made an allusion to the fact that she's from Normandy, but looks nothing like a Normandy cow (Nicomon perfectly understood this).

But anyway, I'm gonna have to correct my blog post: it is not the new Miss France who wants to be interpreter, but Miss Côte d'Azur, who came 6th".

Well, well, even the Miss Côte d'Azur will make a nice whisper interpreter, says Dondu N. Raghavan. :)))

Regards,

Dondu N. Raghavan

"

OCR available in MS Office 2003 itself

2009-11-05T12:56:00.000+05:30

Many thanks to Jill Sommer for her posting on the above subject. This post is solely with a view to bookmark the details. Lest this post should be lost in future further reference is given to this post in German by Textlation.

Thanks a lot folks.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Men become fools while speaking to pretty women

2009-09-05T15:57:00.001+05:30

Don't we all know it? Yet, there are people out to prove it by means of a study.

My friend Chandrasekhar brought my attention to this article by Pat Hagan in Telegraph, UK.

I have seen too often that a pretty but dumb blonde finds it easy almost always to make a very wise man dance to her tune. This is the general consensus. How about making a scientific study on the subject? That is what has been achieved in the research study as mentioned in this post.

Here it has been seen that men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive. Shall we then say, "Chat with not so pretty ladies before attempting some brain teasing tasks"? The answer seems to be in the affirmative.

Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities. And a woman has it easier to find a man and make him interested in having sex with her. A coquettish glance, with occasional brushing of her breasts and other attractive parts against the man's body works wonders. It is quite another matter that a sane woman will not attempt this lightly, lest the man should become too much aroused and is not ready to withdraw if the woman has second thoughts. Hence her usual reticences. We should also remember that it is only the woman who becomes pregnant in the end and not the man!

The study goes on to say that one of the male subjects was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

It was as if he used up all his cognitive resources in trying hard to make an impression on the lady he was reacting with.

To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

In a report on their findings the researchers said: 'We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.'

Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes.

'When a man meets a pretty woman, he is what we call 'reproductively focused'.

'But a woman also looks for signs of other attributes, such as wealth, youth and kindness. Just the look of the man would be unlikely to have the same effect.'

In other words, a woman has her head screwed correctly on her head and does not lose it easily, unlike the man who does.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Fun with machine translation party

2009-08-30T06:28:00.001+05:30

This is my latest post in the translators' portal, proz.com.

There is a lot of (horror) stories about machine translation. My favorite story for the last thirty years goes like this.

The sentence "Out of sight, out of mind" is well known. If you do not see a person for a long time, you tend to forget him. This is true of really famous stars, who suddenly stop acting and fade away from the public gaze. Within a short span of time people just forget them and new people who come on to the scene, have not even heard of them. You got the picture? More about this later.

Let us come back to the sentence, "Out of sight, out of mind". It seems that this sentence was fed into a computer for translation into Russian. The resulting sentence was fed into another computer for translating back into English. The sentence that came out was "Invisible idiot".

You will have to keep in mind that this story has been circulating for more than 30 years and at that time machine translation was not that much known.

Have things become better? I was reading this post about machine translation by google translate and was introduced to this hilarious game.

One sentence in English is to be typed in a box for the purpose of back and forth translation. The moment you click for finding the equilibrium, the machine translation program goes on translating from English into Japanese and back to English and so on, till two successive English sentences are the same. Then you get the message saying that the equilibrium is found.

I give below the result I found. The original sentence describes a beautiful maiden coming to a garden along with her playmates and gets separated from them. She meets a handsome man and falls in love with him. A typical start to a love story.

Original
The young charming heroine out on a game in a garden with her friends gets separated from the latter and wanders around.

into Japanese
彼女の友達と一緒に庭でゲームに小さな魅力的なヒロインを、後者から分離されるの中をうろうろ。

back into English
The heroine in the game in a small attractive garden with her friend, separated from the parade around the latter.

back into Japanese
彼女の友人は、後者の周りのパレードで区切られた小さな魅力的な庭園では、ゲームでのヒロイン。

back into English
Her friend, a charming garden, separated by a small parade around the latter, the heroine of the game.

back into Japanese
彼女の友人は、魅力的な庭園は、後者の周りに小さなパレードで区切られた、ゲームの主人公。

back into English
Her friend, an attractive garden, separated by a small parade around the latter, the hero of the game.

back into Japanese
彼女の友人、魅力的な庭園は、後者の周りに小さなパレードで区切られた、ゲームの主人公。

back into English
Her friend, an attractive garden, separated by a small parade around the latter, the hero of the game.

Equilibrium found! That's deep, man.

I am curious. Let us now try the sentence "Out of sight, out of mind" and see what we get. Here goes:

Original
Out of sight, out of mind

into Japanese
視界の外に心の

back into English
Heart out of sight

back into Japanese
心臓が視力

back into English

Eye heart

back into Japanese
眼部

back into English
Eye

back into Japanese
アイ

back into English
I

back into Japanese
わたし

back into English
I

Equilibrium found!

There you are. Have a nice day.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Modi interview Part - 2

2009-04-28T09:19:00.001+05:30

'The agricultural growth in my Gujarat is 14%, but no one looks at it'

In the first part of his interview, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi toldSaisuresh Sivaswamy and Nikhil Lakshman that he planned to stay on to Gujarat if the National Democratic Alliance formed the next government in New Delhi.

In the second part of the interview, Modi discusses the flavour of the ongoing Lok Sabha election campaign, and his prime ministerial ambitions.

Do you think the development debate in this country has turned pro-business? And that ordinary people are feeling left behind?
You've asked a very good question, and I will be pleased to answer this one.

In my Gujarat I hold the Vibrant Gujarat global investor summit once in two years, on January 13-14. Some 700-800 government officers of mine are involved in it, and I invite industrialists and businessmen to come for the summit and invest in the state.

Also in my state, for one month every year, we hold an agricultural festival in which about a lakh government servants go to the villages in May-June, braving the 44 degree temperatures, sit down with the farmers and work towards agricultural development. You remember what we do for two days out of two years, but where the government travels to the countryside for a month every year and promotes agriculture, you are not interested.

The result of such attitude is that the Manmohan Singh government's targeted agricultural growth of four per cent is stuck at 2.5%. The agricultural growth in my Gujarat is 14%, but no one looks at it.

I have given priority to the girl child's education. Every year on June 13, 14 and 15 my entire government goes to the villages -- and you are also invited to come along -- the chief minister, minister, chief secretary, secretary, IAS officers, all of us go from home to home and get the girl child admitted in schools. And today my state has 100 per cent girl-child enrollment. You don't think this is work?

For news traders only the two-day Vibrant Gujarat is useful which is why they talk about it.

In Gujarat we have the Chiranjeevi scheme -- in this nation everyone from the poor man to the President is against maternal and infant mortality. My government has formulated the Chiranjeevi Yojana under which every below poverty line mother will have her childbirth in hospital, I have started this as a movement, and done partnerships with private doctors. From 40%, today we have 80% to 85% of the deliveries happening in hospitals, thus we have saved the lives of many poor mothers and children. But you are not interested in this.

There is a saying 'justice delayed is justice denied'. Everyone knows of it, you do too. I have done three major things in Gujarat. I have increased court hours by 30 minutes every day; reduced court vacations by seven days; started evening courts with the same infrastructure.

We had 45 lakh cases pending from 2003-2004, to which 65 lakh new cases were added, making it more than one crore pending cases. After our initiatives, there are only 20 lakh pending court cases. Now my target is that by 2010, when Gujarat will complete 50 years, we will make it no-pendency. Cases will be disposed of in the very year they are filed.

You tell me, since Independence, in the field of justice delivery, has so much work been accomplished anywhere?

But, for news traders, these things perhaps are not saleable. Now you tell me if these things are pro-poor or not.

No, we weren't talking only about Gujarat but that in India generally development is seen as benefiting business.
Seen by who? Who are these people? Maybe something is the problem with their eyes. I have given you examples. My Gujarat has the maximum employment.

There are an estimated 80 million people who live on Rs 20 a day. How can their lives be improved?

They should be given employment opportunities. The people of India are willing to work. In Gujarat we have started a movement to provide opportunities, be it in the agriculture sector, infrastructure sector or service sector. We have created a big movement.

Do you think the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is a failure?
No, I have not said anything about it.

They are providing work...
Good, but the maximum poverty in India has moved to the cities, rural poverty has declined. Whereas it has gone up in the cities.

Is it because of rural migration to the cities?
Not because of rural migration. In my Gujarat we have the Jyoti Gram Yojana thanks to which rural migration to cities has ended, all arrangements have been made. Very few of our villagers go to cities, which is a very interesting development about Gujarat.

If you provide urban amenities in villages, they will not go to the cities.

Just see, the UPA has released its manifesto, which you have also published on rediff.com, in which they say they will provide wheat at Rs 3 a kilo to the poor. I was astonished on reading this, that the government in Delhi has no knowledge of what various states are doing for the poor!

In Gujarat we have been providing wheat for the last seven years to those who live below the poverty line at Rs 2 a kg, I have been giving a subsidy of Rs 750 crore from the state treasury. Now I will ask the people, do you want wheat at Rs 2 a kg or Rs 3 a kg? I am giving it cheaper.

This is the state of the Congress party. The Congress had promised that it will provide broadband connectivity across the nation. We are the only state in the world which has broadband connectivity in every village. Thanks to this, today, in my Gujarat, youngsters in the remote areas have enrolled for long-distance education with the best teachers. And the UPA government now talks of providing broadband connectivity! Such a difference!

You don't think the Manmohan Singh government has even one achievement after five years?
I didn't say that. I am saying he did not fulfill his promises to the people. They said they will provide jobs to 1.5 crore people. Did they? They said they will reduce prices. Did they? They said they will repair international relations. Did they? What happened in Nepal? Why don't you ask these questions of them? They will have to answer, in a democracy.

Isn't the nuclear deal an achievement?
The issue is, India has uranium. Earlier the government would make budgetary allocation for uranium exploration. What was the reason for Dr Manmohan Singh, as finance minister, to make it zero budgeting for uranium exploration?

What was the reason when he became PM to halt research into uranium? And what is the reason for him enter into a restrictive agreement with foreign nations for the same uranium? Now the question arises.

After the nuclear deal the whole world accepts India as a nuclear power.
I am saying the world is accepting you as a nuclear power not because of the deal but because Atal Bihari Vajpayee dared America and went ahead with the nuclear tests. If we had not done it, who would have accepted us as a nuclear power?

If Vajpayeeji had succumbed to American pressure we would have been left high and dry and not become a nuclear power. This happened when India's leadership showed steel. Not because of some deal.

You know that India has the world's largest population of youth. This could be a demographic bonus or a demographic time bomb, depending on how they are harnessed.
There was a time when it was believed that population was a problem, but the way the world's economic environment has since changed, India's population is considered an asset. The same advantage is with China also.

But if these young people don't get jobs, it could lead to major social unrest.
I don't accept this theory. The youth have talent -- they don't want a job, they want work. They want to develop their skills. China has begun work on some 80,000 skill development projects, whereas the Indian government has started only 600.

I told the PM at a meeting, 'What are we doing? By itself my state is running 2,000 skill development projects and I want to increase this number by the hundreds, have public-private partnerships.'

Our youth need value-addition, they are capable of doing it and they are doing it. They should be given an opportunity.

Similarly, if an opportunity is given, will you lead the nation?

I believe that the chief ministers of even the smallest Indian states are major instruments of powering the nation. And I, as a chief minister, am part of running the nation.

Will you deny that you have no ambition whatsoever to become the prime minister?

I have a mission, not ambition. I was not born to become something, I was born to do something.

I did not have a desire to become somebody when I was a child, I don't have it now, nor will I have it in the future.

I have a dream, to do something. I want to do something for the nation. I am part of the mission, not ambition.

Ambition doesn't inspire me, mission does.

What are the other things that drive Narendra Modi?
Only devotion to Bharat Mata. That is enough for me.

What are the challenges that face India today?
We have a 100 crore population, which presents us with an opportunity to make the 21st century ours, to unleash the energy in the common man and take the nation forward. This is a big opportunity, and we should grab it.

Do you see any trends in the current general election, or do think it is just like any other election, full of personal attacks on each other?
Every election has its own character. The 1952 elections were different, 1957, 1962 were different, etc. The issues are different. Some elections were personality-centric, in some others the media was at the centre, etc, when the focus is on current events. In such a big nation, it is natural for the focus to change every time.

If you had the choice, what would you wish this election to be about?
I want there to be a strong government, a decisive government, with an experienced and strong leader at the helm. There should be a government that solves problems. And I see such a capability, drive to do something for the nation, in the NDA led by Advaniji.

You said every election has its own complexion. In the present election, your party's young leader Varun Gandhi has suddenly changed its complexion.
You please wait till the election results are out.

Do you agree with what Varun Gandhi said about Muslims?
You have seen the Uttar Pradesh elections, what result was thrown up there. You can well analyse the situation yourself.

No, we are asking your opinion.
The nation doesn't run on my opinion. I request you to analyse the situation on the basis of track record and draw your conclusions. That will be best.

But Varun Gandhi does not have a track record, this is his maiden election.
Arre, analyse from where it all began.

Is there a leader in India who you admire, who you feel have something in them?
Lal Krishna Advani.

Anyone else?
You asked for a leader, I gave you one.

Anyone else?
For anyone else, you meet me in June.

Mayawatiji?
I will tell you in June.

How do you feel when in a party like the BJP which is considered disciplined, there is unhappiness at the top, where someone like Arun Jaitley feels miffed?

I am involved in Gujarat's affairs, I don't get involved in what is going on outside Gujarat.

You haven't answered the question.
Of course, I have answered your question, it's a different matter if you don't like my answer.

Who is your leadership model? Who are you inspired by?
From my childhood I have been influenced by Swami Vivekanandji's life. I have studied his life, and live by it. I don't cross the limit.

If L K Advani were to become prime minister, what will be your advice to him?
There's no reason for him to seek my advice, because it is I who seeks his advice.

You are being very modest.
No, no, this is the reality of my life.

Considering your experience in running the state, your voice should be heard in Delhi...
Advaniji is more experienced than I am, he was in Morarjibhai's (Morarji Desai, the first non-Congress prime minister of India) government, he was in Atalji's government, he has been a deputy prime minister, Delhi Metropolitan Council chief executive? He has the maximum experience in administration.

Isn't this the problem with Indian politics? Too much credit is given to age and experience while someone who is younger and more dynamic, more efficient is ignored...
Let me share my experience with you. Please don't take this in any other way, and don't give a political colour to it, it's of no use.

I am saying this as a student. We should compare any two prime ministers, and here I will take the names of two Congress prime ministers. Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao.

Rajiv Gandhi was young and dynamic, had foreign exposure, he had everything, was good-looking, charismatic. Narasimha Rao had retired completely from public life, but had to suddenly return to active politics. Healthwise, and looks-wise, he was different.

But who ran the government better for five years? Who provided India a better leadership? If you think about it, Narasimha Rao's government was connected to the masses, and the nation benefited.

One simple reason: India is such a large nation, with so many languages, and only someone who has been around for a long time can solve its problems. So in this case, he was successful.

If you look at India's political history, too, only such people have succeeded.

But Narasimha Rao's government was accused of corruption.
Look, it was less compared to the Bofors scandal. I am not calling him great. I am merely saying, in comparison, who was plus and who was minus, I am only saying that. I am not giving Narasimha Rao any certificate. Bofors was no less. I am saying, compare the two and see who comes off better.

Both had pluses and minuses.
But the ultimate plus, was more with him though I agree no one has only negative aspects. And that is because for years he was involved with the situation, with the problems, any issues in Nagaland he could sit here and discern if this was the case, then that would be the outcome. Because he had experience, vision. He wielded a lot of power in such a large country.

In October it will be eight years since you became chief minister. What are the remarkable changes have you seen in India and Indian politics in this time?

First thing: In Vajpayeeji's time the nation got the most peaceable experience of a coalition government. He ran one for six years! There was a time when there various demands, for Dravidstan, Khalistan etc. He removed all these negative aspirations before us, and converted them into a positive one and took the road to development. I believe Vajpayeeji made immense contribution to the nation.

Second, terrorism would not be discussed on the international level but only the Kashmir issue will be debated. The world did not listen to us, and we were the losers. It was Atalji's strength that he converted the Kashmir issue into a debate on terrorism and set the agenda for the future. He brought the world to his side on terrorism. He parlayed the nation's might in international forums.

You praise Mr Vajpayee so highly, but why do you think his government's India Shining campaign backfired in 2004?
This issue was debated abundantly at that time. What had to be said, has been said. So I think we should discuss the present election, and the situation surrounding it.

How much time do you spend on politics?
In a way, if I say it myself it will seem immodest, but the reality is I am an apolitical chief minister. I leave for office at 9 am, and am there till 11 pm. Only during the elections, for those 30, 40 days, I spend my time on party work, otherwise the rest of my time I spend as an apolitical chief minister. I am not interested in this type of political activity..

People say this time you got your way with the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
We have a collective leadership, a democratic system. We heard the opinions of 10,000 party workers, the state team went to every district, and after listening to everyone we debated the findings from which we zoomed in on the plus points and minus points of various potential candidates.

The state's 17-member team met them and gave their opinion. Then the decision from the grass-roots was conveyed to Delhi, and not to the chief minister.

In Delhi the 21-member team discussed the choice for hours and after this exercise whatever the Delhi team decided, I accepted it. This was the entire process.

But the focus is on four tainted candidates.
Like who?

Mr Rathod, for one.
You know Indian law states that no criminal can contest elections. If these people are criminals, how can they contest? Second, he was a Congress MLA. Was anything published about him for the last one-and-a-half years, so why has this issue been raked up now? You are in the dock for your question, not my party.

It's simple, if the matter was so serious, if you are really concerned for democracy, why didn't you highlight this issue the last time when Rathod was the candidate too?

It was not my question, but yours. It is your job to find out the truth from the constituency. Leave aside the common man, what would you have done? If the question is being asked today, it means it is a politically motivated campaign, and not the reality.

He was a sitting Congress MLA. He is not fighting elections after joining the BJP. Last year he conducted the marriage of below 3,000 poverty line couples.

But we wrote about all that as well.
I don't know. If you did, it's good. Sure, if there's a case against him, please highlight it. I am responsible for it. But if the court has acquitted him and if you still insist I am responsible, it's unfair to me.

Don't miss the concluding part of the interview with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi next week, in which he finally talks about the 2002 riots, terrorism, and the connection between the two.

Now back to Dondu N. Raghavan. The interviewer is trying his level best to make Modi shoot his mouth about things that are not to be talked about as felt by Modi. But Modi shows himself to be a more than adequate match to the questioner. I was reminded of Rajdeep Sardesai, who, unable to digest Modi's victory in the state polls in the year 2007, tried to stir up things with provocative questions about Modi now having ambitions about the PM's chair and was unceremoneously silenced by the BJP spokesperson Mr. Ravishankar Prasad. I am gratified even now to think of the abahed look of Rajdip Sardesai.

Let us await the concluding part of the interview.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

The nation is waiting for a strong, experienced leader - Will Modi oblige?

2009-04-10T05:12:00.005+05:30

My dear friend Chandrasekhar has kindly forwarded me this interview given by our irrepressible Narendra Modi. My sincere thanks for the same. Let us go to the interview given below, with the questions in bold italics. Then I will get back to you as usual.

