On Mar 13, 2012, at 5:14 PM, Ashwin Baindur wrote:

Hisham, it seems you now owe the community "tunde ke kabab" during the next bash. ;)

Considering that Shiju is trying to get support to improve the health of the community, tunde ke kabab I suspect would be ill-advised.  Now on the other hand, if you had asked for brinjals...

Shameless plug: Please click on the community health link above or on the Medical Translate page and join up. We already have 12 editors from 7 Indic languages participating - which is great.  ...but we ONLY have 12 editors from 7 Indic languages!!! 

Srikanth, do humour only if you can do it. It should be used sparingly, like salt. Its counter-productive if it falls flat.

er, strictly speaking, salt in tunde ke kabab can't fall flat.  It can either be too much or too little. in the context of tunde ke kabab, though the recipe is secret, i have tasted a hint of cloves - which could theoretically fall flat.

*mailing list admin bursts a vein*

Better that instructors/volunteers should be positive, smiling and enthu while editing to get similar effects.

On a serious note, I wanted to raise another point.  English is not a first language for all of us.  Not all of us are comfortable speaking in public - and that too in English.  However (some) times, we feel pressured to conduct outreach in English by a college room full of guys who are chattering in English.  There's nothing wrong if you choose to do outreach in our mother tongues. In fact, there is everything right in the  presenter presenting in the language that he or she is most comfortable with.  Bengali or Gujarati or Tamil or Punjabi or whatever is the non-English common language between the audience and the presenter.  It doesn't have to be English if you're not comfortable.

hisham