In attaining our ideals,our meansshould be as pure as the end!

Dr Rajendra Prasad KNOWLEDGEPEDIA02FIGURES OFMADHUSUDAN R, PRIYANKA

SOHONI & NILAKSHI SAHA SINHAThree Indian Foreign Service officers and interpretersoften accompany PM Narendra Modi during his meet-ings with foreign leaders. Madhusudan and Sohoni, bothfluent in Mandarin, were in Mamallapuram when Modimet Chinese President Xi Jinping in December 2019.However, in 2018, while Modi was answering a questionin Hindi during a Q&A session in Singapore, Saha Sinha’sEnglish translation wentmuch beyond whatthe PM had actual-ly said, raisingquestions aboutwhether she hadread out a pre-written answer.

MARINA GROSSShe was the only otherAmerican in the room when USPresident Donald Trump pri-vately met Russian PresidentVladimir Putin in Helsinki inJuly 2018. The US State

Department translatorbecame the subject of glob-

al attention after US lawmak-ers wanted her to testify onwhat exactly happened at themeeting, since neither was anagenda published before themeeting nor a communique

released afterwards.

SHARON CHOIThe film award season has been dominated by SouthKorean director Bong Joon Ho, his film ‘Parasite’ andhis general air of nonchalance, but sharing the uni-versal love was his translator, Choi, an aspiringKorean American filmmaker. Choi now has her ownfan base with reactions on Twitterranging from“Bong Joonho’s translatorwill u marryme” to“SharonChoi forPresident”.

VIKTOR SUKHODREVHe was the English translator for every Sovietleader since the 1950s for three decades.Sukhodrev became famous early in his careerwhen he translated Nikita Khurshchev’s remarksto Western diplomats in Moscow in 1956 into amenacing: “We will bury you.” Such was the con-fidence in his abilities that he was, at times, thesole interpreter for both sides, including at ameeting between US president Richard Nixon andSoviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

They remain by the side of the powerful and the famous but stay“invisible” while carrying out their tough job of translation. But

sometimes, the interpreters too find themselves in the spotlight —like Sharon Choi, who interpreted filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s wry and

witty remarks in Korean into English at the Oscars, and has nowbecame an internet celebrity. She is just the latest in a long list of

translators who hit the headlines...

(From left) Madhusudan R, Priyanka Sohoni &Nilakshi Saha Sinha

Sukhodrev(centre)with LeonidBrezhnev(left) andRichardNixon inWashingtonDC on June23, 1973

ELISABETTA SAVIGNIULLMANNA White House press conferencebetween Italian President SergioMattarella and US President DonaldTrump in October 2019 became agoldmine for memes, thanks to thefacial expressions of Mattarella’stranslator, Elisabetta Savigni Ullmann. Trump’s remarks that pro-voked befuddled expressions included: “They’ve got a lot of sandover there (Syria). So there’s a lot of sand they can play with.”

THAMSANQAJANTJIESouth African leaderNelson Mandela’s memo-rial service on December10, 2013, inJohannesburg was sup-posed to be a solemnoccasion but the personwho dominated the headlines was sign language inter-preter Thamsanqa Jantjie. Initially called out as an impos-tor after gesturing in gibberish, it was later revealed thathe was a schizophrenic.

STEVEN SEYMOURIn 1977, when US President Jimmy Cartertold a Polish audience “I left the UnitedStates this morning”, his inter-preter Seymour made it “When Iabandoned the United States”.When Carter said he wanted tolearn about the Polishpeople’s desires forthe future, thetranslator saidCarter desired thePoles.

INTERPRET THIS!

Source: The Guardian, SCMP, The BBC, Buzzfeed

GIVE YOUR BEST SPEECH

1Get on your audience’s side...Public speaking isn’t aboutyou; it is all about your audi-

ence. If you can get on youraudience’s side and connect tothem, you’ll sail through.

2Tell them something — butnot everything...: Peoplewant to learn something,

but they don’t want to learneverything. Don’t overload themwith knowledge.

3 Don’t overdo the pas-sion... Passionate speak-ing is great, but it

requires boundaries. Passionis important, but it isn’teverything.

4 Generosity goes a longway...: Include compli-menting your competi-

tion, offering free help orconsultations to others...

Words for thoughtC

elebrities often use their award wins to draw attention toissues they feel strongly about. We love to hear what theyhave to say about love, being themselves, and looking after

their mental wellbeing. Here are a few such speeches that mayinspire you to deal with difficult issues

THE WORDS: ‘I’m so proud to be a part of a moviethat addresses mental health issues. They’re soimportant. A lot of artistes deal with that, and we’vegot to take care of each other.’➤ After being awarded Best Pop Performanceat the Grammy Awards, Gaga spoke about whyshe was so stoked to be part of ‘A Star is Born’.

THE WORDS: ‘To anyone watching this who sees them-selves in us, let this be a symbol that leads you to loveyourself. Doing so may be the difference betweendreaming and … realising those dreams.’➤ Barry Jenkins was a part of the epic fail at the2018 Oscars that saw La La Land incorrectlyannounced as the winner of Best Picture...

THE WORDS: ‘I said yes to the fear of being on this stageto look out onto this audience and witness this moment

of change.’➤ Sandra Oh was the first Asian woman to host the

Golden Globes in 2019. During her opening speech,she confessed to being afraid of hosting it. Sheencouraged the room to enjoy the moment too.

THE WORDS: So I want all the girls watching hereand now to know that a new day is on the horizon!And when that new day finally dawns, it will bebecause of a lot of magnificent women… fight-ing hard to make sure that they become theleaders who take us to the time when nobodyever has to say “Me too” again.’