How long will Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi stay on in the state? Does he harbour prime ministerial ambition? Does he see a greater role for himself at the Centre if a Bharatiya Janata Party-led dispensation were to assume power after the election? Does he see a connection between the anti-Muslims riots that rocked his state in 2002 and terrorism?
Rediff.com's Saisuresh Sivaswamy and Nikhil Lakshman met Modi at the chief minister's home in Gandhinagar to find out the answers. The first part of a 70-minute exclusive interview:

Why do you believe that L K Advani is a better leader than Manmohan Singh?
It's very simple, Dr Manmohan Singhji in reality is not a leader, and he has himself said that he is not a leader. The nation cannot be ruled by an academician, it can be run only by a leader. What was Indiraji (Indira Gandhi)'s education was never an issue, but she was a leader. (P V) Narasimha Rao was a leader. Only those who know the pulse of the nation can run it.
Lal Bahadur Shastri knew the pulse of the nation very well, which is why he was able to leave his imprint on the nation in such a short time. Atal Bihari Vajpayee knew the pulse of the nation, Morarjibhai (Morarji Desai) knew the pulse of the nation, Chandra Shekharji was a mass leader. We also had (H D) Deve Gowdaji who had never left Karnataka, Indra Kumar Gujralji thankfully never made any claims. Manmohan Singhji is like that.
That is why I say the nation needs a leader. Dr Manmohan Singh has not even visited all the states in the five years of his prime ministership, while Advaniji is a leader who has, at some point in time, spent a night in our 400 districts.
He knows the entire land, there is not a stain on him, he is blemishless, has vast administrative experience having served in various Cabinets, and fulfilled his responsibilities to everyone's satisfaction, whether it was as the chief executive of the Delhi metropolitan council or as information and broadcasting minister or deputy prime minister. Advaniji rose from the ranks to become a mass leader, there's a world of difference between the two.

It is said that in a nation where some 540 million people are under the age of 30, Advani seems out of sync with them, and the nation needs a leader like Narendra Modi?
If you are using age as the basis, how are you differentiating between Advaniji and Manmohan Singh? I am thankful to the Congress for at least announcing that Manmohan Singh is their prime ministerial candidate, it will help the people decide in whose hand to hand over the reins of power. The nation will now choose between Manmohan Singh and Advaniji. There is no third option before us, so there is no need to get into that debate and waste our time. Now see the age factor for both, there's no problem.

How do you feel when people talk about you as a potential prime minister?
But no one has said that to me!

Industrialists have endorsed your leadership and said...
You please read their statement carefully, none of them has used the words 'prime minister', none. You check it, no one has said it.

If you were to look at the postings on rediff message boards, in any story about Indian politics at least 50 per cent of the readers say we need Narendra Modi as prime minister.
But have they stated any timeframe? (laughs) Please ask them about the time, too.

Time is in your hands, obviously.
Time is in the hands of the people.
Anyway, I have no idea of this, because wherever I go, when I announce that Advaniji will be the next prime minister the people are happy and cheer wildly. This is what I hear.

If the NDA were to win the election what will be your role?
I am the chief minister of Gujarat, and I believe no one will remove me as the chief minister of Gujarat.

But how long will you stay in Gujarat, after all you came here from Delhi...
I don't even worry about what is going to happen this evening, so what you ask is not on Narendra Modi's agenda.

You are seen as the poster boy of development in the country.
I don't understand, what is poster boy? I work like a labourer, not like a model. I am a man who works 24 hours a day. In eight years have not taken even a 15-minute vacation.

What is your vision for India?
Given the present situation in the world, India has a great chance to become a powerful nation. The 21st century can become India's if only all of us strove together with all our energies.

Another thing I believe is that development must be a mass movement. The 100 crore citizens should feel motivated to take the nation forward -- we must create such an atmosphere. Media must be a part of development. (Then President A P J ) Abdul Kalam used to say the media's role in development is very important.

What is your mantra for management?
Actually, I am not a manager, I am simply an organiser. And since my childhood I had training in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, so I know the human wealth, what is the value of human wealth and how to use human resources, how to form teamwork. This is my training and because I got exposure as a CM, I tasted success.

Although you had no real experience in running a state before this, your style of running a state has become a model for other chief ministers. Everyone wants to become another Modi.
I don't claim so. As far as Narendra Modi is concerned I think it's my responsibility, I have to deliver the goods as it is my commitment to the people of Gujarat. And if anything new is there, I try to learn. Even I am a student.

I believe you get up very early in the morning, and look at the Internet and read all newspapers on the Net and check what's going on, so you continuously invent yourself as a politician...
Actually I am a student of political science, so it's my natural habit. The second thing is, I was in Delhi for a long time so I used to read newspapers on the Internet, particularly Gujarati newspapers. When I left Delhi and came to Gujarat I was habituated to read the Delhi newspapers, so I was using the Internet.

I do believe that one must have information channels. If a person is well informed, he can take better decisions, he can guide the people, he can make a proper judgement of the situation. So for me the Net is a source of information, the mobile phone is a source of information, it connects me with the people. I can reach out to everyone through this. That information helps me take decisions.

As a student of political science, how do you see the coming elections?
There are three camps in this election. One is the BJP-led NDA, the second is the Congress-led UPA, and the third is those who left the UPA, those who have not accepted anyone, those who want their own, they have their own problems. They are working as a Third Front.
On one side we have the family-oriented ideology of the Congress, another side we have money power, and then we have the nationalist ideology of the BJP. This is inevitable.
As the election nears, polarisation will happen, towards the BJP-led camp or the Congress-led camp. The rest are inconsequential, nothing much will happen.
And I am seeing it clearly that the nation wants a strong government, the nation is waiting for an experienced, strong leader.
For all these reasons... on the other hand, the failures of the government, price rise, unemployment, and their many false promises.
I can understand if the nation's expectations are not fulfilled, but when the government's promises are not fulfilled -- I am unable to swallow it.
They first said we will provide employment to 1.5 crore people, but are now saying that five lakh people will lose jobs. This is a major contradiction! They say -- we are the government of the aam-aadmi (common man), but they have been unable to halt price rise. In Atalji's time, when his government demitted office, onions were sold at Rs 8 a kg, today it costs Rs 16 a kg. Cooking gas cylinder was available for Rs 270, today it costs Rs 370. Their failures are linked to the aam-aadmi.
Security is an important issue, how do you propose to deal with security when the Taliban is poised to take over over all of Pakistan, they have reached Karachi. Naturally, the common man is perturbed.
Bhai, who do we trust to safeguard us? Like this there are many reasons why they are rejecting the UPA or Manmohan Singh.

Do you think the era of coalition governments in India will soon come to an end?
The era of coalitions will continue, but it will be good if the national party is strong and the regional parties add to that strength. That will be the best model.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee had given us such a model for governance -- first you arrive at a consensus in the Cabinet and then you take decisions. That was the best model.

How do you explain the fact that both Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have opted for a stable one-party government while the country itself chooses coalitions?
The two are different. If you start comparing the states versus the Centre, the point is regional aspirations are growing, and I think national parties will have to address it and carry everyone along. They will have to keep in mind the development-related issues of the smaller states.

What are the deficiencies in our democracy, in your opinion, and how can it be rectified?
I think after independence we have laid greater emphasis on right, and less emphasis on duty. It would be better if we give more emphasis to duty.
In Gujarat, for instance, I have laid emphasis on a public-private partnership, like with rainwater harvesting, I involve the public. Because crores are helping, my rainwater harvesting is doing well. I have aroused the sense of duty in them, and if the same can be done nationwide it will be good.
For us democracy has become a vote-giving exercise, and we give out five-year contracts to run the government. We ask for accountability after five years. But I think this way we have extracted only the least from democracy. I believe that in everything we do, the people's involvement should be there.
After voting the people and government go their different ways -- this is not acceptable. Gujarat has developed the model where the public has a stake in everything, the people are carried along in everything.

Back to Dondu N. Raghavan. A really candid interview given by Modi. The nation requires persons of the caliber of Modi and Advaniji. I hope that the people give a clear verdict in favor of NDA. The nation is in need of a Government, whose existence is not at the mercy of the whims and likes and dislikes of a vocal minority group. A leader of caliber like Modi and Advani is the need of the hour.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

'Why shouldn't Brahmin community get reservation?

2009-03-31T16:40:00.003+05:30

My friend Chandrasekhar forwarded this news to me. My thanks to him for this. First the concerned news item given below in bold italics. It will be followed as usual by my remarks.

Sattanathapuram Venkataraman Shekher is a popular playwright, producer and director in the Tamil film industry. He is also the sitting All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member of the legislative assembly from Mylapore, Chennai.

Popularly known as S Ve Shekher, he shares his mobile number with all the residents of his constituency and is always accessible to them.

He recently created a flutter when he announced his decision to resign from the AIADMK. He also submitted a memorandum to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on March 30, asking for seven per cent reservation for the Brahmin community.

He explains his reasons behind leaving the AIADMK to rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, you have announced your decision to quit the AIADMK. Why did you make this announcement now?

I didn't think of the time when I made the announcement. Local party members have been avoiding me for quite some time. I felt that enough is enough. There is no support from party supremo J Jayalalithaa also. The AIADMK is one party where if Jayalalithaa is affectionate towards you, the entire party cadre will support you. Otherwise, the party will throw you out.

You are liked by the people of your constituency because of your accessibility. Is your party chief not happy with your work?

Those things don't count at all. Nobody is bothered about your work. The only thing that works is loyalty. Yes, I accepted Jayalalitha as the chief of the party.

Did any particular incident trigger off your decision to quit the party?

No particular incident prompted my decision; there have been so many continuous incidents. When I joined the AIADMK, the party offered me the ticket to contest without me asking for it, and the party funded my election expenses. But I am basically a strong supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party [Images].

Why didn't you join the BJP then?

The ideology of both the parties is the same. I knew Jayalalitha and she also knew me but (BJP leaders) Atal Bihari Vajpayee or L K Advani [Images] didn't know me. I know only the BJP leaders from Tamil Nadu.

Though the AIADMK was a good party, I think I was not suitable for the party mentality. I thought they would utilise my popularity for the party's benefit. But the party wanted me to put on the mask of the party. It is not possible for me.

Did anyone ask you to put on the AIADMK mask?

I am loyal to the party and its supremo but beyond that, I don't know how to act. I am not a 100 per cent politician. I joined politics because I do a lot of social service and politics gives me more power to do that. I run a public charitable trust. Every year, I spend Rs 5-6 lakh on charity. Every month, I make the arrangements for the burial of 15-20 unclaimed bodies in hospitals. I am a regular blood donor. So, politics is not a profession for me.

I have never fallen at her feet and I know she doesn't expect me to do so. I requested her to be there for my daughter's wedding and also do the puja of my son's first film but she didn't come for either. These are personal things.

My brother's wife is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, so she had invited the Chief Minister (M Karunanidhi) for her son's wedding. As the eldest in the family, I received the chief minister with respect. That was construed as a big mistake!

How did Jayalalithaa get to know about the CM attending the wedding?

There is a team to convey such news to her! In 2006, I was the vice-chairman of the International Film Festival here. For that festival, Dayanidhi Maran was invited. Because I shared the dais with Maran, she refused to come to my 5000th show, though I had publicised her likely presence. On the same day, I changed my show's number and celebrated it as my 5007th show!

These are the kind of punishments you get in this party. I cannot surrender myself to the party. I cannot say AIADMK is my life. I have so many other important things in my life. Meeting opposition party members cannot be construed as a crime.

Were you summoned?

No, I was not summoned. All they do is ignore you. I have been ignored completely from 2006.

Do you feel that politicians of Tamil Nadu lack maturity?

You cannot say they are immature. When you say they are not mature, it comes closer to maturity! You may belong to a different party and you may have a different opinion. But that does not mean that you look at the other person as your enemy. You see Advani and (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi standing side by side but you won't see such a thing in Tamil Nadu.

Are you planning to join the BJP now?

Which party would want S Ve Shekher? I don't want to repeat the mistake I made earlier, so I will take a decision after a lot of deliberation because I want to be part of that party forever. I don't want to be a local person; I want to go to Delhi.

Are you planning to resign from the AIADMK?

Definitely. Now, I will give a memorandum to the chief minister asking for seven per cent reservation for the Brahmin community (he submitted it on March 30). If the government appoints a committee, I will resign from the Mylapore constituency. In a by-election, it is always the ruling party that wins.

Why do you feel Brahmins need reservation in Tamil Nadu?

Why should they not get reservation? In Tamil Nadu, 69 per cent of the people get reservation and ninety five per cent of people enjoy some kind of reservation except the forward community. Where is social justice? There are over 40 lakh Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. It is the government's duty to give equal opportunities to everyone. Brahmins have been eliminated, insulted and sidelined in so many ways. You cannot punish people for what happened over 50-60 years ago.

Now that you are talking to the press about your decision to quit, what is the feedback that you are getting from your party chief?

You don't know the AIADMK. Once the party starts ignoring you, they don't bother about what you do.

Usually, people switch parties when they have some case regsistered against them. I have never been booked for anything -- not even for riding double on a bicycle. I am an MLA but I don't go in the opposite direction on a one-way street, I don't park in a no-parking zone. I am a 100 per cent law abiding citizen.

Once I decide to quit, I will send a letter to the party supremo and I will conduct a sms poll on the decision. I will hold a public meeting in my constituency as I feel I have a responsibility to the people who voted for me. At the public meeting, I will tell the people how I joined the party, why I am resigning and what I will do now.

Now back to Dondu N. Raghavan. S.V. Sekhar should have taken this step long back. Anyhow, better late than never. The only consolation is that he did not indulge the Dravidian culture of falling at the feet of worthless "leaders" such as Jayalalitha or Karunanidhi. He kept his distance. To that extent he is a far cry from the dyed-in-the-wool politician of Tamil Nadu. My best wishes to him.

I am not, however, in favor of reservation for Brahmins.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

The untold story by Ronald Kitching as to how Friederich von Hayek caught inflation by the balls

2009-03-09T16:12:00.008+05:30

My dear friend Chandrasekhar sporting the name of Hayek Order sent me an interesting email relating an anecdote about the Nobel price winning Austrian economist Hayek. Thanks. Pending its blogging in Tamil I am posting this item here too in bold italics. The 'I' in the following paras refers to Ronald Kitching of course.

The great Nobel Prize winning economist/social scientist F. A. Hayek made a month long lecture tour of Australia in October 1976. There is a bit of an inside story to this tour which so far few know about. Hayek was invited to Australia for a lecture tour by economist Mark Tier. However, Hayek, at that time, had to decline, but as circumstances changed and as he did not know anybody else in Australia, he wrote a note to Sydney Economist/Barrister Roger Randerson, whom he once tutored at The London School of Economics, saying that he could squeeze in a month before going on previously scheduled visits to new Zealand and Japan.

Roger and I were good mates so he rang me with the good news. I then suggested to Roger that he immediately write back to Hayek and ask what his fee would be. I can still quote the answer. Hayek replied saying:

Should first class return airfares be provided for my wife and myself both internationally and nationally, and first class accommodation be provided for us, and also providing that my lectures are confined to no more than two per week, there will be no fee.

Roger estimated that the total cost would be approximately $25,000. As he was well connected in the commercial world and I was well connected with the Australian Mining Industry, we thought that it would be an easy matter to get the tour underwritten. So we set off to see what we could do. After a week’s travelling and lobbying, I could not find a single executive willing to undertake part in such a ‘revolutionary’ activity. I returned to my home rather dispirited about it all. I rang Roger to see how he was doing.

He replied to my query, “My boy, nobody wants to know me. They are all running for cover.” I then went on to say that the average answer I got was, “We cannot be seen to be endorsing the right wing views of such a radical figure.” He replied that that was precisely the response he got too.

So, I said, “Bugger it all Roger, I’ll underwrite the tour myself”. He replied, “I won’t see you do that my boy, I’ll go you halves”.

So, with that settled, I suggested that we again go around the traps, and, seeing the tour was underwritten by somebody who wished to remain anonymous, try to see what could be raised for the venture. We were ably assisted in this effort by Mr. Ref Kemp, Director of The Institute For Public Affairs in Victoria, Mr. Viv Forbes in Brisbane, and Mr. R. H. (now Sir Robert), Norman OBE of Cairns. Roger published a booklet titled Social Justice Socialism and Democracy featuring three of Hayek’s most important lectures. In that small book he said,

Many publicly spirited citizens, institutions and organisations donated, (numbering no fewer than 62, in sums ranging from $50 to $2,000) towards the visit, but no list is given because some wish to be nameless. Their generosity is, however, gratefully acknowledged.

The Hayek visit was a co-operative private enterprise. Indeed it had to be, because approaches at high levels for concessions from government owned or controlled internal and external airlines were refused.

There were complaints from high level ‘intellectuals’, that the visit was everything from a white washing of dangerous capitalist ideology, a political plot of ever devious Jews, to a ‘bankers plot’. Hayek incidentally was a non- practising Catholic. He was in great form and he appeared as Guest of Honour on the hour long Monday Conference with Robert Moore, and televised by the ABC network in all states on October 11th 1976. In addition, in total he kept no less than 60 appointments, including visits to heads of state, seminar and lecturing engagements. A very heavy schedule for anybody, but at that time Hayek was 76 years of age. He was in scintillating form.

Roger decided that in the middle of the tour he would give him four days off on the Atherton Tableland. I had a spacious home there and as half of my six children were away at boarding school, we had ample room to accommodate Roger, and Professor and Mrs. Hayek. When he arrived we had a celebratory drink of his favourite tipple, Johnny Walker black label. “When ever I drink this brand of Scotch” Hayek announced, “I get ideas beyond my station”. He was a past master at putting people at ease.

He then noticed hanging on the wall of the bar, a large picture of a magnificent Brahman Bull I owned. He asked about the Bull, so I told him he was a prize winning show bull which I had nicknamed Inflation as he would not stop growing. “He weighs 3,000 pounds in his working clothes,” I told the small gathering present.

Hayek laughed and said that he knew a bit about inflation and that he would like to meet this one. I told him that compared with the inflations he had witnessed, that this one was rather tame and that my boys jumped on to his back in the paddock. “I even jump on his back when he is in the yard and I can climb up the rails to do so,” I told him.

“Well, while I am here, I would like to meet him,” Hayek exclaimed. So I put that on the agenda.

I got this bright idea that I’d put the bull in the yard, get a step ladder put Hayek on the bull, (if he agreed), and take a picture which would carry the caption Hayek’s on Top Of Inflation. I told my wife and that was the end of it. She would not under any circumstances countenance such a move. “What if the Professor fell off and was injured,” and all of that sort of chatter. So that project was abandoned.

Nevertheless Hayek still wanted to meet the bull. Next day I took him down the paddock and took several pictures of him and the bull when another idea popped into my head and I quietly mentioned it to him. He was delighted to have a bit of fun. The caption of course was to beHayek¹s Got Inflation By The Balls.

Well the old boy was delighted. He was quite at home with animals and had palled up with the bull, which was an easy matter with this particular animal. So he posed and I took the picture. He predicted that if the Americans got hold of a copy, the picture would become famous.

I am happy to announce that not long ago, I heard from Dr. Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute in London. He told me that at a recent luncheon in London, Mrs. Thatcher, much to her delight, had a picture presented to her of her favourite Economist/Philosopher and with Inflation by the balls. Hayek’s grand daughter was present and read out the above story.

Hayek with Inflaton the bull

Ronald Kitching is a life member of the Mont Pelerin Society who made a major contribution to F.A. Hayek’s lecture tour of Australia in 1976 . He also authored the book “Understanding Personal and Economic Liberty”.

Back to Dondu N. Raghavan.

In the face of widespread discouragement to the entire idea of Hayek's tour, it is heartening to see the initiative of the author and his friend in making it possible.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Dastardly attack on the srilankan cricket team in Pakistan

2009-03-03T10:24:00.001+05:30

LAHORE: An official says eight members of Sri Lanka's national cricket team have been wounded after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Lahore, Pakistan, AP reports.

Pakistan Cricket Board security official Nadeem Iqbal says the team members were injured near the Gaddafi stadium where they were due to arrive to play in the second test against Pakistan.

Sri Lankan team manager Brendon Kruppu confirmed the incident and said the team's players, Kumar Sangakkara and Ajantha Mendis, are among the injured.

"We are assessing the situation," Pakistan cricket board chief Ejaz Butt said.

