ROFL In Translation

Now, all the people who know me (or read this blog) know that I am a follower of "Lost in Translation" cult i.e. though I don't begrudge people watching translated/subtitled movies (and I have watched a few movies in languages I don't understand because of the miracle that is subtitles), I do believe that more often than not, the process if not carried out properly does result in a lot of unintentional jokes or gaffes.



Take today's example[1]. While I was watching the latest episode of "Ravan"[2], the powers-that-b(roadcast) decreed in all their wisdom that watching a kid sprout words like "आसमंत, कृपया" and the overall over-acting[3] was not enough fun in their own accord, and there was some more jokes needed to push me over the edge.





Now, even though the episode was in Hindi, somehow there were English subtitles coming up in the lower part of the screen. In such cases, it is always a game for me to watch the case of mis-translations or dropped "deeper meanings" in phrases. But, this time I didn't need to look for any deeper meanings.



The episode had something about Pishachch[4]. And while the kids were sprouting lines about pishachch, the subtitles[5] were talking about "pistachios". If I could stomach[6] the lines like "They have taken control over the pistachios", and "Damn the Pistachios", the line which really cracked me up[7] was,

"They take children from the nearby villages and feed them to pistachios."

Talk about the food becoming the eater... Is that what they mean by "feedback" now?



[1] I think there is something wrong in that sentence.

[2] Hey, a guy needs his fun.

[3] Or no-acting, as the case may be.

[4] A kind of lowly spirit, purportedly controlled by Shankar.

[5] I fervently hope that it was machine translation.

[6] Yes, that was a pun. More where that came from.

[7] Told you, there were more puns on the way.





P.S. To prove that this was not an isolated episode, George talks about more such "subtitillations".