Subject: Me, Kannada and IT
Date: 7/6/2004 11:49:37 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: pavanaja@vishvakannada.com
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Me, Kannada and IT


Dear Shri Kumaraswamy,


Thanks a lot for your relentless efforts towards cleansing the mess created in Kannada software scenario. If I have to give the complete picture of my involvements with these, I need to start from my BARC days. Here it goes:


Scientist turned into computer expert


After my MSc (Chemistry) from Mysore Univ, I joined BARC, Mumbai, as a scientist in the year 1981. I started using computers there. I have used all sorts of computers starting from card-punching variety! Computer was a tool for a scientist. Very soon I got addicted to it. I wanted to use the computer but I realized that it is using me! Let me explain a bit of this. I was working in Chemistry Division of BARC. Scientists at the Physics Division were using computers. Chemists were away from computers. When PCs came in a big way in the year 1986, I brought in a PC culture to the scientist community of BARC. I was the first scientist to get a PC in the lab overtaking physicists and engineers. I interfaced many laboratory instruments to PC. I was almost like a computer scientist or electronics engineer. I wrote programs for automated experiments and then data processing. Those days, very few packages were available like the kind you see nowadays. I wrote programs for almost everything starting from simple X-Y plotting.


Kannada Sangha Anushakti Kendra


Kannada Sangha Anushakti Kendra is an organization by the Kannada scientists of BARC. It has about 600 members. I was an active member of the Sangha. I was also the secretary for one period. We used to conduct science seminars in Kannada and publish a science magazine in Kannada by name “beLagu”. There were some Kannada printing presses in Mumbai. We used to get our magazine printed from them. It used to be very tough for the press people to get the magazine come out without any errors as ours was a technical magazine. Sometimes the number of proofs given by them were as high as 11! At that time I had bought a PC at home utilizing the home PC loan of BARC (1989). We decided to do the DTP of our magazine ourselves. We bought the Akruti Kannada DTP software from ACES consultants. This is when I came to know S K Anand who owned ACES along with M S Shridhar. Now they own Cyberscape Multimedia. I was their first customer for the Kannada DTP package. I started doing the DTP of our beLagu magazine. My wife, Usha, helped a lot in typing Kannada text. Her typing speed was more than mine. Even now she types faster than me in Kannada. I was just composing and making artworks and drawings using CorelDraw. I also created the logo for our Sangha. beLagu is still continuing to use the layout and design originally made by me.


Kannada thrills on computers


Even before I got the Kannada DTP software at home, I used to do lot of experimentations with Kannada on computers. I used to digitize my name, feed it as X-Y values and then plot it on Calcomp plotter. Imagine the thrill I could derive by seeing my name plotted by computer -in the year 1984. We were using a scientific word-processor by name ChiWriter. It had a utility called fontdesigner. This utility was meant to add some symbols which were not found in the software. I created a complete Kannada font set using this fontdesigner. It used to take about one hour to type one paragraph in Kannada using this. This was not used by anyone other than me. Only meaningful use of this was the notices that I made for Kannada Sangha programs and one letter I wrote to my wife! I never claimed anywhere that I made a Kannada word-processor as back as 1988. That package was discarded as fast as it was made. That’s how things work in computer field. The average life of a technology in computer field is 3 years.


Turning the fate into meaningful use


In the year 1993, I was met with a scooter accident. I was bed-ridden for almost 7 months, thanks to the experimentations of BARC doctors . Lying in the bed, keeping my PC by the side, I learnt Visual Basic (version 3). To learn a new language one has to make use of it, ie, speak in that language. Likewise to learn a programming language, one has to write programs using that language. In my case, being a hardcore Kannadiga, I did write my first Kannada program in Visual Basic. That was a game for small kids to learn Kannada alphabet. My son, Ninaada, learnt Kannada alphabet by playing that game. That game was later enhanced to include multimedia. This game called Kannada Kali is still available for free download at my web-site (http://www.vishvakannada.com/common/tantra.htm). Many Kannada Sanghas all over the world are using this software.


Became a Netizen at Taiwan


In-spite of all my computer and Kannada activities, I could finish my PhD, publish research works in International journals, present papers at International seminars, etc, and could obtain a post-doctoral research fellowship at Taiwan! I went there in the month of Nov.1995. As soon as I went into the lab they gave me a PC. When I switched it ON, everything appeared in Chinese! I had to wait two weeks for the English version of Windows and other software to arrive for me from USA. That made me to ponder -“if Chinese can have everything on computers in Chinese language why can’t we have it in Indian languages?” I was the only Kannadiga present in Taiwan in that period (1995-96). If I have to listen to Kannada, I had to record my voice and then play it back! I was alone for almost six months as my family joined only for the second half of my stay there. During that period I became a very active Kannadiga on the newsgroup soc.culture.indian.karnataka.


