Remarkable Ghandhi book

Hind Swaraj is M.K.Gandhi's remarkable book written originally in Gujarati in ten days in November 1909 on a ship from London to Durban. This is the only book that the Mahatma himself translated into English.

Even his famous autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, was first translated into English by his secretary, Pyare Lal. It was written weekly in a serial format for his magazine, Indian Opinion.

The English version of Hindi Swaraj was published in 1910 - this year marks the centenary celebration of this most radical and revolutionary document of the time.

The British Raj banned it; the Indian nationalists condemned it. They perceived it as Gandhi's reactionary thinking against Indians' fight for freedom by any means and the modernization of Mother India on European structures of industrialization.

Few books have been more misread, misinterpreted and misunderstood by a writer's contemporaries. One critic writer described it as an 'incendiary manifesto.'

full report here Fiji Times

White Tiger now in Gujarati

Noted psychologist and counsellor Dr Prashant Bhimani's Gujarati version of the novel 'The White Tiger', originally written by Aravinda Adiga, was released at Crossword book store in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Sep 19.

"This is the first time I have written a book and the person responsible for sowing the seeds of writing in me is Kajal Oza," said the author-cum-psychologist.

The book in its new form was released by Kajal Oza Vaidya and Siddharth Randeria. As many as 150 people were present to witness the book launch, which was followed by book reading by Randeria.

"This book has beautiful descriptions of India, our culture, our beliefs, entrepreneurship etc. The book clearly describes how we Indians are like roosters in coops, trapped in our old beliefs and customs. Just like roosters in cages, don't try or struggle to come out, similarly we Indians haven't yet tried to come out of our old beliefs," said Bhimani.

Full report here DNA

Modi launches Rig Veda’s Gujarati translation

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sep 9 launched Gujarati translation of Rig Veda’s first part in Gandhinagar. Chief Minister has launched Yajurved and Samved’s Gujarati translation in past, according to Acharya Gyaneshwarji, Managing Trustee of Vanprastha Sadhak Ashram(Sabarkantha).

Chief Minister Modi congratulated the Ashram for publishing Veda Sanskriti related books. Modi said Rig Ved is the biggest among all four books Vedas.

Acharya Gyaneshwarji, Ashram’s Dineshkumar Arya, Gandhinagar’s Arvindkumar Rana, Vaidik missionery Chandreshji Arya, Parth Thakkar and Mahendrabhai Gandhi were present at this occassion.

Full report here DeshGujarat

3L say 'Kem Chho' in Uncle Sam's land

The famous Gujarati poet Ardeshir F Khabardar wrote, 'Jya vase ek Gujarati tyan sada kal Gujarat' (Where there is even one Gujarati, there is a Gujarat forever). Census data released earlier this year by the US government vindicates the poet's aphorism.

The census reveals that the number of Gujarati-speaking people in the US is steadily rising, and the figure now stands at 287,367.

Gujarati is the only regional language of India which featured in the US census, the national languages being Hindi and Urdu.

Full report here Times of India 

Yaraana: A bittersweet symphony

It is indeed orchestrated that I succeeded my first brush (R. Raj Rao’s Hostel Room 131 with queer literature, with another: Yaraana, Gay Writing from South Asia, edited by Hoshang Merchant.

A novel exploration of gay sexual identity and men lovestruck by men, Yaraana makes for interesting reading. Only after I put this anthology down, do I discover that Yaraana was first published in 1999. In this extended version, the novel emphasises the timelessness of its collection. Queer themed (and often, not necessarily) pieces in English and translated from Gujarati, and Urdu and Marathi.

Yaraana begins on a comprehensive note, in an introduction by editor Hoshang Merchant. Merchant traces contemporary and past societal notions of everything queer, leaving you to marvel at the expanse of the genre's literature.

Full report here IBNLive

Poetry is this principal's elixir of life

He is a poet principal of a well-known school in the city and is involved in teaching his students to become better human beings first. Poetry for Hiren Desai, 50, among the few to write in Urdu, English and Gujarati, is his elixir of life. His latest collection of poems 'Fusion' will be out in the market by August-end.

The prevailing tension between India and Pakistan and its effect on their people finds echo in his couplets in Urdu. English poetry is all about the emotions of love while Gujarati poems show the way to life.