In Sri Lanka, sports minister Gamini Lokuge said two other players, Tharanga Paranavitana and Thilan Samaraweera, had been taken to hospital in Lahore, AFP reports.

Unidentified gunmen attacked the bus taking the Sri Lankan cricket squad and its police escort to a cricket stadium in Lahore, according to witnesses and cricket officials.

Five policemen have also been killed as the police van escorting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore was fired upon, confirms the police chief in Lahore.

The Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan stands cancelled.

Security concerns have plagued Pakistan for years and some foreign sports teams have refused to play here.

What is the world coming to?

regards,
N. Raghavan

The more things change, the same they remain

2009-02-20T15:53:00.003+05:30

It is actually coming across something that was wholly unexpected but was welcome by all means. A sort of pleasant surprise, one can say. I refer to the interview given by Cho way back in 2005. The funny thing is, it is fully relevant even today. This then explains the title of this post. A sort of déjà vu, I should say.

Cho Ramaswamy, political analyst and editor of the Tamil magazine Thuglak, was said to be the only man in Tamil Nadu who spoke openly and courageously against the Emergency. In this interview with Shobha Warrier, he recalls those dark days, most of the time satirically. It is always a pleasure talking to him and listening to him airing contrarian views.

How did you take the news of the declaration of the Emergency? Did you have a feeling that it was coming?
Mine was the only journal in the country that wrote that there could be an Emergency regime. We even published a mock cartoon, which showed JP, Kripalani, Morarji and many others in jail. In this imaginary piece, we said that all fundamental rights had been taken away. Of course, we exaggerated the prevailing situation before the Emergency.

What gave you the idea that the Emergency would be declared? We never had anything like that in India till then?
I had been interacting with many people like Chandrasekhar. The way things were going, I thought Mrs. (Indira) Gandhi might feel she was fighting a losing game mainly because of what was happening due to the JP movement. Of course, for her, the last straw was the Allahabad high court judgment.

Once the Emergency was declared, did you feel vindicated?
It's not a question of vindication. When VP Singh became the prime minister, I said the very same Devi Lal who propped him up could dump him and back Chandrasekhar quite soon. It happened.

Was it premonition?
It was not premonition. I can give you a list of things, which we had predicted. I asked Mrs. Gandhi in an interview, 'How long do you think Bangladesh will remain friendly?' I said it's going to be a problem for her. She asked, 'Why do you say so?' I said that was how I felt. She didn't agree. She said it was exaggerated.

When the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam set foot in India, I wrote it was going to be a menace as far as Tamil Nadu was concerned, and that we must sit up and take notice. I started campaigning against it. Everybody thought I was exaggerating a non-existent threat. Everybody thought I was anti-Tamil but ultimately it proved to be true.

When the Janata government came to power, I said Charan Singh was going to be a threat. When Sanjiva Reddy was elected President, I said he would be a problem to the government.

When the Emergency was declared, you were the editor of Thuglak. What were the problems you faced?
I was agitated initially and stopped the publication of Thuglak for two issues. Later, when I restarted, I published a black wrapper. In fact, two issues of Thuglak had black wrappers; one was during the Emergency and the other after Babri Masjid was pulled down.

Why did you restart after two issues?
I wanted some time to think and see how I could tackle it. I was busy writing for underground magazines, and also addressing meetings. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mostly did these underground magazines. That is how I came into contact with them. They were very dedicated people publishing magazines against all odds.

Then, I started interacting with Ramnath Goenka. I had nothing to lose at that time but not Goenka. I used to say, I don't even have hair on my head to lose!! Goenka had an empire at stake. So also Irani. In spite of it, they spoke against the Emergency. Their courage is much greater than mine because I was a man with nothing to lose.

At any point of time, were you scared?
Somehow, my safety didn't bother me much. I am a fatalist. I strongly believe that when my time comes, nobody could do anything to make me live longer. Otherwise, even if you want to kill me, you will not be able to do so (laughs).

I restarted the magazine when I felt I could convey some messages to the people. There was an old Tamil movie called Sarvadhikari (Dictator) made in the fifties. I reviewed the movie during the Emergency. Luckily, it was showing in a theatre at the time. In the review, I condemned the dictatorship. A woman was behind it too! There were so many indirect ways to criticise the Emergency.

Didn't you have any problems with the censors?
I had problems. When I did these things, they started censoring even the advertisements. In the name of advertisement, I was sending messages. Ours was the only journal in the whole country for which even censorship of advertisement was clamped.

I was a regular visitor, with my magazine, to Sastri Bhavan, where the censors sat. I even took my salary to him telling, "This belongs to you. You are the editor!"

Were they amused?
They were embarrassed all the time. They were helpless. The governor's advisors warned me. I said I was not bothered.

Every issue was a problem. But I addressed meetings though meetings were banned. The Congress (O) was sponsoring meetings.

Please don't forget that I was not the only one who fought; there were many others. Rajmohan Gandhi fought it through Himmat. Goenka fought it. Irani did.

But all the time I knew the Emergency would be lifted sooner than later. I was saying that in all the meetings as it was becoming difficult to manage.

How was the general atmosphere in Tamil Nadu? Were there any excesses?
Karunanidhi was undecided. He went on praising Mrs. Gandhi now and then. Before he was dismissed, he supported the 20-point program, he supported Sanjay Gandhi's 5-point program. He thought he could escape by supporting her. He went to the extent of saying I am not your enemy. In fact, I am prepared to identify and give you information about people who are against you.

MGR also supported Mrs. Gandhi?
Yes, and Mrs. Gandhi preferred him to Karunanidhi. So, Karunanidhi had to be in the opposite camp. He became a reluctant opponent of the Emergency. Later on, he put on the mantle of a great fighter against the Emergency. But he was never happy with the Janata grouping because they were not prepared to withdraw the Sarakaria commission report and all that.

MGR kept warning me in his speeches that I would be arrested any time. But I was not arrested.

Why do you think they spared you even after your attacking (though indirectly) through the Thuglak?
It could have been my proximity to Kamaraj. The second reason could be that my father was a respected Congressman. Third, perhaps they thought "He is after all a satirist, let him say whatever he wants in an indirect fashion!"

Rajmohan (Gandhi) was not arrested. Goenka was not arrested. Irani was not arrested. All of them were working against the Emergency.

Were you at the receiving end of any direct or indirect threats?
Yes. People who were close to Sanjay Gandhi were asking him to do something about me. Certain industrialist friends of mine used to warn me. But nothing happened. I cannot say I went through hell and all that.

Were you getting a kind of pleasure by attacking the Emergency? A sense of adventure?
I think it must have been some kind of a thrill because I was only a five-year-old journalist then. My journal was launched in 1970. In hindsight, I feel I must have been thrilled fighting a mighty power. It could be that.

You said when the Emergency was lifted you were expecting it. Did you feel relieved when it was finally lifted?
It was no great relief or pain or anything. I took it in my stride, that's all. But I campaigned for the Janata all over India, attending meetings wherever Tamils lived.

What was the mood of the general public when the Emergency was lifted?
In Tamil Nadu, the Emergency was not unpopular. People actually welcomed it. There was no great abuse of power here. Maybe, because MGR did not oppose it. I have a feeling that the middle class throughout the country welcomed it.

To be honest with you, I attended a BJP meeting a few days ago. I said, the Emergency was then brought about by a wrong person for wrong reason at a wrong time and administered wrongly. There was no threat of war, no internal disturbance. All that happened was that there was JP's movement against corruption and the Allahabad high court unseated Mrs. Gandhi.

Now, you take the condition of the country. Naxalite groups are operating in several parts, and they are growing. The LTTE has not stopped its anti-India machinations. Khalistan movement has not been stopped totally. Infiltration of Bangladeshi refugees is going to be a big problem for the country. Look at the condition in the North-East and Kashmir.

And, workers go on strike for anything. During the Emergency, nobody even spoke of a strike. Every reform is being blocked now. So, this is the right time for an Emergency.

You are joking?
No, I am not. Today, nobody is aware of his duties in this country. Laws are there to be broken. Rules are there to be violated. Regulations are there to be ignored. That's the present mood of the country.

Why is China advancing at a more rapid rate than us? It is the discipline, which is helping them. We are the most indisciplined of all democracies in the world.

Those who were part of JP's movement against corruption are symbols of corruption now, like Laloo Prasad Yadav.

So, the time is right but the person over there is wrong again. By wrong person, I mean Sonia Gandhi, who is the real authority, the real power. So, there is a wrong person there. One can rest assured that it will be wrongly administrated. I will not welcome an Emergency if this government imposes it. But if a person like Vajpayee or Advani, real nationalists- not necessarily them but someone like them- does it at some point of time, I will welcome it. That's my present mood. I want to be honest when I give my opinion.

Back to Dondu N. Raghavan. Whether one likes or not, one cannot avoid Cho. As a person having vivid memories of things to a sufficient extent in order to warrant saying "Recently in 1975, the emergency was declared, I hasten to add that I find nothing that can be factually incorrect in Cho's statement.

Let me add however, I do not share his enthusiasm for emergency now or in foreseeable future.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

From the dark pages of history

2008-12-26T07:58:00.002+05:30

Today morning I received this email (reproduced in full below) from one Kashyapa Kumarilla. I feel it deserves to be converted into a blog post, at least as counter to the apologists of the Soviet Union. I am yet to go through the interviews given by the the Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov due to lack of time but will do so soon. Now for the email. I have suppressed the from address of the sender as it will not be proper to do so without the concerned person's consent. Now, over to email in bold italics:

from Kashyapa Kumarila
reply-to
to
date Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 6:42 AM
subject Fw: Video: How communist subversion of India happened
mailed-by xxx.com
signed-by xxx.com

Hello,

Can you post it in your blog ?

Thanks,
KK
----------------------------------------------------------------

Yuri Bezmenov was a member of Propaganda Team of KGB. He was posted in Delhi Embassy of Soviet Union in 60's to 1970. He defected in 1970 to USA .

In early 1980's there was a TV interview of Yuri Bezmenov which is given below in parts in YouTube link. It is interesting to know how communist subversion happens in many countries. He shows how the Journalists, Writers, Academicians, politicians etc from India were indoctrinated in communism/Marxism. Especially the videos 6, 7, 8 where he shows with pictures how Indian professors would be indoctrinated & how many Indian academicians were dishonest.

Play list : http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=96832BA85ECDC4FF

We don't have to accept everything he says or accept every analysis he makes. But he shows how "progressives”, "liberals", "human rights activists" etc are made.

Makes a lot of sense in Indian context. Nowadays, Christian churches & Arabian Mullahs are using the same above methods to create “pseudo secular activists , “journalists”, “Intellectuals” like Guha etc.

In case you are interested, you can read a transcript of the interview in 3 parts as follows.

part 1
part 2
part 3

Back to Dondu N. Raghavan. Please go through them. You will be amazed.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union a lot of information came out as to how the communists of all hues in various countries were in league with the Soviets. As they were already of a bent of mind susceptible to the communist lies, I guess the Soviets had no difficulty recruiting them, especially the Indians.

I will come back in another post within the next few days after making a thorough study of the tapes and the transcripts.

For the moment, ciao and Happy New Year to all of you.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan
P.S. Well I read the transcripts. Quite shocking. By the way, the Tamil version of this post can be seen here.

Car rental services at airport: plea by call taxi firm rejected

2008-12-14T09:47:00.002+05:30

In today's Hindu (14.12.2008) the following news item is published. Let us first see the item and then Dondu N. Raghavan shall comment.

Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a call taxi services company seeking to call for records of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in issuing tender for granting licence to internationally branded car rental services at the airport here, and quashing the same. Fast Track (P) Ltd. said it was running call taxi services in eight centres in South India, including Chennai. It submitted that as far as the tender was concerned, in view of the terms and conditions imposed, relating to internationally branded car rental services, the company and other local taxi operators were excluded from participating.

A.Xavier Arulraj, counsel for the AAI, submitted that the terms and conditions stipulated in the tender relating to internationally branded car rental services at the airport were based on the commercial policy of the AAI and approved by the board of directors of the Authority. The eligibility criteria for different services had been laid down.

In her order, Justice K.Suguna said a plain reading of the relevant clause of the notice inviting tender made it clear there was no prohibition on any local taxi operators from participating in the tender process. The only condition was they should fulfil the conditions.

Now for Dondu Raghavan's stance:

The term "plain reading" referred to in the last para is a little intriguing. What is meant by plain reading? Does the Honorable justice mean "prima facie"? If that is so, I would say that is precisely what the case is about. From the above news item I gather that the call taxi firm wanted to see what led to the decision of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to limit the tendering to just "internationally branded car rental services". What does the term "internationally branded" qualify? Is it the car or the rental services? And by the way what is exactly meant by "internationally branded"? Definitely the records would have held clues as to the various definitions and if they did not contain them the same would have been sufficient reason, I believe, to reverse the Authority's order. Presumably the records would have been shown to the Honorable judge, though the above news item does not specifically say so. (I would like to clarify that I shall not question a court's judgment. Nor am I doing it. But I can question the AAI).

Then another point. Why should it be limited to only internationally branded car rental services? I would have thought some specifications as to the quality of the cars deployed, drivers employed (should be capable of communicating well with the passengers etc) would have been more important.

I am reminded of an instance some years ago, when the tender calling for minivans clearly mentioned Matadors. Apparently the clerk formulating the tender thought that all minivans are called Matadors whereas it was just one of the brands of commercial minivans. Had this tender calling been challenged by a firm offering "Dynaclippers" (another brand of minivan), and if the judge had ruled on the virtue of plain reading and just dismisses the case saying that there is no ban on the firm offering Dynaclippers as they can very well offer Matadors too, what then?

Will any lawyer friends enlighten me on the subject?

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

The revival of a costly myth

2008-11-20T10:29:00.002+05:30

My friend Chandrasekar forwarded this mail to me. It is an interesting article about government spending. The way governments work all over the world, any new scheme has to be gone through with a very fine toothcomb. It is sad but true that any socalled temporary measures on the part of the government tend to linger on quite long after the end of its need. One example that comes to my mind is the Rent Control Act in Bombay, Chennai and other metropoles. Started as a stop-gap arrangement immediately after the end of the Second World War, it is still hanging on creating havoc in the houseowner-tenant relationship, new house constructions, availability of rented accommodation to newcomers to the city and what not.

Yet we do not seem to learn. It is really tiresome the way people have a short memory, so laments Christopher Lingle in "the revival of a costly myth". Over to Christopher Lingle. Dondu N. Raghavan will come afterwards.

Deficit spending to boost a weak economy is an argument that has little justification in fact and reality.

Despite having a stake driven through its heart after being identified as the primary cause of the stagflation of the 1970s, a failed economic policy has risen from the dead. Yet, the consensus at the recent G-20 meeting is that governments can create jobs and end recessions simply by spending more money.

The myth that higher public spending is good economic policy is so resilient that its supporters are unperturbed by all the evidence that contradicts it. Consider that Japan's policymakers began throwing massive amounts of money at the economy in the late 1980s to reignite it. This constant flow of deficits brought only a growing mountain of public sector debt with the economy regaining its long-term growth trajectory. Nor did it deter Japan from ushering in yet another recession.

More recently, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 gave so-called tax rebates worth $100 billion to US households in May, June and July. But the rise in spending was very small since most went into savings, including paying down debt.

Numerous studies show that one-time tax rebates cannot bring higher economic activity. This is because temporary increases in disposable income do not create incentives to increase consumption over time. The only certain thing is that stimulus packages based on increased public sector deficit will add to national debt.

Belief in the efficacy of deficit spending rests on a naïve notion that consumption is an important driver of economic growth. It is as though consumer goods and services are merely gifts of nature.

In reality, the path for sustainable economic growth requires more savings so that there can be more capital goods. As it is, capital goods are the basis of higher output and increased wages by boosting productivity. The provision of capital goods requires that consumption be deferred.

It seems that saving is not only a natural instinct, but it is also promoted by many fables, biblical and otherwise, that show the merits of thrift. In recent years, central bankers removed incentives to save by driving interest rates to unsustainable and artificially low levels while inducing more consumption.

This leads to a "paradox of spending" whereby consumers, deterred from saving by low deposit rates, are lured into low-interest borrowing to boost current living standards. This distortion in credit markets induces individuals to make decisions that lead to greater misery in the future for them and for others. Indeed, increased spending may cause incomes to fall by a greater amount since the attempt to buy more today backfires as there are fewer jobs and less to consume later.

By spending beyond means to create jobs, governments undermine or eliminate future employment

Therefore, policies that aim to raise consumption now lead to less capital being available for future production, so there will be less future consumption.

An enduring fable has it that governments can "create" jobs either through public spending to employ people in the public sector or to increase overall demand. During his campaign, Barack Obama promised to use $150 billion to promote windmills, solar panels and "energy efficiency" that would supposedly create five million "green" jobs.

In the first instance, government spending to "create" jobs costs more than jobs created in the private sector, since public sector recruitment involves massive bureaucracies. And since adding workers to the public payroll creates a new burden on taxpayers who have less to spend or invest, this means there can be no net gain to the economy.

In all events, government funding to "create" green jobs may be the worst of both worlds. Much of the support for green projects exists as they are thought to create more jobs because they involve more labour-intensive production. For example, supporters of initiatives for alternative fuels insist they would boost employment than would the building of conventional power stations. But conventional power stations operate with enormous economies of scale that bring lower unit costs so that more jobs can be created throughout the economy.

Job creation based on real economic merit does not require government involvement. But providing subsidies to support inefficient technology raises the labour-to-capital ratio so that the demand for labour will be lower and real wages will fall.

It is bad enough that deficit spending on job creation is simply ineffective. What is worse is that government spending schemes that expand public sector debt impose several burdens on future generations. Most obvious is the additional tax burden they must pay for debts incurred in the present.

By spending beyond their means to conjure up jobs, governments undermine or eliminate employment that would have been created in the private sector in the future. If increasing the share of GDP claimed by government leads to lower long-term economic growth, "creating" jobs today will mean fewer jobs in the future. The best way to avoid a future of booms and busts is to consign economic theories that support public sector deficits to the dustbin of history.

[Christopher Lingle is a research scholar at the Centre for Civil Society in New Delhi and a visiting professor of economics at Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com]

Back to Dondu Raghavan. It is really amazing the naive manner of people faithfully repeating the old mistakes. Creating job is different from creating posts in government departments. As per the Parkinson's law, the more the posts, the more the infructuous efforts and nothing else.

The depression of 1932 is said to have been overcome by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Actually what turned the economy around at that time was the onset of the Second World War creating acute demands for the war effort. Even in Germany the unemployment was reduced mainly due to Hitler's militarization of Germany, which triggered the Second World War.

Can this be repeated? I am afraid that the third world war if it comes may bring about things in such a way that the fourth world war can be fought with just bows and arrows, that too after some hundred years.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Blind faith in the printed word

2008-11-04T19:43:00.002+05:30

The English is clear enough to lorry drivers - but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."
The above image is courtesy this post.

This has brought about a lot of head scratching, as one can very well imagine.

The official entrusted with the task of getting the English message translated into Welsh sent an email to a translator incorporating the message to be translated. The translator was away as the mail went to his id and an automatic reply to the effect, "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated" was generated and received by the concerned official. And the credulous official thought that this was the actual translation and this resulted in the above sign board. What is more incredible is the fact that nobody had spotted this howler till the last minute.

A similar thing happened recently in 1989, when I was working in IDPL. Our C&MD got Christmas & New Year Greetings from France, wishing him "Joyeux Noël" and "Bonne Année" respectively. The greetings were in big print and the signatures below were just scrawls. Contrary to his usual practice of sending them to me, the French translator, for translation of the French original into English and the English reply into French before dispatching them, he thought that he could just send the replies in English as he guessed that they were routine season's greetings.

Fortunately I happened to pass by when the replies were being sent to him for signing. I just threw a cursory glance at them and was dumbfounded to note that the letters started as follows.

Dear Joyeux Noël or Dear Bonne Année!!!!

