Friday, 28 May 2010

Chinglish...

Chinese to English and English to Chinese translations can end up into weird meanings. Chinese language has many characters and each and every character has a meaning. There are more than 7000 characters and its quite a complex language.

Normally, Chinese people will have a name with 3 characters, one for the family name and the other two, the given name. But, when foreigners are given Chinese names, it is normally given based on sounds, choosing some characters that sound like your real name. For example, my name Sriram in Chinese is "Shi Li Nan". Each of them has a Chinese character and they have a meaning. Shi means History, Li means Sharp and Nan means South. Doesn't make any meaning right?

But, thanks to my Chinese teacher who translated my name, it atleast doesn't sound funny. Some funny ones are the famous Hollywood star Brad Pitt in Chinese is "Bù Lā Dé-Pí Tè". Julia Roberts becomes "Zhū Lì Yà - Luó Bó Cí", Tom Cruise "Tānɡ Mŭ-Kè Lŭ Sī". Sounds very funny huh?

It becomes even more funnier when people (who don't know any Chinese) get their name tattooed in Chinese and it ends up giving weird meanings. An NBA player Shawn Marion, wanted his nickname "The Matrix" tattooed in Chinese. The characters he got is a phonetic translation of the word "Matrix", but the characters giving a meaning "Demon Bird Moth Balls".



In another case, a UK teenager named Joanne Raine wanted to have her boyfriend's nickname "Roo" tattooed on her body and ended up getting something that actually meant "Supermarket".



There are many such funny stories. If you are interested in getting a Chinese character tattoo, better show it in paper to some people who know good Chinese and then get it done on your body. Because, once its done, its not so easy to get rid of it.

Monday, 10 May 2010

Just for Laughs...

Some pictures here are taken by me and I found some in the internet.

This picture was taken when I was on a trip to Hong Kong. As you can see, its a coffee shop.



A much closer view of the same neon-lit board.



Do you have a passport for your bike? If so, get it stamped here...Found it near the Love River, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Don't know what the Chinese characters mean.



Found this one near the Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.



I found this in the internet. This seem to be the name of a restaurant. I think someone working with an online translator ended up getting this message "Translate Server Error" thought that its the translation for the Chinese characters.



Well, I took this from the internet. But, I found a similar one when I was in China. I stayed in a hotel where they had a sticker in the bathroom saying "CAREFULLY SLIP".



I am completely lost with this one.



No words to say...



and one more... Actually, before the Olympic Games, 2008 in China, the Chinese Authorities thought that English signboards are necessary to help foreigners visiting their country. They did everything in a short period of time and probably didn't get the right staff to handle it. Most things were direct translations from Chinese characters to English.



The last one... I found this picture posted by a friend in Facebook... Really hilarious!!!



Have fun!!!

Sunday, 9 May 2010

Missing Links-2

Writing about paintings brought back memories of Narendran. When I was in grade 8th, he was my classmate. He hail from a middle-class family. Though he was a mediocre at studies, he was exceptional in drawing skills. He could draw a picture very close to its original. Moreover, he can also draw things with his own imagination. Whenever there is an inter-school drawing competition, he will be sent by the school and he will surely get a prize. There was only one person whom I knew from my school who could do better than him, his elder brother. Drawing was pretty much a hobby for me but it was his passion.

I should say that I was even a bit jealous that he could draw much better than me but it was really out of amazement than anything else. Since we both had similar interests, we eventually became close friends. We use to spend time together roaming around our school, buying eatables and discuss about drawings. We also found a place where we could buy all the necessary materials like canvas, oil paints, water colors, poster colors, brushes, pencils etc. Actually, he is the one who taught me some basic techniques to make a sketch look better. I can say that my interest towards drawing was at its peak during those 3 years.

Once there was an inter-school collage competition. Each team consist of two members and there were about 20 teams from different schools. We were given a common topic "Future India" and we were asked to make a collage within 2 hours. We won the first prize and the trophy is still sitting in my shelf. We also had chances to participate in many drawing events like the long banner with paintings insisting "World Peace" sent to the President of India.

