From dak at sarai.net Tue May 3 13:33:09 2005 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 13:33:09 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] MAY 2005 Message-ID: <200505031333.09752.dak@sarai.net> CONTENTS: MAY 2005 3rd - 7th Hindi Translation Review Workshop Film @ Sarai: Gender/Identity/Desire - A Rediscovery of the Self 13th Leila, dir. Dariush Mehrjui 20th Bhaji on the Beach, dir. Gurinder Chadha 27th Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, dir. Pedro Almodovar ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP @ SARAI 3rd Hindi Translation Review Workshop Dates: 3rd May - 7th May 2005 Organized by: IndLinux.org & Sarai, CSDS Venue Sarai, Centre for Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054 Contacts Karunakar Ravikant Ph. 011-23960040 ext 22. Background When we started the Localization of Hindi in Indlinux project, little did we realize that translation, even if you delimited the goals, could be an endless process! But here we are in the third edition of a review that goes round the year and can go on forever. For we have merely touched the tip of the iceberg. IndLinux project has been on the forefront of Hindi Localization of Free & Opensource software over the last 4 years. Significant progress has been made on the GUI desktop front - with popular Linux desktops like KDE, GNOME and XFCE now fully supporting Hindi . All this has been possible with due efforts of a tireless bunch of people working from various locales, who have contributed to this arduous, if creative, process. Believe me, it is a great feeling to see the desktops in Hindi, even better, to change it in your own machine if you are not happy with it. However, Localization demands a certain balance between the local diversity and universal standardization. This is what we try to achieve in the series of Review Workshops that we have been holding at Sarai. We pick up strings in their contexts and replace an inappropriate translation by appropriate ones and try to translate the terms/strings left out. This is done by a group of practitioners including Hindi/Urdu academics, teachers, translators, journalists, students and techies in the presence of the people who have done the bulk of translations. But the process does not end here, we will take the translations to users, get feedback and include them in new versions. The two earlier workshops were held in October 2003 – when a major part of Gnome translations was reviewed and the GNOME glossary was translated, which gave us the first Hindi glossary of widely accepted technical terminology. The 2nd Workshop, held in August 2004, focused on KDE translations. In this 3rd edition we will focus on combining all the work done and doing a thorough review primarily aiming to achieve the following objectives: - Review of translations done to date for KDE , GNOME and XFCE – A total of about 90,000 strings. - Evolve a common guideline for Hindi translation and document common mistakes committed in Hindi translations, which would serve to avoid mistakes in future. - A glossary of frequently used terms (FUTs) translated to Hindi. This will extend the GNOME glossary and also include terms defined in other Hindi glossaries. - Hindi translation database - A full compendium of all Hindi translations done to date. The reviewed work will be incorporated into this so that fresh translations in future can take advantage of this database. In the earlier editions we thought we needed to spend more time to do a complete work and achieve more. So this time we have extended the workdays from three to five and we are trying to rope in new people. We invite people interested in this endeavour and able to volunteer their time and effort. Please come and contribute to the social process of constructing your own tech language and see that Hindi flourishes in the information age. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILM @ SARAI Gender/Identity/Desire: A Rediscovery of the Self Curated by Khadeeja Arif This month at Sarai, we show three different films revolving around the lives of women who constantly negotiate between their individual selves, social responsibilities, repressive marriages and tormented love relationships. All the women characters find themselves struggling between the desire to be true to their selves and the various social roles that they are supposed to play. In the attempt to rediscover what they want, or to break away from social expectations, failed love affairs, and demanding marriages, some succeed in liberating themselves, whereas others feel satisfied in 'being' what they are supposed 'to be'. Friday, May 13, 2005, 4:30 pm Leila (1996), 125 minutes Directed by Dariush Mehrjui Set in modern Iran, the film begins on the birthday of the title character Leila. Leila is a married woman happily settled with her loving husband Reza. The world changes forever for Leila when, earlier that day, she discovers that she holds very little chance of ever conceiving a child. When Leila passes up the possibility of adoption, Reza firmly and lovingly tells her that he married her, and does not care at all about having children. But Reza’s domineering mother bluntly explains to Leila that Reza has always wished for children. Invoking the accepted tradition of polygamy, Reza's mother insists that Leila must help find a second wife for him, one capable of producing a male heir. Leila hesitantly agrees. Reza finally does meet a woman whom he claims to like, even though he refuses to go through with the marriage if Leila does not give her full blessing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, May 20, 2005, 4:30 pm Bhaji on the Beach (1993), 100 minutes Directed by Gurinder Chadha 'Bhaji on the Beach' is a road movie. On the road are a group of Birmingham- based Asian women, headed for Blackpool. The women are either running away from problems or in search of new possibilities. Hashida, secretly involved with a young Black man, has just discovered she is pregnant. Ginder wants to walk out of an unhappy marriage. Asha and Pushpa seek escape from the drudgery of corner–shop life. For each, the trip to Blackpool is a journey of self-discovery. The trip is an opportunity to see their country, while confronting each other’s values. The women come together when confronted by white racists, but the generations clash on the issue of traditional values. Hashida’s pregnancy first provokes shock, then a round of anti-Black prejudice from the older women. Ginder is blamed for the collapse of her marriage and urged to return home. Commitment, duty, honour, sacrifice - all the fossilised values which they have carried around for years - are mercilessly questioned. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, May 27, 2005, 4:30 pm Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), 88 minutes Directed by Pedro Almodovar This colorful hit put director Pedro Almodóvar on the international map and cemented the reputation of its star, Carmen Maura. The film is a peppy little soap bubble as TV actress Pepa (Maura) wakes up to find a note from her lover, Ivan (Fernando Guillen), informing her he is leaving. Distressed and disheartened over the breakup, Pepa almost kills herself with sleeping pills, burns her bed, and spends most of the movie trying to track him down. Her adventures put her in contact with Ivan's insane ex-wife (Julieta Serrano), his handsome son (Antonio Banderas), and the son's fiancée (Rossy de Palma). They all descend on her penthouse apartment in a deliriously comic extended scene, complicated by her friend Candela (María Barranco), wanted by the police for associating with Shiite terrorists. Through it all, the indefatigable Pepa fights gallantly against her crushing heartbreak. The aberrant love relationships and heartbreaks are not just Carmen’s fate but the fate of most of the women around her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Ranita Chatterjee The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net