If only the letters had gone out, they would have caused a lot of merriment at IDPL's expense.

Once my client's daughter corrected my French to English translation on the sole strength of her being a French learner. I had to tactfully tell the client that the lady was quite wrong.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Why India needs Narendra Modi? by Mr. Suhel Seth

2008-10-30T18:59:00.000+05:30

My dear friend Jayakamal drew my attention to this posting by Mr. Suhel Seth, erstwhile critic (that too very strong) critic of Shri. Narendra Modi. My sincere thanks to Jayakamal. As per usual practice in such posts of mine, the "I" in the foloowing lines refer to Suhel Seth. Yours truly Dondu Raghavan will come afterwards.

Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India's political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for. But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India's political structure. Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.

And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea. And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points. For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat. But it was industry that was equally close to his heart.

It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame. And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.

He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was: the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.

Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one's mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine. He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened! It was this resolve of Modi's that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.

I left Modi's house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what's more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state. Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what's more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.

After I finished talking to the YPO (Young President's Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.

But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. I don't know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs! There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him!

The writer is Managing Partner, Counselage.

Now back to Dondu N. Raghavan. What is more, the author is a Muslim. And he has no hesitation in singing Modi's praise.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Henry Hazlitt on the Bailout by Scott A. Kjar

2008-10-16T11:08:00.002+05:30

My dear friend Chandrasekaran forwarded me this very interesting article. First the article and then the comments by yours truly Dondu N. Raghavan. Over to Scott A. Kjar. By the way, Scott A. Kjar teaches economics at the University of Dallas.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson needs to change his reading list. Instead of reading the balance sheets and income statements of the failing banking industry, he needs to read Henry Hazlitt's classic book Economics in One Lesson. It will cost Paulson far less than the $700 billion that he is spending on the bailout, and he might just learn a little economics in the process.

Hazlitt delivers his "one lesson" in chapter 1, and proceeds to spend the rest of the book giving examples. His lesson, based on the work of Frédéric Bastiat, is that "the art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

For example, in chapter 2, Hazlitt delivers the well-known "broken window fallacy" in which a hoodlum breaks a shopkeeper's window with a rock. The common folk see it as a tragedy, but an astute Washington bureaucrat could argue that it creates new jobs for glaziers. As Hazlitt points out, though, any resources that the shopkeeper spends on the new window would have been used elsewhere, perhaps for a new suit. So while the glazier gets new business, the tailor loses the same amount of business. There is no net benefit; in fact there is a net loss. Absent the hoodlum, the shopkeeper would have had both a window and a new suit; given the hoodlum, the shopkeeper has a window but no suit. Even though the damage was to the window, it is the suit that is lost to the shopkeeper and, hence, to society.

In chapter 6, entitled "Credit Diverts Production," Hazlitt discusses government lending policies, such as additional credit to farmers or business owners. However, he points out, the recipients of such programs are rarely the more-productive farmers and business owners. After all, the more-productive people are able to borrow their money from private lenders. It is only the less-productive individuals and firms, unable to get funds on the free market, that must turn to government.

For example, suppose that there is a farm for sale. A private lender would normally be willing to lend money to farmer A who has proven his abilities in the past, rather than to farmer B, who has demonstrated a lower level of productivity than has A. However, because government taxes citizens or borrows money itself in capital markets, private lenders have fewer funds available to lend to A. Instead, government lends the money to B on the grounds that B is underprivileged, in need of a hand, or some other politically based argument. The more productive borrower, A, loses out on the scarce land while the less productive borrower, B, gains the resources. Because the less-productive individual acquires the scarce resource, there will be less total production, and the entire society is worse off.

Further, Hazlitt states, the government takes bigger risks with taxpayers' money than private lenders take with their own money. Private lenders who make bad loans will go bankrupt and be forced out of business. But when the government gets involved, it lends funds for riskier ventures since the bureaucrats who approve the loan face no personal recriminations — much less loss of profit — for error.

In other words, private lenders would take Action A while government lenders would take Action B, and Action B is the less-productive path. After all, there is no need for government to take Action A: it can be handled quite well in the free market.

So it is with the current rash of bailouts. Whatever the final price tag — $500 billion, $750 billion, $1 trillion, more — the fact is that government gets its money either from taxes, borrowing, or the printing press. It is hard to raise taxes by $1 trillion on short notice, and since there is a small hurdle that slows the government's ability to print the money,[1] we know that government will issue bonds. In other words, government will borrow the money from private capital markets.

As Hazlitt points out, though, the private capital markets (those that aren't bankrupt and standing in line for a bailout) would otherwise lend their funds to more-productive ventures. If private capital wants to lend directly to the failing banks, it is already capable of doing so. The fact that such private capital is not lending to the banks is a clear indication that the government's current bailout is contrary to free-market principles.

The argument that the government is somehow pumping new capital into the market is absurd. Government is actually borrowing the money from the capital markets that it is in turn injecting into the capital markets. There is no additional source of funding; there is only a diversion of funds from more-productive outlets to less-productive outlets, with government acting as the middleman.

So when Henry Paulson argues that it is necessary to pump money into credit markets to prevent them from freezing up, he doesn't bother to realize that the money he pumps into the credit markets is coming directly out of the very same credit markets. He is doing little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic; shuffling the money from one set of financial intermediaries to another does not increase either liquidity or solvency. It merely delays the problem for a few brief moments.

Even the failing banks pay lip service to their fiduciary responsibility, but any privately funded firm that took money from more-productive people to give it to less-productive people would soon go out of business. Only the government can violate Hazlitt's logic and survive, because only government can socialize its losses through the tax system.

Comment on the blog. As I am writing these lines around ten comments have come up and they do need to be reproduced here.

Comments
Tim Kern
Did anyone note that in the President's speech, after the House rejected the bailout, one of the reasons offered for the necessity of opening such a lending spigot was "to allow businesses to borrow for their day-to-day needs?"
A business that needs to borrow to cover daily operations is in a whole lot of trouble, already!
Lord, save us from more "experts!"

George
Saving in an inflationary environment is costly, borrowing is logical.
"income taxes, inflation, risk"
You can avoid any two, it's the third which is hard to avoid.

Aaron
Atleast the comedians have not drank the Keynesian Kool-Aid... very funny
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2959

Dayle Van Alstine
The article is a timely reminder of the wisdom which is available to those whom have influence in our national economic policies. We can be sure that they are familiar with it. This is what makes our current situation so frustrating. Our economic policy leaders have decided that it is not expedient to follow the the wise counsel and impose the proper prescription.
Our government, fortified and emboldened by a lazy and irresponsible citizenry, has no compunction about disregarding the wisdom and warnings provided by the observations of Messrs. Hazlitt, Mises, or Bastiat. When the ordinary people on the street do not recognize the responsibility they have to understand the consequences of purchasing things that they know they cannot afford; when the political elite reinforce such conduct by demanding that more credit be made available to such people; when financial leaders do not stand firm against such policies; when politicians are more concerned with acquiring and maintaining power and influence than doing what is best for the nation and its people, then we will all have to prepare to contend with the consequences of this folly.
Hazlitt is right, of course; but we in the choir already know that. What to do? Share the wisdom in hopes of enlarging the choir; stay out of debt; develop a portable skill.

Enjoy Every Sandwich
Our "leaders", if they don't already know the principles described in Hazlitt's book, would not be interested in learning them. Following the principles would reduce their power, and that they cannot abide.

Stanley Pinchak
Enjoy Every Sandwich is quite right. The number of men who can follow the course of Cincinnatus is small indeed. We as the people must act on the consul of Étienne de La Boétie. We must remove our consent, refuse to subjugate our fellow man for the false promise of living on the backs of others. We end up as the associates of the tyrant do, subjects of tyrannical action ourselves, or worse when the administration changes. We weld our own bars. We forge the very chains which bind us.
Rothbard calls for radicalism. A radical call for liberty. A radical denunciation of the state and its works. Until we heed this advise we remain prisoners in an open cage, terrified of the unknown just across the threshold. Stuck in a liminal state, abused by our own inaction, fearful of change. Servants willingly submitting to an unworthy master. A master who's hands we have placed around our throats.
The emperor wears no clothes! The state must be itself subjugated. We must throw off the mental yoke, reach out and grasp freedom.

Greg Fisher
The hoodlum breaks a window, it cost the economy a window. If he continues to break windows, he must be stopped before he underminds the economy. And if the shop keepers cannot pay to fix their windows, it would be in the best intersest of the society to help fix the windows to keep the shops open and contributing to society.
Since the world is not static, things change. The unproductive farmer may become more productive with additional capital. Many times it is these people that come up with better ways of doing things and the economy advances.
We need to understand the problem in order to form a solution and the role of society.

Michael A. Clem
And if the shop keepers cannot pay to fix their windows, it would be in the best intersest of the society to help fix the windows to keep the shops open and contributing to society.
If the shopkeepers cannot pay to fix the windows, where do you think the money to fix them is going to come from?? And why should the unproductive farmer become productive, when he's getting paid to remain unproductive? You fail to see the moral hazards of your proposed actions. The problem is that it is the government that is "breaking the windows", instead of some hoodlum, with their flawed policies and interventionism. We do indeed need to stop breaking the windows, but the bailout is like breaking more windows in the hopes that it will fix the other windows.

Eric
The wise entrepreneur would foresee that the hoodlums out there like to break glass and so might invest in Plexiglas.
Alternatively, the entrepreneur might invest in security services. Then only those that remain open for business (with non-broken windows) would continue to make profits. Others, with less business sense, would go bust - and society would benefit from having a smarter class of shop owners in business.
However, if society bails out the shop owner as Greg suggests they should, then society would be subsidizing "mal" shop owner behavior. In addition, not only doesn't this solve the real problem, but it makes any real solution less likely to be discovered.
Moreover, there'd be little incentive for the shop owner to upgrade his windows (or security or whatever else would solve the problem) even if he knew how to solve it. This is the moral hazard produced by bailouts.
Therefore, the same theory that describes bailouts of industry X can be used to analyze the broken window fallacy.

Back to yours truly, Dondu N. Raghavan
As I read the above lines, I am more and more reminded of Ayn Rand's Atlas shrugged. There was in that novel a story about a private owner turning over her ownership to all the workers and every worker started discussing company policy. Since all were responsible no one felt any particular responsibility. Each one was out to get more for himself at the expense of others. One or two with some initiatives were saddled with more work and they too rapidly lost that initiative and kept mum. At the end the factory folded and only the ex-owner was surprised. That she was spat upon is but a feeble comfort to yours truly Dondu N. Raghavan.

Regards,
Dondu n. Raghavan

"US Congress Should Back U.S.-India Nuclear Power Deal", says Jeff Immelt

2008-09-26T18:38:00.003+05:30

Congress should back U.S.-India nuclear power deal according to Jeff Immelt, the chief executive officer of General Electric Co. Over now to Jeff Immelt.

In the U.S.-India agreement on civilian nuclear-power cooperation, Congress has the opportunity to create thousands of U.S. high-tech jobs, to encourage adoption of the safest, non-polluting energy-generation technology and to help solve the energy needs of India's 1 billion people. It also would solidify relations with a key democratic ally.

In a time of market turmoil and economic instability, this is a remarkable opportunity for the U.S. and a rising economic partner. It must not be missed. Congress should approve the agreement as soon as possible.

Finding a solution to India's mounting energy needs is more important than ever. As one of the world's fastest-growing economies, India has an escalating power demand that is straining international energy supplies. Unchanged, this demand will be met with a greater reliance on fossil fuels, squeezing global oil prices while exacerbating greenhouse-gas emissions.

India understands this. So does the international Nuclear Suppliers Group, or NSG, those countries seeking to contribute to non-proliferation through the implementation of guidelines for nuclear-related exports.

Earlier this month, the NSG waived a 34-year ban on nuclear technology trade with India, giving it access to nuclear services from suppliers around the world. For the U.S., there remains one problem: Without congressional approval, the NSG waiver is moot, as U.S. firms and their employees will, by law, be forced to sit on the sidelines.

Reactor Construction

The agreement is good for the U.S.-India relationship, good for global energy policy and security and good for U.S. jobs. It opens up prospects for U.S. companies to supply potentially billions of dollars worth of reactor technology, fuel and other services to India -- especially given the ambitious nuclear-plant construction program planned by India. About 30 domestic and foreign-supplied reactors may be built by 2030 alone.

As chief executive officer of a company making this technology, I want to retain and hire those workers who can build the products that will help India realize its future. Preventing U.S. companies from competing with international suppliers isn't sensible policy. It risks thousands of high-paying jobs and would diminish the U.S.'s ability to participate in India's peaceful nuclear-power development.

Refusal to approve this agreement would also miss an opportunity to expand the broader U.S.-India trade relationship.

Lackluster Trade

For decades, trade between these two great democracies was lackluster. In 2000, the U.S.'s bilateral goods trade with India was around $14 billion -- less than our trade with Ireland or Venezuela. Today, thanks to concerted efforts by the U.S. and Indian governments, bilateral trade has almost tripled. Still, this is far less than it should be for two of the world's most dynamic economies.

Because nuclear energy can meet so many of India's energy and economic needs, this trade agreement has significance that resonates beyond a single industry. The agreement, if adopted, will strengthen the economic, strategic and diplomatic ties between the world's two largest democracies. To fail to approve the agreement would undermine the goodwill generated in India by U.S. efforts to conclude an agreement.

The U.S. government, and Congress specifically, deserve praise for their hard work in getting us to this point. After all, it was Congress that voted, overwhelmingly and on a bipartisan basis, to support the launch of negotiations two years ago. Now Congress must do its final part by approving this agreement expeditiously. A signed U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement will signal a new era in U.S.-India relations. This is a rare opportunity that must not be missed.

Now back to Dondu N. Raghavan. The Indian Prime Minister is to be congratulated for having played his cards properly and got the NSG approval. At this juncture, even in the worst scenario of the US congress not ratifying the deal, India can now freely approach other suppliers. It is now really in the interest of the US to get the deal ratified and become an important supplier to India. The pressure is now on the US.

Let us now worry about India's interests and let the US do its thing or lose out to other supplier countries.

I thank my friend Mr. Jayakamal for having brought this to my notice.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Dreaming of Swatantra by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha

2008-08-13T11:10:00.004+05:30

The article with the title "Dreaming of Swatantra" was forwarded to me by my friend Chandrasekhar. It raises an interesting question about the now defunct Swtantra Party founded by Rajai, Masani amd Ranga recently in 1959. First let us go to the article reproduced here in bold italics.

Modern India's only stab at a successful liberal party started in August 1959; the Swatantra Party would have entered its 50th year this month, if it had survived as a national political force

(Cafe Economics | Niranjan Rajadhyaksha)

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen — who is not a free-market liberal — has spoken on how contemporary India needs a right-wing political party that is both secular and committed to an open economy. This is a good time to go back to the issue, for two reasons. First, we have seen how economic reforms were blocked by the Left to begin with and have now been hijacked by the crony capitalism of the Samajwadi Party. Second, modern India's only stab at a successful liberal party started in August 1959; the Swatantra Party would have entered its 50th year this month, if it had survived as a national political force.

Countries with low levels of trust and high levels of corruption tend to be more wary of free market capitalism
Fifteen years of high growth, thanks to economic reforms, should have created a strong political base for liberal party. It hasn't. I am often surprised at how even people who have benefited from economic reforms still believe that the government should control prices to beat inflation or that companies are making too much profit at the cost of society. Is it any wonder that no party is ready to face the electorate with a free market agenda?

The interesting question is why this happens. The answer involves more than political failure. The nature of Indian society and capitalism are also part of the answer.

An interesting new research paper by Philippe Aghion of Harvard University, Yann Algan of the Paris School of Economics, Pierre Cahuc of the Ecole Polytechnique and Andrei Schleifer of Harvard University offers one set of clues. They have mapped the relationship between demands for regulation in a country and the level of distrust between its citizens.

What these four economists show from their study of rich nations is that people ask for more government regulation when they do not trust their fellow citizens. They have used a concept that has attracted a lot of attention over the past decade and more — social capital. Any economy needs physical capital (tools), financial capital (money) and human capital (skills) to grow. It also needs social capital (trust). Economist Kenneth Arrow once said that virtually "every commercial transaction has within itself an element of trust, certainly any transaction conducted over a period of time. It can be plausibly argued that much of economic backwardness in the world can be explained by the lack of mutual confidence."

Aghion and his three fellow authors show in their July paper, Regulation and Distrust, that countries with low levels of trust in other persons, companies and political institutions are more likely to have more regulations on economic activity. But this regulation leads to low growth and corruption, as we know from our own experience of the licence permit raj. "What is perhaps most interesting about this finding…is that distrust generates demand for regulation even when people realize that the government is corrupt and ineffective; they prefer state control to unbridled production by uncivil firms," say the economists.

The way companies earn profits does affect the popularity of capitalism. In a paper published in 2006, Rafael Di Tella of Harvard Business School and Robert MacCulloch of Imperial College ask: Why Doesn't Capitalism Flow to Poor Countries? They say the most important factor is corruption, which cuts into the "moral legitimacy of capitalism". Di Tella and MacCulloch add: "Existence of corrupt entrepreneurs hurts good entrepreneurs by reducing the general appeal of capitalism."

These two pieces of research show that the popularity of a free market political party will depend on both the level of trust in a country and whether profits come from competitive markets or oligopolies protected by the state.

Economic historian Douglass C. North and his colleagues have given us what they call a conceptual framework to interpret human history. They say that societies emerge as "limited access orders". Here, the political system is used to limit economic participation and impose social order. The lack of economic competition leads to excess profits that are used to limit violence and maintain political stability.

North says that some societies later evolve into "open access" orders. Here, there are few restrictions on economic and political participation, which is another way of saying that these societies have open economies and open political systems. Order is maintained through the competitive process.

There is a famous story about Margaret Thatcher. Soon after she became head of the Conservative Party in the UK, she is said to have reached into her briefcase and pulled out a copy of F.A. Hayek's Constitution of Liberty, a book that explains with great clarity why liberal systems lead to freedom and prosperity. Interrupting the speaker, she is said to have banged the book down on the table and said: "This is what we believe."

Is there any Indian politician who has similar convictions — and the guts to make them public?

Now back to Dondu Raghavan. A few minutes after forwarding the article, Mr. Chandrasekhar has sent another mail saying,
"The important point I wanted to mention here that Mr Sen lectured at Indian Parliament recently (on this monday) on "demanding Social Justice". What a naive request! Where can he can get this social justice, when it is nowhere available in the world? (That what F A Hayek said years ago. "There is no such thing as Social Justice").

Thanks Chandrasekhar. But there is one small snag. It will not be possible to renew the Swatantra Party with things as they are obtaining in India now. A party has to take a constitutional oath owing allegiance to socialism, the selfsame bankrupt ideology, which the Swatantra Party was by default opposing. See my Tamil blog post on this subject. Unfortunately the original economic times article is no longer readily reachable; fortunately I had reproduced it at that time in toto just for such contingency.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Rich job offers cause poor response for economics PhDs

2008-08-11T09:58:00.001+05:30

This article penned by John Samuel Raja D and forwarded to me by my friend Chandrasekharan (Hayek Order) goes on to add that poor faculty and scholarships also dissuade students.

It reminds me of Agatha Christie's novel 4.50 from Paddington starring the lovable old detective Miss Marple. In this novel she is assisted by one Lucy, who has majored in Mathematics but instead of pursuing a career in mathematics opts for the job of a housekeeper after a thorough study of the market needs. She goes on to become a highly successful housekeeper very well-paid and much in demand.

My reason to mention this is illustrated more starkly in the article referred to above. Now over to the article in bold italics.

D K Srivastava, director of Madras School of Economics (MSE), is disappointed when he sees 50 Master's students graduate every year with lucrative job offers.

He is unhappy because none of the 50 students apply for a PhD or doctoral degree and the Chennai-based institute is finding it difficult to attract high-quality students for this programme.