Rupin Pacchigar, former president, Sarvajanik Education Trust, said, "His poetry makes us believe in love and faith. He is a successful teacher because of poetry."

Full report here Times of India

Google working with Wikipedia to translate 'Smaller Languages'

Google July 14 said it is working with Wikipedia contributors, translators and "Wikipedians" (I assume these are users) across India, the Middle East and Africa to translate more than 16 million words for Wikipedia into Arabic, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Swahili, Tamil and Telugu.

While Wikipedia has the so-called common languages English, German and French covered with millions of articles, there is a paucity of pieces translated into the aforementioned smaller languages.

The motive is obvious; Google and Wikipedia have a shared interest in organizing information and content and making it easily consumable for Web users all over the world.

Google has made great progress with Hindi, arguably one of the larger smaller languages, but the method is not so obvious. Google apparently uses Google Trends to pinpoint content and then the Translator Toolkit to translate it for Wikipedia.

Full report here Googlewatch

Modi puts his books online

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has put seven books written by him online in E-book format. Modi’s office has carried out this job through famous online document creating and sharing site SCRIBD.Com. Modi is possibly first politician in India to use SCRIBD, which is Youtube of documents.

Modi’s thousans of fans got email from Modi’s office to visit new section of his website that offers online reading of all books written by Modi.

Apart from Gujarati and English, some titles of Modi are available in Marathi, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada too for online reading.

The books that are put online in e-format are:Shree Guruji: Ek Swayamsevak (Gujarati), Shree Guruji: Ek Swayamsevak (Marathi), Setubandh (Hindi), Premtirth (Gujarati), Patraroop ShriGuruji (Gujarati), Apatkalme Gujarat (Hindi), Sangharshma Gujarat (Gujarati), Kelave te kelavan i(Tamil), Education is empowerment (English), Education is empowerment (Kannada), Jyotipoonj (Gujarati).

Full report here Deshpremi

9 languages launched in Brampton Library

In a function held at South Fletcher’s library in Brampton nine books in different languages were launched on the occasion of Canadian multicultural day.

The occasion was jointly inaugurated by Adele Kostiak CEO of Brampton Library, and Janice Awde, Chair of the board. Nine languages were added to the existing 13 languages including Bengali, Croatian, Korean, Malayalam, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Sinhalese and Turkish. The existing 13 languages are Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese. Sarala Uttangi, Coordinator Multicultural Services introduced and gave a description of the different languages and welcome the gathering. A representative from each language spoke few lines from a book in their language .Harikumar resident of Brampton introduced Malayalam by reading few lines from the renowned writer of Malayalam & English Late Madhavikkutty.

Full report here South Asia Mail

'I'm finally back to playing a man'

SAB channel's new show Papad Pol - Shahbuddin Rathod Ki Rangeen Duniya is based on the writings of Gujarat's legendary writer, comedian and humorist Shahbuddin Rathod.

It stars Swapnil Joshi and Ami Trivedi in lead roles.

Papad Pol -- Shahbuddin Rathod Ki Rangeen Duniya is a show based on story of the imaginary world of characters created by Shahbuddin Rathod like Vinaychand, Kokila and Jayantilal etc.

The story revolves around the Parikh family who, are searching for a perfect match for their 32-year-old son Vinaychand, who is a school dropout and the apple of his mother's eyes.

There are several families who stay near the Parikhs. They all stay together like one big extended family. The show begins with the entire community of the Pol coming together to search for a perfect bridre for their beloved Vinaychand.

Full report here Rediff

History of Gujarati publishing, now in a book

The first printed book in Gujarati was written by a surgeon 200 years ago. Interestingly, it was written not by a Gujarati but an Englishman Dr Robert Drummond. In 1808, he wrote "Illustrations of the grammatical parts of the Guzerattee, Mahratta & English language," which is known as the first printed Gujarati book.

This and much more trivia about Gujarati publishing history is contained in Deepak Mehta's recently published book, Oganishmi Sadi Gujarati granth samrudhhi'. The book deals in interesting aspects of Gujarati books and men of letters. This well-researched work has colourful insights and inside stories on Gujarati books.

