Dear Friends ! Happy Friendship day,
I am a translator doing translations, a second hand art. Being a translator I also go through the process of Transcreation. Once one of my colleague came to me and asked, “What is the Hindi meaning of Boy-Friend and Girl-Friend ?” The word was very familiar to me. But I couldn’t give the Hindi words for that. I consulted the dictionary where I found the meaning – a friend having sexual relation. But in my society people call them “PATNI”. The word Mahila mitra or Purush Mitra also came to my mind.
In the Literature of Hindi so called Indian values we find a zenieth position for friend. One can observe it in the friendship between Ram – Sugriv, or Krishna – Sudama. Dinkar writes in his Rasmirathi –
मित्रता बड़ा अनमोल रत्न
इसे तौल सकता कब धन
धिक्कार योग्य होगा वह नर
जो पाकर भी ऐसा तरूवर...
Or Tulsidas in Ramcharitmanas
निज दुःख गिरि सम रज करि जाना
मित्रक दुःख रज मेरू समाना
जै न मित्र दुख होई दुखारी
तिन्हीं विलोकत पातक भारी
And on the other side in English we have the famous line – “A Friend in need is friend indeed” However there may be any other interpretation of this sentence but that time the simple interpretation came to my mind was that If you can help a friend then only you have the authority of considering as befriend with the next. The simple meaning is that a friend will take the benefit or privelege of the other then only you are friend. Hence if a boy is taking advantage of a girl for being her a girl then she is called girl friend and vice versa. But the matter is not same in our culture and for that matter in Hindi, our language.
Any way this was the difficulty I face in that translation. But here I want to convey my message to my dear friends that we should maintain the values – Indian values of friendship and avoid the westernization of this sweet relation.
Once again A HAPPY FRIENDSHIP to my dear friends and A BIG THANKYOU for being a part of my Life.
Regards
Kr. Ravishanker Mishra.