Like the MSE, the poor response to programmes for Economics PhDs (the abbreviation of the Latin Philosophiæ Doctor) appears to be a chronic problem in India.

"The best brains are going to industry after completing the Master's degree," said Srivastava, who has specialised in public finance and economic forecasting. "This is the malaise of good institutions where highly qualified students don't stay back," he added.

Even the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), a premier institute set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for research in development issues, found it difficult to attract students for its PhD programme a couple of years ago.

MSE admits two or three students every year for its doctoral programme, a third of what it can accommodate. Aggregate data on the number of students completing their PhD in Economics are not available.

While PhD programmes run by universities across India have faced problems in attracting high-quality students for a long time, it is only now the top economic research institutions are facing the problem of student shortage, given the jobs boom that is attracting the best and brightest among Master's students.

Though there are globally recognised Indian economists like Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen and trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati, universities based in India have not kept pace with cutting-edge research produced by their counterparts in the United States and Europe, resulting in poor research output.

Three issues — faculty profile, poor scholarship funding and job opportunities — are being cited as reasons Indian universities have failed to attract good quality students, said four economists, including three heads of the institutions, who were contacted for this article.

For the few students who want to pursue a PhD, foreign universities have emerged as a viable option. These overseas institutions are targeting Indian students and are offering liberal scholarships that are hard for Indian counterparts to match, said D M Nachane, director of IGIDR.

Research scholars in Indian institutes are mostly paid between Rs 6,000 per month and Rs14,000, except in a few management institutes where they are offered around Rs 25,000 a month. Compare this with foreign universities that provide a tuition fee waiver and a monthly stipend ranging from $800 to $1,500, depending on the financial strength of the institute and its location.

Both Nachane and Srivastava agree that it's vital to increase the scholarship amount to attract students and provide an alternative within India. Both, MSE and IGIDR are exploring ways to increase their scholarship amount. Delhi School of Economics (DSE) did not respond to a questionnaire.

Students graduating from Master's programme in MSE and IGIDR get job offers in the salary range of Rs 6 lakh and Rs 8 lakh a year -- mostly from banks, financial institutions and consultancies. Candidates even after completing the PhD would get only Rs 50,000 more than what a Master's level students would get, said IGIDR's Nachane.

"The opportunity cost for a student with Masters Degree to pursue a PhD in economics is very high," he added referring to Rs 6 lakh salary the PhD student would have earned for four years, if employed.

Apart from scholarships, the faculty profile and the syllabus play an important role in attracting students. "What I learnt ten years ago is not even offered here in India," said Parth J Shah, economist and former professor of Economics at the University of Michigan.

Lack of quality faculty is often linked to salary structure in Indian universities that fail to differentiate between a professor who has done cutting-edge research with publications in leading journals and faculty who has only concentrated on teaching. "The sixth pay commission will solve this problem because it allows flexibility in salary structure," said Nachane.

But for Shah, who is now involved in a not-for-profit research and education institution Centre for Civil Society, the solution could also lie in giving choices to institutes to decide whom to affiliate.

At present, an institute present in a city has to affiliate in a university based in that city. "The geographical monopoly of the universities should be broken. This will create competition among the institutions," he added.
In the meantime, every year around five students of Madras School of Economics (MSE) come back to pursue research after working for a couple of years in the industry. But, as of now, they come to MSE to prepare for admission to foreign universities and Srivastava is hoping that some will stay back in days to come.

Now back to Dondu Raghavan. I would like to close this topic with an anecdote. A heart specialist calls in a plumber by name John Updike to have his washbasin repaired. After the work is over, John gives him the bill, which is for a hefty amount. The doctor sighs and exclaims, this is way above what I would have earned as consulting physician, whereupon he gets the reply "I know doc from my personal experience as doctor before changing over to plumber profession" from Doctor John Updike.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Mr. Lee and Mr. Chee agreed to have a fight

2008-08-10T11:55:00.001+05:30

My friend Jayakamal has the welcome habit of forwarding articles that kindle my interest. I do use them for my blog posting in Tamil. Now due to a certain development in the blogger facilities, I would like to post the same in this English blog of mine as well. My Tamil post for those able to read Tamil is here. Now for the forwarded article Mr. Lee and Mr. Chee agreed to have a fight. Over to Atanou. The "I" in the succedding lines in bold italics refer to Atanou.

The NY Times of 30th May reports ("Power and Tenacity Collide in Singapore Courtroom" — Thanks, Naman) on the clash between two personalities — one powerful and famous, the other powerless — in a Singapore courtroom. Former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, 84, met his political adversary Chee Soon Juan, 45, in court where the former is suing the latter for libel. In a newsletter published in 2006, Mr Chee had accused the Singapore government of corruption. Mr Lee takes charges of corruption seriously and refused to let Mr Chee’s accusation go unchallenged.

I suppose the court would figure out if Mr Chee’s charge is true or not. If the charge is false, I would be much relieved because I would hate to find out that the man I have very high regard for — Mr Lee Kuan Yew — has feet of clay.

Why do I admire the man so much? Perhaps because of what he achieved. Here’s the NY Times:

“The final test is what Singapore was when I became prime minister in 1959 and what Singapore is now,” Mr. Lee said. “We had less than $100 million in the kitty.” Today, he said, “global financial services assess Singapore to have sovereign wealth funds of over $300 billion.”

Singapore is just a few million people. LKY worked the miracle of transforming a third world resource-poor mosquito-infested swamp into a wealthy first world nation state admired around the world for efficiency, lack of corruption, order and cleanliness. He didn’t make pretty speeches about scaling the commanding heights of the economy. He just did it and did it within a generation. Not just the phenomenal infrastructure of the tiny place, not just the rich stock of human capital, Singapore has also amassed $300 billion in reserves. Under LKY’s guidance, Singapore’s reserves have multiplied 3000 times. How great is that?

Lee says that Singapore has $300 billion in the kitty. Chee says that it does not make up for the silencing of political opponents, the closing down of independent media “and all your shenanigans, including making sure that I’m not allowed to speak during an election rally.”

Speaking strictly for myself, I value political freedom and the freedom of expression. A civilized human existence requires freedom. But in what sense is there freedom if one is starving? Isn’t one willing to sell one’s soul for a piece of bread when starvation threatens one’s life? What would you give up in exchange for not seeing your child starve to death? I know that I would give up a lot of my highly prized freedom of political expression if in the process I could at least see my children not starve.

Mr Chee says that $300 billion in the bank (and of course all other goodies that Singapore enjoys) is too high a price to pay for the lack of political freedom and the muzzling of the press. Perhaps the restrictions on the press and on political opposition were wholly unnecessary and Singapore would have been what it is today even otherwise. Perhaps it was merely to satisfy LKY’s personal whims and fancies that political opposition was curbed and which actually did not serve any instrumental purpose. But I doubt it. When a country is poor, the squabbling for resources does push to the fore the most opportunistic criminals to enter the policymaking circles.

I know that no one reading this is actually starving. When one is sitting comfortably with a full tummy, it is easy to see how valuable it is to have the freedom to speak your mind. It is clearly better to have political freedom than not to have it, all else being equal. But how would one rank these two: one, a very full stomach but limited political freedom; two, a very empty stomach but unlimited political freedom.

At which point does the benefits of political freedom of the few outweigh the material concerns of 500 million others? How many million people is it ok to condemn to a pitiably poor life so as to guarantee that a few people have the right to make fiery political speeches?

And often times, the only political speeches made are ostensibly on behalf of the starving millions. If those starving millions did not exist, these politicians would have little to make speeches about. So it would seem that if by banning idiotic political speeches, one achieves a level of prosperity such that it makes political speeches about poverty completely irrelevant and inconsequential, it would be a good thing.

I think that there is a hierarchy of needs, as Maslow pointed out. Only after the lower level needs are met can one attempt to satisfy needs higher up. I will secure air before I start worrying about food and water. I will not worry about free speech if I am in imminent danger of keeling over from hunger. I would trade in a lot of pretty political speeches in exchange for a decent shot at living a comfortable life. If I were in the bottom 300 million in India, I would happily trade in my situationally useless right to political freedom in exchange for the life of an average Singaporean.

All the above with the usual disclaimer that your mileage may vary.

POSTSCRIPT:
Why do I stress so much on the starvation bit? Because I know how it feels to starve for 2 days. If it feels that awful to starve for just 2 days, I wonder how it must be to chronically starve — as do an estimated 200 million in India. I know that I could not handle it and I would make a deal with the devil himself to try to avoid it. That is what I fear: that millions of people at the edge of starvation are quite capable of making deals with the devil. Don’t believe me? Well, then, how do you think the communists get elected in India?

Now back to Dondu N. Raghavan.

It is really very naughty of you Atanu. I refer of course to your last line. The commies do get their vote by promising the socialist utopia. In a way they keep their promise. The inequality between the haves and have-nots diminish as evry one tends to become a have-not except for the commissars with their filthy power of life and death. Let us keep aside for the moment their loyalty to the People's Republic of China and talk economics. In a way both Lee and the commies are alike in the matter of denying political freedom, but at least Lee delivered while the commies just took away everything.

I personally feel that Lee should not bother his head about Chee. Lee has already made his point.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

Officespeak

2008-03-06T17:33:00.002+05:30

This came in an email forwarded to me. Quite hilarious, the unusual translations.

Office Language.... ...

It's too good........ .

1.."We will do it" means" You will do it"

2."You have done a great job" means" More work will be given to you"

3."We are working on it" means" We have not yet started working it"

4."Tomorrow first thing in the morning" means" Its not getting done, At least not till tomorrow!"

5."After discussion we will decide-I am very open to views" means" I have already decided, I will tell you what to do.

6."There was a slight miscommunication" means" We lied"

7."Lets call a meeting and discuss" means" I have no time to talk now"

8."We can always do it" means" We cannot do it on time"

9."We are on the right track but there needs to be a slight extension of the deadline" means "We screwed up, we cannot deliver on time."

10."We had slight differences of opinion "means" We fought"

11."Make a list of the work that you do and let's see how I can help you" means" find a way out yourself, no help from me"

12."You should have told me earlier" means" Well even if you told me earlier that would not have mattered!"

13."We need to find out the real reason" means" I will tell you where your fault is"

14."Well Family is important, your leave is always granted. Just ensure that the work is not affected,"means," You are not going home unless you finish your job"

15."We are a team," means," Everybody shares the blame"

16."That's actually a good question" means "I do not know anything about it"

17."All the Best" means" You are in trouble"

Regards,
N.Raghavan

Need to educate the client - 2

2007-07-08T15:36:00.000+05:30

Need to educate the client - 2

The other day a new client of mine called me to his place for discussions. It seems he wanted a menu translated from English into German as well as into French. He represents a 4-star hotel, here in Chennai.

The requirement for translation into French was straight forward enough. He wanted the entire menu translated. But for translation into German he wanted to economize. He told me that the new menu in English was just a slight modification of the existing menu, whose German translation was already with him. I was to translate only the modifications. I asked him to give the modifications in a different color font. He agreed and emailed me the English menu.

I took up the French translation first and sent him the finished translation. Then I took up the second part of the assignment and then sent him the German translation duly incorporated in the original English menu. All he had to do was to copy paste from the existing German version the entries into the new menu so that he can get at the revised menu in German.

Here he ran into rough weather. It seems that the new menu in English is a fully revised one and bore no resemblance to the original version in matters of sequence or even formatting. He quietly sent me the old German version and asked me to insert the suitable German translations into the new revised menu.

I refused. I told him that this is entirely a different work and as the German words already exist and my work was just to hunt them and put them in proper places in the new English menu, this work was not susceptible to straight forward word counting. I suggested that I come to his place, sit with the manager in charge of the menu and put the words in proper places, carrying out any further modifications in the format as might be found necessary by the manager at that time. After hearing my hourly rates and learning about the minimum billing for two hours as well as other conditions such as to- and fro taxi fare plus food while working, he became quiet. Though the conversation was being conducted over phone, I could almost hear his mental gears moving around and meshing into place. He quietly asked me about the possible additional cost were I to translate the entire menu into German, not bothering about the old translation. Here there was no problem as I was already aware of the full word count of the English menu, on which I based my bill. The difference was not much and he said he would let me know. That was yesterday. He is yet to give me his decision. But the reason for my posting this rests elsewhere.

Trouble comes with clients, who try to cut corners and economize. I will not blame the person negotiating with me as he is just an employee of the organization in question and his instructions are just to get the work done at the cheapest price. So the client goes into rigmaroles to restrict the work. He forgets that by just getting the entire package translated, he saves a lot in terms of time and avoidable botheration. Let me give a few examples.

One officer negotiating with me said that his Director knows French and at a pinch he can very well look after the visiting French expert. Hence I should reduce my rates. I just took a few minutes to demolish his assumption. The French expert was supposed to work with the Indian workers giving them training. Did the officer expect that the company's top official will sit with them and do interpreting? I told the officer that that person was expected to manage the company on the whole and not lose himself in a lower-end job as far as he was concerned. The officer quickly agreed and we proceeded with the rate negotiation.

In another firm, there was a bunch of German drawings. The officer entrusting the work to me marked a few words in each sheet and told me to translate just them as he understood the other words. I obliged without argument as it was a job paid on an hourly basis, finished the work as instructed and got paid. The trouble was, the concerned officer left the company soon afterwards. His successor was not so knowledgeable and he wanted the meaning of words that were left without being translated. You guessed it correctly. It was just another work for me. Needless to say, the company ended up paying me much more.

Here is one place, where you have to educate the client. But then many clients do not appreciate such talks. They are the real losers.

I will come up with more in the next instalment.

N. Raghavan

Need to educate the client - 1

2007-05-07T12:57:00.000+05:30

With the globalization setting in, we translators have to be more vigilant with respect to the clients. An average client is blissfully ignorant of many aspects of translation. For example he is under the naive impression that translation is just a little above typing. He reasons that a typist types what she sees in the original, whereas a translator types after easily converting the original words into the target language. Thus, we have our work cut out for educating the client. Many translators do not do it, as they are too timid and think that the client is always right. But we will be just digging our own graves by keeping quiet. In this series of articles I will try to cover the clients’ misconceptions about us and the possibilities open to us to educate him politely but firmly by giving the right picture.
In this first installment, I will try to present the viewpoint of the client concerning the importance of translation. As usual I will draw liberally from my own experiences. Here goes.
At times I am asked to come to the client's premises to do translations, whenever the work is of confidential nature and/or is too cumbersome to handle at home. In the case I am going to cite here, there were bundles of French technical drawings in hard copy and I had a merry time translating them.

Enough of background; the contact officer and I were discussing the company's translation requirements. He told me that his bosses wanted him to make do without translation, as the work was at a preliminary stage and one was not sure of getting the order. Hence cost has to be cut. Here the offending word comes in. The bosses said to him that translation is a "non-value service", as it does not bring in money directly. Though taken aback, I was delighted with the opportunity to talk and talk about translation.
My arguments in a nutshell:
Translation is vital, as the client has to understand in the first place the principal's requirements expressed in another language. At this point of time, it is an investment and as is the case in all investments, there can be no 100% guarantee of getting fat returns. After all, the principal may not like the client's rates and not give the order. It is not the fault of translation. Without translation no meaningful offer can be given.
The above mindset of a typical client results in there being no budget provision for translations and in the translation activity not finding a place in the bar charts. Everybody assumes that translation involves just copying into another language and it is just common sense. This is an important drawback for projects involving two parties speaking different languages. Poor fellow, the contact officer had a glazed look after nearly 30 minutes of my onslaught of words.

Now let me say a few words about the situation obtaining in India. Indian companies have English as the working language and this language is known to many people in Europe, especially in the German and French speaking countries. The top people going to Europe for negotiations get by almost without interpreters and if at all any interpreter is required, the host looks after that. Foreign visitors to India do speak acceptable level of English and more often than not interpreters are not required.
This situation is the main reason why our entrepreneurs are lulled into a sense of false security. Because they were able to pull along without interpreters, they think that their engineers and other officials in the next rung of management can do the same thing. Unfortunately this does not apply to translations of the vast documentation and they are obliged to hire us. But this is bothering them and hence they give statements such as those indicating that translation is a non-value activity. They try to use this argument to browbeat us translators into accepting low rates. This cuts no ice with me, as given half a chance, I start waxing eloquent in favor of my profession. And I stand firm and manage to get good rates.
The entire thing boils down to this: It is necessary to do things right the first time. It is true especially of the need to understand the client’s requirements in the first place. Given half a chance I talk the officer into showing me the proposed bar chart for the entire activity. More often than not translation does not find any mention and there is no budget earmarked specifically for that purpose. It is here that I point out the lacuna to the engineer in question. In one case the officer concerned was surprised on just calculating the number of words requiring translation and he arrived at a staggering figure. He was hitherto under the impression that translation expenditure can be met from contingencies. Poor fellow was shaken to the core. On incorporating the translation details in a suitable manner, there were no longer any bottlenecks in terms of delayed payments, as the incorrigible accountants insist on being informed about the correct head of account, any thing other than contingencies. This benefited me as well as my invoices were paid promptly.
In the next installments I will come up with more points regarding client education.

Regards,

N.Raghavan

My two cents about dealing with the clients - 9

2007-03-07T21:44:00.000+05:30

Finishing the translation and handing it over to the client ahead of the deadline is quite important. But that is not everything. You should also keep your outstandings within a minimum ceiling. You should know how to collect money fast. Now I will deal with this very important aspect.

You have decided that this is your life. You have to get this money to buy all your necessities. As in any profession, outstandings mean an interest-free loan. You cannot afford to give that. No need to feel finicky about asking for your money. A translator is usually an introvert person. That is why he chose this profession, where he has more dealings with books and papers. His work too is a solitary one and he spends hours slogging at his computer. I spend nearly 15 hours per day at the computer, so much so the little woman at home is convinced that I am indulging myself by playing some video games. That is another story.

You should show toughness in collecting your bills. Otherwise you are doomed.

Rule 1: When new clients are involved, try to get some upfront payment. In my earlier posts I have talked about clients, who would bluff their way to getting low rates by promising heavy jobs in future.

But there are really clients, who give a lot of work. One among was this piston plant near Delhi, the capital of India. I used to go for onsite translation at a fixed hourly rate. This I did for months together. One day of eight hour shift was priced at some good amount. I used to present my bill every 10 days and continue working. At the same time I will monitor the movement of the bill through various departments. This will take a few days. By that the next bill will go and so on. This means that after a few days, I will start getting paid at regular intervals. Wherever I go, I would be cordial to one and all. Once I get payment, I will thank all concerned, including the lowest ranking staff. This is very important. You shall not ignore anyone and walk off with the check. A few friendly thank-you-gestures will never hurt. Many became my personal friends and saw to the smooth movement of my cases.

Now for the past 6 years I am in Chennai. Here too I behave in the same manner. Here the new clients are usually asked to pay some advance, especially if individual persons come as clients. Some may demur at trusting me with the advance money. I will tell them that in that case, they may pay after seeing the work. Once I finish the translation, I will call them to my house and show the entire file in my screen. Then they will pay. I will immediately email the work to their id. Then I will invite them to open their mail in my computer and check whether it has come to their inbox. That's all.

Suppose he is unable to come. No problem. First I will email the job to one of my other ids. Then I will go to his place and get the money and open my mail inbox in his computer and from their forward the file to his inbox. After all, where there is a will, there is a way.

But for established clients, I send the translation by email and send the bill by courier. In that case, make sure at the earliest that the courier has reached there. Then it is a question of gentle persuasion. Here too, once you get the check, thank everyone concerned by telephone immediately. Be cordial at all times.

That's all there to that. In my past 32 years of operation, the number of times I have been deprived of payment can be counted on my fingers.

Another thing: In India, there is a thing called Tax deducted at source (TDS). This cannot be avoided but you should be vigilant and collect the necessary certificates from the relevant firms. Here the firms are quite lax in this connection. You will have to be that much more vigilant. But be polite in dealings of this type as well.

