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From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Aug 15, 2004 Subject: Asinine Malayalam Britannica gets it at the court! Consumer court rubbishes the asinine reference called Malayalam Britannica The Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum of Kottayam, India recently ordered the publishers of Malayalam Encyclopaedia (pet-named Malayalam Britannica) to desist from unfair trade practice and stop selling the defective book. The order was pronounced as part of the Forum's ruling on a dispute between Ajayakumar, a chartered engineer who is presently a faculty of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kottayam and the publishers of Malayalam Britannica, D C Books, Kottayam and Britannica India, New Delhi. Britannica India is a subsidiary of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a US based multinational knowledge store priding on the reputation of their brand name evolved through centuries. The court ordered the publishers to return the price of the book with interest and compensate the complainant by paying a thousand Rupees. The court found that Ravi Dee Cee, the CEO of D C Books, who represented both the publishers made false and misleading representation to the public about the quality of the book. The court observed that correction is impossible in the case of this book. Maybe, this is the first time in the history of Encyclopaedia Britannica to receive such a bad drubbing from a court of law. Facts about Malayalam Britannica: Curiously, the book opens with a blatant lie. In the publishers' note written by Ravi Dee Cee and Aalok Wadhwa (the then Managing Director of Britannica India), you find stated that Malayalam is the first language in the world in to which Encyclopaedia Britannica's contents are translated. In the same note and preceding preface, there is an utterly false claim about the number of entries/articles in the book. In the preface, the Britannica editor Theodore Pappas claims that there are more than 28,000 entries in the book. The fact is that there are only about 24,000 real entries in the book. One should pity the editor of such a giant corporate firm, if he is made to state such "terminological inexactitude" to an audience, which is not very sophisticated or trained in matters of corporate business wisdom. Now to give you a taste of the asininity of the book: Under the entry "typewriter", one can find that the first functional computer was patented in 1868! (P-864) Under "polonaise", one can find that the Polish court of law adopted this dance as part of its procedure! (P-1287) Dances like country-dance, ballroom dance and jitterbug are said to be performed by married couples alone! (PP-1067, 1555, 784) Semiotics is said to be a science of bodily gestures! (P-2282) A seaplane is said to be an aeroplane that lands under the water. (P-2026) A footpath is said to be a place where aeroplanes land. (P-1056) Grape, the book says, is a seedless fruit. (P-1730) Grapevine bears Honeysuckles and watermelons. (P-1730) Do not think these examples are exceptional, rather, they are typical. The CEO of D C books in a television interview claimed that there were only typographical errors in the book and they numbered only about a hundred. God bless him! "Ignorance is strength." (Orwell) ===== |
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