My Dream Job - Lost in Translation !

[Edited to Add - This post is a winner in the BlogAdda `My Dream Job` Contest. Thanks a lot BlogAdda !]

This post is my entry for the Blog Adda Dream Job contest, sponsored by Pringoo.

Dream Job ! Ah that elusive thing which we all yearn for but rarely get !

Since childhood I've had two passions, Languages and Creative Writing. I love learning languages, love to understand their mysterious intricacies and how to use them. I have been learning languages since childhood and have even made Japanese, a foreign language my profession. Now, after a Masters in that language I am doing something that is not even remotely similar to what I had ever visualized doing. I work in the IT industry, a non techie sticking out like a sore thumb amongst all those technically savvy people!. When I started learning the language, I had visions of myself wearing ethnic clothes from Fab India, doing literary translations and discussing Japanese art and literature over coffee. The only thing that has come true is that I wear ethnic clothes! Instead of doing literary translations I translate technical specifications and instead of discussing literature over coffee I spend my time with the so called techie nerds who think Yasunari Kawabata is not worth knowing because he didn’t write an idiots guide to Java programming !
My Dream job, my absolute I would die for it sort of dream job combines both languages and creative writing. I would love to make a living out of literary translation. Literary translation is translating works of literature from one language into another. The art of translation, especially translating literature is a difficult one. You need to take care of both the lingual and cultural nuances in such a way that the reader feels he is reading the original and not a translation. I love the challenge of finding the exact words that would convey not the dictionary meaning but the real essence and spirit behind what the writer wants to say. To be able to translate well you need to have not only a flair for words but also a creative bent of mind.
I don’t yearn for success or great accolades in literary circles.I just want to write, to translate simply for the love of the language, because I love to dabble with words, to play with them and use their magic the way I want!
And while I am it, I would like to enjoy my work, do it at my own pace, without the corporate worlds' stress for deadlines. I want enough time to enjoy that sunset, to take leisurely walks, to take out time for the simple pleasures of life!

While describing his life as a writer in his Book 'The India I love' Ruskin Bond has written 'Here I am, doing my own thing, in my own time and in my own way. What more can I ask of Life?'

Indeed what more can one ask from Life !

Mood Uplifters ! Day 7

Today is the last day of the Positivity Experiment. When I Started off with it, I thought it would be difficult to find five Mood Uplifters everyday. But surprisingly it hasn’t been that tough. Over the last few days I have realized that its simply all about attitude.If you WANT to feel positive and Happy, even small things will make you happy, but if you are bent upon being miserable and complaining about things; nothing will make you happy. This experiment gave me an entirely new perspective about life. I learnt to count my blessings and realized that all I have to do is shift my focus from the negative to the positive to realize how enriching and happy my life actually is !

Here are my five Mood Uplifters for today:
1)We`ve had lovely weather since morning. Its been raining off and on but instead of becoming humid, the weather is very refreshing and cool.Just like a hill station ! Delhi summers have suddenly become very pleasant !

2)I played Mastermind today after a long time. I love this game and have been playing it since I was a kid. And guess what I won !

3)I had Bhutta (corn on the cob) in the evening. After Pakoras, that’s my second favorite thing to eat in the monsoons !

4)Discovered two very well written blogs that I think I would like to read on a regular basis.

5)We have a sort of community pet. A cat who lives around the park. She just had kittens, and those furry little things are one of the most adorable creatures I have seen in a long time. I spent a lot of time watching them frolick about and learn how to climb a small tree. The smallest kitten of them all, managed to climb up looked down with what I imagined was a triumphant look, then promptly lost its footing and came tumbling down. It was hilarious to watch !

Although this is my last post on the 7 Days of Positivity experiment, we are keeping the magic alive here. Please do join us !
I wish you all a life time of positivity and Good thoughts. Stay Happy and -

Mood Uplifters Day 6 !

A long time back, I was working with a senior on a stress full and rather difficult (for me) project. As a newbie I was very nervous and looked at the gloomy side of things pretty often. My senior would constantly try to cheer me up and tell me to think of the experience I was gaining rather than how tough it was for me.One day,after he had endured my whining for a long time, he looked up at me and asked `what’s your blood group?` (He knew what my blood group was). `Surely you now that ! Its B +ve `I replied. `So why don’t you BE Positive then! `was his response. Great lesson there and one that I have never forgotten.

Here are my five Mood Uplifters for the Day:

1)I had a lot of 「Me Time」 this morning. No one was at home and I could write, plan, think and work undisturbed. I really cherish whatever moments I get by myself, especially early in the morning.