Now about a few tall stories one gets to hear from the clients about delayed payments.

A work billed in March 2001 was paid in November only. Reason, because of 9/11- bombing in New York, all payment got delayed. The same client was the source of another tall story. I phoned and asked for the owner. He was at the bank, it seemed. His partner-wife? She too was at the same bank. His auditor? Bank, where else? How about the accounts clerk? You guessed it. Bank. Poor bank manager, he would have been really overwhelmed by such flood of visitors.

Regards,
N.Raghavan

My two cents about dealing with the clients - 8

2007-01-06T15:05:00.000+05:30

Make the best of whatever you are at any given period of your life. Let me elaborate. Before February 2002, I did not have computer. Now I do. I made the maximum use of both the conditions. Let me explain how I did it.

My translation activities have seen three main stages so far. The first stage lasted from 1975 to 1981, when I was posted in Chennai, a metropolis located in South India. It was followed by my stay till 2001 in New Delhi, the capital city of India. Since 2001 I am back in Chennai and this is the third stage.

In the first stage the translation activities went on at a slow and sedate pace. In those days the demand for translation was not much in Chennai. And I had to commute for 4 hours between my residence and place of work and back. These 4 hours in train were put to full use by me in doing my translation. During the lunch hour too I did my translations. I roped in the typist in my office to do the typing, for which I paid him promptly. I never missed a deadline to my clients.

I went to Delhi in the year 1981 to join a Government of India Undertaking as Electrical Engineer cum French translator. Here I had hectic translation practice in French as well as in German. Here too I derived maximum benefit from my then prevailing situation.

After 1995, the use of computers for translation increased in leaps and bounds. But I did not possess one nor did I have any idea as to how to use it. The clients started insisting that I give the translations as floppies. But I was still 7 years away from having my own computer. How did I manage?

Well, whenever a client asked me to give floppies, I used to look him straight in the eye and ask solemnly as to whether his confidentiality was not important to him. No client would say no to this question. Then I would suggest in all seriousness that I am ready to come to his office and carry out the translation as he desires. He was to depute a typist, who could type in parallel my translations in a computer. At around 16.30 hrs in the afternoon, he would give me the translation printouts and I would proof read the same. The corrections could then be carried out and as I leave for the day, the day's work would have been safely saved. What is more, everything would remain in the client's hard disk only and his data's confidentiality would be maintained.

Presented in this manner, the client had no hesitation in accepting my proposal. As by that time, I had taken voluntary retirement from my fulltime job, my time was my own and I had no problem in going to the client's office at any time. In fact, in those days there was hardly any other German/French translator in New Delhi being in a position to do onsite work like I rendered at that time. My practice flourished.

After returning to Chennai, I purchased an operating system only the next year. But by that time there were enough typing professionals in my neighborhood for typing in computers and sending the job as email attachment. This too was not required once I purchased my own system and did my own typing.

Thus I had a technological leap from just handwritten translations to sending typed jobs through email. I skipped the floppy stage entirely. Now my presentation to the clients experienced a sea-change. I emphasize the fact that I do not require any paper copy as well as the fact that my entire transaction is paperless. Here too if the client is worried about the confidentiality of his data, I am ready to go to his place and do the work in his OS. I demand a broadband Internet connection so as to be able to open online dictionaries, Google etc, which help me in rendering a finer work. I do not fail to emphasize these points as well. The client will be only too glad to oblige me. Let me repeat. In Chennai too, there is no other German/French translator for going to the client's place and doing work in his OS. My career is flourishing. Added to this is my 23 years' experience as an electrical engineer.

I continue to come across new developments in the computer applications and I make full use of it. What is more, I emphasize these points to the client and that helps a lot in landing more clients. They help in my negotiations as well.

Before concluding let me tell you as to how I present my experience. I would say that I had 23 years' experience as graduate electrical engineer, have been working since 32 years as German translator and since 29 years as French translator. Thus I have a cumulative experience of 84 years and my age is 60. The client would be baffled and ask me how. "Overtime", I would reply with a straight face.

To sum up: Emphasize what you can and do not harp on what you can't other than mentioning it once very briefly. Behave as if the latter is not a big issue at all.

Rest in next

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

My two cents about dealing with the clients - 7

2006-11-02T06:22:00.000+05:30

It is not enough if you are a good translator. You should also be readily available. Many good opportunities in life come at the least expected moment. Success in life consists in, among other things, being in the right place at the right time.

Hence keep your communication route always open. This necessitates a telephone as a basic need. Another cardinal rule is to try to handle yourself the incoming calls. Children should not be allowed to handle the incoming calls. If this suggestion is hard to implement, keep a cell phone for your exclusive use. And another important thing to remember is to keep it always with you. A cell phone shall not become “univercell” phone! :))))

The use of cell phone opens up new possibilities.

In this competitive world, every person is in a hurry. The client wants to contact you assign you the job after bargaining the rates and possibly have the translation previous day itself!

Hence it is up to you to make proper arrangements for being always available. It is a good thing that nowadays telephone connections are easy to get, at least here in India. I remember the days when I started this translation practice way back in 1975. In those days getting a telephone connection implied a wait for a few years even.

But in those days the translation jobs came to me from the Government of India through Insdoc. They used to send jobs by registered post and I had to send the translations by the same route. Life was going on in a more sedate pace.

Let us come back to the present. It is important not to miss calls when you are not at home. The wife is there of course, but she too could be away when the phone call comes. This is how I handle the situation.

Whenever I go out, I transfer the incoming calls to my land line to my cell phone. Since there is another phone for the family's use, they are not affected. This call transfer feature in my landline is a boon to me, in that I get all the incoming calls in my cell phone. There is no question of missing any call. And this transfer is effective even when I go to other cities in my country thanks to the roaming feature in my cell phone. The only catch in this setup is the presence of signals in the place where you go. Gradually this problem is being addressed by commissioning more and more transmission towers.

To sum up: Your cell phone should be exclusively with you. You personally attend the incoming calls. I will add one more thing. Please be polite while attending calls.

Rest in next installment

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

My 2 cents about dealing with the clients - 6

2006-09-04T22:26:00.000+05:30

Never give unnecessary details. What are they? As usual, I will proceed from my own example.

You are holding full-time employment in some organisation. You want to take up translöation jobs in your free time. Now, translation is a part-time job. While contacting your clients for your translation activities, you should never reveal to them, where you work. Believe me, once they know you are employed full-time elsewhere, they will do their utmost to find out where you work. Well, it is an information of no concern to them. That's all. I will relate here some of the encounters I had in this connection.

Surely you would have heard about the ISO 9001. One of its salient points deals with information management. When a job is assigned to a person or to a group, it is necessary to give them all the information essential for executing their job. How about other inforation. They are never to be divulged. If you are wondering about my point, just be patient. I will fit this doctrine to my case.

What information are at your disposal?

You are an engineer. How many years' experience? What are the languages being handled by you and how much experience do you have in each language? How fast can you translate. What can be your deadline for a given job?

Is it necessary to give all these information to the client? Yes, of course. And they must be genuine information.

Now abou the information that are not to be divulged. As I mentione above, you hold a full-time job. The client will be curious to know as to where you work. What good can come out of that knowledge? Nothing, is the only obvious answer.

But there are many answers to the question, "What bad can come out of that? The first answer will be, the information given out by you is no longer under your control. It will actually turn into a Damocles sword hanging over your head. You are unnecessarily handing over a blackmailing lever to the client. It may happen that your full-time employer gets to know about your part-time activity and he may decide to send you home. An internal auditor in my organisation lost his job in this manner.

There was this Delhi client. Even he didn't ask me about my full-time employment but his subordinate officer pestered me for this detail. I politely and firmy refused. He protested that he was my friend and surely I would not deny a friend his wish. I told him drily that he was not a friend and just an acquaintance. Once I took voluntary retirement to take up full-time translation, I told him where I worked. I was shocked when he told me that his wife's brother was the accountant in my organization. I knew him well, a trouble maker. Had he known at the crucial time, I would have been out of the organisation in no time. It was really a great escape.

Once I quit the full-time job, the fact of my working in the concerned organisation became a detail to be supplied. In that organisation I worked as Electrical Engineer as well as French translator for 12 years. And this combination is of vital interest to a potential client.

I will tell more in the next instalment.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

My 2 cents about dealing with the clients - 5

2006-07-02T08:12:00.000+05:30

Do not for God's sake accept at face value whatever the client says. Some clients are in the habit of saying that they have thousands of jobs in the pipeline and expect to get some reduced rates from you. This too will, more often than not, be just a bluff. Most probably the job in hand will just be a one-time job. No further work can be expected in the near future. Their stake is in lowering the price. I will tell you here how I deal with just such ploys.

I do not know about the professionals in other fields. But we translators have one problem. Most of us are shy about telling in clear concise terms our prices and conditions. And quite a few of us are easily brow-beaten to accept low rates. Compared to other professions, translators are not that frequently appointed as full-time employees. Further, any time retrenchments take place, the translator is among the first to be shown the door. This causes nervousness in the mind of the translator, especially a novice. All these things factor into getting him accept a low rate. He wants to be sure of earning his bread in a regular manner.

By nature he is usually an introvert and does not mingle with others as frequently as the professionals in some other fields. This is one of the reasons, why he became a translator in the first place. He prefers reading to moving with people. And his reading helps him to hone his language skills and the rest is almost foretold. So, the translator has to overcome this inhibition and be bold in negotiating. Then only he can avoid a lot of future heart burns and make a success of his profession. For this he has to be ready to deal with the tall promises and bluffs some of the clients indulge in.

Always take these promises with a pinch of salt- some of the promises even requiring two pinches! A client could say that he has got thousands of pages for translating and he can provide you with non-stop work. Hence you are expected to be reasonable and accept a lower rate. The rule of thumb is, it is all just hot air. Even if they have only one job in hand, they will talk so. Their aim is to reduce the rate to the bone. We cannot fault them for it. I have got a formula worked out for dealing with this type of promises.

First I will express my happiness in knowing about the potentially big translation assignment. But then thousands of pages get translate into fulltime job. However that has got more hidden costs that are involved in employing fulltime staff, as any good industrial engineer will tell you nor am I keen on a fulltime job. Thus I will arrive at my proposal. I will say for example, I charge Rs.700 per hour. I will agree to come for an hourly rate of Rs.500, provided he enters into a service contract with me for at least one year promising 3 days of eight hours each per week. This works out to 56 days a year and 13 days a month. Within one month, the client can choose his 13 days in any manner he wants. I will suggest Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The client will be taken unawares and mumble that perhaps he has not that much work. Then I will sweetly suggest two days a week at Rs. 550 per hour. No dice. Rs. 600 per hour for once a week over the next year? Not a chance. Then my smile will broaden and I will politely decline any reduction in my rates. Then the negotiation will proceed on another plane.

One client asked me in all sincerity, when there are umpteen translators ready to do the work at a lower rate, why he should pay me a higher rate. For that my reply is instantaneous. As I have got clients paying me the rate demanded by me, I see no reason to accept a lower rate.

My policy is never to accept a rate which you cannot afford. I will go further. Once you accept a lower rate with one client, it is very difficult to increase the rate with that client later on. My stand is clear. A client should come back because I am a very capable translator and not because I charge less. And I am firm in maintaining this.

More in the coming installments.

Regards,
Dondu N. Raghavan

IT can help in nabbing terrorists

2006-03-18T13:15:00.000+05:30

My dear friend Mr. Ravi Balasubramanian sent me this email, which I converted into Tamil and put up a post in my Tamil blog. Now with his blanket permission, I hasten to put it my English blog as well. I am talking about the same Ravi Subramanian, whose another email inspired me to put up my post "Loss of friend".

The problem of terrorists is looming everywhere in the country. Experts from all over domains are thinking hard to solve the problem. Half the problem will be solved when there is a simple way of nabbing them. It is here that our hero Mr.Vijayakanth from the Tamil silver screen comes to our rescue. He has taken a vow to develop software for nabbing the terrorists. Here is how he proceeds. His various steps are shown easy to follow images that figure in his film "Vijayakanth, IT Super Star!" Here goes:

Now an urgent request. Never reveal to our Vijayakanth that it was I, who put up this post. I am putting on a disguise just in case.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

Computer illiterates around the world

2006-03-18T08:56:00.000+05:30

Computer illiterates around the world making you appear cleverer by comparison

For people moaning about their helplessness with computers, here are some examples showing the state of knowledge in others. You are definitely better off than they are, given the fact that you have succeeded in coming to read this page! Here goes:

True telephone conversations recorded from various Help Desks around the U.K

Helpdesk: What kind of computer do you have ?

Customer: A white one...

> > ====

Customer: Hi, this is Celine. I can't get my diskette out.

Helpdesk: Have you tried pushing the button ?

Customer: Yes, but it's really stuck.

Helpdesk: That doesn't sound good; I'll make a note ..

Customer: No ... wait a minute... I hadn't inserted it yet... it's still on my desk... sorry .

> > ====

Helpdesk: Click on the 'my computer' icon on to the left of the screen.

Customer: Your left or my left ?

> > ====

Helpdesk: Good day. How may I help you ?

Male customer: Hello... I can't print.

Helpdesk: Would you click on start for me and ...

Customer: Listen pal; don't start getting technical on me ! I'm not Bill Gates damn it !

> > ====

Hi good afternoon, this is Martha, I can't print. Every time I try it says

'Can't find printer'. I've even lifted the printer and placed it in front

of the monitor, but the computer still says he can't find it...

> > ====

Customer: I have problems printing in red...

Helpdesk: Do you have a colour printer ?

Customer: No.

> > ====

Helpdesk: What's on your monitor now ma'am ?

Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me in the supermarket.

> > ====

Helpdesk: And now hit F8.

Customer: It's not working.

Helpdesk: What did you do, exactly ?

Customer: I hit the F-key 8-times as you told me, but nothing's happening.

> > ====

Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore.

Helpdesk: Are you sure it's plugged into the computer ?

Customer: No. I can't get behind the computer.

Helpdesk: Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces back.

Customer: OK

Helpdesk: Did the keyboard come with you ?

Customer: Yes

Helpdesk: That means the keyboard is not plugged in. Is there another keyboard ?

Customer: Yes, there's another one here. Ah...that one does work !

> > ====

Helpdesk: Your password is the small letter a as in apple, a capital letter V as in Victor, the number 7.

Customer: Is that 7 in capital letters?

> > ====

A customer couldn't get on the internet.

Helpdesk: Are you sure you used the right password ?

Customer: Yes I'm sure. I saw my colleague do it.

Helpdesk: Can you tell me what the password was ?

Customer: Five stars.

> > ====

Helpdesk: What antivirus program do you use ?

Customer: Netscape.

Helpdesk: That's not an antivirus program.

Customer: Oh, sorry...Internet Explorer.

> > ====

Customer: I have a huge problem. A friend has placed a screensaver on my

computer, but every time I move the mouse, it disappears !

> > ====

Helpdesk: Microsoft Tech. Support, may I help you ?

Customer: Good afternoon! I have waited over 4 hours for you. Can you

please tell me how long it will take before you can help me ?

Helpdesk: Uhh..? Pardon, I don't understand your problem ?

Customer: I was working in Word and clicked the help button more than 4

hours ago. Can you tell me when you will finally be helping me ?

> > ====

Helpdesk: How may I help you ?

Customer: I'm writing my first e-mail.

Helpdesk: OK, and, what seems to be the problem ?

Customer: Well, I have the letter a, but how do I get the circle around it?

Taken from this URL:

The abovementioned is from a Proz.com posting that was initiated by me. My fellow translator Parrot added this gem:

Customer: Hello, I need to replace a broken part of my computer.

Help desk: Which one?

Customer: The glass holder.

Help desk: The WHAT???

Customer: You know, that tray with the hole in the middle that pops out when you push the small button...

My 2 cents about dealing with the clients - 4

2006-03-17T19:08:00.000+05:30

I spoke thus in the first part of this series dealing with client relations: "Be clear about the rates. Many translators lose out on this aspect. It may be true that the job is easy for you and you love this work. But there is no need for you to tell this to the client. If you do so, he will start behaving as if he is doing you a favor.

You have a skill to market, that is to say translation. The client does not have it. Period. Even if he were to have it, he just cannot afford the time taken to do the translation himself. That's why you are there. This is the true position. Now all that remains to be done is the pricing of your services. Some clients may try this ploy: "This is a job after your heart and it is actually an art. Trying to haggle is just cheapening this art, don't you think so?" Allow no one to pull the wool over your eyes. The client is solely interested in reducing his costs. To such clients I gently say, "Sir, you are a sensitive soul and it does credit to you, I am content to be an admirer of mammon". Beyond this no client had proceeded, as in truth he is a keener merchant than I am!

Let's come to another ploy by the client. A 10-page paper may contain some sentences repeated more than once. This happens mainly in patents, wherein the same idea may be repeated with different numerical values. Especially in the patent claims section, there will be full paras repeated from the earlier descriptions. When the client is aware of this, he will expect you to charge less for repetitions and at times even forgo payment for the same, for the simple reason, that the work is made easy for us. I never allow myself to fall for this line of reasoning and will reject their reasoning outright. Well, the repetitions are not my concern. I did not bring them about. What I have is a paper and if the client wants it translated, he better pay me the full amount. My price is based on the rate per word. There are softwares available for counting words in various types of files. I always use this mode of charging. This too is susceptible to many changes depending on circumstances but they are beyond the scope of this posting. In short, the client's reasoning on this account is not acceptable.

But do remember to be polite while mouthing all these things and keep smiling, while being firm at the same time. Even if the client were not to agree to these things, always make sure that you keep the door open for a later entry to the client's office. Who knows what the future will bring?

It is also important to shape your prices to suit the client's needs. For example, there was this client, who had a 100 page document containing around 30,000 words and just 3 days' time before he had to understand it and take action. If one were to translate it in toto, at least 20 days were required. He just did not have that much time. So he asked me whether I could go through the document and give him a true picture of its contents. This called for reading out the document and then giving the client an oral presentation of its contents. I went to his office for 2 days in succession and gave out oral summaries of various chapters to a team of 4 different domain people. For this I cannot charge in terms of words. I resorted to hourly rate plus taxi charges to and fro plus coffee, tea, lunch etc as applicable from time to time. Under this regime my minimum billing will be for 2 hours per assignment. I did the work to the client's satisfaction. As this was a first time for me, I gave one disclaimer at the outset, namely, the time period required for the work depended on the client's capacity to absorb things quickly. And this is beyond my control.

Some of you may frown on my mentioning tea, coffee, lunch etc. My friend had to face a lot of embarrassment just because he didn't talk these things out beforehand. He was taken to Trichy, where he had to stay in the same hotel as the client but had to pay his own bills. He ended up with a net loss of Rs.200 (that was in 1981).

How does one calculate the hourly rate? I have the following formula for this. I know how many words I can turn out per hour. This multiplied by my word rate will give my hourly rate. That's all.

Rest in coming installments.

Regards,
N.Raghavan

Translator or otherwise, this is important

2006-02-03T06:53:00.000+05:30

Health - Recognizing a stroke!

Maybe you are in perfect Health to bother about this. But then, you may have an opportunity to save a family member, friend or stranger.

During an outdoor dinner at a seaside resort near Chennai, India, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Lakshmi (name changed) went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Her husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm, Lakshmi passed away). She had suffered a stroke at the dinner- had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke perhaps Lakshmi would be alive today.

It only takes a minute to read this:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient
within 3 hours which is tough. There is nothing more life saving than getting the patient to the hospital in the FIRST ONE HOUR! The Golden Hour it is now known as to Doctors and emergency attendents alike!

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Remember the "3" steps. Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify.
Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. . . It is sunny out today). If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call
Emergency immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. Widespread use
of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people;
you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

BE A FRIEND AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE WITH AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE, and you could save their lives.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

Penny wise pound foolish

2005-12-28T07:25:00.000+05:30

The other day a new client of mine called me to his place for discussions. It seems he wanted a menu translated from English into German as well as into French. He represents a 4-star hotel, here in Chennai.