First experiments on putting Kannada on the Net


There was a web-site by name Kannada Saahithya Puta put-up by Daththathreya Kulkarni, who was doing his PhD at Canada (http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~kulki/kannada/kanindex.html). This web-site was in Kanglish, ie., Kannada in English script. I contributed a lot for this site. I had carried the Akruti Kannada font with me but not the keyboard driver as it belonged to Kannada Sangha and it was needed at Mumbai for Kannada typing. With great labor, I could create some Kannada words as images for the web-site of Kulki. Even now you can find them there.


Myself, Mahesh Rao, Kulki, Holla, etc used to chat once in a week. I had already put up my web-site on the lab’s web-site. In that web-site, I put up a word “namaskaara” in Kannada script. I sent the Kannada font to Mahesh Rao while chatting and gave instructions on how to install the font. He installed the font and could see the word properly in Kannada script. When he informed me this, I felt like shouting eureka! (1996).


First Internet magazine and web-site in Kannada


I returned to India in Nov 1996. I was mentioning my experiment of putting a Kannada word on Internet to S K Anand. He, along with Ninad Pradhan, had already put up a Marathi web- site by name Maiboli. He wanted me to make a sample Kannada web-page to put up. Putting a Kannada web-site was already in my mind. I suggested Anand, that I will make a Kannada online magazine. He agreed. World’s first Kannada online magazine and Internet site, Vishva Kannada, was born in mid-Dec, 1996. Anand was supporting the magazine till the year 1999.


Programming languages in Indian languages


There is a scientist by name Dr S K Kataria in BARC. He was interested in putting Hindi on computers. He translated all the keywords of BASIC, C, FORTRAN and Pascal into Hindi. By the help of two students and technical help from M S Shridhar of ACES, he made Hindi versions of BASIC and Pascal. I got involved with him and made Kannada keywords for BASIC, Pascal, etc. But I had no students to make Kannada versions of these packages. But these words helped a lot during the creation of the first Kannada computer glossary which was published by Kannada Ganaka Parishat. I carried these works to the meetings that were held for making the glossary.


Return to home land


I was getting more and more addicted to computers. I decided to quit BARC and come to Bangalore. I had paid a lot of money (almost Rs. One lakh) to BARC to get relieved as I had executed a bond to go to Taiwan. S K Anand introduced me to Mohan Tambe of Innomedia at Bangalore who were into interactive TV. This Mohan Tambe was ex-CDAC man who was the brain behind the GIST card. I joined Innomedia as content head (June 1997). But I had to quit the company as it is impossible to work anyone with Tambe (1998). Anbarasan also had worked at Innomedia at the same time and quit due to the same reason.


First dynamic font for Indian languages


During Feb.1998, I added dynamic fonts for Vishva Kannada. I had to do a lot of experiments before achieving the success. Vishva Kannada is the first Indian language web-site to use dynamic font technology. Thanks should go to S K Anand who supported me in this endeavor.


Seeds of KGP


In Jan 1995, a seminar was conducted at BARC Training School Auditorium on computers. The seminar was in Kannada. I was the convener of this seminar. At that time itself I declared that Kannada language will remain as a spoken language if we don’t put Kannada into computers.


I had visited Udayavani office at Manipal and Prajavani office at Bangalore during last week of Dec. 1996. My objective was to explain them about the possibility of putting their newspapers and magazines on Internet. I showed them the printouts of Vishva Kannada. On Dec.29, 1996, there was a meeting of some Kannada enthusiasts at Bangalore, who also had realized the importance of putting Kannada on computers. S K Anand took me for that meeting. I met Shrinatha Shasthry, G N Narasimha Murthy and some more people there. The seeds for Kannada Ganaka Parishat were sowed that day. As a follow-up, people at Bangalore conducted their first seminar on Kannada and IT in the month of Feb 1997, which I attended and gave a lecture on Kannada on Internet. I came down from Mumbai to deliver that lecture.


Part-II: About KGP and myself (separate write-up will follow)


Thanks and regards,
Pavanaja
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Dr. U.B. Pavanaja
CEO, Vishva Kannada Softech
Think Globally, Act locally