Subtitling Parashakthi

Working from home, I've always felt that those who work in the field of entertainment are blessed. I was fascinated, especially, with the back-screen workers like dubbing artistes, technicians for special effects and subtitling writers. I was under the impression that these people would be enjoying their work because they get to watch movies during their work.
So, a couple of weeks back, when I got the offer to do a subtitling job for a company, I was thrilled, to say the least. I jumped at the offer and I was on the job the next day. The first movie I got was Parashakthi. My dream of making a huge name in the field of subtitling, like Sivaji from his first movie, took wings . I began work very enthusiastically and was boasting to people at home that I am getting paid for watching movies. But what a nightmare it turned out to be!
I had to translate every 'ohh' and 'ahh' and I could tell anyone the number of 'Kalyani's uttered in the movie, even in my sleep. I never thought I would be cursing Karunanidhi (non-stop dialogues....only the crow and cuckoo didn't talk) for something other than his politics.
The worst part of subtitling the movie was translating the songs. I thinks it's utter foolishness to try and translate a song, which is generally a play of words that sounds good only in the original language. If saying "Kalyani ran to the edge of her life" was bad enough, imagine the difficulty I went through translating "Ananda Koothadinalum Thandavakone" song in the movie.
I've vowed never to comment about the bad subtitling in movies, ever again, now that I know the effort that goes into it. And next time you watch the movie Parashakthi with subtitles, you know who not to blame!

Mahajan family

Recent news about Pramod Mahajan's brother , Pravin Mahajan's death made me ponder about the state of their mother. Do these sons ever think about what their mother would go through because of their actions? The newspaper article stated that their father had been a strict disciplinarian, who brought up all the children with good values and had faced lot of hardship to give them a good life. But the mother, witnessing her sons making such a mess of their lives, would have felt that all these values have had no effect in their upbringing.
I have known a few families where the children have gone astray despite the parents being sincere and honest in their efforts to bring them up with good values. Sometimes I wonder whether a strict disciplinarian father has a negative effect on his children. Children have such an overdose of discipline that they decide to take the opposite path, in rebellion. I have also come across families where the parents paid no attention to their children, who have grown up to have a good life.
So, whether all our efforts to be excellent parents to our children is really going to have any relevance in our children's lives is a real mystery...........we can only hope and pray for our children's welfare, after coming across such families as the Mahajans'.

Three women: Different Strokes

Weddings are always thrilling for me, as I get the chance to meet new faces, hear lots of family news and of course,relish good food. This time, three women who I met at the wedding struck me as different and they influenced me in different ways. The first one was a highly successful, middle aged woman who has travelled a lot and is doing great in her career. But she put me off by talking only about herself and by not bothering to show some common courtesy. She was so full of herself that after a while, all of us started feeling suffocated and wanted to move away. No doubt, she is a very successful career women who has balanced her personal life equally well. But then, showing no interest in others or showing no regard for the experience of the elders in the family just made me feel strongly that being grounded, having humility and applying the saying "Katradhu kai mann alavu, kallathathu ulgalavu" would make us realize that education and money alone don't equate to experience and knowledge.
The second lady was again a successful career women, but she has no airs about it. She is so simple and down to earth that it is difficult to believe that she is such an achiever. She was very simple in her dressing, despite the established custom of wearing Kanjivarams and jewelery for the wedding. We came to know about her achievements only through others and I learnt the valuable lesson that your achievements would speak for themselves and that there is no need to blow your own trumpet.
On the way back, during the train journey, our co-passenger was an old lady in her 80's who had amazing energy and was enthusiastically playing cards with her grandchildren. Although she could not converse in Hindi or English, she managed to carry on a conversation with her grand-daughter-in-law (who spoke only Marathi) and it was a delight to see people of two different generations , conversing with no common language between them. This old woman was so affectionate, even to her co-passengers, that all the children in the compartment came running to her when she called them. She was a perfect, living example of how one can enjoy life and be happy even at that age and thus, prove the saying "Anbirrkkum undo adaikkum thazh?" right.
Definitely, lots to learn from these women..........

Cyclathon in Bandra

Yesterday was car-free day in certain parts of Bandra. It was a welcome change to see people walking happily on the roads without having to worry about the speeding vehicles. Hundreds of children cycling down the roads in colorful headgears were a pleasant sight. I just hope that such car free days are organized more often. It will give us the luxury of walking on traffic free roads and having a peaceful day without the constant honking of vehicles.

