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Most debates about the process of translation center on the notions of fidelity and betrayal or literal and free translation. Role of the reader also plays a major role in determining translation strategies, whether foreignized or domesticated, adopted by different practicing translators. The paper attempts analysis of the translation strategies adopted by the writer of this paper in texts such as 'Foxtrot' meant for readers interested in postcolonial literatures, He Conquered the Jungle for native as well as non-native readers. Australian and Caribbean stories in Telugu for magazine readers who look for entertainment, poems and plays for Radio which supplement a performance in all India competitions and Tenali Raman's stories meant for children to demonstrate that the role of the reader and purpose of translation demand a variety of strategies from the hand of a single translator. Drawing on the theoretical notions of Theodore Savory, Susan Bassnett, Roman Jakobson and Lawrence Venuti, an attempt is made to analyze translation strategies and devices in texts meant for native, non-native readers, children, general readers and readers with some sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation of classical Indian texts into English was started by orientalist scholars like William Jones with a definite agenda to give the western reader a feel of the Indian mystique. The choice of texts and the strategies employed were in accordance with this agenda. This paper starts off from translation studies in Postcolonial/Globalized Era. The main body of the paper looks at postcolonial translation as a part of globalization, an attempt to give global dimensions to local/ regional texts. It details the changes that a literary work undergoes in the process of being translated, specially when the target language is the language of the erstwhile colonizer and the target readership the so-called first world. The factors that influence the translator and can become problematic are taken up in detail. The first and foremost is the choice of the text in the source language and the reasons behind it. Fidelity to the source language text is taken up along with the strategies that the translator employs in translating what is strictly local/regional like folk songs, folk traditions, etc. Condensation or deleting what seems irrelevant in the source language text is another problem area. The paper quotes from translations or opinions on some of these issues expressed by translators. The paper concludes with apprehensions that postcolonial translation can destroy the local/regional authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation involves a change, be it in the form of language or in the form of the subject itself. It brings along with it various intricacies. The concern begins with the language into which it is translated. This becomes even more complex when the translated text is a Dalit text, which is being translated into English--the colonizer's language. Literature with a capital 'L', representing mainstream literature, is very different from Dalit literature. Yet again, Dalit literature written by Dalit women writers differs from both the mainstream and the 'malestream' Dalit literature. It is interesting to note how Dalit women writers use the colonizer's language to articulate the internal colonization. This paper examines this problem by focusing on two specific works of Bama and Sivakami, providing further scope for discussion in this area. The questions that are raised through this paper remain open-ended, as ongoing debates can never have defined or fixed conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an attempt has been made at Sweta sub basin, Kallar basin, Tamil Nadu, where sites for groundwater exploration have been demarcated applying geophysics and GIS technique using Arc GIS software. In this paper, the geophysical output was taken to GIS platform, where the point scoring of the individual theme followed by the final map was assessed to predict the water bearing formation. The total work is executed with the weighted rating analysis in GIS environment. Spatial and non-spatial data was analyzed in GIS in a quick and efficient way. The term 'geographic' in GIS refers to the locational attributes which define the spatial positioning of the piece of information on the face of the earth. The advent of digital computers with high data processing speed and the development of analytical tools in GIS have helped in handling geographically referenced data with ease and flexibility. Of late, computer-aided GIS has become a reality. Using of GIS in hydrogeology is only at its inception, but there have been cases of some successful applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors have detected a new effect in the area of geomagnetism, related to the behavior of a magnetic dipole freely floating on water surface. An experiment is described in the present paper in which a magnetic dipole fixed upon a float placed on non-magnetized water surface undergoes displacement along with reorientation caused by fine structure of the earth's magnetic field. This fact can probably be explained by secular decrease of the earth's major dipole moment. Further, a detailed study of the phenomenon may create interesting premises for its practical use, particularly for the analysis of fine structure of geomagnetic field and its time-dependent anomalies. A strange behavior of some sea fish species prior to strong earthquakes may be explained if the fish are assumed as 'live magnetic dipoles'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allen Tate has once observed, "Translation is for ever impossible and for ever necessary." Down the centuries there have been unending debates about loyalty to and freedom from the original in a translation--'formal equivalence' vs. 