INTERNET
Words on the Web
HARIHARAN BALAKRISHNAN
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Magazines on the Internet are opening new vistas to an increasing number of readers.
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The strength of Muse lies in translations of some of the best in our regional languages into English.
Quality and dedication: Rao
The amazing spread and reach of television in India during the last two decades of the 20th century is matched only by that of the ubiquitous computer in the present decade. In fact, the latter may outpace the TV once computers make their presence fe
lt in schools across the country. The computer — with the Internet as the medium — is exposing an ever-increasing number of readers to new vistas of knowledge and information. Yet, newspapers, magazines and books have not lost their market or value. One reason could be that the time of the day when a newspaper or magazine is read is different from that spent at the computer or on the web. Another, obviously, is that most middle class homes now have a computer. Indeed, the two forms of communication may be complementing each other.
I have been fortunate to be e-friends with a few editors of web-magazines across the world. This friendship developed over the past five years, thanks to the Internet and a couple of newspaper forums. The most amazing of these is Eric Shackle of Sydney.
A web book
Eric is 88, and is editor of “Life Begins at 80”. He calls it a web book. He migrated to Australia from England in 1929 and spent more than 70 years in journalism. He started life as a copyboy for a New Zealand newspaper in 1935. Asked what spurred him to start this unique venture, he says, “My friend, colleague, and webmaster Barry Downs, who lives in Kimberley, South Africa, and I met on the Internet in 1999. We decided to publish an e-book in a bid to persuade the world’s senior citizens to overcome their fear of computers, and to ‘ride with us on the magic carpet of the Internet’. I think we’ve succeeded, to a modest extent.”
Besides fine-tuning and managing this web-magazine, Eric keeps himself busy as Copy Editor of AWAD (A Word A Day) started by Seattle-based Anu Garg. AWAD is a free newsletter that is e-mailed to 6,00,000 people with a love for the language in 210 countries. Eric Shackle’s words on the web are read regularly by people in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., South Africa and India. He is the author of the world’s first multinational e-book, http://bdb.co.za/shackle and has contributed to New York Times, The Observer (U.K.), Globe and Mail (Canada), The Strait Times (Singapore) and, of course, Sydney Morning Post. He carries stories about people who
have done extraordinary things at the age of 80 or above. On a typical day, he spends 4-5 hours at the computer. Yet, in his own words, “If I’m engrossed in a subject, I may forget the time, and research it from morning until past midnight.”
Shackle.
In the U.S. there is a plethora of web magazines, many from universities. These are beehives of activity, including campus magazines that collect creative work from many a mind. There is literally an A to Z of such material in that country. The A of the list starts with (aar.slu.edu) and the Z ends with Zahir ( www.zahirtales.com/) Regina Avraham has been a remarkable elder friend from New York City whom I ‘met’ on the ‘net’ while both of us were regular contributors to the Christian Science Monitor Forum soon after 9/11. Reg, at 72, is consulting editor for http://tvnewslies.org/ — a web magazine started by her son Jesse in 1999 to inform and educate the American public about the mischief of mainstream media, particularly TV. She is an intensely political person and was one of the group leaders in the anti-Iraq War demonstration in New York a couple of years ago. Reg, a Jew by birth, had come to the U.S. as a refugee from Europe at the end of World War II.
Closer home are a few web magazines in India. One stands out for quality and dedication to Indian literature. Muse India ( www.museindia.com) was started in 2005 by G.S.P. Rao, with support from Bhargavi Rao, Ambika Ananth and T. Vijaya Kumar. This software designer from Hyderabad talked to, and brought together, some good academicians and writers with the objective of sharing the richness of Indian literature with readers and scholars without barriers. The strength of Muse lies in translations of some of the best in our regional languages into English. This also meets a felt need among the vast Indian diaspora, besides spreading good regional literature within the country through translations.
Committed members
Muse India today has committed members spread across 30 countries. Between two editions, it gets about 6500 ‘hits’ from readers. A distinguished panel of contributing editors do the work for the love of it. Some of them do the translations themselves. For example, in the Sep-Oct 2006 issue with a ‘Focus on Modern Tamil Poetry’ and a ‘Feature on Dalit Literature’, Meena Kandasamy had very ably translated almost all the 30 works of Dalit poetry. In the Mar-Apr 2007 issue with a ‘Focus on Telugu Literature’ spanning more than a century, Jayashree Mohanraj translated three short stories from Telugu to English. Sachidananda Mohanty, who edited the Jan-Feb 2006 issue with a “Focus on Oriya Literature”, gives all credit to “Surya” (GSP Rao) who “would step in and help” when the contributing editor is in a quandary. A printout of one edition of MuseIndia came to more than 250 pages- something no print magazine would venture. Costs would be prohibitive.
Eric Shackle started his web-book with the idea of making senior citizens overcome their ‘fear of the computers’. I did a small survey of people above 65 in India, and found that most do not care for words on the web. Among those are Jnanpith awardees, Padma Bhushans and professors whose work is worshipped by millions. Sadly, 95 per cent of them said they are “computer-illiterate”. It is not that they don’t have computers in their homes. Nor do they lack computer-savvy children/grand-children with a similar gift as their own. But the question is whether they have asked the future gems to share their knowledge. Also, have youngstes ever offered to share their “fingertip” facility with the elders. It is time to ponder for all those who care for the word: on the web, on paper, or in the mind.
E-mail: fabalas02@yahoo.com
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