Translation, Transliteration...

I am a mixed breed half-telugu half-tamil, second generation south indian born and brought up in Mumbai, making my psyche a bhelpuri of many cultures. As a by product of this lingual confusion-funcusion the language I think in is English mixed with a bunch of other languages, which is what I use to understand many compositions and texts.

The first time I wanted to sing Bhaja Govindam I had to use a transliteration as I had never really learnt sanskrit. At the same time I had to be given a translation to understand exactly what I am singing about. Funnily, I had heard the song so many times, I knew it by rote, just like so many other songs, but didnt really understand fully what it meant. The translation made me fonder of the composition and made me want to learn sanskrit. I realized that while understanding a composition makes it beautiful for you, knowing the language it was composed in takes you to a different level.

This happened again when i was exposed to Ravindranath Tagores compositions. Beautiful sounding lyrics and Music scores, when i understood the meaning I fell in love with the compositions. I felt I should learn Bengali to be able to grasp the soul of these compositions better.

And thus I think is the journey of wanting to learn a language ...in todays times I think translations and transliterations really bring us closer to languages and give us that first taste, which may later make us an addict for the language itself...


I tried to bring these thoughts together is a sculpture of mine , a table book, where i touch upon transliteration..Lost in Transliteration or Lost, in Transliteration ?