Is Rahul a man for the future?

Congress party seems to be brewing with confidence. It is making allout, but yet careful efforts to retain power in next elections. Its unchallenged leader Sonia Gandhi is not making any non-sense statements rather than making no non-sense statements. P.Chidambaram brought back smile on the faces of lakhs of people through his loan waiver package. Though this offer showcases a failure in the policy of Government to stabilize the Agri sector. But, considering the nearby elections, this package is one of the master strokes that made even the most critical opposition parties to think twice before making any criticism on the budget.

But, there is another shot in the arm for the congress. It is Rahul Gandhi. He is in the mould of his father Late Rajiv Gandhi. I read the reports of Rahul's visit to tribal lands of Mysore. The statements made by Rahul Gandhi give way to a slender hope for future. Read his opinions below...

"...At 37, I am an old person in India. Majority of India is younger than me... 70 per cent of India's population is young... while old (people) are to be respected for their experience, there is value and strength in youth as well. In a sense, youth is the future... Political parties are lacking in internal democracy.. Youth to raise their voice to highlight the issue... Youth should ask the question: when there is democracy in poll booth, why does it not exist in political parties... fundamental question... Why is it that in a democratic country where everbody has vote, the same spirit is missing in political parties?.... youth should enter politics and make it different and bring refreshing change by 'resisting the same game that every politician plays'..."

Yes.... these words coming out from the mouth of Rahul Gandhi give a glimpse of future prospects. Lets hope that these words are emanated from the heart of Rahul and are backed up by the determination. Lets hope these words are not a cliched political game invented by Congress itself and spread to all present political parties. Lets hope these words are not shortlivened as it was in the case of his father Rajiv Gandhi.

If our hopes come true, then we have a visionary for the future.

Localization a bane for a Language

This is an image of one of the many Google pages in Hindi. You can see english text left untranslated (see the rectangular red mark.) If you read the hindi content, you are going to forget that language. Is it a carelessness or an unawareness attitude from the company?

We have entered into a stage where efforts are going on to put information in local languages. Big Mulitnational companies who have offices worldwide or who need their information to go worldwide, are into the process of localization.

What is this localization? Converting a content from a source language to a target language in a suitable format is called Localization. lets not, for righnow, delve into the theory of localization.

In India lot of companies are putting their information, or providing their services in various Indian languages. These companies include big players like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and IOL as well as innumerous smaller companies. People, in general, trust the brand name of Big companies. They faithfully follow the product coming from those companies. It applies to their localization product too. But, do these companies are reciprocating the trust shown by the people for them?

The MNCs are very much reckless in their approach towards localization. They seem to do it for the namesake or for record purpose. The above picture of a Google page is just one of the countless examples that can be shown at anytime.

Localization industry is suffering from basic problems. It is bereft of appropriate translators for various subjects. If you want to be a suitable translator, you need to be good in three things. One, you should have good working knowledge of Source Language; Two, you should be expert in Target Language; and Three, you should have good knowledge of the product that you are localizing. All these three things are a must to be a quality translator.

Companies that need localization, should know what quality they want. The persons or Companies that do localization service should know what quality the best they can give. The users who use these products should be specific on what quality they expect of those products. And finally, the translators should remember that they are working for their language. A language can be rejuvenated or can be killed depending on the persons who work on it. As the product of Google, Microsoft, Wikipedia etc have mass appeal, the translators for these companies have great responsibility as a representative of their languages.

Localization Industry ought to be more matured. People should have more awareness about the job opportunities in this field. This is a very resposible job, as a lapse in the quality may cost the pride of the language itself.