Not much is known about Drummond, except that he was appointed to the Bombay medical establishment in 1796. He was residency surgeon, Baroda and surgeon to the judge of appeal and circuit in Gujarat, and was struck off the rolls of the Bombay army on March 14, 1809, after getting lost at sea on his way home.

While in Gujarat, he learnt Gujarati. The 142-page book, separated into chapters, mainly contains glossary. Though the book was written in three languages, most of it was in Gujarati language.

Full report here Times of India 

Narmad mapped Gujarat but promoted Hindustani

The concept of Gujarat was introduced by Narmadashankar Lalshankar Dave, popularly known as Narmad, in 1873 in his poetry ‘Jay Jay Garvi Gujarat’.

‘Jay Jay Garvi Gujarat’ formed the foreword of his first Gujarati dictionary ‘Narm Kosh’. Narmad identified the region of Gujarati-speaking people.

The poem epitomises the sense of pride of the region. He clearly explained that the four points within which Gujarati-speaking population exists, are Ambaji in north, Pavagadh in east, Kunteshwar Mahadev in Vapi in south and Somnath, Dwarka in west. This largely became Gujarat’s boundary even though Saurashtra and Kutch would have differed with the view at that time. “Narmad gave birth to the idea of Gujarat through his poetry and writings. But he also wrote about one India and one language. He suggested that there should be only one language nationally which is Hindustani, a mixture of Hindi and Urdu spoken in north India in areas around Agra,” says Ramesh Shukla, a language researcher who specialises on Narmad.

Full report here Times of India

Creating a Classical Indian Canon

In the library sales from the crumbling houses of Calcutta, or Delhi, or the hill-station homes, the keen-eyed book-buyer would often come across sets of bound classics. These were usually in the printer’s binding — vellum, blue leather and gold — or occasionally bound in red with the owner’s initials stamped on the spine or on the frontispiece.

Over the decades, the contents of these classics changed. Everyman’s Library of classic works was a favourite, as was the Modern Library set; but depending on the owner’s tastes, you might have complete sets of histories, or the World’s Greatest Short Stories, or Masterpieces of World Literature, or a complete set of Greek mythology. You would very rarely find a similar set of Indian classics — individual books, almost always the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and perhaps the great poets or favourite Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali writers.

Full report here Business Standard 

CN Vidyavihar to establish new Gujarat library

Sheth CN Vidyavihar is considering setting up a unique library that will have books written about Gujarat in any language, and dedicate it to the state.

TJ Purani, director of Sheth C N Vidyavihar said, "We are considering setting up a special library which will have books on Gujarat. It will be conceived as a library of Gujarat. But by this one should not understand that it would be just another Gujarati library. The proposed library will not only be having books, magazines, journals and other literature written in Gujarati but will have all kind of material published in any language which have references about cultural, political, geographical, social, historical region of Gujarat, Gujarati community and Gujarati language."

He further said, "This idea was proposed by Prof. Tridip Suhrud, chairman of advisory board of CN Angreji Kendra. The management will consider making it a public library as well as a research library, where a specialised archive will be created, as we are lacking good public, governmental archives. But these archives will be for accredited users only."

Full report here DNA

Are we losing mother tongue?

By the time Shyamoli Panchal returns home each evening she has miraculously mutated from an eight-yearold schoolgirl to a knocked-around war veteran. Her knees are bruised and often bleeding, her socks are gathered in an ungainly heap at the bottom of her legs, and her ponytail, neat and shampoo-shining in the morning, is shapeless and wild.

Invariably hungry, the first thing she does when her mother greets her at the door is demand food. "Aaje khavama shu che (what’s there to eat)? " she asks in Gujarati, the language of her father. And whatever her Bengali mother has made, the little girl is never happy. "Anathi vadhu rasprad biju kayi na hoi shake (couldn’t there be anything more interesting)? " she asks. And, adds for dramatic effect. "Hu ketli mehanat karu chu and thame mane aavu aapo cho (I’m studying so hard and this is what you give me)."