'dynamic equivalence.' Whether a translation should read like a translation or like an original is still debated passionately. But it is possible to surmise that one should pursue the middle path agreeing on "maximum readability and feasible fidelity." The other problem relates to the carrying across of cultural specifics from the Source Language (SL) to the Target Language (TL). Terms, which have no equivalents in the TL, the author argues, may be transferred and expressions may even be literally translated so that optimum feel and flavor of the native culture can be re-created. He has cited the practice of Raja Rao in his path-breaking novel Kanthapura, in which he boldly translated Kannada expressions as well as transferred certain terms. The author devoted the second section of the paper to the problems he faced in his translation of short stories, classical poetry, a novel and a classical epic from Telugu into English and the tentative solutions he could arrive at. The author hopes that, despite the multiplicity of problems and the lack of encouragement and recognition, the tribe of translators will increase and contribute to the much-needed cultural synthesis in the world torn apart by fissiparous forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K Madhava Rao translated Gurram Joshua's Gabbilam (Bat) into English. The original Telugu classic work of poetry was published in 1941, and its English translation was published in 1969. Gabbilam is a spirited work of art which portrays the plight, exploitation and the discrimination meted out to untouchables in Andhra Pradesh. As a spokesperson of these untouchables, Joshua wants their suffering to be conveyed/carried to God. Therefore, he finds in the animal 'Bat', a suitable messenger. As a messenger the bird carries the poet's message of sorrow and woe to Lord Shiva. Both--Joshua's selection of the 'Bat' as a messenger and 'Lord Shiva' as the recipient of the message--are symbolically significant. His use of the bird as a messenger is quite appropriate and it deliberately subverts the main stream symbols of messenger and worship. Gabbilam (Bat) is a dark, ugly bird that dwells in the deserted temples and it always hangs upside down. In its upside down position the poet sees a relative nearness to God, 'the Shivalingam', and so an easy way to carry the message of misery and exploitation to God from the poet. Normally and in traditional conservative Hindu society, the untouchable is not allowed access to God. By selecting the bird as a messenger of the dalits, the poet has struck an appropriate, unconventional way of reaching the Creator subverting the elitist ways of worship and creativity. There are overt indications of deliberate subversion of Kalidasa's Meghadutam, which is an acknowledged representative text of the elite, upper class social order. This paper is an attempt at studying such subversions and representations which facilitate greater understanding and appreciation of the poem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literary Translation is an activity not to be considered an impossible task or looked down upon as less creative than writing poetry or fiction. If one were to embark upon this task by reading books on theories, it is bound to be a despairing exercise. Nobody seems to have done that. This literary/imaginative endeavor was started by many without knowledge of any theory or theories. In Telugu, literary creation began with the rendering of Sanskrit texts like The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. The bare essentials that go to make a successful practitioner, to begin with, are the love of literature and familiarity with the two languages, the language of the source text and the language into which it is rendered. Translation, generally, has come to be considered as a highly complex process, inaccessible and beyond the ken of understanding of enthusiasts, thanks to the ever expanding theories. Against this scenario, an interaction with actual practitioners would help the aspirants and enthusiasts sharpen their skills while leading to gain insights into the art and craft of this imaginative/literary exercise, call it rendering, transcreation, translation or what you will. This paper is based on such useful interaction with practicing translators, creative writers and academics and hopefully provides insights into the much-needed activity of literary translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the occurrence and mining of lime shell deposits in the Holocene sediments of Vembanad lake basin of Kerala State in the southwest coast of India. Two types of shells--white shells and black shells--are extracted from the area. The former is composed essentially of the fossilized pelecypods Villoritta sp., whereas the latter is composed of the exoskeleton of the living clams of the same species. The average annual extractions of white and black shells from the area for the last 10 years are 80,403 and 30,113 tons, respectively. The study reveals that the lime shell mining over the past few decades has already crossed the reported reserve in the lake. Since the lake basin is even now yielding white shells, a high resolution resource survey has to be initiated, without much