Hindi me Bolo !!!!

Google Indian labs ( The Google labs are where Google tries out its experimental services) have released two services for us Indian crowd.

The two Indian services available at this time are an Indic keyboard as iGoogle gadget to “compose search queries in any of [the several] Indian languages”, as well as an an Indic transliteration page. Enter any English word on the translation page and hit space to see it immediately be changed to Indic; the word “google" for instance turns to “गूगल”, the Devanāgarī characters used in Hindi. Once typed, you can click a word to edit it based on a number of suggestions offered, or by typing into a special on-screen keyboard.

The Indic Keyourd gadget is probably for someone who really knows Hindi. The Instant Indic translation box is more for some one like me. You type in English and it translates it to Hindi. Below is a translation of one of Krish's post from the Google groups.

Krish in English:

Abhi tum hamaar gana suna ka babua. Jab hum gaiyo toh tumara toh bhoot bhaag
jaai. Ho haa, hum tanpura/kanpura/tambura aur Dhant taal bhi suna denge.
Hum Nadro niwasi hai. nandi ke hani babua.

It translated:

अभी तुम हमार गण सुना का बबुआ. जब हम गैयो तोह तुमार तोह भूत भाग
जाई. हो हां, हम तन्पुरा/कानपुर/तम्बूरा और दंत ताल भी सुना देंगे.
हम नद्रो निवासी है. नंदी के हनी बबुआ.

The Indic keyboard gadget

The instant Indic transliterations box

Apperently the services have a few bugs at the moment.

<<Oriya font rendering seems to be broken under IE. Firefox does not seem to support Oriya at all. Bengali (and Assamese) fonts are often too tiny and seem to be placed a few pixels lower than required. Many browsers do not render some of the Malayalam chillus and conjuncts correctly.>>

Family Tree Awards, August 07

Family Tree Awards, August 07

So far we have 219 profiles on the Family Tree and 30 members i.e 30 with email addresses. One of the most exciting thing for me at the moment is the notification of new photos as they are uploaded. Its great to put faces to the names. Some of the faces I have never seen or not seen for a while. I use the Google Picasa to manage my photos on my computer, some of which I upload to the Internet. Picasa is free and its also great for doing some simple touch ups to the photos. I have recently found the crop tool in Picasa great for cropping the faces of the photos and adding them to the Family Tree.

Below are the awards as it stands now. C'mon Qeleloans you are lagging behind. The Dass side has not taken off at all.

A Window Into Our Past

This interaction that we are having on the Internet could potentially become a window into our history for our future generation. It is using technology that I am certain will be around for years to come and hence this data that we are slowly compiling will give our future generation some idea on our ways and habits. Some, they may appreciate, and some they may not, but then life is realising truth for ones own self, from ones own, and others fortunes and misfortunes. This is what our ancient scriptures say, anyway, I think. And if this is true than the people that are closest to us are the ones that affect our experiences and hence our knowledge and wisdom. Families are one of these groups. Did I plan it this way? No. I have a hobby at the moment to play with Internet technologies because of its openness and accessibility and I think it could have some benefits, to share idea and thoughts and generally to keep in touch.

There are a few technologies that we are using at the moment to keep in touch and share opinions and information.

1. The Qeleloa-Lomowai Connection (QLC) Group
2. The QLC Blog. (Web Log)
3. The QLC Geni Family Tree.
4. The QLC Wiki (in the pipeline)

The QLC Group has become a good way for General Frivolous Banter and a Central Mailing List.

The QLC Blog may evolve as a collection of blogs from interested contributor's that relate to QLC's. Hence I am looking for more people who want to contribute to this blog, such as local events, personal opinions that relate to QLC, personal journeys and experience, personal achievements and experiences, area's of expertise, etc. If you are interested, please email me and I will send you an Invite. Also, if you want to start a personal blog of your own then you can use Google Blogger to do so. You will need a Goggle account and its all free. People can then subscribe to your blog. Let me know if you need help in starting a blog or become a contributor in the QLC blog. It will be nice to share the diversity of personalities that we have in a more structured way.

