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What was planned to be the second ProZ powwow in India, actually culminated in a large never-before-seen gathering of 72 participants comprising translators, teachers and students. Eventually, ProZ members were far outnumbered by non-members.
Though a powwow is an informal meeting of ProZ members to get to know the face behind the profile, all of us had agreed on the fact that we needed to discuss issues that affect us as translators. Moreover because, never before in India, were so many professional translators going to gather under one roof.
And so came the D-day! Honestly, we were expecting not more than 30-35 participants. What we actually experienced was a full house for the meet that lasted from 9 AM to 6 PM.
We kicked off with a session for participants to interact with each other over hot tea from North-East India and coffee from down South. Contacts established and tummy full, we got down to business. After my welcome note, we had Sandhya Murthy of Lingua Station, Mumbai speak about "Translation as a profession � requirements and standards". This was followed by a talk on "Emerging opportunities for Language professionals" by Mr. Satish Bellavi of Saint Gobain Glass, Chennai. Mr. Ashok Bagri of Transinfopreneur, Bangalore then enlightened the participants with a talk on "Trados, Catalyst and the world of localization". We were pleased to have amongst us Mr. D.D. Abhyankar of Premier Automobiles Limited who spoke to us on "What does a Client expect from a Translation Service Provider".
By now hunger had overpowered most of us and we hit the buffet spread, but not before taking a cool snap of all participants. Lunch was yum, what with a generous spread of Indian and continental food with a dash of western sweets to the end.
Retd. Col. Yashwant Umralkar, himself a freelance translator prior to taking up a job that now sees him heading the Export Department of the Serum Institute of India, is an interesting person who has been on both sides of the fence. He did the toughest job of the day, holding the attention of the crowd post-lunch. He spoke about his experiences as a Translation Service Provider and then as a Client. Then came what most felt was the cream of the day. Mr. Ashok Bagri of Transinfopreneur, Bangalore spoke on "Translation Editing". Since we wanted all participants to have exposure to all kinds of CAT tools, Mr. Vaman Kale of Viva Associates then spoke on "CAT Tools other than TRADOS and dealing with various file formats". We ended with Ms. Vibha Agarwalla of SOS Inc, Mumbai chairing a session reserved exclusively for discussing any issue not dealt with in earlier sessions.
A special word for all those who traveled from as far as New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kurnool and Mumbai at their own cost just to be amongst people of their profession. A special note of thanks to all our invitees: Mr. Rajeev Devasthali of Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune - Ms. Surekha Kher, Head of Department of French in the University of Pune - Ms. Manjiri Khandekar, professor of French in the University of Pune - Ms. Neelima Raddi, Ex-Head of Department of French in Fergusson College.
A huge success indeed that we hope to achieve every year!!!
: organizer 
: photos 
: report 
: host 
