My good friend Anindya (lifeselsewhere/lovesragpicker) has wanted to know how to make posts in Bengali.
While I am no expert, I can still share the process I used. I first wrote in MS Word format and then copy pasted it here. The software I used for Bangla writing is Avro which can be used for blogging as well as e-mails. The beauty of the software is you can write in Bangla and send e-mails in Bangla or make posts in Bangla and the reader can read without having the same software. Moreover, the software is freely downloadable so that procuring is hassle-free. It also has a phonetic English keyboard so that you do not need to know the inscript Bangla keyboard or any other Bangla typing keyboard to write/input in Bangla. You use the English keyboard and write Bangla phonetically. For example, if you want to write “Arjun” in Bangla you simply type “orrjun” – the typing rules are so simple that you can learn them in a few minutes using the help feature. For free download of Avro simply visit their site by clicking here.
You can also use Avro to directly write in Bangla in e-mails and blogs but then you may face a formating problem – that is, you will not be able to change fonts, point size etc, nor will you get other formating features such as coloring alphabets, highlighting text, making alphabets bold or italics etc. But if you first type out what you want to write in MS Word format then you can format at will and then simply copy-paste on to your e-mail or blog.
Although I am sure this will solve Anindya’s problem, still, in line with my irritating and quarrelsome nature, I would like to take this opportunity to raise a more general issue. Actually, not one but two issues – the first issue is that of Bangla writing on computers and the second, that of bridging the digital divide.
At present there are several Bangla writing softwares in the market and hundreds of Bangla fonts. Many of them are Unicode compliant as also compatible with most standard OS such as Microsoft Windows, Unix or Linux. But except for Avro I do not know of any other Bangla software which can be used to write in Bangla and which can also be read by the general reader not having the same software. For example, there is a software called Bijoy but readers can read only if they too have Bijoy installed on their computers. Moreover, as far as I know it cannot be used for blogging or e-mails. Microsoft provides a default Bangla option using the Vrinda font but it is hardly feature-rich and I do not know or have not been able to figure out how to write/input in Bangla using Vrinda without resorting to some standard Bangla keyboard such as Avro.
Besides Bijoy, there are several other softwares such as Bangla Word (it also has a free download option), Tanmatra, iLEAP (from C-DAC) and many others. I have used all the softwares whose names I have mentioned and my favorite is Avro because of the factors mentioned above. As far as I know none of the other softwares provide these benefits. So, for writing in Bangla I would strongly recommend Avro and since it is freely downloadable anybody can start using it within a few minutes of deciding to do so.
Now, my question is why are Bengalis having competence in software development or other non-Bengali software developers working with fonts and writing platforms not coming together to develop a standard Bangla/regional language software that can be used by one and all so that there are no compatibility problems? Why is writing in Bangla/regional Indian languages still such a huge problem? And, what is more galling is that even if you have writing software, in almost all cases except Avro, the reader cannot read what you have written unless he/she also has the same software installed. In these circumstances, why aren’t all developers interested in Bangla/Indian language writing coming together to work out a standardized Bangla/Indian language software that will work with all platforms and applications?
This brings me to the second issue of digital divide. While the setting up of common service centers throughout India under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) will go a long way to provide access to the Internet and general computing to most all Indians within the next few months (perhaps, within 6 months in case of West Bengal which is leading in implementing CSCs), the digital divide still cannot be bridged unless common people can access the knowledge/information on the Internet in their own language.
From my experience as an editor of a Bengali magazine on information technology, I know first hand that there are even software developers and IT professionals who want information in their mother tongue, who are more comfortable working in their own vernacular languages rather than English. Young people in rural areas of India will be immensely benefited once they begin to get information from the Internet in their own language.
To me this is a vital issue as I firmly believe that any major revolutionary social change requires that common people, the poor and the working class, have access to information through the Internet and are able to reap the benefits of modern information and communication technologies. As long as full or even partial use of all modern information and communication technologies remains limited to those who know English, this primary goal cannot be achieved. Hence, it is imperative that efforts are made to provide information and communication facilities in the vernacular. It is in this context that it is important that we develop computing in Bengali and other Indian regional languages. Right thinking IT professionals must take the lead in this effort.
Posts in Bengali can help this effort. So, happy posting in Bengali! And, three cheers to Avro!
8 Comments
January 28, 2008 at 10:46 am
Thanks! I use Avro too, and started blogging in Bengali here. But I stopped. Firstly, it was a great pain to render the alphabets properly (had to struggle with html codings) and secondly, I was appalled witnessing that neither Firefox nor Opera can render those Indic fonts, only Microshit’s IE7 can!
But if the reader doesn’t have Bengali fonts installed in his/her PC, can he or she read it? Will the absence of my preferred font be replaced by any other uglier true type Bangla font?
I stopped finally. Will only take it up again after Firefox solves its font-rendering problems.
January 28, 2008 at 11:06 am
Please download latest version of Avro and try because I use Firefox too and I face no problems at all. Moreover if you copy paste after writing and formating in MS Word (doc files) you should not face any problems at all and you should be able to use the font of your choice (at least the fonts available on Avro that has at least a couple of fonts that are not ugly in my humble opinion). Also please be careful about adjusting your settings for Indic fonts as per instructions while downloading.
And yes Avro can be read by the reader without installing anything – not even the Bangla font in which you have written. At least I have used Avro fonts in e-mails and it has worked and I have copy-pasted in this blog and I suppose it is readable to all as no one has pointed out any unreadability.
So, it seems to me you used an earlier version which was not as debugged as the present version. As I have already mentioned, I am no expert and whatever I am saying is from what I have found from experience.