THE WORDS: ‘The only thing that I knew was fear andconfusion and loneliness. How can you be who you arewhen you don’t understand how you’re feeling?’➤ Evan Rachel Wood was awarded the HumanRights Campaign’s Visibility Award in 2017. In herspeech, she spoke about growing up as a bisex-

ual woman, and of how it affected her.

THE WORDS: ‘I want to say to all the young women outthere, there are going to be people along the way whowill try to undercut your success or take credit foryour accomplishments or your fame. But if youjust focus on the work and you don’t let thosepeople sidetrack you, you will know it was youand the people who love you who put you there.

THE WORDS: ‘Disrespect invites disrespect, violenceincites violence. And when the powerful use their positionto bully others, we all lose.’➤ Meryl Streep used her 2017 Golden Globes win to high-

light the need for empathy and humanity in thefight against people who bully others. Shereminded us that nobody likes a bully...

THE WORDS: ‘It’s not a political issue, it’s a moral issue.We have everything we need to get started, with the pos-

sible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewableresource. Let’s renew it.’➤ Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner and environ-mentalist, won the Oscar for Best Documentaryin 2007 for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.

THE WORDS: ‘This moment is so much biggerthan me … it’s for every nameless, facelesswoman of colour that now has a chancebecause this door tonight has been opened.’➤ Halle Berry made an epic stand as thefirst (and still only) African-American womanto win an Academy Award for Best Actress.

GAGA CHAMPIONS MENTAL WELLBEING

SANDRA OH FACES HER FEARS

MERYL STREEP CALLS OUT BULLIES

BARRY GETS HIS CHANCE

TAYLOR SWIFT’S ADVICE FOR YOUTH

OPRAH AT 2018 GOLDEN GLOBES

EVAN RACHEL WOOD BECOMES A HERO

AL GORE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

BERRY’S HISTORIC OSCARS WIN IN 2002

What is it?Bookmarks are a feature offered by web browsersto pin webpages. While a physical bookmark letsyou mark just one page of the book, the onlinefeature enables you to pin several webpages. Youcan bookmark as many webpages as you likeand organise them into folders. However, a book-mark only stores the URL (Uniform Resource

Locator). Meaning you can access a bookmarkedpage only when you are online. Besides, the con-tents of the bookmarked webpage can change.Apart from saving and organising bookmarks,one can also export them.

How to do it? ➤ Bookmarking pages is a simple process. In

most web browsers, next to the URL of the web-page, you can find a star icon. Just clicking onit will bookmark the page for you. Alternative-ly, you can visit the settings tab in your brows-er, select the bookmarks option and add the book-mark, or you could use the keyboard shortcutof Ctrl+D.➤ Once you have bookmarked a page, you canfind it in the settings under bookmarks.

➤ To remove a page from the bookmarks, goback to the setting and delete it from the book-marks manager under bookmarks.➤ To organise your bookmarks, go to the book-marks manager. Once there, you can choose theoption to add a folder and name it as per yourliking. Then, drag and drop your bookmarksinto it.➤ When bookmarking a page, you can chooseto save the bookmark in the folder of your choice.

What are the benefits?Bookmarks can offer you quick access to thewebpages you frequently visit. It can also serveas a memory bank that allows you to revisit awebpage you once liked. Mostly, bookmark-ing sites can be beneficial when it comesto project work. Imagine you are workingon a science project and visiting webpagesthat have relevant content. Instead of re-membering the pages, you can create afolder in the bookmarks and add all thepages to it. This way, the next time you lo-gin, you can view all the pages easily fromthe bookmarks.

AND WHYThe bookmark offers a sense of comfort tothose who find it difficult to trace the pagesof the book they are reading. However, justas a bookmark lets you mark a page in a book, the feature lets you do the same online. This is why it is important for you to bookmark your websites

SP CHNarendra Modi

Jantjie (right) interprets thethen US president BarackObama’s speech into sign

OTHERS BEAT FEAR

SO CAN YOUWould it surprise you to know that Thomas

Jefferson (fromer Prez of the US) had aterrible fear of speaking in public? He

did, and he was not alone. Plenty of other notablespeakers, leaders and performers have fearedspeaking or performing in front of large crowds—and have overcome it. Here are two examples

Mahatma GandhiCan someone who is barely able to utter two sen-tences in public lead an independence movement?The answer is yes, and Mahatma Gandhi is an exam-ple. During a speech he was asked to give to a vege-tarian community in London, he could read one linefrom the message and askedsomeone else to completeit. What happened, then, toturn him into a great ora-tor? Gandhi found a causethat overrode his anxietiesand fears. He noted thateven his “hesitancy inspeech” later became anadvantage as it taught himto pack meaning into shortbut pithy statements.

Warren BuffettIf there’s a success story that can convince you ofthe untapped potential of fearful speakers, it’s thestory of Warren Buffett’s unbelievably prosperouscareer. Once a college student who was “terrified ofgetting up and saying his name,” Buffett was able to

overcome his aversion tospeaking in front of othersby facing his fears head on.It was not easy, though. Hespent much of his collegeyears avoiding courses thatwould require him to speakin front of the class. At onepoint, he mustered thecourage to sign up for apublic speaking course andthat helped him immensely.

LESSONS FROM SPEAKERS1. Never avoid fears but face them head on.2. Speak positively about yourself and yourabilities. 3. Choose a topic that excites apassion greater than the fear of speaking.4. Focus on delivering a concise speech.