10th grade board exams were there and we had to put all our focus into studies. Exams were over and summer vacations started. After the vacation, I came back to school to check for the board exam score. I searched for Narendran but couldn't see him there. I continued to study in the same school. I didn't see him after that.

He always mention that he wanted to go to Chennai to join the college of fine arts. Hope he achieved his goal. I also hope I will see him again one day.

Update (14th July 2016): Ha, after all these years (15 years after school), I could connect back with Narendran, thanks to the blog on "My memories from Suburban high school days" (http://ramvenkat-1983.blogspot.se/2016/07/my-memories-from-suburban-high-school.html). He is indeed an artist as I expected and wished and it was awesome to get back in touch with him through Facebook after many years. We will try to meet the next time I visit India.

Corrections: I have a poor memory, I thought he left Suburban after 10th, but indeed he was there until 12th grade and we never met after that. After talking to Naren, he refreshed me with the incidents and I am able to recall now. 

Pencil Sketch




My interest towards drawings started at a very early age. Our home being very far from the city and in a place where there were no other houses at that point of time (like 20 years ago), I pretty much grew up without any friends for quite a long time. This turned me towards activities like drawing, listening to music etc.

My mom used to have a lot of notebooks with embroidery designs. Those were on trace papers so as to help copying the design from paper to cloth. I use to keep a paper underneath and try to trace out all those designs. Later, I got some sketch books and tried drawing some stuff myself. During my teens, I was very much interested in drawing that I even thought that I can make a career in that. I tried some time with oil paints, water colors, poster paints etc.

When I was on a visit to an art museum, I met an artist named Rajagopal. I showed my drawings to him. He was quite impressed and he said that I possess the basic flow and if I undergo a proper training, I can become a good artist. But, that means a dedicated training for 3-4 years which will surely affect my regular education. I felt that it was not a wise option and decided to have it just as a hobby.

Some of my drawings were decorating our living room for a while. I also managed to get some prizes in competitions in my school. But, as I grew up, I couldn't spend much time for this hobby of mine. Nowadays, I really try it out very rarely and I find that I no longer have that patience to sit for many hours to finish a sketch.I also feel that I no longer have that fluency with my hands to create good sketches. But, I still have that basic interest in me to atleast appreciate a good sketch.

Wednesday, 5 May 2010

They slog and slave, yet get a pittance (From the Hindu Open Page 02/05/2010)

Article by Meera Ramesh

The housemaid brings comfort to four households and makes a qualitative difference to them. They are spick and span. They escape the drudgery of menial chores because of her.



We have a housemaid. She is less than 45 years of age. But she is already a grandmother. She would be barely reaching five feet at her highest and tipping the scale at maybe 50 kg. She lives in a single-room tenement on the fifth floor of one of the apartment complexes constructed by the previous governments with so much fanfare, but now sadly lacking in maintenance and is a source of worry for all the inhabitants as to when suddenly the whole structure might come down.Lifts are unheard of in tenements, so she has to climb up and down the five flights of stairs at least three or four times a day.

She was married once. But her husband turned out to be a great devotee of liquor shops, where he blew the family income. She left him. Her daughter and her granddaughter stay with her. Her son-in-law followed in his father-in-law's footsteps and turned out to be another ardent devotee of liquor.She rises at 4.30 in the morning so that she can supply milk sachets to about 30 households. This is an everyday chore whether it rains or shines or she feels sick. Excuses could mean her losing a client and income. She manages to earn about Rs 1,500 a month on this enterprise.

When she completes the delivery of milk, she will have some time to have her morning meal of rice soaked in water along with salt, chillies, onion and, maybe, coconut chutney. If she is lucky, she would have something a little more nutritious, depending on the generosity of the women in whose households she works.

She works in four households where she has to sweep and swab the floor, and wash dirty dishes and used clothes. In the mornings and quite often in the evenings too. It does not leave her with much time to eat in peace or rest. Or do any of her own chores. She manages to earn about Rs. 3,000 from these jobs as a maid. In the present day and age, a sum of Rs. 4,500 is not enough to make both ends meet. So irrespective of how tired she is, to supplement her income, she visits the wholesale market for flowers to supply households and make some extra cash.