January 28, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Why do you leftists use capitalist products like computer/internet/avro to propagate your ideas? Can’t your comrades come up better products?
January 29, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Dear MM, stop nagging Arjunda. Products are not capitalist, the way you use and disseminate and shove them in the throats of people who don’t need it is capitalist. Incidentally Avro, like many blocks of the net, is freeware. Understand the word FREE?
Incidentally, we leftists are far advanced in ‘ideas’ than capitalists. And internet and softwares are great ideas…
January 31, 2008 at 2:45 am
Anindya,
Your logic is indeed terrific! According to you products developed for a market are not the result of a capitalist/communist society but only marketing the product is. Why then have communist societies failed to come up with even a single modern product? Please give me some communist products and I would be happy to market them for you.
January 31, 2008 at 9:36 am
Dear MM & embeddedoutsourcer,
You are so intellectually challenged that I have to painstakingly explain simple things to you once again – well,communism is not something that will happen on the moon or Mangal Graha as the Bangla band Chandrabindoo would say – after you capitalists have developed all the great products using our labor on this planet – on Earth – we will simply throw you out private owners and “recapture” what belongs to us – the entire world – at present you capitalists have stolen and hijacked this world by force and having done so claim that the Earth belongs only to a few private owners. We communists, however, know that the world belongs to all of us humans and all life on planet earth – so we communists will simply do what is called চোরের উপর বাটপারি in Bengali – resteal what you have hitherto stolen from us. In communist society we, the workers of the world and the producers of everything that has ever been produced in this world – all the so-called great products, including any that your equally intellectually challenged friend embeddedoutsourcer thinks is produced by “capitalist society”, will simply reclaim what has always belonged to us – the world and all the products of human labor power by throwing out and if necessary eliminating with extreme prejudice all the thieves, the private owners who by using force maintain their illegal and unlawful private ownership of the world and its resources.
Both of you intellectually challenged persons do not seem to realize that there is nothing called slavery products, feudal products, capitalist products or communist products – all products are the result of the hard work and labor of the poor, the working classes, the people in general – slavery, feudalism, capitalism refer to the different ways private owners steal the labor of the people using force – in slavery this stealing is done in the most blatant way, in feudalism this stealing is done in a slightly less blatant way and in capitalism this stealing is done in an even less blatant and certainly more sly and surreptitious way. When all this stealing is brought to an end and the people re-establish their rightful collective ownership on Planet Earth and all products on Planet Earth then that is called communism. So there is nothing called capitalist or communist products – everything that is produced on Planet Earth are people’s products. Avro, Microsoft, Adobe, everything that there exists on this earth belongs to us, the people who actually produce it. Existing private owners suffer from the delusion that things on this planet belong to them – nothing belongs to them – everything belongs to people who produce them – that means the people as a whole – and communism is all about throwing out these private thieves and hijackers and reclaiming the world and returning it to its rightful owners – the people on this planet and all life on this planet.
As Anindya says we Leftists are far ahead of you thieves in ideas so we have started producing many things free for our comrades – information technology and communication products that we know we will need as tools to overthrow the rule of the thieves and to do Chorer upor Batpari – resteal the stolen stuff – hence there are so many things in ICT space that is freeware – that is why communism is possible in this age – we can at last resteal from the thieves what was stolen from us 10,000 years ago in this age – because in this knowledge age we can produce many powerful things simply with our intellect and knowledge and where we do not need the thieves with their wrongful control of means of production to stop us from producing things that we will increasingly use to overthrow and eliminate the private thieves and hijackers.
And the funny part is that you private thieves and hijackers in your greed for profit end up creating all the tools that we need to end your greedy ways – you private capitalists end up creating the Internet, you end up developing ICTs, you end up creating platforms where we the poor can publish our views and let it be known worldwide without your sanction and without your giving us an opportunity to do so – in short, in pursuing your greed you end up digging your own graves – happy grave digging! Once you finish digging enough we will simply take away everything from you and establish our collective ownership and put you private thieves to rest there in the same graves that you are now digging for yourself – and we will say slavery, feudalism, capitalism and all other known and unknown forms of private stealing is dead, RIP!
January 31, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Dada,
Your views had little relevance at the time of Paris commune. They have absolutely no relevance at present. The basic drawback of your thinking is that too much importance is attributed to labor while creating a product. Lets take the example of a modern computer, labor costs (manufacturing,transport and sales) account for no more than 5% of its total cost. How can you then claim that this computer was produced using the sweat and blood of workers when all they did was insert two screws and drove it to the store? Fact is that the toughest part of building the computer is the initial design and those designers have been rewarded handsomely for it. If you consider internet products then the cost of labor is even smaller. The first google algorithm was written entirely by its founders Sergey bin and Larry page, and they happen to be billionaires now. So why do you want to steal money from people who have not exploited any worker? You can complain that these people fleece money from consumers, but how relevant is that in case of non essential commodities. You can always organize a mass boycott of google without starving to death.
February 1, 2008 at 12:42 am
Also for your information, most free ware is developed in capitalist countries as well and it is given away for free with the aim of making profits at a later stage. Your logic that you plan to steal from ‘us’ because something was stolen from workers a generation ago is really ridiculous. So if my grandfather stole 10Rs from your grandfather in 1920, it gives you the right to snatch 10000Rs from me now! This is worse than BJP propaganda that muslims have to be attacked as their forefathers attacked us several centuries ago. Sorry dada neither yours nor the BJP’s logic is correct, you have no right to steal nor should we attack muslims. We have to work peacefully towards income equality and make people aware of the dangers of islam.