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MT India Digest
Moderated Discussion List
"Effective MT Forum"
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Published by:
MT India www.MTIndia.org Moderated by:
Amit Chatterjee,SM
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Mar 30, 2002 Digest #077
.................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... =========FEATURED POST=========== -=The Blakes Go to India - Part 4=- ~Cheryl and Joe Blake
"Suddenly Bangalore looked positively Mediterranean." ============ NEW ================= -=Are we a bunch of losers?=- ~Subhorup Dasgupta
"Where are the people who have been in the business for years?" ===========CONTINUING============ -=Frauds in MT=- ~B.Thomas Swamy
"A word of caution to fellow MT's" ~George J Ollapally
"Iridium, HealthScribe & MTIndia" ========== BILLBOARD ============= -=Medical, pharma and biotech abbreviations=- ~Christian Nordqvist =========FEATURED POST=========== From: Cheryl Blake <
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Subject: Part 4 - Trip to Chennai
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Dear fellow MTIDer.... There are quite a few relevant topics being raised in the last few
issues at MTID, and I am waiting for the dust to settle before
putting forth my views. Also, give me some time to metabolize the
toxins imbibed over Holi! :) The Blake's memoirs are being followed eagerly by a lot of you, and
it would be criminal to interupt! Enjoy! I also invite Indian MTs
to come up and share their experiences of traveling and working in
the US and with USMTs. OR do I take it, non of you went to the US?? A Happy Easter to all!! Your Striving Moderator,
Amit C.
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Continued from MTID #76........... Our first road-trip, Chennai. Due to an as yet unexplained
penchant for changing the names of cities, Chennai is the city
formerly known as Madras, just as Mumbai is the city formerly known
as Bombay. Go figure. It was a train trip, which was a first for
us. The kids had only ridden the Metrolink in L.A. prior to this
trip, and as for me it has been since.well, let's just say it was a
long time ago in a land far far away that I was last on a train,
indentured servitude with Southern Pacific notwithstanding. We have learned to be prepared here, or at least you'd think we'd
have learned, and so we left home packed up with 3 liters of water,
4 sodas, a loaf of the best bread this side of Paris, cheese and
lunch meat, and some candy. Cheryl made arrangements to leave work
a couple of hours early and we were off. The train station in
Bangalore is a 15 or 20 minute ride, so you know that the adventure
really began before we got on the train. Our driver, Raghu, helped
us neophytes figure out which platform to head for and it looked
good as we were headed for platform 1. Our luck held as we found
that to get to platform 1, we had to walk 50 yards to a bridge,
climb 2 stories, go 50 yards on the bridge over a bunch of tracks,
and down the stairs. Then another 100 yards to the correct spot on
the platform where our
coach would stop. The train was on time, our seats were easy to find and the coach
was air conditioned and much roomier than any plane. The next
pleasant surprise was that we were served a very good amount of
food for lunch and a liter of bottled water each. The food was a
little on the hot side, but tasty. A couple of hours later we got
more food, a snack of breadsticks, cookie and a juice box. An hour
later another tasty meal, drink, coffee, water, and dessert. Good
thing we brought all that food and drink with us. This was a great way to see the countryside, which was almost
nonstop farms the entire way. They were far different than the
farms we are used to of course; most fields were approximately a
half acre and worked by hand. In the 4-1/2 hour ride, I saw
exactly one bus and one car of any type. There were lots of herds
of goats and some ox carts, people on bikes and on foot. I have
been told that what I could see of the wells from the train was
only half of the picture. It seemed every quarter mile that there
was a 50-ft. diameter hole in the ground lined with stone looking
sort of like a cistern. Raghu tells me that these are hand-dug
wells between 150 and 200 feet deep. Some were filled with water to
within 15 feet or so of ground level and had small gasoline engines
pumping water into the fields. I plan to visit a few of these
wells and take a picture or two. Stay tuned. We passed all types of homes and buildings on the way. Like the
traffic in Bangalore, the variety of housing accommodations is
huge, everything from thatch roofed/woven palm frond walled one
room huts, to two story marbled estates with a satellite dish on
the roof. Lots of oxen in the fields, goats and sheep, and farmers
doing what farmers have done with hoes and buckets for a very long
time. The kids were pretty well occupied on the train since they could
run around a little. Johnny made a friend of course and played a
little too rough. He was restrained before any blood was shed.
The batteries held up in Johnny's cassette player (note to parents,
best $5 ever spent at Wal-Mart) and in Robbie's portable CD player
(best $25). One of the fun things about being a stranger in a strange land is
trying new foods. The fun thing about doing this in India is that
to us gringos the food is not only new, it's unidentifiable.
Unlike Mexican food for example where experience can be put to use
to identify beans in many forms, or Italian food (if it's red, it's
tomato, if it's not it's pasta) we have no experience to help
identify food groups, let alone a particular dish. It goes
something like this; the food is served on an attractive tray or
plate, it looks good, it smells good, and I say,"MMMM smells good,
what is it?" To which Cheryl responds, "I don't know. You taste
the brown one, I'll taste the green one." Then we go through a
process of elimination. Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Sweet,
sour, bitter, or salty? A meat product? Chicken, beef (very
unlikely), mutton, pork? Is it made from beans, chickpeas, rice,
potatoes? Is this to eat, or is it a flower for garnish? (Imagine
what you would think if you saw a tourist plucking the petals off a
flower on the table and eating them in their soup.) Are these
carrots, radishes, beets, or something else we've never heard of?