Our greed for accumulating material luxuries has led to us losing so many other invaluable and environment- friendly practices. We have given up using the ammikal and aatukall (grinding stones) and have switched over to grinders and mixers and pay thousands of rupees to gyms-only to do the same sort of exercise that these ancient grinding stones would have given us. We are not satisfied with having one small vehicle for the family, we want huge cars and have lost the habit of walking or cycling in and around our neighborhood. Our children are not allowed to travel to school by public transport, but we are ready to shell out huge sums to pay for the school vans. Then we go hoarse, talking about global warming.

Of late, some of the ancient practices are coming back and I am very glad about these changes. Nowadays my grocer packs things in paper pouches or he wraps them in paper. On the personal level, I am slowly moving away from plastic and trying to use traditional cleaning materials like thengai naar for washing the utensils, salt water for cleaning the furnitures etc. I certainly miss my grandmas and grandpas at this juncture, as their advice for eco-friendly measures like these would have been invaluable.

Woman's day out

At 40, with two school going children and a punishing schedule of translations, I hardly get the time to be myself. But last week was a nice one, where I could relive my youthful days.
A bunch of friends who have become closer to me through the kids decided to have a get-together and it turned out to be the most memorable evenings in a long time for me.
We met for tea and snacks and decided to have North Indian fare for snacks. All the dishes turned out to be super good and we had a great time relishing them, chatting, teasing, pulling each other's leg. There was no gossip about mamiyars and nathanars and no crying on shoulders about worries or ordeals. It was plain fun, joking and laughing out loud and playing a couple of rounds of Chinese Whispers. The children were trying to calm us down, but we were on a roll.
I felt that such get-togethers can be great stress busters. And the best part was to be reprimanded by children for our childish behaviour!
I'd like to be a child once in a while like this!

Competitions

In Mumbai, Jan and Feb are months of Carnatic music competitions at various sabhas. In fact, the competition timings at two or three sabhas clash, so that the participants have to rush from one end of the city to another, if they want to display their talent. But having accompanied my daughter to various music competitions in the past 3 years, I notice that these competitions are rigged like the elections at Bihar( and a lot of other states). Most of the winners are students of the same institute irrespective of whether they sing well or not. Then my question is, why do they invite outsiders as participants? They might as well have an in-house competition and give away all the prizes to their own students.

Judging competitions, I think, is by itself an art. Talent doesn't need recognition, it will automatically shine with opportunities. But hard work and sincerity needs appreciation. If only 3 or 4 extremely talented contestants win the competitions at all the places, other children who really try hard and work at their shortcomings are left out and never recognized. I don't think Balamurali Krishna or Nithyashree had to win competitions to showcase their talent. But ordinary people with ordinary talent, but extraordinary sincerity and hard-work need to be appreciated.

Competitions are necessary only to give a platform for the talent. But, such rigged competitions serve no purpose. Each child is special and has its place in the world and I suggest we leave it at that.

Fear factor -live show

We live in a 7-storey building and our compound, consisting of 3 buildings, is undergoing renovation and painting. All these years, the favourite pastime of the women in the building would be to discuss the pathetic state of our buildings and how it can very soon become a heritage site. The building has not seen paint for more than 25 years and the pipes and sewage connections seem to be on the verge of breaking down any time.

So when the building renovation circular came to us (it comes every year) we laughed it off as usual. But this time , for real , they have started the process. I had to rub my eyes in disbelief and pinch myself to understand -it has actually started! Oh my! Do I regret that this work has started?

When huge poles were set up for the workers to climb the facade of the building, never in my wildest dreams, did I imagine that these workers would all be in their 20s - hanging on to poles and passing on ropes and planks and huge iron frames without any protection. None of them wear shoes or a helmet; there are no machines to help them in any way. Everything is done manually; that too when they are standing on thin wooden planks tied to the loose poles by ropes. Its like watching fear factor live everyday. I am unable to concentrate on my household work and have to run out each time I hear a loud thud praying that it isn't one of the workers who have fallen off.

I feel this can happen only in India. I even wonder whether these workers have any insurance or get compensation for any injury they may suffer. The fastest growing country in the world is yet to get decent machines to help construction workers. I have noticed automatic platforms which lift workers to any point at any floor on the facade of the building in Singapore. These platforms are covered with proper grills and the workers are well equipped with proper protection equipment.

I really wonder how I can help this section of labourers in India. Being a housewife, these are the times when I feel troubled that I don't have the access or clout to do something to make the scenario better. I wish I had entered politics and had the power to change things.