2）I had a long talk with my mother and discussed something that had been troubling me for a long time. Felt much happier after talking to her.

3) While surfing channels Discovered Chupke Chupke coming somewhere quite by accident. I was thrilled ! Its my all time favourite movie. I can see it again and again without getting bored !

4) Played with a very adorable girl with the beautiful name of Mrinali today. She is all of two years and she’s like a burst of sunshine !

5) Kishore Kumar songs – All day long. Need I say more !

Good Night and whatever your Blood Group may be, always remember to - Be Positive !

(Image courtsey http://www.theeqsite.co.za)

Mood Uplifters! Day 5

In continuation with the positivity experiment,here are my 5 Mood Uplifters for the day !

1) One of my aunts has been staying with us for the last two months and I have truly had the most memorable time with her.She is my fathers' sister, he's got four, but I am extremely close to this one. She has an amazing ability to get along with all age groups and that gets her the Most Popular aunt award from everyone in my generation! But we both share a special affinity that goes beyond the usual aunt – niece relationship. We are like kindred souls. We understand each other perfectly and are comrades in arms in most of my activities especially travelling. I remember how we had gone to Ajanta Ellora with a group of girls we had never met before and how quickly she had become everyone's favourite though they were at least half her age ! She is an incredibly positive person and is always spreading her sunshine around !
I am truly grateful and thankful that god has put her in my life and for the special bond we share. She is going back to Chandigarh tomorrow and she will be sourly missed !



2) I am grateful for my love for languages and my ability to learn them quickly. Someone I met today was very surprised that I know 2 foreign languages and a few Indian ones. Learning languages has always been a passion and it comes very naturally to me. My dream now is to learn Bengali. I think it’s a very sweet language and I would like to read Tagore in the original !

3) I am truly grateful that I discovered the magic of blogging. I love to write and have also got published as a kid. Blogging is a fantastic medium for me to express my creativity. I have also come across some very interesting blogs and made some great friends too ! I now wonder how I managed to live without blogging !

4) A friend pinged me today and told me that she had read two books in three weeks. Now this is one person who never ever reads - something that is a sin in the eyes of a book lover like me ! I have tried hard to get her to enjoy books but without any success. So the fact that she had started reading made me really happy ! In jest I asked her if I could make this one of my happy points and she said why not ! so here it is !

5) We spent a lot of quality family time together today. We did the usual stuff like sitting around talking and watching a good music show on TV but it was fun. I am always thankful for the time we spend together as a family because most of the time we are scattered in different cities !

So these were the five things that made me happy today! Hope you have a Happy Day too !

Mood Uplifters ! Day 4

Today is day 4 of the Positivity experiment and I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly it has spread! I have been getting so many mails and messages from friends about how interesting they find this experiment and how they are using it to turn around their lives! It was just started on a whim but now we have so many people joining in and telling us how happy it is making them. The response was so overwhelming that Preeti has started this facebook Group so that the positivity can continue to flow even after 7 days !
Do join in and spread the positivity around by sharing with us the five things that made you happy !

(To those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, the 7 days of Positivity initiative was conceived by Preeti Shenoy over at Just a Mother of Two. It’s a wonderful concept where we blog about 5 things that we are grateful and thankful for every day. The idea is to focus on the happy and positive things in our lives and not on the negative.
(Please read my previous posts to understand how it works !)

So here are my 5 Mood uplifters for the day!
1) A very good friend whom I had been badgering to read my blog for a long time finally started reading it regularly because she was intrigued by the Mood Up-Lifters posts that I have been doing! She also wrote me a lovely message telling me how much she enjoyed my writing and that quite made my day !

2)I love listening to Yanni and had bought a lot his cds many years back. I had forgotten about them but came across them today while looking for something entirely different. I spent an happy hour or so listening to them and rediscovering the magic of Yanni !

3) During lunch at home we ended up discussing how delicious my grandma’s mango chutney was and how much we miss it (she is no longer with us). This made me take a trip down memory lane and remember the summer holidays at my grandparents. My happiest memories are of the time spent with them so remembering those days really made me happy !

4) We made bhelpuri at home today. crunchy, tangy and very spicy. Just the way I like it !

5) I needed to read and sort out a few important papers. A boring task that I had been putting off for a very long time. Finally tackled it today. I’m glad I finished it !.

My list for today is made of very simple and mundane things. But that’s the idea isn’t it – to enjoy and be happy about even the simplest things in life !