The good news is that almost everything is good although even when
we're done eating we often wonder, what was that? Then we'll try
to explain to an Indian friend how good the yellow stuff was,
looked like cornmeal, and tasted sort of like sweet potatoes, to
which we get a look that says, "What is cornmeal? In America
potatoes are sweet?" We reserve judgment on how good the food
REALLY is until 24 hours later, for indelicate reasons which I
shall not errrr, express, here. Our train arrived in Chennai a little ahead of schedule and Ron
Straatsma, husband of Cheryl's friend and fellow editor Pam, met
us. There was no question that Ron would be easy to find even
though we'd never met him because Ron is 6'3" and blond; a rare
combination in India, he was literally head and shoulders above the
crowd. We were hit by the 20-degree hotter temperature and what
felt like 99% humidity. Suddenly Bangalore looked positively
Mediterranean. The train station was not a pleasant place to spend
any time at all so, we made our way directly to the car, lugging
all of our food, drinks, and two more bottles of water than we
started with. It was another interesting auto experience, new city,
crazy drivers, congested, and crowded. If possible, it seemed even
more crowded than Bangalore. After a short ride we got to their apartment where we shared our
treasure of unopened Gouda and the loaf of excellent French bread.
We marveled at their TWO air conditioners and 5 gallon bottled
water dispenser; Pam waxed poetic about her favorite cheese. The
kids were punchy, and two 650 ml beers later so were we, it was
time to retire under the snazzy canopied bed. OK, so it was a
mosquito net, we chose to use our imagination at times like this. Joe Blake ........to be continued. (c) Cheryl and Joe Blake
39685 Mountain View Road
P.O. Box 205
Yermo, CA 92398-0205 Comment?
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=================== NEW ========================== From: Subhorup Dasgupta <
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Subject: Are we a bunch of losers? Dear Amit and fellow MTIDers, We hear so much on the boards about companies that are out to fraud
us all, companies that outsource but do not pay, train but do not
place, place but have no work, work but have no class -- yet, we
have the industry cheerleaders constantly tell us how much the
industry has grown in volume and how much more it still is to. Where are the people who have been in the business for years and
have done well, keeping the business, adding premises and floors
and campuses to their operations? Why do we not see them on MTID
anymore? The earlier posts had their voices, but as MT has grown,
they seem to have taken a back seat. If the leaders of the industry do not come forward and share their
experience and hope, it is only natural for potential future MTs to
come by, read the posts on MTID and conclude that the industry as a
whole is comprised of Fs&Bs (frauds and bankrupts). In the listings on the yellow pages at mtidia.org, the majors are
not to be found (I remember seeing their names before mtindia went
pay though). To the best of my knowledge, MTIndia is the only
networking platform for MT in India that I have come across. Are
the majors so busy counting their cpls or is it beneath them to
stand and be counted at least, if for nothing else, to assure the
despairing trainee that there are jobs for the skilled? It would
be nice to hear the leaders of the business share with us the path
they have walked, the pitfalls they avoided or foresee. The other explanation, however, is that there are no big timers.
What we hear on these boards is the truth. We are a bunch of
losers, some of whom are cons, the rest just too ashamed to come
out and play. Subhorup Dasgupta Comment?
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================CONTINUING======================= From: B.Thomas Swamy <
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Subject: Please give a word of caution to fellow MT's! Dear Amit & MTIDers, I am a proofreader in Vishwa Infosys, a company into medical
transcription but this company hiers good hands from out of the
state, pay them for a couple of months then harass them for the
rest of their salary. I came here in July 2001, got my salary for
2 months and since then I am being given only dates and dates till
date to get my full salary. Recently they had given an
advertisment in your prestegious site for wantings of MT's and
proofreaders. Please alert my fellow collegaues that they do not
fall into a trap with this company. I would say that your good work cannot go a blind eye in India,
keep up this good work of yours. Thanking you, B.Thomas Swamy Comment?
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++++ new post - same topic ++++ From: George J. Ollapally <
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Subject: Iridium, HealthScribe & MTIndia Dear Amit and MTIDers, Let me set the record straight about Kiran Bakshi's statements
about DTS and me. DTS has never offered any consultancy or turnkey
services for any transcription company in India. Bracketing our
company with others is baseless and totally at variance with the
facts, and I dont know what is the basis for his allegation that I
offered him consultancy. I met Kiran once, at his request, along with a classmate over
breakfast at Calcutta in October 2000, but neither promised him
anything, nor made any claims. It looks as if, having burnt his
fingers, he wants to lash out at all those whom he met, instead of
doing his homework properly, and persevering. Having returned from the US recently, I can assure readers of this
newsletter that there still are opportunities in transcription, in
the US, but, as I have emphasised in all my talks at various
seminars all over the country, this is not a business that the
fainthearted should venture into. Regards George J Ollapally
Director
DTS Information Systems Private Limited
Bangalore Comment?
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================ BILLBOARD =================== From: cnordqvist2000 <
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Subject: Medical, pharma and biotech abbreviations Dear Members I have compiled the world's largest database of medical, pharma,
and biotech abbreviations and their meanings - 53,000.
www.pharma-lexicon.com I would love to hear from you if you come across an abbreviation we
may have missed out. Best regards Christian Nordqvist Comment?
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