The QLC Geni Family tree.

This has been virally circulating for only a few days and already the Family Tree has seen a massive growth. Thanks to all the contributor's. I have discovered a few connection to relations that I previously had no clue. The Geni Family tree is a great way to visually see how we are all related and it has an excellent collaborative approach to share photos and information. Please keep it growing. It will be interesting to see how far we can take it.

If you haven't had an invite yet, don't worry, you will get it soon, as people are getting around making the connections.

The QLC Wiki

The Wikipedia is a great example of a Wiki. Its a collection of facts that has been gathered and presented entirely by willing public. It is the biggest source of knowledge in the Internet and articles from it often rank top in the Google searches. I would like to start a QLC Wiki that anyone can contribute towards and gather facts on any topic that relate to us. A good example of its use would be, research into our origins. For example we could start a Wiki about our Elders. People with the knowledge, then can start writing about their life in Fiji and beyond. A single document on the Internet, on a particular topic, with all its revisions, would then be available to us.

This is a great way of gathering knowledge from our elders that was only available via undocumented personal contact in the past.

Please, remember, any kind of feedback is hugely appreciated.

Some QLC Statistics

Some statistics

All time top posters to the QLC Group.

54 Jay
20 Krish Krishna
19 Komal
17 Raj Reddy
17 Gopal Uncle
11 Manorama Naiker
11 Avi
8 sunil.kris...@mach8.co.nz
5 David Naidu
5 Vishal

Map of Cities where users are located, that read the QLC Blog.

As you can see, QLC's are all over the place,(not sure of Brazil though)

Remember, new members can subscribe themselves for either the QLC Group OR the QLC Blog.

All Blacks 26, Australia (Who cares, they lost)

QLC Map of Historical Spots

Historical Fiji Trip for Akshay and Karlin

My boys are 13 and 11, and they have not been to Fiji yet. So, with some Air-points earned from Avi's wedding trip and, its Iris's birthday in July, I thought it was good enough reason, to finally take them to their Dad's homeland.

Being the self proclaimed Qeleloa-Lomowai Connection (QLC) journalist, I thought it be be nice to cover it in my QLC blog.

I have prepared 2 Google Maps, 1 each of Qeleloa and Lomowai and marked some of the spots that I am familiar with. I intend to visit as many of these historical spots as possible with the family and take some photographs. I will then upload these photos onto the maps. Some of these spots already have photo's. Have a look and see how many of them you can recognise. (Zoom-in in Satellite view, you might even see some goats.) It will be nice, moving forward, if anyone could mark spots of ones interest and upload photos for all to share. I used Google Maps and it can be viewed using Google Earth as well.

Below are the links to the maps and some instruction on how to view them.

Map Instructions.

You can Zoom in and out, move the map, click on the blue flags to jump straight to a location,(you may see some photos). You can click on the KML icon to view it on Google Earth,(you need to have Google Earth installed on your PC).

Make sure you are in the Satellite view. See the the picture below for more instruction and then click in the links below the picture.

Map of Lomowai

Map of Qeleloa

Tamworth Travel Preference

Please click the "Travel Form"link below to fill the form and press the submit button. I will publish the data. This may help the organisers.

Travel Form

The Results so far

Map of the Journey

Isn't he Gorgeous !!!!!

Isn't he Gorgeous !!!!

This was what the comment form Iris was, (not me) when Komal brought the photo's around. Although,I must admit, he is gorgeous in a "Thatha" kind of way.

Well,this young man in the photo is turning 60 and the celebration fever is gathering momentum here in Auckland. There was a sudden flood of email communication and a rush to get the cheap tickets to Sydney. There is a big battalion of Qeleloa-Lomwai Gumpu travelling to Tamworth, Australia for the party on August 25th. Most of the Aucklanders are reaching Sydney around 5:30pm on August 24th. The current plan is to stay in Sydney for the night of the 24th and then hire a bus to Tamworth for Saturday.

Keep tuned. (Are you coming ?)