Saturday, July 31, 2010

World classical Tamil Conference - consequences of consequences

     Well, may be its a bit late to write about WCTC (World classical Tamil Conference). But i just want to write about some of the consequences I have observed.
The instructions are not clear, whether the name boards should have only tamil letters of english names or tamil names per se.I dont know how many of the shopkeepers consulted the book  issued by the corporation or any other source. Majority of them had boards displaying only tamil letters of english names. They were keen that they didnot want their name boards to be removed or harmed in anyway.
I had gone to treat a patient with rootcanal in my friend's clinic. I found that my friend was apprehensive because the last date for tamil nameboards was approaching. She asked me what is the correct tamil equivalent for 'dental clinic'. I told her it must be 'pal maruthuvamanai'(பல் மருத்துவமனை  ). But another friend suggested that it is 'pal maruthuvagam'(பல் மருத்துவகம் ) because the former means hospital, and the latter clinic.Well that was news for me :).
I found the attempts by shopkeepers to have tamil nameboards very amusing.Some who could afford had changed their entire nameboards, while someothers had an additional small nameboard in tamil.A lot of shopkeepers had a new vinyl banner withtamil names hanging over their existing english boards(that must have been cheap i guess, not to mention good business for banner makers).A few small shops just had taken printouts in white paper and pasted it in their original board :).
But by observing all these I think I learnt some new tamil words.I just want to share some of the good and funny ones with you all...
Bakery - அடுமனை
Coffee house - குளம்பியகம்
Computer - கணிணி
Laptop - மடிணி
( I totally loved this one, saw this at the Lenovo service centre, Velachery)
Group - குழுமம்
Agency - முகவாண்மை
(This is also a good one...Poongundran agencies have been using this name for a long time even before the rules)
Photoframing - படச்சட்டம்
Cellphone - கைபேசி , அலைபேசி
Furniture - அறைகலன்
(Nice one)
Shop - அங்காடி
Centre - மையம்
Plaza - வளாகம்
Hardwares - வன் பொருளகம்
Electricals - மின் பொருளகம்
Now going to the fun part
Cellphone - செல்லிடைபேசி
(Where did the idai come from?)
 Avasarala Technologies Limited - அவசரலா தொழில்நுட்ப வரையறுக்கப்பட்டது
( Why varaiyarukkappattadhu?????)
Lamination - ஒளிச்சுடர்
( I guess the guy mistook it for lumination, saw this in 100 ft road, Velachery)
Levi Strauss - லீவைஸ் ஹட்ராஸ்,  லெவி ஸ்ட்ராஸ்
(Two different showrooms had two different tamil versions, may be decided by the franchisee)

If anyone has some nice / funny tamil translation seen in nameboards, please share.

P.S. This is the first time I am using the transliteration feature in blogger and it is great to say the least. It made the tamil typing effortless.Try it to believe it.

1 comment:

Esigns.com said...

Hello Hema. Would it be possible to make word "vinyl banners" in your post a link to http://www.esigns.com/vinyl-banners/ ? If you can do it please let me know. Thank you