delay, to assess the lime shell potential of the basin area. This will help chalk out future strategies for the lime shell-based major industries of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depths from ground surface to water tables in three hand-dug wells were measured for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 to investigate the occurrence of an August break in the rainfall and to evaluate its effect on water tables. A 30 m water-level sensor, model No. CPR6, that reads to the 1000th of a meter was used to measure the depth. Data generated showed that the break had expression in 2000, and caused water table changes from 6.665 m to 6.975 m in one well, 7.623 m to 7.658 m in another, and 6.744 m to 6.840 m in the third. The resulting drawdown in water tables in the three wells were 0.310 m, 0.035 m and 0.096 m respectively. There was no such event in the years 2001 and 2002. Its occurrence or otherwise, related to the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), does not affect the months of maximum and minimum recharge of groundwater. Drawdowns resulting from its occurrence are minimal; and water tables display quick recovery after its interruption. This paper raises three issues in its presentation, namely, (i) the August break can be defined quantitatively; (ii) its occurrence causes drawdowns in water tables; and (iii) drawdowns resulting from its occurrence do not affect periods of maximum and minimum recharge of the groundwater system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequency contents of a seismic trace, varying with time carry information about the properties of the subsurface reflectivity sequence. In this paper, frequency transition technique for the reflection sequence analysis of the seismic data has been presented. The technique is the extension of the frequency attributes representation of seismic data. Frequency attributes, separate display of the seismic time amplitude maps, are computed with complex trace analysis. Moderate and sharp frequency variations are found all over the traces with time. Sharp frequency variations and the time of appearance are termed as transition frequency and transition time respectively. Transition-factor (T-factor) has delineated for marking the sharp frequency variation in the time frequency plots. T-factor differentiates high, moderate and transition frequency variations. The technique is explained with examples and has been applied for studying the reflection sequences of the INDEPTH seismic data. The proposed seismic reflection analysis can be used to identify the strata by sequence stratifying the seismic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to very hot climatic conditions and tottering land forms, India is one of the developing countries vulnerable to earthquakes. It is difficult to have a mathematical model for analyzing the damage caused by earthquake because of its complex behavior, influent characteristics and environmental conditions. In order to facilitate decision making and planning for earthquake management, it is necessary to be prepared for a rapid and knowledge-based response to provide a proper estimation about the damage. Since no intelligent model has been proposed in India yet, devising such a model seems to be absolutely essential. In this paper, a Mamdani Type Fuzzy Inference System (MTFIS) is employed for the damage analysis of earthquakes which includes the complications of defining, assessment and modeling the variables involved as well as handling uncertainty. The resulting conceptual fuzzy model contains the robustness of fuzzy systems which can adapt to various situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several clusters of unusual natural incidents have been observed throughout the Kerala State, Southwestern parts of India during the periods: February to March, 2001 (phase I), and June to November, 2001 (phase II). The incidences like fluctuations and rise in water levels, wavy formations and spouting of water in the open wells, cracks in the buildings, perceptible fissures in the ground, shaking of trees/bushes and enhanced minor earthquakes activity have been observed during Phase I; whereas the collapse of shallow open wells, draining of water, lowering of water level, land subsidence, ground fissures and further increased minor earthquake activities, etc., were the dominating incidents during Phase II. The frequency of occurrences of these incidents was drastically reduced after November 2001 though. There are events of a few minor earthquakes which occurred during 2002-2006. The temporal patterns of occurrences of such incidences during Phase I and Phase II might have been the outcome of periodic stress release in the region. In the present paper, the study on the occurrence of the chain of events coupled with the existence of anomalous seismic activity has been done in the light of the dilatancy diffusion model and the results signify that the region is preparing for a major earthquake in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of estimation of the stress level in the focal region of an earthquake is proposed in this paper. The stress level in the focal region before and after the December 26, 2004 M9.0 Sumatra earthquake is estimated. The result shows that the stress value before this major earthquake occurred was about 2.79 MPa and dropped to 1.51 MPa after its occurrence with a decrease of about 46%. Therefore, this large earthquake occurred under a relatively lower stress level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]