Sunday, July 28, 2013

The parrot of Thunjan starts singing in english

The parrot of Thunjan also sings in English
By
M.K.Dileepkumar (dileepkumar777@gmail.com)

In Malayana Manorama news paper Metro edition , Bangalore(27/7/2013)

(A friend who had to discontinue   reading of Malayalam with a death of her father, requested Ramachander   to translate Adhyathma Ramayanam in to English. Due to not only those Malayalis who do not Malayalam but also   people of other countries   got a chance to know the parrot song of Thunjan from nearby.)
She had heard the story of Malayalam mainly from her father. Her father who used to read without fail the sweet poems of Ramayana   every year, during the month of Karkidagam (July-august), knew it very well. But to Rameela who lives in a country outside the chance of hearing Ramayana was lost with her parting away from her father. Though she had the desire to read Ramayanam, following her father, since she did not know how to read Malayalam, the chance of reading it was lost. It was at that time she desired to have the Ramayanam in English.
 P.R.Ramachander says that, it was then, his friend Rameela approached him with a request to transliterate and Translate Ramayanam in to English. As per his friend’s request, he started translating Ramayanam in to English in January last year.  It was like that, without losing even slightly the meaning of each poem, Ramayana was converted in to English in seven months.
    Thus the parrot song of Ramayanam which was owned by Malayalam   , for the first time crossed the boundary of languages. The help rendered to a friend thus became useful to the new generation.
Let all people read this parrot song
   The translation   has been done in such a way that it is useful not only those of the new generation living outside our country who do not know Malayalam but also useful to those who speak other languages and want to understand Ramayanam. It has been then put in the internet so that anyone living anywhere   in the world can read it without even spending a single paisa. Each stanza has been translated in such a way that its meaning has not been lost in any way. Also a summary and a separate description of each chapter   also have been added.
     The mastery of Ramachander who has made translation as his fanaticism does not end here. Apart from Ramayanam   , he has also translated 27 Upanishads, thousands of stotras from Hindi, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil, several works of Poonthanam including Jnanappana. There is no end to the translations that he has done so far .Apart from this he has written about 50 stories for children and about thirty poems.
Malayalam proverbs in English
 It is worth noting that he has also translated 100 proverbs in to English. He has explained each proverb with a story so that even little children would understand them. For reading all these which have been published in the internet or taking a print out of these, you need not even spend five paisa as copy right is not claimed. He is also not interested in earning fame out of it. His only desire is to make all those great works in Malayalam   to cross the limits of language   and make them available to more people.
The Malayali who studied and grew up outside Kerala
  Though belonging Trichur Chelakkara, Ramachander grew up outside Kerala. Due to living in various places   all over the country for his studies    as well as employment, he learned very many languages. When he was studying in Secunderabad, his second language was Tamil. In young age besides Malayalam, he had also leant Sanskrit. After living in various places in India by the time he settled down in Bangalore, he had    attained mastery over Sanskrit, English, Malayalam, Thamizh and Hindi. That is how he started   with his hobby of translation in to English. His reading of Upanishads, Ramayana and broad variety of books at the young age   helped him a lot in this hobby. He retired 13 years back as head of division of Economics and statistics   from Indian Institute of Horticultural research, Bangalore and became very active in translation since then.
   During the initial period he translated   thousands of prayers   from Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Sanskrit. Then he translated Upanishads, followed by translation of thousands   of Carnatic Music Krithis, Ayyappa songs, works of Poonthanam, Bhgawad Gita, and Soundarya Lahari   etc one after another in to English. From then on he filled the internet with thousands of translation.
Now   on translation of Valmiki Ramayana
     His next task is to translate Valmiki Ramayanam in to English. Since this is much bigger in   content of slokas than Adhyathma Ramayanam, he would take more than a year to do this job. When there are 7000 Slokas in Adhyathma Ramayana, In Valmiki Ramayana which tells the full story of Rama, there are 24,000 slokas. But Ramachander says that more of spirituality is there in Adhyathma Ramayanam. In the parrot song of Adhyathma Ramayanam, written in a language which can be understood by common people, there are several prayers    and Rama Gita, which is told by Rama to Lakshmana    , to clear all the spiritual doubts of Lakshmana during their stay in the forest, which is a specialty of this work.
    He did not face any great difficulty while attempting the translation of Ramayana-the parrot song. To understand the deeper meaning of words, sometimes he used to Malayalam commentaries of that great work. Sometimes he also used to refer to the Malayalam dictionary.
  Ramachander4 says that it is surprising to him that many of the great works in Malayalam have still not been translated in to English. He is not aware of English translations of even the great works of Ezhuthachan. He feels that people    did not feel the need for doing the same.
The Reading community online
Ramachander says that during this time when internet has become very popular, there is large number of readers for on line literature. He says that his creations are read by at least one thousand people daily .He had been popularizing them through his friends and social net works. Ramachander says that his major aim is to create a chance to such readers to read the great works of Malayalam.
Some internet links of Ramachander’s works:-
1.Translation of stotras , books and Krithis:-
2.Thunjan’s  Adhyathma Ramayana:-
3.Ramachander’ stories  and prayers   for Children:-
4.Ramachander’s poems
3.Vamiki Ramayanam :-