Scripting

8220;I am a poet myself and I used to write on a website I would not want to name. I advised the authorities to make it available for all in order to promote writing but unfortunately I did not get a reply from them. I thus thought of developing my own script,8221; says Joshi explaining the motive behind the script.

What followed the decision was GaMaBhaNa, a script that is based on Java, which thus supports Internet as well as Mozilla Fire Fox. Joshi makes the technical details easy by adding, 8220;Most of the websites or local language software that have vernacular medium of expressions have a complicated process to follow if someone wants to post a reply. It is very keyboard specific. For instance, if I type a message on my computer in a particular script, on somebody else8217;s computer who does have that script loaded, the message might represent different characters thus changing the meaning of the entire message.8221;

The characteristic of GaMaBhaNa is that it is transliterate which means that one can type the English spelling of the desired local language word and what appears on the screen is the word in that particular language. Currently, the website and the application supports nine different languages like Marathi, Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Gurumukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Odiya, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English. 8220;For instance if one goes to gamabhana.com, he or she can select options of languages. Thus if he or she selects Marathi and types the spelling of his or her name using regular English keyboard; what will automatically appear on the screen is the same in Devnagari,8221; says Joshi.

The specialty of Joshi8217;s script is that it is extremely user friendly and at the same time freely available for all. Another advantage is that, it can be used in modes like- online and offline by downloading the script on one8217;s computer. One can also attach the Javascript to a website and thus enable the usage of local language on their website. 8220;It is free for all and there have been countless people and organisations who have been using it for promoting regional languages,8221; adds Joshi. A number of websites are benefited by using GaMaBhaNa in their noble cause of encouraging regional writers, poets and authors. 8220;To name a few, they are- myboli.com, misalpav.com, mr.upakram.com, sureshbhat.in, marathiabhyasparishad.com and so on. In fact, the Nepali section of Wikipedia is also powered by GaMaBhaNa. It is open source, which means anyone, and everyone can get it free of cost. People also call me and ask me for the source code,8221; says Joshi.

The advantage is that users do not need to be technically sound to be able to make use of the script. Added features on the website are the library and editor that assist the user while writing. With people from Maharashtra Mandals in countries like UK and USA making use of GaMaBhaNa, Joshi has surely helped languages cross the borders.