The requirement for translation into French was straight forward enough. He wanted the entire menu translated. But for translation into German he wanted to economize. He told me that the new menu in English was just a slight modification of the existing menu, whose German translation was already with him. I was to translate only the modifications. I asked him to give the modifications in a different color font. He agreed and emailed me the English menu.

I took up the French translation first and sent him the finished translation. Then I took up the second part of the assignment and then sent him the German translation duly incorporated in the original English menu. All he had to do was to copy paste from the existing German version the entries into the new menu so that he can get at the revised menu in German.

Here he ran into rough weather. It seems that the new menu in English is a fully revised one and bore no resemblance to the original version in matters of sequence or even formatting. He quietly sent me the old German version and asked me to insert the suitable German translations into the new revised menu.

I refused. I told him that this is entirely a different work and as the German words are already existing and my work was just to hunt them and put them in proper places in the new English menu, this work was not susceptible to straight forward word counting. I suggested that I come to his place, sit with the manager in charge of the menu and put the words in proper places, carrying out any further modifications in the format as might be found necessary by the manager at that time. After hearing my hourly rates and learning about the minimum billing for two hours as well as other conditions such as to- and fro taxi fare plus food while working, he became quiet. Though the conversatin was being conducted over phone, I could almost hear his mental gears moving around and meshing into place. He quietly asked me about the possible additional cost were I to translate the entire menu into German, not bothering about the old translation. Here there was no problem as I was already aware of the full word count of the English menu, on which I based my bill. The difference was not much and he said he would let me know. That was yesterday. He is yet to give me his decision. But the reason for my posting this rests elsewhere.

Trouble comes with clients, who try to cut corners and economize. I will not blame the person negotiating with me as he is just an employee of the organisation in question and his instructions are just to get the work done at the cheapest price. So the client goes into rigmaroles to restrict the work. He forgets that by just getting the entire package translated, he saves a lot in terms of time and avoidable botheration. Let me give a few examples.

One officer negotiating with me said that his Director knows French and at a pinch he can very well look after the visiting French expert. Hence I should reduce my rates. I just took a few minutes to demolish his assumption. The French expert was supposed to work with the Indian workers giving them training. Did the officer expect that the company's top official will sit with them and do interpreting? I told the officer that that person was expected to manage the company on the whole and not lose himself in a lower-end job as far as he was concerned. The officer quickly agreed and we proceeded with the rate negotiation.

In another firm, there was a bunch of German drawings. The officer entrusting the work to me marked a few words in each sheet and told me to translate just them as he undestood the other words. I obliged without argument as it was a job paid on an hourly basis, finished the work as instructed and got paid. The trouble was, the concerned officer left the company soon afterwards. His successor was not so knowledgeable and he wanted the meaning of words that were left untranslated. You guessed it correctly. Another work for me. Needless to say, the company ended up paying me much more.

There was this client, who expected me not to charge for interpreting while accompanying him and the visitor to a five-star hotel for wining and dining. He was of the opinion that I should be content with five-star food. I told him politely that I am not enamoured of five star food, in fact was just fed up with them! (pun intended!). Either he pays me for my time or I do not go. He said that he would manage the hotel visit himself and asked me to come for technical interpreting the next day. But things took a differeent turn the next day. The visitor had eaten something, which was not suitable for his stomach. He was an European and there are many spicy Indian foods about which I always caution the visitor. Well, in this case I was not there. The visitor had bouts of vomiting and loose motion throughout the next day. He had to be taken to a doctor, who put him on drips. Naturally I sat by his side and interpreted between him and the doctor, as well as the pretty nurse, whom the expert found to be nice. However the client was not amused, as the expert's daily rate was way higher than my interpreting fees for the three hours spent at the five-star hotel. The client became very thoughtful afterwards.

Then there are clients not wishing to pay for numbers, proper nouns, repetitions etc. They just serve to give concrete examples of penny wise, pound foolish!

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

My 2 cents about dealing with the clients - 3

2005-12-01T20:24:00.000+05:30

What to write and what not to write as well as how to express oneself and how not do it in letters to a prospective client are all important things and you should not lose sight of them. As already mentined in my previous post, I have developed a sort of letter template. Yet, I do modify it now and then for the sake of variety.

For example, once I introduced myself as an electrical engineer taking up translation work in deviation of my usual introduction as a translator with engineering specialization. In reply, I got this wonderful letter:

"Sir,

With reference to your application for the post of Sales Engineer, we request you to attend an interview on bla, bla, bla.

Regards and all that."

At first I was flabbergasted. Nevertheless, I met the CEO of the company in question and explained to him about the mix-up. He was initially amazed and then burst out laughing. And it seems wonders never cease. He had a German text, which he had initially kept aside for the moment. As I was already there, he gave the text to me for translation. So nothing was lost. Here I learnt two lessons. One is to put more emphasis on my being a translator and mention the fact of my engineering experience only as a support to my translation activities. The other lesson is to never miss an opportunity of meeting a client, however hopeless the situation might appear to be.

Letters should be brief. Yet they should not miss anything important. And they should kindle the client's curiosity. They should focus on the client's requirements. You should always address the letter to the CEO of the firm. All my letters were hand-written and this fact gave them a touch of originality. I lived till July 2001 in New Delhi, the Capital of India. All my translations were delivered in manuscript form. In the bargain, I wrote thousands of pages and my handwriting improved a lot.

OK, you got a letter from the company to come for a face-to-face discussion. Now what?

Before going further, let me make one thing clear. Whatever I mentioned so far and am going to mention in subsequent instalment on this topic are applicable to any venture. Since I am tapping my personal experiences, the activity of translation is emphasized, that's all. It is for the readers to customize the points suited to their requirements.

Now you have entered the company premises. You are asked to wait as the CEO is busy. Even awaiting the call is an art. Some people needlessly become tense. They resort to nail-biting, looking often at the watch etc. Avoid all these manifestations of nervousness.

For just such occasions I go prepared. I take a book with me. I will sit calmly and be reading the book. Time will fly. While reading the book, I will be rehearsing in my mind as to how I could present my case to the CEO. I will think of the possible questions that might be flung at me and rehearse the answers to the same. I will create a few openings of my own and try to keep the conversation under my control.

Keep your eyes open and have a good look at the enterprise's environment. Keep a cheerful face and smile a lot. You don't lose anything by being cordial to all. It is absolutely essential to get as much goodwill as possible. Hence practise this appproach right from the beginning.

Nowadays smoking is strictly prohibited in offices. But the situation was entirely different in the eighties. Whenever the CEO offered me a cigarette, I never refused the first time. Just for these occasions I had fixed myself a quota of 12 cigarettes per year. The moment I accept the first cigarette, rapport is immediately struck between me and the CEO. Here is a small point to remember. An average smoker lives always with a compulsion to kick the habit. Were I to refuse the first cigarette, I appear to him as a show-off having a will stronger will than his. This will not do. Hence my strategy. Anyhow, nowadays such occsions become rarer and it is good.

Listen carefully as the CEO speaks. Understand the company's needs. Only then you can talk about your services in a confident manner.

In my particular case, a typical CEO will always be curious to know as to how an engineer is also a linguist. It is so because, an average engineer is not much good in languages. Well, this is a case of hasty generalization but then this impression persists. Hence you should talk in fluent English. Never neglect anything as being too obvious and/or too small. Don't forget that all these small things join together to create a good impression about you.

Exercise utmost care while agreeing to deadlines. For the client, his work is always urgent and he would like to get the translation yesterday itself. Do not be cowed down to accept unreasonable deadlines. You should keep in mind the other commitments agreed to for other clients. You can translate only so much words per day (2000 words in my case). While declining to accept the deadline as demanded by client, don't forget to be polite.

How do I handle such situations? Suppose I can comfortably give a deadline some 5 days hence. I will ask for 7 days' time. If the client harps on the urgency, I will offer to do the job for 5 days by working extra hours per day. I will also be asking for a premium of 20% over and above the normal price. More often than not, the client will suddenly realize that his job is not so urgent after all. If he is really in a hurry, he may accept the conditions for extra payment and it should not be unwelcome to you. That's all. But one thing, you should honour the deadline agreed to. There can be no two opinions about this.

I will talk about rate negotiations in my next instalment of this post.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

Loss of friend

2005-11-19T16:55:00.000+05:30

It is not often that I spend time on forwarded mails. But today's mail was an exception. My friend Ravi Balasubramanian sent me this account in an email. I was quite moved by it.

I was reminded of the Valmiki Ramayana. Sage Valmiki saw a hunter shooting down one of the two Krauncha birds. On seeing the lament of the surviving bird, the sage is moved to utter a curse on the hunter banishing him to wander without abode all the days of his life.

He regretted immediately his loss of temper. But then he was intrigued by the wording of the curse. It had come out as a metered verse. As he was pondering about this, Sage Narada appeared before him and told him that the incident was as intended by God and that he should now write the story of Srirama using the same meter. Thus all the 24,000 verses have the same meter in the Valmiki Ramayana.

Now to the pictorial account below. By the way I have rendered this in Tamil too in my Tamil blog.

1. It was a gloomy Saturday afternoon. A flock of birds was spending great time searching for food and playing on the main road. Out of the sudden, a big truck sped through... sad thing had happened again.

2. Birds can feel too. Although this bird had already died, another bird flew over to her immediately, just like a family member, unable to accept the truth.

3. Not long after that, another car stormed in causing the dead bird's body to whirl with the wind. The spouse noticed the movement. As if she was still alive, he quickly flew beside her again.

4. He stayed beside her and yelled ... "WHY ARE YOU NOT GETTING UP!?"

5. Unfortunately, she's no longer able to hear him. In the meantime, he's trying to lift her up.

6. He, of course, was unable to bear the burden. Another car soon passed by. He quickly flew off. Once the car had gone, he came down again.

7. Although other birds told him its useles, he never gave up. He was trying his best to lift her up to see her flying again. Another car passed by, her dead body whirled again as if still alive and trying to fly.

8. He had used all of his energy, however...
The photographer said he couldn't shoot any longer. The photographer was so worried that the living bird was going to get hurt by passing cars. So he picked up the dead bird and left it at the roadside. The live one still lingered at a nearby tree as if crying with his singing and refused to leave.

Do humans have the same feelings nowadays? I wonder.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

My 2 cents about dealing with the clients - 2

2005-11-19T09:56:00.000+05:30

My suggestions are for freelance translators only. If you are employed as full-time translator, you will not want for work, if your employer knows what is good for him. As already mentioned in my post about reverse translation, I worked as a full-time translator in Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticaly Limited (IDPL).

From where can one locate clients? From anywhere is my short answer. Let me elaborate with a few concrete examples from my own experience.

It was 1982. I was proceeding by flight to the Hyderabad Unit of IDPL for some very urgent translation assignment. The flight took one hour. I was leafing through The Hindustan Times provided by the Indian Airlines as courtesy to the passengers. As I was scanning idly the situations vacant page, one advertisement caught my attention. A television antenna manufacturer had advertised for the post of an accountant. Definitely of no concern to me but the fact that it was having German collaboration was of interest. I dashed off a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of the company in question and posted it as soon as I reached Hyderabad. It was a handwritten letter. By the time I came back to New Delhi, I received word from the company to come for an interview. It was an eye-opener for me. From then onwards I started looking out for more such opportunities.

For example, there is a government publication appearing every month. It contains the list of government-approved foreign collaborations. I used to consult this and prepare a list of Delhi-based companies whose German/French collaborations had been approved. Then I would dash off a handwritten letter to the CEO of the company in question. Further developments such as getting replies, having face-to-face discussions with the company directors, turning out good translations etc followed with clockwork regularity in quite a few cases.

Another mehtod would be keeping the eyes and ears open. Whenever new persons are introduced to me, I would talk to them about themselves and they liked such talks. I would know about the companies for which they work and get details of possible German/French connections of the firm. Rest is as already described. Visiting Indo-German and Indo-French Chambers of Commerce for preparing a list of their Delhi-based members is also part of such exercise.

So far so good, let us see now about the drafting of such letters. It is by God's Grace that I found an effective formulla in the first letter itself written by me to the antenna manufacturer way back in 1982. There are just a few changes in the content, especially in the numerical values such as years of experience, age etc. Let me reproduce that letter here.

Sir,

Sub.: German/French translation services

I am a freelance German/French translator with 7/4 years' experience in the above languages. Being a graduate electrical engineer having worked for 11 years in that capacity, I specialize in translating all types of technical literatures as well as interpreting for the visiting technical experts speaking only German or French.

Given your German connection, I feel that you will be in need of the above services in your line of work from time to time. In case you are interested, we can have a more detailed discussion on the subject.

Regards,
N.Raghavan

In those days I did not even have a telephone. Hence all communications took place by letter. Once I obtained telephone connection in 1990, I would mention the telephone number as well. I am mentioning this here just to show that the absence of facilities should not deter one.

Let me describe the response to the above letter. I was called for discussion and I was subsequently entrusted with their German translation work. With time I got their French translation jobs too. During the first discussion the CEO told me that the fact of my being an engineer as well as a translator intrigued him and he wanted to know more. Whatever it might be, the main thing is the getting of work.

We should also be clear as what not to write and speak during subsequent discussions. Before concluding this part, I would like to mention that with the advent of the Internet things are much more easier. But the basic principles remain.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

Entertainment from machine translation

2005-10-06T16:37:00.000+05:30

It is unbelievable. I give below as example, a machine translation of the Web page of the German weekly, Der Spiegel". The news item presented here deals with the reaction of the Nobel prize designate M.Yves Chauvin to the news of his winning the Nobel prize. See: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent? lp=de_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwissenschaft%2Fme nsch%2F0%2C1518%2C378142%2C00.html

Der französische Chemiker Yves Chauvin soll den Nobelpreis erhalten - und findet die Auszeichnung nicht erfreulich, sondern "peinlich". Der 74-Jährige sagte, er werde nicht zur Verleihungszeremonie kommen und wolle weiterhin zurückgezogen leben.
The French chemist Yves Chauvin is to receive the Nobelpreis - and does not find the honor not pleasing, but "embarrassingly". The 74-Jaehrige said, he to the award ceremony not to come and wanted further withdrawn to live.

Normalerweise reagieren Wissenschaftler mit atemloser Freude auf die Verleihung des Nobelpreises - zumal der Anruf aus Stockholm für die meisten überraschend kommt, da die Namen der Preisträger kaum vorhersehbar sind. Umso erstaunlicher war die Reaktion von Yves Chauvin, der heute von der Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften als einer der drei diesjährigen Chemie-Nobelpreisträger genannt wurde.
Normally scientist reacts with breathless joy to the award of the Nobelpreises - particularly the call from Stockholm for most surprisingly comes, since the names of the winners are hardly foreseeable. The reaction of Yves Chauvin, which today of the Swedish Academy of Sciences as one of the three chemistry Nobelpreistraeger of this year was called, was the more amazing.

"Mir ist dieser Preis ausgesprochen peinlich", sagte der 74-jährige Ehrendirektor des Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP)in Rueil-Malmaison. "Meine Entdeckungen sind schon 40 Jahre alt, und ich bin ein alter Mann." Gefreut habe er sich keinesfalls. "Stockholm hat mich vor einer Stunde angerufen", sagte Chauvin den Reportern, die seine Wohnung in der westfranzösischen Stadt Tours belagerten. "Man hat mir viel Glück mit der Presse gewünscht. Ich beginne zu erkennen, was damit gemeint war."
"me this price is expressed embarrassing", said the 74-jaehrige director of honour Institut of the Français you Pétrole (IFP)in Rueil Malmaison. "my discoveries are already 40 years old, and I am an old man." Was not pleased it itself under any circumstances. "Stockholm called, said me one hour ago" Chauvin to the reporters, who besieged its dwelling in the westFrench city route. "one wished me much luck with the press. I begin to recognize, what was meant with it."

Seine Forschungen, für die er jetzt den Nobelpreis erhalten habe, lägen Jahrzehnte zurück. "Ich hatte genügend Zeit, das zu verdauen", sagte Chauvin, der seine ebenfalls mit dem Nobelpreis ausgezeichneten US-Kollegen Robert Grubbs und Richard Schrock lobte. "Ich wusste, dass meine Erkenntnisse wichtig waren. Ich habe den Weg bereitet, aber es sind meine amerikanischen Kollegen, die ermöglicht haben, dass ich diesen Preis heute bekomme."
Its research, for which it had received the Nobelpreis now, would be past decades. "I had sufficient time, to digest", said Chauvin, which likewise praised its with the Nobelpreis distinguished US colleague Robert Grubbs and Richard Schrock. "I knew that my realizations were important. I prepared the way, but there is my American colleagues, who made possible that I get this price today."

I can go on ad nauseum, but I am sure the above paras more than suffice. I shudder to think about the naive assumption of people pinning their faith on machine translations.

Regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

My 2 cents about dealing with the clients - 1

2005-09-27T20:03:00.000+05:30

I have been practising the profession of translation from 1975 onwards. I guess I can say a few words on the ways and means of attracting clients. One thing is certain. One should know what one wants and should have clear ideas as to how one goes about getting it. Once this is achieved, half the battle is won. The rest is just doing things as per plan.

1. The most important thing is identifying and capturing new clients. This is an ongoing process. A separate post is required to talk about the ways of reaching up to a potential client. The aspiring translator has to write to him. What to write and whom to write and so on form the subject matter of the second part of this post.

2. Know thyself. Be clear about your capabilities and non-capabilities. If you promise impossible things and fail to deliver, your credibility will be the casualty. For example, if the client mentions a deadline for a given job, you should agree only if it is possible for you to meet it. Nine times out of ten the client will just be bluffing about the urgency of the job. If you are browbeaten into accepting the deadline and are unable to meet the deadline, you have only yourself to blame. So, this aspect will form the subject matter of a separate post.

3. Be clear about the rates. Many translators lose out on this aspect. It may be true that the job is easy for them and they love this work. But there is no need to tell this to the client. If you do so, he will start behaving as if he is doing you a favor. So another post for this aspect.

4. Do not for God's sake accept at face value whatever the client says. Some clients are in the habit of saying that they have thousands of jobs in the pipeline and expecting to get some reduced rates from you. This too will just be a bluff. Most probably the job in hand will just be a one-time job. No further work can be expected in the near future. Their stake is in lowering the price. I will tell you how I deal with just ploys in one of my future posts.

5. Do not give unnecessary details. For example, you are working full-time in a company. This freelance translation is just a side-business for you. In such a scenario, you cannot be too careful. You should keep the two activities in water-tight compartments. You should never tell the translation clients as to where you are working full-time and the full-time employer should not know that you are working freelance elsewhere. This is an extreme example and I will elaborate on it in a later post.

6. Be always accessible. Keep your communication channels open. In the present-day setup it is easy to execute. We will deal with this at the appropriate time.

7. Always try to make the best of your situation, whatever it might be. Till 2002, I had no computer. Now I do. I converted both the situations to my advantage. More about it later.

8. Doing the translation is just half the job. Collecting the money is equally important. I will come to this later.

How am I qualified talking about these things and more? I practised them myself from 1975 onwards. At present I am a very successful translator in Chennai, India. No false modesty shall hold me from saying this.

regards,
Dondu N.Raghavan

Disturbing thoughts: Is translation a non-value activity?

2005-09-26T23:04:00.000+05:30

At times I am asked to come to the client's premises to do translations, whenever the work is of confidential nature and/or is too cumbersome to handle at home. In the case I am going to cite here, there were bundles of French technical drawings in hard copy and I had a merry time translating them.

Enough of background. The contact officer and I were discussing the company's translation requirements. He told me that his bosses wanted him to make do without translation, as the work was at a preliminary stage and one was not sure of getting the order. Hence cost has to be cut. Here the offending word comes in. The bosses said to him that translation is a "non-value service", as it does not bring in money directly. Though taken aback, I was delighted with the opportunity to talk and talk about translation.