Mood Uplifters ! Day 3

Today has been one of those days when you want to crawl back in bed, pull up the covers and wish for the day to start afresh ! I got up with a severe neck pain because of which I couldn’t sit at my Laptop or do much reading. Since I cant move about much not being able to do even these two activities made me real mad and (I am ashamed to say!) feel rather sorry for myself.Then I remembered about Preeti’s 7 Days of Positivity experiment that I am doing. Surprisingly that made me even madder because suddenly I was in no mood to look for any positivity. But as the day progressed, I forced myself to deliberately think of things that would make me happy.

So here are my 5 mood uplifters of the day:

1)I just need to sit at my dining table or stand at the front door to look out on a beautiful park with hundreds of trees and plants. Although there aren’t many flowers in this season, It’s a beautiful eye dazzling green. Being a big nature lover, I am very grateful for this park.

2)There are a few birds which come to our verandah every day to eat the bird-seed and drink the water we keep for them. There’s this particular pair that came in today and all their antics and hopping around really made me laugh.I tried to click their snap but they flew off every time I went near.

3) My cousin smsed me a joke today. It made me instantly laugh out loud and I in turn sent it to my friends and received a lot of smiles in return!

4) Realization that although I am going through a lean phase health wise, I am still better off than so many people. Today I felt that I am slowly and surely mending and I should be grateful that my illness didn’t turn out to be as debilitating or threatening as it could have been. And I am really thankful for that !

5) I feel very grateful to my Dad, Mom and my aunt. We should always be thankful for our family but lately I have been going through the usual mood swings that come when someone usually very active is confined indoors for a long time. They have been extremely supportive and simply wonderful at cheering me up and also tolerating my temper tantrums !

I woke up in a foul mood today but as I slowly started looking at the positives in my life, my mood drastically improved. We all have our ups and downs and life is not always the way we want it to be, but the most important thing is to always –

Mood Uplifters ! Day 2

In continuation of yesterdays post, Here are my 5 mood –uplifters for the day :

1)I discovered 2 of my long lost cousins on facebook and it was simply great reconnecting with them and going through their snaps (One lives in Nairobi and the other in California and I haven’t seen them for at least 15 years !)

2)I had written a report in Japanese for our parent company in Japan. Today I got a mail from them appreciating the effort I had put in. They said that my command over the language was incredible (thats the word they used!) and I wrote like a native Japanese! That sure made my day!

3)I have been unwell lately and am not allowed to move about much. (am working from home). My aunt came to visit me today, bringing with her lots of cheer and good wishes. Along with that she also brought a lot of food – sweets,kachoris,dhokla, chocolates, fruits; enough to feed an army! (Yeah she is one those who feel that feeding people till they pop is the only way of showing your love :-))

4)I have a lot of books and they were all piled or stocked rather haphazardly on the book shelves and my desk. I tidied up the shelves and the new arrangement of books look neat and gives me much more space ! I get extremely irritated if my surroundings are cluttered so this felt really good !

5) Today I went to the neighborhood park after ages. I didn’t walk about much but being out in the open after spending such a long time indoors made me absolutely deliriously happy ! It was like flying after being trapped in a cage!

So I have celebrated a lot of little things that have made me happy today. Have you!

Mood Uplifters ! - Day 1

Preeti of Just a mother of two has a penchant for thinking up very motivating and interesting stuff on her blog. She is doing a 7 days of positivity experiment right now where you are supposed to write 5 things that you are thankful or grateful for every day for a week.
I think Positive thinking is a very important ingredient for a happy life and as I have also mentioned here, we are really and truly made up of our thoughts and if we think positive, positive things will happen to us.

So here are the 5 things I am thankful/grateful for today :

1) I got three books I have been wanting to read for a long time from a newly opened lending library very close to where I live. Actually you can only take out one book at a time, but the young owner turned out to be a great book lover and we instantly connected – talking about various authors and books for over half an hour. As a result he told me I could take out as many books as I wanted in one go :-)

2) A Phone call from a very dear friend. She has a great ability to make you laugh and see some positivity and humour even in a seemingly hopeless situation. Talking to her was a instant pick me up !

3) Rain glorious rain! It rained like crazy today and yesterday – There is a cool breeze blowing and everything is a fresh emerald green !

4) Pakoras and Chai in the evening– They go hand and hand with the rains (need I say more !)

5) And last but not the least – It is my brothers Birthday today. He lives very far, in Canada but we celebrated his birthday in Delhi by having both Halwa and Kheer (Slurrp!!) I am very very thankful for his love and grateful that God has put such a wonderful person in my life !

There ! that was a great mood uplifter ! Try it, its loads of fun :-)