She has no leave. No holidays. No medical benefits. No PF or gratuity. She ekes out a living as long as she has good health.But this woman brings comfort to four households and makes a qualitative difference to them. They are spick and span. They escape the drudgery of menial chores. They have time to do their own work. To be neat and tidy, and to enjoy themselves. All because of one overworked, underfed and underpaid woman!There are thousands and thousands of such persons bringing comfort and ease to millions of households.

In the evenings, I watch the IPL matches with my husband. It is a battle between the ball and the bat. The ball is a white, round leather object. And the bat is a piece of wood with a handle. The wielders of the bat and the ball are paid humungous amounts of money. For a pursuit, an exercise which in no way has any qualitative impact on the lives of me or the other millions of households. Apart from being a spectacle, it has no relevance to or impact on our day-to-day life.

My question is why a person like my maidservant, or an auto driver, a bus driver, conductor, and many others who bring comfort to us and make our lives so much easier get such meagre earnings. While a useless pursuit like throwing around a leather object or hitting the object with a wooden implement should be rewarded so exorbitantly. Mind you, if there is no IPL it would make no difference to our lives, But without the maid and the others I mentioned, life would be miserable.

Is this injustice god-made or man-made? If it is god-made, then god has a weird sense of justice. If man-made, then it is time something is done about it. Is it any wonder that radical philosophies have so many takers?

Monday, 3 May 2010

Missing Links...

When I finished my primary education, I had to move to a new school. The primary school I studied was very small with not more than 10 people in each class and the teacher giving individual attention to everyone. But, the new school I moved to had more than 40 people in each class. There were separate teachers for each and every subject. Everything was very new to me and it took me few days to get accustomed to the new environment.

The school was quite far away from my home that I had to take the public transportation everyday. It was really very irritating and the enormous crowd during the peak hours made me feel very uncomfortable. My previous school was very close to my home so that I can walk. The new environment, new faces, my shyness to mingle with people made me quite isolated. Everyday, I go to school and sit in a small stone in the corner of the playground and just be there till the bell rings. I will eat alone and go home as soon as the school is over. My dad bought a scooter after few months so that he can take me to school and back home after his work.

After some time, things got better and I started talking to some people in my class. That's when I got to know two guys named Amarnath and Ramasundaram. Both of them were like me, average in studies and hail from a similar family background. We started having lunch together and play together during lunch and breaks. Soon, we got to be quite close. Wrestling (WWF) was very famous that time. We guys were crazy collecting many stickers and post cards with those wrestling champions and spend a huge part of the pocket money for that. There was also a small canteen where they sell some flavored crushed ice and we use to buy some during snack breaks. Many teachers were very strict and we had good support from each other during tough times.

There may not be much interesting stuff to share with here but the thing is that we had to meet each other everyday and we just stayed close and shared all good and bad during the school time. Two years passed very fast. I was not so comfortable with the school and decided to switch to a new school. The other thing is that Amarnath's father who was a bank employee got a transfer to another city and he was also leaving. Ramasundaram was also thinking about moving to a new school. Even-though we had to separate, the circumstances made us feel good and we were looking for the change.

Final exams were over and we had the summer vacations. Amarnath gave me the address of his new place but the letters I sent him came back to me saying that the address is wrong. Eventhough, Ramasundaram was in the same city, we could not meet. After some time, I pretty much got accustomed again to the new school and had new friends and just think about my two good friends from time to time.

The never met Amarnath after that. But, Ramasundaram moved to a house not very far from mine after some 6 years. I met him once in the bus-stop and we had some chat. He even visited me and I visited him couple of times. But, I should say that we couldn't bring back the same intense relationship back. Probably, time changed our personality and way of thinking.

There were also few other people like Veena, Mubina, Balaji, Hema, Chand Mohammed, Marudhamuthu who had some impact in my life during those two years. I know nothing about all these people.

(G)Old(en) memories...Missing Links...