But Sadanand and Mousami, the tiny tyrant’s indulgent parents, don’t mind. "She’s quite a handful and can make things pretty chaotic around the house, but when she speaks in Gujarati it makes up for everything," Sadanand, a chartered accountant working in Delhi since 2000, says. "Her grandparents, who live in Gujarat, are ecstatic to know that Shyamoli continues to make life miserable for us in the language of her forefathers."

Full report here Times of India Crest 

Lack of professionals dogs translation industry

Despite the immense potential, the translation industry in India, estimated at about $500 million, is wobbling and still remains unorganised, mainly due to shortage of quality resources and lack of professionalism.

FC spoke to a few industry players who attributed the status of industry, in addition to other factors, to lack of aggressive plan of action from government side.

The industry has maximum demand for foreign languages like German, French and Japanese as also Indian ones including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Kannada and Tamil. However, lack of skilled professionals is the biggest problem.

Sandeep Nulkar, chairman and managing director of Pune-based BITS, said, “We have turned down a lot of projects as we couldn’t find the right people for the assignments. Even 20 per cent of the industry demand is not being met.”

Full report here Financial Chronicle

Book on Ahmedabad's history online

The next time you want some information on Ahmedabad's history, all that you have to do is visit the website www.furdunji.com. For, from February 24 onwards Gujarat nu Paatnagar Amadavad - one of the rare and authentic books on the city's history, written by Ratnamanirao Bhimrao Jote, will be available in digital format on www.furdunji.com.

The website will also feature some other rare books of Gujarati literature. Talking about the book, city-based historian Rizwan Kadri, who is also involved in the digitisation project of Ratnamanirao Bhimrao Jote's book on the city said, "This book was published in 1929 by Gujarat Sahitya Sabha as part of its silver jubilee year.

"Thousand copies of the book were published and the 802 pages books with 22 additional pages of index cost Rs6. All the copies were soon sold out but since then no other edition was printed and published," said Kadri.

Full report here DNA

Symposium held on Gujarat tribal literature

To boost Gujarati tribal and folk literature, M S University’s department of Gujarati organised a state-level symposium discussing the nuances of the literature on Saturday in Vadodara. With over 45 writers and academicians of Gujarati literature from across the state, including those from tribal areas, the symposium questioned the stand of Gujarati literature on tribal literature.

While academicians find Gujarati tribal literature and folk literature to be far from being a popular genre among writers, Nita Bhagat, Head of Gujarati department of M S University, said, “It is only for the last two decades that the genre has been taken up and explored by writers and it is still in a developing phase."

Discussing Gujarati novels on tribal culture, Jitendra Vasava, a lecturer at Adivasi Academy, Tejgadh said, “The adivasi has always been described as a figure of pity by mainstream writers. But there is a group of tribal writers, who, through their literature, are giving an answer to the questions raised on their identity. This is a phase of revolt for tribal writers, who are trying to showcase the tribes in the same light. It is only after this that the tribal writers can write about the beauty of their world."

Full report here Indian Express

Signs of Marathi's decline are all around

The Thackerays may loudly lament the decline of Marathi, but the ordinary Maharashtrian is not opting to study in her mother tongue, nor does she think it necessary to use Marathi to get her work done. In a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, English is the language of choice.

“I have studied in English and my upbringing has been such that we were never compelled to speak in Marathi,” says Munira Chendvankar, a final-year student of the Bachelor of Mass Media course of Mumbai University. “I speak in Marathi with my parents and some close people only."

Chendvankar wonders why “such a big deal” is being made of speaking in Marathi. “We should have the right to speak in any language,” she says. “The youth prefer communicating in English, though I can speak in Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati, too."

Full report here DNA

Now, you can type regional languages on mobiles

To help millions of mobile users who do not know English, an Indian company has conceptualised and brought out a multilingual keypad known as Panini Keypa. Buzz up!India, which boasts of 50 crore mobile users, also is a land of many languages. The Panini keypad is aimed at those millions of users who do not know English.

The new technology, which is available for free download, supports typing in many regional languages of India including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya and Assamese.

The new system does not require printed characters of any language on the phone as the characters are displayed on the screen and the user can type using the numeric keypad.The technology, which has been formulated through statistical mining of the nature of each Indian language, can also be applied for PCs, web, ATM, Touch screen kiosks, STB, IPTV etc.

Full report here OneIndia