My arguments in a nutshell:
Translation is vital, as the client has to understand in the first place the principal's requirements expressed in another language. At this point of time, it is an investment and as is the case in all investments, there can be no 100% guarantee of getting fat returns. After all, the principal may not like the client's rates and not give the order. It is not the fault of translation. Without translation no meaningful offer can be given.

The above mindset of a typical client results in there being no budget provision for translations and in the translation activity not finding a place in the bar charts. Everybody assumes that translation involves just copying into another language and it is just common sense. This is an important drawback for projects involving two parties speaking different languages. Poor fellow, the contact officer had a glazed look after nearly 30 minutes of my onslaught of words.

A few words about the situation obtaining in India. Indian companies have English as the working language and this language is known to many people in Europe, especially in the German and French speaking countries. The top people going to Europe for negotiations get by almost without interpreters and if at all any interpreter is required, the host looks after that. Foreign visitors to India do speak acceptable level of English and more often than not interpreters are not required.

This situation is the main reason why our entrepreneurs are lulled into a sense of false security. Because they were able to pull along without interpreters, they think that their engineers and other officials in the next rung of management can do the same thing. Unfortunately this does not apply to translations of the vast documentation and they are obliged to hire us. But this is bothering them and hence they give statements such as those indicating that translation is a non-value activity. They try to use this argument to browbeat us translators into accepting low rates. This cuts no ice with me, as given half a chance, I start waxing eloquent in favour of my profession. And I stand firm and manage to get good rates.

The reason for this posting is to share my thoughts with my friends in a sympathetic atmosphere and get more points in favor of our case. I request my translator / interpreter colleagues to give more inputs on this question that touches us all.
Regards,

N.Raghavan

Life is very beautiful - 2

2005-09-24T22:47:00.000+05:30

When I started learning German, a remarkable thing happened. Till that period whenever I watched a Second World War film, I was seeing the Germans as the bad guys. But once I started learning the language, I started becoming sorry for them. That is the magic of learning a new language.

I was fortunately posted to Madras in 1974. In 1975 I enrolled in the French class of Alliance Francaise. My professor was Madame Sharada Lartet, an Indian married to a Frenchman. Believe me, she was wonderful. Here too I repeated my German experience. I completed all the lessons of the Mauger Rouge - 1 within the first three months after the start of my course in July 1975. With a feeling of deja-vu I started taking books from the library. Then I purchased Mauger Rouge - II and completed that as well within the next month. This was folloed by Mauger Rouge - III. It was really hectic in those days. Sharada encouraged me in all my endeavors. I started speaking French within the first three months. I passed the Certificat exam in April 1976.

Pre-diplome class started July 1976 and I was fortunate to be again in Sharda's class! But catastrophe struck at the end of the first trimester. Our class was cancelled as there were not enough students in our session. We were asked to come to another session but it was not convenient for me. Here Sharada rushed to my aid. She packed me to the third trimester session for students writing pre-diplome exam in Dec 1976. I saved one trimester in this manner.

But wonders did not cease. After one week of this session, the new Professor Maureau took me aside and said that my level was far superior to that of my fellow students. He and Sharada consulted together and Sharada sent me to the third trimester of the Diplome class being conducted by her husband Professor Lartet. I gained three more trimesters in this manner. Dec 1976 I passed Diplome with the mention "tres honorable." Then followed the class for the Diplome Superieur in July 1977, which I passed in April 1978.

Looking back, I wonder what made me tick. Without the help of Sharada I would have been nowhere. She came in my life like an angel. I was overwhelmed with her kindness and was also scared on seeing her trust in me. This made me work hard, at least to justify her faith in me.

It was in this manner that I got German and French, from which I have been translating respectively from 1975/1978 onwards. This has given me a fine opening as I start negotiating with a prospective client. I tell him that I have 23 years' experience as graduate electrical engineer, 30 years as German translator and 27 years as French translator. Thus I have a cumulative experience of 80 years whereas I am just 59 years young. The client would invariably ask "how did you manage it?" and I will say with a straight face "Overtime, sir". This always broke the ice and further negotiations proceed smoothly.

Life is really so beautiful!

Regards,
N.Raghavan

Life is very beautiful -1

2005-09-21T13:37:00.000+05:30

Let me start with Max Mueller Bhavan, Madras, India (a branch of Goethe Institut, Munich, Germany).

It was June 1969. I was awaiting the results of my final year engineering exams. Results came. I failed in 2 out of 9 subjects. All my hopes of getting a first class lay shattered, in spite of the fact that my general marks were far above the threshold for first class. Everything came to naught just because of this failing in two subjects.

My father gave me moral support. He comforted me and said that not getting first class was not the end of the world. My next exams were scheduled for November that year. He suggested that I do something else to distract me from my blues. It was in this manner that I enrolled in German language course being conducted by Max Mueller Bhavan, Madras, a branch of the Goethe Institut Munich. Little did both of us have an inkling of things to follow.

Right from day 1 of the course I took to German like a duck takes to water. The medium of instruction was German. Our professor Herr Sharma made us all feel at home with his wonderful lectures. As far as I was concerned, the moment he taught us a point in German grammar, it appeared to me to be the most obvious thing in the world. Especially the verb having second place in a normal sentence and the last place in a subordinate clause looked so beautiful and poetic.

The course I attended was a normal one with classes of 1 hour each, 3 days a week. We had to pay monthly fees amounting to Rs. 12 (in those days 1 US dollar was equivalent to Rs. 7.50). Exams were conducted at the end of each semester. My first semester exam took place in November 1969. I came first with the grade "sehr gut". Here there was a pleasant surprise. Persons getting "sehr gut" need not pay fees for the first month of the next semester. And they can retain this exemption from paying fees as long as they continued getting this grade in every monthly test. The moment they failed to get Sehr gut once, they had to start paying fees and this was irreversible till the semester-end.. I did not pay a single rupee afterwards. Therefore I learnt German for just Rs.48/ (four months' fees in the first semester)!

In order to avoid problems due to possible missing of classes, I took up the habit of doing the lessons in advance. Before the first semester was over, I had finished the entire book by doing all the grammar exercises of all the 27 lessons in writing. This book covered portions meant for the Grundstufe-I & II requiring four semesters. Classes became a delight and I started speaking German with my professor. He suggested that I start taking books from the library. A new life opened before me. I cleared my engineering exams in November 1969 and concentrated more on German, if such a thing was possible. April 1970 saw me writing the exam for G-I. In July that year I joined the rapid course offering 5 classes a week leading to G-II exam in November 1970 itself.

Here another incredible thing happened. With the encouragement of my professors, I purchased the book for the Mittelstufe and started doing the exercises on my own. In September 1970 I took special permission to attend classes for M-I simultaneously. Fortunately the timings of G-II and M-I classes did not clash. I was taken as a "Gasthörer" in M-I.

G-II exams were conducted in November 1970, M-I exams in December 1970. I came first in both exams. In January 1971, I got a posting as electrical engineer in the Central Public Works Department of the Government of India. Posting was in Bombay. I took tearful leave of Max Mueller Bhavan, Madras and went to Bombay. After settlig down I went to the MMB at Bombay but no MII classes were offered at that time. Around April 1971, I wrote to Max Mueller Bhavan in Poona, a city near Bomay. This MMB offered courses full time and exams were conducted every 2 months. I asked for permission to write the M-II exams in August 1971. It was granted and I passed M-II exams as well. I had to satisfy myself with second rank only. With their encouragement I took the exam for Kleinessprachdiplom in November 1971 and passed that as well.

In retrospect, I see that my failing in the final year of engineering was not at all a catastrophe. It gave a big twist in my life, whose effect is felt even today. More about that later. For the present let me say one thing. Life is so beautiful!

Regards,
N.Raghavan

Reverse translation

2005-09-13T21:25:00.000+05:30

We translators are supposed to translate into our mother tongue only and not away from it. In this connection, let us be clear as to what is meant by mother tongue. Let me take my own case.

My mother tongue is Tamil and I studied in Tamil medium till the 9th standard. All subjects other then English were taught in Tamil only. In my 10th standard, the situation took a 180 degrees turn. I had opted for the bifurcated course in engineering. Now except for Tamil all the other subjects were taught in English! Fortunately, thanks to my mother and my 8th Standard teacher Mr. Jayarama Iyengar, I had a strong foundation in English grammar. And I am a voracious reader. These factors helped me in coping with the changed scenario. I had however a small problem in spoken English, which I solved within a few months thanks to constant practice. Sorry for the digression but then this explains my statement that I consider English too as my mother tongue for all purposes.

Hence as per the conventional wisdom, I am supposed to translate from German or French or Italian into English and not vice versa. Well, I do not accept jobs translating into Italian but I do accept assignments translating from English into German or French.

During the first six years of my translation activities starting 1975, I translated into English only. But then in the year 1981 I joined IDPL as Design Engineer cum French translator, a unique designation without any precedent, but more about this later. In retrospect I see that it was good that I was not aware of this restriction concerning reverse translation. Right from the day one of my stay in IDPL, my bosses started giving me jobs of translation in the pair French<>English. So in this case there was really no choice about declining reverse translation jobs. It was either doing the job as demanded or being shown the door!

Contract specifications in French will come from Algeria. I will translate them into English. Our engineers will then go through them and give their quotation in English. I will render them into French and the whole thing will be sent to the Algerian principal. Here my engineering knowledge stood me in good stead. Not one French translation was returned by the Algerians alleging incomprehensibility. This was actually the routine when my predecessor was there. She was an MA in French and nothing more. Not at all in touch with technical jargon. She had a very bad time.

Now my two cents about reverse translations in general. At the outset let me say one thing. This restriction is a must for literary translations. Hence I will not dream of translating Harry Potter books into German or French! Nor will I be very enthusiastic about translating into German or French the Websites, which will be viewed by native German or French people. The native touch will just be missing in that case.

But then the translation assignments that I usually come across are, more often than not, concerned with technical literature. These are to be read by specialists, who will be more interested in the technical information and less in the language nuances. Here I take the plunge and till date I have been getting along without mishaps.

Another aspect is the question of pricing. In India, the cost of living is less than in advanced countries. Hence our rates are on the lower side. This acts as attraction especially for the Indian clients, who otherwise will have to pay more and that too in foreign currency to native German or French translators.

There is another side to this question. The Indian client will require me to translate from Indian English into German or French. Indian English is a class in itself. It is affected by the mother tongue of the Indian writing the text in Indian English. In that case an Indian translator is more apt to understand the nuances of the original text.

The combination of the above two points is mainly responsible in our getting such reverse translation assignments. Needless to say in my profiles of Proz.com, Translatorscafe as well as Go translators I offer only translations into English and not into French or German. Thanks to my exposure to the views expressed by other translators in various translators' fora, I have started drawing the Indian client's attention to the necessity of his getting such reverse translation jobs done by native German or French translators. In addition, I bring his attention to the fact that the native touch will be missing in reverse translations done by me. Once the client still decides to give me such work, I take a lot of pains to render them as native as possible.

Regards,
N.Ragahvan

INSDOC

2005-09-08T09:46:00.000+05:30

The Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC) is a component of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. It was by chance that I heard of Insdoc for the first time in the year 1976. At that time I was not to know that this chance encounter was about to bring about a radical change in my way of life.

I was at that time on the lookout for some translation assignments. I knew German and I was working as electrical engineer in the Central Public Works Department of the Government of India. This article about Insdoc appeared in the Sunday edition of The Hindu. It described the Insdoc activities concerning translations from foreign languages especially into English. It employed a battery of fulltime translators translating from European, East Asian and other languages. The article mentioned among other things the translators panel maintained by Insdoc covering freelance translators translating from those languages.

On an impulse, I took an inland letter and dashed of an application to be included in the Insdoc panel. It was a handwritten letter and cost me just 0.20 rupees. Within a week I received a letter from one Mr. Swamy, Translation Coordinator, Insdoc. He sent me a test piece for translation. I did the translation and sent it back. Next week I received confirmation of my being included in the panel accompanied by a small job. It fetched me Rs.81 (Rs.9 per page)! Since then I received jobs from time to time. These and the other Chennai jobs gave me confidence and I was able to land the job of a full-time French translator (I had learnt that language too in the meantime) in Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) in New Delhi. Now this shifting to Delhi reinforced my Insdoc contact and I did a lot of work for them as well. This continued till 1995, when Insdoc activities were very much reduced on account of globalization and people favored private agencies to Insdoc on account of its bureaucratic slowness in returning jobs.

By that time a lot of water had flown down the Yamuna and I developed a lot of contacts including agencies and direct clients. But in retrospect I feel that all these developments were initiated with the help of a single inland letter sent by me nearly 30 years back. My gratitude to Insdoc is ever green in my memory.

Regards,
Dondu Raghavan

Life before Internet

2005-09-07T21:13:00.000+05:30

An interesting question was raised the other day in the French forum of the translator portal Proz.com. A member was curious to know how translators got along before the advent of Internet. For the younger generation of translators the very idea of not having the Internet and computers is quite unthinkable. But oldies like me remember well the life before Internet. This is what I wrote in that topic in English after excusing myself for writing in English in a French forum.

I remember very well the life before Internet. Since March 1975 when I started and till Feb 2002 when I purchased a computer, I have been translating manually. I will write the translation by hand and get it typed by a job-typist. We were expected to deliver the translations in duplicate, typed in double space. Each page was expected to carry 30 lines at 10 words per line. These were the specifications prescribed by INSDOC, a government agency in India.

As I gained confidence and my clients became numerous, I started delivering just the handwritten manuscript and charged by the words in the translated text. Needless to say, I did not have anything to do with a computer, much less the Internet. Counting was done manually. Thus, when in the year 1998 I borrowed a book on translation from the local British Council library, I was amazed to read that having a computer is the first requirement for a translator! In those days, the agencies which gave me work would accept the handwritten manuscript and type the same on the computer. I was asked to proofread the typed copies and that was that.

But things were slowly changing and the clients wanted me to deliver soft copies. But I persuaded them to accept my services as described above. As by this time I had become a full time freelancer, I offered to come to the client's premises for the day and do the translation. I used to point out that since typing is done directly on his computer, the confidentiality of the documents will be maintained. Clients liked this argument. On a typical day at the client's premises, a typist will be assigned to me one hour after I start writing the translation by hand and she will go on typing the sheets on the computer. At the end of the day, the typed copies will be proofread and the corrections carried out. The combination of a fast translator and a fast typist was really explosive. Gradually I used to do the editing in the computer. My typist taught me the art of mastering the keys of the computer.

But things could not continue in this manner and in Feb 2002 I purchased my computer. The first translation was to be done in Excel and with the help of the typist I managed to type the translation by myself. What a relief! Since then I have not looked back. With the advent of the computer in my life, Internet cannot lag behind. In fact it has been a big technology leap for me. At present I do work without any paper being involved. I download the file to be translated, take its save-as copy, tile both the files horizontally and edit the top layer file by reading the bottom layer file. At the end of the day I get two documents that are identical in all respects except the language! During the translation I keep a few online dictionaries open for consultation. One google page too is kept opened.

Looking back, I wonder. What made me tick? Things have happened to me and fortunately all of them were favorable or I was able to turn them to my advantage. Even now I can do the translation in handwritten manuscripts. In fact I still do it now and then. There is this client who is having bunches and bunches of engineering drawings. I go to his place and start doing the translations by hand on the blueprint itself. One draughtsman is assigned to me who incorporates them with his CAD software. I charge by the hour and believe me it is a very good rate. Main thing is, both the client and I are happy with this arrangement. Here too I tell the client to place me near a computer with an internet connection, which I consult for difficult terms. I carry my dictionaries with me of course.

Regards,
N.Raghavan

P.S. The French translators welcomed my contribution but the main consensus was that it would have been better had I posted in French. Here my colleague Lien came to my rescue. She translated my post in French! Here it is:

La traduction (enfin... a peu pres) Jun 16, 2004

Je me souviens très bien de la vie avant Internet. Depuis mes débuts en mars 75 jusqu'en février 02, ou je me suis payé un ordinateur, je traduisais tout à la main et je le faisais taper par une dactylo. J'étais censé remettre les traductions en double, tapées en double interligne. Les pages devaient faire 30 lignes de dix mots par ligne. Ces exigences étaient dictées par le INSDOC, un organisme du gouvernement indien.

Comme je prenais de l'assurance et que mes clients devenaient de plus en plus nombreux, je me suis mis à rendre directement les manuscrits en faisant payer au mot le texte cible. Inutile de vous dire que je ne connaissais rien aux ordinateurs et encore moins à Internet. Je comptais les mots un par un. Donc, quand en 98 j'ai emprunté un livre sur la traduction à la bibliothèque du British Council, j'ai été étonné d'apprendre que de posséder un ordinateur était la première condition pour être un traducteur ! A l'époque, les agences qui me donnaient du travail acceptaient mes manuscrits et les retapaient sur ordinateur. On me demandait juste de relire et corriger les copies, était tout.

Mais les choses ont commencé à changer, et les clients ont voulu que je leur remette des textes faits sur ordinateur, mais j'ai quand même pu les persuader de continuer à travailler à ma manière. Comme à l'époque étais devenu un traducteur indépendant à plein temps, je leur ai proposé de venir une journée dans leurs bureaux et de faire la traduction sur place. Je m'en tirais en leur disant que, puisque je faisais directement la traduction sur leur ordinateur, la confidentialité des documents était respectée. L'argument plaisait aux clients. Dans une journée normale au bureau, on m'allouait une dactylo qui arrivait une heure après que j'aie commencé la traduction à la main et elle la tapait au fur et a mesure sur l'ordinateur. À la fin de la journée, les copies étaient relues et corrigées. L'association d'un traducteur et d'une dactylo rapides donnait des résultats spectaculaires. Peu a peu je pris l'habitude de relire sur l'écran. Ma dactylo m'avait appris l'art de taper sur les touches.

Mais les choses ne pouvant plus continuer comme ça, en février 02 je me suis offert un ordinateur. La première traduction était en Excel et avec l'aide de la dactylo je réussis à le faire tout seul. Quel soulagement ! A partir de ce moment la je n'ai jamais eu aucun regret. Puisque l'ordinateur était entré dans ma vie, Internet ne pouvait plus se faire attendre. En fait, pour moi, cela a été un grand progrès technologique. Maintenant je travaille sans plus aucun papier. Je télécharge le fichier à traduire, j'en fait une copie, je travaille avec deux fenêtres sur écran l'une au-dessus l'autre, je traduis dans la fenêtre du haut en lisant dans celle du bas. A la fin de la journée j'ai deux documents identiques en deux langues différentes. Pendant que je traduis, j'ai d'autres fenêtres ouvertes pour les dictionnaires en ligne dont j'ai besoin. J'ai aussi une fenêtre pour google.

En y repensant, je me demande : qu'est-ce qui me fait courir ? Il m'est arrivé des tas de choses et heureusement étaient des bonnes, ou j'ai fait en sorte qu'elles tournent à mon avantage. Même maintenant je pourrai refaire des traductions à la main. En fait, j'en fais encore de temps en temps. J'ai un client qui a des tas et des tas de dessins techniques. Je vais chez lui et je fais les traductions à la main directement sur les plans. J'ai un dessinateur qui les saisit sur ordinateur avec son logiciel CAD. Je me fais payer à l'heure et croyez-moi que ça rapporte. Le plus important de la chose, c'est que le client et moi nous sommes tous les deux très satisfaits de cet arrangement. Là-bas je demande être près d'un ordinateur relie a Internet pour pouvoir faire des recherches pour les mots difficiles. J'amène aussi mes dictionnaires, bien sûr.

Amicalement,
N.Raghavan

My attempt at blogging

2004-10-01T22:01:00.000+05:30

Fact is I wanted to reply to a blog. I was told I had to become member. So here I am. For the moment my mind is a blank. I will get back later.